What Makes a Good Fight?

I think it is fair to say, I've been around a bit. Five years of playing Eve does not make me the most experienced player out there, but I have tried a lot that Eve has to offer. I've been a high-sec carebear, I've been a militia pilot, I've been a pirate. I've lived in high-sec, low-sec, NPC null-sec and sov holding null-sec.

PvP wise I've also done a lot. From my humble beginnings in small frigate gangs up to more recent times when I'm flying multiple-billion ISK ships and fits with capital ships, logistics, support and boosters in a fleet o'doom. But what is the most enjoyable out of all these fights. The 600 vs 600 battleship fights? The fights were there are more capitals on field than sub-caps? Or is it something else?

What got me thinking along these lines was my PvP on Friday night. Due to a few things, I didn't get out to the pub to see the England vs Sweden game. So I loaded up a player and had that on my 2nd screen. Thought I might as well have a bit of Eve whilst I'm watching the game so I jumped in an Assault Frigate and went to Kedama.

First fight of the night was a Jaguar. There was a medium faction war plex open and a short range d-scan showed said Jag inside. I warped in and he was 30km off. I burnt for him, he burnt for me and we ended up in a short range brawl.

http://kb.drunk-n-disorderly.com/index.php/kill_detail/653960/

Had a gf and after kill chat in local with the guy and stayed in the plex.

A short while later I got a Caldari Navy Hookbill on short range scan. So I burnt back to the warp in and he landed on top of me.

http://kb.drunk-n-disorderly.com/index.php/kill_detail/653970/

Poor guy didn't last long.

I went back to Nisuwa to drop the two sets of loot and returned to Kedama and back to the same plex. Not long after I returned I got a Ishkur on scan. I sat on the warp in and he warped in. Now this was a proper fight! My blasters made short work of his shields, as you would expect for a armour boat, and his drones were plinking away at my shields. The problem was he was neuting me heavily. Looking at the incoming DPS and the way his armour was dropping I knew I could win..... if I had the capacitor, and that was looking very doubtful.

He was low armour, I had 30% shield, but no cap and he was burning away. My DPS dropped off rapidly as he was able to get away from me so I swapped to long-range ammo and was having to be creative with my cap management. He burnt out of point range just as I was able to get enough cap back to have a single cycle of MWD. Regained point and got back in optimal range for the guns. Pop!

http://kb.drunk-n-disorderly.com/index.php/kill_detail/653968/

All that said and done, it was merely an Assault Frigate kill, a 44m ISK kill according to the killboard.

But it was a fantastic fight. It wasn't a control and click to lock, spam F1 to F8 and wait and see what happens. It needed a lot of work, in fact I had to really bloody work for that kill. And at the end of the fight? My hands were shaking and I had a real sense of achievement. I won that fight. It wasn't a great FC, wasn't fleet mates, logistics, eWar support. It was me. And for me personally, that's what makes a good fight. Not as part of a cog in a larger machine, but where success or failure is 100% in my hands.

Whilst the big and expensive battles are fun (see below screenshot for an example of one of my null-sec battles), nothing beats a really good one-on-one even if it is in cheap frigate hulls!