I done did it again

I thought this month was going to be good, after last month where I killed alot and lost more than I should I thought I would do better this month but so far I have been introduced into the annoying part of being a pirate in lowsec.

Its been a strange month so far, some nights I will get some nice kills (Kill1 Kill2 Kill3) and then others I will do something stupid and die in a fire (Loss1 Loss2 Loss3).  In short I have lost far too much this month and it is really eating into my isk buffer (yes yes I will take donations :P), this has meant I have had to go back to what I hate on my alt, manufacturing.  Its going ok, minus the obvious problems with manufacturing and selling stuff in lowsec.

I have at least achieved some things this month though, I passed the 1000 kills mark (only if you total both my accounts) and have finally gotten into building bits and pieces of capital ships, which I have had the skills for since '09 but have never used.

In short though despite those minor achievements I need to stop doing stupid shit in my frigates and start becoming the 'efficient' solo pilot I was a couple of months ago.

Battle Reports???

Rifter vs. Rifter

It has been quite some time since I used a t1 frigate for a regular roam, rather than in 1v1 challenges, but I decided near the beginning of the month to fit up some shield rifters and go out to lose them.
As mentioned earlier though this happens to be one of the times I was feeling a little Pr0.
I jumped into Ofleim, seeing another Rifter on d-scan towards the Plex I warp to 0.  I cam out of warp 11km off of this other Rifter, quickly getting into range of each other I realised a problem.....he was armor fit.  This meant due to him having a web he would be able to dictate range on me.  Making matters worse I default to the high damage ammo in a shield rifter, I needed to close range fast, overheating my AB I tried to keep as close as possible but the web was causing me problems.
Eventually he was low armor but I was also just entering armor, quickly I started hemorrhaging armor then bleeding hull at roughly the same time he was.  Luckily the pew pew gods smiled on me and he popped with me at 20% structure.  Unfortunately another Rifter landed just as I finished looting, I bugged out to live another day....by warping to a gate with gcc and very little hp left.  My fight with the gate was quick and thanks to the 'rascist' gate guns not having tackle I was out with 5% structure. Derp.



All in all been a bit of an odd month on the pvp front, although the last couple of night have been alot better.

Korg

Music 

(Definitely not for the younger viewer)

Fun Ships for Fun Times pt. 2

So here is the second part of my 'series' of Fun Fits for Fail Ships, essentially all I am doing is posting fits for non-combat ships or for ships with a bad reputation in combat that can either be a laugh or surprisingly effective.  In this post its going to be mostly non-combat ships that can be used in combat for a laugh starting with.....


Battle Mammoth

This is a more recent one I have used and to be honest the fit I used I ended up not liking and have now changed it for the next excursion of the Battle Mammoth (Bammoth).

The new fit is as follows.


[Mammoth,  Battle Mammoth]
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Warp Scrambler II
Stasis Webifier II
Stasis Webifier II
Small Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 100
Tracking Disruptor II, Optimal Range Disruption

200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
Small Energy Neutralizer II

Medium Projectile Collision Accelerator I
Medium Projectile Burst Aerator I

Now I am not going to tell you this can go out and solo cruisers or anything like that, hell it would have trouble beating most t2 frigates but when that sweet moment when you get t1 frigates attack you whilst you are in it, its hilarious.
That was using my old shield fit Mammoth, however this armor fit has the same EHP, close to the same dps and more ewar so I imagine it would be more effective.  However just for completion I will put the shield fit below also.


[Mammoth,  Battle Mammoth]
Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II

Warp Scrambler II
Stasis Webifier II
Small Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 100
Medium Shield Extender II
Medium Shield Extender II

200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
Small Energy Neutralizer II

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I


Next the Battle Hulk



[Hulk, Battle Hulk]
Damage Control II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I

Medium Shield Booster II
Small Capacitor Booster II, Navy Cap Booster 400
Warp Scrambler II
Stasis Webifier II

Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Modulated Strip Miner II, Veldspar Mining Crystal I

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer II
Medium Core Defence Operational Solidifier I


Hammerhead II x5

I would not personally use this ship, purely because of the extreme prices of Hulks and the fact that your only real targets are frigates but it is effective (as seen in the video 'When Carebears Attack').  The entire premise of the fit works around the rather strong active tank you can get out of a Hulk thanks to its resists.

The plan of action is sit in a belt (HIGHSEC!!) and pretend to mine with a can out, wait until the unsuspecting can flipper comes and flips your can then go to work on him.  Thanks to the large natural hold and lack of turrets you can hold a lot of boosters and therefore run your tank or neuts for a long time.

The largest problem with this fit is the cost, last time I checked the hull alone is worth around 180mil, hence why I put a tech 2 resist rig on there.  I would also say a cheap faction booster may also be worth it because if you lose this ship its going to end up being either way so why not make it harder to lose.


Lastly for this post a fit I am not sure whether would work on a regular basis but looks funny all the same

Combat Scimitar


[Scimitar, Combat Scimitar]
Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II

10MN Afterburner II
Invulnerability Field II
Dread Guristas Large Shield Booster
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 800
Warp Scrambler II

Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Bloodclaw Light Missile
Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Medium Anti-Kinetic Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defence Operational Solidifier I


Valkyrie II x2
Warrior II x3
Warrior II x2

The entire theory behind this fit is use the ridiculously small sigs of logi ships combined with there relatively high AB speed to mitigate the incoming damage and active tanking the rest.
Depending on your implant sets and budgets you can either get a 40m sig radius with HG Halos and a loki alt or a 1k+ dps active tank with HG Crystals and a Tengu alt.  Either way this thing tanks alot.
Having said that I am not sure whether the above fit is the most effective fit for this type of role, you may be able to squeeze out more dps or tank depending or you may prefer a buffer tank instead (sort of defeats the point though).

And thus concludes another post on 'Fun Fits for Fail Ships'

Korg

p.s. I know Scimitars aren't fail but they aren't direct combat ships either.

Funny Vid

Music

Fun Ships for Fun Times pt. 1

To go with my guide to Battle Cov-Ops, I thought I would do a couple of posts about ships with unorthodox fittings for those days when your bored with cookie cutter or fancy flying a ship that lots of people will engage because they think you will be crap.

I personally love flying stupid ships, yes I will fly a nano drake/harb/cane every once in a while or sometimes undock in a shield rifter but most of the time I prefer to fly ships that aren't seen as amazing and people love to engage.  This helps get fights and makes the ones you win that much better because your winning against the grain.

XL Shield Boosting Celestis


Warning. This fit requires some serious micromanagement skills

This is the first 'lol' fit I actually tried in pvp and it is hilarious, although I haven't been as successful with it as others, there are some great examples of the fun you can have in it.


[Celestis, XL Boosting]
Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
Power Diagnostic System II

10MN Afterburner II
X-Large C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 800
Warp Scrambler II
Invulnerability Field II

200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defence Operational Solidifier I
Medium Core Defence Operational Solidifier I


Warrior II x2
Valkyrie II x3

It has terrible dps but the main part of the fun is the tank, which for a tier 2(?) cruiser is frankly ridiculous.  It has a heated burst tank of 536dps without implants, with a little bit of money invested (Crystal implants) this thing gets an 816dps tank(!).  

The ship works best when combating larger ships because you attempt to get under its guns (tracking) as much as possible and using the tank to survive.  Although thanks to the small guns/neut combo it has the ability to bother scram range frigates a little, but its still not great against them.

Celestis + Gate Guns vs. Typhoon + Tempest <---Shows what this fit can do

Armor Hawk

Anyone who read my blog on a regular basis will no this is my staple ship of choice at the moment, although the Vengeance is a close second.  The main advantage of this fit is range dictation.  Inside web range you can dictate range against most frigates, this means you can use your rockets superior damage at range to your advantage. 

[Hawk, Armor]

Damage Control II

400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

1MN Afterburner II

Warp Scrambler II

Stasis Webifier II

Stasis Webifier 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

[empty high slot]

Small Bay Loading Accelerator I

Small Ancillary Current Router I

It doesn't have amazing dps (123dps with faction ammo and no heat) or effective hit points (8.7k) but it has brilliant dps at the edge of scram range and this is what you use to your advantage, as it lowers turret opponents dps considerably (They will be near the edge of their standard range in most cases).

Armor Merlin

This essentially is just a t1 version of the Armor Hawk, with worse stats across the board.  Its cheap though and still effective in its role, kite at the edge of scram range and whittle the opponent down.  As it is a t1 version of the Hawk fit, it doesn't have as large an engagement envelope.  Some of the frigates you could engage in the Hawk (i.e. Dramiels) will produce enough dps to still win the fight against this Merlin fit, however I would still engage them because if you can dictate range on your opponent you can run when it gets hairy.

[Merlin, Armor Merlin]

200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Damage Control II

1MN Afterburner II

Warp Scrambler II

Stasis Webifier II

Stasis Webifier II

Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket

Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket

75mm Gatling Rail II, Caldari Navy Plutonium Charge S

75mm Gatling Rail II, Caldari Navy Plutonium Charge S

Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I

Small Trimark Armor Pump I

Small Trimark Armor Pump I

It gets 80dps and has 4.7k ehp so its not great.  You can fit 125mm rails on this by dropping the hybrid rig for an ancillary current router but this produces nearly the same dps so not sure if it is worth it.

With both the Hawk and Merlin fit you can use t2 rocket ammo because with the dual webs the damage reduction from speed is as minimal as it will get.

And thus concludes part 1 of the unorthodox ships.

Korg

The Music

The Funnies