I was travelling with my Magnate (just jumping from one gate to the next). I was coming from two hours of low sec exploring, but I have been killed in highsec.
What troubled me is that it happened so fast, that I found myself in my home station in a matter of 2 seconds. I have an align time of 2.7 sec and I have a cloaking module and I even have been using the MWD-cloaking trick when warping to the next gate (also just to train in performing this manuever).
So I thought I was pretty sneaky and fast (making myself visible for a very short time)
I am not sure where I was caught, but it was either jumping from a gate or warping towards one, so my questions are:
Can you be scanned/targeted while warping?
Can you be targeted in those 2-3 seconds after warping to a stargate waiting to jump?
How to survive with a defenseless explorer frigade to super fast killers? And is it always possible or I just have to cope with the fact that there is always someone that can target and shoot faster than I can escape?
Is it possible that I was hit by some sort of bomb?
Looking at your killboard, you have lost 2 Magnates in lowsec. The latest loss also included a lost pod. You were killed by a smartbombing battleship sitting on the gate.
Basically you were dead the second you warped directly to the gate as the smartbombs can hit your ship while you were slowing down from the warp.
Yep, smartbombing ship, like explained above. Smartbombs are area of effect weapons in no need of a target lock. They can hit warping and cloaked targets, but have only a very limited range, and a rather long cycle time. You find people smartbomb camping often at choke points, especially gates to highsec.
There are basically only two counter-measures: enough buffer/passive tank or approaching the gate from a different than the obvious angle by using a gate ping bookmark or celestial in range.
As smartbombers are out to kill pods, they usually blink red, so if your are traveling in a paper tanked ship and see someone blinking red in local, don’t warp directly to the out-gate.
Thank you guys, I appreciate your clear responses.
I didn’t know there was a log showing where exactly I was killed, so I was in a lowsec system leading to the highsec. Good to know that I was in a popular site where unaware pilots are killed, so that I can avoid it the next time.
Does the smartbomb activate when cloaked? Like when you just enter a system from the stargate?
PS: the first time I died in lowsec it was in a data site
PPS: I must say it though: probably the most cowardly way to kill someone^^ not complaining though, I’m loving this game
Gate cloak means also invulnerable in contrast to regular ship cloak. There is nothing to fear from smartbombs on in-gates also because you spawn outside their range. However beware of insta-lockers and decloaking cans.
There is a saying in EvE, if you find yourself in a fair fight you did something wrong. Like in RL outside of sports.
the smartbombers are positionned at the gate you land on, the area of effect is rather small so if you suspect these you can bounce off a celestial at an angle towards the gate. At first its suggested to be paranoid, later on you will recognize the dangerous situation in a glance, Tama where you died is a place where you should always be paranoid as it is a choke point to Jita.
About the cloak, it s possible to lock you but not easy. if it happens you either messed up your cloak or got very unlucky in combination with them having t2 links (buffs).
if you enter a system where you don’t have “safe bookmarks” to which you can jump before jumping to the outgate, you can use the following trick:
open your system map (from your probe scanner)
pass your mouse cursor on the outgate in your overview: the outgate will be highlighted on your system map
select a celestial (moon/planet/etc) close to the outgate and warp to it
you will be a a relatively short distance from the outgate, close enough to 1) use your dscan to see if the gate is clear (if you see 3 battleships on dscan on the gate, be aware… ;)) and 2) warp to the outgate from this celstial, i.e. from a different direction than from the ingate, which should prevent you from being smartbombed
yes, with the right ships, modules, skills, and/or plugins.
Already answered by the fellow posters above, some scrambling modules also may help, and speed tanking or ceptors. But a Smartbomb needs no targetting.
Looks like yes. I’ve never seen that n Highsec yet, but as you were in Lowsec, that’s quite common. Lost an Atron with valuable load in Rancer this way, that was an expensive lesson not to be greedy and take the long way to Jita instead…