Crisis of Faith

Prior to logging in last night, I was seriously beginning to doubt I was going to make it as a low sec PvPer.

The biggest hurdle was my lack of time in-game to adequately practice and find opportunities, combined with a time of the week when the corp was quiet. Adding to my handicaps was the lack of even the militia to fall back on now since we left it two weeks ago. With no real kill since a duel on Oct 17th and a number of dispiriting losses, I was really starting to re-evaluate my profession choice.

Don't get me wrong, I knew what I was getting into with the Kadavr Black Guard and the corp has held up its end of the recruitment agreement. When I fly with the other guys I know I'm flying with the best that know all the ins and out of low sec PvP. But when I'm alone, I flounder. Trouble finding fights and winning them.

Was I destined to go back and be a small cog in a null sec alliance? Or go into exploration and admit my failure of solo PvP?

I logged in last night and spent 30 minutes moving the Wyvern from Placid to closer to home with an eye towards cleaning out the drone bay for the upcoming expansion next week. Once that was done, I was determined on giving this low sec deal ONE MORE TRY.

My weapon of choice was a Rifter. Last week I tried roaming in a Thorax but got caught by an enemy fleet camping both sides of a gate with fast lockers, and despite crashing the gate twice, I could not escape. A Rifter would give me more freedom to evade while perhaps luring other small time roamers into fights. Because more than anything, I want good fights.

Quickly one system over in Siseide  I found an Incursus floating around. I waited at the Auga gate to see if I could determine where he was headed when he landed on my gate! I was red-flashy and he was not, so I approached and locked to see if he would fire first and allow me to engage.

He jumped instead, so I followed. On the other side I watched him warp off... to the sun! I quickly followed and landed near him but he sped off with his MWD and my afterburner could not cut the range.

He posted in local that he would not fight an afterburner Rifter as he knew he would die. I understood and told him, "np, you gotta pick your fights". I moved on.

In Amamake, I buzzed by the belt and checked out a wreck, but nothing on scan. I was about to move on when I see in local, "t1 frig 1v1?" and I respond "sure". I'm always up for a duel. The pilot, Finkov, and I fleet up and he moved to a safe spot. He says he's in a Merlin and I think to myself, "Uh oh". Yeah, Rifters are great Tech 1 frigs and very powerful and versatile, but the other tier III tech 1 frigs of the other races have some power in them that a veteran can make use of. I knew I was either in for a cake-walk (Heretic Army pilot? Not likely) or a tough slugfest. The latter was the case.

I warped in and we got to it. I was managing my cap between the repper and the web, overheating on and off, trying to keep alive while his shields and my armour were stripped away. Then I ran out of cap and could not get that last cycle from the repper in time as I exploded. Finkov confirmed he was probably one or two salvos from death as well, and he complimented my on my fit and told me I would try out for Heretic Army.

We parted ways and I went back to Dal and picked up another Rifter and went back to Amamake. At the top belt I was gauging my chances against a Caldari Navy Hookbill that was 400 km away when a Rifter warped in between us. I did some rough eyeballing of angles and warped off to try and warp back on top of the new target, hoping the Hookbill would not interfere in time, when the Rifter pilot, alconetus, convos me and asked for a 1v1. Well, hell yes!

We fleet up and I meet him in his safe. Here we go again. Once more into the tight orbit dance of death. Fortunately for me he's an autocannon fit as well and I don't need to worry about him fighting at range. I again turn to managing my repper and overheating mods to try and and survive. His armour seems to be going down so slowly! Gah, I'm fighting at 5% armour, overheat the repper MOAR! Dammit, structure damage.... smoke.... I'm going down!

My weapons deactivate and for a second I thought I was dead and my client was just taking a moment to smugly draw my pod on the screen. But then I realize my opponent is in his pod beside the wreck and I have somehow won with 20% structure left and mods damage from overheating to the point of almost breaking. His fit shows a different philosophy of a 400mm buffer tank and no repper to manage, but that simply gave me more capacitor to steal from him to keep mine going.

I was very happy to get a good fight and kill this time, along with the good fight against Finkov, that all my moping has been forgotten and low sec shines for me again. I'm in such a good mood that I take a bunch of pictures of the burning Rifter I am flying, chat in the channels about my win, and warp to station to dock and repair...

... Where the station guns shoot me to death.

Right, GCC counter. I guess I need more practice at this low sec thing. Whatever, I got more Rifters where those two came from. ツ

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Images linked from Evelopedia.