So it's been a few days

       Firstly, merry christmas to all who celebrate it and to those who don't, skip the paragraph!
I hope everybody got some great loot both under the tree and from floating wrecks and had a great time overall.


       As stated in my prior post I have been using a Rifter for my solo pvping over the past few weeks (which has now changed back to a Punisher; I just can't make my mind up!) and whilst flying that ship I had great success with it, despite being fitted only with tier 1 modules. I'll give a small review of the ship and it's uses for those that wish to hear it.

       That's the fit, a no tank with a low amount of gank that somehow I bagged 6 kills in a day with! (not all alone but regardless I was happy) As you all can probably see, it fights by disrupting optimal ranges for smaller targets and tracking for larger targets, then you just use the speed to tank as much damage as you can, keeping at about 5km range with barrage ammo.One thing to keep in mind with this fit, fighting against ships with 2 mods is advised to avoid being webbed and losing the ability to dictate range. It's nothing special but it's definitely fun to fly!


       On a purely speculative side-note; anyone listen to music whilst they gun down their targets? It's something that I personally can't not do (you should see my ships, full of more speakers than ammo crates!) I just wish their some sort of truly sonic weapon that I could use to decimate my targets, firing the music I love as I tear into their shields! O' but a fleeting fancy indeed.


       Back on topic now; things are as ever interesting for me, with new opportunities revealing themselves from day to day. I have enough kills to potentially submit an application to The Tuskers, a pirating corporation which have had my eye for a fair while mainly due to their methods of operating. I also have the opportunity to catch up with my old corporation and teach some of their newer members small combat, which is truly something of an honour to be asked about. I know I'm by far no expert in any field of combat, but the chance to help out the people that got me on my feet is something I feel I must oblige and with happiness I shall. I've got great friends that manage to pull me through the monotonous war against guristas pirates and rogue drones with great conversation and friendly atmospheres and besides having no isk as always, I really couldn't ask for any more out of my life in New Eden right now. (well maybe a free dramiel, but we can all have dreams) I'm forever looking to build contacts, find new friends and fly alongside as many people willing to let me so if you read this and feel charitable, buy me a dramiel! Just kidding, but a friendly wave will suffice.


       Take care all as always and fly smart. Hopefully I'll see you guys out there.

Upscaled in technicolour

       So my life in New Eden has been taking a fair few large changes over the past week or so. I've become more confident in my solo combat abilities, I'm meeting a multitude of new people, all whom have been great to me and helped me to no end; finally I experienced something magical in the name of a true fleet.


       I was flying in Amamake with a friend of mine doing some small time combat against other pilots in the system, when we decided to move and mix things up in a nearby system. What occurred shortly after was not in our plans. I saw what might have been the most impressive sight I have had to date in my career as a capsuleer; a 40 man fleet sat ready to depart into low security for large scale faction warfare. Immediately I was signed up and for the rest of the night experienced large scale combat in a way I had never before.

       We spent a long time flying, grabbing a few nice kills and eventually having a large scale battle that admittedly resulted in a retreat on our behalf. It was a loss I personally was willing to endure for the lessons learned were invaluable to me. One thing I must say is that the Rifter I flew served me well, actually managing to survive the entire conflict despite being the total sum of 0isk due to being fitted with the scraps from my hangar!


       One final thought I have is based around faction warfare itself. Yes it may seem somewhat worthless to many players but for me as a young pilot, there would have been no tangible way to ever be engaged in a fleet like that and still feel worthwhile. Whether you were in a frigate, or a battleship, everybody had their place and in that respect I am glad faction warfare is still being enjoyed by many pilots within New Eden. If you want to learn how to fly a ship, command a fleet or just survive and operate in small and large fleets I would promote looking into faction warfare just in case it benefits you as it has me.


       In my next post I'll be reviewing the ship with which I ended up bagging multiple solo kills despite being fitted with t1 equipment and yes, it's a Rifter!

One More Time; With Feeling.

       Lately the Punisher frigate has been a topic of conversation I've invested myself heavily into, as I've recently had a series of great experiences with it as a ship and it looks so damn cool! I've taken as much exterior advice as possible about the ship, it's strengths and weaknesses, along with those of it's frigate counterparts. The age old crown of the Rifter holding top position is in my eyes now heavily contested, by the Punisher.


       I posted about a fitting I had put together for my Punisher which I myself have flown and am incredibly happy with, my exploits in that particular fit have also been written about too if it peaks your curiosity. I have now taken a lv 5 skill set into consideration just to see how immensely powerful this ship can get and the results are nothing short of astonishing.

       Here it is, the strongest tanked t1 frigate in the game (in my opinion!). Yes it's EHP might not be top in comparison to the purely buffer fitted Punisher, but the near 3k of pure armour hp combined with an armour repairer makes it a ridiculously well tanked ship. The dps is drastically improved and the stability of the cap would actually allow for a t2 energy weapon fitted Punisher with little impact on it's defensive capabilities. The fit as said before weighs in at about 10million, though this may stretch to 12 due to my need to fit heavier, 200mm guns upon it. It's speed isn't even too shabby when you take 3 armour trimarks into consideration. The greatest part to this tank is that it's resistances pair off very well moving from shield to armour, where low shield resists apply high armour take it's place, this is a ship not hindered by any type of ammo out there.


       Any thoughts on this purely theoretical fit would be appreciated, as I am sure few would have the skills to fly the ship with these stats and if they did, they wouldn't be flying frigates still! (I shout out to the few frigate lovers out there who will be, just like myself!)

     

       I'm gonna go out and get one of these blown up, so take care and fly safe!

The Punisher's Maiden Flight; A Restrospective Look.

       Yesterday I posted up my new Punisher fitting that I was quite enamoured with to say the very least. It had all the bells and whistles and in my eyes was unstoppable. This proved quite true for my first couple of encounters, easily punching through two Rifters and causing a Griffin to run away (my slow speed couldn't keep up and he retreated).

       It was an interesting night and I thoroughly enjoyed flying my new fitted Punisher, after a nights rest I came back to my ship still anchored in the dock and checked everything over. Eagerly jumping back into my ship and out into space I headed for the nearby system of Auga, a place in Minmatar control I've been hanging around; I decided to fight alongside the Minmatar in the faction warfare, if only for a short amount of time. I looked around for some targets and only presented themselves directly, an autocannon fitted Thrasher. First thoughts of any frigate pilot contemplating whether to challenge this beastly foe is something along these lines; 'this will be a certain defeat', my thoughts were no different. Regardless he was looking for a fight and I was feeling oddly confident sat in my armoured-to-the-teeth ship. We quickly engaged and the fight began.

       Initially the fight was insanely one sided, with his ship annihilating my shields and eating into my armour to an unhealthy level. I slammed my armour repairer on and continued pummelling him with ammo, this was 3 cannons against 7, I should have thought more about this engagement. Still I fought on and eventually began to out-tank him! Yes I was dealing out more damage than I was taking and his armour began to dip below mine, which was holding solid at 50%. My capacitor began to strain as the engagement went on, with my repairer deactivating just as he was approaching structure.


       The remaining part of the fight was in line with my initial prediction, a massacre. Sitting there in disbelief that his ship survived in structure I warped away and accepted defeat as best as I could. One thing I should take away from this, never fight an autocannon fitted Thrasher. Ever.


       My thoughts on my Punisher are positive, with my only reservation based around it's atrocious speed, which isn't a problem for fighting other frigates, why zip around when they can't hurt you anyway? It is most definitely a frigate fighter only, which upsets me greatly as I had hoped it's tank would be able to handle at least destroyer class ships. I'll look at trying out the Rifter again and see how my luck fairs in that.


       Till next time, fly safe.

Tinkering with my pretty ships

       I am the type of pilot who wants to pvp all the time, something that many of us understand isn't a viable option due to isk restraints. I am not a foolish man and have slowly come to this realisation throughout my time in New Eden and there has been only one positive outcome of this knowledge; I cannot afford to lose ships.

       Now this may not seem like a particularly divine thought or one of any merit but through my need to survive I have been participating in constant internal debates to try and find the most effective fittings out there. With any frigate fitting finding something new that works well is a difficult task, the lack of slots and temperamental nature of the frigate means that generally a few fittings get circulated around as the best and thus are used widely across New Eden. One particularly notorious example of this is the 'cookie-cutter' Rifter setup, there being both a buffer tanked version and active tanked version.

       I am not claiming to have revolutionized the face of frigate combat with this setup I have devised, but for the Punisher especially, I feel this is the strongest tanked t1 frigate out there.

       The key to this fitting is to find a middle ground between the active and buffer tanked Punisher, sacrificing a slight amount of armour resistance in the resistance plating to fit an armour repairer. If my and the Tuskers Public channel maths is to be correct, this fit on average should take around 10dps damage from a ship dealing 100dps whilst tanking in armour, giving the armour alone around 200 seconds of life, or as long as your cap runs for. Bear in mind this fitting is done on my particular skill set using only 4mil sp; I have yet to translate this into a max level skill set fit but plan to do so shortly and with any luck should be able to scratch out that last 10dps worth of damage!

       Obviously any ship pushed into a niche so heavily will suffer in others, it's speed is atrocious and for that reason I wouldn't recommend it for any tackling role, purely due to it's inability to properly control range. Also in regards to it's range control abilities, if you find any setup running arty's or something of the like, do not engage, this fit is a up close, in your face fighter and should be used for nothing else. The Market data on my EvEHQ is slightly iffy, so don't cry at the fitting cost! It's only 10million isk in total.


       Let me know your thoughts on this small but I think positive tweak on an already great fitting!

A run in with the tuskers

       So I'm flying through Molden Heath, looking for a fight and I happen upon a Merlin sat flagged at a nearby planet, eager to get my kill I charge in guns blazing, getting burned to a crisp in a short, high octane fight. My mistake? Didn't check it was A Tusker pilot. Lesson learned? Carry EMP S for shield tankers.

       We began to speak, mainly to wish each other well in travels and so I could find out what crazy fitting he had on that ship. The pilot I'm referring to is 'Proxyyyy'. He invited me to their public channel and within seconds I had a slew of people helping me on my way to getting some kills, one fellow even donated 2mil to my cause! After taking the advice on board and tinkering with my ship in the hangar, I took out a radically different fitted Punisher than what I'm used to. This thing felt rock solid and proved to be so in my next encounter... With more Tuskers.


       Arriving into Adirain within the essence region I flipped my directional scanner up and got a bunch of nice potential targets. 'Bingo! Looks like this is the place to be.' After warping around the belts I catch a lone pilot in an Incursus, heart pounding I locked and let rip, tearing him into his armour at a blistering pace. We had a short fight between ourselves, only for me to slap myself in the face as a healthy dose of flashies dropped on top of me. It was the Tuskers. already knowledgeable of my defeat I gave them the best I could, nearly managing to take one down before my ship tore apart under the weight of their guns. I warped away and looked at my wallet, empty. Tapped my head, no implants. Looked at my system map, 20 jumps from home. 'This won't be pretty...' Tentatively I tapped on the big red button; self-destruct. The 2 minute countdown began and I sat in my pod contemplating the event just gone by. A searing pain and engulfing light covered me briefly, only to throw me back out into a dingy stasis pod back home. Just another clone.


       Lesson learned? Don't mess with the Tuskers.

A New Life...

       Upon a recent event in my life in New Eden I decided it necessary to begin writing down the various events that I find myself in, for better or worse. To put it short I'm hardly the greatest or most efficient pilot; I abhor big clunky ships and love my nimble frigates, my wallets often so empty it's hard to buy myself a meal and my ability to find myself in unfavourable situations is astounding. Still, I get by and do what I can to make my mark in New Eden.


       The event I mentioned earlier would be leaving the first corporation I joined, High House of Shadows. Still being a very young pilot I felt I needed to explore the different things on offer to me in New Eden and whilst it was an emotional and difficult decision, I know I've made the right choice. The best part is that I still get to fly with them all from time to time and they've been really supporting of my new goals. I recommend any pilots whether veteran or new to the cockpit to check them out, I learned a lot from them in my short stay of two months and without their help learning the ways of low-sec life I'd be podded more time then you can care to count.


       Now you'll find me roaming the systems around Molden Heath, looking to make a quick bit of isk whilst trying not to get blown up too much. I've already managed to lose two ships in my low security life, both on the first night... Definitely not my finest moment that's for sure.


       I'm looking for any friends I can out there so feel free to say hi, I don't bite unless I've got you locked. Fly safe.