Ninja 101 (Part 1: Overview and Scanning)

I'm bored and my internet is being too uncooperative to play EVE so I thought I'd start a guide to everything in EVE that I know how to do, starting with ninjaing.  I know I'm not gonna get called out by my corp-mates because, lets face it, not that many people read this blog at the moment.  Anyway, mylootyourtears.com gets more hits and Khalia, Paul and Aiden give everything away!  So here goes:

Ninja 101 Overview

This guide is going to be a multi-part, mostly complete overview of the art of the Ninja Salvager.  This introduction piece will hopefully tell you which skills you will wish to train so that you are optimized for Hunting, Baiting and Killing your targets.

Part 1: Scanning

Scanning is probably one of the most essential skills for a ninja to have, crucial if they want to operate solo.  Scanning is not just task that requires Skill Points, but it also requires a real finesse and eye for scanning marks as well as knowledge of how to set up, resize and manage probes.  Since the release of Incarna, it has also been exponentially harder to scan in EVE.  This means you need every advantage you can get, so train all your support skills to the recommended level [RL: __] shown below next to the skill name.  You should also look into some implants if you plan on ninja-ing regularly, or at least scanning regularly.

Essential Skills to Train:
Astrometrics [RL:IV] Increases maximum number of probes by 1 per level, max probes 8 at level 5
Astrometric Pinpointing [RL:IV] Reduces Max. Scan Deviation by 10%
Astrometric Acquisition [RL:IV] 10% Reduction in Scan Time per level
Astrometric Rangefinding [RL:IV] 10% Increase in Scan Probe Strength per level
Covert Ops [RL:IV] Skill at using covert ops ships, gives a bonus to scanning
Racial Frigate of Choice to Level V Allows use of a covert ops ship, winmatar is optimal for Orca as it is the smallest covert ops ship.  Also allows easy training to Jaguar assault ship for baiting.

Implants:
[Slots 1-6:] Low-Grade Virtue Set Pros: Greatly increases scan probe strength.  Cons: Cost (1.6 Billion ISK), low attribute enhancement (only +2 points)
[Slot 6:] Hardwiring - Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPF-1 or PPF-2 Reduces Max Scan Deviation by 6% or 10%
[Slot 7:] Hardwiring - Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPG-1 or PPG-2 Reduces Scan time by 6% or 10%
[Slot 8:] Hardwiring - Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPH-1 or PPH-2 Increase Scan strength by 6% or 10% 

Items:
Covert Ops Ship: Cheetah, Helios, Buzzard and Anathema are all covert ops ships, a must have for any ninja.
Combat Probes and Expanded Probe Launcher: Allows you to scan down ships
Sister's Scanner and Combat Probes: Grants additional bonuses to scan strength, not as necessary for the average ninja, especially the probes.  Launcher is always a plus.


Technique:

Your scanning technique will depend a great deal upon your skills and implants.  I currently don't have implants or great skills, but here is the technique taught to me by another ninja who is an excellent scanner (can scan a system at a rate to keep 2-3 active ninja's happy + self).  He has all the recommended skills and the prospectors (cannot afford virtue set) along with a covert ops ship and sisters probes/launcher.

Here is the ideal layout:

Click to Embiggen

From this position, you will probably not get a direct 100% hit on any ship unless it is a marauder or some MWDing battleship.  For the most part you will have to move your probes (press and hold shift while left clicking  and dragging on any of the arrows) along the x, y, and z axis; resize (click a probe in scanning window, hit "control" + "a" and right click to resize); and move your formation inwards or outwards ("alt" and left click on any of the arrows and drag mouse) so that you have an overlap once more in the middle of your formation.

It is fairly straightforward once you get the hang of it, but play around and start to learn the little tags (The boxes on the overview are the same as in scanning) and what size ship the correspond to.  Also, you may wish to adjust your filters so that you can skip over certain ships.  I personally avoid industrials and barges, but that's me.

This same technique can be used to scan down anything else, provided that you change your probes (core probes for looking for things like wormholes and exploration sites).  Learning to scan opens up a whole (hehe... cause you can find wormholes) new dimension to EVE giving you lucrative new careers to pursue.

Part 2: Baiting coming soon


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Overdue

Whoops, it seems it has been a week since my last kill and at least that since my last post.

News:

I've made five or six kills since my last post, most notable among them was a Megathron Navy Issue who paid me only half of my ransom.  I asked for 500 Million ISK and he refused to pay anything till I put him in structure.  I then received 275 Million ISK which was most unsatisfactory.  I shot him down!

This was supposed to be posted on 6/9/2011... dunno why it wasn't

Wahoo!

Ok, so I was bored today and decided to scan and mission runner gank for myself (What?).  It turned out to be an excellent idea!

First person I scanned down was missioning in a Caldari Navy Raven with his friend in a Hurricane.  The CNR could shoot me, the hurricane could not.  Now, they weren't altogether happy with my unannounced arrival and decided that they would party somewhere else, like at Aunia II at approx. 30km from the warp in.

I was bored and not expecting much of a response I locked and quickly unlocked the CNR, which tests for auto-lock.  About a minute later, I notice missiles flying into my Harpy!  He shot me!! So I overloaded my point for two cycles (Range of 32km!), burned towards him and proceeded to pop his drones one by one with my blasters of doom.  Then the Orca arrived and I burned into a tight orbit to hold him down tighter, which was unnecessary as he did not move at all.

In all the excitement, I failed to my attempt at a ransom by being to franc (I notice pointing out the value of the ship to the pilot and going 20% under that helps).  So he had to be killed.  Easy 100 million ISK.

Daron Gekh, an old friend of mine from my n00bier days in EVE learned a quick lesson on why PvP in a PvE ship is dangerous, I had him into low armor after convincing him to fight my little assault frigate.  Now he knows better =P

However, as he paid my ransom he lived to mission another day in his Dominix Navy Issue... he's also alive because he's a friend.

My second and final kill of the night was an Apocalypse who I did the same trick to as the CNR with the auto-lock.  He too did not wish to pay a ransom and as he went into low armor he decided to self-destruct, so I melted him quickly too.  He had a Megathron friend on D-Scan for a while, but he was a no show to the party =(

So that was my night, a fairly eventful and fun one =D

Fly Dangerously,

Hianmar, a.k.a. TheEVEGamer

Bot Bot, Do the Robot

The other day I learned about the report bot feature which was recently added to EVE.  Let's just say I hope CCP doesn't ban me from the button =D.  This feature is so useful, be it for lulz or for actually reporting a bot (there are so many these days...), there will hopefully be a downturn in the number of them.

That aside, I've been ninjaing but haven't been shot by anyone since my last happy ninja post.    I'm currently trying to decide what to train up for after I can T2 fit a Hawk class Assault Frigate.  They are so fun to fly and are pretty badass for salvaging missions.  I may also replace my Dramiel with a Worm, since my Dramiel only sees action during active war time patrols and is therefore useless all the rest of my playing time. 

Will hopefully have another blogpost ready after I actually get on later tonight, but right now I got to run (literally =D).

Fly Dangerously, Die Epically,

Hianmar, a.k.a. TheEVEGamer

Friday Night (BEST NIGHT!)

Today was a day for me, myself and I.

I have been chilling with friends all week (as well as working) so I have had very little "me" time.  So I took today to finish my book, catch up on yardwork and of course: Play EVE! =)

Tonight was a good night for EVE.  I warped to a couple of missions and got nothing.  No one decided to play at first.  Then I warped to, as my alliance mate calls it, a "Hyperion-Drake-Myrm-Cyclone Combo Pack".  Sounded like fun so I went and joined the party >:)

The party was almost over when I arrived.  So I yoinked some loot and managed to grab the mission objective which I noticed the Hyperion burning for.  He wasn't too happy, but my cargo was near full so I dropped a can and decided to keep looting.

Enter a Nocti, and as I'm burning for it, I notice my can disappear.  WTF???  Then, on my overview, the Hyperion is red!  Hurray!!

Point him up, orbit him and bring in the orca.  It was as smooth as ever, helped by the fact the Hyperion decided to align after I had him pointed by my Legion.  There was a short conversation involved which resulted in a kindly donation of 120 million ISK towards my Pac, a group for the exploitation of derpheads.

He then, under fire from my legion of missiles spewing from my legion died splendidly in a ball of fire.

Thanks for the ISK Mate =D

The next few hours were less eventful as a fellow corpmate who was scanning for me managed to convince all the bears that he was harmful and just wanted the salvage so they left him alone.  It was disappointing how few people wanted to play.

Anyway, I think that is all for today, its now 1:30 am and I am pooped.  Here's to next time Vile!

Fly dangerously, die spectacularly,

Hianmar, a.k.a. TheEVEGamer

Null Sec again??

While many of us don't like Incarna, the Ninja's of EVE witnessed a nerfing of our income of the past few months. 

Perhaps the first nerf to Ninja income, but one that most won't be seen complaining about, is the new rigs.  But it was the start of the lowering of salvage prices to the point where one can barely get by via ninjaing.  Then came the Noctis.  This little "designated salvage" vessel takes no skill whatsoever to outstrip a ninja.  It also flooded the market with salvage which lowered prices.

Another nerf, little known perhaps, was the fuck up with the Orca swapping.  Some ninja's use this practice to "hot swap" to a gank ship in space.  Normal "orca swaps" took the ship you were flying, put it in the bay for you and automatically boarded the new ship for you.  However, with the accidental nerf the ship you were flying would be left in space.  Most inconvenient.  This put a great many ninja's off their game for about a week, including myself.

The third and perhaps most annoying nerf was to scanning.  I have Astrometics 4 and the support skills at 2 or 3.  This used to be fine during the pre-Incarna days.  I could scan down almost any ship within 2 or 3 scans.  Now it is nigh impossible for me to scan anything and the people with excellent skills are finding it difficult as well.  This was supposed to be an improvement, but it only helps those with optimum skills.

Either way, I am not amused with Incarna or Ninjaing at this point.  I have another set of skills to get up 5/4/4/4 now since EVE is being stupid, which means remapping and all that jazz, none of which I am currently prepared to do as I still have many ships, guns and missiles to train for :)

Depending on my mood in the coming weeks, I may be returning to null security space, this time with TEST.  Several ninja's in corp have already joined and they seem to be having fun.  I may send an alt out there, I may send my main or I may send everyone out there.  I really don't know.

I am currently trying to decide, bear with me here =/

Hianmar, a.k.a. TheEVEGamer

PS: If any one in TEST is a reader, pleas

I Fail (or Why I hate Rattlesnakes)

I fail at blogging =D  Its been over two months (at least) since my last blogpost and I hope I haven't lost my single reader.

Fuck...

Anyway, there is really no point in listing everything that has happened over the past two months, only the highlights. 

I bought a Legion.  My third T3 that I can fly and the second in my collection: It joins the Tengu in the Ranks of epic gank ships.  725 DPS + 108K EHP makes this thing a beast. My Tengu was converted about a month ago to pew pew, 450 DPS + 500 DPS Active Tank (Mini-Sleipnir).  The Legion has already tasted blood >:)

I have learned to hate Rattlesnakes.  My current batting average vs. Rattlers is a 0.333 including my encounter of just a few minutes ago.

They just fuck with me.  My first one I went to shot me (yay!) and I ransomed it (yay!) and killed it (yay!).  Lots of ISK for me (I bought my legion (yay!)).  That was all well and good, but the ship was fail fit.  I had not truly tested my ganking ability against the might of the rattler.

Enter Chinfist, Rattlesnake Pilot extraordinaire, who decided to aggro me and bring in friends.  First, a jiggy jaguar which I scared off with my jaguar.  He still hadn't shot me yet so I went about and ate his wrecks up for him (nom nom nom) when Jaguar friend brings in a rupture and opens up on me.  Chinfist also lets loose his evil drones.  It was smooth as any gank is supposed to be.  I scared the shit out of the ruppy with my jaguar, got the Rattler pointed and swapped ships.

Then I started shooting the rattler.  I think I lost about 80 mil on this gank.   15 on Ammunition and 69 mil to my 3 suicide gank pilots who tried to help me through the freaking shields of the rattler who conveniently came back from afk in time to cylce his invuln 3 or 4 times.  Fucker.

Thats reason #1 for hating rattlers.

Tonight, I lost my faithful and first ever (on hian at least) assault ship.  I loved that jaguar, so much that I thought it ballsy to fly around with only 35% structure left.  That proved to be my downfall.

This second rattle also had a friend, in a dramiel and I royally fucked up.  I should have called for reps as soon as I saw the dramiel on D-Scan but I thought my corpmates, who were getting updates by the minute, would realize that they had to come in when I saw him on grid.  Stupid Stupid Hianmar.  The Rattler had 3 Webbing drones (60% webs) and the dramiel had a web (50%).  Together they fucked my little Jaguar so hard that it broke!  They even stole the salvage =(

Probably the worst part (for me) was my jaguar popped right as my logi friend landed on grid with me, which means I may have been able to live if I had repaired my Jaguar.

Ah well, lesson learned.  Always repair your ships.

Fly Dangerously,
Hianmar, a.k.a. TheEVEGamer