Just wanted to brag...

I killed a Zealot in my Thrasher today.

Amamake Top belt - solo.

Killmail here

This might not be huge news for anyone else, but for about 5 minutes today, I felt like I won EVE.

It wasn't an easy kill either, those pulse lasers really hurt. But I managed to get under his guns, and then gradually wore away at his armor and killed him (fortunately he died just seconds before a dramiel landed and proceded to kill me). Anyways, that's what you get for not fitting a web or neut to your shiney ships :)

I got so confident after this kill, I went and engaged a Caracal Navy Issue in the same fit Thrasher. Unsurprisingly that ended very badly very quickly.

Here's a Haiku for my Zealot friend:

floating into space

both our wrecks sit together

your zeal did not last

Noobs, Rifters and Amamake

Recently I've been resparking my love for T1 frigates and dessies. The systems of Amamake and surrounds seemed the most logical place to do this, and wow has it been fun.
My corp thinks I'm kinda weird to fly "ships meant for noobs" when I have the skills and isk to be flying much shinier things.

The thing is, I just have so much more fun with T1. The cheaper and crappier the ship looks, the better the fights I seem to get. And this is what I think most people don't seem to understand.

Sure, an Ishtar is a way "better" ship than a Vexor, and so is a Jaguar "better" than a rifter. But how many solo pilots engage a pirate Ishtar or a Jag in low sec without being extremely cautious and hesitant? It is hard enough to get ships of equal value/size to engage you, let alone smaller things.

People are so paranoid and hesitant to fight as it is, the shinier your ship, the more likely they will think you have back-up, and the more ships they will bring to try and gank you with no risk to them. See this pretty hilarious convo I had with a paranoid Hawk pilot, that kept running away from my solo rifter because he was certain I would have back-up.

So much of PVP is psychology. If people think you will be an easy kill, they are more likely to be lazy and let their guard down. I get so many more fights, because people think "Oh, it's just a crap Rifter" or "LOL catalyst" or my fave "Of course I can kill a Vexor". I am reminded of these kills in particular, because all of these pilots convoed me afterwards, with astonishment that such a thing could be done. That particular Ishtar pilot, Poggly's Child, even rage-quit after he lost that Ishtar. His brother saw me in local last week, convoed me and told me that after that kill, he sold the character and stopped playing the game altogether.

All that said, I have nothing against shiney ships. I'm currently training HAC lvl 5, and I bought and flew my first ever HAC (a Vagabond) last week. My corp were very proud of me I think. I'm feeling a lot of pressure to get into a Zealot soon too...

Anyways, I've enjoyed the last couple of weeks so much in EVE. I've also been meeting and flying with noobs that I see along the way. I help them and teach them some pvp and we fly rifters and die and kill lots. My EVE Universe life is good at the moment.

Oh and by the way, solo and small gang PVP is not dead! Please do your bit, and come to Amamake and surrounds and try soloing in a rifter or thrasher or two. Hopefully see you there :)

Ode to an UTU

A haiku poem for my friend Morel Nova, the first person to get a kill in and lose an Utu:

Brother to Ishkur

many times warp for freedom

caught by spider web

Killmail

SHC thread

First Ever PVP Loss

I just recently delved into my Killboard past, and found my first ever pvp lossmail.

It was this Brutix

That's right, I had fitted 2 warp core stabilizers, and a cloak.
If I remember correctly, I bought this Brutix semi-cheaply on a contract fitted with rigs and everything, then I went and added the cloak and the 2xWCS. I can't remember how i died, whether I forgot to warp off, or whether he actually had 3 points on his Dominix....

I was in a high-sec carebear corp back then that got wardecced by these guys. I was in awe of them, as I constantly saw my corp mates lose ships to them. Eventually the corp fell apart due in part to the demoralizing effect of some wardecs, but in the meanwhile I was brave and decided to take one of them head on and try pvp solo for the first time.

This pilot had been camping our station for ages in a Taranis. So I decide to undock the Brutix (thinking, hey I can kill a frigate in this, easy). When he sees me, he docks back up and undocks the Dominix. I didn't even realize he was in a bigger ship until it was too late and I was dead.

It was such a rush, but so disappointing at the same time. I convoed the pilot, Tsaya, afterwards and asked for advice on how to pvp. He was nice to give me some pointers, and ever since then I was hooked! I went on to Factional warfare, and then pirating and always swore that one day I would get enough skills and get revenge on that pilot.

I recently realized he's still in my address book and sometimes logs in, but unfortunately I don't think he undocks much so getting revenge would be rather hard.

If anyone sees this guy around can you let me know?

New Blog Direction

I originally started this blog with an idea of only posting accounts of my EVE failures.
For example, fights that went horribly wrong, where I stuffed up in some way or another. I thought it was a good idea at the time, because having a theme gave me a focus, which makes it easier to write. Plus I thought it would be funny and interesting to keep a record of all my mistakes, in order to see if I had learnt from them.

Well, I got a couple of people to read my blog so far and they all said the same things.
"It's good, but you should write about the stuff you succeed in as well"
"I want to hear about the times you don't fail, but when you have really good fights and triumph too. More detailed reports of that is interesting"

So I guess they're right, I don't want to limit myself. I'm not a complete retard when it comes to EVE (even though I often feel like it). I do often get things right too, so I should also write about those!

Also, what good is a blog if I can't also have the space to spout my personal opinions and random rants on anything and everything I want?

Anyways, I've renamed my Blog and am now ready to tell you what I think about anything (mostly EVE-related), and hopefully there are some people out there that are interested.

The Curse (no not the ship)

We all have bad days in EVE. An embarrassing loss here or there, especially when one is flying whilst inebriated or other legitimate excuses (wife/husband/kid aggro etc)

Sometimes however, YOU ARE JUST CURSED. This seems to happen to me once every couple of weeks, which is fine because it will be good fodder for my blog.

If you come and fly with me whilst I'm officially cursed, you too will die. As, this poor fellow who came roaming with me today found out (he lost 3 ships whilst roaming with me in a couple of hours).

Ok, so here's the brief run-down:

Rifter number 1:
Died to a rapier, couldn't get a close enough orbit quick enough.

Thrasher number 1:
Died to a vaga because I hit "orbit" which was set to 500 from the previous rifter use. When I realised, it was too late, and I couldn't mwd fast enough away and I died before I could warp (was sooo close).

Thrasher number 2:
I knew I was likely being camped by some Amarr militia, but tried to undock any ways. Got alphaed by a sensor boosted Tempest before I could even think or blink.

Thrasher number 3:
Went for a vengeance at a gate, but didn't keep range well enough, and he got a scram on me = dead. He brought friends, and I burnt out my guns from overheating.

Thrasher number 4:
Frikkin stabber. My friend also died, in a thrasher. I can't even remember what happened here, I seriously was getting to the point of not caring.

Vexor of Doom/Fail:
So, me and my new friend, got sick of dieing in paper thin thrashers, and decided to go up to cruisers. I clone jumped into my slaves set, and got my trimarked Vexor. NOW I MEAN BUSINESS.
We both go for a hurricane that looks like its alone. My friend in the arbitrator dies, and I managed to scram and web the cane, so I'm confident I can kill him cause he is shield tank and he's already in armor. Then local spikes. Blob.

It's one of those days. I give up.

Here however, are a list of possible excuses for me failing so hard today:

1. I'm playing on my mac laptop (which overheats, is laggy, and has :LOL trackpad: , not even a mouse)
2. I couldn't use voice comms, so was communicating with my friends through chat. (I know, fail)
3. I'm doing an all-nighter. I'm tired, and semi-distracted watching music videos whilst playing.
4. I have a head ache.
5. I just had bad luck.
6. I'm terrible at this game, I should just rage-quit and give all my stuff to you.
7. I'm cursed. 

I think number 7 is the most likely excuse here.

Maybe I got cursed because I once did something bad to a carebear and they put a hex on me?
I don't know, but I do remember a few rage mails from victims wishing me bad karma. "One day you'll get what what's coming to you!!!" "I hope you suffer horribly in real life and get cancer and die" etc... Well 'Mr. Mission-runner in low-sec who armor and shield tanks and fits warp core stabs and thinks he's safe', you were right. I got what was coming to me. I'M SORRY!


Lessons learnt:

1. Set your orbits correctly according to the ship you're flying. (Or better yet, learn to manual pilot, unlike me)
2. Don't try to fly fast, paper-thin ships whilst on the mac laptop
3. Don't try to fly in a gang with someone with no voice comms.
4. Amarr militia are pretty mean in the Euro Timezone
5. Get some sleep


In other news... I got into the top 200 pilots ranking on Battleclinic this week, yay!

Kessah's Dominix

For anyone unfamiliar with the famous "Kessah's Dominix":


This is what it looks like:

It has an ungodly tank and awesome dps. It's pretty much the best Domi fit you can get for solo pvp.
It was made famous by the EVE player "Kessah" who made some awesome pvp vids where he used them a lot and got some excellent fights, usually outnumbered and outgunned.

And so, after a looooong time not soloing in a Battleship, I go and try my trusty Domi. I even splash out and fit the Faction EANM. This will be good, I tell myself.

Long story short, I engaged what 2 cyclones belonging to the Caldari militia. After some smack in local, the cyclone pilots  had assured me that they were not together with the blob of Battlecruisers I had seen with them just earlier. I had my alt in the next system, and indeed, the blob seemed to be gone.

So, first cyclone is going down pretty quickly, then  ecm drones jam me, and he warps out. The other cyclone also has ecm drones, and I'm again jammed. Then.... FALCON.
Then.... BLOB (well, 10 ships in total:)

I have to say, despite being perma-jammed, and not killing anything, my Domi was awesome. It tanked for ages and ages. Not long enough for me to crawl back to the gate though.

This was  my fate.

So I get my post-failure emo thing going. And smack ensues. The caldari militia start off by complimenting me on my tank. And then the FALCON pilot says in local "GF :)"

Now, if there is one thing I hate most in this game is a falcon pilot, with a blob, saying "good fight" to a solo pilot they have just ganked.

And so I give in to the smack (rants about OP ecm, and dishonourable cyclones), and make myself out to be a complete fool in local. sigh...

Lessons learnt:

1. Always try and hug the gate. I could've easily deagressed and jumped through.
2. Check local spike and use your close range scanner more often to check for incoming blob.
3. Don't give in to smack, especially if you're the one that died. You just come across like a complete cry-baby.


So, this week I'm back to T1 cruisers. Kessah's Dominix will have to wait until another blue-moon in which I feel confident enough to go out and dance with her.

I don't care what anyone says, I still think it's one of the most beautiful ships in the game. Much love xoxo

4 Fails in a row

So, I decided to leave my comfortable low sec pipe and venture to 0.0 for a week.

Aim: To learn how to fly fast/nano ships, and to get better at manual piloting.

Ship number 1: Rupture

I buy and fit my rupture and decide to take it from Rens to Providence. I get 3-4 jumps into low sec, and land into this. Pretty much insta-popped. Never ever have I bought and lost a ship that quick before (like 3 minutes), was amazing.

I give up on the idea of Providence for now, and head to Curse.


Ship number 2: Thrasher

Feeling the shame of recent ship losses, I decide to fly something even cheaper. Surely this will get me at least a couple of inty kills before I die terribly.
3 jumps into 0.0 and I get lazy, don't check for bubbles and warp to 0 on a gate. Land in a drag bubble with a sacrilege and don't make it far before I pop.


It's ok, I will come back in a Rupture and get revenge!


Ship number 3: Rupture again

Roaming aimlessly, nothing to kill around. I see some 1.8mil bounty rats and think to myself "I could do with the sec status gain, I will kill this rat. Yes! this is a good idea!"
Long story short, I find myself webbed and scrammed, far from a gate soon in a pod.

Ship number 4: Rupture once more

I quickly gather my senses from the humiliation of dying to npc, and rush back to grab another rupture. Once I'm back in curse, I find myself bored from not finding targets, and the busy chatting to other eve friends. I get myself to a safe spot and continue daydreaming/chatting/watching T.V.

Five minutes later, a dramiel is on top of me, scramming me. I look around and realize that all along I was not at a safe spot, but actually 80km from a gate! Why on Earth would I make a bookmark 80km from a gate??? And why on Earth did I not realize I was there? I must be frikkin blind!!! Long story short, The dramiel gets friends in before I'm able to kill him, and I'm soon dead.


Lessons learnt:

1. If you can afford it, buy and fit multiple ships at the same time. You may just get killed within 3 minutes of buying one, and having more ready to go decreases the chance of emo-rage-quitting by 50%
2. Don't be lazy. If you can, warp to celestials first before warping blindly to a gate in 0.0
3. Don't underestimate npc. They have evil intents. When CCP put in their description "Threat level - DEADLY" They meant it
4. Name your bloody safe spots correctly


And so concludes this week's daily fail.


I'm back in Tama-Oms pipe in my old plated Vexor. It's slow, and easy and dependable. But not fail-proof, so I'm sure I'll be back here soon with more tales to tell :)