HML Changes Revised

CCP developers have revised their plans to nerf heavy missile damage projection.

While the 25-percent range nerf this is still going to hurt large long-range HML Drake and Tengu fleets, it looks like both ships will remain viable for solo and small-gang PVP where fighting mostly occurs within overheated and gang-boosted point range.

The ships just might have to trade some tank rigs for damage or rate-of-fire ones.

Still, HAMs are becoming an option as well. Overall, looks like a healthy change.

Tattered Drake

So the long-expected nerfbat has come and hit the Drake really hard. Forums are full of heavy missile drake (and Tengu) users' tears.

"Holy piles of worthless drake hulls batman!"

"Regular players never see this shit coming, are hit hardest by it. Just like when Blizz decided to nerf IAS in D3. People that live on the forums knew about it, and made bank selling equip that was going to become worthless. Millions of normal people, that just play games, and don't spend all day reading about them, got fucked over and lost almost all worth to their gear.

Changes like this are terrible for a game. Punishing the new, and casual players is the best way to lower your userbase."

"Been in eve for ~5 months, maybe longer. 3-4 months ago, everyone, EVERYONE was telling me "train drake, train tengu".
Not cool CCP. Not cool."

I remember getting my first Drake after training Batlecruisers IV. I spun the ship in the hangar while listening to the Imperial March, so happy about being able to move on to level 3 missions.

The consensus at that time seemed to be that the Drake was a newbie PVE platform and sucked in PVP, being unable to fight its way out of a wet paper bag, as someone said on the forums. Of course everybody fitted their Drakes for max shield regen and not for damage.

Then someone came up with the HAM Drake setup which traded some tank for short-range damage and could take on many other battlecruisers in a duel.

Then Pod Liberation Authority (PODLA) came up with the nano Drake, which traded even more tank for speed, damage projection and dual webs.

At some point also, nullsec alliances found the cheap and easy-to-train for Drake useful and fleets of hundreds of Drakes became commonplace.

Funny thing is, the ship itself has not changed for years, only the environment did.

So, what now for Drake fans? With reduced damage, the PODLA Drake looks less appealing, although it could trade a web for a tracking computer and get better at hitting smaller targets from a long range. One nano could also be traded for a third BCS although it would still not compensate the 20 percent damage reduction.

Or maybe something like this?

[Drake, HAM nano]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Warp Disruptor II

Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Scourge Javelin Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Scourge Javelin Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Scourge Javelin Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Scourge Javelin Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Scourge Javelin Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Scourge Javelin Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Scourge Javelin Heavy Assault Missile
[empty high slot]

Medium Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I
Medium Rocket Fuel Cache Partition I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I

With the removed Javelin penalty, it has PODLA Drake's speed, DPS and EHP and range of about 40 km. Cap is under more pressure though. One could also trade an invulnerability field for a tracking computer to further boost damage projection at the expense of tank.

Gank Noir

Audit Log 50.1337 - Vladimir Norkoff. Lazily exploring the Forge and Lonetrek lowsec areas. Guristas Provisional Outpost. Will probably yield nothing but worth a try. An Ishkur enters Otsasai just seconds before me and the pilot's name looks familiar. Vladimir Norkoff. Internal Revenue Service. Taxman. A gum-shoe at the service of hoods who suck the blood out of businessmen. Wonder what he's doing here, rubbing shoulders with trouble boys. The gunsel spends most of the time issuing back-tax claims in high-security areas. Whatever. I have a business with Guristas greasers.

Warp to the outpost and Norkoff is here. Tax collection must be paying poorly these days. Doesn't engage me though. So I pretend to be a clueless ratter and clear the pocket.

EVE System > Channel changed to Local : Otsasai
Vladimir Norkoff > feh everything is locking me up in there
Nursultan > nbody likes taxmen
Vladimir Norkoff > apparently not
Vladimir Norkoff > much better when there's only you locking me
Vladimir Norkoff > ..... ok so no warping in here


Yeah. Right. I warp to the second pocket and proceed to activate all the triggers, prompting a Dread Gurstas cruiser to show up. Some rats aggress me. Others throw lead at Norkoff who has followed me into the pocket and made his way to the faction cruiser. This is becoming annoying. I shoot the Dread Gurista as I approach him. And lock up Norkoff. The dick probably wants to snatch the loot and fade.

Not from me. Overheated point lands on Norkoff's Ishkur. Web follows quickly. I let my gats explode. He returns the favour. Drones buzz around both of us. His tank gives up rather quickly. Norkoff kicks off. I grab the loot. Dread Guristas dropped dust.

Nursultan > gf
Vladimir Norkoff > poopy
Vladimir Norkoff > hardy a gf
Vladimir Norkoff > everything in there was shooting me and you were in a BC dude

And you chose to stay there and test my patience. Dude.

My tax rebate stands at at 3,595,110.00 ISK.

Trigger Hippie

I've podded people too much lately. It has become an instinct to lock a pod after a ship goes boom. But I really should think more about what I do after that.
The first case was a young Drake pilot running a mission in Siseide. Oblivious to scan probes, he let my mate pinpoint is location to which I then jumped in my Hurricane. I landed a bit too far away so the Drake warped out but soon he returned to the mission site and I got him. We were the only pilots in the system at the moment. I destroyed the Drake, managed to catch the pilot's pod and started negotiating a ransom. My victim was a bit slow with his replies, probably contemplating my offer, and finally said something like "bleh k". At that point I noticed local spike and, being a paranoid that I am, decided a rescue mission may be on its way. I one-volleyed the pod just as its pilot was typing, "wait a sec, I'll transfer the money". Argh!
I felt really bad about the whole thing and sent some money to the guy along with apologies.
The second case took place in Olfeim, a lowsec dead-end frequented by carebears. I spotted a Thrasher in a deadspace complex and went after it in my Wolf. As I engaged the destroyer, a Hawk assault frigate jumped in and started locking me. I quickly finished off the Thrasher, podded its pilot and overloaded my midslots to catch the Hawk. It was a long fight as he kept moving away and I was using short-range ammo, but in the end he died too. With adrenaline rush preventing my brains from working properly I quickly podded the Hawk pilot as well. WHY?!!! I should at least have tried to ransom!!!
Finally, I had a fight with Venom Orchid of the notorious Hellcats. I spotted her Rifter in Amamake's III-1 and started approaching in a Rifter of my own. She accepted the implicit duel offer and we were soon circling each other, shooting and repping. I won the fight (Venom said she was a bit slow with overloading her guns and actovating the repper) and again instinctively locked the pod. I didn't really want to pod Venom and started looting her wreck while thinking about my options. I mean, it's not every day that you get to have a sexy pirate chick next to you, scrambled and defenceless... Oooh the perverted fantasies!
"GET OUT!" a warning from my fleetmate, Leeloo Malaquin of Genos Occidere, brought me back to reality as a Pilgrim recon ship showed up next to us, probably after warping to Venom's wreck. I warped to a safespot as he was locking me, saved by the fact that he went after Venom first. Again, I felt like a dumbass for letting some random guy pod Venom, although she didn't seem to be upset with that.
WTB podding management courses.

A 100 million isk Thorax

How do you lose 100 million isk?
Buy a Thorax, equip it with expensive modules, fill in all three rig slots, accept a mission in low security space, go to the deadspace and sit there comfortably tanking the NPCs, completely oblivious to what's going on around you. Don't pay attention to scan probes - they're such a pain to scan for. You can even remove everything but NPCs from your overview - you don't want to be distracted.
But don't complain when pirates probe you out, fly more than 50 kilometres to you in the deadspace, tackle and destroy your ship and then also snatch your pod.
That's the story of the Thorax I mentioned in the previous post. I was really surprised when I finally found the killmail for it yesterday.
Also, yesterday Jyren's Rage, Coco Pennywise and me killed a Harbinger in one of Egghelende's belts. The guys got a quick tackle on him and the battlecruiser's drones weren't enough to deal with us although Coco had to warp his Stiletto out at one point. We then ransomed the pod for 40 million.
Later, we tried to take on a group made up of a Zealot heavy assault ship and two Drake battlecruisers who were running a mission. I tackled the Zealot and flagged it as outp primary target. But Soon my Jag was webbed and started taking heavy damage so I told everyone to get out. Unfortunately, we lost one Celestis that could not escape quickly enough.
Finally, we probed out a group of several T1/T2 frigates and a cruiser at a safespot and tried to take on them, but they managed to escape. One of our fleetmates stayed there cloaked and soon told us the group had returned. We jumped again but only managed to kill a Kestrel and its pilot's pod.
Still, not a bad evening.

A Deadly Duo

Shortly after entering Siseide, a system adjacent to my sweet home Amamake, I saw a Drake on scan, piloted by a relatively inexperienced capsuleer. As I narrowed down my search to a single belt, I saw there were also a Brutix and a Malediction there. I decided to have a look from a safe distance, but the two battlectuisers warped out as I arrived.
Malediction pilot Jyren's Rage, who had negative security status and a bounty on his head, opened a convo and offered to deal with the two battlecruisers together. 'Sure,' I replied and accepted his fleet invitation. I scanned a random couple of belts and there they were, sitting at one of them. I gave the coordinates to Jyren's Rage while warping and quickly tackled the Drake after landing on top of it.
The Brutix disappeared shortly after my partner in crime arrived and together we quickly broke the Drake's shield tank. Its heavy missiles were no good against my Rifter and its neutralizer wasn't much of a problem because I had a capacitor booster equipped - stole the setup from Gneeznow after watching one of his fantastic Getsu Fune videos. As the battlecruiser entered structure, Jyren's Rage left to find the Brutix while I finished off the Drake. He suggested that I grab the loot.
Shortly after, he had the Brutix pointed and helpless with its railguns unable to hit our quick and nimble ships. It didn't last longer than the Drake and this time the final blow and the loot went to Jyren's Rage.
So, within less than ten minutes we destroyed two larger ships worth a total of 75 million isk - way to go for pirate cooperation!
I docked up as we exchaged compliments and agreed to commit more crimes together.

To the Forge and Back

Bored with Amamake blobs, I decided to travel a bit last week and set the Forge lowsec as my destination. I chose a Wolf for this journey as it would allow me to take on bigger targets (and of course some Bastards(TM) then caught me cheating on my Rifter).
I was surprised by the number of shuttles, noob ships and industrial ships moving through systems like Ingunn and Gusandall. While they did no interest me as potential targets, it later turned out they were still useful.
My first engagement in the journey wasn't successful: I attacked a Jaguar in a belt in Bogelek but it was soon joined by a Sacrilege and a Zealot and my ship went down. I got a Rifter and a new Wolf hauled to a nearby system and roamed around in a Rifter for a while. I scanned down another Rifter in a plex in Gusandall and warped to it. ManTan LNJ was up for a fight, but my Rifter turned out to be stronger.
I eventually reached Akora where DirgeMon, who was hanging around next to a station in his Kestrel, responded to my lock by opening fire and died quickly.
I then turned back, making a stop in Wiskeber. There was a Ferox class battlecruiser in a belt and a quick background check showed its pilot was unlikely to have neutralisers - the biggest threat to my assault frigate. I warped in and activated my guns keeping a tight orbit. The bigger ship's guns could not hurt me and its destruction was only a matter of time. When the Ferox was about to die, a Stabber cruiser warped in. I was going to tackle it when a Raven also showed up and then my overview was full of ships. I quickly warped out and waited. The blob disappeared soon and I was even able to pick up the loot.
I docked up in Wiskeber to get some sleep and undocked a few hours later to find a Drake on my scanner. I quickly pinned it down to a station, warped in for a check and saw that the battlecruiser was taking sentry fire while killing industrial ships. What could be better? I quickly warped back to the station, tackled the Drake and let my guns spit out EMP rounds. Smith44 sent his drones after me, but I quickly dispatched them with the help of sentry guns. The Drake got popped quickly under heavy fire, leaving some nice loot.
The rest of my journey back was uneventful, save for an encounter with the Bastards' gang that included Hallan Turrek and Flashfresh. I docked up just to be on the safe side and had a good laugh watching Hallan pretend to be a noob. I think he also said they sometimes wear adult diapers while roaming.