New bloggers

I'm excited to announce two new bloggers.

The Adventures of Birdog, Freelance Privateer

and

The Adventures of Eirelle

Birdog, like Jalif, had decided to start his own blog, inspired by this one. And Eirelle has also been inspired enough to start his own blog too!

Give them a big applause and make sure you subscribe to their blogs for future updates. And don't forget to comment on their blogs to encourage them. :)

Skill training for PVP

In order to engage in combat against other pilots, you need to work on a few skills. I've already mentioned the basics needed to start venturing into piracy, but if you really want to become specialised, you need to work on the skills detailed below.

Please understand this is part of a long-term plan! Don't be discouraged that you need all these skills at all these levels in order to get into PVP. You don't. These are just to give you an idea of what you need to work on over time.

With thanks to Cal Nereus.

Fitting Skills

These are all the skills you need to fit all your desired modules onto your ship without running out of powergrid or CPU.

Engineering: 5% Bonus to ship's powergrid output per skill level.
Electronics: 5% Bonus to ship CPU output per skill level.
Energy Grid Upgrades: to fit Power Diagnostic Systems, which increase powergrid.
Electronics Upgrades: 5% reduction of sensor upgrade CPU needs per skill level, and to fit Co-Processors.
Shield Upgrades: 5% reduction in shield upgrade powergrid needs.
Weapon Upgrades: 5% reduction per skill level in the CPU needs of weapon turrets and launchers.
Advanced Weapon Upgrades: 2% reduction in powergrid needs of weapon turrets and launchers.

I believe the most common benchmark for PvP Fitting Skills is to have Engineering, Electronics and Weapon Upgrades all up to level 5, and Advanced Weapon Upgrades up to 3. The others can be at the level of your choice.

Basic Capacitor Skills

These are all the skills you need to optimize the size, recharge rate and efficiency of your capacitor. As many Eve players will attest to, cap is life in Eve. If you don't have it, you're dead.

Energy Management: 5% bonus to capacitor capacity per skill level.
Energy Systems Operation: 5% reduction in capacitor recharge time per skill level, and to fit Capacitor Boosters.
Energy Grid Upgrades: to fit Cap Rechargers (I already mentioned this skill as a fitting skill earlier).
Energy Emission Systems: 5% reduced capacitor need of energy emission weapons per skill level, and to fit Nosferatu.

You'll want Energy Systems Operation at level 5 and Energy Management to level 4 at least. Cap Rechargers or Cap Boosters are prevalent in most PvP fittings, so you'll want to be able to fit the best.

Navigation Skills

Anyone planning on using frigates or microwarpdrives in PvP (in other words, just about everyone) will need to consider training most of the Navigation skills.

Navigation: 5% bonus to sub-warp ship velocity per skill level.
Acceleration Control: 5% Bonus to Afterburner and MicroWarpdrive speed boost per skill level.
High Speed Maneuvering: 5% reduction in MicroWarpdrive capacitor usage per skill level.
Evasive Maneuvering: 5% improved ship agility for all ships per skill level.

Frigate specialists need to seriously consider training all of these skills to level 5. Personally, I'm a Battleship pilot, and even I have Navigation trained up to 5. If you plan on piloting Interceptors or Interdictors, you will need Evasive Maneuvering up to level 5 just to sit in your ship.

Tackling Skills

Almost all PvPers (actually, pretty much all of them) need to train up their tackling skills. These are the skills you need to prevent your target from escaping.

Propulsion Jamming: 5% Reduction to warp scrambler and stasis web capacitor need per skill level, and to fit warp scramblers/disruptors and stasis webifiers.
Energy Emission Systems: To fit energy neutralizers to kill the target's cap (this skill was also mentioned earlier as a basic capacitor skill).
Anchoring: Used to deploy and anchor various items, including mobile warp disruptors.

All PvPers will want to train Propulsion Jamming, preferably up to level 4 at least. Specialists in the field of tackling will want it trained to level 5. Anchoring is largely optional, but in 0.0 I've seen it used a lot to anchor bubbles.

Armor Tanking Skills

Armor tanking is without a doubt the most common form of tanking in PvP, which is great for the Gallente and Minmatar races, but makes things difficult for the Caldari ships. Amarr prefer armor tanking their own ships, but hate when their enemies do it.

Mechanic: to fit Armor Repairers.
Hull Upgrades: Grants a 5% bonus to armor hit points per skill level, and to fit Active Armor Hardeners and Plates.
Repair Systems: 5% reduction in repair systems duration per skill level, and to fit Armor Repairers.
EM Armor Compensation, Explosive Armor Compensation, Kinetic Armor Compensation, Thermic Armor Compensation: To improve passive/inactive armor resists.

Most PvPers seem to believe Mechanic and Hull Upgrades should be trained up to level 5, and Repair Systems up to level 4 to fit all the modules you will need. The compensation skills should also be trained up to level 4, or at least 3 if you don't have the patience for 4.

Electronic Warfare Skills

Electronic Warfare is a major part of fleet PvP, and useful in gang PvP. With the right combination of E-War you can practically turn off an opponent's ship. Combined tackling and E-Warfare can render even the sturdiest tank and most ominous firepower absolutely useless.

Electronic Warfare: 5% less capacitor need for ECM and ECM burst systems per skill level.
Sensor Linking: 5% less capacitor need for sensor link per skill level, and to fit sensor dampeners.
Long Distance Jamming: 10% bonus to optimal range of ECM, Remote Sensor Dampers, Tracking Disruptors and Target Painters per skill level.
Signal Dispersion: 5% bonus to strength of all ECM jammers per skill level.
Frequency Modulation: 10% bonus to falloff for ECM, Remote Sensor Dampeners, Tracking Disruptors and Target Painters per skill level.

Train Electronic Warfare to level 4 at least, but it's up to you how far you want to take all of the other skills. The aforementioned skills only touch upon the most common forms of E-Warfare: ECM and Dampening, and I believe it's possible to specialize much further in this category of PvP.

Up until now I haven't even mentioned the relevant gunnery, missile and drone skills you need for PvP to actually deal damage to your target(s). To be honest, there are simply way too many such skills to mention, and the ones you use are entirely up to you. Most PvPers prefer guns, specially hybrid turrets and projectile turrets. Some skills that can apply to all guns are Motion Prediction, Rapid Firing, Sharpshooter, Surgical Strike and Trajectory Analysis. Seriously consider training each of those to level 4 or 5.

All of this information is from 2007, and while I think it's all still relevant today, if anyone can show anything here is incorrect, please leave a comment and I'll update it.

Good luck with your PVP!

Black Claw's Guide to Piracy

Since I’ve started engaging in piracy, one or two of my fellow bloggers have asked me questions about how to start off doing it themselves. I thought I’d write a brief guide about what’s important to know for those starting out in this ‘business’.

You can read the rest of this article over at Eve-Mag.com - Black Claw's Guide to Piracy. Enjoy!

Blogger profiles #4 - Geaux Tiger

I'm really pleased by the response I've got from people who have been happy to send me their profile. If you would like to send me yours too, please fill out the questions here and send it back to me. I really would love to hear from you, and so many other bloggers and Eve Online players would love to know more about you.

Here's the latest from Geaux Tiger. I really like his blog. Even though he says he's not into roleplaying in the game, his posts are certainly flavoured that way, which makes it such an enjoyable story.

What is your character's name or handle?

Geaux Tiger is my main character. Varnoka is another character which sometimes helps Geaux Tiger out. Not sure if she is my character or not.

What is your blog's URL?

http://tigersspacejourneys.blogspot.com/

How long have you been blogging?

Five weeks I believe. It started with my ascension to the noble occupation of Pirate.

What region of EVE do you mostly operate in?

Essence is my current region of activity with jaunts into Verge Vendor, Sinq Laison, and the FW regions of Placid and Black Rise.

When did you start playing EVE?

*Thinks back* I believe it was 6 months ago maybe. Not sure and I’m too lazy right now to check.

Why do you enjoy about EVE?

Tough question here. The freedom is probably the thing I like the most. Coming from a RPGMMO background, the whole space ship thing was intriguing to me. Then finding out that nothing is restricted to you play wise I fell in love with EVE instantly. Being able to not only PvE and delve into the industrial side of things, but also being able to concentrate on PvP, exploration, and 0.0 politics are the types of things you just don’t find in other games. Everything is player driven, for the most part, and this only works to add to the sense of accomplishment in whatever you choose to spend your time on while playing.

What is your playstyle?

A bit of an open ended question here; I guess you would label me as a pvper. Though to be honest, I started the game as a carebear initially. I have never been much of a pvper in any game I have played. EVE, with all its freedoms, allows players to change playstyles easily if they wish. Now I am a dedicated pirate and don’t see myself changing from that anytime soon. The EVE personality test labeled me as a “Gunslinger”, go figure.

Do you play any other games?

Currently, no I do not play any other online games. I choose to run multiple accounts on EVE instead. Warhammer looks intriguing, but with the current implementation of it I’m waiting a while before starting an account. Offline games I enjoy occasionally are D2 (yes its ancient but still a blast), Titan Quest, Oblivion, and Crysis.

What do you blog about, and why?

I choose to blog about my pirating adventures from an incharacter point of view. This allows me a chance to work on my fiction writing skills, though that has been lacking lately. I like to think of it as a starting point for a possible future novella or maybe even a full blown book. I know I have a lot to learn about writing fiction, but it has always been a dream of mine. This explains why many of my post are “walls of text” as others would put it. I plan to occasionally have out of character commentary on various aspects of EVE once I gain a little more experience playing the game.

What are your other interests?

Currently my 15 month old child takes up most of my time. I’m a stay at home Dad, but currently looking for a job. If anyone needs an out of work researcher/historian let me know. Just kidding there. *shakes his head no* Yes I am. *shakes his head no again.* Other than that I enjoy rockclimbing, backpacking, fishing, hunting, playing rugby, watching American college football, and Renfest.

What advice do you have for EVE players who are struggling to stay motivated?

Newer players just have to find an aspect of the game they enjoy. There are plenty of guides and information out there to help you along your way. Older players that are becoming unmotivated may just need to take a slight break from the game. Everyone gets burned out sometime. I personally found what keeps me motivated is trying new things, even if it is something I think I’ll hate doing. You just never know.

Anything else to offer?

Just that I enjoy reading just about anyone’s blog or stories. They all give me ideas for directions in which to take my own character and writing. Keep up the good work guys.

Jalification

That's the name of my new corp mate's blog - Jalification. His name's Jalif. It's a good read, so check it out. :)

It's great to have new bloggers arise. It'd be real funny if everyone in my corp ended up blogging too!

*smiles at corp members*

Lessons for today

After an interesting day's experiences I have a few lessons I've learned that I'd like to share.

First, I encountered a Hound in a belt, and quickly approached, engaging him. He managed to get me down to about 80% armor before he went KABLOOEY! He sat there watching me loot his wreck before he eventually warped off.

This guy signed up as a capsuleer some 2 years ago, but had been inactive. He didn't even know where his lossmail would be. And his fittings were crap. Who brings a Stealth Bomber into lowsec, WITH a cloak, and then lets themselves be blown up?

Lesson 1: Not all 'veterans' know what they're doing.

Just to hammer this point home, I managed to find a Cyclone, 280km off a planet. I joined up with some bluemates, and one of them probed him and warped to the Cyclone, then the rest of us warped to them. We immediately engaged this battlecruiser, quickly destroying it. My bluemate podkilled him while I retrieved the loot.

The pilot woke up in his new clone, not knowing what had happened. He contacted me after checking his killmail, asking "Why? WHY?!" or something like that. Turns out he was away from his systems having a big turd or something when we struck.

He was a 3 year old pilot too, but had been active for only a few months before being inactive for almost 3 years. He started piloting again today, and decided lowsec was the place to go. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't.

So I gave him some advice about lowsec, referred him to my '23 tips for surviving lowsec', and offered to sell him back his loot. But it was mostly crap anyway, and he understandably wasn't interested.

In between those two kills, I met up with Biz Quick again. It was him and his brother who had destroyed my Brutix yesterday. Anyway, we got to talking, and eventually I suggested a rematch. My cruiser against his equivalent. He went to get his Arbitrator and met up off a remote planet.

It was on! I watched as he released his drones, and I released mine. Then I discovered he'd set his ship up for speed, and my MWD simply wasn't capable of catching up, nor were my drones. I watched him circle me at about 20km, avoiding my web and guns, and keeping his distance from the drones failing to catch up to him.

I set my guns on his drones, and brought my drones back to deal with them too, but by this time I was at 20% armor, and he was about 30% shields (my drones had a few potshots at him). My medium blasters were having difficulty hitting the drones, and I knew I'd failed.

He was good enough to stop fighting, much to my surprise, as I had expected this was to the death. If the situation were reversed, I would have destroyed him, getting revenge for the loss of my Brutix yesterday. His explanation was that it wasn't a real fight because I couldn't touch him, so there was no point taking it to the end.

I like how there's honour amongst pirates. I'm not sure I can say the same about antipirates.... They always fight to the death, no surrender and no quarter. Pirates are such a different bunch.

Lesson 2: Take out the drones first!

It would have worked better for me if I had've taken out his drones first, so that they weren't doing me any damage. It turned out that he had no weapons in his high slots, focused entirely on using drones and keeping his ship out of range.

So some good experiences today, and some good lessons.

I've also finally completed the skills I've been training on for the past month, letting me now fit Tech 2 Medium Blasters to my ships. This is an exciting time... Bring on the destruction!

It feels like home

I joined up with some bluemates yesterday (like corpmates, but blue instead) for a gate camp. They wanted me to join, and would hear no excuses. So they bandied together and set up a Brutix with fittings. It was a touching moment for me, to be donated 36 million worth of ship and fittings. I'd never had that before.

So many of my new flashy red friends are so much more generous than my old 'noble' friends ever were.

As I wrote that, I was thinking back to some of the donations that I received from people back when I was an anti-pirate. It just occurred to me that most of those donations were from pirates themselves, who enjoyed being able to help fund an anti-pirate in his endeavours against pirates.

I've been walking the wrong path. My friends were never the antipirates, but the pirates!

I feel like I've come home, in a way. I grew up amongst pirates, and to pirates I return.

Anyway, the actions I were involved in yesterday with my nice, new Brutix were, to say the least, fruitless. I wasn't involved in any kills whatsoever. So today, I undocked from the station in order to move a couple systems over, ready for the next fleet actions. When I got out of the station, however, I discovered I was being engaged by a Sacrilege, a Heavy Assault Ship.

By the time I'd realised this however, my shields were down to about 20%. Crap! I thought. I quickly activated everything. Target locking him, I engaged the battery of guns first, followed by the armor hardeners and then the armor reps. Then I brought the warp scrambler and web online. You're not getting away, matey! I thought to myself. Yeh, I know... he attacked me! But I didn't want him changing his mind.

I was starting to get excited about the fact that my armor tank was holding, and he was down to about 80% armor. I figured that if this kept up, I might actually win!

That was until the Maelstrom battleship arrived, and started remote armor repping his friend, who's armor just zoomed back up to 100%.

With a heavy heart, and while still firing my guns against the assault ship (pointlessly now), I tried turning around to get back to the station. Being webbed though meant that I was slower than a Minmatar slave on his way to the execution block. When the battleship added his own firepower to the show, and my armor was disappearing faster than the dual reps could repair, I knew it was all over.

I selected a distant stargate as the Brutix began to fall apart, and when it exploded I was warping out of there faster than you could even blink.

Easy come, easy go. Thanks to my friends for providing me the means of assisting them, but nothing lasts forever in this harsh galaxy.

So I went on a patrol in my interceptor, but found nothing. I got bored. So I spent some money on a new battlecruiser, another Myrmidon. I shouldn't, 'cause I can't afford it... I can't afford 5 of them, so I'm violating my own rules. But what the hell... you only live forever!

So I spent some time and money fitting it for tanking, and joined up with my friends again. Lo and behold, I was involved in two kills! I never actually managed to lay any blaster rounds on the target, but I did manage to get a target lock and scram on both of them. They died before I could get close enough to shoot them though. Oh well, next time.

Here's the really awesome thing... For the first time ever, I've earnt money from pirating. The second victim wanted to buy back the loot that was dropped from their ship, and as a result, my share was 40 million.

Woohoo! That will fund the next battlecruiser once this one is gone.

I'm really enjoying myself!