Duels - Redux

Since the beginning of September I owed Mynxee a rematch from our set of Duels in where I thoroughly spanked her twice (Rupture and Rifter) and let her escape in her Rapier because I didn't want to break her spirit in one night. I intended to meet up with her a while ago but our alliance wars and operations kept me close to home working with the group.

Last night I figured things had calmed down enough for me to take a trip back to my old Factional Warfare stomping grounds in Evati and give it another go with Mynxee and see how much she's sharpened her claws in the intervening months. Flying with the Bastards and her Hellcats I'm sure has given her the practice to go with her determination.

I took the aptly named Thorax cruiser Mynxee's Bane with the exact same setup as last September despite the changes that Quantum Rise brought to the game.

(Click to see the full details)

As you can see, the ship has very little tank and instead relies on its impressive DPS and ECM drones to try and kill before getting killed. I'm considering dropping the MWD for an afterburner and seeing if that can get me more room for better defences, and dropping a Mag Stab for a Tracking Enhancer. But that's another post.

We met in Evati in a safe spot of hers and dispensed with the pleasantries as I barreled towards her. Immediately I saw an improvement in her reflexes as her drones actually launched this time and flew towards me with their own ECM systems. I had the advantage though, 5 x EC-600 versus 5 x ECM-300.

We got in close range and opened up the weapons, each of us getting a jam cycle here and there and sheilds ripped off in short order. I noticed I was missing too much since I think she had an afterburner and my web was not slowing her down much at all (60%). Quick math shows that at 1250 meters my guns needed a transversal on the target of 171 m/s or less and I'm pretty sure she was going faster than that. I pulled back to 5000 meters to fight in falloff and started getting hits, and then I got lucky with another jam or maybe even two. Either way, she went down and I did the happy dance since I was only 30% armour left and getting very nervous.

Here's me with her wreck. Taken for the gloating factor:



She had her blood up and asked for another go. I agreed because after all, this Thorax was built to die.

A few minutes later she came back with a new Rupture and we engaged again. I didn't get the number of lucky jams this time (did she install an ECCM?) and my attempts to manage range for maximum damage seemed harder; I noticed that she upped from 220mm autocannons to 425mm autocannons and I wonder if she but on some damage mods this time?

Whatever her setup, I was doomed and went down in a blaze of glory, assuaging some Mynxee's hurt pride I'm sure.

Great fights and I plan to come back late January to make sure the holidays don't put any rust on her pvp skills.