Third Rifter Down

Fit


3x 150mm Autocannon 1
1x Small Nosferatu

1x Stasis Webifier 1
1x Warp Scrambler 1
1x Afterburner 1

1x Damage Control 1
1x 200m Tungsten Plate 1
1x Small Armour Repairer 1

I took my first intended steps into lowsec space today. I entered Otou because someone had recommended it as a good place to start my lowsec roaming. My first ever time in lowsec was a sad one, I was but a few days old flying a Hoarder. I was transporting pretty much everything I had at the time which was a beginner mining vessel, a few skillbooks and some velspar over to a new station. At the time I didn't really know how dangerous lowsec was and I entered Ammamake without hesitation. What was waiting for me on the other side was a gatecamp, my lowly hoarder was scrambled and promptly destroyed along with all of my belongings. To add to that they destroyed my pod as a final insult.

Luckily I was a beginner at the time and the repercussions were minimal.

Today's venture into lowsec was a different one. I was better prepared for what awaited me, although I was still a little anxious once I hit that jump button into Otou.

Once on the other side and safely in Otou, I started scanning down my surroundings. Not much on the overview other than a Reaper (which I eventually found out was in a safespot) and an Ishkur.

I warped around a couple of times establishing some safe spots to scan from. Nothing special. I had my eye on the Ishkur as I thought this would be a good learning experience fight. For the most part he was in his safe spot not moving, most likely scanning himself. To get a better guage on who was around me I warped to sun and started a 360 degree scan. Once again there wasn't much out there. Then I noticed the Ishkur must have moved because I warped beyond his safespot and noticed that he popped up on my scan results in my new location.

I stayed at the sun for a couple of seconds and finally the Ishkur warped in. It was a quick battle. Once again I was fumbling around for different commands. The rush of battle was overwhelming and I could barely make a move.

He quickly targetted me and I was popped in a matter of seconds.

Post Battle Thoughts

My first though was to switch overview tabs, I was on my scanning tab when the Ishkur warped in. He targeted me and I absolutely had a brain fart about what to do. I don't think I managed to switch the overview tab and I might have accidentally hit "approach" instead of orbit.

The biggest mistake I made was not activating any kind of buffer. I had a damage control module as well as an armour repairer, none were activated. Instead I hit my weapons button and hoped for the best. Since I don't think I switched overview tabs the Ishkur was probably not targeted thus making my decision of activating my weapons a dumb one.

I still need to overcome the rush and anxiety of battle. Although I know in theory what to do, my brain is just clouded once the actual battle begins. I need to seriously work on this if I'm going to be a succesful pirate in New Eden. Keeping better watch over my  overview tabs as well as my buffer modules is also a must.

In the end I was taught a valuable lesson in this skirmish. Once I feel a little more comfortable in my pirate skin I know the battles will be better fought on my side.