EVEpiracy

When I started playing EVE Online, I saw that there were hundreds of n00bs, just like me, all over the universe. I’d see them in corp chat, I’d run into them everywhere. Mining in low sec, ratting anywhere, there was always a n00b around.

Now that I’m no longer in an NPC corp and I’m beginning to actually hunt the n00bs, all I see all around me are players with 1+ year of experience. What’s a new pirate gotta do to find some marks?

I’ve been toying with the idea of tooling around in a T2 fitted Slasher and flipping cans in high sec. It seems a little trite, but maybe it’s a way to cut my teeth, so to speak. I’m a little worried about the survivability of a Slasher, but it seems that the Rifter is just too scary for people. Maybe I need to move into Caldari space or something..

I’m totally annoyed at myself.

I was just reading this and I realize that my stardard fit for a hurricane isn’t all that bad.  I still don’t think I have the skills to have survived in my battle with the vagabond, but I might have done a lot better, maybe even scared her into backing off.

However, the fact remains, I’m still a small fish in a big pond.

Last night I was doing some roaming in a pirate fit rifter.  I know how much I can chew in a rifter, and I’m unlikely to bite off more than I can, but the problem is that there is almost always a shark swimming in the ponds that I’m looking in, and I seem to have better luck finding sharks than guppies.

So, I was patrolling Resboko, Auner, and Evati last night, and in each of these sectors, there was always someone with a -5 or lower sec rating and at least 1 year of experience also roaming around.  I’m not too worried, they’re almost always in battleships or battlecruisers, which, A) I know I have no business trying to tackle, and B) I can usually run from before they get within dangerous range.  Even in the case that they warp in somewhere right on top of me, my rifter is fit for speed, so I can usually turn and warp before they get a lock on me, and if not, I can usually outrun their jammer.  Now, of course, there’s always the chance that I’m busy and don’t notice them until they get within web/jammer range and they use both, and I can’t crawl out of jam range before they pop me, but that hasn’t happened in awhile.

So far - pirates: 5, me: 0

or.. why a newbie should never go exploring in a battlecruiser

First, let me start off by saying that I’m a young character who started life with merchant skills. In fact, I’ve got more than 50% of my skills still in trade and social, so I’m not a fighter. I can barely fly a battlecruiser, let alone fit it for PvP.

And yet, I thought it would be a good idea to try to take down some Gist camps in .4 space with one. I am pretty sure I would have done just fine, if it weren’t for the Vagabond that showed up and decided that my expensive PvE fit Hurricane looked like a juicy morsel.

And so it was.

I was holding my own for quite some time, but I have autocannon specialization and I’d fitted artillery to try to hit the camp from a distance and not get overwhelmed. I couldn’t even hit the vagabond, and while my drones were doing the best they could while my missiles took out the pirate’s drones, it was just a matter of time.

I had one hell of a passive shield tank set up, and it held for a good long time. Long enough that it scared my opponent, as was revealed in a private conversation after I’d been popped, but not long enough. Of course I tried to run, but warp jammers have a way of stopping you when you’re slower than your opponent.

We had a rather nice conversation after the fact. I imagine most people would be pissed off, I consider it an expensive lesson well learned. I’d spent well over 100M ISK on that hurricane and the fittings, including two faction gyroscopes, and one of them dropped for my opponent. I’m sure that she was happy with that, but it definitely drove the message home for me.
The morale of the story - I’m a trader first and a frigate pilot second - all other things are best left until I get the skills up. I am better served in a well fit Rifter than a poorly fit Hurricane.