EVE Journal: New Technology

Been a while since I wrote randomly about EVE. That Brutix setup below is still working very well, with a few minor changes. The two Cap Recharger Is are now named and the three passive hardeners have been replaced - named Kinetic and Thermal active hardeners and an Energised Adaptive Nano. plate. I finally got around to "braving" level 3 Silence The Informant with it and discovered the darn thing was actually quite easy in the Blasterix. The first stage of drones was laughably empty (apparently reduced from an earlier, lethal version) and the second stage, whilst requiring me to warp out, wasn't any worse than the first wave of Mordus. So several of the level 3 missions can still be challenging but they're all now doable.

Playing around with the Ares interceptor.

In the past three weeks I've added two delightful new classes of ship to my repertoire. As the plodding nature of my Brutix began to grate I trained up Interceptors and Assault Frigates. I had a picked up an Ares interceptor from my agent a while back and a corp-mate was insanely generous enough to give me his Taranis. I really don't have a clue how to set these up (still!) but I bumbled together some attempts and took them into various bits of NPC combat (at the time without the ability to use Tech II hybrids). The Taranis looked very nice but didn't kill things very quickly (I was doing passes where you speed in from 30km and zoom 30km past your targets, firing when in range - a very slow way to kill things if you're me). The Ares, on the other-hand, worked out rather well for me. Orbiting at 18km, doing 1400m/s, launching pairs of Thermal missiles (the ship has a bonus to damage and I was fighting Serpentis) whilst gently plugging away with Tungsten charges from two 125mm Railguns. Rogue drones were particularly easy, though I had to switch to doing passes with them to avoid whirling through numerous groups at once. They're both fun ships to fly but I need better skills to make full use of them, and I'm not sure they're as much use in NPC combat as they are in player combat (but we'll see when I'm better at flying them).

The sexy ninja that is the Taranis interceptor.

Just last week I also reached the point where I could fly the ever popular Assault Frigates. I picked myself up a shiny red Enyo and proceeded to tear into level 3 missions with it, to my great delight (though that was what I was expecting). I had to learn how to use Defender missiles, which have turned out to be very useful indeed. Just last night I was able to fit Tech II Railguns to it, which has bumped the damage output up a bit more. I'm rather cautious still about what missions I attempt in it (I'm not sure I'll be trying Mordus quite yet) but it's doing very well so far - and it's a fun ship to fly. For the moment I'm trying to target my skill training towards improving the Enyo further, as I hope to garner maximum use out of it.

Taking down a drone infested Dominix in Silence The Informant.

Apart from my journey deeper into the world of Tech II ships and Tech II modules, I've finally wormed my way into a couple of level 4 missions. On Saturday I took part in the Rogue Drone filled Silence The Informant, initially alongside two battleships (Megathrons - though one had connection trouble) and a cruiser (a Celestis rigged for support rather than combat). I was flying my Ares and did my part cutting down the drones on our way to the first infested Dominix battleship requiring destruction. As I sat still as stone firing at the Domi, careful not to aggro another group of drones and turrets, I didn't notice just that happening. Before my ship could even begin the warp out procedure I was torn apart and left in my pod. My shiny red Ares turned to dust. Not a great loss financially (they're thankfully quite cheap and I can afford plenty these days) but it was a bit of a shock. As the mission had to be abandoned for a few hours I returned later (as we gathered for a second attempt) in my trusty Blasterax. This time we were a rather more menacing team - four Megathron battleships, myself in the Thorax cruiser and the support Celestis once more. Overkill indeed but we tore through it all nicely.

Showing a Megathron battleship the business end of my blasters & drones.

Last night I took part in my second level 4 mission - Serpentis Extravaganza. Unwilling to risk my Enyo (yet) I rolled out the Blasterax again and joined two Enyos and an Apocalypse battleship. Between us we made short work of the many battleships, cruisers and frigates we faced. It was good fun and rather profitable.