Table of Contents
Second Solo Kill - TURN SAFETY OFF!
July 13, 2021
I haven't had a kill in nearly seven months, and I've only had one solo kill…until today. This was just going to be too easy to pass up.
In 0.4 space, dscan showed core probes out. I went about my business and scanned down the three signatures in the system. Two relic sites, and a wormhole. I retrieved my probes, cloaked up in my Astero, and took a perch in one of those sites. Sure enough, a Heron showed up. I got close, decloaked, deployed drones…and they refused to engage. What?
I cloaked and warped off to collect my thoughts. Damn it. My safety was set to green, which prevents me from initiating such attacks. Ugh.
Fixed that, and with little trouble I tracked down the Heron again. This time, he went down fast to five T2 Hobgoblins. It was clear he was a newbro. In my first failed attack, he just sat there, making no attempt to get away. So…I gave him 2 million isk towards his losses. Turns out this was the first time he got ganked.
How to Lose Security Status Fast
August 12, 2021
I should have known this, but podding someone in hisec or losec drops your security status…a lot. I lost 1.2 off my 5.0 status yesterday by nuking a capsule in losec. I can deal with the 0.2 loss after destroying a ship, but going after the capsule cost me another 1.0 status loss. It's a grind to get back to 5. While I'm not obsessed with maintaining a high security status, it provides a good buffer so you can hunt without concern about going negative. For more on this, see Eve U's article.
My first clue should have been that I could not aggro the capsule at first. I had to disable all safeties (set it to red). Oops. Great way to get criminal status and have a kill right put on you!
Looted Player's Wreck
August 13, 2021
Got lucky today. First a DED3 escalation in my home system got me 25 mil. Then a data and relic site in nulsec got me about 29 mil. Then looting a guy’s wreck at a gate in that system got me another 20+ mil, including a covert cloak and a set of Sisters combat probes!
I was in an Astero and warped to the gate, intending to leave. Found a wreck there of a guy I’d seen in the system minutes earlier. Rats targeted me before I could loot it. I warped off and back a couple times but the rats were all over me. So I docked in the system and took out a Gnosis out which was right at hand. Killed the rats, gobbled the loot and destroyed the wreck.
After I docked back up, the guy comes back in and says “ef…came back for my wreck and someone beat me to it.” I said “That would be me!” He said the rats decloaked him as he went to put a kid back to bed. Then I looked at the killmail and saw the wreck was a Helios.
All this before noon. Good day.
JUST SAY NO!
August 20, 2021
While ratting belts in a nulsec system, I saw something new…a Serpentis Dreadnought, with a 60 million isk bounty. What went thru my pea brain to think I could take it on, I don't know. He got me fast. Was scrammed and webbed. I could just watch as my poor battlecruiser gave up the ghost.
Got Suckered and Lost a Bling Tengu
December 12, 2021
I was just flying around ratting in a few losec systems in a semi-blinged out, expensive Tengu (800 million to 1 billion ISK). Very proud of it, but only had it a couple days. A vast improvement in DPS and EHP over my existing Tengu, but I'm not experienced in this new fit.
I see a Vexor on dscan. No one else in system. So what the heck, I fly out of dscan range, launch combat probes, recloak and scan it down. By the time I get to its location its gone. I look up the pilot on zkill and see 3,800 kills and about 800 ships lost. 96% of those kills were in gangs. First mistake – thinking this pilot can only fight in gangs and can’t handle anything on their own. BIG mistake.
I send out combat probes a second time. This time I catch it and engage. Things are looking good! Within five seconds it seems, two of the Vexor’s corpmates show up, in a Loki (strategic cruiser) and a Tornado (attack battlecruiser). I get double or triple scrammed and webbed. I’m caught. I focus on the Vexor, as it is clearly going down. I glance down and see my shields are gone and armor is going down … fast. I’m gone. Just. That. Fast.
Second mistake? Unbelievably, I didn’t activate my 330 million ISK Pith X-Type Large Shield Booster! Just a total screw up. I didn’t need it to take out the Vexor, but when the others showed up, I should have acted, and fast. I probably would have lost my Tengu anyway (see first mistake – getting suckered), but I may have been able to last a whole lot longer and might have gotten another kill.
Don’t be like me, but at least this was a (very expensive) lesson learned. Just because all someone’s kills are in gangs doesn’t mean they’re an easy kill or can’t hold their own or that there isn’t danger in attacking them! Second, use the ship’s systems – that’s why you paid for them!
Two Easy Kills and a Loss
March 24, 2022
Yesterday I nailed an Arazu, a T2 Gallente Force Recon ship. I was belt ratting in a Gnosis and this guy drops in and tackles me. He was going down fast when he warped away. I finished the belt and went to the next one, and there he was. I tackled him easily and destroyed the ship with little challenge. Why he took his actions is beyond me.
Later in the day, I was ratting again and found a Mordu Special Warfare Unit battleship. I warped away once, but stupidly decided to challenge it in the Gnosis, now with two kill marks. I lost…badly.
This morning I was in a wormhole in a Stratios, and saw a Heron on d-scan with core probe scanners out. Why he wasn't cloaked I do not understand. After warping near a wormhole to identify it, I find him just sitting there, uncloaked. Again, this was a no challenge kill. Approach, scram him, let loose drones, and boom. Little loot, but I'll take it. So now this Stratios has its second kill mark, both from destroying Herons. My first thought was that this Heron was bait…just sitting next to a wormhole uncloaked, and apparently not watching too closely. In hindsight, I took a big risk going after him, but it worked out.
It seems that nearly all of my kills have been targets of opportunity. They were just there.
Interesting Vexor Kill in a Wormhole
March 27, 2022
I had just entered a wormhole, and after scanning a few anomalies, I noticed a Vexor on dscan. I recalled my probes. I didn't want to put out combat probes, so tried to locate him with dscan. It took a few minutes, but BOOM. He was attacking cruise missile batteries, so all I had to do was warp within 10km of his target. How did I know which was his target? Just by looking at his ship and watching. He was using blasters and drones. I approached, and when under 10K, I decloaked, then webbed and scrammed him. It was easy from there…overheat Scourge Rage HAMs and take him down, lock up his pod and nail it, loot and destroy his ship. I'll take these targets of opportunity any day! I wasn't even looking for a kill.
After leaving the wormhole, I realized he surely had drones left behind, so I went back and scooped one Ogre II, and of course, his corpse!
