OMG::Overwhelmed, Muttering, Gasping

I have never really been big on getting into parts of EvE that are fairly technical and require a lot of thinking.  I'm not one to get enjoyment out of playing the market as a trader or being a top of the line mass producer of everything under the sun.  It just doesn't quite bring enjoyment out of the game for me. 

I really do envy the people that are able to do these things with ease.  The launch of Planetary Interaction is very enticing and I do want to get involved.  I started reading up on it not too long ago and I about had a heart attack I felt so overwhelmed.  I want to get into it so I am gonig to make a concerted effort to do so.  I will still be PvP'ing as I just restocked my hangar and hopefully don't have terrible roams but I need to grow my wallet so I can actually get started with PI.  I will never be at the point to get to Tier 3 or 4 production.  It just seems too complicated.  I can't tell the future though.

I will definately be using Eve University's wiki on PI to get me started.  I feel a little trepidation as I venture into this but it is not going to be my whole new life, just something on the side to get deeper into the game...and hopefully fund my PvP some more!

Also, the CSM5 results were released.



CONGRATULATIONS MYNXEE!!
CONGRATULATIONS MYNXEE!!
CONGRATULATIONS MYNXEE!!
CONGRATULATIONS MYNXEE!!

True Heroes of Eve

Jimer Lins of Noir. over at Declarations of War has helped create some very entertaining eve-related material.  One of his most recent parodies being that of Clik Lok based off Tik Tok by Ke$ha was very entertaining.  I wanted to direct you to two other parodies titled True Heroes of Eve.  Some of you probably understand exactly what it is just based off of that.  For those that don't, please go visit the site and see for yourself the genius that is Jimer Lins.

The True Heroes of Eve title itself made me think of some positions in roaming gangs that I felt could be considered a True Hero.  I will be making some posts about these positions in the near future.  I don't have a lot of time to write them tonight or in the next few days as real life takes over.  I want to do them justice and have some nice posts about them.  You can expect a post on Probing Scouts and Good FC's just to name a few.

*edit*
I read this post again and thought that my comments about writing about some other True Heroes could be misconstrued.  I was taking the words literally and want to write about people that are usualy very important to successful PvP.  I do not want to rip Jimer Lins off and make my own True Heroes parodies.  I just want to give props to certain positions in a gang.  Hope that clears this up :)

Capsuleer

One of the first things I downloaded when I got my iTouch this past Christmas was Capsuleer.  I had never really been big on blogs until I got this App.

For those that do not know, Capsuleer is a program that holds the Blog Pack and also has a Skill tracker that will keep track of your skills in training.  It is an amazing app and really got me started on reading blogs.  Since I used it on an iTouch and not an iPhone, I had to remember to update it before I went to work because they don't allow things like the iTouch to connect to our wifi.  It was, and still is, something I do every day.  The skill tracker is amazing also and has definitely saved me when I forgot to update skills the night before and scramble in the morning to make sure skilling didn't stop.

I think this is a pipe dream and probably not even possible but... it would be awesome if somehow, something like EFT was integrated into the app.  It would probably make it way too huge but totally awesome :)

Venting...

Who uses their blog to vent?

I really feel like I have a few things to really vent about but am hitting a dilemma in which I don't want to hurt feelings but I am entirely too frustrated to write in a nice way about the situation.

Being pissed and writing tactfully don't seem to go together.  I think I will hold off on my topic of venting for now and just go sleep this one off.

What I can say is over 1 week for this to happen is beyond me.  I need to make more money and buy an alt that can do what I need done.

I still have respect for those that do what I need done but goddamn, I'm drowning in mediocrity among those I depend on.

Reminder:  It is a game.

*eats handfuls of chill pills*

Dastardly Drake

Popped a Hurricane
My Harby goes pop
Drake Popped by corp mate

I was out in my 'sader about to set up some more pounces when I find a Harbinger on gate - I jump through - he has a buddy in a Harpy on the other side.  I get a corp mate to come and play while I hurry home to jump into my Harbinger.  The neut Harbinger bailed to high-sec but his friend wanted to play a little in his Harpy.  Suffice to say, we only melted his shields before he ran to high-sec.  We were on each side of a gate and he burned out of my Drake partners disruptor range after I had a few pop shots at him on one side.

We soon found a Hurricane in a nearby system just chilling in a belt.  My corpmate went in for the tackle and scored big.  I land, with no shields (damn sentry guns) and the 'cane quickly switches to me as primary.  He had smartbombs fit and my partner lost his drones but somehow mine survived.  As soon as we are scooping loot a Drake lands right on top of us.  I was at about 85% armor at this point.

I start burning toward a planet as I figured I would be primaried.  I did not time it right to warp out and come back in at range and was stuck in the fight.  Right as we burn through his tank, I am sitting at about 10% armor.  At this point, in my excitement, I burned out my guns!  I end up popping with the drake about 50% structure!!!

I think I would have survived if I did not burn out my guns nor have rat aggro (3% damage on the KM, hah!).

I think the Drake is an overlooked powerhouse.  In HAM range, they are fairly beast and his tank, with only one BCU, was enough to take on a Drake and a Harby's DPS long enough to pop me.  It almost makes me want to train into one but that's a long train.  I'll stick with my lasers for now.

Being a Wuss or Smart Decision?

A few of us were chattering on vent and decided to get a small gang together and play with the locals.  We started out with 4 Harbs and a Drake.  I guess the Drake pilot did not get the memo.  We were a little obvious in our choice of 'scout'/'bait' and the Drake is our looking for a fight.  Us harbs were sitting on a gate while the drake was fishing.  We didn't get much interest in the drake as he is completely obviously bait (we need to work on different lures!) and so we move into the system we were just baiting so the scout could move to the next promising one.  This area is usualy pretty active.  This was giving me the heeby jeeby's because we were sitting a LOT.  30 mins at a 350k spot off a gate is...well....it's any choice of synonyms for 'retarded'.

We end up getting spotted by a larger alliance and are on their radar now.  We decide to start roaming so we don't get squashed in by a plan to counter our gang of about 8 BC's.  We jump a few systems and we manage to get a Hurricane on gate to engage us.  Unbeknownst to us, we had just ate some bate.  Several alarm bells should have went off - Hurricane, not moving on gate, engaging 8 BC's.  Regional gate to boot! :(

Suffice it to say he was the perfect bait for us.  We were harby heavy, so he was able to burn out of harms way very fast.  We soon realized almost completely too late that this was bad news as the gate is flashing like a lightening bug and we have a bunch of neuts pouring in. 

We were definatly not prepared for this tarp and it showed in the FC's orders.  Three quick orders which all contradicted each one.  Most of us had stayed aligned (which was the best order he gave) and were able to get out as soon as the larger gang dropped in.  This is where the title comes in.  I think, if we were more mentally prepared for the drop, we could have done decent against the gang.  Soon as the FC's orders were confused and not focused, I warped out as the gang was spreading points.  Was this a hasty decision?

I think we only lost 1 or 2 people, while everyone else was able to get out.  I felt bad for making my own decision to get out but others did also.  The primary was 40k off from most of the gang because the gate was so huge.  No new primaries called and basically mass chaos.  I think I made the right choice because I lived along with many others.  I need to FC so that I know how it feels to lead and be run over so I can make these choices easier for myself.

*edit*  The FC doesn't suck.  The situation sucked.  I wasn't trying to rag on him or anything, we all have bad fights from time to time :)

Logistical Woes

Buy Ships.
Contract Ships.
???
No ships delivered.

I don't know what is going down but I am having complete crap luck at getting things shipped out to our home base.  It is frustrating to miss out on gangs because of a new gang setup in which your ships can't keep up (thank you trimarks!).  Being new to the corp, I hope that this isn't reflecting poorly on myself when I come up for review to see if I make the cut.  Hopefully my 80%+ efficiency will help.

Don't get it twisted, I love anyone who runs logistics and gets gear moved.  Many people couldn't function without the things they do.  It is one of those feelings that you get when you don't have control over something and are utterly dependent on other people.  When things don't happen you just feel helpless.

*lightbulb*

I had somewhat of an epiphany last night.

I love PvP.  In order to pursure that love, I have to PvE.  It's like having a mistress who pays me to be with PvP but I would never want them to meet.

It made me think of my blogs title;  POS Life.  POS can mean two things in relation to Eve.  With a little imagination I think you can figure out both meanings. :)

The darkside, POS, is PvE - the curse!
The bright side, Life, is PvP - the immortality!

I don't think this is the only meaning that can be derived from POS Life, but recently this has been how I've felt about it.  I have done more PvE than PvP lately which has led me to be somewhat dry of things to write about of my own experience. 

Hopefully it's not a POS blog at the moment!  Rereading my epiphany, I seem like somewhat of a madman.  So there you have it kids, PvE rots your brain!

Pouncing

Just a quick tidbit.  I feel like I missed out on a whole concept when I was in nullsec.  The whole idea of having a quick "Pounce" (I like to call it ninja) off of a gate.  For some reason in all my experience in nullsec, we never really utilized these.  It almost makes me feel like a complete nublet.

A 'ninja' or 'pounce' is when you have a bookmark over 1,000 km off of a gate.  It allows a gang to be off grid, in a fast response safe.  The main downside would be that you are on scan.  It lets your gang be safe while you assess the situation, set up a trap, or numerous other situational tactics.  It also enables you to have a close-by spot in which to warp off and back onto gate if need be (useful for ECM pilots).  It is especially useful when you have GCC or Global Criminal Countdown in which gate guns are ravaging you.

You could get in a fast mover and go to a gate and burn off over 1k from the gate.  This takes time and too much effort.  I like to make them on the go.  When I am in warp to a gate, I'll have my bookmark creator ready to go with a name for the bookmark.  Just above your hud with your cap/guns/etc. you'll see a distance counter.  I wait until it gets to around 20-30k and then I hit bookmark.  Usually there is a little lag so the bookmark will actually end up around 7-9k off the gate.  This is like a 5 second warp to the gate until you can activate modules/target someone.

Very useful to have around your roaming grounds.

Do a little dance. Shoot a little laser. Pop a Wyvern tonight!

I am just cruisin' through missions, reading a book, and just taking it easy.  I decide to catch up on my blinky channels and notice some suh-weet news.  "Wyvern tackled in Tama!".  After I freak out, I am killing that instance of EvE and loading Nar Lee.  I jump up a few channels to get in the channel with the gang that made the announcement.  They are all currently attacking the Wyvern and blowing their minds.

Since it was in Tama there was no way this would stay quiet.  When they first started in on it there were only 30 in system.  I quickly hop in my Armageddon and start to make the 8 jumps to Tama.  Every jump made me feel like I was going to die.  By the time I reached Tama the situation was out of control.  200+ people were in system and being very pirate like.  The gang I was in had to warp off Wyvern because they were starting to get too much heat from the local FW gangs.

We met up at the station and decided that while the Wyvern's tank was getting widdled away we would make the best of it and pop targets of opportunity.  We would warp in on a tackled target, pop it, and warp out.  The FW gangs did not want anyone else around it seemed so this was our best option since we no longer had to tackle the Wyvern or really help with the DPS.  This may sound like kill mail whoring but it's low sec....everyone in that system wanted to be on that kill mail! :)

Our cloaky tackler was doing awesome.  The kill mails are a little crazy so here are the kills I was on as I was late to the party:

Drake
Maelstrom
Hurricane
Typhoon
Hurricane

I did not get on the Wyvern killmail unfortunately.  We had warped out and on my way back to whore the mail it popped when I landed :(  Next time I'll be sure to have my kill mail whoring skills up to par!

Good times were had by all!

I think that the Wyvern was a GM Event of some sort.  I had no clue those happened in EvE but I should have known since it IS a MMO.  I need to look up information about these things because it seems interesting.  When I get around to it and if I find enough information I'll make a post explaining it.

It's like this and like that and uh....

Time to pick a banner.

Here are the two choices:

Tough choice.  Great work by Rixx at Evoganda.

OMG AT8!

THE ALLIANCE TOURNAMENT AHALFJWEFPOIJWEFPJWEG!

Yes, I love the Alliance Tournament.  Do you not FEEL MY EXCITEMENT!

I will admit, some of the picks I made were completely random because I didn't know anything about either.  I went with a basic "most likely" train of thought with the advantage leaning against well known alliances for the first round.  I don't think there will be many upsets in the first round for the big guys.  I will say, I want V3 to do well as they are the only team ever to defeat Pandemic Legion.  We'll see how they do this year!

Saturday 5th June
 Against ALL Authorities v Perihelion Alliance
 Agony Empire v HYDRA RELOADED
Arbeitaholics Anonymous v Get Off My Lawn 
Atlas Alliance v Intrepid Crossing
B A N E v Unaffiliated
Beyond Virginity v Majesta Empire
BricK sQuAD. v Panda Team
Circle-Of-Two v Indecisive Certainty
Break
Cry Havoc. v Plutonix
Curatores Veritatis Alliance v DarkSide.
Dead Terrorists v Pandemic Legion
death from above.. v Noir. Mercenary Group
Dystopia Alliance v Morsus Mihi
Electric Monkey Overlords v Leguinea Romana
Electus Matari v Veni Vidi Vici
Erebus Alliance v RED.OVERLORD
Sunday 6th June
Eve Engineering v GoonSwarm
Honourable Templum of Alcedonia v WE FORM VOLTRON
HUN Reloaded v The Tusker Bastards
Huzzah Federation v THE R0NIN
Important Internet Spaceship League v Monks of War.
Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate v The Wrong Alliance
Ivy League v SOLAR FLEET
Manifest Destiny. v RAZOR Alliance
Break
Mos Vape Heavy Industries v Paisti Syndicate
Negative Ten. v Soldiers of Thunderstorm
Old Intentions v Ushra'Khan
OWN Alliance v The G0dfathers
Pitch Black Legion v The Kadeshi
Rote Kapelle v Silver Twilight Enterprises
Snatch Victory v THE SPACE P0LICE
T o r m e n t u m v The Star Fraction

Good luck to all!

Cruisin' for a Bruisin'

Cruisin down the pipe in my 'sader
Jockin the locals, slappin the 'bears
Went to the planet to scan the loop
Knuckleheads out there cold shootin some fools
A  ship pulls up, who can it be?
A fresh thrasher, minnie g
He rolls down his window and he started to say
It’s all about makin that PvP
-Thanks to Dr. Dre for the inspiration....can you name that song I butched? :)
 
No luck in the solo department this weekend.  Believe it or not, I found nothing to kill!  I'm crusin' around in my crusader and it seems any solo attempt I had, they had the right fit to counter my 15k ground and pound.  I did not travel to some more populated areas as I was not ready to pop my 'sader to a FW blob.  Will have to refine my baiting attempts and try again this week.  Hopefully I'll have a few kills to share as I go for the gold!
 
On an unrelated note - thanks needs to go out to Rixx Javix for doing me a HUGE favor by doing a writeup about my banner.  I will unleash the other banner I am trying to choose from probably tonight when I get home from work.  So come back and check it out soon and let me know what you think after you have seen them both!
 
Until then, jock some locals and slap some 'bears!

Roc explains it all with 1 pic

Why do most people who play other MMO's have trouble with eve?

Here's Roc Wieler's take:

LOL!

Slowsec?

As much as I have loved low sec lately, last night was a let down.  Roughly a 32 jump trip yet only bagged a catalyst.  A big factor in having such a slow night deals with our own numbers on the roam.  I am thinking people went partying instead of roaming ;)

With only 6 in a BC gang, there is not much we will be able to face if the numbers or ship types aren't matching up.  We had a bail on such a coushy gang we ran in to because the odds were against us.  *dreams of Navy Mega's exploding*

I need to skill faster too.  Missed out on what sounded like a fun gang last night after our roam.  Arbitrators of doom!  Playing catch up in skills stinks but I am doing this the right way and being highly skilled when I enter into new ships.  Now if I could only miraculously obtain billions of isk then I could PvP to my delight.  Donations are accepted!

Evoganda = Awesomeganda?

Rixx Javix over at Evoganda has so kindly created a new banner for my blog.  I have to say I am quite satisfied with it.  I have two to choose from and it is a terribly hard choice as they are both suh-weet. 

You might see the banner flip from a lot as I try to choose the final one.

Thanks Rixx!

Woah! Where'd you come from?

WH local to be the only local?

I am not sure how I feel about this.  It seems that the idea is getting kicked around a bit.  Local in WH's is obviously how it should be.  You are in some place, in the middle of nowhere, connected by well...worm holes.  Local should be how it is.


For High Sec and Low Sec, there should never be a delay as this is very well known space and partly policed by CONCORD.  0.0 is the only place I think a change to local could go.  It is lawless.  It is its own monster.  CONCORD could give a rip about what happens in Null Sec.

I'll need to ponder this idea more but I am not sure I would want any change to local but I can see the advantages.

Go Vote ya ninnies!

CSM5 voting has been opened.  If you haven't noticed I am supporting Mynxee (look over there --->).  There are a lot of great candidates vying for a position this year.  I find it interesting the differences in approach to CSM.  There are a fair number of candidates who seem to not take it near as serious as others.  Some are very professional about their platform while others take more of a nonchalant stance.

As I was writing this, Manasi posted a link that I thought was incredibly awesome.  Head over to http://match.eve-csm.com/ if you are having trouble finding a candidate to vote for.

Can't wait to see the results and I am sure Mynxee will be among CSM5's new members.

----------

I have had a hard time figuring out what to train my mission alt in to.  I had trained him as a Caldari pilot for a long time but was just not impressed when I first stepped in to a Raven.  I think it was just my play style at the time that didn't let me give it a Chance.  He is not very far from getting into a properly fit CNR, it is just his bank account holding him back. 

When I was heartbroken at my performance in a Raven, I had switched to training for a Dominix.  The dual LAR setup was a beast for tanking any situation.  The only thing lacking was the damage.  I then started him on the path to get T2 Sentry Drones.  He's now 4 days away from finishing this training which will definitely boost his damage.  I also have a few days more training to get his gun support skills up as I have switched to a single rep, 350mm railgun toting gankinix.  The tank has been punished but the dps has dang near doubled since my dual LAR setup.

Now, since his drone training will be done soon, I have gotten the itch to finish his Raven skills as I have figured out I can get the same tank with more dps using the CNR instead of my Dominix.  Yes I know, long time to have me realize this as everyone on the forums has been swearing by Ravens.  I just need to increase my funds as I am a poor capsuleer for sure.

Enough of that carebear crap, I need to pop some fools.  I've been busy outside of EvE and have not been able to roam for coming up on a week now.  Good news is that my last masters class is tonight!  WOOT!

Yay for Scout FC's!

Easley Thames, heard of mostly over at Aggressive Tendencies, has started a blog.  I had always been wanting to hear his side of PK's fleets from his blog and now we will be able to do that.

Head on over to 'Could Have Taken it Solo' to find Easley's blog.

Fair play or Foul play?

An excellent write-up over at Eveoganda covered the topic of fairness in EVE.  His inspiration is from a post by Tobold in his blog.  I haven't followed the Tobold blog as he ventures into EvE after a lifetime of WoW but the whole debate he has created about how PvP in EvE is not fair is very interesting.  This may turn in to some sort of meme'ish deal so I figure I am going to jump on that horse and ride.

I feel that when looking at this discussion, I need to keep this simple phrase in mind:  Fair is not always Equal.

In PvP, each side is striving to tip the scales in their favor.  Some groups will rely and larger numbers.  Others will rely on tactics well beyond my caveman comprehension.  Everything these groups are doing is trying to set themselves up so they have the highest chance to win.  Is it fair?  You're damn right it is.  Is it equal?  Never.

If everything was equal, then nothing would get accomplished.  A 1v1 that has equal skilled pilots, equal equipped ships, equal computations of if their damage was landing, at what level it was landing, .... see where I'm going?  If everything was equal, the game would not work.

Is it fair that someone gets to choose how they play which some how negatively affects your play?  Yes, this is completely fair as they are playing how they like using the games ruleset.  This might not be equal as he/she may have all the tools they need to get it done while you only have half the tools to defend.  Complaining that their playstyle is not fair is basically you not coming to terms with your inadequacies to stop them.  Thus, it is not equal but it is fair.

I hope this rambling makes sense but don't lose sight of the main topic:  Fair is not always equal.

Quick 'n Easy "Die Less" Information

In my last post I did a quick rundown of how I got popped due to my own stupidity.  In an effort to curb that again, here are a few links that should help me be less of a 'tard.  Some of this I already knew but definately need to get into a better routine with.

D-Scan Guide at a merry life and a short one
FC a small gang at EVE Newb (funny look at being an FC, a must read!)
Aggressive Tendencies usually has some good write-ups about roams and what not.  Should be able to get some ideas about PVP from his posts.


We'll see if I end up pulling more nubness to make the corp think twice about accepting me at the end of the trial period.  Pretty sure this last mistake won't happen again. (Famous last words eh? :))

WTB: Bait-Drake Awareness Skillbook

I was able to catch a gang last night who was just reshipping down into BC's from a BS roam.  I hop in my trusty old Harbinger and I set off with 7 others.  It was fairly quiet for awhile but we were heading into Caldari State space which was sure to get us a mini-blob.

Finally we have a CS Rupture land on us and so we did the usual, several jump while the others force them through.  He jumped almost immediately and I missed the kill-mail as I held on one side in-case he was able to burn back and jump.  I think this was the beginning of what would eventually be our demise.  In the meantime we pop a Myrmidon just before a CS Harpy idiotically red boxed our scout.  We warped in and made quick work of him while his friends get away.  No doubt they were getting more CS members as we continued our roam.

We were fishing with a Prophecy and the bait was working.  We catch two drakes and make quick work of them.  They were CS members who seem to have got caught in their rendezvous with their gang.  Bastards popped two of my drones :(

Since we were fishing with a bait ship you would think it was obvious that another bait ship would be obvious.  I am still somewhat new to the low sec way of life and it had not dawned on me yet.  I was low shields from the drakes as the gate guns liked to shoot me before we would get orders to jump gates.  The bait-drake lands in the middle of us and I am in auto-pilot mode; I slap a point on him.  As I am not in habit of constantly checking d-scanner while in combat, I fail to notice the 15 ships about to land on us.  The FC assumed too much of his crew (namely myself) and was not giving the basic orders or 'deagress' to those that were pummeling the drake (the two harby's of the group...myself included).  I was the first to point the drake and thus the first to get gate guns as well as the first primary.  Suffice it to say, I did not give myself time to deagress and jump.  Pop.

If anyone is selling the 'Bate-Drake Awareness' skill book I will gladly pay top isk for it.  Lesson learned.

Gettin' the Word Out

This pretty much sums up what I feel about getting added to several blog lists

Thanks to Mandrill at I am Keith Neilson and Black Claw at The Eve Online Bloggers Portal for adding me to their list.  Am in the process to get it added over at Crazy Kinux's site too. 

It's fun to think about new readers that might happen across my blog.  Although getting lots of readers is not the main goal of my blogging, it is fun to write for others who might enjoy what you are talking about.

--------------

Since this could mean new readers, I might as well do an introduction post as I have not quite done an official yet.

I am Nar Lee.  The narliest pod pilot this side of the Mississippi....Alright that was somewhat stupid...


I used to live in 0.0 with nothing going on but gate camps, 600 man fights, or POS bashing.  The latter is somewhat the thing that inspired my blogs name.  POS bashing sucks :(  I have also lived out of POS' and that sucks too :(  Thus, my double meaning title :)

I currently reside in low sec with Monolithic.  I am brand new with them and still under trial but things are going well.  I've had a ton of fun killing our neighbors.  I have played EvE since 2008 starting with a character who is now my mission alt.  I took a year off not long after starting and only about 6 months ago resubbed. 

I am not much for talking about myself so I'll probably end up telling more as I blog.

Until next time, peace!