Scythe Down

It is with heavy heart that I must say farewell to my Scythe, I had fit it for entertainment but really had become fairly attached to it. I did enjoy undocking and baiting some local hoodlums (like myself) to attack it. It has paid for itself many times over.

I had been determined to see if I could take out an Assault Frigate with it, so on Saturday I found one, a Jaguar. Were it not for some fine GTFO efforts by the pilot Gun Dam I'd have killed him without much risk to myself, as it happened he got out with 40% hull.

Later in the day though, I fought him again. This time though I made a big mistake, well two. First I had run out of all but EM rockets so was shooting at his highest resist, second and more fundamentally I burned out my guns really early and had to sit there for a long time just waiting to be taken apart.

Props again to Gun Dam for engaging me a second time, a good fight and based on his comments I think I just gave him his first above class kill pre Tuskers application.

Now, should I buy another now the fit is known?

My First Ever T3 Kill

The title says it all really, I would add however that it was a solo kill too.

The pilot was doing a mission/complex in Adirain when I probed him down. Admittedly I was quite surprised that I managed to probe him down given how popular 'unprobable Tengus' are. Once I had him probed I warped in, in my Drake convincing myself that he must be stabbed.

To my delight I found that he wasn't. Woohoo, game on. Now unfortunately and not what you want when fighting a shield tank my Drake was out of Thunderbolt Heavy Missiles. Yes, out of Navy, Fury and regular after spewing copius volumes at another Drake the day before! Thus I set about him with Scourge Fury. As soon as I got point I advised my corpmates in vent, several making best speed to me.

The Tengu was dieing fast until he hit about 35% shield and made something of a last stand, I assume overheating. The last stand didn't last long though, just five seconds or so and after that the phrase "The quarterback is toast" did sound across vent. He was down.

Apologising to my corp mates for having killed him before they arrived I set about salvage and looting. Checking the killmail it turns out that it was a pretty poor fit, not even rigged and with twin shield boosters! Still it doesn't take anything away from this being my first ever T3 kill.

I Wish More Pilots Did This

A couple of days ago I cam across a pilot in Costolle flying an Caracal. I watched him for a little while and he switched to a salvaging Atron. Eventually he swapped back to the Caracal and was ratting in the ice belt. I warped in on him in a shield buffer tanked Rifter. Landing point I made swift work of him, until he started yelling "STOP" in local. I turned off DPS but noticed the damning signs of a disconnect, nothing I did was taking effect. Sure enough moments later the client closed, my internet died and I had to wait for it to reactivate and lot me log in. I was onvinced the pilot had gotten away in 20% structure which was all there was left when I had tried to stop firing. I was a sad panda. I log in and my Rifter is warping back following my insta warp. The Caracal isn't there anymore. The pilot is talking in local so I guess he got away. But, if he got away then his comments in local don't make sense. Sure enough I check the combat log and I popped the Caracal.

Moments later though the pilot wants to fight me again! Tusker policy is not to 1v1 so nothing is agreed, I simply wait in the Ice Belt. He warps in a Catalyst, which I swiftly destroy. I catch his Pod to ransom him and he asks to fight me again! Now, do I let him go and reship knowing he might not come back or do I pop the Pod. Beleiving that this chap is actually daft enough to return once more I let him go, he comes back in an Incursus! The Incursus dies really fast, it has dual small shield boosters fitted which its fair to say isn't an ideal way to tank one. Again I catch the Pod to ransom. He elects to be podded so naturally I oblige.

The guy is really friendly in local and genuinely seems to have enjoyed being involved in PVP, even though I wrecked three of his ships and one Pod. The fights weren't testing to be honest, but it was nice to meet him and hopefully encourage him to get more involved in PVP. It'd be great if more people had such a great attitude towards ship loss.

So.. Podmails...Yay!

I was surprised and delighted to read the latest devblog a moment ago:

devblog can be found here

"Killmails are great. They serve as reminders of good fights (or dubious mistakes). They let you measure losses inflicted on your enemy in cold hard ISK. They also demonstrate some interesting choices in ship fitting, or cargo-movement attempts. If you're so inclined, they provide a way to track your kill/death ratio, and measure it against your peers. I especially like the ones where a pod gets squished. But I’ve always felt that those pod-mails were missing a certain... something.

In the forthcoming Winter expansion, we’re adding a much-requested piece of additional information to capsule killmails: They will now list the fitted implants of the unfortunate victim."



Although it's not going to change my gameplay, as a pirate they are going to make some real nice reads. I wonder if resources like Battleclinic & killboards will list the value lost in implants in the mails, hope so :)

Breacher solos PVP fit Rifter

No I am not making it up, this did happen last night. Fortunately it's not an embarrassing tale of how I lost a Rifter to a Breacher, but how using one of my 'fitted for the lols' Breachers I killed a properly pvp fit Rifter, it wasn't even the Breacher I had fitted with a faction mod (which I've yet to undock).

The killmail is here:

http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_det ... d=10801083

And here is how it happened:

I have GCC following blowing up an Imicus and am chilling in a scan spot waiting it out in Adirain, not daring to try and dock with GCC in a paper thin Breacher. The Rifter is on scan in system. A Wreathe then comes on scan at the planet 2 customs office so I warp in at zero. On my way in the Rifter appears on scan with the Wreathe and the Wreathe leaves scan. I think oh crap I'm going to die so try to warp out on landing with the Rifter. I get tackled by the Rifter, by the time I lock him up and engage I'm at 70% shields. I immediately overheat my highs and my AB. There is no way I can dictate anything much in this fight being properly tackled so it's in the lap of the gods, reallistlicy I know I'm going down so am just waiting to warp my Pod out. I'm pretty surprised that I'm clinging on and hanging in there and the race through hit points begins. It's ends with a blue flash and me being in 40% hull. Hooray for the Damage Control II!

Total madness, I still can't work out how I did it!

September 2011 Character Review

Hello again,

I haven't blogged in a little while. I've not had the muse to find a subject to blog about and rather than witter on about nothing in particular I decided to wait for a more structured post. Like this one.

So another month has gone by, first let's take a look at the stat's:

25 Ship Kills (16 of which Solo)
10 Pod kills

1 Ship Lost (1 of which in a Solo encounter, Cable I'm looking at you!)
0 Pods Lost

107,666,853 Isk income from ships destroyed
0,000,000 Isk received from ransoms (Sadface)

6,018,788 Isk approximate cost of losses

101,648,065 Isk "Profit" for the month

Clearly it's been a very efficient month for me, nearly a clean sheet were it not for that single Rifter loss at the beginning of September. Although my time in game nowadays is a total shadow of what it used to be I have found that generally on every occasion that I do get to log in as Kirith I manage to get a kill. My target selection is relatively careful in that I tend not to engage members of other large local corps on the basis of risk of being ganked. With such limited in game time I tend to base myself out of Adirain on the boarder of the high-sec Arnon system from where the first Epic Arc starts, although Hevrice remains my true base of operations.

The level of profit for the month too I find very satisfying given the few number of kills, and it's a nice top up to my other income sources. Sadly I don't get opportunity to participate in any formal gang operations due to how their timing works with my availability.


Missile Launcher Operation & Gunnery have seen the biggest change in skill points. I finished off Warhead Upgrades V and as mentioned last month runded off the skills I needed to use ECM drones. I'm still cracking on with the Rifter plan with around 96 days to go to finish it off and be able to fly a max skill Rifter. I also love how these skills will instantly affect practically everything else I will ever fly. Tactical Shield Manipulation whilst not an amazing skill by any means is currently training. I hope that my willpower remains strong and that by the end of the year the Rifter plan will be as good as nailed.

I didn't really try any new ships in September other than having fun with one of my Scythes which I had in my hangar already, the Scythe has paid for itself already after having claimed the lives of two Rifters and a Thrasher. I've thought about buying some of the Caldari ships that I'm not so well skilled for for something different but yet to commit. Perhaps I'll try the Scythe or Stabber Fleet Issues for size.

The alt accounts are still doing very well for me, particularly in station trading with profits of 585 million isk even after having nearly a week where I didn't do anything. Always keen to find further ways to expand my isk resources I'm looking at building a character for resale at the moment. Otherwise I'm thinking along the lines of an Archon for one of the alts.