PVP Dry Spells

For the past few weeks—maybe even over a month—I've been in a dry spell in solo PVP. The sort of dry spell that makes me roam hoping to explode, so long as it involves a solo fight or something close. I've had a hard time finding fights, win or lose. I only have anecdotal evidence, but it just feels harder to find solo fights of any sort currently than, say, 6 months ago. The expansion being released makes it even harder, as it feels like no matter how excited I am for the expansions, my main activities when they are released always seem to be logistics--hauling, market orders, etc. As nice as the new low sec exploration / PVE content is for the health of low security space, they also involve a huge amount of travel. My single Mordu BPC only came after a few hundred belts--fortunately I was able to do a bit of PVP at the same time, and the pay out at the time was equivalent to a PLEX.

This PVP dry spell has led me to reflect back on my losses on the first half of the year—48 now. I wish it were higher, as it would mean I've found more fights in general. I divided my losses into the following groups, which I think pretty well reflects what it is like to be a non-elite solo PVPer in EVE:

“Blobbed” here means killed by a sufficiently large number of pilots and in such a way that it is highly unlikely I get even a single kill during the process. “Out numbered” generally means fighting 2-3 ships, and “outgunned” means the ship is a class or type higher—e.g., fighting a pirate frigate in a T1 frigate (generally, the cases where I die to a blob or small gang are also cases where I am partly out gunned as well).

Out of 48 losses total thus far in 2014, the following are ship losses while attempting to solo in low or null sec (so pods and fleet losses are not included):

Blobbed: 12

Out numbered: 6

Solo loss: 9

Of those 9 solo losses, 4 were against ships that outgunned me (typically, fighting navy frigates in T1 frigates). 2 were “just die already” fit coraxes I was desperate to explode due to really disliking coraxes. Of the remaining 4, one was a great fight between a 400mm plate rail comet (me) and a SAR rail comet in which I died in a fire. Another loss came in a destroyer against an assault frigate that was also one-sided. The second most recent was a fantastic slug-fest in a 400mm plate coercer against a 400mm plate algos where I learned how much better the algos is at that sort of brawling. Finally and most recently, while trying to solo in a punisher, I died to a hard counter a few times over—a neuting, TDing slasher who could also leave the fight at any time.

The frustration caused by dry spells is actually one of the things that gets me to try harder and try new things in EVE. So, I am going to be doing two new things in the coming months:

First, I am going to be doing a short stint in FW, specifically in the Amarr FW. My reason for this is primarily to PVP in a new area of space and see some new faces (I've almost never ventured into Amarr/Minmatar FW space). This is part of my goal to earn a kill in every low sec constellation as well as visit every system in EVE. I won't be joining an "elite" group, but trying to look like an easy target in hopes of getting fights. Finally, with the Minmatar currently hoovering around T3-T4, there will, hopefully, be a few targets around.

Second, once I lose enough ships in FW, if there is a "summer war" heating up I may join Brave Newbies with some newer friends. Since I am a virtual newbie when it comes to null sec as well as coalition "PVP" I figure it will provide a decent opportunity to find some action and meet new players.