It is gonna be hell

That was my first reaction when I heard my account had been unbanned.

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Overview

What’s the fastest ship in EVE? While I’m not sure about that, I am sure that the Crow is up there. It gives the the thrill to be able to dodge missiles and bullets and the ability to make someone really steamed when you bump them from jumping out of the next system.

While it is expensive, the role that it fills in fleets is important, such as catching up to targets and holding them in place, without running a great risk of having the tackler blown up. The Crow really is just a tackler, do not look for it to go solo and take on battlecruisers or crashing a gate camp.

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Skills

Over the last bit I have learned how to operate all shield related gang links. Right now I am training towards the mining gang links in anticipation for the Orca.

My plan right now is to finish some miscellaneous skills like overheating and then adjust my attributes for training missiles, spaceships, and guns related skills.  With this it seems the next year of skills are set for me!

PvE

Big news in this sector. My friends and I have started to run level 5 missions. So far we have completed 3, but only because the going does get quite tough!  They hand out good bounty for how long it takes; about 12,000 each for 45 minutes of work!

I am still working on more of those missions in a minute videos so there will be some more of that too.

In the spare times, I am trying to find some exploration sites but to no avail I just keep seeing wormholes. Keeping a log for escalations is my top priority right now when I do these sites.

PvP

I have attempted to do some PvP in my favorite frigate, the Incursus. So far I’ve killed a Merlin and lost two of it. I’m seeking more targets, so things should get more exciting!

Industry & Trade

Things have slowed down. My limited supply of invented BPC is killing my money flow. Less successes means less money earned, meaning more time needed, equaling in more money used.

My store has opened so if you want to purchase anything feel free. It is free delivery! I am at the same time researching a lot more blueprints to try to open some more doors.

Wealth

Wallet floating at 2 billion straight as I try to figure out what to do. I still have to set money aside for the line of Minmatar and Amarr ships I will buy, plus I am trying to fill my hanger with an Eagle, Rokh, Megathron, Blackbird, Crow, Ferox, and any other ships I don’t have but I can fly.

I don’t want to risk my new Brutix trying to do PvP with it because I know I will lose but it would be fun to scrimmage.

Other than that, there is only about another 100 million on the market and 50k LP points; hopefully that can convert to a smooth 75 million.

Question

Now it is your turn, what have you been doing?

Or not.

A Spark of Idea

As it is the usual Saturday afternoon, the three of us in my corp (Saft, Zoe, and I) sat in the corp chat channel discussing ship setups, plans, and researching something that was of the unknown.  Sooner or later, these conversations would lead us to an op; either missioning, can flipping, or very rarely, a mining op.  That night, however, was different.  As Saft questioned me about CovOp ships and other information on probing, this idea about ninja-salvaging came into his mind.

Ninja-Salvaging

He was training Astrometrics when he remembered the time we were ninja-salvaged from and he suggested we do the same thing.  I was at Astro. 3 and could use my probe launchers and 2 of the 5 recon probes.  Good enough.  Saft asked me to explain more on this subject to him and so I did; it was to scan down in a system any CNR’s, Ravens, and other missioning ships, then warp in on them and steal their salvage while they sit there helplessly.  It sounded like it’s a pretty fun way to get a few million eh?

Setting it all in Motion

Saft and I loaded up in our special new ship setups, and with our special ships they fit just perfectly!  These Manticore stealth bombers do the trick just perfect.  Enough space for salvaging as well as enough CPU for those probe launchers!  Undocking threw us out and we formulated a few plans.  First, find some spots in the system so we can get good cover with out probes.  At the time, I could only use the Fathom and Snoop probe, and Saft could only drop the Snoop.  So every 10AUs or so we bookmarked and dropped a  probe, and once half of the system was covered, we scanned.  This was my first time so I acted very noob, scanning for Cosmic Anomalies and Cosmic Signatures with recon probes.  A good waste of 5 minutes but hey, a lesson was learned.  Next up I finally remembered what someone said to me, “scan for ships!”.  No doubt, this next scan brought me a lot of results!

Yum Yum

We found 3 deadspaces marked by CNRs (Caldari Navy Ravens) on our first scans, and immediately after I start salvaging in one, I pressed analyze again.  While the computers were sweeping the system looking for ships, I blasted the afterburner and hurtled towards a what seemed to be a large Guristas wreck and as soon as I got into a range of 5000m, I activated all 3 of my Salvager Is.  One my first run I was successful, yes!  Saft flew in beside me into the complex and began his salvaging.  At this same time, Zoe became interested in what we were doing and decided to observe us and tag along in his Buzzard.  We hadn’t even noticed where he was when he told us he was right there beside us, thanks to his CovOps cloak that enabled him to warp unseen.

More of Us

Wow, there was quite the bit of people also ninja-salvaging.  During our time so far, we had met about 3 other ships trying to get and salvage what they can.  Of course, we were faster and managed to get to the salvage faster and pull the materials out quicker.  Thank goodness for lots of high slots and good skills, I think today’s work will pay off very well…

One Down, Two Left

On accident, Zoe pressed warp on an acceleration gate and was slung into the next room of the deadspace.  Once he arrived, all the space debris around him decloaked his ship and then the enemies began to shoot on him.  The debris that decloaked him also bumped the Buzzard around and the warp vector he was trying to go to did not align with his ship.  A few seconds later, the frigate became a blue flash in the sky and he was left in his pod.  A distress signal was sent to Saft and I and we began evacuation procedures right away.  When Saft warped in with his Manticore, he got shot before he could retrieve Zoe’s belongings so he had to make an emergency dock… at a station without any repair mechanics!  A quick message was sent to a private contractor and in less than 10 minutes, his ship was repaired and ready to go again.  While Saft missed his goal, I was able to switch out of the stealth bomber for a speedy interceptor and zipped over to Zoe’s wrecks, grabbed everything I could and got the heck out of there!

Two Down, One Left

Okay, after that first incident, Saft and I split up and Zoe left for a while.  During this time, I happily salvaged about 4 more deadspace pockets before Saft told me he was shot down.  Oh dear, what happened this time?  The transmission between us two kept cutting out, but eventually I found his wreck and retrieved his stuff.  Probe launcher, probes, some salvage; hey, most of the good stuff survived!

Let’s Call it a Day

T’was getting late, ships were being blow up, voices grew tiresome, and a good chunk of salvage has been found.  Zoe retired a long time ago and Saft decided to go dock up, adjust some orders and finish his routines.  As I headed back to the station, I scanned one more time to see one last time if there are any delicious stuff still laying around.  Bingo, a hit with a Drake, a Nightmare, and a Cormorant!  Tired, but I though I could do this one last one as if there were more than two people doing a mission, then sure had to be full of salvage!  I took off to the location and when I landed, I saw the Nightmare tractoring loot in for salvage and loot.  Quickly I turned on the afterburners and caught up to it.  Before he could even get another cycle on the salvage, I yoinked them from his grasps and he broadcasts into the local channel demanding I give him his stuff back.  Like I always do, I ignored his request and keep going.

The Waiting Game

His friends must have warped out of the next room because as soon as I got the last wreck, they warped into the first, already cleared room.  A guy named Beepus started a private message conversation with me and I replied:

Beepus: u want this stuff m8? go for it, u warp in and tank for us and u can keep the stuff
Me: Nah, i’ll let you tank!
Beepus: hows ur patience tank m8?
Me: Good, it’s a slow sunday afternoon so i’m pretty chill.
Beepus: well good man, i got so much pot and alcohol and powders we coulod be here for a week ;)
Me: Cool stuff.

Looks like he wanted to wait.  Alright then, no problem with me.  Then after a while when his patience got to him, he said:

Beepus: for sure, u obvuioulsy not 13.. that gives u a few plus points
Beepus: ok ur boring, we going thru the gate gonna clean up, dont know what ur doing
Beepus: u smoke or drink?

I was doing some maintenance on the ship so I didn’t bother to respond to him*.  I have lots of patience!

Hurry Into the Pod

I ran towards my pod as the ship began to buckle; I had to act quick to survive.  The crew has already scramble for whatever was available or left and just as I jumped into the little egg, the ship exploded; the second blue flash I saw today.  So this Beepus guy hired a mercenary and both of them suicide killed me with Caracals.  Hehe, I laughed and went back to the station to grab my Crow again.  In no time I was able to warp back and loot all three ship’s wrecks while his friend in the Nightmare just sat there looking at space.  Hey, I got some pretty nice stuff; my ship was uninsured because T2 insurance is just corrupt; there were T2 heavy missile launchers and various other good stuff!

The Final Act

Done and done, finally.  Lost my ship but tonight covered all expenses.  It was a super fun night and after signing some contracts, I made for my quarters.

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*I actually wasn’t working on the ship, but rather alt-tabbed out doing some homework…  That is another lesson learned in the same day; EVE is not a game to be played in AFK mode!

I apologize for the lateness of my post.  But seeing as how everyone’s pretty much done and over with the QR (Quantum Rise) features and changes, this will give me a chance to capitalize on getting more audiences!  Being away with no posts put me into the risk of getting kicked off the blogpack, oh nos, please don’t CK!

Anyways, back on topic…  My sweet loving Crow has been nerfed into a stuttering frigate!  Well, I shouldn’t say nerf specifically, and I know that there are people out there who are Speed-Haters.  I use to be one of them.  But still, it always hurts when something that was really close to you is taken away.  One of the things I was able to get away with in the past was to just have some of the bear minimal of skills to fly this thing at a good speed, but now it’s time to get back to training more navigational skills.  Well after all my other 140-day skills finish anyways.

There has been a new poll added to the side bar (should be right to the left of this) and I would love to know how you are enjoying QR.

A few friends of mine are still flying Jiz-Lobbers, er, I mean Ravens, for running missions.  They are complaining that they can no longer kill the smaller frigates or destroyers anymore.  Thankfully I have switched to drones and guns this last summer, these missions are still the same to me!  A dozen (5) Hobgoblins and a dozen Hammerheads does the trick for me.  When the approaching frigates are buzzing towards me, it’s just insta-pop after insta-pop.

But enough of my bragging; the hubris will kill me.  I have a tip for all my fellow mission runners that are having some problems.

Tip 1, train up those drones skills.  For most missions, use 5 Hobgoblins and 5 Hammerheads to take care of the frigates.

Tip 2, if you are still using missiles, which is perfectly fine, fit a target painter on the mid slots.  Hey I know you don’t need every single one of those to build your tank.  And if you are Minmatar, this is your EW and now you can’t say it’s not effective compared to ECM or dampeners, because it is!

Tip 3, you have 2 free slots on the Raven after 6 cruise launchers.  Fit some fracking guns and train some of those skills after getting drones.  You do not need 2 more heavy nosferatus to keep your tank going.  If you need help, message me, but don’t look at my review on the Raven, I need to update it with more relevant information.  2 medium rails or artillery will do the job fine!

Final tip, grab some corp mates and duel/tri/quad those missions.  It is a lot funner, slower burnout.  It is a lot more beneficial for the corp, share the standings and LP please. And finally, playing with others is what EVE is about!

Okay now, end rant.

I would love to know what your past tactics are and how are you adapting them to the changes of QR?  If it didn’t really affect you, I would also love to know why.  Take your time to leave your comments, who knows how long it will be again until I post back at you, but I promise I will give you a good responce!

Fly safe and buy my stuff!