The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Welcome to another addition of the frustration, glory and charm that is constant player-vs-player content in Eve Online. Oh yes, one minute I can completely pwn someone and then turn around and lose to a newbie.

That is Eve my friends. And she giveth and she taketh away. So let's take a look at some of the good, the bad and the simply butt ugly recent fights.


THE GOOD - Sac Vs Gnosis/Arbi/Rifter/Thorax

This one has to be first as it is one of the best fights I've been in lately. The call went out that we had a neutral Thorax on the gate, so I switched out to my Sac (generously donated I might add, thank you!!) and headed straight to the gate, pointed and started shooting the Rax. He jumped. So I was stuck waiting for gate aggro to drop. Lo and behold a Gnosis lands about 23k from the gate. This is technically called "Holy Shit!" And people wonder why my HAM Sac has a long point fitted instead of a scram, for moments like this!!

Now, the Gnosis is also neutral, so I'm taking gate fire the entire fight. A Rifter lands to help his buddy and I put my drones on him. The Rax comes back, but takes one look and warps off. And then an Arbitrator lands and starts shooting me. Which I do not appreciate. As the Gnosis finally explodes, more Stay Frostians' arrive and the Arbi also explodes. Awesome fight.


THE BAD - Heretic Vs Cormorant

One of the reasons I write this series of posts is to show you that no matter how good you are at Eve, you also suck. It's ok if you want to pretend it's just me, I'm a big boy and can take it. But you suck too, sometimes. I've seen your killboard.

This one is totally on me, no excuses. Totally wrong ammo, I never even looked, totally wrong approach, totally wrong everything. Total Derphead.


THE UGLY - Astero Vs Venture

Yep that there is a Battle Venture with a cloak. While I admire the attempt to create a battle worthy Venture, I have a few fitted myself, this one goes in the ugly because he was caught and killed ugly. When the Astero that wasn't on scan a few seconds ago suddenly disappears you really shouldn't decide to de-cloak.


THE GOOD - Astero Vs Venture

I'm putting two of these up to illustrate why sometimes, killing a helpless Venture can be a good fight. It isn't the actual combat part, which is horrible one-sided and generates some tears in local. It is getting the kill that is the good part.

This Venture was on scan in system but I couldn't find him anywhere on d-scan. So I popped over to System Scan and sure enough, an Ice Belt! Well then, we'll just warp in there and see what we find. Sure enough, the Venture is there and about 64k from my warp in point. So now I need to slow boat over there and try to stay away from the Ice so I do not de-cloak and give the game away. This is hard to do.

Just as I start to get close, two things happen at the same exact moment. He warps away and I de-cloak. Ooops. But I don't think he saw me and from a quick d-scan I see he has docked in station. He may just be dropping off his Ice thingies. So I cloak back up and keep boating over to where he was. Sure enough, he warps back. A lot of work for an easy kill.


THE BAD - Tormentor Vs OMG!

From now on, whenever you start to think that the life of a Solo PvPer in low sec is easy, or glamorous, or amazing (which it can be!) I want you to think of this. I fitted up a Tormentor, because I hadn't flown on in a long time, and set out to find some fights. I went 37 jumps in loops and curls and nothing, nothing nothing. And then GATE CAMP. When I saw the T3s sitting there long with this group, I admit I never even bothered to try. All you can do is align out and hope to get your pod away safely. Which I did.


THE GOOD - Dramiel/Catalyst Vs Astero

It might seem odd of me to put a loss in the good column, but it isn't the first time I've done it. You don't win all the good fights and due credit to Malfy on this one. I had engaged the Catalyst in a plex and didn't even notice the Dram until he was on top of me. So my bad and his good for this one. Normally I wouldn't engage a Dram solo with my Anti-Plexer fit Astero, but once you are pointed and whatnot, you have to fight. This fight did cause me to change my fit slightly, so thanks for that. Good fight.


That'll do it for this episode. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures of death and glory. And join Stay Frosty for goodness sake!

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

A never ending series of good fights, horrible losses and my continuing stupidity in the face of the world's most amazingly frustrating and rewarding game experience, Eve Online.

Here then are some of the highlights and lowlights from the past week or so.


The Good: Falcon Dies
So there is this Moa about and we quickly grab some ships to see if we can catch it. Nothing fancy mind you. We do grab it, when suddenly The Falcon de-cloaks next to us! Yeah I lost a Caracal, but both the Moa and the Falcon die. And that was worth it. I'll trade a ship for an ECM dishonor boat any day.


The Good: Decisions
Killing a Corax with a Tristan isn't the greatest thing since sliced bread, but as is often the case, it is the story that makes the story. I had just lost a really bad fight and jumped into the Tristan when I spotted this Corax. The system was loaded with nasty things, so obviously there were some gangs about. I never hesitate, but I did this time because it sure looked like a bait situation, no one else was bothering the Corax. Finally I decided to go for it anyway and sometimes that works out.


The Bad: 600m Pod
One thing I have learned over the past six months is that my former corp mates are more than willing to stoop ever lower and lower in order to kill me. On their kill-board they proudly predicted an angry blog post about this loss, which sadly means they haven't learned a damn thing about me during the last six months. I'm not angry about this, I don't actually get mad, but this was totally my own fault for not paying attention. They have to live with their own actions.


The Ugly: Linked Cormmies
Who knew that even the vaunted Vengeance is no match for five Tengu linked Cormorants? Ok, I did. But this fight didn't start out with five and the Tengu only appeared on scan at the last minute. They got my pod too, they must be so proud.


The Good: A Coercer
I have never really flown the Coercer much, so I decided to fit two of them up and go see what it could do. It is a fun ship to fly and puts out some impressive deeps, but is extremely prone to dying. But I did manage to get some good kills with it.


The Ugly: Moar ECM
I'm a system over when my Corp mate tells me he is going for a Harpy in a plex. Suddenly he is jammed by the suddenly appearing Griffin. Big surprise huh? I haul ass next door and save him by taking the Griffin down quickly. The ugly part of this story is that this happened again later that same day with a different group and this time they brought a Falcon. He got away again, but when I brought out my Rook, they ran away.


The Bad: Fish with Teeth
Sometimes when a fish runs from you it isn't because he doesn't have teeth, so going back to get the dual scram Atron is not a good idea. This happens so rarely that it isn't worth considering, but it does happen. So be warned.


The Good: And Equal
And then sometimes everything works out perfectly and you find the perfect ship to fight in the ship you actually happen to be in and you have a really good fight on your hands. Thank god this still happens from time to time.


Those are just some of the more memorable fights from the past week or so. What will happen next? Stay tuned.