Sometime, you need to get out of your element a little bit to learn some new things. I decided I needed some pew practice, so with that in mind I spent a large part of January can flipping (which I’d really never done any of) and trying to pick fights with ships and pilots that definitely out-classed me. I exclusively used a rifter to do so, and while I lost a few fights, I snagged a couple pretty nice victories as well.
Warning: long post
It has been a lot of fun, especially with the fights where I was definitely out of my league and starting to go down and had to overheat my entire ship to the brink of death to win. I also pulled some pretty serious douche-bag moves, especially to unsuspecting mining barge pilots (although I avoided players under a month old unless deliberately attacked). To the retriever pilots of Fricoure, Vittenyn, and surrounding areas: I’m sorry. But, I hope you learned something about trusting people, especially when those people have a skull next to their name, are flashing red to you, and are a part of a corp called “Suddenly Ninjas” that your corp inexplicably has set to negative standing (honestly, what is remotely trustworthy about any of that?). My intent was not to grief you into leaving this wonderful game, but rather to educate you into staying.
Why a rifter? For one, they’re amazing to fly, and with the right skills, fitting, and know-how, you can push them to their utter limits into deadly little ships. People love to underestimate them too. Sure, in the end, they’re just a frigate, but those months and months spent training into flying battlecruisers and battleships translate into one mean little frigate.
I’ve gotten more than a few questions in my inbox about the rifter fitting I use for most of my shenanigans, so I figured I’d write something up about it. The short answer though, is go to Wensley’s rifter guide at rifterdrifter.com. I will bow before his expertise and attention to detail and say that his guide is a MUST read for anyone who flies a rifter, ever. I’ve been reading that thing over and over and over the past month, and I glean new tips and info every single time.
For those who seek immediate gratification, I’ve been using two rifter fits primarily, both pretty much versions of Wensleys. The first, and most recommended one:
["Failsauce" - can flipper]
Highs:
3x 200mm Autocannon II
‘Limos” Rocket Launcher
Mids:
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters
Lows:
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plate
Small Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II
Rigs:
2x Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
The above is my standard rifter. Load it up with Republic Fleet EMP S (for melting shields), and carry around some RF Phased Plasma S to switch to when you’re into armor if you want. For rockets, I’ve been using gremlins or foxfires. If you’re really feeling like Butch Cassidy, drop the DCII for a Gyrostabilizer II for even more gankage.
This fit has worked VERY well for me, but note that it relies pretty heavily on the pilot having some good armor tank skills. Get those armor compensation and repair systems skills trained up. Over the past month, this has snagged me a handful of cruisers, 2 BC’s, a Crow, an Ishkur, a Nemesis, and about 15 destroyers.
Now, not all of these fights were straight head-to-head knockouts; some of them required some smart flying and again, I urge you to read the Wensley’s guide. You also need to pick your battles with this one. Even though my goal was to fight things out of my league, sometimes, they were TRULY un-winable fights. But, that was the point. This ship costs a grand total of around 5 million isk, so go ahead and lose a few.
The other fitting is taken from Wensley as well, which he in turn took from Kal’Kalagen (seriously, check out that guys fits, not to mention ridiculous KB stats). Its roughly the same thing, with a much bigger plate, and some smaller AC’s and a MAPC to fit.
["Failsauce II" - heavy armor]
Highs:
3x 150mm Autocannon II
‘Limos” Rocket Launcher
Mids:
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters
Lows:
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plate
Small Armor Repairer II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core 1
Rigs:
2x Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
Again, this is going to take some armor tank skills to pull off, and note that this plate slows you down even more.
A couple of tips I’ve picked up for flying these:
* Stay the HELL away from Arbitrators. Those little bastards will drain your cap in about 3 seconds and the drones will eat you alive.
*Speaking of drones, drone-boats should maybe be avoided, particularly ones with T2s. A Vexor can ruin your day, however a way around this is to kite the drones. Orbit the Vexor out of scram/web range at about 15km. Use your web and ACs to pick off the drones one by one, and when you’re on the last 1 or 2 (if you’re still alive), narrow your orbit until you can web the Vexor. With the last of the drones gone, overheat the shit out of your guns and tear him a new one.
* With ranged frigate class ships (i.e. the Nemesis and Crow), feinting is your friend. Both of these ships are faster than you. Period. And if they’re flown remotely well, they’ll stay out of range of you. Both these kills I got by feinting a charge, and then ABing in the opposite direction away from them. Both pilots, in their haste to “catch me” MWDed right into my web range.
*Ok, I admit it…I had RR help on the Iskur, but comon ;).
*For added dickhead fun, after you’ve popped someone for taking their stuff back from your can right in front of you, and they’ve warped back to station, pop a can next to their wreck. Name it the exact same thing as the wreck. For instance, “Fuzzytheminer’s Retriever Wreck”. Then transfer all the loot drop into the can and pop the wreck. Wait around until the aggro timer has worn off and giggle as the same miner or their hauler alt comes back and scoops the loot from “their wreck”. Pop goes the weasel.
*Milk it. You’ve just stolen someones ore and time. You are officially a douchebag now, so go for broke. Bait people into fights, goad them, blow up the ore can you’ve just stolen. A lot of people are just going to hate you and go about their business, but the real hotheads out there are going to KEEP coming back for more. They’ll come back in a dessie, then another frigate, then they’ll bring a friend in an equally poorly fit dessie. You get one of these guys and you can get 4 kills out of flipping one can.
Anyways, I’m not telling you to go out and piss everyone off, but this is honestly a great way to just pick some fights. Knock a few people out, get the shit kicked out of yourself by their bigger friends, and then jump back in and do it again. The cost of these ships is negligible, so go pick some fights and lose some. I’m telling you, the knowledge gained from losing that fight is worth 5mil.
I’ve had a hell of a time, and made some pretty good friends along the way with fellow griefers and flippers as well as victims and other miners. Plus, even if a bunch of them were hapless miners, snagging top killer on the TEARS KB for January with 47 kills felt pretty good.
So now, its back to ninjaing more often. It looks like the weekly salvage op might get up and running again, even with my weird RL schedule these days, and the Ninja-Raven is hungry for bear-meat. So, stay tuned, and thanks for reading (especially if you made it all the way down here on that monster of a post :p).
o7,
-Aiden
