Lessons

It has been a week since I've graduated into the Rifter. I've had ups and downs - my score is currently at 4 lost, 4 killed (2 Rifters and 2 Thrashers). It has been a week mostly spent scanning and warping around - I might have picked out the wrong part of low sec to set my base in, as the ratio of fish to shark is decidedly slanted toward the sharks.

I was feeling optimistic and decided to engage a Caracal in Eifer. I was going down faster than he was, when a Myrmidon showed up and made minced meat out of us both. In retrospect I could have escaped - he targetted the bigger ship at first and once the Caracal died, I wasn't scrambled any more.

A few days later, I espied a Thrasher in a FW complex. I saw that there were some rats around him and thought to enlist them to my aid, but soon learned that FW NPC rats behave differently from belt rats and that the Thrasher was PVP fitted. Rifter #3 bit the dust.

I had my first Rifter vs Rifter fight, too - my T2 guns tipped the scales in my favour. Unfortunately, the fight was a bit too easy, and I did not realize the stupidity of using Hail. The lesson was driven home a few days later, when another Rifter duel taught me to always start with Barrage (if the enemy has long range weapons, I can close and he can't hit me while I switch to Hail) and the value of an afterburner in consensual fights. I've fitted an AB to my Rifter now to be better able to dictate distance.

Today was a fun day - a few jumps found me two juicy targets in Eifer, a Thrasher that did not even shift his fire from the rats to me, and a Rifter. I've played the belt jumping game with its pilot for some time and never could lock him. I decided it was time for some psychological warfare - when he left next, I killed the belt rats and bookmarked the cruiser wreck. I was sure that the pilot would come back to loot it. I jumped back to my bookmark 30 seconds after I saw the Rifter re-enter the belt. To my surprise, the pilot locked and attacked me - perhaps the killing of the rats persuaded him that I'm just another ratter or perhaps he just had enough. Despite an interesting fit, I was able to dictate range and stayed outside of his short range guns, killing him. Both of these pilots had their holds full of other stuff - skill books and loot. If you rat in low-sec, be sure to deposit all valuables at base first!