Sunday 27 March 2016

#2

This post has taken far longer to write then I intended. It turns out that changing jobs takes up a lot of your time. a consequence of this is that I have had less time than expected for EVE. However I have had some fights and have been doing research into the AT as this is something that i would like to participate in this year.

What to fly?

I have decided to focus on flying larger ships for the meantime. Why? Greater engageabillty and I haven't really done it before. Arianne has over 80mill skillpoints but has mostly flown frigs for over 5 years, I feel that it is time for a change. I have a tendency in EVE to do what I feel comfortable with. I pick a ship and fly it until I know exactly what it can do and how to fly it and win nearly all the time. The best pilots that I know are willing to take risks, this is something that I want to start doing more.

The ships that I've picked are the Vexor, Myrm and the Cyclone and progressing to the VNI, Stratios and the Gila. My reasoning is that I have rarely flown with drone boats and would like to have a greater understanding of them, the Vexor is a great little ship and can be fitted up relatively cheaply. The current fit I have is hull tanked but I will try a couple of other fits when I've lost a few of these. I also have picked the Myrm as well as I've watched quite a few streamers have a lot of fun with this fighting against small gangs, it also enables me to try out different drone combinations. The cyclone in a way is the odd one out, however I have always enjoyed missile ships so decided why not?

And FIGHT!

I've been running some of the Gurista sites, partly to get some fights, partly out of boredom. I've had two fights that resulted in Killmails.

Fight 1

https://zkillboard.com/kill/52709470/

https://zkillboard.com/kill/52709476/

Tactic: I saw the two Vexors arrive on short scan and debated whether to take the fight. As this was my first time out in the Cyclone I thought Fuck it why not? My shields were almost at full and I had a full amount of cap boosters, I switched to Nova missiles and waited for them to land. I knew that I probably wouldn't be able to take them both down but wanted to see how I would hold up. I focused on one of the Vexors, and was silently kicking myself for not bringing a Blue pill. They were both Disruptor fit and so I had full range control, which I did not exercise well. However one of them went down before me so I was satisfied.

Learning points:

1. The additional tank that the Invuln gives is approx 3/3.5k,  I think that in this case the microjump drive would have been far more beneficial, I could have killed the first Vexor and GTFO.
2. Always, always have drugs :P
3. Implants- I have been doing a lot of shopping recently and need to use optimised implants, here I was in a Snake set but with gunnery implants so not very helpful.
4. I am still trying t force myself into only using hotkeys, under pressure I tend to revert back to using my mouse. I want to stop.

Fight 2

https://zkillboard.com/kill/52709834/

Tactic: So I started this fight at range which was not so good for me as I was unable to use my neuts and was instantly losing around 100 dps. Still I launched drones and decided to go for it. I am still earning which drones are right for which situation and annoyingly enough I can't remember which ones I used. However not long after sending my drones to attack I was jammed out. Bastard had brought ECM drones. I took this as an opportunity to test out my tank (yeah once again I didn't have drugs). I also foolishly did not even think if using my mircojump drive. Ah well, the Brutix died immediately afterwards by a small gang so I got on the killmail.

Learning points:
1. BRING DRUGS
2. Actually use mods to get away.
3. Links- the dirty word (to some), this fit tanks brilliantly with links and Exile, when deciding too fly it this was one of the points that I liked about it. I have a link pilot set up I need to use her.

Misc

I've been playing around in a dual web no scram Merlin, nothing very high tech, but some good fun. I've got a kitey Tristan fitted out which i'm going to have a go with next.



Alliance Tournament

One of my goals for this year is to take part in the AT, I've always watched it and really appreciated all the skill and theorycrafting that goes into it.  I've started watching some of last years AT footage and looking at the different compositions that are commonly used with the aim of improving my knowledge about what is needed from a composition.


PLANS

1. More fleets, hopefully now that I'm settling into my new job I will have more time for these.
2. Move my drugs to where I'#m staging now. I have a few that I've bought but I need more.
3. Use my link alt
4. Continue with theorycrafting, both for solo fits as well as fleet and AT.
5. Hotkeys- Use them and possibly reset them up.
6. Don't be a dumbarse, in the fight with the Brutix I should have got out. Admittedly I haven't been playing much and need to get back into EVE but mistakes like that are just frustrating.
7. Learn more abut which drones for which situation, both by flying and be reading abuot them.
8. Start recording fights
9. Possibly set up a new missile based clone or crystals?