This is likely to be the last out-of-character chronicles post that I make regarding PotBS. I haven’t quite decided on how to go about writing Chronicles posts for Stephen MacKenna; I don’t know if I’m going to make it conversational the way I made the Havohej posts, third person like I were writing short stories or perhaps in the “Captain’s Log” format, which would be first-person but not conversational. I’ve yet to decide, and if anyone cares to offer your opinion you’re welcome to!

I’m also curious to see how many of my original readers will continue to follow this blog despite the dwindling amount of EVE-O related content. I just hope I can make the PotBS stuff at least as entertaining. I will definitely miss having killboards to link; in PotBS it truly is a matter of SSDH: “Screenshots or it Didn’t Happen”! And speaking of screenshots, with that invitation for input out of the way I’d like to share with you my first PvP experiences in PotBS.

The Hermes and the Expedition

A guy named Noble Savage (known on the forums as Garbad_the_Weak) posted in the L2P (Learn to Play) forum about how he PvP’d his way from L28 or so to L50 (you gain xp in PvP fights!), titled “Adventures of the Brave Baby Seal.” In this thread there are plenty of informative little gems about how to PvP in PotBS, and as I’m always looking for the tactical advantage I paid close attention.

In EVE, we are fond of saying that even a noob with 1M SP and a stasis webifier can be useful in PvP with the right guidance and a proper understanding of why he can be useful. GoonSwarm even made a recruitment poster stressing the point. I started doing solo PvP in EVE around the 2M mark (when I had a full T2 kit on my Rifter, except for the guns) and had a blast killing all manner of frigates and cruisers piloted by other player capsuleers but I was unsure of how much a game like Pirates of the Burning Sea would allow a low-level player to get away with on the open sea.

Garbad’s post showed me that, just like a noob in a Rifter stands a chance against a veteran if he understands how to fly to his ship’s strengths and avoid the strengths of the opponent’s ship, a lowbie in PotBS can sail to his own strengths and avoid the strengths of his opponent. In the end, it comes down to an understanding of the character classes’ strengths and weaknesses and what each type of ship is built to do (you won’t see a fast, agile ‘Corsair’ Xebec trading broadsides, for example) so that you can determine before the fight begins whether you need to run or not, and if not then how best to engage the target vessel. Just like EVE!

Armed with this new understanding and all of the information I could absorb from the PotBS wiki, I captured myself a ship called the ‘Hermes’ Mastercraft Packet-Boat from an NPC, fit it for acceleration range with the best I could afford and went out on the open sea to hunt the red zones in hopes of finding another even-strength fight (if you remember, I mentioned before how I faced off against a French captain and lost; we were both Level 17 at that time). I had recently turned Level 30 and was willing to engage anything up to L35, or higher if they were in a weak enough ship so as to equalize the difference in character level. I found nothing I could compete with in the red that day, so I made port and talked to a Port Captain NPC to set my PvP flag ‘On’.

My first fight was against a L33 Privateer in an ‘Expedition’ Privateer Packet-Boat, a special refit ‘Hermes’ that blends the best elements of the ‘Hermes’ Mastercraft and ‘Hermes’ Sleek Packet-Boats. Unfortunately, I was so excited I forgot to take a screenshot but it’s just as well because I did not sink the Expedition. You see, I had not yet learned a skill called ‘Before the Wind’, which is a speed buff. And of all the classes, I’m given to understand that the Freetraders and Privateers have a short-duration speed burst skill that enables them to gain quite a bit of distance whether it be in pursuit or in flight. With dismantling shot I had managed to apply a speed debuff called “Cut Shroud” to the Expedition and proceeded to rip his masts and sails to around 50% integrity. The more damage your sails and masts take, the slower you go until you’re completely dismasted at which point you stop (obviously, right?). Despite having his sails torn to shreds and being under the effect of Cut Shroud, the British Privateer activated his burst of speed skill and within the space of 20 seconds, my target went from almost helpless at 200 yards to in no danger at all at 700 yards.

That made me a sad panda.

All I could do was /tiphat and wait for the combat state to wear off so I could go and try to provoke other players into fighting with me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anyone who I felt I had a fair shot at that wanted to have a go, so I spent a lot of time dodging L50s who had me outgunned and chasing folks in my own league who were apparently afraid there was some manner of trap at work.

After an hour or so of this, Captain Charissa de Mornay, one of the officers in the society I joined (Nine Winds), was happened to sail past in a ‘Mediator’ Mastercraft Cutter. The MC Mediator is another Level 20’s ship that is, like my ‘Hermes’ MC, frequently used by high level players when they’re looking to have some solo or small group fun while minimizing their own risks. Think of it as nano ships in EVE. Mornay invited me to group and we ended up tackling a ‘Discovery’ Privateer Frigate, which the special Privateer refit of the ‘Raa’ Frigate, blending the Raa MC with the Raa Sleek. However, my own noob-ness lost Char the prize of a Disco capture.

There are three types of ammunition in PotBS: Dismantling Shot destroys masts and rips sails, Anti-personnel Shot kills crewmen and Hull Piercing Shot punches through armor and structure. Each of the three types comes in several varieties which do more or less damage depending on their range; the shortest range ammo does the most damage. Being a noob, I’d paid no attention to range in selecting my dismantling shot so I was carrying only Star Shot, the highest damage variant and had no Bar Shot, the longest range variant. As the Privateer began to pull away, Mornay told me to switch to Bar… to which I could only reply that I had none. Captain Mornay was very forgiving, understanding that I didn’t know and not holding it against me as we watched the ‘Discovery’ sail off into the sunset. If we’d both had Bar, we would probably have been able to dismast the Privateer refit together.


That made me a sad panda again.

I made port at Matthew Town and promised that first thing the next day, I’d get the long-range variants on all three shot types.

This Time I Mean Business

The next day I made good on my promise and picked up 20 crates of Bar Shot and 20 crates of Grapeshot. from the Auction House in Matthew Town, the Pirates’ most active trade hub. I then adjusted my ‘Hermes’ fit to try to squeeze a little more speed out of it in case I had to chase another fleeing ship. The first target I found was admittedly a gank, my ‘Hermes’ MC vs. a ‘Renard’ Chasse-Marie (a L4 ship) captained by a slightly lower-level player. Small, fast Low-level ships like this are often used to haul small but valuable cargoes through hostile or dangerous areas so I had no compunction about sinking it after two /demands for him to surrender 100% of his cargo went ignored.

Just after that unpleasant business was concluded, I noticed three fellow Brethren captains circling the waters around Caracas like sharks. Within minutes, one of them had tagged a British captain in a ‘Hercules’ Frigate. The Herc is the basis for some of the most popular end-game PvP ships in the game, the Herc Sleek, Herc MC and the special refit Pirate Herc (or PHerc). I jumped into the fight and was quickly invited to the group which let me tag along with them for the rest of the day. Being the lowest level and one of the two fastest ships of the group, I was tasked with helping dismast first and then helping to suppress crew. Only after a target ship was dismasted would I switch out to Hull Piercing shot and speed up the process of sinking the enemy ships.

It was all great fun; my thanks to Cian O’Connor and Jorge Gil for having me along!

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