More AF stuff

So its been a couple of days since the AF buff now and I have managed to get a couple of good fights in mine, including my first solo fights.

Catalyst vs. Hawk vs. Taranis with Friends

I have been trying out the Hawk mainly, as I am a big fan of rockets and with the extra mids a I can fly a Hawk how I flew my hookbills....with dual webs.  Out in Egg I found a Catalyst in a belt and thought this would be a good test of the new AFs fighting a destroyer.  The Catalyst only has two mids though which meant I had little problem dictating the range this fight occurred at and with the increased damage this fight ended quickly.
I caught a couple of more ships on scan and started to slow boat away from 0 on the belt and low and behold a ranis landed in belt, with his Myrmidon buddy on scan I knew this would need to be a fast fight.  The ranis caught up quickly and got a scram on me, I put my webs and scram on him, opening fire as soon as this happened.  He started to bleed HP fast and popped just in time as his mate in the Myrmidon landed and I warped off.

Hawk Vs. Jaguar

This was my first real test of the Hawk, a newly 'buffed' Jaguar.  This was a good fight getting into scram range of each other we locked each other up and started firing.  Webbing each other though meant that I was the faster frigate, obviously this Jaguar hadn't decided to use an armour jaguar with the fact I could keep at 8km and still do my full damage this fight wasn't terribly close and eventually my advantage in buffer and dps meant there was only one outcome.

I don't know how close this would have been if the Jaguar was armour tanked, with the weakness in kinetic resists it has, it would probably have been closer but still coming out with a win for the Hawk.  This is the same thing I have noticed with most of the new AFs when compared to the Hawk, with the new slot and damage bonus those that can't get close will lose and those that can, can't win the damage race anymore.  It also has the extra gtfo ability as it can now fit dual webs on a shield fit.  It's still too early too say which AF I will fly most regularly yet as I have yet to test my Vengeance out properly but with the damage bonus both it and the Hawk have received its easy to see me only flying those for the foreseeable future.

Check out the newest video released by Liang Nuren, containing some great fights the US Tz Heretics have been getting recently.  Almost makes me want to get up a 6 to play with these guys.

Amamake Fun III

Korg

It wouldn't let me embed his vid so I thought I would embed mine instead :)

Will be working on a new vid this month once my University works dies down again.  So far the ships used a Buzzard, Hawk, Vengeance, Hookbill and Rifters.  Will try and capture some blaster footage whilst I still have some blaster boats in Amamake.

AF Buff

Its Frigate nerf day....I mean AF buff day.  Its going to be very interesting for me over the next couple of days, obviously being a frigate pilot predominantly and flying Hookbills mainly I am going to have to rethink my engagement envelopes.  No longer will I be able to keep range on blaster ships or try and abuse the crappy tracking of the Wolf.....ah well.

As it is buff day though I have been theorycrafting a couple of fits for what is likely to become my AF of choice, the Hawk (well I am a rocket lover).  So far I have settled on three very different setups, each with their own pluses and minuses.


[Hawk, Armour Plate]
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II

Coreli C-Type 1MN Afterburner
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range

Rocket Launcher II, Thorn Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Thorn Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Thorn Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Thorn Rage Rocket
[empty high slot]

Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Small Ancillary Current Router I

This is basically my pre-buff fit with a tracking disruptor, with the extra mid and the second damage bonus this thing will be a beast.  8.6k ehp and not sure how much dps but its reliable out to 10km.  Essentially keep range until targets dead.

The other fit I have is the standard shield dual web fit, 250dps and 10k ehp is very nice for a frigate.

(The above was written on buff day)

Testing my fits last night, I have come to the conclusion that the Vengeance and Hawk are definitely the strongest.  Both now break 200dps in a standard fitting and with the other utility available and the fact that this dps is applied from 0-10km means they are very strong.

We had a few test fights in corp last night with people bringing all manner of AFs, although predominantly Enyos and Harpys (I guess people like blasters again).  I, myself, was in a dual rep Vengeance now with added neut.  Testing against someones Harpy, I managed to stay close enough that the neut did its work well before my tank was in trouble.  The added help of the neut on a ship with a large cap is soo powerful in frig fights, being able cap people out whilst running a powerful active tank is impressive.


[Vengeance, Dual Rep Vengeance]
Coreli C-Type Small Armor Repairer
Coreli C-Type Small Armor Repairer
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Damage Control II

Small Capacitor Booster II, Navy Cap Booster 400
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
1MN Afterburner II

Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket
5W neuty thing (Small Neut)

Small Anti-Thermic Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I


This is what I ran with and it worked well, its light on the DPS side of things but thanks to the new damage bonus it nearly matches my pre-buff single reps DPS.  Obviously this thing is about the tank though, all 253dps of it (pre heat).

Unfortunately people are very reluctant to engage the AFs atm.  I think this is because people just aren't sure at the moment of there capabilities.  We did get some ok fights though.
Harpy, Harpy, Jaguar vs. Rupture, Thrasher (No idea where the Retribution came from)
That fight happened fast and with the quite impressive DPS you can get out of harpys the two ships went down fast.


Tonight I am going to give my MWD Enyos a run out in 0.0, attempting the whole pull tackle off, kill tackle game.  Should hopefully work well (300 dps generally kills tackle fast :P)

Korg

Last night good night

After the slow night I had Monday night I was struggling to even bother logging in, I was out in Doril and would have to do 11 jumps through highsec to get to the rest of my ships.  I did log in the end and drag myself back to Amamake with a bit of the loot that I have had for a while in Curse (Couple of faction MWD/Reppers).

Once I arrived back in Ama, I went out on the usual route in my Hookbill.  Essentially trying to get Militia peeps to kill me.  After a couple of kills not really worth mentioning I came across the reason I fly dual prop Hookbills in the first place.....Slicers, it also served to demonstrate the difference between a good slicer pilot and a bad slicer pilot.

I have always maintained that player skill trumps SP in pretty much all PvP situations, and that statement is even more relevant in the case of the Slicer.  A great slicer pilot is able to kill basically all frigates, regardless of fit, with its brilliant ranged dps even the ones that can catch it have generally taken so much damage that, by the time they do they still can't win the dps race.  However, the margin of error when flying one is very slim, if you make a mistake and get scrammed and webbed early you wont survive long.
Last night I engaged 3 different slicers all fit roughly the same way but all piloted differently.  I will call these pilots the good, the bad and the lucky.

The Lucky

This was the first Slicer of the evening, landing in the belt where him and his mate in a Harpy were shooting an alliance mates Thrasher.  I quickly webbed and scrammed the Harpy to slow him down and allow the Thrasher to catch up with him, whilst I went after the Slicer.  Getting to 13km of him I landed the web then I smacked into an asteroid, a tiny little one but apparently I hit where it was when full and bumped off of air, this allowed the Slicer pilot to escape :(.

The Bad

Warping to an outpost in Vard, I had a Slicer on scan.  Once inside I started slowboating towards him, trying to bait him into burning towards me to point me.  The reason for this is if he hasn't done this properly an O/H burst of my MWD generally lands me within scram range where the Slicer dies very quickly.
That didn't happen this time, instead the Slicer started burning towards me with his prop mod off, so I did the same thinking he would warp once I get to a certain distance.  We eventually reach 25km of each other with me at just under half shields, this however was close enough that I could burn towards him with the mwd on before he has a chance to react and move away.  Credit to the pilot I suppose at least he noticed my sudden increase of speed but unfortunately it was far too late and despite my loss of shield so far he went down fast.

The Good

There is always one isn't there.  Again as before I was warping to a faction plex and according to d-scan this Slicer seemed to be in the plex, just like before.  What followed was a catalogue of errors on my behalf and some absolutely nifty piloting by Nortel of Imperial Fedyakin.

I landed on the gate to find the Slicer pilot 11km from me, queue error #1, I didn't have my tackle overheated, had I realised he hadn't entered the plex yet I could have overheated the web prior to landing and this story would be different.  Hastily switching on my MWD to burn for him I made error #2 I bumped the gate, this stopped me getting within scram range and again changing the end of this story.

After this try as I might I just couldn't coax him into making a mistake, and was resolved to trying to burn myself out of point range.  With my ship spewing flames and my hull resting at 66% structure, I managed to break orbit range just long enough to warp out.

This was the closest I have come to losing this ship to a Slicer and also served to show why I fly dual prop.  The increased speed I get over the AB fits, means I can escape from situations like 'The Good'.  It also gives me the tank that means I can bait people into doing stuff like 'The Bad'.

In Other News

Looking around the blogosphere yesterday I came across this post by Keyanu about how he has recently broken the top 2k mark on Battleclinic.  It made me wonder how I have been doing on the BC ranking system.  Before I joined Heretics, my main at the time Korg Leaf was ranked somewhere near 11k and Korg Tronix was ranked roughly 2k below him.  Since I have joined Heretics and Tronix has become my main I am close to breaking the 3k mark, which means I have gone up roughly 10k places in the last 4 months and I am still going up at a pace of 200-400 places a week (According to the ranking tracker).  I have to say despite the problems I have with the points system on BC in general I am quite pleased by this and shows if you want to rise quickly on BC solo in frigates.

Also I am closing in on the 1k kill mark on Tronix and I think I will replace the ship of whoever my last solo kill is, before breaking that barrier.

Korg

It's, oh so, quiet

Last couple of nights I have logged into very little occuring on my usual roaming routes.  It's either they are all docked or, as was the case in Providence last night, they bring 7 Battlecruisers, ECM support, a couple of t2/faction frigs and some destroyers to kill 4 people in frigates.

So I am not really sure what to do to get out of this slump, any suggestions to a decent route for a frigate pilot to take that doesn't involve the Amamake > Kamela route or the Providence/Catch > Stain I would love to hear because they have been dead the last couple of nights, at least for me anyway.


If I can't find any fun in a frigate though I may have to ship up to an active tanked Drake or something of that ilk and derp around till someone shoots me......I don't want this.

Korg

First Two Weeks of January

I am fairly pleased with how December went with my highest kill total of any month and the majority of those kills coming whilst flying solo.  Its just a pity I didn't have fraps running for a lot of it as I have missed filming some great fights (Hookbill vs. Ishkur, finished with 12% armour).
January has started just as well, with 37 kills last week and 25 this week, still no where near as prolific as last month but still on course to top 100 kills in a month again so that makes me happy.
My losses on the other hand have been mostly of the stupid nature, either coming through late night derpage or due to a large quantity of alcohol that I consumed during the day.  Even then taking away the three expensive losses and the others seem very cheap.

I be a director now

The major piece of change occurring in my EvE life this month was becoming a director for the EU Tz in Heretic University.  I am quite pleased the higher ups have trusted me with this and I have quite a few plans that I think I will start trying to role out in the coming weeks.

University is a proving/testing ground for prospective pilots in Heretic Army, it allows them to make some mistakes independent of Army whilst still being part of the Amamake culture.  If after a month the pilot has proven his skill in both solo and small gang PvP, he/she will be invited to join Army.  Not everyone will get invited but some will.

Only issue is now that I am director I will have to start taking gangs out more often and I really despise FC work, mostly because I am bad at it but also due to having people rely on my orders to help them survive.  Basically I don't like the responsibility, at least I will get some practice and no longer be bad I suppose.

They seem to be doing well so far, with Az Tek our 4m SP, super find leading the way in kills in his Thrasher with 99 kills for the month so far.  He is a prime example of pilot skill trumping SP in fights.
Heretic University Killboard

They also have a great banner for their board designed by Kri Matar.

The other big news in corp is we are now in an alliance......no we haven't joined some random 0.0 alliance....we petitioned CCP and got the Heretic Nation alliance back. 

Good Fights

I have had a good few fights to start the year out but my favourite easily goes to the first flight of my MSE Harpy.  I undocked from Amamake and headed out on one of my usual roaming routes, jumping into Siseide I found a Jaguar on scan and proceeded to play a round of belt bingo. 

Eventually I landed in the same belt as him but 60km off, I loaded up null as I thought he would kite me (everyone would try) but it turned out he wanted a tank/gank race. The problem was I had started with Null loaded and up close I was suffering the tracking issues associated with that ammo.  I started to pull range slowly but I was taking a pounding, my shield gave out before him and I started to bail.  His shield gave out as I was about to enter structure, spamming warp to get my pod out, he entered structure.  Suddenly a flash and I thought shit I haven't entered warp yet.  It was at this point I noticed my pod had guns and a shield extender fitted.  Even my sleep deprived brain thought this odd.  Needless to say the picture below probably expresses my shock at surviving that fight.

Drackarn: @Korgtronix Whatever you do...... don't....... sneeze......:)

Something has to be said for t1 frigate fights, although anyone can get in them and they don't take long to skill up to a decent level there just always seems to be something pure about killing things in them.  Something that warms the cockles of my little black heart.

So undocking in my hull tanked Incursus (Sounds stupid but its great) I warped to a belt that had another Incursus and a Rifter in.  They seemed to be itching for a fight but as I had landed 45km off them (this was intentional) they had to burn to me first.  

The reason I say it was intentional is because my ship has the grand total of 2.7k ehp and there was no way I would be able to brawl them both down in my current fit at 0, landing this far off allowed me to split them up a bit which means I can essentially 1v1 them or at least put enough damage on one that I can win the damage race once they both get into range.

Luckily for me the Incursus was MWD fit like me and the Rifter was AB fit, burning away from them to split them up some more, I eventually engaged once there was a gap of roughly 50km, overheating everything and sticking my scram web on him, me and the Incursus started brawling.  He was going down but my shield vanished and a good chunk of my armour but he popped with me around 45% armour.

Now I had the choice of bailing with my ship and a kill, or risking the ship to get what is at best a difficult fight when I am at full health.  To be honest there was only really one choice, sticking my drone on the Rifter whilst I was at 30km seemed to have him distracted as he didnt target me till I was nearly through his armor buffer and, inevitably he popped.

All in all a good start to the new year

Korg

We are recruiting

University Requirements.

10m Sp (This isnt set in stone)

PvP Experience (We would prefer a grounding in small gang or solo work)

Must be able to field a BC with reasonable skills

Must be self sufficient

Some proof of solo kills

None of the above requirements are set in stone and we will forgive you not meeting certain things based on out interview with you and your general attitude.  The SP and experience criteria are interchangeable, we might accept a 5m sp character with a ton of solo kills or a 30m sp character with only 1, however if you dont meet either of those requirements please do not apply.

The most common gangs we fly are:

Wolf Packs (Both t1 and t2 frigs)

t1 Cruisers

Shield BCs

Nano BCs

Therefore we would prefer you to be able to bring a ship to any of the above gangs.

Korg Tronix

University Director

Say No to the current AF boost

I thought I would add my voice to the bloggers against the current incarnation of the AF boost that is now on Sisi (I think).  In my opinion it would be quite an overboost, some parts are needed (second mid for Retribution and 4th bonus being the obvious ones).

Mind if the current boosts do go through I predict the Vengeance becoming very very popular, which is nice because I have a lot and I got them when they were cheap.

Korg