It is the Mistakes That Get You

Today I wanted to talk about two recent losses I had to gatecamps. In both cases I could have survived, but I made tactical errors that cost me my ship.

The first fight led to this lossmail: Jaguar Lost In Providence

After a long run through null from syndicate I had been bumping around near the Dital and Assah entrances to providence looking for some action. Withe the recent changes to Assault Ships I am still looking for my 'New' Jaguar fit. Jaguars now have the tracking bonus so in theory the web is no longer as needed. This plus the extra low-slot makes for several interesting possibilities. The fit I was in was a heavy tank, some gank MWD fit with two medium shield extenders giving it about 15k EHP and + decent shield recharge rate. This is a very tough nugget. A nanofibre in the new low slot makes this ship about as fast and maneuverable as the shield Rifter. On the downside, damage is only mediocre.

The problem with this fit vs a more ganky fit is that with the lowish DPS it can take a long time to kill a target. I was not going to be popping anyone under the eyes of their gang. Unfortunately all I could find were a series of 5-10 ship gate-camps in the area.

In the end it was one of these camps that got me. In 9-FOB on the 4B-NQN gate I jumped into a HIC bubble. There was a gang on the other side so rather then bump back and forth a few times, I decided to burn away. I failed to realize the significance of the Ashimmu on the field :(. With it's high price tag and bonus to webifiers it was likely fitting a faction web extending it's range. Not realizing that this was the major threat on the field, I was more concerned with the small ship tackle, my escape trajectory brought me within about 15km of this ship where I was promptly stopped cold. Going 300m/s 20km from gate while under MWD was not going to get me to safety.... I died.

The loss led to this loss-mail: Jaguar Lost In Syndicate

This was a bit of an experimental fit, an active armour tanked Jaguar. I have seen these before and thought, with the extra low-slot, it was quite viable. In this case however it was the pilot (me) who led to the loss. There was a gate-camp on the FD-MLJ to PF-346 gate (pretty much always a camp here). However the gate to X-M2LR was clear. I jumped through and held my cloak. 'Perhaps something interesting camping the other gate would come and chase me' I thought. Not a bad plan but execution is key. I held my cloak until something came through, in this case a stealth bomber uncloaked. I gave chase but couldn't catch it. At this point a Sabre came through and launched a bubble. Not having aggression and still 20km from the sabre I was safe. I could outrun a sabre or burn back to the gate. Unfortunately at this point I mis-clicked my overview and resorted everything by name. By the time I had my bearings (which entry was the gate) the sabre had moved into range and I was tackled. With other ships pouring in certain death came soon later. Oooops!

The importance of both of these losses was not that gate-camps killed me, it was that they killed me ONLY after I made avoidable tactical mistakes. Gate camps are a fact of life in 0.0. Some of them will be un-escapable. However most of them are not perfect. They can be dodged in a fast ship. It is the mistakes that get you.

Sidenote: Today is the 100-year anniversary of the tragic sinking of the Titanic. For e the historical significance is this.... it is the first of many huge, and entirely avoidable, tragedies of the 20th century. Pity the 21st is off to an even worse start.

Gunnery Skills to V

With the very recent birth of my child I am taking a minor break from Eve. I just don't have the ability for the next couple of months to dedicate 100% of my concentration to what is happening on screen. Any attempts at PvP would just end up with me changing my daughters diaper as my ship hangs motionless while being pummeled.

Since I am not playing so much I can concentrate on some of those long skills that I always wanted to train. In particular I am going to spend the next couple of months working on my gunnery skills. Things like...

• Motion Prediction (5% bonus to tracking speed)
• Rapid Firing (4% bonus to rate of fire)
• Sharpshooter (5% bonus to optimal)
• Surgical Strike (3% bonus to damage)
• Trajectory Analysis (5% bonus to falloff).

I trained all of these skills early on to Level 4 but no further. I am taking this opportunity to bump them up to level 5 across the board. Nice thing about these skills is that they benefit all classes of ships. It improves Frigate and Battleship alike. It also will be helpful once I start to cross train to Lasers/Hybrids. These skills will help there as well.

How much difference does they make? He is my usual Jaguar fit with my current skills...

And here it is with all of the support Gunnery Skills to LV 5...

All of those attributes, better tracking, better range, better falloff and better damage all add up to a much more effective ship. Especially in a 1v1 the slight advantages often are the difference between victory and defeat. Skills aren't everything in this game... but sometimes a whole bunch of little bits add up to a lot.

Great July 3 Class Roam

As many of my readers may know Agony Unleashed runs the PvP university. These are basically courses in PvP that we teach most weeks for a small fee in isk. We claim that the purpose of these classes is to provide education in PvP to New Eden. In reality Rells (the founder of Agony) came up with these classes so we could have a big fleet of T1 frigates go around and kill everything. As a result each class has a lecture part and then a roam component where we do just that.

This last run was quite epic. I joined up near the end after a 60 minute long battle with over 40 kills was over (note that the killboard does not handle the class well due to multiple corps.... everything in red is in fact a kill for us). Nevertheless I joined up in a Jaguar and helped out on several nice ganks against superior fleets. Unfortunately the Agony ticker does make me primary a little faster then the classmates but I managed to warp in and out of the battle a couple of times allowing my shield to recharge. (Tip: When in fleet taking serious damage don't die if you can help it ... try and get away so you can come back again) All in all it was a lot of fun and recommend these classes to any new (and old) pilot.

Feedback Thread

Ships I fly - The Jaguar - Redux

There was a very interesting fit linked to from one of the comments. Sard Card (of the occasionally updated Broadside bog) suggested I look at the fit from Alex Medvedov. This is the fit that Alex typically uses:

[Jaguar, Alex Medvedov's Jaguar]
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Gyrostabilizer II

Gistii B-Type 1MN Afterburner
Medium Shield Extender II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

200mm AutoCannon II, EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, EMP S
Rocket Launcher II, Gremlin Rocket

Small Core Defence Field Extender II
Small Core Defence Field Extender II

What is interesting about this fit is that it is an AB fitted Jaguar with a heck of a passive shield recharge rate. Regretably I don't have the fitting skills (or the money) for it but came up with a reduced version of this ship swapping out a Shield Power Relay for a Power Diagnostic System, T1 rigs, and a T2 AB and took two of them out for a spin last night. I lost both of them to small blobs. It was nice having both a decent tank and the reacharg. In the first engagement against a Stabber, Rupture and an interdictor I was amazed at how long my shields lasted with about 25% shields. The peak recharge rate was doing wonders for my survivability.

However, I had a couple of issues taking advantage of this fit. Primarily the tracking is not very good. Without the Rifter tracking bonus the 200 mm Autocannons can be gotten under with a Claw as I found out. In the second encounter I engaged first one, then several interceptors simultaneously. Although I managed to nearly take down the claw it was able to get under my guns, and then when I tried to pull range to lower transversal, it got away in structure. This was compounded by a Tracking disruptor put on me by another interceptor which made my tracking worse. However I feel in a Rifter, or even with 125 mm guns I still could have been doing damage.

Anyways, it is an interesting fit that, once I have a few more skills, I will explore further. It is actually the first AB Jaguar fit that really appealed to me.

Ships I fly - The Jaguar

The Jaguar is sort of like an Uber Rifter. This is especially try since I normally fly the Shield Tanked variety Rifter. The Jaguar basically adds a bunch of DPS, extra e-war, a bunch of tank, is a bit slower and doesn't track quite as well. This makes it pretty much a perfect ship if you want something with a bit of bling, but doesn't break the bank.

As a solo ship the Jag has a lot to offer. It can certainly handle all other frigate sized ships and flown well can be a threat to many cruisers. Basically in this ship you should feel free to engage pretty much any other frigate, assault frigate, light cruisers and interceptors. The only ship that is a real threat is the Ishkur (Gallente Assault ship). The Dramiel is an annoyance as, if dual proped, it can usually run away. I would say that the only real downside of the Jaguar is that most small ships will shy away from an engagement.

In fleet the Jaguar also really shines. Due to its tough tank it excels in the all important task of heavy tackle. There are few other ships that can grab a Vaga and scram/web it long enough for help to arrive. A rifter in this role is usually pulverized within a few seconds.

[Jaguar, Standard Jag]
Damage Control II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Gyrostabilizer II

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Medium Shield Extender II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator

150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket

Small Core Defence Field Extender I
Small Core Defence Field Extender I

Note: In fleet a NOS usually is better then the rocket launcher since it will allow you to hold scram while being neuted.