Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Thou shalt smite them with Malediction!

Droooooooool....
Malediction
Hull - Executioner Class    
Developer - Khanid Innovation
Role - Interceptor

Interceptors utilize a combination of advanced alloys and electronics to reduce their effective signature radius. This, along with superior maneuverability and speed, makes them very hard to target and track, particularly for high caliber turrets.
In addition to robust electronics systems, the Khanid Kingdom's ships possess advanced armor alloys capable of withstanding a great deal of punishment. Generally eschewing the use of turrets, they tend to gear their vessels more towards close-range missile combat.


It’s not only a nice looking ship, but also an effective brawler. I’ve finally finished training for this beauty and soon had it fitted for combat.

[Malediction, Batwing]

Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Rocket
Small Nosferatu II

Experimental 1MN Afterburner I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator

Small Armor Repairer II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Damage Control II

Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Nanobot Accelerator I


I've decided on a repper fit as the plates would slow me down considerably. I’m still not too happy using the armour rigs and I’m currently experimenting with missile rigs to increase speed and DPS at the expense of repair amount. Its armour is paper thin though, so repairing damage effectively and resisting incoming damage is essential to survival. The DPS output of the rockets are low, so facing an active tanked opponent will probably leave you shooting at an unbreakable wall.

vs Firetail
Once fully fitted I asked Sorn for a structure race against his Firetail. We headed for the nearest planet and engaged. I decided to orbit at 5km, allowing my nos to fill my capacitor as the armour repairer would suck it dry once activated. Sorn wasn’t hitting too hard though and I thought this fight would be over soon. Then I noticed my ship take a straight line away from  the Firetail, and projectiles ripped huge holes in my armour. He was approaching me directly, giving my auto pilot a tough time finding orbit. Thinking fast I started manual piloting, flying in a rough square around the Firetail. Unknowingly, I was entering and exiting nos range, and his armour repairer was eating his cap while I only had to burst mine. We soon ceased fire as Sorn hit structure, and I was pleased with my new toy.

vs Helios
Sorn was flying a Rupture while I sported my Malediction. I was scouting one system ahead when I noticed a Helios appear on D-scan towards the sun, along with his probes. I warped to the sun but the Helios was gone, but his probes was still sitting 40km from me. Time to see how fast this thing can go I thought and I overheated my afterburners and headed straight for the probes, hoping to uncloak the Helios. It burned down the distance quickly and the Helios uncloaked, I locked up and pre-engaged the scrambler. The scrambler did not activate however, and I watched in dismay as the Helios warped off. This glitch has caused me to lose a pod before, annoyed I continued looking for something else.
To my surprise I found the Helios pilot again and I managed to scramble him this time. I held him and waited for Sorn to come along so we could destroy it together.

vs Rupture
After the Helios kill we didn’t find anything to shoot at. Tired and bored we headed back to our base where I asked Sorn for another quick scrap. He didn’t want to lose any of his T2 drones and he didn’t activate his neuts either, so I won’t call this one a victory. I did however manage to tank the incoming damage from the medium autocannons.

Malediction and Rupture vs Rupture
After we were done fighting each other we noticed Sgt Hunny in local sporting a Rupture. We soon landed on her. Sorn took the heavy hits from Sgt Hunny, leaving me to deal with the drones. We decided that I’d take the drones out while Sorn worked on the Rupture. Pretty soon though, Sorn declared that he was in structure and about to explode. I decided I’d stop shooting the drones and focus on the Rupture. Sorn had him low in armour by this time and I overheated my rockets, my afterburner and my nos. Sorn exploded soon after and I was left facing the Rupture alone...or what was left of it at least.
The drones were already stinging hard, and though the Rupture wasn’t hitting me for much damage, the nuets were devastating my capacitor. I overheated my nos, getting just enough juice to keep my scrambler and repper active. With my afterburner down I started taking more damage from the Rupture’s autocannons, but it was too little too late as the Rupture succumbed to my rockets.
Still, this guy did very well considering he faced two opponents. Reviewing the killmails I noticed I landed on Sorn’s lossmail because of our earlier engagement.

vs Harpy and Rifter and Blackbird
To make a long story short, I decided to fix up my Malediction before heading off to bed. I noticed a fleet which I knew was overpowering. Saftsuze, also in local declared that he’d try and split them up. Me being brave decided that I’d do the same, and got caught by a Harpy after some dumbass flying on my part. The Blackbird landed soon after and I couldn’t even fire a rocket before getting my ass handed to me.

vs Exequror
Found this guy mining and decided to kill it before I jump cloned. Got his pod too.

vs Harpy
I realized how well the Malediction ran 2/10 angel plexes and was on my way to run the Heild plex when I noticed a Harpy on scan. Not knowing what my Malediction can do, I warped in and engaged. I won’t even describe the fight as it was mere seconds till I turned and ran for my dear life. Luckily he didn’t scramble me as I would’ve been toast if he did. I didn’t even dent his shields.

vs Vengeance
These have been a thorn in my side for some time now. I found this one while hunting a mining Scythe and Skiff (I caught the Skiff twice but it was stabbed, and the Scythe was pre-aligned and warped almost immediately). I engaged the Vengeance and we danced the danced...and we danced...and danced....and danced. It was apparent that we were in a stale mate of sorts, and after I left my rockets overheated till they melted, decided to disengage. We’ll call this one a draw.

vs Scythe

This was a new player that entered system after the other Scythe and Skiff pilots logged. I landed on grid, he warped to planet and I intercepted.

vs Wolf
Plexing in Hrober almost certainly meant an encounter with DPSka. I was expecting an Enyo, but she came in with a Wolf. Another short fight, the Wolf’s damage output combined with its nuet proved deadly.

vs Pilgrim and Ares and Stiletto and Nemesis
For some reason I decided it a good idea to poke my nose into null sec. It was soon apparent that there would be no targets to face in my Malediction and I headed back to low sec. It was the last gate before freedom and I got pulled into a bubble. I was 40km off gate and the pilgrim started locking. I overheated my afterburner and got my transversal up high, soon the rest of the fleet landed. I was making good progress to the gate, by golly I was gonna make it! The Stiletto got close...and I decided to take a shot at him. Not doing any damage I arrive at gate. I even got cocky in local by saluting. I tried jumping but nothing happened.
It suddenly dawned upon me that engaging in combat leaves you unable to dock or jump for a minute. The big guns weren’t close yet so I entered orbit of the gate, de-aggressed and hoped to avoid getting exploded for a minute. It was going great, but my capacitor was running low from the use of my repper. No worries though, I can just use my nos on the Stiletto...one facepalm later I was warping off in my pod. While sitting in a safe I decided that the fastest way back to a ship is with the destruction of my pod. I charged into their gatecamp and waited to enter my new body.

I built up a new Malediction...made it blingy. I’ll probably regret it when it ultimately explodes, but I want better range on my nos. Now I can keep an orbit of 8km while using all my modules. Hopefully it works...just won’t attack any Assault Frigates any time soon...

3 comments:

  1. I recently came across your blog via one of Miura's posts, and just wanted to say I'm really impressed with the quality so far. Keep it up!

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  2. Nice post! I never realized you've had THAT much fun in the Malediction. Makes me want to fly it as well. Or something similar. Hmm...

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  3. Lovely ship, my favourite in fact, but then you already knew that ;-)

    I need to try a repper at some point I *do* tend to go for the 200mm plate and rely on scram/web range in combination with the rockets flexible range.

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