Blood Bank

Oh Imperial Navy Slicer, aren't you so wonderful!

After the aforementioned isk injection mentioned in my previous post, I took it upon myself to at least stock my hangar a little... Fortunately I had a second Firetail hull, the one won from the painting contest sat in Jita. I decided it would be best to own 1 Firetail and 1 Slicer, rather than 2 Firetails and thus threw the 2nd up on the contracts market at a slightly higher price than the Slicer I purchased!

With all the necessary modules already sat in the hangar from times long ago, I was able to quickly fit it up to specification and get out there. What I ended up with was nothing short of magical...

After some uneventful flying around Verge Vendor I was parked firmly in Ladistier chatting away to my fleet member Taek'li about various things. My spirits couldn't have been higher as it had been snowing in the UK and I hadn't long been back at the helm after some epic snowball fights, with that under my belt I was ready to take on death itself!

Instead a Dramiel decided to try it's luck, rather I should say, he was being a fool and cycling through belts. I awaited him with a warm welcome and opened fire on his vessel. I had a faint idea of his fit based upon his speed and killboard record, the intelligence I gathered didn't disappoint and I soon realize I was fighting a Dual-MSE Dramiel. Whilst that benefited me in some regards due to a lower speed and turret DPS, the extra tank only gave more time for a potential error on my behalf as the fight went on.

Did I mention there was a boat load of asteroids? Trying my best to keep range on a ship who's afterburner alone was allowing him to clip at my heels was bad enough, let alone with drones swarming me and having to manually dodge the roids. After some tense 13km moments and my tank beginning to strain under sustained drone and turret fire... He gave up the ghost.

Glorious! My first solo Dramiel kill to date, even filled with a nice little bit of faction loot to boot. But wait, the pod's lockable! POINT. I quickly began to ransom the fellow, first attempting to gain liquid isk (which he allegedly had none of) and secondly trying to get a ship contracted to me after he foolishly divulged that he was sporting +4 implants. He was proving difficult but I wanted to try and get a Dramiel contracted to me so I persisted. What I hadn't realized was that during the engagement we'd burned 120km off the belt and there was his warpable wreck right next to me. At the same point, a Brutix landed at 0km to the belt, spotting me and my hostage. He began burning away to put himself 150km away from the wreck and I called in Taek'li to go kill him for me!

After some tense moments I told Taek to warp to me as the Brutix had now reached the 140km marker, 'Already in warp to the belt at 30km' he told me. Panicking I targeted the now looted Dramiel wreck and popped it just in time, destroying the warp-in just as the Brutix hit 150km from me. I began burning to over 150km from Taek and popped my prisoner for his lack of cooperation.

Unfortunately his warp in had coincided poorly with the burn path of the Brutix and Taek was scrammed and webbed by the time I'd concreted my place on the field. We took him to low armour but Taek's shield cane could not hold and he was destroyed...

Determined to revenge my corpie I proceeded to work on his remaining tank whilst still avoiding asteroids and drones, fully aware of his scram/web combination. Here, however, is the kicker to this story. The Brutix was sporting a flight of Hammerhead II's, inadequate at hurting me and occupying his full drone bay. What I hadn't bargained on, however, was for him to utilize the Hornet EC-300's left scattered on the field by Taek during his attempt at an escape against me!

I believe my reaction was 'Wait... what the?' As I locked up the drones and worked as fast as I could. With only 1 drone left it hero-jammed me and the Brutix fled the scene in structure. We exchanged the 'gf' and had a short, pleasant chat. He even asked if he could collect his old drones, I of course obliged after seeing that awesome display of ingénue!

I zipped back to Hevrice to deposit the Dramiel loot and in doing so, got better acquainted with  new corp members Pippin Slimjim and Tansyaster. Together we brought down a Myrm and I logged off with a smile on my face.

It's absolutely great to see those superb use of game mechanics to pull the impossible out of the bag. Part of me is sore over losing the kill in vengeance for my fellow corpie, yet the other part applauds the Brutix pilot for exercising his right to be tricksy! Another one escapes the blood bank...

Blue

Things have begun to look up in the world of Kishin Hattori! I was given a rather kind donation by a reader of my blog who admittedly did not want personal acknowledgement, my current wallet is looking a bit less blue.

With that I've decided to scale back on what I've been flying a little. Yes, that does mean no faction Dramiels for quite some time yet. It'll be tough but I shall have to survive...

The sad spell is over and I've begun picking my killboard up off the floor and dusting it down, injecting at least a kill a day of semi-decent quality. The ship I am enjoying most right now is the Taranis, so expect to see me zipping about in one.

Oh and I entered a paint competition for my corporation and came second... I won a firetail! Here's the submission;

Here, as always, is the complementary song with which I shall divulge unto you all, with a little bit of documentary thrown in for good measure. Aren't you lucky? Fine art and fine music all in one! (Waits for the laughs) Regardless, look forward to some (slightly) more upbeat combat logs and pew pew posts soon!

Till next time o/

Only The Young

After a series of unfortunate events that has left my economical and psychological back cleanly snapped in two, I am reaching a point in my career in piracy where I fear the worst.

I could have avoided the large majority of these I'm sure, others were just unfortunate. Here is a list of the negatives that have befallen me over the past nine days...

Sader loss; no biggie, just doing my job as a tackler! I will hop into the only station and fit up whatever I can find.
Terrible fit Retri loss; oh a Harbinger... I'm nanoed I'll get out fine... BOOM. In my pod and no worries I'll just warp out...
Snake loss; oh... Oh the pain.

So me being a fool with a pretty hearty wallet and station full of glorious ships I bought a new set. Wallet's looking meagre by this time but at least I have the tools to get that isk back through piracy right?!

Well...

Dramiel loss; Oh god... I couldn't just have a quality Dramiel duel? Triple web Celestis ftw!
Comet loss; And another one bites the dust. Two seemingly unaffiliated Dramiels sneakily teaming up to take little ol' me down.

There's been another bunch of Rifters down the drain since these horrific displays of failure. As we speak a lossmail involving POS guns and my now dead Slicer is awaiting API upload, I just didn't have the heart to do it myself.

My hangar is rapidly emptying, my wallet is following suit. The tunnel gets longer and longer as I begin to lose the light. Each un-dock is a prayer unheard for something juicy and even with strings of kills on faction frigates and other such things nothing is happening.

I am brought to contemplation by a stanza of song lyrics;

"Look back in silence; the cradle of your whole life.

There in the distance, losing it's greatest pride. 

Nothing is easy, nothing is scared. Why?

Where did the bow break?

It happened before your time."

I've been once more harshly reminded of the fickle nature of both a life in New Eden and in pure piracy-based survival. Had I an alt to go bring the bacon home I'd laugh these off, yet as I live by the ships I fly and die in I do not feel quite so confident. 

Apologies for the lax in the blogging to any who may care, it's been a rough week. Here's to a better one soon. I leave you with Brandon Flowers, a man who grew up in Las Vegas. I think it's only apt to portray the concepts of New Eden as a gambler's game with a song written on the very subject...

I Must Belong Somewhere

It's been a long time coming. As of today I can officially fly every single frigate in New Eden to an effective level. That is to say, tech II fit ships across the board with no skill alterations between racial guns/missiles/hulls/tanks.

I'm currently at 17,200,000 skillpoints, though battleclinic thinks highly of me and is adamant that I must have 20,000,000! My character hasn't been devoted to this goal since day one, that's for sure. I most certainly believe that a heavily focused character could achieve the same thing in about 16,000,000 should it be your goal.

Whilst there is a good portion of my being that is filled with elation at the achievement here, another part of me just wonders how much I've actually shot myself in the foot. The whole journey was a largely unconscious one at first, inspired by fellow corp mate and current ghost (to my sadness) Kirith Darkblade. Upon hearing about his plan to max out the skills on his Rifter I immediately pledged myself to the path of the frigate pilot... Whilst I wasn't quite patient enough to achieve what he still endeavours to do, I instead have ended up reaching my own frigate-based milestone.

I look back on the months of skills being trained and remember my first week of being in the Tuskers where I flew grossly inefficient Jaguars until I realized that such $$ ships just won't work out well for me in the long run. I scaled back to my Rifter roots and have been periodically undocking in them since. So whilst it's great that I've now gained access to over 40 different frigate based hulls, I can't help but wonder what I've exactly 'given' to my corporation. I suppose this is a tie-in to my recent post in regards to Crazy Kinux's (who is celebrating the 6 year blogging milestone, keep rocking buddy!) monthly blog banter, where we discussed why we loved the corporation we were in.

In reality it is quite acceptable to understand the any normal corporation would ask for progression from their pilots, at the very least improvement. Considering we are a pirate corporation that has (in my opinion) garnered a collective aim of excellency in our combat endeavours, I wonder whether my stubborn and stagnating skillsheet has allowed me to benefit the corp as a whole. Factoring in that applications do open and close based upon player number, along with the increasingly grandiose operations we take part in, I wonder whether there was someone else in the world of New Eden who would have better filled the shoes I now walk in. Contemplating the fact that I'm still here only further cements my loyalty to the Tusker banner fortunately, I guess I'm a rather lucky guy.

A few final questions that I have for whoever is still reading; does anyone else in Eve have the same ability to fly every frigate currently in-game to a tech II and high skilled standard (98% of Lv V skill efficiency)? And secondly, what personal plans and goals do you have/had for yourself and have you achieved them?

I'd love to hear some other pilots thoughts on the various concepts (I hope) I've raised in this post. Till then, all the best o/

P.S. As is new protocol, the song which I use for my title is now being posted at the end of my entries. Music is a large portion of my life too and I only see it fit that Kishin loves it too!

My Little Demon

I promised I'd give a write up of the specific fit I used for my Dramiel a few weeks ago and after a deal of procrastinating and some helpful kick up the pants by the concerted effort by Arrhi to attempt to revitalize the entire concept of solo low-sec pvp, I've finally gotten round to divulging my fit... So now you'll all build the perfect counter and kill me!
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Here's the basic fitting

Karma Police
H: 150mm Autocannon II x 2
H: Corpii C-Type Nosferatu

M: Gistii B-Type 1MN Afterburner
M: Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler
M: Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor
M: Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor

L: Coreli C-Type Adaptive Nano Plating
L: Damage Control II
L: Coreli C-Type Small Armor Repairer

R: Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
R: Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
R: Small Semiconductor Memory Cell I

Warrior II x 3
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Pros
Fast among frigate hulls (though slower than a Shield Dramiel) as it kicks in at 1886m/s with level V skills.
Above standard tackle giving leeway for a lot of freedom on the battlefield. You have complete control of how you want to dictate the fight.
The tracking disruptor is phenomenal. Whether it's disrupting the range of a smaller ship to kite against or to cut up tracking speed of a hulking Hurricane... It is a life saver.
Extra range and pulling power of the nos gives quality cap life (4 minutes with ALL modules running, even rep!)
Totally unexpected!

Cons
No real buffer can cause some distress in a difficult situation.
Life dependant upon cap... Larger targets hurt ability to repair.
Slower than other Dramiels (though ultimately better IMHO)
Average dps overall (155 combined)
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I can understand why this might not be a ship suited to the majority of pilots out there, though when you actually look at what is on offer here, it actually shines as a proto-Ishkur in my opinion. You lose the same level of buffer tank for much improved speed, better tackle and not too shabby DPS. Most would argue that the Comet is the obvious choice for a speedy Ishkur but whe tracking disruptor just sways it for me. I'd provide a lengthy discussion post over why I believe this is not only the ultimate Dramiel fit but also the fit to truly crown the Dramiel as the undeniably best frigate in the game... I just don't think it's even necessary.

A final note that I think also benefits the ship; you can utilize the 3rd and 4th 'additive' mid slot (i.e. web & td) to achieve many different roles... Want more tank? Fit a Cap Booster over one of the modules. Want DD pwnage ability? Fit dual webs and kite him to death. Want better fleet support? Throw two TD's in the mix and a long point for some awesome tackling ability.

The possibilities for this fit are so multi-layered that you can really customise this to fit whatever you need, when you need it. I love it to death... Well to the point of it's inevitable death. Then I cry at my wallet and pray for another to hit my hangar bay.

Discussion and/or questions please guys and girls! Till I get them enjoy some damn good music...