Tuesday 15 February 2011

Flying a dual rep Rifter

I have found this fit somewhere and decided to give it a try, dual armour rep on frigate is a tricky business but hey its a learning exercise so why not.

Next day after scoring 2 good kills I went again my now well known route. To my surprise, in Cheneya system which is usually empty was 6 pilots, turned out one of my previous day victims was there with his corp. We have exchanged greetings and I started assessing situation.

After checking all guys in the system and confirming them to be bunch of harmless carebears I proceeded with scanning the system to find out what they are flying. Apart of usual ships which I have known to be parked in the POSes I noticed 1 Maelstrom, 2 Drakes, 2 Caracals, Manticore. Charging on them in lone Rifter is probably not a smartest of the moves but I figured if I can catch Manticore alone, I could probably pop it and dissapear long before reinforcements arrive.

They were moving from one celestial to another, I followed Manticore staying on my observation spots in the system. Eventually Manticore and Maelstrom ended together up on a belt with rest of the group out of scanner range, that was the moment I was waiting for. All systems of my Rifter were overloaded on landing, I came out of warp 5km from Manticore and Maelstrom, it was very quick fight, Manticore was hitting the armour when Maelstrom sent 5 Warriors II on me. 4 more ships appeared on directional as I engaged my warp systems but when they arrived there was only frustrated Maelstrom pilot and a pile of rubble which used to be fancy stealth bomber. Not wanting to risk facing rest of that crew I left wreck without looting it.

My appetite grew after this initial kill and I resumed that cat and mouse play trying to catch one of the Caracals solo. Working hard on my directional I have noticed them trying to set a trap on me, they left one of the Caracals on the belt and stationed rest of the group on nearest planet. Just a moment later local ticked up by one notch, a pirate from a corp to which I lost my first Rifter came in Vaga and quickly found single Caracal parked between asteroids. I decided to snatch the killmail even risking loosing Rifter should Vaga pilot turn on me before finishing Caracal. He either decided me to be friendly or unworthy his attention and without even locking my Rifter let me warp off soon after Caracal went up in flames.

After that loss their little group decided that is enough PVP for the day and went their merry way. It seems they forgot to loot Manticore wreck and I picked up few nice bits for sale from its wreck. Warmed up and in a good mood I have set course for Genesis.

I went up all the way to Gonditsa where my directional spotted  low sec gate camp, there was 3 wrecks on the gate and 5 ships BC and BS with GCC so I turned back and set best speed to my home in Dresi. In Iaokit on the gate Solo Pilgrim targeted my Rifter, instead of immediately burning back to the gate I was being very noosy and wanted to check out this character that targeted me. Before I realised what is happening I was out of cap and 5 Warriors 2 were tearing my ship apart I popped cap booster in and aimed at gate but it was too late. My Rifter exploded seconds later and now only in capsule I returned home.

I don't think I will be flying dual rep Rifter much, it seemed very fragile and required more attention than heavy plated one, I had identical one already fitted so there was no harm trying again but I knew already this is not a fit for me, not at that stage of my pirating career.

Just want to mention that this blog was added to EVE Online blog pack at CrazyKinux's Musing!

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