Lessons: I'm Cursed

Some days, you just don’t want to play this game anymore.  Not because you come across something that infuriates you, but because you fly like an idiot.  That happened to me yesterday.

I went roaming through Catch in a Curse with a friend in a Talos when we jumped into a small gate camp (Harpy, Sabre, Talwar, Vagabond).  Here was my setup:

[Curse, Solo Curse]

 

Damage Control II

1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Drone Damage Amplifier II

Drone Damage Amplifier II 

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I

Small Capacitor Booster II, Navy Cap Booster 400

Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range Disruption Script

Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range Disruption Script

Warp Disruptor II

Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Small Focused Pulse Laser II, Multifrequency S

Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Small Focused Pulse Laser II, Multifrequency S

Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

Medium Ancillary Current Router I

Hammerhead II x10

Warrior II x5

Hornet EC-300 x5

We decided to engage.  Since the Sabre had dropped two bubbles, we knew his DPS wasn’t very high.  I figured the Harpy would be close range-fit, which would suit my Curse perfectly.  So we primaried the Sabre, I neuted both the Harpy and Sabre, and put my disruptors on the Vagabond while I pulled range.

So far, so good.  My drones took a while to reach the Sabre, who was already eating into the friendly Talos.  By this point, I was about 50 km off all enemy ships.  The Sabre went down, but very shortly afterwards my Talos friend died and was podded.

At this point, my friend advised me to get out.  I was out of the bubble and aligned to the sun.  I figured he knew better than I did how the ships he was fighting were fit, so I recalled my drones and hit warp.

And nothing happened.  Yes, it was the warp bug, in which my MWD was still active when I tried to warp, and the system didn’t register my warp when it should have.  So the Harpy was now screaming towards me.

This is when I lost my sense.  The warp bug threw me, and I made mistakes.  I forgot all about my cap booster.  Seeing my cap dangerously low, I let up on the neuts against the Harpy and put one on both the Harpy and Talwar.   Huge mistake.  Without a prop module or hardeners and my web on him, the Harpy would have fallen quickly.

But I didn’t cap him out.  I also forgot that my drones were in my bay, which cost me a volley or two.

And, worst of all, I started panicking and switched the tracking disruptors from the Vaga to the Harpy.  I have no idea why I did this, other than that the Vaga was 65 km away, and I figured that any sane person fit their Vaga with 220s or 425s.

But he was fit with 720s.

So, not only did I ignore my cap booster and fail to neut out the Harpy, but I had pulled my TDs from a long-range Vaga that could easily apply damage at 65 km.

When I died, the Harpy was at about 35-40% shields.  If I’d have neuted him with all three neuts, he would have died quickly.  At 40% of his non-proped speed, he would have gone down much faster to my Hammerheads.  As it was, he was traveling at 40% of MWD speed and he had his hardeners… not slow enough or weak enough.

If I’d have kept the Vaga out of the fight with two TDs and killed the Harpy, the Talwar would have been no problem.  I could have actually taken on all three and won, if I’d kept my head.

But I didn’t.  One surprise – the warp bug (which, incidentally, is working as intended per CCP) – broke my concentration, and I made a series of mistakes that got me killed.  I even blamed the ship in Corp chat at first.  After I thought about it, I realized that I was to blame, not the hardware.

And that’s infuriating.  I screwed up, and it cost me at least two more kills.