Mac Fanboi

I can't help but post Nerbert's most recent kill, in his own words:

I've been out of the game for a while, but I've made a modest return with mixed results...

In my not so triumphant return to WH space last night, a comms error led to designating the wrong primary target. Eve PvP can be a cruel bitch and mistakes are usually punished... My stealth bomber paid the price and it was a good reminder of how the game works.

Tonight I got the first mission runner I probed down to shoot at me. Once he was pointed he actually put up a pretty good fight... unfortunately, it was his turn to learn something about Eve PvP:

1. Don't shoot at ninjas

2. If you do shoot at ninjas, don't stick around to find out what he's going to do next.

3. If you do stick around to find out what he does next... and he comes back in a combat ship, definitely don't stick around while he slowboats 60km to point you.

4. If you do wait for him to close inside point range, don't be pissed at the ninja when you lose your "only ship."

5. If you are pissed at the ninja, don't cry in local. Everyone will laugh at you and the ninja will send it to his corp for lols (and quite possibly a blog post???)

His parting words:

Burnarator > thank you for blowing the only ship i had up

Burnarator > fuck you

http://www.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9664408

Ah, that's why I love this game.

Burning Ring of Fire

In my last post I alluded to a major revelation that I had. I had given the advice to focus on probing skills over combat skills because you will spend more time probing than fighting. That made me come to the realization that I ought to put some thought into my probing setup. Don't get me wrong I had maximized my probing ability, but past that all I had really done is put two warp stabs and a salvager on my prober.

If I am spending all my time on my prober why is isn't it as well thought out as my bomber, which lead me down a very expensive path to:

[Loki, anvil]
Warp Core Stabilizer II
Warp Core Stabilizer II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
10MN Afterburner II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II

Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher, Core Scanner Probe I
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Medium Energy Neutralizer II
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I

Loki Electronics - Emergent Locus Analyzer
Loki Defensive - Adaptive Shielding
Loki Engineering - Capacitor Regeneration Matrix
Loki Offensive - Covert Reconfiguration
Loki Propulsion - Interdiction Nullifier


As you can see this thing is tough as nails, and just about impossible to lock down, which gives me alot of comfort while I'm out probing. I've even already used the interdiction nullifier the other night. I was out roaming when I came into a super busy hole, with ships warping all over the place. I finally realized they were coming back to their home stations from a neighboring hole. Probing in the next hole over I was watching the transition hole with my bomber. I watched a short battle between a hound and a couple combat ships (very lopsided) and then watched a broadsword cloak next to the hole. I came back through and a conversation ensued:

Aethrs > Got stairs in your house?
Genocide Forge > oh please im on the edge of my seat
Genocide Forge > finish it
Aethrs > Hehe
Aethrs > Finish what?
Genocide Forge > your two liner
Aethrs > next line was yours silly goon.
Genocide Forge > ahh
Genocide Forge > you an dthe neighbors sharing blows?
Aethrs > Me and a friend used to be in tears
Aethrs > Just saying hi :)
Genocide Forge > ahh... im not much of a team player so i dont know the little secret handshacks
Aethrs > Fair enough.
Aethrs > We used to have fun ninja salvaging.
Genocide Forge > ive been watching you guys for a while... lots going on
Aethrs > We're bursty.
Genocide Forge > a couple corpies do that, but i mostly do this
Aethrs > Yeah we killed a chimera
Aethrs > Were you on grid for that?
Genocide Forge > was that the huge fleet i saw warp into your tower?
Genocide Forge > nice job
Aethrs > Do you have a home wormhole?
Genocide Forge > RENS
Genocide Forge > doesnt move
Aethrs > Got ya.
Genocide Forge > lots of idiots flying around, im guessing you guys arent that variety
Aethrs > Us? We're totally harmless.
Aethrs > ...to diction nullified Loki's :(
Genocide Forge > with double warp stabs too
Aethrs > We almost always fit 3 points.
Aethrs > So actually that wouldn't do so much.
Aethrs > You solo pvp with it?
Genocide Forge > no i duo
Aethrs > Nice.
Aethrs > My former tears friend and I do that a lot.
Aethrs > Curse/Hictor, or similar.
Genocide Forge > all thios does is probe, i was watching your side, i knew you were there
Genocide Forge > i watched the fight with the SB
Aethrs > Yeah we're not real sure what they were thinking with that.
Aethrs > You lose a carrier, so you go in with a SB and a falcon?
Genocide Forge > exactly
Genocide Forge > nerd- rage does terrible things to people
Aethrs > True.
Aethrs > Static 0.0 wormhole is probably rough, too.
Genocide Forge > lol, was that a static?
Aethrs > I think so.
Genocide Forge > i guess ill move on, you guys prolly have this hole pretty well locked down
Aethrs > Meh
Aethrs > Not really
Aethrs > Feel free to wander, if u like.
Genocide Forge > im probing out the web of holes now
Genocide Forge > im two systems out
Aethrs > Fly safe o/
Genocide Forge > o/

Nice guy, even though he used to be TEARS. Downed a carrier... totally sweet.

I Shot a Man in Reno

Genocide Machine is back. It’s been awhile since I shined up the ol’ bomber and took it for a spin , but I’ve been at it for a few days now. I was a little worried that wormholes had fallen out of favor with the EVE crowd, but I recently read in the quarterly report that wormhole inhabitance was up (which I take credit for in the face of my absence from EVE). I was also a little worried that the newbs had grown up and gotten a little wiser. Again, I was pleasantly surprised, finding numerous characters younger than my absence bumbling around in unknown space. Well, luckily for them, I’m back.

My return wasn’t exactly the bloodbath I was hoping for. In fact the first three nights I went out I barely saw anyone active, but I did manage to find a small mining group. Now to their credit they were mining at the outer most planet, off scan from virtually everywhere. To their discredit I managed to botch several things:

1) Warping to zero (thus uncloaking) on the entrance hole where one of them was flying out to hi sec to fit for mining.
2) Warping to 100km on a planet and not realizing that was where my prober was, uncloaking both for a few seconds.

Now I assume they just missed seeing me those times, likely still loading in #1 and just failing to hit scan for #2. However, you’ll notice that I managed to get 4 kills with one point and the BC had 3 light drones. They were obviously AFK. Although they managed to get back to their comps to get 2 of the pods out.

On a far more interesting string of events I was Eve-mailed by a blog reader asking for advice. Always one to feel self important I sent back the best advice I could come up with off the top of my head:

you are lucky, i just got back into "holing" after about a 250 day break. here is the best i can do in an email:

1) you need a prober... either a friend or a second account. I've had friends who try and do it solo and it magnifies the downtime by alot.

2) there is ALOT of downtime, ive been out three nights in a row and got nothing but a botched attempt on a destroyer/cruiser pair. you can easily go hours and hours not even seeing anything, let alone killing anything, but its better than missioning.

3) practice probing, you have to be REALLY good at it. you will get more out of maxxed probing skills than you will get out of maxxed combat skills.

4) get in a rythmn, find a routine that is safe, stick to it, otherwise you will become the hunted. do not break from YOUR routine, there is a reason you do those things. be systematic

5) never being seen is more important than a kill.

6) read the whole blog it is chocked full of good advice.

7) 10 days for minmatar frig 5 is worth it for the hound, its better than all the rest (period)

For regular readers of my blog there isn’t too much new information here, but #3 brought me to a new revelation that my next post will focus on.

Before parting, I’ll share the fit I sent this guy for a solo bomber. This fit isn’t great, but it does allow you to combat probe and kill on your bomber. I’m not sure it will save time over using a real prober to find targets and then coming back in a pure dps fit bomber to do the dirty work, but my friends have gotten kills in this:

[Hound, solo]
Co-Processor II
Co-Processor II
Co-Processor II

Monopropellant I Hydrazine Boosters
Warp Disruptor II
Parallel Weapon Navigation Transmitter

'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Bane Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Bane Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Bane Torpedo
Expanded Probe Launcher I, Core Scanner Probe I
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I

If you'd like you can waste your breath (fingers) trying to explain to me that the Hound is not the best Stealth Bomber.