segunda-feira, 29 de fevereiro de 2016

Engagement Report 4 – Dual Hull Brutix



I logged in and noticed I had Rtb in Thera and Pleniers in Curse. I had lost Pleniers in Providence while engaging a Deimos, Jackdaw and Kitsune, while only managing to kill the Kitsune. I headed out to enter Thera in a nearby connection from Curse, and went do Delve in my Dual Hull Brutix setup.

In Delve, according to the map, the only spot that seemed do have activity was 1-SMEB. Once I entered system I noticed it had 50 in local and that was pleasantly small. The station and every gate was in scan range from my ingate, so I could have a good idea on the whole picture without needing to warp around.

There seemed to be a gatecamp in the gate to Low Sec. 1 Confessor, 1 Flycather, 1 Moa 1 Small Bubble. This actually seemed too easy… I hate when things seem too easy. Anyway, if I wanted to score a kill, I’d probably need to do it fast, before I’d get noticed in intel and the 50 guys in local were called to gank me. Without knowing if the Small Bubble on scan would drag me or not, I decided to risk it and just warp to the Low Sec gate. Hopefully they would not have a Falcon on standby… This is the sort of reckless decision that gets me killed more than often, but sometimes, acting fast is just more important than acting safe… You never know. A Moa, Flycatcher, Confessor and Falcon (in case they have it) is more than enough to kill even both my Brutix with a bit of luck.

Bubble was pulling from other direction so I landed 0km on gate. This was actually a relief, but also meant I was not really in a vulnerable position for them to engage me. Flycatcher was 400km away, Confessor 60km away and Moa 0km on gate. I decide to try catch the Moa, but he warps of to a ping before I can scram him… So these guys are somewhat uneasy to engage me. Maybe they don’t have any backup on standby… but then again, I cannot just sit on the gate for long or they will call for help.

I jump out and try to investigate the Low Sec system by warping a bit. 50 in local too. Damn… It looks like 1-SMEB was staging point to NARM and the Low Sec System the staging point to NCdot. Not too bad, means I’ll have more targets. Low sec system was pretty much dead, so I went back to 1-SMEB and try to get an update on that gatecamp. 

Once I jump back into Null, they had an extra Hecate, Stork and Orthrus on gate. Not only that, there’s a Falcon on scan towards the Station. Right now, from my location, I cannot really say if the Falcon is a guy that just went AFK in a POS or someone hugging the station waiting for a warp-in command. As I decloak, the Hecate, Stork and the Orthrus attack me. They are too eager to engage and unfortunately I cannot really scram the Orthrus kitting me at 2900m/s 25km away from me. The Stork is a real problem… I’m really not willing to get teleported 100km off the gate and to be jammed by a Falcon, so I jump out into Low Sec and reaproach to see what develops.

The Hecate and Orthrus follow me to Low Sec after they are deaggressed and target me… Ok, so these 2 guys plus the Stork are probably unrelated to the initial gatecamp I saw (Moa, Confessor, Flycatcher), and also suffering from a serious case of bloodlust. This is somewhat good. Bloodlust and overconfidence drives you into stupid mistakes.

At this point I don’t really have a plan, but I need to get them separated somewhat, so I warp to a Station in Low Sec. Orthrus follows me, aggressed me on station getting gate guns agro, warps off to a ping, warps down and aggresses me again at 25km, in order to bypass station guns agro. This guy really wants to kill me it seems. Not long after Hectate and Stork land, so I’m forced to dock to avoid being teleported. Once I dock, I just realize I’d done so in the station where NCdot was staging… Auch…

The next 10 minutes were more of a patience game. Every time I’d undock they would have the Orthrus, 2 Storks, 1 Falcon, 1 Rook, 1 Devoter and other assorted crap waiting for me, forcing me to dock. No way I could engage that, but made sure I took notice on the ECM pilot names. That information could still be handy.

After trying to teleport me from station a couple failed times, and after 15 minutes or so, I noticed the ECM pilots left local (or logged off), and the Storks and Devoter were no longer at the undock. Still the Orthrus was there pointing me every time I poke my head off station, but now he was alone…  I still did not knew how to take advantage of the situation. I would not try engage that guy at NCdot staging undock for sure, so I looked on market and bought 6 warp core stabs. I figured that even if those Storks undocked and teleported me I could still warp off with 3 guys scrambling me. Then again, if I got caught It would provide a seriously hilarious killmail.

I undock, Orthrus points me and I warp off to the other station in system. He still chases me and aggresses me at the other station!! He really really wants me! More or less at the same time I bring in Rtb close by and cloak him. I’m sensing an opportunity arising, hopefully I’ll be able to recognize it and seize it in time. I dock up, refit to hull tank and undock.

Orthus pilot is still there! He points me, but even more than that, he closes by and Scrams me ending up within 8km of me, right into my scram range! How cool is that?! He probably thought I still had Warp Core stabs and came in to Scram me and prevent me from warping off. By pretending to be running away I managed to bring my foe to where I needed him, into my Scram.


I scram, web and shoot him, but he still needed to die. He was 8km away from me, meaning that my blasters were really not that effective, so I sent out ECM drones and warped in Rtb in my second Brutix. Luckily my ECM drones manage to jamm him and I pulse my MWD into optimal blaster range. Rtb is also landing soon. At same time, I’m pretty sure that guy is screaming on coms for help, because a Proteus and a couple more DPS ships arrive on top of me, while the Orthrus explodes. Among his backup there was not any Command Destroyer, so I was fairly safe at station. I scoop loot, deagress and dock up. His backup mates don’t even try to aggress me either. With the Orthrus dead and not being able to teleport me away, there would not be much point on spending ammo. Sure, they could manage a lucky bump do drag me off station, but knowing somewhat NCdot mentality, I bet those guys would probably be more busy trolling their own alliance mate that just died, rather than trying to kill me. It ended up being a 1.2 Bil Orthrus, so pretty worth my time.


5 minutes after, Low Sec System was once again quiet, so I went to check on that gatecamp in 1-SMEB. There was another Orthrus pilot, some tackle and a Phantasm. I try to catch the Phantasm for 2 times, but he always bailed before getting into scram range. Also Orthrus was kitting me at range, so was not an option to chase, and then a Talos comes in. He would be a perfect target if I could catch him. Talos isn’t all THAT faster than a Brutix and I’m pretty sure I could melt it if I caught it. 

After jumping in and out between 1-SMEB and Low Sec System a couple of times to get a good spawn spot, I start up at 20km away from the Talos. That’s just perfect! Overload MWD, Scram Web and I quickly surprise him and apply both Brutix DPS. Not long after, the old Hecate pilot I had already met today shows up an aggresses me 0km on gate. I simply kill him, deaggress and jump out to repair while Orthrus and Phantasm try to apply damage 30 to 50km away.

When I return, the Phantasm reships to a Gila and the Hecate reshipped to a Vigilant! I get really excited. I’m pretty sure I could kill the Vigilant real fast and MJD away in case incoming DPS to be more than I could tank while deaggressing for 1 minute. Oddly enough, their bloodlust soothed down… They stopped aggressing me on sight and carefully remained on pings or jumped out if I aggressed. That’s very bad.  This is an obvious sign they are sorting a plan, so I need to double check my D-Scan for recons or other sort of backup.

Their backup came in for the form of a Nestor and a Vargur! Ye right, like I was going to engage with those things nearby… They did not even tried to bait me, and just rushed those ships to the gate. As it was getting late and having collected a few nice killmails, it was time to call it a day, dock up and log off.

segunda-feira, 22 de fevereiro de 2016

Engagement Report 3 – Dual Hull Brutix



While roaming around in my Dual Hull Brutix, I jumped into a gang of 9 Thrashers and 1 Hecate. That’s usually the sort of fight that either I lose or I lose. Some of you are probably puzzled right now… how can I say that? After all, I got 2 Brutix (even though 1 is going to arrive late, I always use 1 as scout and another as backup), so puny T1 Destroyers won’t be able to hold long.

Even though I can make lots of DPS, so can they. T1 destroyers hurt if used en masse! The only way I can win this is by breaking their morale. I’ll have to inflict losses in their gang fast enough for them to warp off. If I fail the “morale” fight they’ll be able to kill one of my Brutix. Then again there’s another problem… T1 destroyers are disposable razor blades. You cut someone with it, have a laugh and then throw it away. In this scenario, their morale is not going down the drain just because I killed a couple of them. THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO DIE ANYWAY!

I have another element going against me… I’m hull tanked. Being hull tanked is a great to bait a less experienced or un-attentive foe. Once people see the Brutix going into structure they cry on coms “Guys keep on him, he’s melting!! He’s in structure, keep on, keep on, don’t warp off, he’s almost dead!” Being Hull Tanked is great to lead a foe to commit while my backup is in warp, but in this particular case, where I want to kill a couple ships and force the rest to warp off, it plays against me.

Facing a high probability of losing one Brutix in this fight, I could try to cloak and burn back to gate. Using a MJD would not be effective for sure, those guys could close on me and scram me in less than 10 seconds. Anyway, I had roamed for a long time with no fights, so I decided to try take it.

I locked them all up, spitted out my hobgoblins, consumed my Drop Booster Drugs and made sure I had faction Antimatter loaded for better tracking. My medium neut went straight to the Hecate. He would probably have some sort of cap injection, but was more worth than using it on the Thrashers. As for primary targets, I went for the Thrashers instead of the Hecate. I needed to take DPS off the field FAST, and the Hecate would surely tank me for a bit longer.

As the fight goes on, my second Brutix joins the fray. Using a second ship made thigs a lot more confusing… I was unable to focus fire, my drones would engage random stuff once their initial target got killed and it did not really helped all that much to kill thrashers at a faster pace. Another hope I had, was that they’d warp off once they saw the second Brutix on grid, but they did not valued their own ships, and nothing would stop them from getting a kill…

After killing 5 or 6 Thrashers, Pleniers dies… I still tried to grab the Hecate at this point. With few members left in their gang, my second Brutix was not really in any danger, so I tried to primary their most expensive ship. Unfortunately I was not fast enough and he warps off, as well as the rest of their gang.

And so it was… The fight happened as initially projected, but I must confess it was cool to see someone use T1 expendable destroyers instead of T3 Destroyers and Command Destroyers with Logistic T2 frigs. They undoubtedly won the match because they managed to achieve their objective (killing a larger foe) while not caring about staying alive in their expendable razor blades! Can’t win them all I guess...

segunda-feira, 15 de fevereiro de 2016

The Hull Tanked Brutix Doctrine (Solo and Dual Toons)




THE NECESSITY  

I usually use a Battlecruiser backed up by a logistics wingman, but even though this tactic is very powerful against solo targets, against gangs (even small sized ones) has limited application/success.
A new philosophy was needed. I wanted to get rid of my logistics wingman, but not fall into the usual Links or ECM Support. Something original and refreshing was needed.

I wanted a cheap ship “invulnerable” to long points, with a great tank, decent DPS and decent “straight up” speed. By resorting to Hull Tank, I was able to achieve more buffer EHP than many 1600mm plated armor ships, slap in bigger guns due to reduced Powergrid requirement from Bulkheads, retain the original speed of the ship (even if at the cost of some agility) and use all my Mid-Slots for utilities. Considering Hull Tanks don’t benefit from any kind of Remote Repair during combat, using a 2nd toon as yet another Hull Tank Ship would provide a very interesting and challenging gameplay.

The Brutix, having a good amount of low slots, decent base agility for a Combat Battlecruiser, large structure and high “in-your-face” DPS bonus, made it the perfect candidate.

THE FIT

TANK BRUTIX

DPS BRUTIX

1st of all, all my roaming ships have cloaks due to Real Life constrains. I need to go AFK many and unexpected times. A cloak allows me to go safely AFK as soon as a warp move finishes. Strategically, it allows positioning me in crucial locations “undercover” and ultimately, is a very comfortable mod... Once mobs of angry carebears begin to probe you and camp you, a cloak allows you to relax, sit back and enjoy the show. If you don’t like it just remove it.

The Micro-Jump Drive is mandatory to dodge long points. This module is the centerpiece of the Battlecruiser, allowing it to survive easily against gangs that rely on long points in fast interceptors to hold their targets or against kitting gangs that keep themselves outside scram range. This module adds a huge survivability factor to any roaming Battlecruiser. The Micro-Jump Drives saves my ships a couple times each roam.

CCP will be changing rebalancing Damage Controls, Stasis Webifiers and Warp Scramblers soon, so the Tank Brutix will need to use the Fleeting Compact Stasis Webber and the Faint Epsilon Scoped Warp Scrambler to avoid CPU implants.


IN FIELD PERFORMANCE

When going out solo, as a brawling ship, the objective is plain simple. Catch a target and melt it before it melts you, or backup arrives. That simple.

When going out with Dual Toons it’s imperative to keep the surprise effect to the maximum. Naming both ships the exact same way, avoiding them being on the same spot together and keeping one of them cloaked, is a great way to confuse enemy intel and give you an extra edge.

As a Dual Toons combination I put my “scout” toon in the Tank Brutix, and bring my other toon behind in the DPS Brutix. I want the Tank Brutix to get primary from enemy fire, making best use from the extra tank. Holding back the DPS Brutix a bit is pretty handy to also achieve a surprise effect. It’s advised to cloak up the DPS Brutix close to the engagement location in order to avoid long slow warps. Dealing with 1 Brutix is one thing, but suddenly dealing with 2 Brutix might be a game changer and swing odds your way.

Once I find a target, I try to melt it with the combined 1100DPS from the 2 Brutix. Also 100k/75k EHP in the Tank/DPS Brutix makes sure they can also take a good beating, allowing them to fight outnumbered for a limited period of time.

The Hull Brutix should focus into killing scrambling ships whenever possible, in order to MJD away from trouble once enemy backup starts to arrive.

Even though the Brutix are equipped with Scram/Web, damage application onto small target is very poor. T3 Destroyers with AB and/or Scram/Web themselves can get bellow the Brutix guns and survive long enough for backup to arrive. In order to minimize this vulnerability a few steps are needed.
1 - Always bring Improved Drop Drugs. They can instantly increase tracking with no significant downside to a Hull Brutix.
2 - Try to increase the range from the small target in order to get a lower angular velocity. Keeping small stuff at 4-5km range should help a lot with damage application onto small targets.
3 - Make sure you always have a flight of small drones.
4 - Use Caldari Navy Antimatter as default ammo instead of Void. Change to Void if engaging a larger target.
5 - Even though the Brutixes can Scram different foes, always apply the webs from both Brutix into the same small target.

Another huge vulnerability of the Hull Brutix is the lack of a Cap Booster or any Cap injection. Dealing with capacitor warfare ships is probably a bad idea, unless you think you can melt your foe before both Brutix get capped out.

Roaming with Hull Brutix in NPC or friendly space won’t be much of a hassle when it comes to repairs, but roaming in hostile Sov areas can become a problem once they get damaged. Putting 1 Large Hull Repairer, 3 Medium Hull Repairs and 1 Small Armor Repairer in cargo bay along with a mobile depot is a way to keep the Hull Brutix viable in hostile space. Make a safe spot in a quiet system, shutdown all the Bulkheads, refit to “repair mode” and in less than 15 minutes you’ll be good as new. It provides the perfect opportunity for a little break.

Having some spare drones in cargo hold is also a good idea, especially light drones due to the Brutix vulnerability to small targets. When roaming with Dual Brutix I personally like to field Vespas EC-600 ECM drones. Medium ECM drones still have a good chance to jamm targets and deploying the drones from both Brutix into the same target will usually have decent results, allowing a better escape and mitigating some incoming damage. As an added bonus, people hate being jammed and it usually provides some comments in local chat, adding an extra layer to your fun :)

Some variations like the Hull Myrmidon are also viable, especially if you really want to assure a Capacitor Booster in that 5th Mid slot, if you prefer the damage application from a drone boat instead of a gun boat, or even if you’d prefer to have one of your toons in an unexpected “Neut Boat”. Micro-managing damage done to my drones in 2 different toons is just too much for me, so I’ve personally been avoiding it.

I’ve been having such huge fun with my Dual Drugged Cloaky ECM MJD Neutron Scrambling Hull Brutix, that my next 15 or so stories (already written at this time and to be released one per week) will be focused in this combination.

Ah of course… Lastly and by no means less important, everyone knows that real men Hull Tank. Are you a real man?!



domingo, 7 de fevereiro de 2016

PVP and Trading – January 2016 Report



PVP REPORT

In 2016 I’m going to try making something different, and put together a PVP/Trade Report. It’s much information to try gathering, so not sure how long I’ll keep the PVP report up, but here goes a try.

I thought it would be interesting to see what I managed to kill in my alone endeavours. I don’t call it solo because I pretty much always use 2 toons, so I think the term “Alone PVP” more suitable.

I’m also wondering if some interesting conclusions are to be had. Am I dying a lot? Are people in EVE using more than 1 ship type? Are my achievements coherent with other players experiences? Is there some type of target I’m particularly strong or vulnerable against? 

Sure I might have an idea, but wondering if sitting down and making some graphs about it would confirm that intuition or show me I was wrong all along! I’m not even going to lie about my goals as an ”Alone PVPer”. I want to find people, deceive them and kill them. I’m a brawler at heart, so dying is inevitable, but I want to make sure I manage to kill more than I lose. While not trying to be an Isk Efficiency fanatic, I do prefer to use cheaper affordable ships to kill more expensive ones.

COMBINATIONS FLOWN BY ME

Next graph shows how many ships I killed and lost, using my most usual combinations.



I’m really monochromatic as to what I fly… Once I like a certain combination I try to explore it to the extreme. Right now, the Dual Hull Tank Brutix is my favourite combination having killed 92 ships while losing 18. I still used my traditional Gnosis/Augoror combination a couple times, but I already used that combo for so long that I’m moving away from it now. I’ll eventually publish an article more dedicated as to why I been loving the Dual Hull Brutix.


 HOSTILES KILLED

Let’s take a better look on the hostiles I killed. Next graph shows what ships I killed and how many.



Ships I killed the most were Thrashers, (mostly due to a gang of Thrashers I found), Svipuls, Vexors and Caracals. I suppose this is not surprising as these are the most popular T1 Cruisers currently. Not only that, these T1 Cruisers are wonderful for cheap PVP and still able to perform decently all around. As for Svipuls, everyone says they are overpowered, so everyone been using and abusing on them.

What one can also notice is that I managed to kill lots of different stuff. There are many ship types that I only managed to kill 1 or 2 of each. I think this means that people do have a large array of ships available to them, and like to bring some variety to the field.

Following graph shows the Isk value per ship type.




My top kill isk wise were Orthuses. I managed to kill 2 of them and one just happened to be worth 1.2 Bil. Also up there is a Providence Freighter… This is actually the only time I EVER encountered a freighter on a null sec gate, while roaming alone. It’s an anomaly statistically speaking, but I’ll take it. Not far below we got Gila, Stratios, Legion and Ashimmu.

My only surprise here is the Ashimmu… It’s a ship I hardly encounter, but this month I killed 2 of them. Not sure if was just pure luck, or if their pilots brought them as a hard counter to my Brutix, expecting it to be active tanked, and therefore vulnerable to Neuts….

Even though many ship types killed might attest for a good variety on the field, I found the information hard to analyse, so created some Categories in order to understand better the different ship classes I managed to kill.


My 3 top preys were with no doubt T1 DPS Cruisers, Faction Cruisers and T3 Destroyers. As stated before T1 DPS Cruisers are cheap and decent all round for their price, and faction cruisers seem to be loved by new and old players alike. They seem more popular than HACs, or at the very least, I’m able to kill Faction Cruisers with a lot more ease. As for T3 Destroyers, they are pretty good all round and a great little “heavy tackle”.

A bit behind we can find Combat Battlecruisers and T1 Destroyers. The T1 Destroyer bar comes mostly from a unique engagement with a gang of Thrashers, so my real surprise here were Combat Battlecruisers… even though they’ve been rebalanced recently, they are still regarded generally as “bad ships” from what I can gather as “Public Opinion”. Maybe more people than I expected like them.

Also very important is to analyse what I’ve NOT been able to kill AT ALL!! Battleships, HICs, Marauders, ECM Cruisers and Logistic Cruisers are among the Categories that I did not managed to kill… How come? (Only exception was a PVE Beam Nightmare, with no Energy Neutralizers, that warped on top of my 2 Brutix at 0km, trying to save his Skiff friend). Well, either these ships don’t move around alone (like logistics and ECM vessels) or they got massive tanks, most likely complemented by Heavy Neutralizers (like Battleships), to whom I am very vulnerable. It is a pity indeed that even resorting to 2 Brutix I cannot generally engage those categories. Frustrating…

How about isk wise, in what categories I’m able to inflict more economic pain?



HELLLLLLLOOOOOOO FACTION CRUISERS! People really seem to like bling their faction cruisers, and that’s fine by me. This ship category seems popular, fragile enough for me to engage and has a good chance of becoming a loot piñata. Bring them on! Lately I’ve been drooling once I see a Faction Cruiser in my overview… The other spike are Industrial Ships, mostly due to the Providence kill. Really down there we have the “rest” pretty much even, with some more relevance to T3 Cruisers and T3 Destroyers

HOSTILES KILLING ME

Equally important is the notion on what ships are being used to kill me. Solo players always complain about being “blobbed” all the time. Well… I WANT for my foes to try to “blob” me, I WANT to fight outnumbered, I WANT for them to bring their best, so that I can outsmart them and kill them, just before I bail out teasing them!!... or die trying… This is my main source of daily adrenaline.

1st thing I checked was how large were the fleets that actually killed me, or in other words, how many people are in my losses killmails.

Generally speaking, if I died to a gang of more than 10 people I was probably simply ganked. I want to avoid these gangs at all costs. I lost 4 ships this way, meaning that I probably jumped into a gatecamp or got a nasty roaming gang catching me in a precarious position. It’s unavoidable if you “Scout” in a battlecruiser. If I died to a gang with 5-10 people, I was either surprised by unexpected backup or I was trying to get a quick ninja kill, probably thinking that I could MJD away or deagress in time.
My preferred targets are mostly gangs with less than 5 people, and if I died, it probably means that I made serious mistakes and/or assessed the situation very badly and that there is a lesson to be learned around on how to make better next time.




Looking at the graph, I was not “ganked” by large fleets all that often… only 4 losses considering daily roams into hostile space with a Battlecruisers.

The fact that I died 5 times to gangs with 6-10 people tell me that I simply don’t know when to quit and call it off XD. Usually 5-10 man fleets do take some time to form, so I’m pretty sure I’d have ample opportunities to get safe.

I did died 10 times to 1-5 man Fleets… This is probably were I should focus in improving and making people work harder to acquire my killmail. Still, generally the fleets I die to are not terribly large, meaning there are good opportunities to a solo player/small gang out there.
Let’s take a look to the ships that actually managed to kill me.


Largest spike are Ferox, mostly because I got caught by a fleet of 20+ Ferox in 1 single event… (Auch). It’s somewhat of a statistical anomaly, but does shows that some people like to roam Mid-Sized gangs in Ferox. The same goes to the 2nd spike, Thrashers, because I died to a gang of those.

More representative of my foes choices throughout the whole month, are the next ships: Orthrus, Malediction, Raptor, Sabre. The Orthrus is a popular choice because it’s stupidly overpowered, but I also believe that my foes, seeing a Brutix, just want to stay at range and an Orthurs is perfect for that role. As for the rest, Maledictions are very popular to try catch “invaders” as myself, but these are particularly troublesome as they tend to have scramblers. Interceptors like Crows that never come into Scram show up less in my killmails, because I can just MDJ away from them.

There are also many many ships that show up in my Killmails once or twice only. A total of 76 different Ship types were used to kill me. I pretty much think this shows that EVE is healthy when it comes to variety and small gang PVP, even though the Orthrus is too popular, showing up more than any other Cruiser over 100% of times and even surpassing dedicated tacklers like the Malediction, Raptor and Sabre.

Let’s look at the Categories used to kill me



Again, Combat Cruiser spike due to that Ferox gang, but even without that particular case, Combat Battlecruisers still would show up in 3rd position or so… I’m surprised to see people use them so much. The spike concerning T1 Destroyers also presents mostly I gang of Thrashers that I found.

Interceptors and Faction Cruisers are the 2 following spikes. It was to be expected at this point. I killed so many Faction Cruisers that it would be obvious my losses would also have a lot of them. As for interceptors, they are the 1st line of attack, so not surprised about them, but I don’t really kill all that many. I think that’s mostly because they just orbit me at range, and nothing I can do about it, unless they come Scram range.

Somewhat below but also relevant are T1 DPS Cruisers, T1 DPS Frigates, T3 Destroyers and HACs. I was honestly hoping to see more T3 Destroyers in my losses due to their popularity! Then again, being face to face with a couple Brutix might dissuade most of them of coming close. The odd value for me were HACs… I only killed a couple, but they show on my loss mails often enough, at the same level as T1 DPS Cruisers, T1 DPS Frigates and T3 Destroyers. Very odd… It looks like HACs are more of a game changer than I expected. Logistics, ECM and even the sheer DPS of Assault Battlecruisers (even though these last are easy to kill with proper positioning) were already a problem. Seem I’ll have to add HACs to my list of “Very troubling ships” while using a Hull Brutix.

I find it very interesting that ships that completely dominate solo wannabe PVPers, like ECM Cruisers and Logistics, aren’t really more used. The T2 Logi Cruisers were all from the same gang, so a rare sight in my travels, and I really only met ECM ships a bit more than a couple times. I find that extremely good news for me and other solo guys out there.

That’s all I remembered to take a look at in a PVP Report. Send me out a mail if you think I overlooked something, and make sure to undock and go out there!

TRADING REPORT

MARKET PROFITS
This month was the 2nd best of all times with 13 Billion profit. Not too surprising as it got influenced by the Christmas/New Year holiday madness I reported last month. I expect to be struggling for the 10 Billion profits next month if all goes according to plan.
All market profits were made resorting to Regional trade, buying in Jita Sell Orders, and selling in Hek and Dodixie Sell Orders. Hauling was done by public contracts. Supplies were brought from Jita once per week and orders were updated once per day or once per 2 days, depending on my patience.


PLEX EXPENSES
Payed my 2 accounts with 1 PLEX each, costing me a total 2.3 Billion

BLUEPRINTS
What a month… I already previously posted my Hi-sec POS got wardeced, so not going to dwell into that much more here. Just to say that my research operations got disrupted temporarily and I managed to save my POS. It is currently fully operational.

As such, my expenses went up to 1.7 Billion and my profits were 2.7Bil. In the end my final balance relating to Blueprints was 1 Billion, so still isk in my pocket. I hope it doesn’t repeats soon in the future or I’ll just research the damn BPOs from some station instead. My time is too precious to deal with this kind of crap in hi-sec.

HAULING EXPENSES

I use only public contracts to haul stuff from Jita to other Hubs, giving 30 Million reward for a 2 Billion collateral, putting 1,8 Billion worth of stuff in each contract. I spent a total of 630 Million.

MISCELANEOUS INVESTMENTS

Got 18 Million profit from selling T2 BPCs… No comments

Invested in some Capital BPOs (did not had any leftovers from December), but did not sold any during January. We wait…
 
Finally, my Overall Graph