Another loss, but at least I seem to be learning. I feel like I did everything relatively right this time.
I met Camelia Rouge's Hookbill at the gate when I warped into Fasse. I proceeded to my safe spot to see if either of the other two occupants in Fasse were of interest. They weren't - one immediately jumped out of the system and the other did likewise a few seconds later - probably just passing through. I moved on to a couple more systems and again saw Camelia in local here and there. When I found nothing of interest I headed back to Ney by way of Fasse.
Again the Hookbill was at the gate when I arrived in Fasse and it warped away.
I headed to a safe spot and scanned. Seeing the Hookbill on the top belt, I warped up there at a comfortable distance and sure enough - there was Camelia 60km away. I overheated everything and launched my attack! Death to Hookbills!
I targeted her, set the orbit to 500k, started firing my autocannons when nearly in range, and hit the scrambler and webs. The damage control unit was whistling along and the overheated armor repairer was doing it's best to neutralize the incoming Caldari Navy Thorn Rockets. So far, so good. No major blunders that I know of.
The fight went as expected - I hung in there for a while but my 30dps couldn't match the Hookbill's 80dps (numbers from the combat log when entered here: http://eve-combat-logs.appspot.com/). Eventually - Sirens and explosions! GFs were exchanged and some friendly chat ensued in local.
What did I learn? Well, that it is possible to not make any stupid mistakes (though warping to zero on the belt might have been a better idea if I was expecting a fight and wanted to give my opponent less time to plan - but certainly not a mistake in the league of some of my other blunders so far...). Things worked as they were supposed to and if I can keep doing things right I'll be very happy regardless of the final results.
Keep in mind that you effectively gave the Hookbill a damage boost by orbiting at 500m.
ReplyDeleteRockets are affected by speed, not tracking, and a tight orbit means that you are not using all the speed available to you (your ship has to slow down to maintain the orbit).
Thanks! Another item to add to my checklist of "things to think about" when entering combat. I did turn off my AB to keep the close orbit - so I hope to remember next time I face rockets to keep going fast.
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