OK, this time I wasn't just minding my own business. I was looking for something to do and when I saw a Caracal (that's a Caldari missile cruiser) hanging around outside the Black Rebel station in Auner I gave him a steely eyed look. He took the hint and flew off in his ship named "Pretty Kitty". Just to be sure that he got the message I followed him to an asteroid belt and unleashed the full fury of my rifter.
Well, sorta unleashed.
He was shooting rats and apparently there were a bunch of asteroids between him and where I landed. Looking back at the combat log I see that my first dozen shots or so were misses - probably outside the 150mm autocannon range. I think that while I gave explicit commands to orbit the villain at 500 meters the ship was bouncing around off of asteroids trying to get into position. Thus, when I thought I should be well in range, I was still playing asteroid pinball...
Eventually I found my range and started filling the Caracal with hot phased plasma (the best that the Republic Fleet has to offer - expensive stuff!). Some of the shots were doing upwards of 150 points of damage, so he was definitely feeling it.
Eventually he took notice (after I had hit him with half a dozen broadsides) and Pretty Kitty started firing back. And how! His "Bloodclaw Fury Light Missiles" were hitting me for at least 300 points of damage each! Some over 400! And there were a bunch of them all at once! It was worse than drones and I hate drones...
Needless to say, I didn't last long and soon exploded.
GF GF in local and I don't think we'll see that "Pretty Kitty" loitering around our station anytime soon. But if we do, I've been practicing my steely eyed glare...
Just remember that missile damage is negated by raw speed, not radial velocity.
ReplyDeleteBy setting your orbit at 500m you reduced your speed, which increased his damage. Against a Caracal (which is very good at killing frigates, by the way) you probably want to orbit at 5-7km so that you are moving at your top speed.
Isn't RF EM better against a caracal?
ReplyDeleteSame anonymous as above - It's Caldari by the way.
ReplyDeleteAll of your points are very well taken.
ReplyDeleteThanks Taurean. I had a bad experience earlier against a missile boat and it taught me that high speed is the antidote to nasty missiles. Unfortunately, a "Caracal" was new to me and little did I know it was one of those missile tossers... I do now and will take appropriate "bat out of hell" measures next time.
And being a veritable tyro at PvP I was flying one of Miura Bull's designs that had the plasma in the design description. Something different for a change from my usual fusion and barrage. Obviously, had I done my homework, I would have chosen something different. But on the spur of the moment, I went with what I had. And it was a good learning lesson as next time I'll leave the plasma behind when facing a caracal...
So, in a nutshell, it was a case of flying in for the thrills without doing the homework that might have improved the results...
Fixed the Gallente/Caldari mistake.
Thanks!
Same anonymous again - although slightly less anonymous. I think the general rule for shooting T1 stuff is fusion for armour tanked (i.e. amarr/galente) EM for shield (i.e. caldari). Most minmatar ships work either way so you sort of have to learn common fits and "look at" to work out gun types and guess the rest or just take a punt and hope for the best.
ReplyDeleteI dont think you really need phased plasma until youre shooting at T2 targets.