Thursday 5 January 2012

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.

3 comments:

  1. Lowsec isn't dangerous. Amamake's dangerous. So's Tama. After kicking around a while you learn to recognize cetain names right off and realize they're super hotspots for PvP activity, "bloodbath" systems... Old Man Star and Murethand used to be on that list too. Ostingele, to a degree, still is.

    Rifter vs Ishkur under the best cirumstances (maxed skills, fully T2 fit), the Rifter just dies a hair slower. Ishkurs are the one AF that a number of people actually consider "OP". Next time you see one, run.
    Get in the habit of ALWAYS having that damage control on. As soon as you arrive in a system and either align or start warp, hit that damage control. It should become automatic and second nature. Saves you that bit of heartache and extra keystroke in the heat of things. Also you can't be caught "with your pants down" (and your life-saving DC off).

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  2. Thanks for the reply. I later found out this guy was a vet pirate with around 58m SP compared to less than 1m for me.

    I know the game isn't all about SP but it does give a noticeable advantage.

    His experience as a pirate was also vital in his win.

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  3. SP does give an advantage, but pilot skill is a bigger factor. I haz a Min FW alt I started a lil while ago. Maybe 2M SP. Maybe. According to the SP theory, he should be completely useless and pretty much defenseless.
    I haven't played him much but I'd be willing to lol at those willing to lose to a "scrub n00b". ;-) I should go to Arnon with him and paste Socratic, his KB doesn't have enough losses yet. lol

    Really, though, in this case, SP and experience doesn't really matter. Rifter vs Ishkur, Ishkur wins, period hands down doesn't matter if a 7 yr old is flying it, long as they know what buttons to push. lol. Therefore: avoid Ishkurs in Rifters.

    Also, if ya encounter drones again, kill those first. Makes life so much longer. ;-)

    Lookin forward to reading more though, keep it comin.

    ReplyDelete