Nevertheless, we recall positive prior experience and quickly form up, leaving Innuendo with 3 Guardians, a Falcon, a Devoter, a Bhaalgorn and 7 assorted DPS ships. Our trip to Y-0H is uneventful, but there is no sign of the Rorqual. Gatt and Conci conspire over dotlan maps, and set off to 21M1-B, but barely miss dual Thanatos ratters in an anomaly. Before we leave, we notice that RZ8A-P also has high NPC delta, and decide to take a peek since it's right next door.
Gatt and Urban land smack dab on dual Rorquals in Industrial mode. One of them is the Rorqual pilot from last time, which I know to be brick tanked. While Ulrik tries to figure out the other one's fit, we dispatch a Caracal that had showed up to swat Gatt's interceptor off. Ulrik reports zero local repair modules, so slowly we go to work. Shields deplete at a steady pace, when the expected happens and a cynosural field lights at the TCU, far away. I send Gatt off to tell me what's coming, and he reports a single (!) Hel and three standard carriers. We're more than equipped to take this on, so we continue working on the Rorqual while the enemy capitals travel through warp. The Hel lands 100km away, the two Nidhoggurs land near us, and the final Thanatos warps in at a perch 200km above us. I sent Gatt to tackle the Thanatos, assuming it to be squishy due to landing at range.
The Rorqual's shields approach zero, when suddenly a bright white bubble envelops the stricken ship - PANIC mode is live, signaling a five-minute time-out. I call for the fleet to align to the Thanatos above us, and wait 10 seconds. As the Hel deploys a Siren squadron, I pull the trigger and fleet warp us to the Thanatos. Almost all pink chevrons follow, just a single Guardian is slow on the uptake. The Sirens catch, and the Guardian explodes, followed by an overconfident Falcon. Meanwhile, however, my intuition is proven correct as the Thanatos rapidly loses its shield layer and follows suit. I check my clock, and call for the align back down, zooming in on the Rorqual. The white bubble dissipates, and we enter warp once again. The game is back on.
Our bubble goes back up. Shortly thereafter, a Orthrus lands, but sticks far too close to us and gets dismantled. We take out the Siren squadron, but nevertheless are starting to bleed squishier ships due to the earlier align whoopsie costing us our only Falcon and a third of our repairs. We bleed an Ishtar as a Nemesis lands on us. Urban is quick on the trigger, but a cyno gets lit nonetheless. Just before the Nemesis bursts into flames a singular Phoenix comes through the portal. A Scorpion lands at range, and Ulrik starts working on the capacitor with his Bhaalgorn, happy to have something useful to do except scan ships, while the Rorqual's health continues to deplete through armor and - slowly - through structure. We bleed a VNI, and later an ANI and a Prophecy.
The Rorqual's structure still continues to crawl down, as we're left with only the high-tank HAC/CS DD, the Bhaalgorn, Devoter and our Logi on grid, which the fighters and Phoenix cannot dent. The carriers warp off and consign the Rorqual to its fate in low structure, and I call for tackle on the sieged and zero-capacitor Phoenix. The Rorqual finally bursts into a bright flash of light and we move to the Phoenix. While it has zero capacitor, it still has a high-balance module called a capital capacitor booster, so we're in for the long haul. Minutes tick by, with just the Phoenix, Hel and Scorpion on grid. I send Gatt off to scare the Scorpion, and he succeeds as it warps off in a huff. Grinding resumes, but the Phoenix just keeps boosting through it.
An enemy Atron lands, and bounces off again without doing anything. Repeat with a Sabre, which then also bounces and cloaks on grid. The Scorpion returns, and this time our hero Malediction grabs tackle. Tylenos, who's come back in a Confessor, and Urban in his trusty Hecate go off to keep it entertained and too busy to jam anyone else. Over the process of a few minutes of dancing around its smartbombs and jams, they whittle down its health and it finally falls too, as the Phoenix starts only boosting intermittently and dips into armor. However, it still seems to have some charges left, as its boosts keep bouncing its shield up and halting the bleeding. A Nidhoggur warps into the site at zero, about 30km off us. I ask Gatt to tackle it as another cyno is lit - that's the third of the fight, in case you haven't kept count. This time, two supercarriers, another Phoenix, multiple carriers and - more importantly - an Apostle. We align out as the Phoenix slips ever lower into structure. We know there's no hull energizer, so I try for one last attempt at it, but it boosts just enough to stay alive.
As the enemy carriers land and launch Sirens, I decide it's time to go and we all enter warp to the exit gate without issue. Urban, ever too cocky, hangs around and gets tackled by a Luxury Yacht. We extract without further losses.
Killed: 13,469,911,697.73 ISK
Lost: 1,836,064,677.20 ISK
Efficiency: 88.0%
Titus status: Even more happy; Has smelled blood in the region;
Full BR:
The good:
- Rorqual ticked off of Titus' checklist
- On-grid coordination was crisp and on point, keep it up
- Sacrileges are amazing against larger ships
- I still love Gatt
- Rorquals are still some of the best content bait in existance
The takeaways:
- Always bring dual Devoters into this region. They are stupid with unsupported supers.
- Capital cap boosters are dumb
- I am tempted to stage a dread at a deep safe somewhere in the region now
- Bring one or two small ships more often, they're amazing at taking out drones, fighters, small targets and the like
The ugly:
- If your Guardian is not aligned 10 seconds after the align is called, you're doing it wrong
- (But I'm also sure that's one mistake you won't make again)
- Make sure you turn your prop mod off when aligning, makes it go faster - especially if you were late on the align
- Please don't cheap out on resist mods on your HACs.
- What is that Orthrus fit?
- Why would you bring a PvE fit Thanatos to a PvP fight?
- Capital cap boosters are dumb
- Unsupported super, and still I couldn't kill it because there was only one Devoter. Next time.
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