When I was a newbie in EVE not too long ago, I thought it would be a great idea to put a couple of warp core stabilizers on my Myrmidon to counter those pesky scramming rats in certain hi-sec missions. I soon found out that was a very bad idea when it took me forever to lock anything.
EVE is complex and it is natural that we make assumptions, often erroneously. I am sure all of you have entertaining stories of assumptions you made about a module that got you into trouble because you didn’t take the time to read all the info about it.
Sneacky thought it would be a great idea to fit polarized 800mm Repeating Cannons to his Vargur. Sneacky is a hi-sec alt of a wormhole and null-sec main who has never flown Vargurs before, and did not read the fine print on the brochure:
Polarized weapons offer extremely good primary stats, but come with the cost of completely negating all resistances on a ship if fitted.
Sneacky said he even ran a few missions with it:
“I didn’t read about the polarized resistance thing. Pretty much enough DPS to destroy them all before you get wrecked. Bastion module helped a lot. Never used a Vargur before. But yeah, it can run Level 4’s if you know how.”
I asked him if he noticed it wasn’t tanking very well.
“Yeah, but it was fun. Just rush the battleships, use bastion mode and rape them all.”
It is perhaps a testament to Boundless Creation’s engineering that the Vargur can run Level 4 missions without any resists.
However, Sneacky’s sneaky run of luck was about to come to an abrupt end. Fitting a Vargur with polarized weapons is one thing. Autopiloting your polarized-fit Vargur in hi-sec is another.
“I was running with loyalanon and CODE. on a standard Monday night gank-what-we-see in highsec,” said Amok member Norrec Lafisques. “One of the scanners reported a Vargur autopiloting gate to gate, but it was put on the back burner until were out of targets. When that time came we engaged with what loyalanon considered “overkill” knowing that his hardeners were engaged via graphic feedback. When he melted so quickly we were all blown away.”
Norrec then started a conversation with Sneacky, who had previously attributed the low resists on his craft to a bug in the game client. Sneacky also mentioned that this was his first real venture into highsec, and that he usually flies carriers.
When I asked Norrec if he often convoed people about their strange fits, he said “All of the time, generally out of curiosity, but when it turns out to be ignorance of a game mechanic I tend to educate. As much as I love getting on kills like this, I still love to teach new players, even if it costs them a loss in hi-sec.”
New players and old players: you are never too old to make a silly mistake and to learn from it.
Sneacky is taking his loss in his stride. He told me it’s rare he loses a battleship. He hadn’t lost one since his girlfriend clicked autopilot on his Kronos 4 days ago.
“Oh well. Sometimes you just need to love them.”
