Wolf in wolves clothing

Assault Frigates are quite a rare breed in Metropolis, in and around Evati. So to get two fights both against Wolves is new for me. I'm often very reluctant to fight a Wolf, as the Arty Wolf fit made famous by Prometheus Exenthal is a T1 frigates nightmare.

http://skrmr.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=22817485

This kill was brought to you by Faction Thorium S, very kindly provided by Nuke Cave. Thorium gave my Rails a 15km optimal range. This allowed me to kite out at 18km and reduce the incoming damage from his Autocannons. The Wolf has a falloff bonus similar to that just given to the Rifter. So has a very wide operating window with Autocannons and Barrage.

The second fight was against a pilot called Julian Bren. Unlike the last fight, from looking at some of his past losses, he had 200mm ACs fitted. This meant his range was just that little bit longer, and even in deep falloff my non tanked Atron was hurting. I took the opportunity to leave just in time.

Super Sekrit Hidden Fittings

I am not ashamed to admit that a lot of my Atron fits (slight changes due to skills) have come from Nogusha and Crake Gaterau. Their Atron Bushido mastery is of the very highest order. I often wondered how many stashes of ships Crake had laying around. He would be fighting incursus one minute scram kiting with an afterburner, then not 2mins later killing that most awful of lowsec creatures the Condor.

"did you slingshot him?"

"no, I chased him down"

"you had another ship close by?"

"nope"

"hmm....."

So he let me in on a little secret. Carry extra fittings with you that you can change to suit your pray. Now this is very much a lowsec thing where stations are plentiful and unless you are in FW you can dock in them all. Nullsec obviously has the issue of docking rights.

I have warped into a novice plex hoping to get a fight with a Breacher. But he is a LML/MWD variety. Now normally its a matter of trying to slingshot him into scram range, but my slingshot-fu has evaded me this day. I manage to get out of point range and warp straight to a station.

Dock.

WonderWoman twirl.

Undock.

..and chase the mother down!

http://skrmr.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=22442932

Nibiru!

[Atron, Nibiru!]

Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

Damage Control II

Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste

1MN Afterburner II

J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

X5 Prototype Engine Enervator

Light Neutron Blaster II, Null S

Light Neutron Blaster II, Null S

Light Neutron Blaster II, Null S

[Empty High slot]

Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I

Small Ancillary Current Router I

Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I

Super Nibiru!

[Atron, Super Nibiru!]

Micro Auxiliary Power Core I

Damage Control II

Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste

1MN Afterburner II

J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I

Light Neutron Blaster II, Null S

Light Neutron Blaster II, Null S

Light Neutron Blaster II, Null S

[Empty High slot]

Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I

Small Ancillary Current Router I

Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I

I would normally roam in the Nibiru! with MAPC and MWD in my hold.

Warp in on everything..

I have a habit of warping into plex's unsighted. I will warp straight to FW plex gates without first scoping them out via a celestial. Sometimes this can end in a bad way, and sometimes you catch people very unaware, giving a slight advantage against a strong opponent. Now upon landing on this particular complex, I activated the acceleration straight away. The thought of getting a Dramiel kill in my mighty Atron with such little skillpoints got the better of me.

http://skrmr.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=22391984

It turned out to be a terrible fit, but its still a shiny.

Then this happened..

http://skrmr.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=22428971

Those damn Sisters are supposed to be friendly, not decloaking when I am killing a Rifter.

T2 Gunz Yo!

Earlier to today I finished training Small Blaster V and immediately plugged in Small Blaster Specialisation. This would allow me fit Tech Two(T2) Blasters and use T2 Ammunition.

http://skrmr.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=22299317

This was a very good fight against an experienced player. One that I probably would not have won without T2 Ammo in this case Null, the blaster long range ammo.

I often play Eve with my generic tablet (iPad) close by. On here I have evemaps and eve-kill open. Evemaps open to the region I am flying in, to make travelling easier. I use Eve-kill to gain Intel on those in local. The whole time I am in a system, I am trying to gather as much Intel on people I may be fighting. Trying to put characters in local to ships in space. I knew that it was this character flying the slasher, as he was talking to someone in local. So I looked him up on eve-kill and his last few losses were slashers. So I looked at the fit, pretty standard for Lowsec, and saw he was using a tracking speed script each of the last three times he had died. Now this could be complete coincidence, but I decided on my plan of action.

He warped into me in a novice FW site. With null loaded in my T2 Neutron Blasters I decided to keep at range 7500m, hopefully negating the tracking script. He landed some very good hits but as I pulled range his damage dropped and thankfully mine continued quite high. At this point his Tracking Disruptor stopped. The fight had not long started so couldn't be due to low capacitor. He was swapping scripts to an optimal range script, to cut down my long range damage. I immediately began to approach, without orbiting my long range Null even under Optimal Range TD was still getting very good hits and he exploded.

Could I have won that fight without Null? Possibly, but very unlikely. I could've used longer range faction ammo, but the DPS and range would not have been anywhere near as high as with Null.

All this and only 1.1 Million Skillpoints.

I've sold my main bro!

I've gone and done what everybody in Eve Online knows not to do..

I've sold my main bro!

My old main character used to have lots of lovely skill points. Some weird and wonderful skills that I can honestly say I never used. For the last 3 years I have been flying Tech One frigates in Lowsec solo, tru-solo, super bushido honour mode whatever you want to call it. I have become kinda good at it, not as good as some of the guys that I fly with but I can hold my own. If I'm honest it's gotten a little boring. Not because of what I fly! I love frigates. It's because I no longer feel challenged in Faction Warfare Lowsec.

There are some good fights, but they are often fighting outnumbered against multiple targets. But these tread a fine line between smiting your foes in a blaze of solo glory and getting ganked. Fighting players younger than me in Eve terms one vs one had become a little hollow. I have tried lots of things in Eve. Wormholes, Highsec wardecs, NPC Nullsec so I knew that it wasn't a change of scenery that was required. It was a change of me. I enjoy playing Eve online. A bit of escapism in my normal hectic family life. So I wasn't going to quit either.

So here we are, a fresh start.