A new Bump tactic for JFs landing on lowsec-to-highsec gates has been found. Here’s an example kill: https://zkillboard.com/kill/64210104/
Basically, a guy in a fast cruiser like a Stabber Fleet Issue with a 500 MN MWD sits on the gate and waits for a JF to warp to it. It then moves to the exact spot where the JF lands, activates its MWD, and then hits Approach on the JF. As soon as the JF lands, it is bumped off the gate because the cruiser model clips into it with increased mass from the MWD.
The reason you don’t just Jump through the gate is because it takes a second for the server to “check” to see if you are eligible to Jump through the gate after you land. Collisions and such that cause bumping DO NOT follow the same rules, and will happen AS SOON AS YOU LAND, not a second later! So you’re flying off the gate by the time the 1st tick hits and OOPS you are no longer in range to jump!
There is just one defense against this bump tactic for the JF pilot and it’s to jump out to an exit cyno within the first second of the bump. There is a specific way to do this:
1 - Have an exit cyno ready in another system, preferably on a citadel.
2 - WARP to the gate. NEVER JUMP to the gate!! If you do, your JF will ignore any Jump to Cyno commands you give it because it’s trying to jump the gate.
3 - Open D-scan and scan the gate (look at and reduce the scan cone angle). If you see anything suspicious you should undock your Cyno alt from its NPC station or just prepare yourself mentally if the cyno is on a cit.
4 - Once the gate grid loads and you see what’s there and there are, in fact, ships MOVING on the gate, you better get ready to jump out.
5 - Once your JF is almost on the gate, light your exit Cyno and right-click your Capacitor -> Jump To -> Cyno alt BUT DON’T CLICK IT YET!!
6 - You land, WARPING is replaced with your speed HIT THAT “JUMP TO CYNO” TO AVOID CERTAIN DEATH!!
You immediately get bumped off the gate and locked, but if you did it just right the pirate won’t have time to land a scram/point and you’ll jump out to safety.
This is not foolproof either. I actually lost a Rhea to this despite having absolutely everything on that list done and actually practicing the procedure on SISI after another friend of mine lost their JF to the same deal and we were trying to devise an escape method. I think the reason I died is because I just got very unlucky and my command to jump did not actually register until the 2nd tick, by which time I was scrammed and therefore dead.
If you find people doing this in your lowsec-to-hisec gate system you should very strongly consider avoiding the system or just running your JF during ghost hours while no one else is on because there is literally nothing else you can do about it.
@CCP_Falcon What do you think about this? I personally feel it’s very exploity, or at the very least incredibly unfair given the range of options a JF pilot has to escape their fate and how easy and low-risk it is for a perpetrator to instigate this sort of bump.
Edit: Forgot to link an example fit for the cruiser https://zkillboard.com/kill/64162120/
