22nd Black Rise Defensive Unit v Rifter

Good fight, I here it often enough but when you're in a t1 frig fighting or in my case trying to survive a Pilgrim, Sader, Ares, Blackbird and two Rupppies, gf is the last thing you want to here. I mean it wasn't good for me mainly because I didn't stand a chance and characterizing it as a "fight" is reaching. I would rather here some smack than gf.

I'm coming out of warp and land on the Aeschee gate in Ladistier. An Ares is right behind me and lands on the gate a second or two after I do. I do my usual and start to lock him up trying to talk him into taking a shot. He returns the favor and locks but doesn't shoot. After a few seconds he decides to jump through and I promptly follow. I thought there might be a gang on the other side waiting for me but I didn't really care, maybe I'm being overly aggressive or just bored. When flying solo it's hard to pass up the possibility for a fight. The Ares seemed open to the idea so I figure it was my duty to provide him another opportunity. I'm through the gate, the Ares is on my overview, so I start moving back towards the gate just in case. Again we lock and dance around a bit, he is orbiting at 25 km and I'm sitting on the gate waiting for him to make a mistake. As it turns out I didn't have to wait long. He starts to engage and drifts into scram range. No problem he's locked up and my mods are firing. His shields and armor start to disintegrate and it looks like another inty will fall to my guns. But it was not to be. His gang shows up to save his ass and I get to warp off with my pod intact.

I did make one huge mistake, I forgot to overheat and I should have used faction ammo instead of barrage. As he was orbiting me I switched to barrage thinking this would be a ranged fight. But once he got in close it was a different fight altogether. In this case I would have liked to finish him off as soon as possible, because an inty for a t1 frigate is a better deal. I knew I was going to die to his gang, but I wanted at least one kill for my troubles. I think by overheating and using faction ammo I could have been further ahead dpswise resulting in a dead Ares. I wasn't concerned about a gang on the other side. This is the life I've chosen gangs are just a fact I have to live with. My only comfort is knowing that another inty would have fallen had I been allowed to finish the job.

For this particular fight my fit was a little different.

[Rifter, 400 DPS]
Gyrostabilizer II
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I

1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I

This is an attempt have both a tank and dps.

Most 400 fits I've seen or used have a DCU or SAR in lieu of the gyro. Rigs were mainly trimarks or resistance. In this case I opted for dmg rigs, its kind of like having two gyros instead of one. The armor rigged version was very slow, this version is significantly faster even without overheating my AB. Because I have a tendency to attract gangs I wanted a little more tank to help me make it to the gate or while I try to deaggress. I wanted the extra dps to speed things up, again focused on a quick fight and quick getaway. I've adopted the practice of fitting a neut (when passive tanked) or nos (when active tanked). The neut acts like an extra web, especially useful against inties fit with AB. Of course against active tanks or weapons that use cap the neut makes the whole process a lot faster. No enemy tank means more dps for me, no dps from my opponent means more tank.

Well another loss hits the books and another Rifter is fit to take its place.



Beat to quarters, clear for action!