The problem with frigates in solo PvP

Don't get me wrong, I love my frigates.

They're cheap, fast, fun to fly, and can have an important role in any small gang you care to mention. Fights versus other frigates are short and brutal, requiring quick reflexes and fast decision making to pull through alive. Fights against anything bigger than a destroyer are tests of skill, and demand an in-depth of knowledge of your own ship's capabilities, and the capabilities of the enemy ship. You might not be able to kill it on your own, but my god can you hold it down long enough for your corpmates to turn up and fill the other guy full of holes.

And that right there, is the problem. While pretty much any frigate has some sort of chance against another of it's class, and some truly stellar frigates can even down cruisers if they're flown well (Rifter cough), you have no real options in a fight "above your weight" besides getting under the other guy's guns, blowing up all his drones and then plinking away at his tank. I'm not saying frigates should be able to attack cruisers with impunity, it's just something that's been getting on my nerves recently while solo roaming, my inability to attack anything bigger than another frigate that's fitted and piloted even moderately well. And as for engaging on gates and stations? Yeah, not unless you like sitting next to your own wreck within about ten seconds flat.

Also he looked like bait for a gang

For example, last night I spent about half an hour getting chased around by a Rupture in Fensi while flying my trusty Vengeance. The pilot was only a few months older than me, and if I had been in a cruiser I would have happily engaged. I've fought Ruptures before. But in my little Assault Frigate? I had no chance.
I've fought against Ruptures on Sisi while flying my Vengeance, and it always ended badly. Rupture pilots usually fit a medium and a small neut in the spare high slots, and while my new fit can handle one small neut with some careful timing on my part (Thanks to Korvus for that), there's no way I could hold up to a medium as well. Without cap, my rep and afterburner die. With no tank and no speed to avoid the majority of his weapon fire, I get torn to shreds by autocannons and drones faster than you can say "I need a new ship".

And obviously that's frustrating. I'd like to be able punch above my weight class a little, purely for the fun of it, and to test my own skill, but no frigate I've found so far has been able to do that for me. Admittedly my general skills are still lower than I'd like, and I haven't really flown any other Tech II frigates besides the Amarr ships, but I still have the feeling that I'm always going to be outclassed while flying a frigate against anything bigger. So to this end, I'm thinking of modifying my year plan slightly. Who needs EWAR Frigates anyway...?

While I still have high hopes that the Ishkur and the Wolf will blow me away (AKA the Mini-Carrier and the SUPAH RIFTA), I've decided that the ability to fit and fly cruisers to a decent standard will open up a wealth of new targets roaming the spacelanes for me. Most likely I would start with Minmatar/Gallente ships because they have some truly excellent Tech I cruisers kicking around (e.g Thorax, Vexor, Rupture) and then move to Tech II options, like Heavy Assault Cruisers and Recons. I'm still planning to fly most of the Tech II frigates to an excellent standard, I've just decided to cut out some of the non-PvP skills (like scanning) to make room for medium guns and suchlike.

As of right now, my new long term goal is to fly the Amarrian Sacrilege by some time next year, purely based on the fact it looks like a bigger, badder Vengeance. And that can only be a good thing right?

It's like a Maller had babies with a Drake! Plus it looks sexy

Anyway, besides my moaning about frigates, I'm now allowed back into Amarr, and have given myself some standings buffer to PvP with. I've also fitted up four Autocannon Merlins (two with utterly idiotic fits that I just want to try out to see how far you can push it) and two Vengeances; one dual-rep, and one stupidly expensive faction fit one (AKA Project K). Now I have my faction Vengeance, I'm actually a little afraid to fly it. Not because I can't replace it (Because I've got to the point where I just seem to have ISK no matter what) but because I don't really want to shit all over my corp's ISK efficiency on our killboard when I lose it, no matter how maimed it is right now anyway (as side effect of training new players to PvP). And also I was threatened death from our PvP director if I lost it... o.O

But anyway, I'm going to go lose these Merlins in some utterly idiotic way, and hopefully work up the guts to fly Project K into live combat. Next post will either be "over-the-moon happy" or "crap-I-just-ruined-my-ISK-efficiency-for-the-next-year".

Fly safe!