Late 9 Month Review

In the last 6-month review Starwalker had noted that it was time to harden up or ship out. Starwalker had almost shipped out but a timely reminder – expect every ship to have a fiery death - had infused him with a new sense of enthusiasm.

The focus for the previous review had been on four areas:

1. Ships - focus on a few ships and fits, suited to you, to learn to fly and fight. Only fly (and fit) what you can afford to lose and whilst taking risks is fine, try to avoid silly losses such as being destroyed by sentry guns
2. Combat - maintain situational awareness and use all tools (display, local, overview...) and modules in combat and overheat
3. Skills - focus training plan on particular ships, fits and skills needed. Be flexible and change the plan as needed but use the plan. Optimise that plan where possible such as using implants and a neural remap
4. Base - select a small number of bases based on most important need such as central to roaming locations

Starwalker’s focus was still on frigates. There had been the occasional foray into something bigger but Starwalker liked frigates. Ship fitting philosophy was evolving around relative superiority and Starwalker was settling onto two types of builds:

• Brawler - slower, tank type that aims to establish superiority by lasting longer than expected to gain the kill. There is one significant variant and that is to go all out damage for a fast kill. Downside for brawler is that it is unlikely to be able to dictate range and runs a significant risk of being kited to death
• Kiter – faster type that sacrifices tank for agility and speed and relies on speed and range to reduce or avoid damage. Being able to dictate range is critical and this type runs a significant risk of being caught in close combat

Combat offered the same challenges, knowing what to do is not the same as doing it. This had been demonstrated most recently when taking on a Wolf and forgetting to change the ammunition to explosive. Starwalker was contemplating using rockets with the Caldari Navy Hookbill as one opportunity to compensate for known weaknesses.

Skills training had remained focused with a good number of level 4 and 5 skills completed and contributing to the now 14 million skill points. In addition, Starwalker was sporting +4 implants to speed up training. The current focus was to get more Navigation and Missile skills to 5.

In terms of bases, Starwalker was actually now moving to a new model. The hi-sec base was established with Starstepper and the low-sec bases had been consolidated and reduced to a few ships in Heimatar, Molden Heath and Pure Blind. Starwalker now had lots of surplus ships and equipment and was considering liquidating the stock. In short, to buy what he needed when he needed it or just in time.

Starwalker was enjoying life in New Eden again and being in R1FTA.