Video - This is Syndicate

Temprial of Agony Unleashed recently put together the following video, and I'm really impressed by what he's done with it. This isn't your average PVP video - you'll see no UI, no zoomed out white squares at 150% speed, no killcounters or commentary. This is something a lot more cinematic, more about the beauty and feel of Eve rather than trying to capture a particular fight or any mad skillz.

While some of the shots were staged, the majority of the video was taken during actual PVP while roaming around Syndicate, all within a fairly short timeframe (how Temp managed to fight effectively while constantly turning his UI off is anyone's guess). You'll probably notice a few shots from the recent Syndicate Tournament too!

It starts off pretty slow, but I like that about it. For those of you who prefer some action, the second half will be a little more up your street.

Oh, and don't watch it on the blog - go to the actual youtube link and watch it big. It deserves it.

Damage Types in PVP

If you've ever done PVE in Eve (which let's face it, you probably have), you'll have learned early on which damage types are put out by which rats. When you have an idea of which opponents you'll be facing, this can be incredibly useful in ensuring that your tank is up to scratch. In PVP things tend to much less predictable, however there are still occasions when you might be going into a fight with a reasonable idea of what your opponent will be bringing (or at the very least, you'll know once you encounter them and will need to make a quick decision as to whether an engagement is a good idea or not). For this, understanding which damage types you're likely to face when engaging a particular player ship can be very useful knowledge.

Drones vs Frigates

A corpmate and I were recently discussing which drones to use for killing frigates in a bait cruiser. The ship in question had a 40m3 drone bay and he had until then been using a mix of mediums and lights, however I mentioned that a flight of light drones would probably still deal more damage even though the target was heavily webbed. The basis for this is that despite the target being almost stationary, the orbit of the drones themselves would cause medium drones to miss a large proportion of their shots, giving them a lower actual damage output than the more consistent light drones.

We quickly realised that while we each had our own opinions, neither of us had really tested it to find out for sure. To settle the argument once and for all, I decided to jump onto SiSi and do exactly that!

Know Your Enemy - Tier 3 Battlecruisers

In many ways, the new tier 3 battlecruisers are a class of their own. Where tier 1 and tier 2 battlecruisers were essentially tougher, slower, more powerful cruisers, the tier 3 battlecruisers simply take the hull of a t1 cruiser and attach to it the armament of a battleship. This gives them incredible offensive power against larger targets, at the expense of the durability and flexibility offered by their lower tier counterparts.

Assault Frigs - First Impressions

I'll be posting an updated the Know Your Enemy article for Assault Frigs in the near future once I've had a chance to see how people are using them in practice, but first I'd like to share my impression of each of the ships after the recent buff.

First of all, I think the changes were actually very good - I was initially worried that the ships would be overpowered, but I've gradually warmed to them and actually think they've hit a good level. Not only that, but the biggest buffs have hit what were previously the weaker ships (retri, enyo, etc) while the strongest ones (ishkur, jag, etc) haven't actually benefited as much. I'd say the playing field among the eight AFs is now much more level than it used to be.