Taranis 3.1 / 3.2

When doing solo PVP in EVE you have to be willing to die.... a lot.

So fitting up a new Taranis I hit Amamake again looking for a fight. As before I was in a armour repping, afterburner fit, neutron blaster fit, ecm drone Taranis. Within a mine or two I was engaged with an incursis near the sun. Unfortunately he was kiting me. Try as I might I couldn't get withing 10km to put an overheated scram on his MWD. All the while his rail-guns were pounding me. After about a minute my ECM drones must have worked since he lost point, and I decided to give up and warp off.

Not much to say here except I need to get better and forcing the fight to be within scram range. Loosing a t2 frigate to a t1 frigate would have been embarrassing. I am not sure if my choice to fit ECM drones saved me, or cost me a kill. With ECM drones I was able to break his point and escape, however combat drones would have given me some DPS against him at range. I suspect however that if combat drones were hurting him he would have been able to simply warp off at will.

Since I was kited once, why not try again.

An hour later, same place I engaged a Scythe Fleet Issue. I believe this ship is the single least flown ship in the game according to CCP. And like the incursis I was engaged at range :(. Since he was around 40km from me I aligned and prepared to warp. However I lingered to see exactly what he would do. I figured that as long as he was over 30 km from me I was safe. He pointed me at around 34km. Ooops. I don't know if it was some serious faction point or an off-grid boosting loki, but I knew I was screwed.

I tried the same tactic as with the incursis. Off went my drones to attempt to jam him. No luck. Soon he was joined by a hurricane and a Talos. The chase did last for a bit as they couldn't quite hit me for full damage. However every once in a while the Talos ripped me a new one and, never succeeding in jamming the Skyth, I died.

2012.01.23 05:01:00

Victim: Toterra
Corp: Walking Dead Pilots
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Taranis
System: Amamake
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 2725

Involved parties:

Name: Liang Nuren (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.00
Corp: Heretic Army
Alliance: Heretic Nation
Faction: None
Ship: Talos
Weapon: Ion Blaster Cannon II
Damage Done: 2005

Name: Az Tek
Security: -10.00
Corp: Heretic University
Alliance: Heretic Nation
Faction: None
Ship: Scythe Fleet Issue
Weapon: 720mm 'Scout' Artillery I
Damage Done: 720

Name: tiberiusric
Security: -10.00
Corp: Comply Or Die
Alliance: Shit.Happens
Faction: None
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:

Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 160
Damage Control II
Light Neutron Blaster II, Qty: 2
Small Ancillary Current Router I, Qty: 2
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 260 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

1MN Afterburner II
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 80
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Small Armor Repairer II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Null S, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
Light Neutron Blaster II



Both of these fights resulted in the same lesson. I need to engage at 0. If I can't do that I had better gtfo.

Taranis 2.2

So after surviving my initial encounter and getting my first Taranis kill with a Taranis, I think I have mastered this ship. Perhaps not. I recently started a new corp (I will undoubtedly blog about that later) and I took one of my new corpmates on a little roam though low-sec. I was in my shiny Taranis, my mate was in a Retribution. The Retribution is a really awesome assault ship with one teeny tiny problem... only one midslot. IOW it can fit a propulsion mod but no tackle :(.

The Hunt
We first made our way on to Tama. This is a hotbed of faction war between Caldari and Gallente. I managed to d-scan down a republic fleet firetail, but it was sitting in a minor compound. Oddly minor compounds only allow frigates and destroyers... T2 frigates can not enter :(.

On we went looking for targets. Eventually we ended up Dal, one jump out of Amamake. I managed to tackle a Vexor and we started giving it hell. My shields and armour were obliterated, however once I set into an orbit I was tanking it okay. It's shields dropped quickly and we were slowly chipping away at the armour. I checked the drones and he had loaded up mostly Ogre IIs which couldn't hit me despite being webbed. It was very very slowly loosing armour.

Then disaster struck. I had though I had turned off overheating my afterburner... but it stayed on for the third cycle. Once completed it had burnt out and my velocity went from 500 m/s to 150 m/s... and then an Ogre got a 'wrecking shot!'. Structure didn't last long after that. My fellow corp-mate in a retribution did not quite get his ship out.

2012.01.15 06:41:00

Victim: Toterra
Corp: Walking Dead Pilots
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Taranis
System: Dal
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 2444

Involved parties:

Name: Igo Heeled44 (laid the final blow)
Security: 3.2
Corp: Ascetic Virtues
Alliance: None
Faction: Amarr Empire
Ship: Vexor
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 2444

Destroyed items:

Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 114
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Light Neutron Blaster II, Qty: 2
Small Ancillary Current Router I, Qty: 2
Hobgoblin II (Cargo)

Dropped items:

1MN Afterburner II
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 57
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Small Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Null S, Qty: 500 (Cargo)
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 4953 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 715 (Cargo)
Hobgoblin II (Cargo)

Afterthoughts
I hate loosing a ship due to stupidity. I don't know whether I could have tanked the vexor if my ab wasn't overloaded.... but burning out was just fail. I will be so happy once CCP fixes the overload interface so that it is less prone to mistakes. As far as the Taranis is concerned the ship performed beautifully. The combination of small sig radius, high speed, and high dps is a winner.