Managing to not die (much)

When you are space poor (and refuse to do actual work, like mining, exploration, running missions, etc), not dying is a big part of your strategy for stretching the ISK.

Despite that, I've taken a lot of fights. Some - ewar Condor, Navy Slicer, Hurricane, etc - have not gone my way, so I've used the speed of my fits to disengage without loss. Others would have been kills but for the warp stabs that seem to be depressingly common in faction warfare.

Much of this is a result of my self imposed targeting restrictions. For sec status reasons, I'm limiting myself to actual FW targets, at least until my sec status is comfortably positive. And the FW meta, like any meta, is heavily influenced by it's environment. In this case, the (com)plex rules.

For any given plex size, you either want to be flying the bare minimum (this would be the warp stabbed plex farmers) to keep your isk efficiency high, or you want the strongest ship that can actually enter the plex (everyone else). So T2 ships are relatively rare, faction ships are very, very common.

That's not to say that T1 ships can't be effective, but they usually need some kind of niche or mechanic that they are trying to exploit. This could be kiting Condors with loads of ewar, or scram kiting Tormentors and Kestrels that try to use damage projection and range control to fly within a very narrow range band that allows their applied dps to exceed that of technically stronger ships. Or Tristans, which are just OP.

And you also find fits that are direct counters to another fit, and are brought out specifically for that fight, rather than as a general roaming fit.

But I see far more Daredevils, Dramiels, Garmurs, Navy Slicers, Navy Mali, Republic Firetails, etc, than I do T1 frigates that aren't plex farmers. When I'm less space poor, I shall have to try some of these myself.

My one lossmail is actually from PvE. A Clone Trainer rat is worth about 20 million ISK, but they have great tracking, a web, and a very powerful active tank. To take one out in a frigate is a bit of a job, and this one went a little wrong when my ship bounced off an asteroid with coded dimensions much larger than what was visually represented screen - the infamous 'invisible asteroid'. This is one of the perils of fighting in belts, and the loss of transversal speed allowed the rat to destroy my frigate before I could recover.

I reshipped and got him the second time, though, so I at least covered my losses.

I also joined some FW fleets, which were led with more enthusiasm than skill. While my skills may be very rusty, I still remember how the Tuskers ran frigate fleets and these fleets were very... different. It's the first time that I've flown in a group that I felt could accurately be described as a 'blob'.

As you would expect, the main achievement of this fleet was getting most of the members killed repeatedly. My survival without loss was actually quite challenging. It was good fun, though. And more importantly, it's starting to integrate me into the FW community, where paranoia about 'spais' is rampant.