Frigate #1

This afternoon, I headed out in a Reaper to Hevrice. This system is one of the current Tuskers' stomping grounds. I figured that here, if anywhere, I'd be likely to have a first fight that resulted in a learning experience (or someone willing to chat afterward, at any rate).

In my Reaper, I experimented with creating bookmarks and using my d-scanner. I still need some experience with both, but I left with a much better sense of how these things work in practice. I suppose I could have practiced in high sec, but I figured I might as well figure out how to create safe spots and various bookmarks somewhere useful.

Later in the evening, I shipped out in my trusty Punisher.

I was using the following fit (criticisms welcome):


High:
3 x Gatling Pulse Laser I  (Multifrequency S)
Small 'Knave' Energy Drain

Mid:
1MN Afterburner I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

Low:
Damage Control I
Small I-a Polarized Armor Regenerator
Adaptive Nano Plating I
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Rig:
Small Ancillary Current Router I

Upon arrival in Hevrice, it was obviously a bit busier than in the afternoon, though not overwhelmingly so. I warped to a well-positioned safe spot and began d-scanning. Immediately, I pulled up an executioner and an incursus. For some reason, I decided to try to find the executioner, hoping to get the drop on it and blast through its flimsy defenses. In retrospect, I probably would have just been kited to death. I'm not sure if my d-scan skills are crap, if the executioner itself was warping around, or if it was in a safe spot, but it was taking me a little bit to narrow down exactly where the bugger was.

Eventually, I had a hunch that he was at a particular spot. Being overly cautious (I mean seriously), I warped in at 100k off, just to see if he was there and if he'd be game for some fun. He wasn't there.

A R1FTA incursus, however, was.

We promptly began burning toward each other at full speed. I clickied off to the side, attempting a spiral approach. However, we both really just wanted to be close to each other. At about 10-12k, we  opened fire. I was missing at that range, but he landed some hits immediately. Then we were in real range of each other and proceeded to slingshot somewhat tightly around each other. As it turns out, I set myself to orbit at 1k while he set himself to keep me at 2.5k range (I think). The result was that we stayed pretty much within each other's ranges, both scrammed each other, and both unloaded. I also used my neut.


My shield vanished almost immediately. "Ah ha!" thought I. "Just as expected. Now my armor specialty comes into play."

Yeah, not so much. It did take him longer to eat through my armor (which isn't saying much), but the armor nonetheless vanished at a steady rate, despite the armor rep. Meanwhile, I didn't even get halfway through his shields, despite the fact that I was hitting him with only one or two misses. The neut ... it did nothing. In short order, I went boom.

2012.10.29 00:50:00

Victim: Nowehgo

Corp: Brutor Tribe

Alliance: Unknown

Faction: Unknown

Destroyed: Punisher

System: Hevrice

Security: 0.4

Damage Taken: 2800

Involved parties:

Name: Reyner Ve'chroneus (laid the final blow)

Security: -8.50

Corp: Black Rebel Rifter Club

Alliance: The Devil's Tattoo

Faction: None

Ship: Incursus

Weapon: Light Neutron Blaster II

Damage Done: 2800

Destroyed items:

Gatling Pulse Laser I 

1MN Afterburner I 

Multifrequency S 

Damage Control I 

Small I-a Polarized Armor Regenerator 

Gatling Pulse Laser I 

Small Ancillary Current Router I 

Multifrequency S 

Dropped items:

J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I 

400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I 

Gatling Pulse Laser I 

Adaptive Nano Plating I 

Multifrequency S 

Small 'Knave' Energy Drain 

I need to practice switching over to my "pod panic" tab. He managed to scram me before I could warp off, though it felt like the session reset really lagged me. He asked me if my pod was worth anything to me, and I honestly replied that it was worth the cost of my Delta clone. At which point, he put my dropped loot in a can and we both wished each other a "gf." Then he struck up a conversation with me, answered some questions, and was an all around swell guy. Seriously, I never would have guessed that this would be the culture among low sec pirates.

The good:
- I remembered to turn on my neut, keep my AB on, and to run my armor rep. Yay me.
- I made at least a passing gesture at flying strategy during my approach, even if it was pointless.

The bad:
- T1 guns with mediocre gunnery/damage skills will do nothing against a ship with t2 guns and defenses. My opponent was flying a dual rep armor tank and I didn't get through his buffer. That's ... that's just depressing.
- I did not pay proper attention to our distance or whether I was successfully tracking him. I occasionally need to pull my eyes away from watching my own armor disappear. I only know that he was within my ideal range because he told me.

Observations:
- It's pointless to take on a pilot who's over a year old (and a member of a pirate corp, no less) if I've only got T1 guns and beginner defenses. I didn't do squat to him, despite the fact that he was right in my range for 99% of the fight.
- I should pick up thermodynamics. Even if it was a losing battle, it would have been nice to go down while overheating. That means engineer V, of course, but I could use the extra grid anyway.
- Picking fights in Tusker territory is a great way to meet some cool PVPers. It's not a great way, I suspect, for me to find equal fights. Most fights that I'll find there will probably be experienced pvpers, either the Tuskers themselves or pvpers looking to tangle with them. I'm not sure how much I'll learn from these fights if I only last 15 seconds.

Conclusion:
My opponent suggested that I don't lock myself into a punisher at the moment, but instead consider other frigates. Apparently, the other frigates have been buffed since the days when Taurean's punisher plan was written. My opponent suggested a Merlin and I'm considering it. Yes, I'll have to slow myself down to pick up caldari frigates, hybrid turrets, and some shield tanking skills. I'm concerned that I'm going to be a bit too jumpy and never really specialize. However, I don't think I'll ever regret having those skills and maybe I should experiment in a few different ships before settling on one for the long term. Of course, my first punisher fight ended so quickly, maybe it's the perfect ship for me and I didn't even know?

Hmmm. For now, caldari frigate is in the skill queue. I want to get back out and do some pvp, but I'm trying to decide if it's worthwhile before t2 guns.