In my last post I said I'd try and post either tonight or Monday morning with a hope that I'd have my first kill of August. I didn't want to disappoint so I can happily report that my losing streak has come to an abrupt end.
I was flying around Aeschee looking for any potential targets and I had a small selection. A Vexor and a couple of intys. So I tried to pin down the Vexor. The pilot hadn't renamed his ship so I pulled his character sheet up and found he had only been in the game a month. Making a snap decision to go after him as he'd be pretty low on skill points I warped to the belt that I thought he was at. Because of the way the game clumps belts/gates/stations/etc together I had quite a choice of where he could be. It turns out he wasn't in the belt I warped to so I thought I'd warp back to my safe and try again.
However as I was warping out a Rifter, piloted by Zodiac Black warped in. I spammed ctrl+space to try and stop my ship but my warp drives had already spun up and I was soon flung out of the belt and deep into space. Deciding that engaging a fellow PvPer would be fun I convo'd Zodiac and requested a 1v1. He was game, yes! We decided on the terms of the fight and the location so I punched Planet III into my TomTom and entered warp.
The duel began as soon as we were within range of each other. Taking advice from the forum thread I made last week, my guns and scram were already overloaded so I benefited the instant my first volley went downrange. I settled into a comfortable orbit of 7500m and watched intently as my Barrage ammunition started chewing through the enemy Rifters shields. Keeping an eye on my heat damage (CCP really need to redesign the overheating interface - it sucks!) I felt pretty confident as my opponent entered shields before I did.
Keeping the same orbit I watched the logs scrolling up as my autocannons unleashed volley after volley of pain onto the Matar hull. One thing I did notice however was how much more damage I was taking when I went into armour. I concluded that Zodiac must have been using Fusion ammo as my armour really was taking a pounding. This is where I started to fail, unfortunately. I activated my repper with the intention of pulsing it to save on my cap but I'd realised my guns and scram were on the verge of burning out if I didn't stop overheating them. Once they were firing and scramming normally the decision to pulse my repper and not have it on constantly had all but diminished and I swore to myself as I realised my cap was pretty much out.
By this time I was very deep into armour and my opponent had entered structure. It was then that my cap failed and I lost my web and afterburner, but more importantly my point. Fearing that I'd lose my prey to an amateur mistake I overloaded my guns in the hope they could put a stop to his ship before he escape to fight again another day. The Autocannon gods were on my side tonight as the enemy Rifter exploded, bathing my own smoking ship in that pleasant blue glow that we all love.
Gf's were exchanged and we chatted shortly about what fits each other had and how it was a close fight. I was/am quite damn happy about winning this duel as it was something I needed to get back on track. I was convo'd shortly after by Lhorenzho (another of the Black Rebels) and he commended me on honouring the duel and said that'd read my blog, which was pretty awesome - people actually read this, ha!
All in all I'm pleased with the result, though I think my module management skills need some work. If I let my cap die like that in the future then I'm likely to end up getting popped, which isn't what we want. Hopefully this win will be the first of a long, fruitful streak...
Here's the killmail if anyone's interested:
2011.08.07 23:09:00
Victim: Zodiac Black
Corp: Black Rebel Rifter Club
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Rifter
System: Aeschee
Security: 0.2
Damage Taken: 2454
Involved parties:
Name: Cable Udan (laid the final blow)
Security: -3.4
Corp: Kagan-Kincaid Enterprises
Alliance: Subspace Exploration Agency
Faction: NONE
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 2454
Name: Serpentis Chief Safeguard / Serpentis Corporation
Damage Done: 0
Destroyed items:
Warp Scrambler II
Republic Fleet Fusion S, Qty: 244
150mm Light AutoCannon II, Qty: 2
3rd Tier Overseer's Personal Effects (Cargo)
Republic Fleet Fusion S, Qty: 1013 (Cargo)
Small Projectile Ambit Extension I, Qty: 2
'Arbalest' Rocket Launcher I
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I
Small Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II
Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
250mm Light Carbine Howitzer I (Cargo)
Republic Fleet EMP S, Qty: 475 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 72 (Cargo)
4th Tier Overseer's Personal Effects (Cargo)
Republic Fleet Nuclear S, Qty: 900 (Cargo)
1MN Afterburner II
Dropped items:
Barrage S, Qty: 156 (Cargo)
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Republic Fleet Fusion S, Qty: 122
Y-S8 Hydrocarbon I Afterburners (Cargo)
150mm Light AutoCannon II
2nd Tier Overseer's Personal Effects (Cargo)
5th Tier Overseer's Personal Effects (Cargo)
1st Tier Overseer's Personal Effects (Cargo)
Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S, Qty: 1692 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 14
Good job!
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