Hey look, a flashy red...

So I'm sitting in a gank fit Thrasher outside the main Amarr station (Emperor Family Academy), waiting for idiots trying to transport expensive stuff in frigates, when I see a flashy red appear on my overview in a Rupture. Fully expecting it to be a -10.0 player, I locked him up in order to whore on the inevitable killmail and waited for CONCORD to arrive...

Twenty seconds later, still no CONCORD.

What's going on? Is he a wartarget? (Nope, nothing in my mailbox that I missed). He must have stolen from me. I had a dim memory of dropping a can about ten minutes earlier in order to free up cargo space. So I was the only one who could shoot him. Ah.

I was utterly aware that a well fit Rupture would rip the living daylights out of any of my PvP fit frigates I had in station, even my shiny new Vengeance (which I've been itching to kill something with for about a week now), and undocking in my SNI would simply lead to an embarrassing lossmail. He bumped me, clearly noticing my lock on him. I bumped him back, then docked up, hoping to find a ship I can quickly re-purpose to murder a cruiser. I find something better.

A fully fitted and loaded PvP Arbitrator glinting in my hangar.

Forgot about you...

I had stolen the fit off one of our Directors who usually FCs our roams. It was based behind kiting with a MWD and tracking disrupting at the same time. Anything that got close would be neutralized so hard it would barely be able to fly. Unfortunately the energy neuts and MWD needed a cap-booster to last a fight, and that meant I had a time limit. The more MWD I needed, the faster I would burn through my boosters. The huge powergrid needs also meant there was no room for an active tank, so I was stuck with a 800mm plate and some trimarks.

Even so, I reckoned a huge drone bay and a tracking disruptor gave me an edge. The Rupture only has a small drone bay (30m3) that can hold a maximum of six light drones, so once those were dead he would have no defence against mine. And no way would his guns be able to track my drones while they were screwed up by my TD, so he wouldn't be able to stop them eating his tank

I felt I had enough on my side that I could win this. I undocked, and saw him sitting only a few hundred metres away. When he saw me undock, he started to follow me behind. He was traveling faster than me already, so I would defintely have to pulse my MWD to maintain range, and hope he didn't have one himself. Still, if he did I could simply neut him to death and flee.

I warped off to an asteroid belt, the constant undocks from the station were lagging up my computer something terrible, and I needed to be able to react fast if my chances went tits up. I floated in the belt for a minute or so. No sign of the Rupture...

Maybe the other guy hadn't seen me warp. I wondered if I should fly back, when he comes out of warp right on top of me.

My shields start coming back after I stay at 15km :)

Excellent. I started orbiting at 15km with a double burst of my MWD. I prayed he was close range fit, then locked him up, turned on my point, and switched my tracking disruptor to a range script before turning that on too. A few seconds later it was clear that his guns could barely hit past 10km. Out popped his drones, a flight of Hobgoblin IIs, which flew straight at me. I launched my Warrior IIs and killed three of his before he pulled them back in. I put my drones on his ship. His shields were falling slowly, but I was using explosive drones and I wasn't too worried. His Hobs came back out, murdered one of my Warriors and then returned to his drone bay before I could finish locking them.

How aggravating...

He did this three or four more times. Occasionally I would get off a shot or two, but I wasn't killing them at any decent speed. I lost four of my Warriors and three of my Hobs before I gave up using light drones and switched to Hammerheads. The larger EHP of the mediums meant that his drones had to stay out longer in order to kill them, which gave me enough time to lock them and fire off a few shots. A minute or so later, his last drone popped. I set my drones on him, and concentrated on maintaining range. I screwed up a little near the end, as he got close enough to web me and fire a few shots off, but I managed to burn back out of range again and stay there.

But without his drones to defend him, it was frankly a forgone conclusion and my drones soon made him explode.

I forgot to screenshot as he exploded, so this is the nearest I have :(

"Gf" I said in Local, totally meaning it.
"Gf :)" he replied.

Drones losses from me:
2 x Hammerhead IIs
3 x Hobgoblin IIs
4x Warrior IIs

I think I need more levels into drone durability. Even so, I was quite proud of how I managed to stay at range, and counter his frankly annoying as hell tactics :) I was also quite impressed with how well the fit performed, despite me never using it in combat before. Why not give it a try yourself, and if you get any kills in it, be sure to post the mails in the comments :)

Arbitrator Fit - Wisdom's Kiter


High slots
- Small Energy Neutraliser II
- Small Energy Neutraliser II
- Small Energy Neutraliser II
- 50W Infectious Power System Malfunction

Mid slots
- DDO Photometry Tracking Disruptor -> Tracking Speed/Optimal Range Disruption
- Medium Capacitor Booster II -> Cap Booster 800
- Warp Disruptor II
- Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I

Low slots
- Damage Control II
- 800mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates
- Corpii C-Type Magnetic Plating (Kinetic resist)
- Corpii C-Type Reactive Plating (Explosive resist)

Rigs
- Medium Trimark Armour Pump I
- Medium Trimark Armour Pump I
- Medium Trimark Armour Pump I

Drones - (Feel free to mix and match, these are only suggestions, having some ECM drones may be useful)
- 5 x Warrior IIs
- 5 x Hobgoblin IIs
- 5 x Valkyrie IIs
- 5 x Hammerhead IIs

Before you start screaming "oh my god, faction mods!!!!", I'd like to point out that these platings are only about 500 - 800k each, and are as good as the Tech 2 ones if you don't yet have Hull Upgrades V like me :) Of course, if you have Hull Upgrades V, feel free to fit the Tech 2 mods instead.


Tl;dr First cruiser down!