The Tuskers Deathrace 2013!

Filling the post today is an advert for what is shaping up to be a terrific event! Rixx Javix, a fellow Tusker and all around  nice guy evil pirate has organised and is presenting the 2013 Tuskers Deathrace, which does exactly what it says on the tin.

Starting tomorrow - Saturday 16th at 17:00 Eve time - the Deathrace consists of a no holds barred pursuit across the most lethal low and null security systems that makes Jason Statham look like he's at a junior school sports day. Racers will form up in Dantumi and then be given the first of four locations to race to. The only rule here is kill or be killed (well, sort of!)

There are literally billions of ISK worth of prizes in various categories and it's looking to be a pretty awesome event. I heartily encourage anyone to get involved and race. What's the worst that can happen?

For more detailed info on the Deathrace go to Rixx's blog where you'll find out everything you need to know to get in on the race!

The Little Ship That Could

In between going on roams and popping people I tend to get distracted and either park on a gate in a sebo'd Cane or sit ship spinning. Last night I was watching some TV and decided to go out as bait in the newest mining frigate, the cute little Venture.

Because I abhor mining there were no lasers in sight and I'd fit up as follows:

[Venture, Surprise Buttsex!]
Damage Control II
Medium Shield Extender II
1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
5W Infectious Power System Malfunction
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I

Warrior II x2

This little baby can pump out almost 97dps and has a pretty impressive EHP of almost 5k, which isn't bad considering it's a mining frigate. I've seen some people fit blasters but to get them on they sacrifice the neut which is something I decided I wanted to keep.

Anyway, I warped to the top belt in Hevrice after renaming the ship to impersonate a positive sec status neutral in system. And then nothing...

                                                             and nothing...

                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                              and nothing...

Other Tuskers were getting into frig fights all over Hevrice and just as I was about to warp to station and reship to something combat-worthy Rixx Javix announced on comms that he'd tackled an Ishkur on the sun but his Algos was going down quickly. Other Tuskers responded to the call and I asked if I could bring a Venture onto the killmail. There were laughs and everyone was happy so I warped to Rixx at 0.

Moments before landing though the mighty Tusker announced that he had been asploded and that the Gallente assault ship would probably get away. I was the first to land on grid with the Ishkur and Rixx's pod and immediately overheated my scram as the enemy pilot tried to get away. No such luck for Dischordant though as my hero Venture held point long enough for Kaal Redrum and Rob Mason to arrive and dish out some real damage.

I escaped the fight in 43% structure and there was much hooting about the Venture dealing out 11% of the overall damage.

Gf's were given in local and I then docked up, leaving my Venture bloodied but satisfied.

- Cable

                                                    

Because screw you, logic!

As I was warping around Hevrice this morning I saw a Thrasher on d-scan and quickly pinned him down to a medium FW plex. Due to the fact I was flying a Cane at the time I docked up and jumped into a Thrasher on my own and promptly made my way to the plex. Before activating the acceleration gate I briefly thought to myself that the chances were pretty high that the other pilot would be rocking autocannon fit and I'd find him sat on the beacon waiting to pop anything that entered. Which would be very bad for me as my Thrasher was bristling with artillery and a manly suitcase tank.

Not really caring, I warped into the plex anyway and sure enough there sat an AC Thrasher right on the beacon. I let out an audible 'le sigh' and aligned to the sun, all while overheating my guns, web and long pointing my would-be killer.

His first few shots took me straight into low shields due to the fact our hulls were bumping and grinding when I arrived on grid. My first volley took him to about 20% shields and I realised the fight was over when he took me into armour seconds later.

My second volley took him straight into deep armour but by this point I was already entering structure and spamming the warp button for when the inevitable happened. As the charming red bar that depicted my hull arced its way from right to left I noticed that my artillery wasn't far off unleashing another volley but I still hammered the warp button relentlessly.

Then there was a flash, followed by a bang and I was in warp. But what's this? I'm still in a Thrasher, albeit one ablaze with smoke and flame (and 35% hull!). Completely shocked at the result of this clash I announced in corp what had just happened and there was much laughing and joviality.

At first I couldn't believe that I'd brawled down an AC Thrasher with arties and Dian Lung and I scoffed at the situation.

Upon inspecting the killmail though I can see why the narrow victory fell in my favour; as soon as I realised my predicament when I landed, I immediately aligned to a celestial, ready to get my pod out. The other Thrasher was shield tanked and fitted with an MWD so when he scrammed me his prop mod shut off and he had no web, unlike myself. Being faster than him I was able to pull a bit of range whilst my artillery hammered him with almost no transversal due to me flying in a straight line and not orbiting.

It was definitely a good fight and one that I never expected to win. Maybe I'm not such a bad after all!

Fly reckless - it works for me o7

- Cable

Branching Out

When I first started pirating I was very much set on becoming a monster with projectile weapons. At the time the Rifter and it's two fearsome cousins were more than a match for the vast majority of combat ships out there so it was a logical choice to specialise in autocannons and artillery. Every other weapon system was put  to the side with a note to train up in the future.

About a year ago I realised I'd hamstrung myself by sticking only to projectile weapons. Sure, all my gunnery supports are at V and all of my projectile specs are at IV or V but I'd neglected to bother with hybrids, lasers and missiles. That soon changed when I set my sights on flying Slicers and before long I had small pulse spec to IV and was thoroughly enjoying the little Amarr ship.

Around this time I also faced up to the fact my missile skills were virtually non-existent and set about rectifying the problem. Now I can quite happily jump into a Vengeance (<3) or a Drake with confidence that my skills (or lack of) aren't hindering my performance in fights.

These days my small turret and missile skills are pretty much perfect, apart from the odd Specialisation skill which is at IV but now I'm finding I want to branch out to bigger stuff. I already have T2 medium autocannon  s and artillery for my love of the Hurricane and T2 heavies for the Drake but there are more ships I want to fly now that I'd be daft to jump into without more training.

For example, I really want to start haunting the space lanes in a Vexor but I don't have T2 medium blasters (or rails for that matter), and my drone skills suck. Like really suck. I skilled into them enough to be able to use Warrior IIs and that's it. I also want to start flying double-rep Myrms but again I need some pretty decent drone skills. I should probably get medium lasers as well for something. Right now I can't think of any big laser ships I want to fly but in twelve months time that might have changed.

So for now, drone skills!

Oh, and I need to get T2 large autocannons and arty so I can prat around in Tornados. So many skills, so little time!