Rokh, the shiny expensive hybrid toy.

Amazing, yet you don’t see it in service as much as some of the other battleships, like the Raven. Why? Well, there are several reasons:

1. It’s shear expensiveness. The ship itself sells for about 110 million on market, about 20-30 million more than the Raven. Plus insurance and buying good fittings for it, that will in all put a 180-200 million ISK hole in your wallet. And since some people don’t know how to save ships from death, they don’t want to risk loosing their money.

2. It’s a very skill intensive ship. To pilot this beast it effectively, a lot of skills are needed. They include many gunnery skills trained up to at least level 4, along with some shielding skills, engineering skills, and electronic skills up to at the lowest 3.

3. It’s rails turn a lot of people away since most Caldarians like the traditional style of combat, which is hurling missiles. A majority of players trained up for heavy missiles, then cruise launchers because all we fly are Drakes, Ravens, Caracals, and the Kestrel frigate. These would be considered to be some of the more powerful ships to fly and easier to use. Velocity times flight time equals distance. With guns there are tracking speed, radial velocity, transversal velocity, radial velocity, velocity, signature radius, and finally you can figure out the gun’s optimal range.

But through this all, why do some people still purchase this ship? Let me tell you. The ship itself is very strong once the battleship skill reaches 4 or 5. Then the built-in tank works very well at 20-25 plus percent; its like a free invulnerability field built in! The range bonus help the massive guns reach ranges of 150 to 200 kilometers where you can pick ships off.

With this in mind, it takes the enemy a while before they can actually come close enough and hit you. A good word of warning though, when some ships get very close (less than 10km), it is nearly impossible to hit them. That’s when drones are essential, especially tech 2 drones because they do a lot more damage. Maybe fitting a nos on one of the high slots will dry off that pesky interceptor or frigate.

The tactic that I suggest with this ship is to first pick of and thin out the frigate fleet before they come too close and are orbiting too fast for your turrets to track or their transversal are too high to hit them for full damage with your guns. If you don’t take them out fast enough and they scrambled then that’s when things will go to hell. Make sure you focus fire on ships because each ship with 1 hitpoint does the same amount of damage and can still be as dangerous as a ship with 1000 hitpoints. Not only this but then it’s easier to kill them as they are recieving more DPS and can not tank, boost, or repair as if you split the damage two or three ways.

Then after the frigates are taken out and come too close, throw your drones on them and start hitting the battleships with the target painters on them to do full damage. By the time that the battleships are taken down, your tank should be able to hold much better and then the drones are taken out too! Remember that whenever you can warp at 100km, do it, because put some iron charges in and this way you don’t have to worry about getting hit, at least for a little while.

This ship definitely gives awe simply by its presence, especially in the some of the beginner systems, since it’s rarely spotted. It you are the pilot of this ship, join a fleet with some corp members and just go blasting the enemy away. One thing, I wouldn’t take this exotic ship through unfamiliar territories though, it’s far too expensive for most people to throw away. Well, unless you are a multi-billionaire.

[expand title=Technical Information:]

• 10% large hybrid optimal range per level
• 5% shield resistance per level
• Default targeting range is 90 km with 7 locked targets
• Velocity is 110 m/sec with 50 m3 of drone capacity
• Shield hit points is 8500 and recharges in 2500 seconds
• Power grid is at 15000MW, 780ft of CPU, and 400 calibration points
• There are 8 high slots, 6 medium slots, 5 low slots, and 3 rig slots
• 4 slots for launchers and 8 for turrets[/expand]

Suggested Role: Level 4 missions, solo or in a fleet

[ratings]

Even before I got my Crow, lately it’s just been a lot of cruising around in belts looking for Guristas and doing some small complexes that are not empty. I guess it’s fun for the first bit while, but then it gets really redundant.

Then I tried to spice things up by flipping cans, waiting for can flippers, and taking wrecks hoping someone would engage in a 1 vs 1 battle with me. So far that hasn’t been working out very well either.

Other than that, here is a small list of past events:

• Had scouting help from Zoe for a hauling route through some low sec systems to retrieve my order of tritanium with my Badger Mark II.
• Almost got a kill in Akiainavas (Moa) with my Crow but he got out of warp scramble range, which is 24km, for some reason. Almost had him, he was down to 20% hull. Then we were able to recruit a new corp mate who is an active miner.
• Me and Zoe joined in on a mining operation with our good friends over in the Kul corporation and at the end, Saft surprised me and interrupted me when he brought in his cloaked Manticore.
• Then our corp did some little PVP and had some fun flying our ships
• The corp did a few missions for fun times.
• Went and tried to gang flipped cans. We first tried to lure other people to us by dropping our own can with minerals in it. Not a lot of people tried to steal our containers so we stole from others. Very good operation for a first fleet flip.
• Received another new corp mate
• Back to level 4′s with Saft, Zoe, and Busta. Yay!

Ya, that’s what I do, besides throwing up some sell orders and contracts.

I also wanted to share with you guys on how things have been going and to present to you some of the beautiful scenery of EVE online!

Jita:

Missioning:

Can Flipping:

Ratting

Mining:

Ah, weeks of training do pay off in the end.

As I wake up to another morning in New Eden, I felt ready for what was to come today. This morning I quickly finished all my necessary tasks, filling out contracts and orders so I can have more time to spend with my new beauty.

Once lunch was taken in, I strolled down to my new station hanger. It took a week for me and the crew to move everything into it. I pause at the control panel and select ship storage 8. The floor in front opens and cycles through my other ships; the Rokh, Caracal, Raven, an empty slot where I used to put my Drake, 2 shuttles, and a Cormorant destroyer; until finally the gleaming black frigate rose into view.

Only four or five members of the crew was around at the time since this ship was meant to be piloted by a single person. They looked with interest and when the door hissed open, I stepped in to get to know the cockpit better. Sitting back with the manuals in my hands, I thought to myself that anyone who doesn’t read up the instructions on these things must be real idiots.

This time since the ship was so small, I personally fitted the ship up myself in about an hour and when all of that wad done, then ignited the propulsion systems. Wow this thing has power. Crisp voices flowed through to the tower controls as I asked for undock permission.

Once out in space, everything seemed much bigger to me than before. I sent out into Corp com a message about the Crow and took her on a test flight. The nearest Gurista filled asteroid belt is in Umokka; just 2 jumps away. Plugging that coordinate into autopilot I noticed the ship had an overpowered warp drive that slung you into warp at 3x the speed of most other ships.

It took no time to find a small gang of Gurista frigates and I initiated the test you the ship’s systems and capabilities. Optimal orbit range is 25km; 19.5km for warp scramble. As Bloodclaw missiles fired off in succession, it did not take long for those frigates to become scrap metal. I noticed my shields remain at 99% and checked the log. Amazing! The gang of 3 had only hit me for a total of 13.7 damage.

As I got a bit restless from a day of playing with my new toy, a fellow Corp mate hits me up for some friendly PvP in a nearby system. I’m always one for those and next thing I know, we were at a isolated planet with a few ships. They were in wonder when my T2 frigate glided into their visuals.

In that gang of ships, there was a Ferox, Kestrel, and a Caracal. As soon as we took out of each others’ cans, we engaged in some 1 versus 1 battles. It was obvious I could take the Caracal and Ferox’s shields down, but I did not want to use a lot of missiles, so I stopped after a full load was unleashed. They, however, did not scratch my shields more than 3%.

Through that little combat training exercise in the new ship, I think I may have convinced some people to train up for an interceptor now!

It was getting late, so I payed a station owner in that system a small fee and docked up for a night, and slept in my Crow.

Make sure to submit to the screenshot contest! It ends soon!

On 23:13:00 EVE time, a fleet of about 60 State Protectorate pilots engaged an enemy fleet of about 50 pilots, or so we had thought. Once we got there, about another 30 to 50 ships jumped in through and lagged us up.

This is what the fleet started out like, about 90 people.

Our plan was to go around back door from the Caldari high security space into Tama. There was hostiles in the only Tama station and we wanted to trap them inside and snipe/kill them off. 10 minutes later and we arrive. Things didn’t go so well because there was a neutral spy following us and another spy in our fleet. Most of the people inside that station escaped. We started to chased them down and was able to pick off one or two.

Later, we reach Heydieles and our recon says a fleet is parked on the Old Man Star to Villore. We decide to go after these guys and got the fleet ready. By that time when we got to the destination, we only had a little above half of the people remaining.

The battle was not the best I have ever had. It lagged like hell! I did not appreciate it because you would always target the wrong thing or shoot at something that wasn’t there anymore. Everyone zoomed out to try to reduce the lag, but more reinforcement ships just keep jumping in from the Gallente side. Now we were just trying to get those that we could.

Our fleet commander was still calling the primary targets, and we were able to successfully take some ships down. In the end, I helped to kill these guys:

• Victim: Kadean
• Location: Old Man Star
• Corp: Elite Underworld Special Forces
• Alliance: None
• Ship: Dominix [Fitting]

• Victim:Parmenides Elea
• Location: Old Man Star
• Corp: Wrath of Fenris
• Alliance: None
• Ship: Dominix [Fitting]

• Victim:Lucas Avignon
• Location: Old Man Star
• Corp: Avignon Associates Inc.
• Alliance: None
• Ship: Dominix [Fitting]

If you want to see my full kill board, please visit here.

Here is to the cool people that stuck it to the end, I salute you!

Corewin, CRUSH BOSS, Cuthbert Drake, Ecky Ptang, Kazabet, Lord Erebos, Marcuz Griffin, Ray Rosny, sakura okami, Splunk jamma, Tzu Wu, and Xanath Fireheart

Gallery, enjoy!

I took a journey with a few fleets over the past week and so far I would say they have been successful. We would jump 7 or 8 jumps and try to kill any war targets we could find on the way. Once we reach our destination, we would then sit on top of the gate for 20 to 30 minutes, waiting for prey to fall into our traps.

The fleets I was with starts out with about 60 to 70 guys, but on the way there, we would always lose about 10 or so people. Most of the time due to lag or them not following the fleet.

As I have also learned over these past experiences, our fleet commanders need to be smart and energetic. They needed to know how to asses the situation.

Yesterday, we sneaked deep behind enemy lines to capture about 20 complexes. It was one of the best times I have ever had in low security systems. In the end, we ended up with just about 20 people in the fleet after most of the people had to leave. I was able to rank up my State Protectorate status to a Second Lieutenant.

Among our fleet, we had 20 frigates, 30 or so cruisers, and 10 other sized ships. The few Raven pilots were our clubs to fend off and scare off any major enemies.

The whole time during these operations I flew my trusty Kestrel bomber. Fit it for going as fast as possible and doing as much damage as possible, I could blast any NPC pirates guarding inside the complexes. The FC was very determined and had a goal, to capture every complex we came to. He would send the frigates to the minor complexes, the cruisers to the standard complexes, and the battleships to the major installations.

In just 2 hours, we had captured 20 of these rooms for our faction.

But in the end, I had to stop my journey and retire for the night. I bid farewell to the rest of my gang and headed for my safe spot for the night.

May my journey continue tomorrow.

So, when I logged on Saturday morning, I noticed my corporation had been changed to Caldari Provisions.

I said, mhmm, what has happened? I took the following 3 actions;

1. Sent an EVE-Mail to my old corporation’s CEO, now waiting for his reply
2. Looked for a new corporation to join, but gave up after 10 minutes
3. Flew around in my Kestrel and shot things

Because I just didn’t really care, I decided to go into low security space and try to shoot some bigger pirates with my small frigate. Things didn’t go so well when I narrowly dodged a pirate with a ransom. Thank goodness I had a microwarpdrive equipped, or else I would never have had survived that painstaking 4km flight to the gate.

He was a Thorax pilot and when he first caught me, he demanded 5 million, but I wasn’t going to pay him when I decided to slowly move towards the gate… 15km to go.

I will bet he saw what had happened and then shot at me until he go to my armor. My speed is 30m/s just so you know. 8km to go. As I got closer to my salvation, he’s tone changed into a panic, demanding money.

I use my MWD and boost it! He shot me down to my hull now… 4km to go.

My ship was held together by some magical force as the it approached the gate withing 2500m.

Jump!

Haha, high sec, let’s see you get me now!

*Note: I am now looking for a new corporation…  It should be accommodating for a PvE’er with some benefits.  Located around Kakakela region with low or 0.0 security space.

4 light missiles that keep firing can rack up quite the bit of damage! Especially with the high bonuses from the ship itself.

In a small fleet, once aggro has been established, a few kestrels can help kill the smaller ships quickly and then move onto the large battleships.

I personally love flying this frigate because if you fly it fast enough and close enough to the enemy, they can’t hit you with very much damage. While your light missiles are still doing the maximum damage.

If engaging a bigger ship that is shooting big guns or big missiles at you, don’t worry too much. If you don’t know what I am talking about, check out this guide.

Quick gang PvP raids can include circling the target at 1000m/s with a microwarpdrive, web, and scramble. Try not to use rockets on the kestrel as it does not have a bonus for it.

Anyways, the missiles will launch at very fast speeds with the necessary skills trained up. When you are on the defensive, be sure to equip a booster or some hardeners to keep the shields up.

Overall, I think the Kestrel is a very good frigate to start out with. Or if you just want to fool around in low sec, it is a cheap and effective ship.

Either way, I’m sure you will have a blast with it!

[expand title=Technical Specs:]

• 10% bonus to kinetic missile damage
• 5% bonus to EM, explosive, and thermal missile damage
• Default targeting range is 40 km with 3 locked targets
• Velocity is 260 m/sec with 0 m3 of drone capacity
• Shield hit points is 391 and recharges in 625 seconds
• Power grid is at 30MW, 150ft of CPU, and 400 calibration points
• There are 4 high slots, 3 medium slots, 2 low slots, and 3 rig slots
• 4 slots for launchers and none for turrets[/expand]

[expand title=Speed Tank Setup:]

• 4 Standard Missile Launcher

• 1 1mn Afterburner
• 2 Cap Recharger

• 2 Reactor Control Unit[/expand]

[ratings]

As time passes, I will be writing more reviews for these ships. They include the:

• Ferox; hybrid eh? [In progress]
• Caracal; the Drake’s little brother. [In progress]
• Merlin; it’ll provide the pew pew.
• Kestrel; free missiles for everyone! [In progress]

Sorry if they are all Caldari ships, but those are the ones that I have piloted.

But if you are able to provide reviews, send me an email at tonglil@hotmail.com!

Stay tuned for moar!