January 9, 2015

How (not) to lose your pod


This is a follow-up from the last blog (Battlysts Burn Oto), where I noted that I need to put together a list of ways people lose pods and thus how to avoid losing your pod. Thanks to my corpmates in Aideron Robotics for helping with my original post to our internal forums.  
Note that this advice is primarily for lowsec, and only a starting point in null and WH.  In those areas you also have bubbles there and perhaps other things I'm not familiar with.

How to lose your pod:
  1. Trying to stick out that last moment when your ship is going down.
    • Reason: Your pod will need to align before it can warp out and if you are fighting a gang there is a good chance someone with a fast locker will be trying to catch your pod. Pods align very quickly but they do not do so instantly.
    • Alternative: As soon as you realize your ship is going to be lost align to a bookmark or celestial and spam warp. When your ship blows the first warp command registered should get your pod out. Be warned that aligning may mean that you lose transversal and thus will suddenly take damage at a higher rate than you were previously.
    • Additional: Have a tab that only has celestials that are safe to warp to.  Many people label this "GTFO."  Warping to the sun is particularly predictable.  I personally like have a bookmark near the sun so if someone sees me align they may waste time thinking they can catch me there.  Meanwhile I bounce and GTFO.
    • Bonus: You may get your ship out anyway.  See this Reddit thread that happened to pop up today: Never ever stop spamming "warp to".
  2. When you encounter a camp on a gate, attempt to jump in your pod after your ship is lost.
    • Reason: You incur a session timer when your ship is destroyed that keeps you from taking a gate.
    • Alternative: Once you realize you aren't going to be able to crash the gate, align out and warp your pod immediately upon losing your ship.
  3. Warp straight from losing your ship in a fight to a gate or station.
    • Reason: Your aggression timer from the fight will keep you from docking or jumping, making your pod vulnerable to hostiles.
    • Alternative: Warp to a safe after losing your ship, or if you have no safes in the system warp to a celestial. As soon as you land at the celestial warp to a new celestial and drop a bookmark while in warp to give yourself a place to wait out your timer.  In most cases one bounce will be enough time though.
  4. Warp straight to a gate after losing your ship, particularly in a hot warzone.
    • Reason: Some smartbombers will watch for hot spots on the map and plant themselves between the fight and the gate.  They'll hit their bombs as soon as they see you on d-scan.
    • Alternative: Your corp probably already has 150km perches off of the gates.  If not then now is a good time to make them.  Go to that perch and peek at the gate.  Even if the smartbomber is cloaked and tries to uncloak and get you then the perch is likely to give you a different angle to gate that will save you.
  5. Warp to a station when there are likely campers on station.
    • Reason: Warping to zero on a station lands you within a range of locations, some of which may not have you immediately be within the docking radius. Note that some campers may be sitting on the undock with smartbombs so they will not have a locking delay.
    • Alternative: Establish a docking bookmark, preferably at a location other than the undock location.
  6. Undock from a station without having a undock bookmark ready.
    • Reason: There is a short period of invulnerability when undocking, but this is not sufficient for most ships to align to their destination compared to the lock time of potential station campers.
    • Alternative: Have an undock bookmark ready and warp to it at a random distance immediately if there are possible campers around. Creation of an undock bookmark is a topic longer than this brief summary, but googling should get you an answer fast.
My corpmate YoYo Mommy has a video that demonstrates many of these, so check it out.

Did I miss anything? Feel free to let me know in the comments.

No comments:

Post a Comment