Razor Alliance Welcomes You to Null-sec!

Step 1: Announce a battle.

Step 2: Have a battle on the way to the battle.  (all of those losses were suffered against PL when we warped to attack their navy apoc fleet).

Step 3: Rage in the forums.

To set the record straight, I know of no devs who are in Razor, and we didn’t receive advance notice.  Razor has been deployed in Doril for about two months now, and it was pure coincidence that CCP’s event ran right through our warzone.

But, Razor was the first null-sec alliance on the field, camping the Sendaya gate in Zealots to take out anything that jumped through.  Goons came in with a sentry doctrine, probably to prove yet again that drone assist needs a nerf.  In fact, the only frustrating thing for us about the whole day was when the Goons were stealing our kills by assigning drones to a fast-locking target caller!

At first, it was a trickle.  Then the whole fleet came out.  By that point, PL, NC., Darkness, and many, many more null-sec alliances were on the field, and we were all popping anything shiney that came through the gate.  T3s, navy and pirate ships, T2 battlecruisers… it was an orgy of destruction.  And it was delightful fun, at least for us.  There were so many high-value targets that we couldn’t lock and kill them fast enough.

Here are my observations about the gauntlet that was Doril:

1) Did you note the alliances on the field?  Both sides in the nearby war were there, but none of the null-sec alliances shot each other until the quality of high-sec targets was heavily diluted (ie. Not worth killing any longer).  We in Razor were there for the whole fight, and weren’t shot by a single null-sec alliance we were involved in an active war against.

When the quality of targets did decrease, then we turned on each other, along the same battle lines as in the war in Catch.  Razor noted the arrival of PL’s navy apocs very early in the fight, but didn’t go after them until the flood of meat from the Sendaya gate was running low.

It’s interesting to know that all this was done without any coordination at all.  We didn’t talk to PL or NC. to coordinate our attacks.  We all simply operated the same way… attack the weak, then go after each other for fun.

2) The event participants from high-sec stood no real chance, unfortunately.  We in null-sec are very familiar with gate camps, fighting in bubbles, and coordinating the actions of our entire fleet as a single unit.  When Razor was orbitting the gate at 500, we were all shooting identified primaries, repping each other, and shared a common comms.  Goons had literally assigned all their sentries to a single pilot who was choosing and blapping targets.  PL, NC., and Darkness were all fighting as individual units, but only 3 units, not 300.

I suspect most folks who warped to Doril gate in Sendaya did so in smaller groups, with no real coordination or common comms, let alone any way to manage logi.  I saw no efforts to focus fire, and only very few ships who actually managed to pull reps from fleet members.  In two cases, we had to change primaries because they were being repaired.  That’s it.  I suspect this was the first time many high-sec folks have every been in a situation like that, whereas null alliances are ready for that with every 100+ fleet.  It really wasn’t fair, by any stretch of the imagination.

3) CCP really should have known what would happen by identifying target systems like they did.  Seeing that Utopia was a staging system, we knew the Sendaya gate in Doril would be a great place to obliterate the Grand Army of the Empires.  It was obvious.  And, with the empires drawing players from high-sec for a null-sec fight, it didn’t take a genius to see what was going to happen.  Keep in mind, the null alliances are the ones who instantly know when a Titan or supercap is bubbled.  We have intelligence networks that identify big fights from 30 jumps away.  To drive cattle through a narrow valley to a dozen packs of hungry wolves was reckless by CCP.  And thank you for doing it!

Why didn’t the empires us titans to bridge their volunteers to the battle area?  Empires have titans, don’t they?  If they had, it’d have been a great way to introduce high-sec players to a mechanic they wouldn’t otherwise see.  And that might have induced some players to try null-sec out.  As it stands, the only lesson they learned is, “Stay out, or join the dogpile.”  That’s not cool.  A little forethought could have created content and reinforced another way for them to play the game.

4) That said, come on high-sec players… who brings a 3.1bil clone into a null-sec fight like this?  Or a faction-fitLoki with a CN adaptive invuln?  A Tempest FleetIssue to a CCP event in null?  Did you think CCP would protect you?  Nothing was stopping even your fellow empire pilots from killing you, you know.  I don’t get the ship choices some of these pilots made.  A Dominix?  That makes sense.  A bomber?  Even smarter.  Surely you had to suspect that at least the pirate-aligned pilots were going to shoot you, and PvPers like to kill T3s.

And, yes, the Naglfar loss was a deliberate move on our pilot’s part, as a sacrifice to the killmail gods to commemorate the event.  It certainly didn’t fit into our doctrine!

Pro tip… there are two ways to join in fleets like this.  Either you killmail whore, piloting a cheap ship you can easily afford to lose, or you join with a fleet and fit a tight doctrine that operates as a group, warping in and out as necessary.

But I’m very happy I was able to participate, and I thank everyone who tried to show up.  My killboard is up 17 billion because of that fight.

Please know it wasn’t personal… we kill everyone we come across, even our friends.  I’m sorry CCP dunked you with the slow-moving, obvious route, and I hope this doesn’t turn you off to null-sec.  Living out here makes you smarter, tougher, and more comfortable with situations like this.

And CCP… titans, man.  Titans.