One Month Of Grinding

Yesterday marked the end of my first month of grinding for a Nestor. That's right, one calendar month and I am not finished earning the loyalty points needed to purchase the blueprint. Okay, I have the Sisters of EVE loyalty points now, but I want to grind 600,000 and not use any of the 348,000 I started with. Over the course of the past month I collected 537 thousand LP. Not bad considering I only ran missions for 20 of those days.

I also wanted to earn enough ISK to purchase a armor tanking command ship. My first choice was a Damnation, but I will need to reevaluate the choice based on the final outcome of the fleet boosting changes. I assume the command ships will also receive a balance pass, so I need to hold off on buying a new ship. I don't have to worry about money when I do go shopping. Over the course of the last month, my wallet is over 500 million ISK heavier and the price estimator in the station tells me I collected over 1.2 billion ISK in loot and salvage. And for regular readers who know I manufacture my own ammunition, the inventory figure does take into account my mineral consumption.

During the run, I managed to get Rosewalker's standings with Amarr under -5.0, which means I'll need to find a nice level 1 distribution agent to do missions for to grind standings back up. I'm actually curious as to how hard getting back to -4.9 is, so the standings drop is a feature, not a bug. Of course, Wandering Rose has only dropped from -2.3 to -3.5, so I can still run the Sisters' epic arc without having to do any prep work like I do for Rosewalker.

My timetable for finishing my self-created quest to obtain the Nestor is running just about according to schedule. I want to finish the grind to 600 thousand skill points by next Tuesday when the mining ship changes hit Tranquility. After that, I have approximately two months to mine with the current fleet boosts and two turrets on my Procurers and Skiffs. Depending on how the mining goes, I may try to build a Tempest Fleet Issue as well as a Nestor.

I do want to add I am so ready for the LP grind to end. I need to learn how to do the burner missions, as they would add variety to the grind. Also, I didn't start getting missions against the Angel Cartel like Worlds Collide and Angel Extravaganza until this past Sunday and Monday. Was I just unlucky? I expected more Angel Cartel missions due to operating in Metropolis. Instead, I think I've received more Serpentis missions, although I've killed more than my fair share of Amarr Navy ships during the grind.

I think EVE will significantly change in November. The updates page for fall already has a lot of new and revamped features. With the introduction of the Alpha and Omega clone states, I have the feeling more change will hit Tranquility in what we now know is an expansion. I want to try to get some last tasks completed before CCP turns the universe upside-down. Right now, I think I will succeed.