28 July 2015

Ship Fitting for Mad Bastards 101

aka My experience being in Oceanic Assault




So I'm in this competition thing called Oceanic Assault. http://oceanicassault.com/
I dont work for them, so not here to plug them. I'm just in it.

It's a 1v1 Tech 1 Cruiser duel. Every 2 weeks there is an elimination round. The finals start next round.

Now the challenge with this, is that it is a fair fight. Only T1 Cruisers, T1-meta-T2 modules. All implants, all drugs acceptable. No faction anything except ammo. No faction drones, no Gecko's.

No Links.

When I read the rules when this popped up on reddit, I went, shit, this is the competition I have been training for my whole eve life. For every minute of every day my competition has been in fleets blobbing with their links and logi, I've been out there, solo dying, learning, dying and learning to finally find new ways to win.

Cool. I thought I could win a round or two at least before I ran into a hardcore PvP'er and got obliterated.

Something like 128 players or so joined in on the comp. Lot of fights were going to be had.

They drew the random draws for who you get to fight for the first qualifying match.

Bam Stroker vs. edeity

FUCK.

Bam is well known. I wanted to try recruit him ages back when he was in low sec to be my AUTZ PVP champion. He was now in Van Diemens Demise, in PL. FUCK. Also if not THE at one of the most well known AUTZ pvpers.... oh well. Here goes.

Now the meta for the first round was unknown. Lots of theories. My thoughts were that vexors and Caracals would dominate the field, and a few odd asymmetric fits.The problem with t1 cruisers it is VERY paper rock scissors. If you go with something there IS a counter to it. If you go generalist fit, you will die to most specialist fits.

So I went with an extreme asymmetric fit. Heavy Beam Slave Implant Sensor Boosted no prop mod Maller. 85k ehp. But my tracking was shit. But I could hit at 100km. That'll do Red, that'll do.



Fights at this stage were not being streamed, so no one knew what was happening besides text commentary after the fights. nerve wracking.

I'm up. Say something polite to Bam. Fleet with the referee. Undock. No drugs.

At this point what do? I can warp anywhere from 0 to 70 from the Ref, Bam the same from opposite direction.

Because I couldnt track (and had no idea what he was in) I thought would use the battlefield and rules to my advantage. If I'm on the edge, he cant orbit me. Mean he has to tack, so worst case im going to hit him full blast on the turns. Further away less turns but better tracking chance to hit. Closer, more tacks so more hitting him on turns.

Fight starts.

Bam is being a bit tentative. He has warped close but not too close. I am at 70. So a total of around 100km between us.

Swap to range script on sensor booster. Target him as he approaches at 95. Start firing at him.

After a few seconds he realises that whilst the hits are not massive damage, I'm not fucking around. He cant sit at range.

He burns at me. This is his mistake.

He is in an Omen. Omen is great ship but has shit grid and bad capacitor. Typically the fit will have a single small cap booster. Enough to just sustain the lasers and the odd rep. I can't tell his fit at this point.

Im still plinking away at him with my Heavy Beams as he closes to 30. I swap crystals damage heats up. Bam deploys drones and start tacking. Smart. He has at least the sense to know to avoid taking a lot of my dps by using tracking.

He deploys drones. I deploy mine. My drones are on his ship, he focuses his drones on my drones. I think his strategy here was not too bad. Take out the dps that could definitely hit him and mitigate my beams by continuing the tacking back and forth. But focsing on my drones buys me time. While his cap is depleted.

He is landing reps as I start to dig into his armour, and he is slowly grinding into my ungodly buffer tank. His goes a lot faster despite his higher dps, due to relative difference of probably my 4-5x his EHP. His reps become sporadic. I can't tell if its cap issues or he has ACR.

His reps drop off completely, im in 1/3 armour, and then he is in hull. The boom. He had killed my drones.

Victor Amarr, round 1 to edeity.


https://zkillboard.com/kill/47816114/




Now It Gets Real


Well, some good strategy, but also a bit of luck there. I could have been defeated. Slightly better cap management, and a willingness to accept a beating to save cap from using the MWD - and choosing either active or passive fit - and it could have been a loss for me. He was a skilled pilot, knew what he was doing, adapted to the situation, I think mostly I won because I confused him with my own plan being outside the box of what he expected.

Next fight, I could not afford to rely on luck and surprise so much. Had to really know the meta... maybe consider getting into a dirty dirty Vexor. OR DID I!

HELL NOES. IM GONNA BLOOD RAIDER THIS BITCH UP.

Run through all the best ways to be a neuting ass kicking mofo that can kill a Vexor or a Caracal.

Came back to using a Maller.

Testing my concept on paper, how much cap could be neuted, could I survive a Thorax at point blank long enough to neut him? What if he has a cap booster? Do I go passive tank or active?

The problem with the Maller is that every Neut you add, means one less gun. And one less gun is a LOT of the dps. By my calcs with mid grade Talismans I would need 3 small neuts or 1.5 medium neuts to effectively neut out a thorax with a cap booster before it could break my tank. To fit this I would have to go active tank. Passive just would not cut the mustard for having enough buffer. You need to take a beat, it is after all a 2 player game... just because you have a plan doesn't mean the other guy doesn't. Learnt this many times in low sec - its not the fights you expect to lose to worry about - its the other fights you need to worry about. Have a plan for when your plan gets thrown in your face. Thats the difference in low sec.

So active it has to be. But small neuts - no im worried about range. Scram kiting or web kiting is a thing. A skilled pvper can do that. Mediums are best - I can neut even if webbed to hell.

Try about twenty variations of fits. Finally settle on 2 medium nets, 3 focused pulse, dual rep, dual medium cap boosters, MWD, res of lows energized armour resists, DCU and one Power diag for some extra grid. I need the implant slots for my Talismans. This fit lives or dies by getting a neut lock on.

Ship is set up ready to go. I have never flown a Maller setup like this before, and cerrtainly never seen anyone with this fit. But it is basically a severely gimped webless Ashimmu. That I was familiar with.

1 day before the fight my pod full of Talisman Implants is destroyed on Amarr station. The joys of AUTZ lag and being suspect because you didnt check when you warped into Amarr because the fleet your FC said were blues but not marked blue decided to blow up every faction ship in our fleet because someone locked on their FC...

Buy new head of implants. Decide to go all the way, get all +5% support implants for a neuting ship and laser turrets. I guess I could fly one mean ass Ashimmu or Pilgrim when this is over.

Fight time.




Verse Askold v edeity

Now I tried doing some research on Verse before the fight. Looked like from Killboard he did some wormhole stuff and mostly involved in fleet fights. I LOVE fighting solo people who are eleet fleet pvpers. They tend to suck solo. No boosts or backup here sunshine. But I couldn't get a read on this guys skill level. His last fight in the competition he had won because of a forfeit. Gah. No idea what he would bring.

Stick to the plan.

So before the fight, here is the chat in alliance.

[ 2015.07.26 09:16:38 ] edeity > im fighting a guy from adhocracy
[ 2015.07.26 09:16:46 ] edeity > are they like a pvp corp?
[ 2015.07.26 09:17:06 ] edeity > Verse Askold
[ 2015.07.26 09:19:13 ] Techno36 > wh group?
[ 2015.07.26 09:19:20 ] edeity > dunno
[ 2015.07.26 09:19:28 ] edeity > killboard looks wormholy
[ 2015.07.26 09:19:38 ] edeity > lot of corp members
[ 2015.07.26 09:19:55 ] edeity > im guessing hes shit wthout links and 20 other guys
[ 2015.07.26 09:20:04 ] Techno36 > lol

And then when it gets to the pointy end of almost being time:


[ 2015.07.26 12:30:12 ] Techno36 > you fought yet?
[ 2015.07.26 12:31:15 ] edeity > no
[ 2015.07.26 12:31:19 ] edeity > v soon
[ 2015.07.26 12:31:33 ] edeity > Strong Exile Booster ;)
[ 2015.07.26 12:31:46 ] Techno36 > hahah any sideeffects?
[ 2015.07.26 12:31:58 ] edeity > ive got a std running atm
[ 2015.07.26 12:32:01 ] Callaglyph > 7h till heavy drone op level 5. :)
[ 2015.07.26 12:32:01 ] Techno36 > you have implants as well?
[ 2015.07.26 12:32:05 ] Callaglyph > time to go to sleep.
[ 2015.07.26 12:32:05 ] edeity > ofc
[ 2015.07.26 12:32:09 ] edeity > 1bn in implants
[ 2015.07.26 12:32:13 ] edeity > just for this ship
[ 2015.07.26 12:32:21 ] Techno36 > lmao
[ 2015.07.26 12:32:49 ] edeity > best head of implants ive ever had for this configuration
[ 2015.07.26 12:33:03 ] edeity > ill link fit once fight begins
[ 2015.07.26 12:33:13 ] edeity > and then youll go oh hes fucked
[ 2015.07.26 12:34:10 ] Techno36 > once the fight ends
[ 2015.07.26 12:34:14 ] Techno36 > no distractions
[ 2015.07.26 12:34:19 ] Techno36 > you gotta win
[ 2015.07.26 12:34:23 ] Techno36 > also fight when
[ 2015.07.26 12:38:26 ] edeity > another fight on atm
[ 2015.07.26 12:38:29 ] edeity > mine is near end
[ 2015.07.26 12:41:49 ] Techno36 > lmao
[ 2015.07.26 12:41:50 ] Techno36 > what was that moa
[ 2015.07.26 12:43:13 ] Mooseyman > yeah using MMJDs?
[ 2015.07.26 12:43:21 ] Mooseyman > probably just a mind game
[ 2015.07.26 12:49:20 ] Techno36 > eietyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
[ 2015.07.26 12:49:39 ] Mooseyman > i think hes fighting nw
[ 2015.07.26 12:49:45 ] Techno36 > no
[ 2015.07.26 12:49:47 ] Techno36 > stream is clear
[ 2015.07.26 12:49:50 ] Techno36 > unless its mega delayed
[ 2015.07.26 12:49:53 ] Techno36 > but I don't think so
[ 2015.07.26 12:49:58 ] Mooseyman > theres probably a delay
[ 2015.07.26 12:50:09 ] Mooseyman > he just said in corp chat it was starting
[ 2015.07.26 12:50:11 ] edeity > ISD news reporting is setting up
[ 2015.07.26 12:50:20 ] edeity > its starting nowish...
[ 2015.07.26 12:50:23 ] edeity > now...
[ 2015.07.26 12:50:31 ] Techno36 > GL
[ 2015.07.26 12:50:32 ] Techno36 > !
[ 2015.07.26 12:50:37 ] Techno36 > bring honor to ctrlv
[ 2015.07.26 12:50:49 ] Techno36 > wait
[ 2015.07.26 12:50:50 ] Techno36 > no
[ 2015.07.26 12:50:50 ] edeity > fffs not yet
[ 2015.07.26 12:50:53 ] Techno36 > this isn't you
[ 2015.07.26 12:50:58 ] edeity > another fight first
[ 2015.07.26 12:51:03 ] edeity > they called me and everything
[ 2015.07.26 12:51:18 ] Mooseyman > haha
[ 2015.07.26 12:51:20 ] Techno36 > lmao
[ 2015.07.26 12:51:23 ] Techno36 > mmjds banned
[ 2015.07.26 12:51:53 ] edeity > edeity > did you know that DNG is recruiting?
[ 2015.07.26 12:52:00 ] edeity > in the official channel
[ 2015.07.26 12:52:03 ] Techno36 > kek
[ 2015.07.26 12:53:00 ] Techno36 > 2 more fights
[ 2015.07.26 12:53:02 ] Techno36 > after this one
[ 2015.07.26 12:53:04 ] Techno36 > before you
[ 2015.07.26 12:53:57 ] Techno36 > wtf
[ 2015.07.26 12:54:04 ] Techno36 > are these people all dumb or something
[ 2015.07.26 12:54:10 ] Techno36 > I could pick anyone from dng and they would do better
[ 2015.07.26 12:54:46 ] edeity > omfg
[ 2015.07.26 12:55:12 ] Techno36 > uhoh
[ 2015.07.26 12:55:15 ] Techno36 > they said only 2 matches left
[ 2015.07.26 12:55:20 ] Techno36 > but on their website there are 3 more
[ 2015.07.26 12:55:23 ] Techno36 > maybe one dropped
[ 2015.07.26 12:55:34 ] edeity > IT TIME!!!!!!!!
[ 2015.07.26 12:55:40 ] edeity > ME
[ 2015.07.26 12:55:43 ] Techno36 > ALRIGHT BOIS
[ 2015.07.26 12:55:47 ] Techno36 > YOU CAN DO IT
[ 2015.07.26 12:55:55 ] Techno36 > BRING HONOR TO CTRLV
[ 2015.07.26 12:55:59 ] Techno36 > I BELIEVE
[ 2015.07.26 12:56:03 ] Techno36 > HYPE HYPE HYPE
[ 2015.07.26 12:56:36 ] Techno36 > COME ONTO TS BOIS
[ 2015.07.26 12:56:40 ] Techno36 > WE GONNA HAVE A STREAM PARTY
[ 2015.07.26 12:57:03 ] Techno36 > no spoilers we're like 30 seconds behind irl
[ 2015.07.26 12:57:28 ] edeity > Sanguis Exterminatus full head of talismans and +5% support implants...
[ 2015.07.26 12:57:42 ] Techno36 > w-wat
[ 2015.07.26 12:57:48 ] Techno36 > lol
[ 2015.07.26 12:57:51 ] Techno36 > also never fit t2 mwds
[ 2015.07.26 12:57:53 ] Techno36 > lol
[ 2015.07.26 12:58:09 ] Techno36 > actually it might work in this instance
[ 2015.07.26 12:58:10 ] Techno36 > yolo
[ 2015.07.26 12:58:24 ] Moosey Kalkoken > they are a bit faster, sometimes might be worth it
[ 2015.07.26 12:58:29 ] Techno36 > ohhhhhhhhhhhhh
[ 2015.07.26 12:58:31 ] Techno36 > right the rebalance
[ 2015.07.26 12:58:32 ] Techno36 > nvm me
[ 2015.07.26 12:58:36 ] Techno36 > forgot about that


And the fight is on.Streamed. The alliance (Local is Primary) watching, or at least the ones awake. 

Now I had been being a bit clevar.

I had brought my old Maller from last fight and sat in it outside the station in Sarum Prime on and off and let a lot of ships check me out. For about 2 hours before the fight. Taking care to be undocked when my opponent was in local. I also theorised there was a high probability he talked to Bam. These old timer Aussies are pretty tight knit. Im not in their club. So I wanted to send some false positives his way. So meta...

Time to fight. Docked, swapped to my real ship, freshly named "Sanguis Exterminatus" I wanted to give a hint what he was in for if he knew latin and Amarr/Blood Raider Lore.

Warp to Planet 1. Then warp to referee at chosen range.

I choose 70km again. It would be harder doing this if they are a kiting caracal... but otherwise they will burn cap to get to me - doing half the job of my neuts for me.

I'm listening to the gamer radio broadcast live of my fight. I can hear they pause when they scan my ship and can't quite make out if its a failfit or genius, and then just announce "edeity meets the requirements".

Fight on.

Verse Askold has warped to about 20km. So 70km between us.

Fuck. He is in a Vexor. Despite being the dominant meta, it probably has best chance against me besides a damping Caracal.

I dont move. Just sit. Drones in.

"Verse Askold is approaching edeity"
"edeity is not moving"
"looks like the maller will be range fit"
"No edeity may be trying to lure Verse in"

30km. Verrse has deployed drones and is burning full speed to me.

I lock target.

I MWD straight at Verse.

"hes moving!"

[ 2015.07.26 12:59:44 ] Techno36 > OH BABY THAT SKIN
[ 2015.07.26 13:03:29 ] Techno36 > lmao they think he is neuting you not the other way around
[ 2015.07.26 13:03:42 ] Techno36 > LOL
[ 2015.07.26 13:04:40 ] Techno36 > don't fforget your rones
[ 2015.07.26 13:06:26 ] Techno36 > THEY ARE SO PERPELXED WITH YOUR FIT
[ 2015.07.26 13:06:27 ] Techno36 > lmao
[ 2015.07.26 13:09:22 ] Techno36 > AYYYYYY
[ 2015.07.26 13:09:25 ] Techno36 > DNG DNG DNG DNG DNG
[ 2015.07.26 13:09:38 ] Mooseyman > hes not even in DnG
[ 2015.07.26 13:10:10 ] Mooseyman > AMOINK AMONK AMONK

Verse tries to bump me out of the arena. Close. No cigar. Sorry son, saw that one coming.

He gets to 10km. I have not fired a shot.

NEUTS ON.

I am being hammerd by full flight of Hammerhead IIs and Blasters.

My tank holds.

His guns stop firing.

I start firing.

Deploy my drones.

He realises the fight is not going to plan. Takes evasive action. Tries to move away. I follow. I move as fast as he does without either of us having prop mods on.

Conflag firing away.

The big issue now is that he has 2 ASB's. I cannot break the tank because my dps is so crap because I gimped it for the neuts. But he never gets it fully repaired after a reload cycle.

He dips into armour.

Gets shield back to full.

Dips a bit further into armour.

Shit im running LOW on Navy Cap Booster 800s. I am dead in the water without cap.

Turn off all neuts. Micro manage armour reps. They are nearly burnt out from surviving the balsters + drones earlier, so cant use overheating. Have to be very careful.

Dip into his hull.

Back to full shields.

Last Cap booster charge. <10% capacitor left

BOOM.

[ 2015.07.26 13:10:18 ] edeity > VICTOR AMARR
[ 2015.07.26 13:10:49 ] Techno36 > AM-OINK AM-OINK AM-OINK
[ 2015.07.26 13:11:03 ] Techno36 > I shitted up twitch chat in your honor
[ 2015.07.26 13:12:58 ] edeity > lol cheers

https://zkillboard.com/kill/48092608/

After the fight I found out Verse Askold burnt out one of his ASBs - I suspect near the end. It was damn close, and actually a lot closer than I think he realised. He did well. I am also pretty happy that I beat a ship that I knew had a very good chance of beating me, so I'm still gonna take it as a win.

Then I basically posted shit in alliance and every other channel about how awesome at PvP I am and no one payed any attention.

So there you have it. What its like on the ground to be part of Oceanic Assualt.



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