Update: the My EVE Corp page on my blog has been updated to the Lemmings.
In preparation for the all-out war on Goons, I tried some solo PvP. You didn't see this coming, that I attack non-mining ships! Actually I attacked a 30-men gang twice and got 10 kills in the process. As I mentioned earlier, I've found a ship in which I could enjoy PvP. This is the most powerful subcap. It alone destroyed the Dotbros coalition: the Falcon. This is a force recon ship, but the point is that it's bonused for the most powerful weapon system of the game: the ECM jammers. "Powerful" is meant in the terms of "ability to take away fun". RvB banned this weapon system and lowsec PvP-ers can cry like ganked miners if anyone ECMs them.
I originally planned to play with Miniluv, the highsec arm of Goonswarm, but they probably had more fun activities, like shooting another multi-billion HP structure in bombless bombers. So I had to settle with C0VEN, who were busy ganking in Nairja. They - like most freighter gankers - used bumper ship to keep the freighter "tackled", then warped a blob of Catalysts on it:
When they landed, I decloaked and locked them. Since they did not go GCC yet, I waited. Then they started shooting, going GCC, so I could engage without being at war with them:
Let's look at the killboard now, analyzing the second fight. On this there were a freighter and 6 Catalyst kills:
The point isn't that I got 6 kill reports, I could do that in a noobship. If you do any offensive action on someone with GCC, you get the kill report of Concord. That's called "Concord whoring" and this is the favorite activity of anti-ganker white knights. But look at the freighter kill. There are 32 people on it, all in Catalysts. The average damage of the 6 people I killed is 2445. The average damage of the others is 6510. The targeted people lost 63% of their DPS, so I completely disabled 0.63*6 = 3.8 people from the gankers. They still got the kill because they horribly overkilled. In 0.5 a 14-16 somewhat decent Cata would be enough. They used 32.
Of course this was just the test. The goal is hitting on Miniluv, because - unlike C0VEN - Goons use Talos battlecruisers for ganking. While taking out 4 Catalysts just cause 20-30M damage, 4 Taloses cost 300M (you can't insure ganking ships). But there is more than simply getting lot of kills and causing lot of ISK damage to Goons. The best is that you can do it while AFK. As Falcons can cloak, no ganker can be sure that it won't decloak and jam. So gankers either have to stop ganking while a known Falcon pilot is in local, or use 4 extra Taloses on every gank. You can maximize the damage by examining earlier killboards. Create an overview which doesn't show pilots with neutral or higher standings. Set known gankers orange, usually by corp or alliance settings. Then set those gankers individually red, who had the highset damage on earlier ganks. They are the best skilled pilots, they should be jammed!
As anyone can shoot GCC gankers, you don't need to be in a corp which is at war with the gankers. Of course, you can do it as a war target too, but this case you can lose your Falcon. For example you are shooting a POCO and place a Falcon cloaked above the POCO. Goon arrives to kill the POCO grinders, they tackle and web him back, Falcon decloaks, jams, so he is just sitting there webbed, scammed, unable to do anything. In such cases the Falcon might can't fit 5 jammers as it needs other PvP mods like its own scram and web. Also, don't forget to adjust the jammers, the ECM I used is only good against Gallente ships. You can use multifrequency ECM or just sit docked, refit according to needs, undock and warp to the attacked fleetmember.
Besides being very effective, I find flying a Falcon enjoyable, so I suggest every Lemming to train for it. In the meantime, you can use a Blackbird cruiser, which cannot cloak but can jam very well, or on timer fights even a Scorpion battleship. Remember! ECM doesn't destroy ships, it destroys fun, making the Falcon the most powerful subcap. The target just sits there, all modules inactive and he can't even say that by being primaried he protected other fleetmates from being primaried. He is just there, watching his fleetmates die, unable to do anything!
I did some scouting and created a list of Goon POCOs in highsec. It's time to eliminate them:
Aikoro 2
Funtanainen 6
Ikuchi 5
Isikemi 2
Iyen-Oursta 2
Maurasi 2
Muvolainen 6
Niyabainen 3
Oiniken 2
Perimiter 10
Sobaseki 13
Tunttaras 8
Urlen 4
Veisto 5
Lemmings update: 99.6% ISK efficiency! This is "elite PvP" ... by randomly invited carebear alts. The Goons are that bad. What are you waiting for! Grab an alt and join the Lemmings!
Finally, a reader submitted trading moron:
In preparation for the all-out war on Goons, I tried some solo PvP. You didn't see this coming, that I attack non-mining ships! Actually I attacked a 30-men gang twice and got 10 kills in the process. As I mentioned earlier, I've found a ship in which I could enjoy PvP. This is the most powerful subcap. It alone destroyed the Dotbros coalition: the Falcon. This is a force recon ship, but the point is that it's bonused for the most powerful weapon system of the game: the ECM jammers. "Powerful" is meant in the terms of "ability to take away fun". RvB banned this weapon system and lowsec PvP-ers can cry like ganked miners if anyone ECMs them.
I originally planned to play with Miniluv, the highsec arm of Goonswarm, but they probably had more fun activities, like shooting another multi-billion HP structure in bombless bombers. So I had to settle with C0VEN, who were busy ganking in Nairja. They - like most freighter gankers - used bumper ship to keep the freighter "tackled", then warped a blob of Catalysts on it:
When they landed, I decloaked and locked them. Since they did not go GCC yet, I waited. Then they started shooting, going GCC, so I could engage without being at war with them:
The point isn't that I got 6 kill reports, I could do that in a noobship. If you do any offensive action on someone with GCC, you get the kill report of Concord. That's called "Concord whoring" and this is the favorite activity of anti-ganker white knights. But look at the freighter kill. There are 32 people on it, all in Catalysts. The average damage of the 6 people I killed is 2445. The average damage of the others is 6510. The targeted people lost 63% of their DPS, so I completely disabled 0.63*6 = 3.8 people from the gankers. They still got the kill because they horribly overkilled. In 0.5 a 14-16 somewhat decent Cata would be enough. They used 32.
Of course this was just the test. The goal is hitting on Miniluv, because - unlike C0VEN - Goons use Talos battlecruisers for ganking. While taking out 4 Catalysts just cause 20-30M damage, 4 Taloses cost 300M (you can't insure ganking ships). But there is more than simply getting lot of kills and causing lot of ISK damage to Goons. The best is that you can do it while AFK. As Falcons can cloak, no ganker can be sure that it won't decloak and jam. So gankers either have to stop ganking while a known Falcon pilot is in local, or use 4 extra Taloses on every gank. You can maximize the damage by examining earlier killboards. Create an overview which doesn't show pilots with neutral or higher standings. Set known gankers orange, usually by corp or alliance settings. Then set those gankers individually red, who had the highset damage on earlier ganks. They are the best skilled pilots, they should be jammed!
As anyone can shoot GCC gankers, you don't need to be in a corp which is at war with the gankers. Of course, you can do it as a war target too, but this case you can lose your Falcon. For example you are shooting a POCO and place a Falcon cloaked above the POCO. Goon arrives to kill the POCO grinders, they tackle and web him back, Falcon decloaks, jams, so he is just sitting there webbed, scammed, unable to do anything. In such cases the Falcon might can't fit 5 jammers as it needs other PvP mods like its own scram and web. Also, don't forget to adjust the jammers, the ECM I used is only good against Gallente ships. You can use multifrequency ECM or just sit docked, refit according to needs, undock and warp to the attacked fleetmember.
Besides being very effective, I find flying a Falcon enjoyable, so I suggest every Lemming to train for it. In the meantime, you can use a Blackbird cruiser, which cannot cloak but can jam very well, or on timer fights even a Scorpion battleship. Remember! ECM doesn't destroy ships, it destroys fun, making the Falcon the most powerful subcap. The target just sits there, all modules inactive and he can't even say that by being primaried he protected other fleetmates from being primaried. He is just there, watching his fleetmates die, unable to do anything!
I did some scouting and created a list of Goon POCOs in highsec. It's time to eliminate them:
Aikoro 2
Funtanainen 6
Ikuchi 5
Isikemi 2
Iyen-Oursta 2
Maurasi 2
Muvolainen 6
Niyabainen 3
Oiniken 2
Perimiter 10
Sobaseki 13
Tunttaras 8
Urlen 4
Veisto 5
Lemmings update: 99.6% ISK efficiency! This is "elite PvP" ... by randomly invited carebear alts. The Goons are that bad. What are you waiting for! Grab an alt and join the Lemmings!
Finally, a reader submitted trading moron:
16 comments:
You most likely know the tears being shed constantly in the forums about how overpowered the Falcon is. Yet, unlike other EW methods like Sensor dampers or turret disruption ECM can miss. Being a Falcon pilot myself, I can say this: if you your ECM misses in a PvP situation, bad things happen to your ship or fleet member's ships.
Perhaps if FoF missiles were not so lackluster...
Oh, that trading moron mail: are they really threatening someone with bounties if they do not undercut by 0.1? Seriously... I should contact them and let them know they should put a bounty on me. I think I might.
While this looks like fun, I'm guessing it's pretty easy to gank the falcon as soon as they figure out who you are.
I myself would fly this into a cloud of catalysts...
Hats off to the mighty Falcon, one of the best force equalizers in the game. Make the knuckledragging PvPers shed a river.
funny idea, turning the denying fihgts thing back on goons.
I tried some solo PvP. You didn't see this coming, that I attack non-mining ships!
I didn't! Good for you, actually going out and seeking a challenge! I genuinely thought you'd just stay in highsec desperately attempting to find a way to 'grind' respect instead of trying to achieve something difficult.
Oh wait...
What I like the most about this post??? The sudden lack of goons commenting about it... BTW, 1 more week or so and my stealth bomber pilot will be ready. Bombless bombers right back at you!!
The Falcon also works great against belt gankers. It's the all-in-one package: sneak up on the scout and once the ganker warps in, decloak, scram and jam him (some are trying to run once they see a Falcon, so fit a point). Then scram and kill the pod *and* after that, kill the gankers wreck. You don't want his scout to scoop the loot.
What's also fun against freighter/hauler gankers is to shoot the wreck: Even freighter wrecks only have 500 EHP. A sensor boosted Meta 0 fitted alpha Thrasher is already enough. Stay over 150km away from the freighter and once the wreck appears, warp to it and alpha the wreck. You'll get CONCORDed though, so use an alt.
love the comment on trading. When I do trade I typically set a price to sell below the markets current sell point. I have heard the same stuff. Actually I suspect most of my goods are bought by other traders to artificially keep the price up.
Isn't putting a bounty on a station-trading alt basically the same thing as giving that player that money? Wouldn't that person just kill his station trader with another account and claim the bounty? (I don't play Eve, just read the blog still from WoW days.)
So, should this be the goto ship for white knight belt defenders then?
@Damascus
Actually in EVE there isn't such a thing a "markets current sell point". (Most) people will just buy what they need whatever the price is.
I've traded a lot of various items repetitively and the same exact item in the same hub will sell in the same time whatever the price has become. Also on history graphs, you can see there is no systematic correlation between volume and price.
I've compared 0.01 undercuts to various %-of-price undercuts on big amount samples... it sells exactly the same (except obviously for isolated offers with totally unrealistic prices, and even then...)
Since in EVE demand doesn't vary with price but only with need, the 0.01 undercut is your best bet for preserving your margin and making the highest profit. Most of the time I don't bother and I undercut by any small amount which is convenient to enter (though undercutting by 0.01 is often the easiest, using only mouse wheel to change price). That being said I would never complain if people undercut by crazy amount, best to focus on own strategy than wasting time complaining on other's mistakes. :)
the falcon is cool but hardly "the most powerful subcap". ECM is powerful but it has natural enemies. Falcons are easy meat if you run into a damp supported gang. many *decent* small gangs will carry projected ECCM to assist in countering falcons.
Where the falcon shines is snapping logistics chains. But you still need **something** to apply dps to take advantage of that.
@Anonymous
"Also on history graphs, you can see there is no systematic correlation between volume and price."
Yes there is. You probably trade low profit, high volume stuff. You can bet that for high profit, low volume items, sales volume does fluctuate with price. Often I'll find a market that sells very little because it's just a bunch of morons .01 isking a very high price. I'll offer a reasonable price and sales start taking off.
Obviously a Falcon alone won't kill anything. But I mean that in a small-gang setting, a Falcon is the most valuable ship. A Falcon+DPS gang wins against any 2 ships.
@Lewis
Yes I trade what's is most traded on the market, high volumes hub to hub with 40%-100+% profit. For me your situation is a specific case (not the most traded) but I agree with you in this case. Extrapolating about what you do, one step further would be direct negotiation with client and you obviously don't 0.01 cut. Effectively low volume trading is kinda "via-interface negotiated trading", which means more personal with client even if anonymous. Two different cases, two different approaches.
Obviously a Falcon alone won't kill anything. But I mean that in a small-gang setting, a Falcon is the most valuable ship. A Falcon+DPS gang wins against any 2 ships.
I know this is an old post but i only just saw this so for your information, no, this is incorrect.
A falcon + DPS ship will likely lose against something like, say, a lachesis + DPS ship. the lachesis will force the falcon to either disengage or close range to utilize it's weapon or inflate the lock speed of the falcon so much so as to make it useless in the fight. - and the lachesis' primary weapon always works (where ECM is a dice roll, sensor damping works 100% of the time).
Long range sniper ships with target painters can also make short work of a falcon as the falcon has a feeble tank and is easily volleyed off the field by ships that operate outside of it's effective range.
Drone gangs (a pair of domis spring to mind) can use the drone assist and drone agro mechanic to nullify the falcon's advantage and chase it off the field.
Specialized setups that revolve around remote ECCM are also amazing falcon counters. We run a projected ECCM based logistics config and it is essentially immune to enemy ECM.
The falcon certainly does have a fearsome, fearsome reputation. But it is only one setup and it has it's disadvantages over other setups. Range control configurations, drone configurations, long range configurations etc all have an upper hand here. Just look back over a few years of alliance tournies. Sure falcon/rook based ewar teams have done well, but equally they have been countered and defeated as well.
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