Blog Banter 51: The Shakes

EVE Online can be a game of heart-pounding, palm-sweating, adrenaline-fuelled ecstasy or agony. Sometimes over the years those reactions dim and what was once a panic inducing situation becomes commonplace routine. For some, the shakes never go away.

From Druur Monakh (Twitter: @DruurMonakh) we get the topic of this banter: what was your most nail-biting experience in EVE Online so far? It could be PvP in a 1v1 or 1000v1000, your first fight or your latest one, a scam so close to being uncovered too soon, a trap almost sprung on an unsuspecting victim or the roles reversed and you desperately try to escape.

Coming in a little late with this one. After nearly 3 years of combat, the shakes don't come so often anymore. Back when I was a bright eyed newbie flying Rifters I managed to kill a Harpy during a wardec and died to his fleetmates moments after. I came away from this fight buzzing with excitement. But like any "high" the body builds up a tolerance and the effects diminish. Frigate 1v1's no longer deliver that massive kick. So I upped the dose (Huh? Fucking drug addict!). Which means flying larger, more expensive hulls against multiple opponents (this has met with mixed results lol).

Sooo, since I had trouble coming up with a single fight I decided to share 3 experiences that happened over the last 5 months.

That is a 1.3 bil ISK 100MN HAM Tengu (no damage control) in 30% armor after a fight with a small gang. Bloody arty Cynabal was putting massive holes in me. I had to get up and walk around my room until the shakes/almost breaking down and crying subsided.

Next up: finishing up the final stage of an Angel escalation in Geminate in a pvp Ishtar. The site is probed out and a Loki warps in. I think: "Single Loki, heh I can take this easily". Single Loki turns out to be part of an 8 man gang with logisitics + recons. I barely manage to escape as they all land. After bouncing safes, I warp back to the site, kill the structure and scoop 800 mil of deadspace mods. The gangs Sabre lands 15KM away as I am warping out. They doggedly give chase and after nearly getting caught jumping a gate, I decide to safe up, wait out the aggression timer and log out. Shiny loot in the hold REALLY adds to the experience.

Fight starts at 41:30 in. Blogger wouldn't let me start the video at that point for some stupid reason. Fight is me flying a RLML Caracal vs a Harb and Falcon. Through a mixture of ok piloting and dumb luck I manage to kill the Falcon. I nearly killed the Harb, but decided to brawl him and promptly died lol. Regardless of the outcome it was a bloody fun fight that had me smiling for days after :)