Armoured warfare specialist Ibramovic

Not half-an-hour after finding the improved passive shield set-up for my Drake do I complete skill training in armoured warfare specialist I, having achieved armoured warfare V a little earlier, and I am ready to fit my first warfare link module to boost the corporation's battleships in w-space. It's quite exciting, but of course the new, powerful module destabilises the capacitor again.

Even so, it is a simple matter of replacing the thermal shield hardener for its passive equivalent amplifier—keeping the EM shield hardener as the lone active shield module, the Drake's shield being most vulnerable to EM damage—to return the capacitor to a stable condition whilst maintaining an optimal shield tank. With the tank resolved I can head out as part of a fleet in to a Sleeper combat site to test my new warfare link's effectiveness.

I have an armoured warfare link fitted, one out of a choice of three, becase the battleships piloted by the corporation's capsuleers are all armour tanks, so the link will not directly affect my Drake's performance in combat. Never the less, helping to ensure the big ships' survival is crucial to my own, and being able to assist every other ship in the fleet is a good cause for using the warfare link.

The first effect I notice when powering the warfare link is the glorious halo of light that surrounds my Drake, obviously centred on the ship but always appearing to emanate from behind it, as if it were supernatural in origin. Clearly, the purpose of the halo is to allow my lesser-blessed colleagues to bask in my brilliance. Note how the battleships are depicted to be significantly smaller than my battlecruiser, and it's not simply because I commissioned the artwork myself.

The second effect I notice is how the halo also acts as a glorious beacon, attracting Sleepers to my ship like moths to a flame. At least, the Sleepers' missiles and laser fire are the moths heading straight for my glowing, and soon to be melting, Drake's hull. With the warfare link active I may be helping my colleagues withstand more incoming fire, but it seems to be more a side-effect of attracting all the hostile fire myself instead as a direct result of the link's actual bestowed benefit.

Normally I am able to shrug off the attention of the Sleepers shortly after the corporation battleships start pounding heavy plutonium rounds in to their ships, but with the warfare link I find I am having to warp in and out of the combat site continually, my shields quickly taking heavy damage. As warp engines interfere with the functioning of the warfare link I am not able to grant my fleet mates the full benefits of the newly fitted module, which seems like a bit of a waste of so much training. On the other hand, maybe it isn't the warfare link but that I change the name of my Drake to Non-sentient Ship that is inciting the Sleepers' ire.

However, as we head in to a second Sleeper site after the first is cleared I find that perhaps the first group of Sleepers were particularly envious of Caldari technology, and the combat returns to the similar balance of the battleships sharing damage whilst I concentrate on the frigates, my warfare link remaining powered the whole time. All that is needed now is some experimentation to determine which armoured warfare link will be most effective for our fleet, whether it is rapid repair, damage control, or passive defence, and if it depends on circumstances.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: drake, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, sleepers, w-space