This post is for the PvP oriented players out there. To be honest, I have no idea how to read non-PvP oriented kill-boards - to me they are all just targets. So today I want to share some insider knowledge and opinions about how to properly read this block of statistics above. Doing so will help you better understand them and how to properly contextualize these statistics. This post is extremely biased and opinionated, so fair warning. To be even more fair, I'm using my own block as the prime example, but I may use some others in this post.
The very first and most important number I look at when bringing up someone's zKill stats is Kill/Loss Efficiency - in my case above that number is 80.6%. (Which is also a KD Ratio of 4.15) Back when I moved from Null Sec and started learning the ways of Low Sec Pirates I was told why this number holds so much importance in PvP. And why it is the only real number on this sheet that truly matters when judging an opponents abilities. Now, to be fair, we'll see later why other numbers do matter, but let me explain the thinking behind this number first.
And I'm going to start by showing you another random example:
I picked this random example because we both have essentially the same number of total kills, but this player has far less losses. Notice the efficiency percentage is 95.5% in this case. (A KD Ratio of 21)
So anything between 70-79% is good, solid PvP that usually denotes a player who is working their way up in learning the skills needed to become an exceptional PvP player, or they have a very specific role that they play which helps to keep the percentage lower. Anything above 90% denotes a player that flies mostly in larger gangs/fleets or is insanely risk averse and hates to lose. The magic zone is between 80-89% and that means the player takes risks, pushes the envelope against ships larger than them, and while they often fail - more often than not they succeed. Looking at this number can tell you a tremendous amount about the player behind it and also about the back-up they probably have in waiting. Looking at the example above I can tell you this player probably flies a lot of larger ships with a group that helps protect them and keeps their losses very, very low. You know right away that if you are flying a frigate, you probably want to steer clear of this player. They may have a cyno handy.
But this number only tells part of the story. It works great for a quick glance or something to consider in the heat of battle - but it certainly doesn't explain everything. Kills and Losses is another place to learn more about our potential target and while those numbers are easily explained - total kills and total losses is not a mystery - they can also tell us a story. That example above has nearly 12k kills but only 545 losses, which is unnaturally proficient. That tells you they don't take risks they can't manage, mix that in with the Solo number (154) and you know for a fact they probably only fly in large gangs and in blingy ships - but a quick glance down at the actual fights would confirm that assumption.
Now we come to the next number that actually matters - the value of kills versus the value of losses. You can see in the example above this player has killed a lot of valuable ships (15 trillion worth), but with only 545 losses he has still managed to lose 114b in ships (Over 200 million each on average) which tells you they seek large, expensive targets and fly bigger and more valuable ships.
But what about this player? 81% efficiency on K/L but only 154b in total kills? Well here we are missing the most important statistic for his play-style - look at those solo numbers. 63% of his total kills are solo, which is impressive. But his total kill value is low, so this tells us he probably flys frigates and fights frigates. And Destroyers. So you can be pretty sure what you will be getting if you engage with this player in space. No tricks, just solid combat.
From just a quick glance at the statistics box on zKill we can get a pretty accurate picture of who a player is, what kind of risk they like to take, and how they fly their ships. Nothing is 100% accurate and I must warn you not to take what you see as gospel, part of getting good at this is experience and many great pilots are also great at hiding their true intentions with their kill-boards. You cannot always know, but you can make an educated guess.
While we are on this subject just know that the point system on zKill is and has been borked for a long time. So don't put a lot of weight behind things like Rankings and Points. While we do all operate under the same borked system, it has long since become almost useless for what it was intended to be. Very few of us pay much attention to these numbers. And if you run into someone who does, you'll know they are full of themselves.
I should also mention that none of what I said above was intended to hurt anyone's feelings or judge anyone that plays this game. I simply wanted to teach you how I read zKill stats and what I gain from doing so. In many ways the numbers do not lie, and yet they often tell an incomplete story. They are just numbers after all and many players play the game for many different reasons - most of which frankly have very little to do with kill-boards. Those choices are just as valid as any other.
Play the game you want to play. Just be smart about it.