Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Action Summary

Task: Engage a Vexor who's bouncing around in system looking for a fight.

Problem: None at first, since I have a gang and he has a sole Vexor.

Enemies: 1 Vexor.

Friendlies: A few random T2 frigates, mainly bombers/interceptors.

My ship of choice: Cynabal.

Reasoning for choice: I was in it when he came in system, good DPS, good kiter, great solo ship.

Killmails

Cynabal loss: http://redc.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13307239

Vexor kill: http://redc.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13307231

After Action Report

We were camping a gate when a lone Vexor jumped into system and started bouncing around, obviously looking for a fight. We abandoned him for a little bit while chatting, and someone said they saw him warp to the sun. I decided to warp there on the off chance he was still there, and landed on him at zero, at which point I immediately realized how fucked I was.

He scrammed, webbed, and began NOS'ing me immediately, and I called for backup. However, he was able to kill me by the time backup arrived. We ended up killing him, but he massively won the ISK war, as he killed my 380 mill Cynabal with a Vexor.

Lessons Learned

Be very careful warping to celestials in any nanohac. If I had thought about it before I warped nonchalantly, I would have realized that if I landed at zero and he was able to tackle me, I would be screwed, as a Vexor does more DPS at close range with a blaster fit and can keep me tackled easily. With a 1600 plated fit, he can also out-tank me easily.

In the end, this was caused entirely by my own mistake. If I had warped to the sun at 20 or 30 instead, we would have had an easy Vexor kill. Instead, I'm down a Cynabal and going shopping again. :)

That said, I got my money's worth out of this one and am definitely planning to get another one or two, as they are fantastically fun ships to fly. This has just taught me a very important lesson, and I now have a #1 unbreakable rule in a Cynabal - never warp to things at zero if you're trying to chase down a target. Ever.

Overall, a great lesson to learn. I chatted up the Vexor pilot afterwards and congratulated him on a fantastic kill, and he provided me with a helpful link (http://www.eve-log.com/index.html) with which to upload logs and see detailed combat damage analysis after a fight. I highly encourage you to take a look at it if you're interested in more detailed combat data, including drone damage split by drone type.

Take care, and fly safe!

o/

-Sarah "Numi" Ichinumi