21 replies to this topic

[Greygal]

Hope ya'll had as much fun with the class today as myself and Brititos did! Will write a more thorough report after our roam tomorrow, but have opened the Feedback thread so ya'll can share the good, bad, and indifferent opinions you have about today's class and tomorrow's roam.

The class portion was great fun, everyone had a great attitude even when we went 50 minutes over time! I apologize for us running so late - it's a tradition I'm trying hard to break!

We spent a portion of the class inside a wormhole with a personal friend of mine watching the door for us, so we could do some practical stuff in a no-Concord zone. Didn't get to do as much practical as I'd like, as time was passing too fast, but it was a nice place to play. Surprisingly nobody got stuck inside Ya'll had some great questions, and I was thrilled with how obvious it was that every student took the time to read the material and watch the videos before the class.

I was VERY VERY impressed with how on the ball everyone was inside the wormhole. People were watching dscan and reporting what they saw perfectly, and everyone kept moving at all times! When my friend tried to smart-bomb us (ya, we planned that!) nobody lost their ship - perfection!

Things I know we need to work on for future classes:

• Less theory more practical exercises!
• Time management
• I need to update a few minor things on the reading material and add to the class (watch lists, agro timers, damage notifications, few other things)

So on to the day of the roam...first we had a big fight with Eve University. This was a planned fight, and something VERY different from what we normally do with a Basic class. It was something that I decided to do because a big, long, drawn-out fight like that isn't something that any of us get to do very often. There was some confusion and miss-communication while we were getting set up for the fight, which I know was frustrating for some of you. I'm taking personal responsibility for that and apologize openly to everyone that got frustrated with not understanding what was going on. A lot of you opened private convo's with me to ask what was going on, and because of the situation I was unable to respond and for that, I hope you'll forgive me. Things always get a little haywire before a big operation like this, and the first causality of any plan is always, always, the plan itself.

However, despite the chaos while we were waiting on Eve University to show up, the fight itself was AWESOME! Us frigates were tasked with taking out the blackbirds - that was our primary objective - and that was done in a most effective manner Not entirely sure, but I believe we destroyed five of the six blackbirds. Every student did an excellent job bouncing in and out of the fight, and reshipping into the spare rifters that Caldak provided in record time. Special gold stars for the awesome rolling tam maneuver! The way everyone moved, stayed on targets, the comm's discipline during the fight - all perfection. The fight in Poitot lasted over 50 minutes! The chase was another 18 minutes at least. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.

A BIG shout-out to Eve University for bringing a most challenging fight! Battlereport: http://www.agony-unl..._related/79021/

After the fight, we reshipped and regrouped the fleet and went back out into nullsec, for a "proper" Basic class roam. Almost immediately we engaged in a great fight with Circus Monkeys, a fight that lasted longer than most fights like that do, with lots of warping to tam's and tac's as we chased them down. It really got my heart pumping. We continued to roam (and are still roaming as I write this) and got into quite a few additional small fights against other small gangs, all of which were executed in excellence.

Now, I need to give out a HUGE HUGE shout-out and THANK YOU to ALL of the Alumni who showed up for the fight and roam today - putting your cruisers and battlecruisers on the line like you did today was above and beyond. Thank you so much!

It goes without say, but I'll say it anyways: HUGE THANK YOU to all my fellow Agony members for everything you did today to make not only the Eve University fight a good fight, but for the FANTASTIC roam we had after the fight. I love you guys!

And finally, thank you to each and every one of our students. I especially thank you for your patience when things got ... interesting You guys are beyond belief awesome. I cannot wait to fly with you all again!


EDIT: Poitot was the 5th most active system for kills for the day - and was the most active system for the hour, at the time!

[Kinroi]

Best EVE class EVAR.

[Mortis Aguila]

Excellent class! Didn't realize the instructors were so new. Good job!

[Brodie]

Excellent class, had quite a few laughs too. Hopefully I will have a headset my dog hasn't eaten for the next one so I can be a bit more social.

[Jalard]

_{Thanks for the great class....had a good time and learned alot. Looking forward to the roam.}

[freebornone]

Great class i had fun, sorry for mic not working.

[Melkisedec]

Hi GG and Brit, great teaching! Thnx 0/

[Mortis Aguila]

Damn it! Couldn't make the roam. Happy hunting!

[DustyAkachi]

I attended as an alumnus and have to say that holding the class in a wormhole was fantastic and allowed us to have the freedom of null sec but in a much safer environment. Class was wonderful as usual.

[Grimm - Ectariuos (VANUS)]

helo this is Grimm Ectarious i had attended the 1st class and was set up for the second and was unable to attend as My Grandfather had a heart attack and i left asap to be with family. I am not giving an excuse it was my decision to forgo the class but i would like to make it up in the next open pvp basic and ill pay the class fee again np just wantd to know what i should do my email is [email protected] plz respond thnx.

[Greygal]

helo this is Grimm Ectarious i had attended the 1st class and was set up for the second and was unable to attend as My Grandfather had a heart attack and i left asap to be with family. I am not giving an excuse it was my decision to forgo the class but i would like to make it up in the next open pvp basic and ill pay the class fee again np just wantd to know what i should do my email is [email protected] plz respond thnx.

Grimm - no need to pay again, we'll give you a credit towards the next basic class. My best hopes for your grandfather's recovery!

Edit: Grimm, I'm showing you were with us on the class day and are considered a graduate - am I wrong on that?

[Jysella]

helo this is Grimm Ectarious i had attended the 1st class and was set up for the second and was unable to attend as My Grandfather had a heart attack and i left asap to be with family. I am not giving an excuse it was my decision to forgo the class but i would like to make it up in the next open pvp basic and ill pay the class fee again np just wantd to know what i should do my email is [email protected] plz respond thnx.

Grimm, do you mean that you were there for the class (the first day) and missed the roam (the second day)?


What can I say...this class was solid (the WH portion to allow for live-fire demonstrations was an awesome tool) and the roam kicked ass! Always nice to have a ratter warp in as the inty aligns out rather than warp out as the inty lands.
Students and alumni, you guys did great with the big fights we had. I'd fly with you any day.

[Caldak]

Very good fight, loved it. You boys stepped up and worked it. I wasn't expecting to win it. But you fought hard and well. Now that we given them a fight hopefully we get another. Alumni we let you slip a bit but will make that up in the next fleet fight we might get again. Roam was good, we got a few fights here and there. Looking forward to see the Video footage. Big thanks to all the Agony that came along, made it a fun day.

[Homefries]

I'm one of those high sec carebears with decent skills but not a lot of knowledge about the PvP game. Thanks to everyone, I'm a bit less ignorant. Very nicely run, special thanks to the Agony people that volunteer your time for these events. You make EVE better for everyone.

[AkJon Ferguson]

I love Caldak roams. I loathe Caldak arranged fights. YMMV. See you next time (I'll have t2 skirmish links trained for that one if we're in BC again.)

[Ina Sabezan]

Thank you so much guys, that was absolutely fantastic. I had a ball! Greygal and Brititos, the idea of having the class in a wormhole is great. It is obvious you guys are putting a lot of thought and effort into this and I really appreciate that. I think you both did very well to explain a couple of concepts that were not very obvious for me from reading about them. I might come back for another class in a while just to check what other cool ideas you guys will come up with. Can you believe I "missed" the smartbombing while answering the door for 30seconds? Came back and wondered what the shield damage was from... This class was definitely worth getting up at stupid-o-clock in the morning! Speaking of, hats off to Caldak who got up even earlier today and still managed to be alert and completely in control, while I was still injecting coffee and trying to wake up. I loved the roam. Unfortunately I had to leave after a couple of hours, but I am sooo coming back for more. Until then I will litter stations around Syndicate with frigates and train some more... Thanks to everyone who made this a morning to remember.

[Othran]

Fight went as expected - 6 Basilisks was all I needed to hear Once we started harassing them it went better. We gave up mobility at the start for too long and allowed them to move us about enough so that they got warp-ins. That's understandable as I'd be surprised if many of the students understood the importance of alignment with bubble traps. I doubt our main strength is ever going to be firepower or reps in these arranged fights so we need to work more to our strengths - which is usually mobility. If we'd harassed them as they moved between stations - eg dropped the occasional bomb etc - then we could have made their less experienced members jumpy and picked a few off. Once we started to do that later then things improved a lot. The frigate fight was nicely done and +1 to Circus Monkeys for taking it on. I thought they were completely insane to do so but I'm glad they did Thanks to all involved, there was some hero tackling going on for sure. Lets do it again soon.

[Vjorn]

Took part in the roam and had a blast as usual......and learned a few more things One comment tho regarding the fleet manager tool; The wiki still needs updating to the new format. One quick way to update it would be to link the 3 minute video Caldak made a few months ago.

[Pislik Ronuken]

I am sorry that I have missed this great roam. My wife and my kid had to come home one day before planned and real life took over. I hope I can join next one.

[Miss T]

GG, Caldak, & all the Agony Alumni, Thanks for a great BASICS class. Especially the roam on Saturday. It was a blast, think I reshipped 4 times in that battle . I learned a lot from the Instructors, and was given many more ideas for my own fleets. Look forward to participating in future Agony Uni training. I know the battle in Poitot was something not usually done, but I highly recommend that for future classes, for many of the students, it was probably the largest battle they have ever experienced in EVE.

[Brititos]

Finally got some time to write my own comment. First of all a lot of thanks for everyone who participated in the class. IT was my first Agony teaching and I was very stressed how I will perform. From the from the feedback above I see I wasn't that bad which makes me happy. For myself it was an amazing experience. Your behaviour in the wormhole and during the practical part in general was exceptional. You were alert and cautious all the time which was just great. Also, a lot of thanks for all students and alumni for joining us for the big fight. This was truly epic experience and I think you all made Greygal and myself proud that day. When I've seen you all moving with the rolling TAM with no issues whatsoever I felt really impressed, especially knowing that some of you learnt that just the day before. The whole big fight was a lot of confusion for myself and many seasoned Agony members so I just can't imagine how difficult it must have been for some of you. I know I lost my temper in one moment all that heat, so please accept my apology if that hurt you. It's not mine and the Agony typical behaviour. Really great, great job everyone. And finally huge thanks for all Agony support. Hard to list all names but you know you've been there and many, many thanks for that. See you all in space and on the next class roam.

[Renegade Jake]

A big thanks to the Agony team - I learned a lot this weekend and had a really good time! I especially enjoyed the roam after the fleet fight, as it got more up close and personal and easier to follow along with. Looking forward to participate in future classes!