Duo of Death, PVP Remix

"Duo of Death" is a level 3 and level 4 PVE mission. Despite the fearsome sounding name, it is actually a relatively quick and easy mission. With this in mind, I present "Duo of Death, PVP Remix":

I've added Drakes to my list of targets when scanning for mission runners. It turns out that they will often drop more valuable loot than a mission running battleship, due to the high cost of heavy missile launchers. So I was quite happy when a Drake started shooting my Heron, two gates into his mission. It was a deadspace where you were required to steam 50 or 60 km to get to the second gate. I fled and returned a couple minutes later in my Sacrilege, but noticed that he now had a second corp mate in system, and there was a Megathron on scan when I arrived back at the first gate. Because I had stolen from his corp, both he and the Drake would be allowed to shoot at me. Hmmm...

I'd killed ships with the Sac, but I was still fairly new behind the wheel (or yoke, or whatever you use to drive a HAC). From past PVP experience, I also knew that a properly fit Megathron was a ship more than capable of knocking you to the ground, kneeling on your chest, and shooting you repeatedly in the face. This was compounded by the fact that the Sac was new enough that I still spent my Saturday afternoons washing and waxing it's beautiful sleek black finish, and I wasn't ready to part with it yet. I sat at the gate outside the deadspace for probably two minutes, wondering whether it was worth the risk. Would I warp in to find myself double-webbed with blasters in my face?

Ultimately I decided that I had bought the Sac to get fights, and this would be a good one, win or lose. Plus, if I chickened out, I'd always wonder 'what would have happened?'

I activated the gate.

Upon landing, the Mega was about 40 clicks away and slowly chugging towards the second gate. The Drake was still on scan but not on grid, so he was probably still in the second pocket. Big sigh of relief. It wasn't an ambush. I lit the afterburner and charged at the Mega. He boxed me and opened fire.

I like to keep my combat log open at all times (bottom left corner of my screen) so I immediately saw that he was hitting me with railguns. I adjusted my approach a little to gain some transversal while still closing. Confident in his size and with a potential 2:1 advantage, the Mega turned around and started approaching. Unfortunately for him, the Sac really enters its element at around the 10 km mark. I got under his railguns and put the neut on him in addition to the HAMs, with my Hobgob IIs picking away at his webbed drones. About a minute later the Drake arrived on the scene. Scourge missiles and another flight of drones started chewing at my armor, but that's why I had put a second armor repper on the Sac. My armor was holding.

The Mega wasn't doing so well, however, and soon crumbled under my missiles. I recalled my drones, changed ammo, and started burning towards the Drake. He obliged and continued heading my way, despite the destruction of his pal. He quickly met a similar fate.

Damage graph for Sacrilege vs Megathron + Drake

(Quick explanation of the graph... top section: purple line is me shooting the Mega, cappuccino-colored line is me shooting the Drake; bottom section: red line is the Mega's railguns, blue line is the combined balance of his DPS, yellow line is the Drake's missiles and drones.)

Just like the PVE version of "Duo of Death", this turned out to be a fairly easy fight. I say this with full respect to PsycopathicMind and diabloblue for bringing the fight instead of simply running. I don't like to betray myself in local, so I mailed them afterwards to say "good fight", to explain the mechanics, and to see if the quick response of the Mega was due to one player dual-boxing. Turns out they were indeed two real life friends who were kind of interested in PVP and were willing to shoot someone when given the chance. Extra points to PsycopathicMind for shrugging off the loss of a new battleship and being willing to chat with me afterwards about PVE fittings.