Punisher vs Rifter, Again....

So Ive been pretty active posting all my fights. I dont like saving my posts for certain days but the thought on doing so has been tempting; if only to condense the less exciting parts. Anyhow, I decided to log in and get situated with a few things today. I got my 5 Punishers built, buying enough supplies to fit all of them. Tossed it all in my awesome Bestower and went out to Oddelulf, home of "The Hatchery." Id had a few nice comments back and forth with a few of them, so Ive decided to stay in this area for awhile.

After getting my stuff setup, I decided to probe down some people. It wasnt working in my favor as they were moving around too much and too quick for me to get a 100% lock on. I switched out to my Punisher, and asked in local if anyone was up for a 1v1. A person new to EVE accepted after some hesitation, due to being so new. I convinced him I was flying a t1 frig as well and am still not very good at pvp, losing several ships in the process. So we fleeted up, I undocked, and warped to a safe while he got ready. I had forgotten to even show info on this pilot in my glee of excitement at another fight.

Well, it took him a minute or two to get out, guess he was repairing or something. Either way, I wasnt really paying attention and was talking to him in a private convo. I wished him gl, claiming I might need it more than him with my recent luck, laughing it off together. He warped in, I spammed my lock and orbit buttons, starting out at about 10km with Scorch crystals. With a web and a scram, I was a floating brick once he webbed me, and range quickly closed into the 1500-2km range. He was apparently armor tanked as I ripped his shields apart in these few seconds.

In these few seconds, Tlweken had been probing me down. I had been sitting in the same safe waiting for my challenger to arrive. The slicer popped in, and quickly destroyed my shields. With both a rifter and a slicer webbing and scramming me, I wasnt going anywhere. With this being a 1v1 challenge, and my knowledge of The Hatchery honoring them, I lol'd in local saying thats not nice. Quickly enough, Tlweken realized he had jumped in on a fight and apologized, warping out. I redocked, repaired and came back out to finish the rifter, who had full shields again. (I suppose he docked up as well for a refresh)

Switching to INMF faction crystals this time, I attempted to get orbit set at a range and speed suitable for my new setup. With trading out one of my trimark rigs for a tracking enhancement one, my tracking was boosted a nice 15% more. Trading a second trimark rig for an energy weapon damage increasing rig (10% boost) I was setup pretty good this round to deal a fast moving armor tanked Rifter. Soon enough, his shields were gone again and I hit his armor, slowly chewing into it. Once or twice, I saw it boost back up from his repper, but my Nos put an end to that quick. As he reached structure, I hit armor. I was excited by this as I might win finally!

As my opponent got lower in structure, I stopped my ship, preparing to make an attempt at catching his pod. His ship blew up, showing his pod. I quickly locked and pointed it. Setting orbit, I decided to web also just in case he tried to fly out of range of the scram. Being in a private convo already, I asked what his pod was worth to him. Unfortuneately for me, it was worthless due to him being podded shortly prior to our match by a gate camp. I exlaimed in ally chat that I had a pod locked and if I should let it go due to being worthless or pop it. Many people claimed the pilot could be lieing, others said just blow it. I chose to take this pod kill, being my first one. He gf'd and I docked up for a few mins to make notes.

Afterwards, the pilot was quiet in our private convo, so I apologized and donated 25misk to his funds to buy new implants due to his pod loss at a gate camp. Ive died to those before and felt bad for podding him this time, even though he lost nothing except a new clone. He thanked me and I logged off to make it to the birthday party on time.

Take Away Things
The most important thing I learned from this fight was that even in a fairly safe spot, I need to keep moving or not undock until I am read for a 1v1 setup fight. That slicer pilot could have easily been someone else outside the Hatchery who could have gotten 2 kills. I appreciate the fact there is still some honor in the pirates of New Eden, but I certainly will not expect this kind of respect from everyone, or even all Hatchery members every time.

Second, I really like the improvement in tracking and damage the different rigs provide, yet I am uncomfortable about the amount of ehp I lose in trading out the trimarks. The fit I used for this fight also did not have a repper, as I had forgotten to buy those earlier in the day getting supplied. The extra plate helped negate some of the lost ehp, which made me feel somewhat better, but I dont feel it will save me in the future, so a repper will be needed. I also looked into autocannons and I just dont like them. I dont like getting thousands of ammo compared to buying a few crystals that last just as long.

I feel I kind of cheated by fighting such a new player, but I hope HE learned something from the fight as well. All in all, a kill is a kill; so in the end it doesnt matter how I got it.