Looking At The New Ships And How They Will Effect FW PvP

This week we saw the release of several new classes of ships, the command dessies, the navy issue ewar frigs and T2 logi frigs. What CCP have tried to do here is interesting, and will change the landscape of frig solo/small gang for sure, however I feel some ships are more balanced than others, in the sense of being over and under powered. I'm going to take a look at each one and talk about how I think this is going to change FW space PvP.

Command Destroyers:

The new command destroyers seem pretty mental honestly. Micro jump field generators. Dont really know what to say about them. I am really interested to see how people are going to be using them, as there are many many possibilities. Could you imagine one of these things getting into the middle of five enemy guardians and being like "ok we're leaving now". Granted, the range is only 6km, so you probably wont be able to keep that many enemy ships within that range for 9 seconds unless they're asleep. Still though, you will be able to make picks on certain ships and remove them from the battle. Maybe if there is one tanky beast that you dont want to put dps into, or a pesky falcon, you can direct a command dessie to get rid of it for the fight. Overall though I think this is more of a fleet thing, but really if used properly anyone could make us of it. Maybe a solo PvPer could pick out a single shiny ship in an outnumbered fight and jump 100km away with it..

Anyway, there is more to these new dessies than the micro jump field. Now that T3D's cannot get into smalls, there is room for new ships to take their place. I am curious to see how interdictors will compare to the command dessies in straight up PvP, but either way one of these new destroyers are going to start dominating FW space in place of T3D's. Interdictors have more dps so will be able to blap things easily, like they already have, but command dessies have more tank and more speed while not really lacking for damage, so I would predict for solo PvP especially the command dessies may be better in FW space. Combined with T2 frig logi command dessies should be a very powerful force in fleets as well.

It would of been nice to see a come back for AF's, but we're still in a situation where there is no real reason to fly them compared to the destroyers. I guess at least it's easier to train into an AF than either of the T2 dessies.

Navy Issue Ewar Frigates:

Griffin Navy Issue:

Right I just want to get this one out of the way first.

Really CCP? Really? What were you trying to do here? Do you not understand how ECM even works? The theme among these new ships is that they have stronger ewar but are forced to brawl, giving them a disadvantage. This however, makes no fucking difference to ECM. You can get the same effect from doing tactical sling shot scram kite skillz than clicking approach and sticking to them at 0. This thing could happily jam three ships at the same time, four if it has other things to tackle. Why do you hate fun CCP?

Ok lets move on, I'm getting cancer from just writing about this.

Maulus Navy Issue:

This is a blessing to anyone who likes to fuck around with FW farmers, so I'm looking forward to some of the tears my corp mates will be able to harvest with this. In terms of general PvP though, I think this ship will be quite strong simply because it's a drone boat. As well as that, it can scram kite at further away ranges and still apply the same dps. Scram, web, AB and this thing is going to be very mean to match up against. It does however have slightly lower base speed, which should help to balance it out. I would be cautious in engaging it as hull tanking will give it good dps and tank at the same time.

Vigil Fleet Issue:

I'm quite disappointed that CCP have essentially explosive locked this ship. If you want to switch to a more vulnerable resist, you're giving up 25% of your damage you would of got from explosive, so I dont see why CCP even bothered to give it a 20% bonus on the other damage types. They really should of set it all to 25%. Other than that though, the Vigil is quite standard. It should have some decent dps. The web range is actually pretty much useless in solo PvP because you're locked on using rockets, your dps range is always going to be within range of a normal web anyway. It will be useful for sling shotting but that's it. Compared to its counterparts I dont think it will ever be the better choice. It could be very useful in gangs though to give some extra utility or defense if you're a kiting fleet.

Crucifier Navy Issue:

I just want to say that I had this idea for the crucifier a while ago and it's really, really fun. I'm happy to see CCP made it a real thing. I'm expecting to see some good fights out of it, as will be trying it out myself. It's basically a straight up brawler that is going to ruin the day of any gun boats. However, I dont think it will be too useful in gangs as it will be able to TD one or two targets but get blapped off the field pretty quickly, you may as well use a normal crucifier if you wanted TD's. Will still be fun in solo PvP though and from first glance this is probably the most balanced out of the four.

New Logistic ships:

I'm going to group all the new logi frigs into one section as I dont think there is as much to talk about. It honestly looks like that for armour you want the Deacon and for the shield you want the Kirin. This is simply because they get resist bonuses while the others get sig reduction. If you're a frig to begin with, less sig really wont make a difference when fighting other frigs as they will be able to apply to you either way, and if they are in range to apply to you it's likely you're scrammed/webbed anyway, meaning your small sig is even less useful. Straight up more tank not only makes other logi pilot's lives easier but is just better if you're caught as you will stay on field longer, tackled or not.

That being said, they all do their job, I just feel going for resist bonuses is much better than sig reduction. If you have gal/min frig V to begin with but not the others, dont let that stop you from jumping in one as they all get the same rep power assuming logistics frigates V.

Fits for new frigs:

If you're completely lost on how to be fitting up these new boats, this should give you a rough guide line which you can then optimize for your situation. I will explain my choices for each fit, but you dont have to go with them at really as most of these ships are quite versatile.

I'm only doing this for the new frigs because I honestly don't think I'm confident enough to give advice for the command dessies or logi frigs.

Navy Griffin:

If you really just hate your fellow man you can fit this beast up. It's actually really good, even without the jams, which is what annoys me so much here. Anyway, for standard solo/small gang PvP, this is what you will be running with the Navy Griffin:

Quite standard, but gets 200 dps and 7.5k ehp. Like I said, even without jams that's a strong ship. I chose an MWD for this fit because in brawling range they wont be able to web you anyway as they will be jammed, so really you just need to get close. If you're in a gang and may be fighting against more targets than you can jam, consider an AB. You may have enough power grid after that to switch from an aux core to a mag stab.

If you actually want to have fun in EVE though, here's something some of you solo PvPers may be able to mess around with a bit:

So this is basically an armour Hookbill fit. Honestly I dont know if this is better or worse than its Hookbill counterpart, but either way you will be able to get a couple of kills from the surprise factor alone for the first couple weeks. That is, if anyone will fight you to begin with.

Navy Maulus:

So I basically just fit this up like I would a rail Comet. It does the same thing really, just better, as now instead of orbiting at 7.5km you can orbit at 11km or and still apply max damage while taking none. If anything can hit you out at 11km, you should probably be orbiting it at 500m. Drone boats OP.

Vigil Fleet Issue:

The main goal of the Vigil is to just blap your opponent as fast as possible. The Vigil can actually pump out a mean amount of dps, so you should abuse that. That's why I took the dps rig instead of extra tank. In fleets just web down targets and apply face melting dps, do the same in solo. It's quite a tight fit though so be aware of that. Also, only carry explosive rockets. No reason to carry others.

Navy Crucifier:

This one is quite simple as well, just go normal brawl and apply your TD to whatever needs it. You have the same dps as the griffin and maulus but not as much tank. Still though, when taking on ships with larger guns this ship will be extremely useful. I took the nos here because you have the TD, rep and lasers, so having something to keep your cap going will be very useful.

How will this all effect FW space?

In short, quite a bit for small gang and solo battles. There is now a new arsenal of ships to mess around with for all sizes of gangs which I think is going to provide some really fun fights and give a little diversity to what ships we will be seeing out there, especially now that T3D's cannot enter smalls. In fact I'm expecting command dessies to replace them, whether they are more or less cancerous we will have to wait and see. Brawling will probably be a little harder from now on due to the extremely strong ewar power that can operate in brawling range, but if it's on your side you may be able to take on larger gangs or larger ship classes. We're quite quickly going to see 30 man frigate fleets with T2 logi wings that are going to destroy everything in their path - combined with assault frigs and the new command destroyers, getting a mix of high dps while still being able to apply to small fast ships is going to be difficult in lower numbers. Lastly, solo PvPers will just have to learn what new navy frigs their ships can deal with and what ones they cant. A small hint is just to avoid the griffin, in any form, all the time.

If CCP give balances where balances are due as these new ships pan out into our meta, the PvP landscape is going to be much more interesting because of it.

What I have been doing:

So I get that it's been a while since I made a blog post. This is because of two main things. One being I simply didnt really have much to talk about anymore and two being my school work and applying to Uni. I have not given up on this blog and do intend to keep posting, but I cant promise consistent content anymore.

Apart from boring irl stuff though, in EVE I have been having a lot of fun building my corp. We're 32 members strong now, pulling 10 man fleets of BC's or T2 Cruisers and actually winning fights against local gangs. It's extremely rewarding being a CEO and seeing your members enjoying themselves so much. Also as of today a new corp has applied to join the alliance Quam'Nocent. From my experience after the first corp joins your alliance things tend to take off from there, so look out Placid!

Nah we will still just stick to small insignificant gangs that dont really bother anyone big. For now.

Fight of the week:

I loose this fight, but I want to use this video to show how weak the Vigil Fleet Issue is.

I take on two Vigil Fleet Issues at the same time in my comet. I begin to slowly work one down but even though I had a scram and web on him he manages to pull range, forcing me to switch targets. I was very confused on how he did this, turns how they were both 10MN AB fit. In this video I very almost kill one of them, and had the other stayed in range I would of killed him too. The 10MN AB is what saved them, although normally I would consider this to be a bad fit due to the lack of tank and dps you get out of it. I suppose it can work in their set up but only because there were two of them and the could switch in and in when they got low. Had they both been normally fit, they would of actually died in a 2v1 vs my Comet. This means that a solo Vigil, that cant really make a 10MN AB work at all, has no chance. My point is that this just shows that the Vigil Fleet Issue really isnt that strong, or the Comet is OP. Probably both. Please dont nerf my comets CCP. 

How To Start FC'ing Small Gang, Tristan Fights and Crucifier Fits!

How To Start FC'ing Small Gang:

So I have been running my Corp for almost two weeks now and, as I have noticed with previous times I have run a Corp as well, no one ever seems up to trying out FC'ing, or even secondary FC. I often end up be being the only person to take out roams and though this isn't as bad in my current Corp, nothing would happen if I wasn't logged on. Why are a lot of people so hesitant to try FCing? Honestly, I don't know, and I'm not going try and talk about it either, but what I am going to do is try and make a short guide on how to get started with small gang FC'ing in hopes that it encourages others and maybe my Corp members to try it more. As a disclaimer, I'm a terrible FC but at the very least I still do it so I can try and share what I know about small gang FW roaming.

Firstly, you need to know what you want or what you're going to be flying with in your fleet. For small fleets this generally isn't too important - I normally try to keep the speed and gun range in the same ballpark and that's it. That means if you want an MWD fleet, make sure no one is going to be left behind because they fit an AB. Likewise, if you tell your fleet to hit a target 20km away, make sure someone didn't bring blasters. You can ask your fleet members to get more specific with their fits if you feel you want to try a certain composition out but honestly if you're just going out to get a few fights, this will do. It's also a good idea to ask your fleet members to link their fits. This helps two things. One, it allows you as the FC to get a better understanding of the limits and abilities of your gang and two it allows you to weed out any shit fits and make sure no one fit an nano on their hull tanked Hecate.

T3D's are actually a brilliant ship to fly in small gang and learning how to FC with,

mainly because they're so OP you can't go wrong with them.

When you know what you're flying, the next thing you need is a planned route to roam down. I like to try and roam in a loop, so for example I normally start at Agoze, go to Nennamaila, Tama and then back to Agoze. This normally takes about an hour to roam in frigs if you're checking all the plexes and crosses a lot of active systems, so we normally get fights. As an FC it's really useful to know your area, although if you're lazy, new to the region or have bad memory, get dotlan up on your second monitor so you can easily systems that connect and have activity. Post your destination in fleet and be on your way.

From there on it's simply calling going from system to system, calling what gates to warp to, when to jump and then sending a scout or yourself into each system to scan the plexes for targets, but if you have ever been on a roam before you know how all that works.

When you do find targets, there are several ways of going about engaging them. If you outnumber them, send in bait to get point/aggression and then send in the rest of the fleet. If it looks like it might be more of an equal fight however and you're not a dirty blobber, there are several things you have to make sure of before going in guns blazing.

First is where you are. If you find a fleet on a gate, you need to be very careful. Do not do what I have done many times before, which is calling a target and then realizing that everyone in the fleet is taking gate guns. If they're blinky or all -5, then go ahead, but otherwise you need to lead them away from the gate, especially as they will be able to attack any of your blinky/-5 pilots while you cant shoot back without taking guns.

The second thing you need to remember are ranges. If you are a long ranged kite fleet, do not take a fight while at 0, and be careful when activating a gate to a plex. Likewise, if you are a brawling fleet then almost always try and get into the inside of a plex before taking a fight because it forces everything to start at 0. However, do not risk loosing fleet members to get this advantage. I learnt the hard way that this can be a terrible idea when I was leading a VNI roam and we lost a guardian on the outside of the plex because he couldn't warp in fast enough.I did say I was a terrible FC.

So the way to best go about solving both these problems are using plexes. They are your friend. They are where you lead other fleets to fight you and they are were you can dictate the starting range before a fight. However, if you cannot take a fight to a plex or it's too risky, because for example you may have jumped into a fleet, taking a fight on the gate is fine as long as you make sure not to call any targets that will cause gate guns to shoot your fleet.

Lastly is the actual target calling. This is extremely hard but learning your ships allows you to make much more informed decisions. For example, say you are fighting a T3D gang with two Svipuls and a Hecate. Knowing that Hecates often have weaker tank in exchange for high dps, calling the Hecate as the first target is the best idea. You wouldn't know this unless you knew how the Hecate was normally fit though. What I'm saying is, learn what the general meta for each ship type is so you know what tank and damage output to expect from them and you can call targets accordingly.

The more extra things like logi and ewar thrown in, the more things you need to consider and adapt to during target calling.

More general advice for target calling though is to always make sure a target is within your fleet's damage range, and if not know if your fleet can burn to them or not fast enough. For ship type priority, it normally goes ewar first if you have logi that is getting disabled by them, followed by their logi if you cant break other ships, followed by their squishy dps, followed by shiny kills if you're winning the fight. Remember of course, you may have to skip some of these types if for example logi holds or they are out of range. Really, it all depends, but hopefully that helps you understand what you need to be thinking about.

Most importantly, remember that as an FC, fucking up is not the end of the world. If it was, the world would of ended many, many times for me. Just always laugh it off, learn from your mistake and go out roaming stronger next time. I hope this helps some people trying to start FC'ing, it's honestly one of funnest things in the game.

What's going on with me this week:

I had a battleship roam with my corp but didn't manage to find any fights, even though we aggressed random suspects on brave's home station, hanged out at their sun for a while, and then roamed the rest of the placid with no results. We're going to give it another go though and maybe pay pandemic horde a visit. I will be sure to share how it goes.

Apart from that though, I applied for Twitch partnership, so wish me luck! I know there are a couple people who would subscribe to me already, and all my mods have had icon ideas for a while now (mainly to do with my hair and KGB Pursuit Comets), so I'm hoping I get it.

Oh also I started going to the gym again and after I got home the first time I felt like I wanted to throw up for a good 30 mins. Fun fun.

Fight of the week:

This week we have a neuting Tristan vs an arty Firetail. This is a cool fight because I manage to get in range of him to apply neuts even though he is duel web vs my no webs.

The fight started at 0 which I think is one of the reasons I managed to win it, as the neuts managed to kill a lot of his cap even before he started to have to active his rep. This meant in order to tank properly, he had to cap himself out, so even when he got out of neut range the damage had been done. I was also tanking pretty well, as hull tanked tristans do.

In the later part of the fight, he pulled range on me in an attempt to get far away from my neuts and blap me with his arty, and dropped webs. This allowed me to quickly shoot back at him with an overloaded AB and before he could slow me down again, though because he was so low on cap from his own rep I don't think he could apply his webs again anyway.

I am aware this may not count as I was flying a cancerous Tristan, however it wasn't a kiting Tristan, so in my eyes, it was cancer but not stage 4 brain cancer, which makes it almost ok.

Fit of the week:

Got something interesting and not Gallente this week! The brawl Crucifier is an idea I had a while ago and have tried out a couple times. I also know other people have flown it as well have probably done better with it than I, however it was only the other night I remembered this fit and then realized that hull tanking would work brilliantly on it, just to it's massive about of CPU.

This fit works pretty simply - go in, brawl, turn on all mods and position yourself so your opponent can apply as little dps to you as possible - dps comes second, especially as you have drones anyway. That, and you don't really have much dps anyway. The TD allows you to not only do well against turret boats also try and take on larger ships like dessies, and T3D's if you could actually break their tank.

An alternative fit is to fit two webs, which works as well but I dont really like as it removes your ability to take on dessies. However, it does allow you to take other duel web ships like Hookbills and Firetails easily, so it's personal choice really. That, and the cap life is longer.

Powergrid fitting is tight. Consider weaker guns if your skills are shit.

Overall, go have fun in a surprise brawl fit. 

Could Crew Cruiser/Lethal Intent be the new OE, Moros kills, More Geddon Fights and More Hecate Fits!

Could Crew Cruiser/Lethal Intent be the new OE?

I thought it might be a bit weird to talk about a specific alliance in my blog, but they are kind of relevant to Placid and this blog being about placid and black rise I guess it's not too crazy. Even though I have thought this for a while, I think the recent Reddit posts is what have made me go and write this up.

Now, as I said there have been a couple posts on  Reddit recently which have been making fun of Cruiser Crew mainly due to their I guess perceptions of how they think Placid works. For anyone who doesn't know, essentially one of their guys has been saying that their alliance is going to be crucial in some kind of upcoming great Placid war. That, and they begged BL to help them in their great plight against Snuff and SC by structure bashing. Here are the two paste bins:

http://pastebin.com/rpdmutQx
http://pastebin.com/VxtCbd36

Now, as you can tell, this is pretty funny and most of what they're claiming is simply not true. While I love Placid, it's not the center of the universe, and cruiser crew seem to think they are a lot more relevant than they are.

However, I think there is slightly more to it than just an alliance having an ego trip. As I have said on previous blog posts, the current major entities in the gal/cal warzone have been growing in power steadily for a while. As well as this, there is little competition to either of them, as any other alliance in the area is either irrelevant or even with some numbers to field cant hope to take on the super cap power presented by SC or snuff. Although Cruiser Crew actually do seem like the new entity that could come along and cause some interesting fights.

It's worth mentioning that Cruiser Crew are not alone either. They are on good terms with Lethal Intent, who include an Australian corp from OE and CTQ, the guys who ran Cassoff. It's actually Lethal Intent who have the stronger super cap fleet out the two alliances. This with the fact both alliances have the ability to field T3 fleets leads me to believe that, while maybe not now, or for a couple of months, they could potentially fill the gap that OE left. Again, they still have some growing to do, but unless internal drama strikes I could see them getting there. That's not to say they will overtake snuff or SC any time soon, or ever, but they could sure hope to challenge a few moons or just get a lot of fun fights in general.

I think the only way SC or Snuff will fall is if Cruiser Crew/Lethal Intend team up with one of them to kill the other, however I personality think this is extremely unlikely. Still fun to think about though.

Now, before you ask I was not paid to try and big them up, though honestly it does seem like something they could do. I'm not picking sides either, this is just my honest opinion on how the warzone is likely to pan out in the next couple months as I see it. Think they already are the second OE? Think they could never hope to achieve relevance outside of being made fun of on reddit? Tell me why.

What's going on with me this week:

Honestly I feel dirty. For the first time in my life, I used links in solo PvP. Granted, it was only once, but that is inexcusable none the less. What caused me to do such an act? Well, I had just started a stream, I wanted to try out a new Hecate fit and go have some fun. It wasnt too different but instead of hull tank and mag stab, I have armour rigs and EANM in the hopes to get some mad armour tank on the thing. Within a couple mins of looking for fights, I found the perfect gang. A Sentinel, Slicer and Hecate. I quickly got tackle on the Sentinel, bringing him down to hull in a short amount of time. After that I could pick off the Slicer and take out the Hecate with ease just to my huge tank. Then a Kitsune decloaked and jammed me with an off-spec jammer. I think that was the first time I had properly been angry in a game in a really, really long time.

So, because of this I found a new sense of bitterness and started bitching about how you need links to solo PvP properly these days (not saying links would of saved me, but still). Then someone in my stream offered links and I took the offer. Having a 15km web was quite fun and I killed a Tristan, who proceeded to follow me around in a griffin all night for using links.

Probably wont be using links again unless I'm flying a BS though, mainly because I hate myself already for using them once. Muh space honour.



My corp did something pretty cool this week though. I was playing a league game and then someone starts screaming about a Moros going gate from gate a couple jumps out from where we live. I then had to start trying to get a batphone while playing ranked. No one was replying so I went to some of my friends from Snuff, who were luckily already on the case and had supers close by. My corp member apparently got the first point and held the Moros for the snuff fleet to come fuck it up. This may not be true though, I wasnt there, I was too busy being amazing at league. Here is the km:

https://zkillboard.com/kill/48352547/

I gave the guy in my corp who did this the title: "Points Moros, Begs For Director/Free Prot"

Fight of the Week:

This week we have some more Geddon fun to show off. I actually got a really nice fight this time:

I jumped into sys and they followed me. I proceeded to pick them off quite quickly as they failed to scratch my tank. This is why BS solo PVP is so fun, because you can destroy cruiser gangs like this. The geddon is especially good because even if they had bought some logi with them, I could neut them out and severely reduce their rep power, or just kill them with my long ranged missiles and geckos.

There was an Exodus Nomen who killed my corp mates Svipul (who btw I had no idea was following me) and then came to me. To be honest I just saw exodus thought fuck that, I have had too many bad experiences in the past with them. Although looking back I should of stuck around for a bit longer - I always had my MJD if I needed it. Still though, quitting while you're ahead is never a bad thing either.

Was a fun fight, though Gal mil got me back later in the night:

https://zkillboard.com/kill/48284628/

Fit of the Week:

I was talking earlier about a Hecate fit I was trying out, thought I would share it with you all today:

This fit focuses on armour tank rather than a mix between hull and armour. I feel this could work because T3Ds are made to have mental active tank, which cant be done with a hull/armour mix. So, here we are trying full armour. I have had a couple fights though most of them have been blob/ECM fests, so while it looks like the tank is very strong I'm actually not too sure myself right now. So, I propose that you guys try it out as well and get back to me with some results.

It works like any other Hecate fit - get close and personal with the MWD, blap with blasters and tank with defensive mode.

You may think that the hull resist bonus is wasted but is is actually still useful. When bait tanking or bleeding into hull as your reps begin to break, having the extra hull resists can give you enough time to get more dps off the field and continue tanking the incoming dps in your armour.

The powergrid is, like any Hecate fit, extremely tight. You need AWU V. I would recommend getting a 3% powergrid implant and getting A-type reps as well.

The Hecate is What All the T3D's Should Have Been, Jackdaw Fights & Loki Kills, Hecate Fits and Bad Comet PvP

The Hecate is What All the T3D's Should Have Been.

The Hecate has been out for a couple weeks now and I have been having a lot of fun running around Black Rise blapping frigs with it and getting blobbed by gal mil. Through trial and error I have come up with a fit I am comfortable with (which is actually the fit of the week) and have I can now have corp roams where we have at least one of every T3D.

Compared to the other T3D's though, I personally find the Hecate underwhelming. There are several reasons for this and ironically one of the biggest is a result of CCP actually doing such a good job with this ship.

Unfortunately the Hecate doesn't have the HORIZONTAL supremacy I was hoping for

CCP intentionally kept the powergrid low on the Hecate, which plays into the fact you are forced to fit an MWD if you want to utilize the prop mode bonus. This means when fitting the Hecate, you are forced to decide between tank or dps. You cannot fit neutron blasters while having two reps and full tank rigs, and in FW space at least, you really need two reps, as I learnt the hard way, mainly because the fights you're going to find in a T3D are rarely going to be 1v1's. This makes the Hecate an extremely balanced ship in the sense that it cannot have it all. The problem, however, is that being balanced makes it worse than the other T3D's! The Hecate is how all the other T3D's should of been. The fact the Hecate is actually a reasonable ship puts it behind every other T3D, even the Jackdaw, which while isn't as powerful as all of its counterparts still surpasses the Hecate.

Another reason the Hecate falls behind is because of its lack of utility. The Jackdaw has lots of meds, the Confessor has room for neuts and the Svipul is just OP in general. The Hecate doesn't really have any of these things those. It has one utility slot and no fitting space to put anything in, it has to have a cap booster to support its tank and it's not a Svipul.

Now, I am not saying the Hecate is bad. Like I said, I have been having a lot of fun flying it and getting fights. It has strong dps, great tank (hull tanking has never felt more awesome) and with the MWD bonus, you dont have to worry as much about kite at 20km frigs holding you in place for 30 mins if you decide to go blasters. It's also great at taking on gangs, as any T3D should be, so to be honest, a T3D is a T3D, you will be able to kill a bunch of T1 frigs/dessies and be open to getting fucked by large gangs regardless of what T3D you fly.

Unless you're so cancerous you fly a 10MN Svipul.

What's going on with me this week:

This week I had some fun with my corp, went on a couple roams and had some really fun fights. One of which, involved a bling fitted worm and an immortal Jackdaw vs our AF gang.

https://zkillboard.com/br/46046/ (thrasher and reaper were not involved)

We took the gate into the plex, found the Jackdaw fighting the worm and got some nice whoring done. Worm was 110m with T1 guns, which was funny. After the Worm quickly died we turned onto the Jackdaw. Little did we know, this Jackdaw was tankier than a Golem, and happily took our damage. Our hawk was hitting for 40 damage a volley apparently due to the resists on the thing. My Ishkur wasn't doing much better. As one of the Ishkurs died, I had the idea to contract my Catalyst to the corp member who had died so he could come in and help. He did, and the Jackdaw got into the structure, but the Catalyst quickly got blapped and it was back to just me and the Hawk. I decided to hold my ground a little longer, preying he would run out of charges, but by the time I had decided it was time to burn out, it was too late and I died.

Basically, a Jackdaw rekt our AF gang, but was a really fun and tense fight. Also, due to that sexy Worm kill, we came out isk positive! Good fight.

I also managed to kill a Loki in a Hecate, which I have the video for:

All credit goes to Domino Vyse for setting up this awesome kill for me, would of not even known it was there if not for him.

Here is the killmail, so you can laugh at that small armour repairer: https://zkillboard.com/kill/48053945/

Fit of the week:

I have seen many different ways of fitting the Hecate, some focusing on the raw dps you can get out of blasters, others trying a kite rail approach. After trying several fits and getting input from other solo PvPers, I have come to a fit which I think is one of best for solo roaming in FW space.

What this fit keeps in mind that when you're flying a T3D, you need the tank to take on gangs, as that's what you're going to be fighting most of the time. With this fit, you can take on most targets around FW space with good tank, dps and speed. Your MWD allows you to catch up to kiters and reach high priority targets quickly and your dps allows you to blap things pretty nicely. The tank, when combined with exile, will keep you going for a very long time.

The fit is extremely tight, leaving no powergrid at all with all skills at V. With a 3% powergrid implant, you can fit A-type reps instead of B-types, which is highly recommended.

If you're looking for a good brawl in low sec, this is the fit you need.

Fight of the week:

A really nice fight here. I am roaming in my comet and see a couple frigs outside the plex, decide I can take them and go. I manage to take out two of them, before fucking up horribly against the Merlin and getting myself killed. Later did I learn he was AC fit.

I was hoping that the Tristan would come in first so I could get him off the field quickly, as I knew he would have neuts, which were the biggest threat on the field. However, he came in a little while after the Merlins, and I couldn't sit there taking damage waiting for him, so I killed one the Merlins before switching to the Tristan. While killing the Merlins though, I positioned myself around the Tristan as to get away from his neuts quicker.

At the end of the fight, I burnt into the Merlin in order to secure my scram on him. All this did though was put me in his optimal while my DCU was turned off, due to capping myself out with my rep.

What I think the most important decision of this fight was activating the gate when I landed. This meant that I forced the other frigs to come inside with me, allow me to pull some distance before they got in and made it so they started exactly where I wanted them. Had I took them on the outside of that gate, I would have died for sure, but because I made them follow me I was in control and was able to apply my dps fully from the very beginning,

I think the description of my video sums up the fight nicely:

"You see I did have it, but then I decided that I didn't actually want my DCU turned on, nor did I want to be out of range of the Merlin's guns.

Then I decided not only did I no longer want the Merlin kill, but I also didn't want my Comet anymore.

So as you can see, that was all intentional."

Do Stronger Placid/Black Rise Alliances Have More Power Than Before, Summer's starting, Hecate Fights and Atron Fits

Do Stronger Placid/Black Rise Alliances Have More Power Than Before?

Over the last couple months we have seen several shifts in the landscape of Gal/Cal mil space in terms of relevant entities. Comparing then to now, it does seem like there are fewer PVP groups that warrant any attention. Snuffed Out and Shadow Cartel seem to be the two dominant alliances in either corner of the area, with small groups in between which for the most part have little to no influence in caps or otherwise, when compared to these two alliances. Because of this, I think it's worth asking the question is this area of space is moving towards stagnation, or at the very least less variety and competition than before.

By this I mean these two alliances almost have complete control over their areas, as they always have, but these areas are growing. For example, Shadow Cartel may have had to take into consideration Overload Everything if they wanted to go super dunking around Placid, but no more. Take into consideration moons as well. Any valuable moon in both regions belongs to one of the two alliances, as there is no alliance that could really hold out against them apart from each other, but as they live quite far away from each other (or at least out of jump range) that isnt really a problem. Now I'm not saying no one can provide fights against them. Recently Snuffed Out went and took some WAFFLES moons and Snuffed Out actually got beat pretty hard on one of the fights. Overall though, WAFFLES lost moons. I think this is mainly because there just isn't any other alliance that could defend against a attack from either entity, let alone think about taking moons for themselves.

True, there is more than one way to judge an alliance than based on its

 super cap power and amount of moons, but's a good indicator.

Though if this is the case as I have described it, gal and cal mil do help to keep things fresh. While maybe not in the moons area, another big part of an alliance being dominant is that no one can stand up to their roams and general fleets, but being in FW space means there will always be the militia to provide a challenge, and while their power fluctuates over time they are going nowhere, so it's important to remember that while in FW space you cant really get true stagnation.

As well as this, there are new groups coming up, some even with their own super fleets and titan bridges such as Lethal Intend living in Placid, even if they would never dream of taking on a SC super fleet. It does show though that there are still other non-scrub alliances that don't just stick to small gang like my corp.

In conclusion, I honestly don't know if anything of what I'm saying is accurate, but I still wanted to talk about and weight up both sides. Maybe we really are moving towards two power blocks dominating the whole of Placid/Black Rise, or it's just a natural cycle and given a couple months new alliances will be ready to stand up and make some waves. We will see.

What have I been up to this week:

Finally finished school, on summer now. My own corp is going really well, been getting new members and been doing roams frequently. Really feels good to be a CEO again actually. Honestly though there isn't much new. Although that "This is REALLY  EVE" video was the highlight of my whole week. Even my friends who dont understand EVE love it.

Fight of the week:

Normally this is a place where I like to show off my PvP skills and post a cool video where I take on a gang. Today we have something close to that, but I dont take the gang and die horribly. However, I am choosing this fight because there is a good opportunity for me to walk through it and explain what I did wrong and why it was stupid, so hopefully you guys can keep my mistakes in mind when you solo PvP.

I'm normally not this shit I swear

We're going to ignore my despicable module management  in this fight as it's not really something I can talk about, other than it was a rookie mistake to not only forget to use my cap booster but also burn out my web. We all have those moments though.

So the fight starts off with me trying to catch up to a retri which is slightly faster than me. I messed up at the start by failing to get a scram and web on him, but in my defense I was pretty sure I was in the range when I locked him. Let's blame that on server ticks. As I burn to him I overload my MWD and almost get in range for a web, though he realizes and overloads his MWD, putting him ahead of me. The main mistake I made here is that while this was happening, I ignored the Tristan and kept going for the Retri. I should of seen that Tristan and gone for it straight away, as I knew it was something I would be faster than so it's easy dps off the field. I got greedy and wanted to try my luck again, which ultimately cost me my ship. Had I taken out the Tristans and the Slicer, I would of had plenty of time to try and slingshot the Retri on his own and killed them all.

The main point here is when solo PvPing, always go for ships you 100% know you can kill before trying to get lucky and catch something shinier. That way there is less dps on you, giving you a better chance.

Fit of the week:

Going with something simple today, an Atron fit. I call it the Brawltron. It's fun, cheap and effective in T1 frig solo PvP, especially since hull tanking rigs became a thing. Because of the Atron's falloff bonus and natural speed, this fit allows you to take on pretty much every other T1 frig. You can load null and orbit at 7.5km against AC's and blasters, dealing more dps due to your falloff bonus (around 9km falloff with null and gal frig V), load antimatter and orbit at 500m against rails, arty and lasers, your speed allowing you to stick to targets, and lastly you can load void against rockets and simply out dps them. All of this with very nice tank and dps. Here is an example of this fit taking on an armour condor.

See? T1 frig PvP is still fun!

There is plenty of fitting room for you to work with based on your skills. Just fit it up, go find some T1 frigs farming and have fun.

Radical Ishtar Changes with DDA Nerfs, Avoiding Death While Solo Roaming, Starting My Own Corp, Ishkur Jamming Fun and Tormentor Fits!

Released this post a couple hours than I normally do - haven't been in all day today and yesterday.

Also sorry for no post last week, I was bed ridden ill. All better now though.

Incoming Radical Changes to the Ishtar and Nerfs to DDA's - Will it Make a Difference?

Changes have been announced to the Ishtar and the Drone Damage Amplifier. Upon first look they glance very interesting, but I am wondering will they actually solve the problem of drones?

Let's start with the Ishtar changes. One of its mid slots is being moved to its lows, it's getting a mass, agility, velocity and powergrid decrease. I think this is actually a very good direction to go in, as I have said before that simply nerfing the Ishtar's role bonuses or dps output wont solve the problem, which as we saw it didn't, but instead it had to have much more significant changes to counteract the overwhelming utility that comes with being a drone boat. However, it seems CCP have realized this and have gone for some of the core stats on the ship, most notably removing a med slot and adding a low slot, which I think is an extremely good idea to essentially eliminate large ishtar fleets from the meta, as their tank will no longer be able to hold. It also means though, the Ishtar wont be useless, but instead used in different ways. With an extra low slot, maybe the brawl Ishtar I have always dreamed of will finally be viable. I remember pulling around 800 dps and 50k ehp in EFT. With an extra low slot, maybe the tank wont be quite so shit.

Definitely something to look into for small gang, but I think the Ishtar's fleet days are over. For now it's Gila master race.

A new meta starts now.

Next thing to talk about is the DDA changes. They are getting 2.5% nerf to the bonus damage they give, meaning drone boats across the board are receiving a nerf. This is CCP's attempt to shift EVE out of the current drone dominating meta, but honestly I think this is the wrong way to approach the problem.

Drones really are a special form of dealing damage for several reasons which turrets just cant do. Putting all your dps into drones opens up a couple things from the start. Firstly, your high slots no longer require guns. You can keep them empty and use all that fitting space somewhere else on the fit or you can fit other modules like neuts, remote reps or drone links. This simply gives drone boats so much more potential than gun boats when it comes to fleet comps. Secondly, drone boats are unique in that their main dps is separate from their hull. This gives them a potential longer range on their opponents than most guns can and it means the only job the actual hull has to do is be fast enough or tank enough to not die, while gun boats would have to into consideration their optimals and tracking speed a lot more. This leads me onto my last point as to why drone boats are fundamentally stronger than gun boats - drones do not have to take into consideration optimal ranges or tracking speed in most cases. Sentries can hit targets from most ranges, and most drone boats can store two flights to pick the best types depending on the fight, while any other type of drone that isn't Gallente can burn out to targets in fleet fights extremely quickly. This means range control is largely irrelevant when dealing with drone boats.

Still though, a DDA nerf isnt a terrible idea and arguably a step in the right direction. It will help to tone down the Tristan for example, as at the moment those cancerous double DDA kite fits are still eating my rail comets apart, and I would say the worm might not be as OP anymore but...that shit is always gonna be OP.

My main point in this is that if CCP want to balance drones then a quick fix dps nerf is not the way to go. More thought through changes will need to be introduced to really make a real difference. Personally I do not have the perfect solution to all of this. Maybe because that's because subconsciously I want drone boats and the glorious Gallente master race to continue standing dominant, who knows.

Solo Roaming - Tips to Avoiding Death

The most disheartening thing that can happen to a solo PvPer is spending time fitting up a shiny new ship, undocking, warping to a plex and then landing on a 20 man fleet with fast tackle. It has happened to me more than once and what's probably the most annoying thing is that it is easily avoided, as well as many classic things that will get you killing while solo PvPing in FW space. Today I'm going to go through some of these things and give ways to avoid falling prey to them. They are all quite straight forward and probably obvious to some, though a lot of them I never thought of until told, so hopefully this will prove useful to some.

Of course if you're solo PvPing in a Rokh then this may not all apply to you.

Warping to Complexes:

Let's start with warping to complexes. This one is quite obvious but still useful for any newer PvPers out there. The main danger with plexes is that you warp to them and there is a gang there waiting for you, which quickly kills you before you can warp off. This happens either because you have not scanned the plex before warping or you have warped at 0km, both can be fatal mistakes. Scanning is again more obvious as you want to see if there are targets at the plex in the first place, but when I was new I would just directly warp to every individual plex, so if I was stupid enough to do it when I was new someone else has to be as well. You may have to warp to a celestial or a gate in order to get in scanning range of a plex sometimes. A nice tip when scanning plexes and trying to chose your fights is, if you see multiple ships at a plex and you cannot decide if you can take them all on solo or not, swap your d-scan to your drone overview and scan again. If you see no drones when you know the ships on scan can launch drones, you know these ships are together. If you see drones on scan, it's possible they are fighting, or they are waiting for targets to warp in, so it's still a risk but you can use this to help you determine going in or not.

Warping at 10km to every plex is an extremely important habit to get into and slightly less obvious than just scanning before warping. This is because when warping to an acceleration gate is 0km, it is possible your ship will get caught on the gate and bounce, which will mess up your aligning and prevent you from warping. This makes you an easy target as not only can you not warp off, but your transversal is going to be very low, allowing for larger alpha from hostile guns.

Docking and Undocking:

Next up is docking and undocking on stations. Highsec trade hubs and certain blob-ridden systems in low sec (Heydieles) will often have station campers waiting for frigs or pods to try and dock or undock from their stations. They can be extremely frustrating and honestly I have lost a few too many implants to them. However there is a simple way to deal with them, the first one being to use insta-undocks and insta-docks (yes, they can still pop you while you are trying to dock up). Though you cant get bookmarks on every station, the rest of the time you just need to make sure your damage control is always on if you're in a frig, as there shouldn't be anything that can alpha you that way. The main problem comes if you're in a pod - then you would need a quiet station or a bookmark, but travelling in a pod can be just as dangerous, which we're going to go onto now.

Don't be this kid

Smartbombers:

Smartbombing is very common in the depths of FW space and is something you need to constantly look out for. It's extremely easy to jump into a shuttle then free burn from A to B but if you have implants in your day could quickly be ruined. For general travel, the best way to not get killed by smatbombers is to fit a T1 frig with a damage control. Smartbombs will not be able to kill you in one cycle. If you cannot get a T1 frig, then you need to warp to gates at different angles rather than directly from gate to gate. If you bounce to a celestial then to the gate, you will be out of range of the smartbombs. When you die and have to warp off, it is important not to warp directly to a station or gate as often people will be waiting for your pod to land there and kill you. This has happened to me before, I lost mid grade slaves, life is hard.

While Fighting:

Last but not least is how to not die while fighting. This isn't the actual fighting, but helping to avoid blobs while in the middle of a fight. Having your d-scan window always open is a really good habit to get into, this means you will always know in advance when there are other ships about to enter the plex. Catching a fleet on d-scan early gives you time to burn away from your target in an attempt to get out of scram range and warp off. Sometimes this can be the difference between life and death. Especially be aware when you are going to fight a typical bait ship on its own such as a Punisher, as they are shit in solo PVP so it's rare to see them on their own.

So that's my advice for avoiding the most common ways of getting killed when roaming FW space. I hope this helps some of the newer pilots trying solo PvP out there, or maybe even some older ones.

What's going on with me:

This week there was a corp meeting. I thought, great, I love meetings. I join the ts and after 10 mins of the CEO asking for isk for supers, or something like that, I was told good luck in my eve life and banned from teamspeak, then kicked from corp. This was mainly because no slaves, didn't join fleets enough, and was streaming solo PvP while fleets were happening. Honestly I cant blame them. As far as I understand I left (or rather was kicked) on good terms though.

But it's ok, as I have gone back to my own corp, Icendus Corux, to rebuild it from the ground up for the third time. I have learnt a lot from my last two times running a corp and already I'm having fun this time, having recruited a couple guys and had a couple T1 frig/dessie roams. Give it a few months, and we shall be bigger than Snuff! Then we shall see who's laughing!

I almost feel bad for such an obvious plug but...yes, we're recruiting.

Nah, we will be scrubs, but at least we will be scrubs having fun!

Apart from that haven't really been up to much in eve, I was out all day today and yesterday, was at a University open day in Southampton, was really really fun. My only main problem amt is deciding between Chemistry and Physics.

Fight of the week:

This week we have more ECM fun but this time with an Ishkur trying to take on a couple T1 frigs. I decided to go into the fight as I intended to put my drones on the griffin and force it to warp off, then proceed to kill the other ships. What I did not think through though, was that the Griffin was going to start off far out of my lock range, giving it plenty of time to perma jam me before I could even think about putting drones on him.

Instead, I put my drones on the torm. The torm is a lot squishier than the Astero and deals the same if not more dps, Eventually the torm was forced to warp out, taking a lot of dps off of me and allowing me to hold out until long enough for RNG to finally smile upon me and get unjammed. I tried to put my drones of the Griffin, the first time I was out of drone control range (though I didn't realize that at the time, hence why I was confused) and the second time was too late, as the torm has warped back in and I was capped out. Had I been a bit luckier, the griffin would of died earlier, followed by the torm, and finishing with a relaxing explosion of the Astero. Either way though, fun fights were had.

Fit of the week:

For the first time ever (I think) we're doing a fit that isnt Gallente! I wont count the Confessor fit, because if the Hecate was out back then I would of done that instead.

So we have a very simple but effective T1 fit today. The tormentor is notorious for being OP when flown properly and I have seen this fit taking on other T1 frigs, comets and even me, as seen below:

It was lag I swear

During that fight, despite my high dps, I hardly dented his armour and he didn't have to rep once. Meanwhile his dps made short work of me, but granted my tank wasn't too strong.

The way this fit works is by using it's huge tank to outlast any opponent while keeping a low transveral to land plenty of dps.

The fitting is actually quite flexible, meaning if you're not part of the AWU V master race you can still throw this together quite easily.

The main counter to this fit is things getting under your guns, and your lack of speed dosn't help that, but if you can just keep in a straight line with multi loaded you should still apply your dps.

What to expect from Hecate, Drones on the Hecate, T1 Frigs Are Still Fun, Death Defying Comets, Neut Tristan Fits

What to expect from the Hecate:

It's not long until the Gallente T3D, the Hecate, is released. Some of you may be wondering if it will be as strong as the other T3D's, and how you might go about taking one. Today I will try and break down what information we have about the Hecate and try and predict how it will be flown in FW low sec.

I know I said the Hecate looks ugly but after seeing it in game I stand corrected.

The Hecate is looking at some interesting bonuses from its hull and defense modes, namely defensive mode, giving a 33.3% bonus to armour and hull resists, making it the only ship in the game with bonuses to hull tank. This goes to show that the Gallente are and always have been the manliest of the factions. As well as this though, it gets a bonus to armour repair amount. With four low slots, this leads me to believe we are going to see the same low slot lay out as a lot of comets - DCU, SAAR and two mag stabs, complimented by hull tanking rigs. This will utilize the armour tanking bonuses and give some heavy hull buffer. If not this, I suspect a bulkhead will be thrown in, possibly replacing a mag stab for even more tank. We might even see some duel rep with a cap booster. Lots of fun to be had in all cases.

Propulsion mode looks quite uninteresting at first, but with a bit of thought could actually be used in a quite effective way. I just assumed that my Hecate would always have an AB for ultimate brawling power, but as the Hecate has no drone bay (disappointingly) fitting an MWD to a blaster fit could be a good idea. It would mean that when there is a far away target, you can switch into prop mode and burn at them with very good speed, as you would not have armour tank slowing you down. Of course, you will always have scrams to worry about, so like any T3D right now if there is a Griffin 30km off and you're scrammed + webbed by about five other frigs you may have a slight problem. Still though, I suspect that because of this prop mode, solo frig kiters may not be as much of a problem as I thought at first.

The four med slots is interesting as it means we can have a bit of variation in our Hecate fits. Depending on fitting space, dual prop could be a thing, which would actually work really well for a ship like this, as it will be able to stick on targets/pull range while brawling and catch up to distance targets with an MWD. If not dual prop, dual web could also work, just to keep frigs in place better and deliver crushing alpha. I think both choices will be popular.

Lastly is sharpshooter mode, which leads me to believe rail Hecates are going to be a thing. Tracking speed, optimal bonus and MWD bonus (ofc not at the same time) on the same ship could be pretty lethal and I wouldn't be surprised if we see some people trying the kite Hecate. I would condemn them for this of course, ruining such a beautiful manly brawl blaster boat, but still I think it could be relatively effective. It all depends on the finer details of the Hecates stats though, such as fitting space and base speed. If we dont see rails being too popular due to this, the optimal range bonus mixed with null could still be nice to picking off targets on the edge of scram range.

Apparently the French manage to stick around in the future.

Either that or this is some kind of new super French race.

Now we have gone through how the Hecate is likely to be flown, lets talk about how you can fly against it. The Hecate will fall into the same problems that every turret boat does in that tracking distributors and superior range control will cut off its damage. If you see a rail Hecate, getting under its guns shouldnt be too hard if it's not duel web. Even though it has a tracking bonus, landing hits will prove very difficult, and you should be able to slowly break them provided you can break reps. Though this works for rails though, I feel the opposite may not for blasters due to the optimal range bonus in sharpshooter mode. If you try to scram-kite out of the blaster's optimal range, null or even antimatter may deal a lot of dps to you, as if you do fall in their optimal, at scram-kite range your transversal will be quite low, so that's something to keep in mind.

When taking one on as a gang, it's important to keep heavy tackle to the Hecate cant get people in their optimal ranges or burn away and warp off. Apart from that though, it isn't that complicated, they work like any other gun boat so it's just knowing what you're doing. That's not to say it will be easy, these things are going to be a bitch to take down, especially if they are in gangs, as they not only have amazing tank but high dps, so make keep in mind they will soak up a lot of your gang's dps and take a lot of guys out with them if you do feel like fighting them.

In conclusion, I make the prediction now that the Hecate is just going to be one big ball of brawling manly pain, just as strong as if not stronger than the other T3Ds. I am so fucking hyped. Now all we need is a police pursuit version.

Why drones on the Hecate wouldn't actually be that bad:

I know I already have part of this post all about the Hecate this week but I felt like this particular topic required its own part as well.

I have seen a lot in channels and on Reddit people instantly rejecting the idea of drones on the Hecate on the basis of "I dont want Ishtars in my small plexes". Now, honestly I completely understand that people may be unwilling to have more drone ships introduced into the game, after all in almost every ship class, the strongest tend to be drone boats (tristans, worms, vexors, ishtars) however it's important to make the distinction that a drone boat is not what is being asked for. I am basing this off of my own opinion so others may feel differently, but I also feel a dedicated drone boat T3D would be stupid. What I do think would be pretty cool though, is a drone bay to launch three light drones, like the comet, in exchange for a slight nerf on base turret damage.

Gian Bal: that covers the whole hecate section

Gian Bal: and a lot more colorful

Gian Bal: takes 5 mins in paint for good results

I feel this would be good for the Hecate because it allows it to have a bit more utility when dealing with targets if it can put warriors on far away ships, for example an ewar boat. Though the benefits are not really the focus here, what people seem to talk about the most is that it would usher in a new age of dominating drone boat Hecates that can take on anything it wants. Drones would not make the Hecate over powered (any more than a T3D already is) because it would not receive any drone bonuses. This means kite Hecates would not work as well as kite Tristans do because the drones would be extremely easy to kill. It also means these drones will not be dealing large amounts of damage even if you can out track their guns. If there are only three lights, they would act as a compliment to dps or as extra utility, rather than a primary dps source.

My main point is that I feel people overreact when they think about what a Hecate with drones would be like. If they are just a small addition to show if its Gallente dominance than I dont really see it becoming much of a problem. Not that the Hecate needs drones, it's going to rape face either way, but I still think they could work and keep it balanced, or as balanced as a T3D is ever going to get.

Reminder that T1 frigs are still fun:

When it comes to FW solo PvP, frigs are normally the way to go. T1 frigs are normally seen as a great way for people to get into solo PvP and have a bit of fun without losing too much isk. This is what I used to do when I started solo PvP - get a dual rep Incursus, run around on stream for three hours and die a couple times. Eventually I moved onto navy frigs, T2 frigs and bigger ships. It got to the point though were I just stopped considering T1 frigs when I was thinking about what to fly next. However recently I have been messing around with them again and have actually found myself really enjoying it.

Everyone wants to love the Rifter, it's a shame it's just so shit.

On stream I have been flying the neut Tristan a lot. This is mainly because I feel the neuts give me the ability to pick fights with stronger ships such as comets or dessies, though off stream I have revisited the Atron and Breacher as well. I would fly the Incursus again but flying it is a constant painful reminder that the new model is shit and it can never joust again.

Mainly I have found flying these ships to be fun just because of how simple they are. There is a lot less stress in getting blobbed or just getting killed because it's on 10m as opposed to 30-40m and less to worry about as you're flying a frig (for example gate camps, bait ect. They still exist but are a lot less of a problem with frigs). As well as this though, with the right matchup the fights can be just as tense and blood pumping as solo BS's.

The only main problem with flying T1 frigs I see is the inability to take fights outnumbered, which is arguably one of the best parts of solo PvP. T1 frigs simply do not have the tank or dps like AF's or T3D's do to take on several ships at a time, even if they opponents are shit fit. This is one of the reasons I was put off by them for such a long time, though if you can look past this they still provide entertaining PvP content if you know how to pick your targets. Also, that's not to say they can never fight outnumbered. For example, the other day I managed to take an Inquis and Executioner in my Tristan. Granted the Inquis does minimal dps and the Tristan is a strong ship, but it shows that if you know what your ship can do you can take on lots of different targets.

Still no idea why I thought that comet was cloaked at the time, watching it back I realize how stupid that was.

I guess my main point today is that if you're looking for new ships to try out in your solo PvP adventures, dont forget the T1 frigs, as nooby as they are they are still really fun when you get the right fight.

What's going on with me:

This week I had some kind of legendary comet in my solo PvP that took out ten other ships before being killed by an Algos, which had gone down to half structure in the fight. It's rare my comets last half an hour let alone over two streams.

I had so much fun with this comet I actually made one of its fights fight of the week, as you can see below, but I got loads of other awesome fights with it as well. Here are some of best km's I got with the comet:
https://zkillboard.com/kill/47389843/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/47389756/ - 1% hull survival!
https://zkillboard.com/kill/47389443/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/47389293/

https://zkillboard.com/kill/47390572/ - rip

I should be uploading some of these fights to YouTube so keep an eye out for them.

Apart from that, I am trying a solo Typhoon again, but I am yet to get a fight with it. Will probably get blobbed, will be fun.

Fight of the week:

I actually managed to get a really fun fight this week were I come out on top. I was flying ofc the brilliant man tanked woop woop comet.

Honestly I consider it mostly luck that I managed to warp away from that, but even if I didnt get out it was still a really fun fight.

The catalyst was actually quite easy to take down because it had 125mm rails fitted instead of blasters. If I knew this I would gone for a tighter orbit as I would of been tracking better than him (even though he has a bigger tracking bonus, he is a bigger hull) but either way I managed to keep range and break him down before he could kill me.

When the Tristan came on field I thought that was the end, as I would not of been able to tank their combined dps, though the catalyst went down soon after the Tristan came in, and then for some reason the MWD shield fit tristan had decided to burn directly towards me, leaving him 1km away when the catalyst died. This meant I could get a scram and web and keep the tristan locked down for me to apply my dps.

When the Algos came on field once again I thought it was the end. I was expected overwhelming dps from the drones to kill me before I could take out the tristan, but as the tristan only had a MSE in it's favor I once again managed to kill it before the Algos could make a difference. I was left on a very small amount of hull by the time I decided I had to leave, and for the third time thought it was the end. Somehow though, the impending doom of the Algos' drones never came, and I managed to skillfully moonwalk away. Overall, a really fun fight, where I didnt manage to get myself killed.

Catalyst km
Tristan km

Fit of the week:

As we were talking about T1 frigs today I thought it would be a good idea to share a nice little T1 frig fit. It's not really unknown but it's a great example of how fun T1 frigs can be. I present the neut Tristan:

This fit is hated by many due to how broken it can be at times. I have had a lot of fun with it in the past, taking on countless dessies and sometimes even AF's. Its neuting power simply allows it to take on anything that relies on cap, making for really fun fights and smug kill mails.

So this fit is hull tanked, making for maximum manliness. I decided to fit a reinforced bulkhead over a DDA because I feel this fit often relies on surviving long enough to neut out their opponent rather than trying to deal lots of dps, so the extra buffer can often give you enough time to turn off their guns before you die.

I also fitted a nos instead of a third neut which is optional, as a third neut works fine as well, but personally I prefer the nos. This is because with the AAR and neuts, this is an extremely cap intensive fit that often cannot wait for a cap booster to reload and keep applying neuts or get of that life saving rep. The nos can keep you just above capped out while you wait for the cap booster and make sure you can keep your mods on that extra bit longer. A lot of people say that because you are neuting them, or because you have a cap booster, the nos often wont be working, but that's ok because those are not the times the nos is useful. If you have just poped a cap booster, your nos will not work, sure, but you already have full cap so that dosnt matter. If they are neuted to the point where your nos wont work anymore, that's fine as well because you wont need to use your rep as they wont be applying dps anymore. What this nos is great for is that part in between where you are almost out of cap just before your cap booster reloads and they are still hitting hard with their guns.

This fit requires a 1% powergrid implant to get a T2 AB, otherwise go meta. It's a very tight fit so if your skills are not great consider a meta DCU or a T2 powergrid rig.

Overall just apply neuts, stagger them later into the fight and just prey you neut them out before you die. You can take pretty much any ship that has guns or tank running on cap. If you get kited, just apply drones and laugh.

Battle Report of the week:

I legit could not find anything interesting in either Black Rise or Placid this week, I asked around and looked at the killboards, got nothing. Dont blame me for being shit at finding interesting fights, blame alliances for not fighting enough!

Seriously though sorry I cant find anything this week, it happens.