RvB Ganked 150: Golden Shower

The RvB Ganked NPSI community has been in operation for 150 roams, and its anniversary fleet coincided perfectly with an Iwantisk event culminating with a titan death in lowsec. Mangala Solaris declared that the fleet would be using the Golden Fleet battleship doctrine, comprised primarily of apocs and navy apocs supported by geddons, vindis, and bhaals. The Golden Fleet is expensive, but extremely durable, and the long neut range of the geddons makes pointing and brawling very dangerous for its opponents. Spectre Fleet came along with a remote rep-heavy pantheon carrier contingent.

Ukraine vs Russia Spaceship Fights

I spent my first few days in Thera just observing and trying not to die, with mixed results. Pizza, Goons, UHURT, Camel, and many others have been flitting around from station to station, killing with reckless abandon, bless their hearts. Despite the carnage and the camps, a respectable market has flourished in the system, although docking and undocking to trade in these goods can be perilous. A few Theran-focused corps and communities have begun to spring up, and I decided to jump into some pubfleets to see what they were up to. The first one was a bomber gang with a terribad FC whose name I can't remember, and I ditched them quickly. The second one was led by a much more knowledgeable and less risk-averse Ukrainian named Shtuka, who happens to be the CEO of Revenge of the Liquidators, which until very recently was part of the Marmite highsec merc outfit. (On an unrelated note, the CEO of Marmite, Tora Bushido, is running for CSM 10 on a "safer highsec" platform. Please do not vote for him. Highsec is plenty safe enough as it is.)

Sacrificial Muninn

Look at this piece of crap

Today's Spectre was a collection of Ruptures and Muninns. Having trained t2 medium projectiles recently for something else that I have since forgotten, I put together a Muninn. I have precious little experience with gunnery in general, having flown mostly EWAR, missile, or tackle ships for much of my pvp career. Missiles are easy - for each class of missile, there is one ammo type that corresponds to each of the four damage types. T2 missiles add only a small wrinkle in that there is a long- and short-range option for each damage type. Missiles always hit when the target is in range, although damage application might be poor if there is a size mismatch between the missile and the target. Gunnery on the other hand is hard. There are so many ammo types, each with slight permutations in damage, tracking, optimal range, etc. Hybrids and lasers use cap (sometimes a great deal of it), which can provide fitting challenges that missile boats don't deal with, and of course a missile ship that is neuted out can still hurt ships until destroyed. Gun damage is applied instantly, while missiles take time to hit their target. And so on and so forth.

RvB Ganked 146: Oh My Gods

Work has been naggy this week, but I managed to sneak out of Thera for a few hours to run with RvB. This week's roam was Gods of War, a collection of hurricanes, faction canes, and sleipnirs. I hadn't flown in a GoW before (or sat in a sleipnir for that matter), but it works best when the high alpha and long range of projectile BCs combine to volley targets off the field before their logi can land reps. The cycle time of the guns is rather slow, so the GoWs have only one, maybe two volleys before the reps land and the target needs to be changed. Because of this, the battlecruisers have no prop mods and in this regard the composition is not completely unlike line infantry of the 18th century. Opposing forces would stand up tall and just shoot each other until one side couldn't shoot anymore - no moving around, no flanking, no special tricks. The fleet was led by Apex Aubaris, after organizer Rebecca Neresh apparently flaked at the last minute.

RvB Ganked 145: Enyo Face

It's been months since I've flown with RvB Ganked, and they're one of my favorite pubfleets. This weekend's roam was called The Last Joust, as the enyo assault frig is supposed to lose its jousty thing with Rhea this week (even though in this video preview, the new enyo still has an antenna thing on it).

In defense of the Freeport

Today I jumped into the largest Spectre fleet I've ever seen - at least 230 pilots. We headed towards CT8K-0 to help the Phoebe Freeport Republic defend their station against the Russians. The Freeport is a collection of pilots who banded together after the Phoebe update in November and started taking sov. One of the most significant changes to EVE with Phoebe was the nerfing of jump distances. This was done by reducing base range and adding a new mechanic called fatigue that hinders cap ships that want to make successive jumps. After these changes, the nascent Freeport community wagered that some systems on the edge of space would be easy to conquer and occupy, as their owners wouldn't be interested in the hassle of defending them.

The Battle for Haras/RvB Ganked 118 BR

It's been two and a half weeks since Haras, but who cares. Better late than never. RvB Ganked 118 was described, innocently enough, as the rare two-part public roam: the first segment would be the fleet's entry into the Battle of Haras, and the second segment would be an arranged fight with militia forces at a plex.

How not to fly with HG slaves

EWAR

Today I joined the Tuskers for my third week in a row, and again I flew my faithful celestis. It's not particularly durable, especially when shield fit, but it is a real asshole. One skilled celestis pilot is capable of intermittently disrupting the rep chain of 2-3 logis, or permanently shutting down one. I'm not saying I'm a skilled pilot, just saying it's possibru. I usually manage to damp out just enough logi (or enemy EWAR, if lucky) for the FC to not be super pissed at me for being terrible.

A pirate's roam for me (aka the best fight ever)

I generally don't pvp in lowsec because I love my sec status. Well, I mean I'm not in love with it, but I also don't like being blasted like a criminal whenever I enter highsec. I know, such carebear snobbery. I am ashamed of myself.

BUT I found a link to the Tuskers' public roam forums somewhere and, being very pubfleety lately, decided to give it a go. I had only heard of the Tuskers in passing, but they are apparently a rather successful lowsec pirating group with a taste for solo and small-gang pvp, led by super pirate captain Suleiman Shouaa. The particular roam that I signed up for was a Sacrilege gang. I guess sacs (and guardian logi) are the ship du jour of lowsec? My sac skills aren't bad, but I decided to go with a Celestis instead because who doesn't like to be dick ewar.

Oh provi never change

Lately I've been jumping into an unhealthy number of public fleets, often Spectre but also RvB Ganked, Aussie roams like MATE, Redemption Road, and more recently the Tuskers. I am a pubfleet whore in addition to being an unrepentant killmail whore. A few days ago I was near Amarr and decided to x up for a Spectre gnosis fleet led by Apex Aubaris. Having never actually flown a gnosis, I was intrigued. I'd only killed one before, and it was a fail exploration setup (also a provi pilot lol). Who explores in a battlecruiser? In that pilot's defense, the Gnosis does align almost like a cruiser. The fleet was headed to Providence as usual, where my crew had attempted to make friends recently, but had since abandoned that idea in favor of the elusive gudfight.

The proper way to fly with an MJD

The Spectre gnoses were the brainchild of Apex and fitted with the brand new medium microjump drives, which work identically to large MJDs. When the shit hits the fan, you asplode anyone scramming you, then spool up the MJD and moonwalk away from bubbles and warp disruptors. We had 25 of those and no logi, so we could apply super dps, moonwalk individual pilots out when they got redboxed, and not have to worry about our logis getting primaried. Well, that's the idea. If you're terribad, you still die.

As one of the few HAM pilots, and also having little self-preservation instinct, I volunteered to be one of two bait gnoses to entice enemies to aggress me in front of our main fleet. I jumped into Y-M and straight into a small gatecamp. Sure enough the campers took the bait, and a coercer, caracal, and gila were quickly toasted. Interesting drone sniper fit on the gila.

What my gnosis looked like after
the first fight

The rest of the camp scattered and we started moving through provi, with me at 59% armor and no reps cuz yolo. We didn't see much on our little safari until a half hour later when a +1 inty reported a cyno on a station, being lit by a vexor. "What the hell," the FC said. "Bait, go in and rattle the hornet's nest." As soon as the other bait and I jumped in, the scout reported a new ship on the undock - a Thanatos. "GO GO GO," the FC shouted. I landed and scrammed the thanny and plugged my magic missiles into the vexor. Because there were only two of us gnoses (and two inties with loldps), plus provi intel channel fail, the thanny inexplicably decided to put his CAPITAL SHIP on the line to get aggress by repping a CRUISER. Then the rest of the fleet came in and they were totally fucked. The vexor went down first of course, followed by his pod (wtf vexor fit btw - you'll drop isk on faction tank and drones, but no rigs?). A heroically misguided Thorax undocked to gallantly defend his bros and was callously rewarded with an asplosion and pod express.

This is approximately how
the FC responded

With the potatoes out of the way, we could focus on the meat. Apex called the thanny primary and the lazarz and guns and missiles piled on. The shields evaporated and we expected a mega tank to kick in and make us wait while the thanny dropped aggress and docked. What really happened is that the armor started dropping nearly as quickly as the shields. Shocked FC started shouting "OVERHEAT BATCHEZ!!" and the carrier went down, scarcely a minute after his friends. All quite puzzled, we started inspecting the wreck and absentmindedly volleyed a naked vexor that undocked (yep, that's the cyno pilot - his intentions with the second vexor are unclear). Not only did the thanny have no tank, it was carrying a full complement of drones, not to mention its exploration setup in the fleet hangars. 2.5b gone, to save a Vexor.

Giddy after our cap dunk, we started looking for trouble again and soon caught a TEST legion derping around at a gate. We can only speculate on his activities because of that fit (he was solo, with zero points). Now in HERO space, we began to attract attention from nearby gangs, including a decent Ishtar fleet with logi. We decided to remove ourselves from the area before we welped our slow BCs. We lost a few of them on the way out but managed to pick up some stragglers, including a navy vexor and one of the Ishtars. Our final kill in null was a n00by lil slasher, and we felt so bad after melting a 3-day old pilot that we sent him like 30m.

It was there that I dropped fleet to move towards another fleet, which in retrospect was a foolishly impatient move. The bulk of the fleet stayed together to make it back to Amarr safely, and along the way they somehow caught a wonderful redeemer kill. So jelly.

Keep up the good work Spectrebros; +1 would fleet again. Also much love to Sherpard2 for bringing reps and being a lifesaving field medic.

Public fleets - X up!

About a month ago I got into my first Spectre fleet. That might seem odd considering that I live in a WH. But, variety is the spice of life, as they say! I ventured out to dreaded highsec and rolled the dice on a stealth bomber fleet and I had a blast. After that I x'd into a few more Spectres, each one with a different doctrine: long-range destroyers, shield BCs, a horrendously efficient hawk gang, and the amazing (but short-lived) kitchen sink. A few of my corpies also tried out different doctrines, like a blops gang. Every fleet is different, but they are all a lot of fun, and serve as a temporary reprieve to the quiet, cloistered wormhole that is our home. Spectres are NPSI - not purple, shoot it. I personally don't fire on blues, even when in an NPSI fleet, but the rest of the fleet will certainly kill them if they enter grid.

Spectre is mainly rooted in SASH., an FC-heavy corp with a long history of public fleets. Included among them are Jayne Fillon, a founder of Spectre and an accomplished FC who is also running for CSM this year. I've been in one fleet commanded by Jayne so far, and I got primary'd pretty early but it was still fun. I managed to whore onto a basi kill before I went down (yes, that's me in the gang's sole drake. SO. SHAME.)

My most successful public fleet thus far was a Spectre hawk gang. The hawks were fitted rather interestingly, and as there were 20 or so of us supported by a heavy logi squad, we were able to wipe out dozens of ships. I whored a good 30 of them, including a faction Stabber, my first Hyena (never actually saw one of those in space before), this Thorax, and a rather fail Sabre, among many others.

After that first nonstop weekend of Spectres, I started slutting around.  Spectre offers little in the AU TZ, where I am active due to being nocturnal and weird. Turns out that Redemption Roams offers a weekly "Down Under" AU fleet, and even has a few random prizes for pilots who fly with them. Sefem Velox also leads the MATE initiative with frequent AU TZ roams.

Spectre is also associated with RvB Ganked, a (usually) weekly public fleet led by longtime RvB luminary Mangala Solaris. Because their events are weekly and backed by RvB, the Ganked fleets can get pretty huge. I've flown in one, their Super Troopers roam last week. It celebrated the re-release of the Police Pursuit Comet by putting together over 150 of the frigs, combined with assorted scouts, logi, and ewar. What followed was an epic roam into Provi, Curse, and Catch, steamrolling most of what we came across until PL was finally able to stop us with a hawk gang. I managed to whore my way onto a mere 14 kills during the roam, but the fleet as a whole netted far more (whoring is a bit more difficult when flying a close-range frig). Here are some of the highlights: Damnation, Prophecy, Guardian, and a Drake. The best part was acting like retarded policeman and shitting up local with terribad cop memes and jokes.

TL;DR: Public fleets are the best, join the Spectre Fleet channel ASAP and start flying with those guys. You'll get a lot of great kills, meet cool pilots, and learn a lot about pvp. I do recommend training a broad variety of t1 ships and modules, as the pubfleets can roll out with just about anything.