17 replies to this topic

[Greygal]

First, on behalf of Sadamu and myself, I want to thank all who attended today's class. This was our first time leading a PVP Basic class, and we had a ton of fun and especially appreciated your patience on our occasional stumbles!

The class overall went well, and only ran 30 minutes later than it should have - considering the bit of excitement we had, it could have been worse

Of course, we got ganked (in highsec!) by a smartbombing battleship that everyone saw coming but alas, your fearless leaders failed to act on... oops... won't do that again! Very embarrassing (although funny), especially for us to all be caught SITTING STILL mere minutes after I discussed how frigate fleets ALWAYS keep moving, moving, moving!

The TEST guy trying to bust our mid-system safespot in lowsec was also rather funny

I'll update this post with a recap of our roam after it ends tomorrow, but in the meantime, please feel free to share any and all feedback, good, bad, or indifferent. Feedback is essential to our continually improving not only our own abilities as instructors, but the class material itself.

Thank you, once again, for joining us today! I can't wait to fly with you all in the roam!

GG

Edit: Here's the Eve-Kill battlereport from the smartbombing battleship gank in Stacmon. The hulk kill is unrelated to us

Edit again: Okay, so I recorded the entire class today, but I did it at absolutely lowest possible quality settings cause I didn't care how it looked or sounded - I was just recording it to review later on so I could learn what I need to do better for the next class. Needless to say, the smartbombing of the class in Stacmon was caught on video. Here's that part of the class - again, sorry it sounds so bad and looks worse, but you'll get the idea The irony of what we were saying and discussing is not lost on me! (Apologies again to those who lost their ships and pods!) (Totally embarrassing that I was laughing so hard I flubbed warping the fleet - if I warped us sooner, less would have lost pods, possibly fewer ships!)

Remember how we discussed only using "break break" in an emergency? This is a perfect example of what defines "emergency" and an appropriate time to use "break break."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJcdTJpyYNY


The roam went very well indeed! We got a number of nice kills, and a really good taste of the different types of gangs you can find yourself up against. We got hot-dropped by a t2 frigate gang - that was epic! When I saw the cyno I thought for sure we were about to be dropped by a bunch of overkill carriers and supercarriers; it was a very nice change of pace to be hot-dropped by an overkill t2 frigate gang

The fight against the gang with the three basilisks (sorry don't remember who that was, I'm exhausted!) was another great fight, good to have a fight that lasts a long time, that one had to be close on 8 or more minutes.

The smart-bombing domi that warped at zero to the gate, then had his drones agro us, was a good example of what NOT to do as a smartbombing battleship: Don't warp so close to a gate that you can't activate your weapons, and don't agro your targets so you're unable to jump out of the gate and get away! Silly!

Many thanks to Maudite 9 for taking the fleet out for the first 4 hours, then to Totera for continuing it for the next 2 hours, then to Caldak for taking the remaining now-hardcore-pvp'er students out right on up to downtime. I think it was really good experiencing some stylistic differences in FCing, and for the last bit, seeing how a significantly smaller gang approaches fighting in nullsec.

I can't promise that the next time I won't get the class destroyed again while in hisec... but I'll try I'll definitely have a LOT less moments-of-silence while teaching my next class, I promise!

Sadamu and myself hope to see you all back at a future roam as Alumni!

GG

Last edit, I promise! If you have not posted your killmails and lossmails from the roam onto the Agony killboard yet, please do so! If you need info on how to do this, just PM me

[Victor Breau]

too funny last thing you'd expect eh looking forward to the roam

[Greygal]

Fixed

[Jysella]

Yeah, that's a great time for "break break everyone burn away from the 'geddon" And GG, I couldn't understand a word that you were saying. Sadamu comes through alright though.

[Oweim]

Further proof that my rifter is safer in the wormhole than in highsec

[Countess Primative]

I think that the two of you did a good job overall. At times you could tell that you were reading a script, but i think that was due to it being your first time giving the class. GG seemed a bit more knowledgeable and shooting from the hip, so to speak, rather than reading a script. Class was very informative and I look forward to the roam. (the smartbombing in highsec was not my favortie part of the class, just sayin)

[Nos]

I this was a super class, the smart bomb demo was excellent Seriously I will be talking to my corp mates about taking the next course, and I look forward to the wolfpack course (and the next roam). Noslen "Nos" Nosilla

[Mekratrig]

Great class... Learnt a hell of a lot. I still think the smartbombing barttleship was a hilarious lesson. You’d explained 5 minutes before about how we should watch out for them and keep space/moving and I filed it away and didn't think about it again. After the attack, at every gate and every safespot I was always moving after that. Lesson well learnt That, as well as all the other info I learnt made it well worth it (and appreciated you backing up the fleet calls in chat, as I did miss a few) Thanks heaps, and looking forward to future courses

[ToranBrades]

After the attack, at every gate and every safespot I was always moving after that.

Don't apply that to every situation - it can often hurt your fleet/situation if you're moving e.g. on a gate.

1) you will be slower to align out somewhere/to intercept someone that just came through the gate.

2) you might decloak your fleet mate(s) that sit at between 2,000m and 2,500m from the gate - ready to uncloak and go through.

[Mekratrig]

After the attack, at every gate and every safespot I was always moving after that.

Don't apply that to every situation - it can often hurt your fleet/situation if you're moving e.g. on a gate.

1) you will be slower to align out somewhere/to intercept someone that just came through the gate.

2) you might decloak your fleet mate(s) that sit at between 2,000m and 2,500m from the gate - ready to uncloak and go through.

Good to know, but every time we warped to 0 on a gate that we were probably going to jump though, I immediately orbited at 500m to (as I understand it) put some chaos into our pattern (set at about 7500m, depending on ship, if we were expecting targets to come through the gate). Wouldn't my chance to be unaligned to anything still be 50-50?

Refering here to just travelling in a blob, of course... any feedback appreciated

[Greygal]

Mekratrig, for the purposes of a frigate fleet, in particular, the PVP Basics class fleet as we run it, yes, absolutely, in just about all circumstances you orbit the gate and keep moving. In many, if not most, circumstances as a frigate, you will find it beneficial to keep moving, always. There are times you would not - even in a frigate gang - want to keep moving. For example, you have a cloaked falcon or cloaked stealth bombers in the fleet and you know they are near to the location of the main fleet (say, within 10km) - then you would sit still, or move in very limited situations. This and similar situations is something that is covered more in the Wolfpacks and other classes. As we instructed you to always keep moving, and you were never told otherwise by the FC's today to NOT move (in fact, we often reminded people to hold and orbit on gates), you did exactly correctly today. Toran was just pointing out that as is true always in Eve, there are no absolutes. Well, almost no absolutes...

[Mekratrig]

Good to know, and thanks for the info. Always happy to learn more from other players, and always look forward to learning more. Cheers

[Othran]

Looks like you had a nice roam

[Lennox Sinclair]

Sad to say real life intervened and prevented me from attending this roam with you guys, especially since it looks like you had a really good time. I'll keep an eye out for future opportunities.

[DustyAkachi]

I also missed this roam due to RL although look forward to future roams and classes. All of the information was well presented and by far the most effective teaching technique was the smart bomb attack (luckily I was outside of range). This of course makes me wonder if more 'live fire' exercises might make even more effective instruction assuming you can work out the mechanics (security hits, etc.). Watching your ship start to smoke when you let your transversal speed drop would be unforgettable. The attitudes of the instructors was also wonderful. The instructors confident handling of traveling through low sec and their laughter at the smart bomb attack provided a great example to follow and made the entire experience enjoyable and put everyone in proper frame of mind despite any losses they may have taken.

[Audrey Koshka]

Great class, great roam, great experience all around. The highsec smartbombing battleship was such a great live fire reminder of the lesson to keep moving I could swear you were behind it. ;-)

[Bren Genzan]

The smart-bombing Geddon was just a not so gentle reminder that High Sec is not safe. Still, I had a good time and I look forward periodically blowing off some steam roaming with Agony as an Alumni.

[Greygal]

All of the information was well presented and by far the most effective teaching technique was the smart bomb attack (luckily I was outside of range).

This of course makes me wonder if more 'live fire' exercises might make even more effective instruction assuming you can work out the mechanics (security hits, etc.). Watching your ship start to smoke when you let your transversal speed drop would be unforgettable.

The attitudes of the instructors was also wonderful. The instructors confident handling of traveling through low sec and their laughter at the smart bomb attack provided a great example to follow and made the entire experience enjoyable and put everyone in proper frame of mind despite any losses they may have taken.

Whenever it is feasible, time permitting also, we like to try to get some live fire examples into the class... it's just not always feasible. As we evolve more of the class material into videos, practical exercises will increase.

In my humble opinion, laughter is always the best reaction This is a game after all, it's supposed to be fun! That, and I was mortifyingly embarrassed by watching my very first PVP Basics class get ganked in highsec... I am not going to live that one down any time soon! Either myself or Sadamu should have warped the fleet off - we had enough time if we were exercising better situational awareness!

I absolutely LOVED how everyone in the class was TOTALLY on their toes the rest of the class - it did wake us all up, eh?

Great class, great roam, great experience all around. The highsec smartbombing battleship was such a great live fire reminder of the lesson to keep moving I could swear you were behind it. ;-)

Was not behind it, hadn't even ever had the thought of setting something up like that on purpose. Of course, one never knows what evil err instructive lessons may develop in future classes... muhahaha!

The smart-bombing Geddon was just a not so gentle reminder that High Sec is not safe.

Still, I had a good time and I look forward periodically blowing off some steam roaming with Agony as an Alumni.

Highsec is not safe, that's for sure! Was a pleasure to have you - and everyone else, for that matter! - as a student in the class. You are welcome to come blow steam off with us in any future PVP Basics roam - I look forward to flying with you again in the future!