Micro AAR: Speed baiting

Hello reader,

Have you ever heard of 'speed baiting'? Probably not. I just made that up. But here's a short AAR of one particular fight I would like to share with you.
Last week I spotted a Garmur orbiting a lowsec gate. Garmurs are the pricey Mordu's Legion missile frigate that are usually set up with a kiting fit due their Warp Disruptor range bonus; they orbit and spam missiles from 40km or whatever without getting anything close to them.

This Garmur was orbiting the gate at a fair 5000m/s, maybe 5500m/s, taking nice loops and circles, playing around, and at some point he found himself 300km off the gate.
5500m/s may be fast but I know my dear old Firetail can easily go 8000m/s with a bit of heat and my Snake implants. The only problem is that if the Garmur is 300km away, and I burned towards him with 8000m/s, he would see my speed and quickly compute the fact he won't be able to outrun and kite me, and simply warp off before I get close to him. This would result in no fight at all.

What to do? The only way he would take a fight is with a slower target, so that is exactly what I give him. I warp to the gate at a distance (out of Sentry gun range, mind you!). The Garmur is still more than 150km away, but I act like a noob looking for a fight and approach him but lowering my speed to merely 4000m/s ... Much slower than his top speed.

What happened next is rather predictable. He sees me coming, quickly points his nose towards me and takes the fight like a nerd. Once he's in his comfortable orbit I overheat my shit at max speed and quickly get a scram on him.

http://dark-rising.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=26587619

Making ISK 101

Requirements:

- Scanner probes
- 2 Ishtar nerds
- 1 scuurry looking ship

(click on the images to enlarge)

Confessions of a Lowsec Player

CONFESSIONS OF A LOWSEC PLAYER

*prologue*

Nothing is more revolting to the EVE player than, indeed, the sorry spectacle of another EVE player enslaved by that derivative disease known for being a ‘bittervet’. And nothing is less appetising than listening to the pathetic tales of oh-once-better-times and other degradation associating mourning of a victim of this inevitable condition.

Why, then, do I force myself, and you, with this extended and detailed account of my depraved memories and sorrows?

Because I hope that by telling my tale, the hope of redemption from this sorry state shall be more widely known. And I hope that others who have also fallen to the sorry state of bitterness may therefore hear of my story, of how I fell into despair, and how I once again found myself a freed myself from my own self-imposed chains.

There is no miracle cure. There is no video trailer to be watched, or Devblog to be read. There is no magical incantation which frees you from the bitterness. But it is through the understanding of that passiveness, and the casting aside of the shame that the bittervet feels when he cannot get back what became in the end his only comfort and pleasure, it is through this knowledge and understanding that the victim comes to the place where choices may be made, where despair and hope maybe be separated.

In short, only knowledge and acceptance can deliver into the slave’s hands the key that opens his shackles and sets him free.

*end of prologue*

Man can dream. But the many can accomplish. That is a disencouraging thought. But what if this is not to be? What if man can relinquish the many? Light came at the end of the tunnel bearing a most fitting name; meet the Confessor. The first of four ‘tech-three’ Tactical Destroyers.

I like to think of the T3 Destroyer as a heavy-Assault Frigate. The base stats are somewhat in line with the AF’s while certain attributes can be ‘buffed’ when deploying the Destroyer in one of its three unique modes; Defense Mode; Propulsion Mode; Sharpshooter Mode.

What sets the T3 Destroyer off from the T3 Cruiser is that the Tactical Destroyer can change these modes on the fly (or when docked) every 10 seconds, as often as you please; whereas the Strategic Cruiser is based upon its interchangeable Subsystems that define its fixed attributes. Another important key difference is that it doesn’t need additional training other than the racial Tactical Destroyer skillbook (whereas the T3 Cruiser needs 6 skills!) There is also no SP loss upon losing the ship.

The modes are somewhat self explanatory but a short breakdown follows:

Defense Mode; lowers the signature radius to that of a normal Frigate; increase the armor resistances across the board.

Propulsion Mode; increase base speed and agility.

Sharpshooter Mode; increases weapons ranges and targeting/sensor attributes.

Though these three modes are certainly useful in different scenarios it doesn’t make the ship overpowered at all. Yes, when you’re in a tight spot you can pump in extra resistances in Defense Mode. Yes, when your target is just out of range you can burn to it quicker with Propulsion Mode. And yes, if you want to get that Pod you can change to Sharpshooter Mode for a sick 1000mm scanres. BUT, you are still dealing with a Destroyer class. So in any case you are relatively low on hitpoints and capacitor capacity. An Energy Neut and drones will eat you up regardless. This makes the ship ideal for an all-around cruising ship until you get targeted by a heavier platform such as an Arbitrator or RLM Caracal, specific anti-small-shit-killers.

Also, Confessors are not immune to angry cyno-hotdropping Russian nerds. RIP Confessor #1.

Anyway. Confessor #2 is kitted out with a dual propulsion setup combined with a Warp Scrambler and a single Ancillary Armor Repairer, pumping out nearly 400 DPS with heating. However the AAR with only 8 charges means I can only fight limited engagement so if I’m going to brawl, it will have to be a quick one.

As with every EVE PvP engagement you’ve got to weigh out your options and made a best possible decision.

The other day I was in Mara, Lonetrek. On scan I had two Kestrels on a safespot, and a Navy Slicer and a Sentinel coming and going back and forth between several locations. I quickly checked up all the people in local and noticed 3 of them were of the same corporation. Since there are no Stations in that system I reckoned at least two of the same three were the Kestrels, and either the Sentinel or the Slicer was with them as a third. Kestrels would be a fun challenge for the Confessor, but a Sentinel, basically a miniature Curse could mess things up quite bad indeed. Sentinels have Energy Neut power that can quickly dry up a Frigate or a Destroyer, plus a Tracking Disruptor that would cripple my lasers optimal range. The Navy Slicer I was less worried about; Slicers are basically a low-grade Interceptor; I could either snip it with Scorch, or outrun it with my Snakes.

Thankfully my Buzzard alt was closeby and quickly located the two Kestrels safespots. The plan was to get rid of them ASAP before either the Sentinel or Slicer would land. But all was not well. The second I landed also the Sentinel landed on grid, right next to me. I quickly changed priorities. He was in scramble range so I quickly tackled it, put a NOS on it and blapped the Jesus out of it with my 400 DPS Pulse Lasers. The remaining Kestrels were less of an issue afterwards. It is however pure luck the Sentinel landed close to me to shoot it. Had he arrived at a distance it would have kited me easily while the Kestrels would slowly eat me up.

(PS. The Navy Slicer was AFK on another safespot, which I then also probed and destroyed.)

I spend the rest of the evening cruising through Caldari FW space, getting another dozen kills, most rather uneventful ganks, but also including a few Navy Frigates.

All in all, this ship is totally worth a try if you’ve got the spare money (they go for 130mil now, which is still vastly vastly overpriced considering the fact of merely 40mil production costs). But there are a few things I want to point out.

Because the ship is (relatively) expensive doesn’t mean it’s good! A few clever low-tier Frigates will still rape your face quite badly. If you’re new to small scale solo engagements, the Tactical Destroyer is not a good starters boat. You’ll need some quick fingers and a witful mind to play with the different Modes. Also don’t faction fit a Destroyer! Yes it’s T3, I don’t care. Just don’t. Putting an A-type EAMN or Navy Heat Sinks on it does so very little taking in account the ship’s low base stats.

In a concluding word I am quite happy with the way CCP designed these new Tactical Destroyers. They are by far not overpowered, but give a good advancing edge to deal with a fight. During the Australian “EVE Down Under” event a couple of weeks ago, CCP revealed the bonuses and stats of the Minmatar T3 Destroyer, which are very much in line with the Confessor’s: It get’s a Shield resistance bonus instead of the Armor, and a Tracking/Falloff bonus for Projectiles instead of the Lasers Optimal Range. From this we can conclude the remaining two (Caldari and Gallente) will be pretty much the same as these as well. This makes me both glad and a little disappointed.

Glad, because all four Tactical Destroyers will be very much balanced across the ship line, they all have the same advantage and disadvantage, where none will so much standout from the other.

This equally makes it a little generic, giving them all the same bonuses; the Minmatar T3 will basically just be a Shield version of the Confessor, and vice versa, which then makes it come down to the raw final numbers of max DPS or max Speed to build the perfect Tactical Destroyer, regardless of race. Whereas a Loki’s web could have a significant *different* impact on a fight over a Proteus’ point range bonus, which is also useful on its own, the Tactical Destroyers will ‘just’ be heavy Assault Frigates in the end.

EDIT:
Uploaded a short video flying the Confessor, including the described fight with the Kestrels and Sentinels.
I'll be honest and say none of these kills were anything spectacular, just wanted to show off the new ship. :-)