Back in January 2022 I wrote a post entitled "The 100 Club" in which I discussed the ships I've flown that have registered at least 100 kills. Back then that number stood at 22 total ships and I wondered if it would be possible to ever get that number to 100. Well that final result may never happen, but I am pleased to report that almost two years later the number now stands at 35 ships with at least 100 kills registered. With an additional 10 ships with 80 or more. Which is getting closer to an almost magical sounding halfway mark.
As I said back in 2022 this means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things. People often misunderstand me when I talk about zKill. I don't play Eve for some sort of bragging rights, or to watch numbers change, or to spend fruitless time worrying over rankings, or records. If I cared about such things I would never, ever host so many FFA events and let myself be killed so often during them. I figure almost a full one-third of my entire losses in Eve Online have happened during those events alone. So yeah. Thing is, it is still fascinating. After 16+ years of playing this damn game, things really do start to add up.
What has really helped change the dynamic on the ships I tend to fly is my weekly roams. I've been running these pretty consistently now for over two years and it has brought a lot more ships into the mix. Especially those that are better in small gang scenarios rather than solo situations. The biggest example is the Retribution which is now Number 5 on the list with 452 total kills. With only two mid-slots the Retri has never been ideal for solo work, but put fifteen or twenty of them on the field and they are insanely good. So that ship has certainly benefitted from increased exposure. I could say the same for the Thrasher Fleet Issue (#11) and the Kikimora (#12) as well.
The Comet and Astero remain my top two ships of all time and I doubt that will change anytime soon. The Comet is simply the best frigate in the game right now and is a notoriously versatile choice that can be fit in multiple (and valid) ways. There just isn't another ship available that does what the Comet can do, which is both its super-power and its weakness. Which is why I have 1,700+ plus kills with it. But I also scare away a lot of potential fights when flying it, which is where the Astero comes in. The Astero is my sneaky killer and while it will never be a numbers choice, it does often give me a chance to try upscale kills from time to time - the kind of kills I wouldn't get in another ship. Simply from the cloak and the insane "hawk" level tank. The weak dps is its only downside, as I discovered last week when I tackled a Kikimora with it.
It's funny to me that the Drake and the Sacrilege remain in the top ten. Most of those Drake kills happened before I started living in Low Sec full-time and the Sacrilege kills happened during a year when I wasn't playing Eve all that much and simply solo gate camped for a few minutes a day in one system with it.
The most surprising ship on the list has got to be the Procurer at Number 64 with 57 kills. Those happened during one of our FFA events a few years ago when we fielded a small gang of RR Procs in the belts for a good laugh. They are surprisingly effective at that when you have 10 of them working together. I also have 33 kills in a Venture. Which is always a fun choice. I'm guessing most of those were being used as bait, although I do have more than a few solo kills in that ship.
The bottom of the list is three ships with 27 kills each, the Cormorant, Executioner, and Maulus. I don't fly either of those very often, obviously, and for good reason. There are just better options available.
If you are curious you can see the list for yourself. It's good to check in every so often and see how things have changed over the years. But otherwise I continue to choose my ships based on what I think I need at the time and what I enjoy flying the most. Some ships are chosen because they fill a need, or in response to a potential threat at that moment. Others are chosen simply for fun, or to try something new. Others are more reliable. And others are more deadly. It just depends on my mood at the time.
I never let the killboard make decisions for me. It is simply a journal. A record. And it is best used for that purpose.
Until next time, fly safe. You never know what I might be flying next.