Back on March 2nd I wrote about taking a more active role in my own personal killboard. That was almost two months ago and I thought that today I would take a look and see how things have progressed since then.
On that day I had 679 kills and 221 losses, so since then I've gone 135-37, which isn't bad. More importantly though, I've added 621.24 points to my kill points according to Battleclinic. Which has taken me up 11,873 places in the overall rankings. Considering that those two months also included three major moves for Lucifer's Hammer, I think it is safe to say that things have improved considerably.
As those long-time readers of this blog will attest, moving around the universe has been the bane of my Eve existence since the beginning. I estimate that a solid half of my deaths are directly attributable to those moves, which is primarily the reason I started my Alt Anastasia in the first place. And then trained her (mostly) straight for the Archon. Although having a Carrier doesn't totally alleviate deaths associated with moving. As this one proves. Lighting a cyno in a low sec system is asking for it. Three of those 37 deaths in the last two months were cyno related deaths.
Another solid quarter of the remaining deaths on my kb are what I call "bad luck" deaths. For example this morning I warped to a gate in my Rifter with GCC. The plan was to jump thru and wait out the timer in a safe spot, done it a million times with no problems. Except this morning, for no reason, not only did the gate refuse to let me jump, but I also couldn't warp, burn away, or do anything else with my ship. By the time I realized that Eve wanted me to die a futile death and my finger hit the ESC button to log, my poor Rifter exploded. These kinds of things happen all the time in Eve and I've come to accept them I suppose, they don't happen as much as they used to. But I certainly have had my share of futile, stoopid deaths in this universe of ours.
The remaining quarter? Well those are the true deaths in my opinion, the ones when you just get beat. Those are the ones you don't mind because they were part of a good fight one way or the other. Usually. The ones that weren't were moments when you get blobbed, jump into a gate camp, get hot-dropped, or otherwise get your ass handed to you. To be fair I've done the same thing to enough people over the years, which is why those deaths (while they do make you mad) still get lumped into the good death pile. I do try to be fair.
There have been some great fights in those two months. Last week I killed a Rupture and 2x Vexors at the same time in my Drake. That was a good, hard fight. Thanks to my Corp m8 ilovefallout for probing them down for me. I appreciated it enough to let him come back in his Cane and whore on the kills.
I admit to being a bit surprised at how useful the Drake remains in low sec. While I probably fly the Hurricane more than I do the Drake these days, I'm still killing more in the Drake. This could simply be chance, so much of low sec hunting is simply chance. Being in the right place at the right time. But it is also a testament that when the choice is there, I still rely on the Drake to get the job done.
Anyway, this brings me to the point of the post. What next?
Certainly I intend to continue trying to improve. Hopefully now that we have some stability in our position in the universe, the next three months will be devoid of having to move. In three months I'd like to see Rixx reach 1,000 kills, which means he needs 186, which is not an impossible number. But I'd also like to avoid dying and keep the death total below 300, which means I need to die less than 42 times in that three month stretch. Which, hopefully, is also not an impossible number.
I'd also like more solo kill opportunities. My fellow Corp m8 Angor is tearing it up in that area, as are other members of Lucifer's Hammer. Again this is where chance plays a huge role, I go out and hunt all the time, but I have a harder time finding opportunities. The only cure for that is tenacity and patience, but of which I have in abundance.
I am well aware that Rixx's killboard isn't the best in the universe. I am also aware that the choices I made in the last two years had an incredible amount to do with that situation. This is certainly part of the reason the choices were made in the last three months, the choice to change things up and seek a fresh start. Not all of the reason certainly, but it was part of it.
When it comes down to it, when the rubber meets the road, the only thing a PvP pilot has is his killboard.
On that day I had 679 kills and 221 losses, so since then I've gone 135-37, which isn't bad. More importantly though, I've added 621.24 points to my kill points according to Battleclinic. Which has taken me up 11,873 places in the overall rankings. Considering that those two months also included three major moves for Lucifer's Hammer, I think it is safe to say that things have improved considerably.
As those long-time readers of this blog will attest, moving around the universe has been the bane of my Eve existence since the beginning. I estimate that a solid half of my deaths are directly attributable to those moves, which is primarily the reason I started my Alt Anastasia in the first place. And then trained her (mostly) straight for the Archon. Although having a Carrier doesn't totally alleviate deaths associated with moving. As this one proves. Lighting a cyno in a low sec system is asking for it. Three of those 37 deaths in the last two months were cyno related deaths.
Another solid quarter of the remaining deaths on my kb are what I call "bad luck" deaths. For example this morning I warped to a gate in my Rifter with GCC. The plan was to jump thru and wait out the timer in a safe spot, done it a million times with no problems. Except this morning, for no reason, not only did the gate refuse to let me jump, but I also couldn't warp, burn away, or do anything else with my ship. By the time I realized that Eve wanted me to die a futile death and my finger hit the ESC button to log, my poor Rifter exploded. These kinds of things happen all the time in Eve and I've come to accept them I suppose, they don't happen as much as they used to. But I certainly have had my share of futile, stoopid deaths in this universe of ours.
The remaining quarter? Well those are the true deaths in my opinion, the ones when you just get beat. Those are the ones you don't mind because they were part of a good fight one way or the other. Usually. The ones that weren't were moments when you get blobbed, jump into a gate camp, get hot-dropped, or otherwise get your ass handed to you. To be fair I've done the same thing to enough people over the years, which is why those deaths (while they do make you mad) still get lumped into the good death pile. I do try to be fair.
There have been some great fights in those two months. Last week I killed a Rupture and 2x Vexors at the same time in my Drake. That was a good, hard fight. Thanks to my Corp m8 ilovefallout for probing them down for me. I appreciated it enough to let him come back in his Cane and whore on the kills.
I admit to being a bit surprised at how useful the Drake remains in low sec. While I probably fly the Hurricane more than I do the Drake these days, I'm still killing more in the Drake. This could simply be chance, so much of low sec hunting is simply chance. Being in the right place at the right time. But it is also a testament that when the choice is there, I still rely on the Drake to get the job done.
Anyway, this brings me to the point of the post. What next?
Certainly I intend to continue trying to improve. Hopefully now that we have some stability in our position in the universe, the next three months will be devoid of having to move. In three months I'd like to see Rixx reach 1,000 kills, which means he needs 186, which is not an impossible number. But I'd also like to avoid dying and keep the death total below 300, which means I need to die less than 42 times in that three month stretch. Which, hopefully, is also not an impossible number.
I'd also like more solo kill opportunities. My fellow Corp m8 Angor is tearing it up in that area, as are other members of Lucifer's Hammer. Again this is where chance plays a huge role, I go out and hunt all the time, but I have a harder time finding opportunities. The only cure for that is tenacity and patience, but of which I have in abundance.
I am well aware that Rixx's killboard isn't the best in the universe. I am also aware that the choices I made in the last two years had an incredible amount to do with that situation. This is certainly part of the reason the choices were made in the last three months, the choice to change things up and seek a fresh start. Not all of the reason certainly, but it was part of it.
When it comes down to it, when the rubber meets the road, the only thing a PvP pilot has is his killboard.