6 months of solo PVP in Querious - good times, but going elsewhere, for now

This week I lost my final ship I had staged in the Querious region. Besides blowing up a few POSes and an occasional NPSI roam, I have been doing solo PVP in Querious almost exclusively for the last 6 months.

I primarily flew navy EWAR frigates, assault frigates, cruisers, and some navy cruisers, and a ton of off-meta stuff (RLML XLASB Blackbird killing interceptors? Check. Brawling fit t1 logi killing an Oracle? Check. etc.). In total I killed around 800 ships solo, plus assorted pods and junk. I lost around 80 ships and 30 (usually empty) pods, and 6b isk total, or about 3-4 per night I roamed. But I flew about 50 different ships total! At this point a few residents in Querious know me, and definitely know I never have backup.

The groups I most liked fighting were probably Affirmative, Agony, the Brave corporation that lived in BX2- (Absolutely Massive Destruction), F-I-N-K, and Altruism/Triggerkittens. Many groups go to Querious to fight (or farm) Brave and Horde, and I had a lot of fun fights with them, too. Large public groups invariably have a mix of different personalities and play styles, which is partly what happens with open recruitment. I had a few occasions were I agreed to a 1v1 only to have a blob brought in, for instance, yet I also had many hours of fun fighting the large groups that live/lived in the region. Then there's also the usual share of tryhard groups in Querious (never not falcon alt, etc), but you'll find them in any region and they are not worth talking about.

On my quest to solo in every ship, I am slowly moving up to the bigger and more expensive ship classes. It's hard to roam in a BS/BC when people know who you are, and know you don't have backup. In the months before the summer update and the removal of off-grid links, I look forward to roaming deep null, into some areas of space where the population is smaller. That means less fights overall, but also less deaths to 20-ship blobs (well, sometimes--there are blobs in every region!).

It's crazy for me to think just a few years ago I was roaming in null for the first time after so many years doing solo in LS. Now, I've spent almost 2 years in null doing solo with only brief vacations. But, links are getting a massive nerf (for some play styles, i.e. those groups who do not have the skill to effectively use links on grid), and T3Ds (the svipul in particular) are also getting the shaft, and the true land of good fights that is low security space may once again be a great place to roam. Maybe.

In the next few posts I am going to highlight my favorite/best performing/luckiest ships during my time in Querious. Solo PVP for me is half luck, half dedication (maybe a bit of masochism in there, too), and most of my fits are taken from other (better) solo PVPers, so it will more so be focused on good runs I had in specific ships.

thanks for all the fun querious thunderdome and pan-fam