Hey guys,
Just started doing some FW PvP and I’m losing a bunch of ships and fast(like every engagement), so I was wondering how important my killboard is and if I should be worried about it being mostly red/snuggly. I’m not risk averse and I am taking most if not all fights(haven’t yet learned what I can/can’t beat). I just want to get better without worrying about my K/D ratio.
Not important at all. No one cares about “K/D” ratios in EVE Online. Anyone who does is not a human worth listening to ever.
It is a bit like asking: “how important is it to wear nice shoes?”
If you are trying to impress people then maybe you should wear nice shoes and maintain a green killboard. Most people don’t care about your shoes/KB, though.
KB’s used to matter, but not really anymore. Some players pad their KB’s by whoring on kills and being risk adverse, while other players might be much better pilots than their KB’s would suggest because they aren’t afraid of stepping out of their comfort zone and/or trying to punch above their weight.
Anyway, I still sometimes see corp ads that require PvP activity, but I haven’t seen anyone asking for a particular efficiency.
The killboard is as important or unimportant as you think it is.
Keep in mind that EVE Online is not a combat game, it is a sandbox game. If you want to focus on combat, then the killboard may be more important to you. Some PvP corporations may require that you have a certain number of kills or deaths per month/week to ensure that you’re active in PvP.
If you do not want to focus on combat or don’t care about your killboard, then it means nothing. There are many viable career paths or gameplay options in EVE that have nothing to do with the killboard at all.
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If you are in combat, it’s your trophy collection, and history. Something you can look back, to remember the good fights or the embarrassing losses.
Besides that it’s the number 1 intel tool for solo PvP. But a more green KB will not get you more fights. So my advice, don’t care too much about your own stats, but check KB of opponents before/after engaging while you are learning.
Is it important?
Yes and No
No: for a matter of game play, not at all. No matter what KB says it wont change the game.
Yes: it can matter slightly when you are trying to join a corp with specific recruitment atandards.
For instance, a PvP corp might look at it to see if you are actually active in PvP and how you fit your ships etc.
Personally when I recruit people I do glance at their KB. Not to see their K/D ratio, but to see if the gamestyle they say they have matches their ‘explosion history’.
And if weird things stand out, like awoxing kills or dumb losses like undocking an Industrial ship from Jita with 5 bil in cargo.
So I don’t care if you lose ships, as long as they are not dumb and stupid losses / shitfits.
I am surprised you got no correct answer yet…
Yes, it does matter, and a lot.
In eve combat one of the biggest problem is to get the fight itself. Bad killboard and underestimated ship will get you fight much faster.
Example:
A. you see in plex Maulus Navy Issue and pilot with very red killboard.
B you see Worm in plex and pilot with very green killboard.
You are in typical blaster fit Comet (or even Atron, but you are confident in what you are doing). Whom will you rather engage ?
While this might be very true. There are also moments where the time to look people up on their KB, is just not viable.
So yeah, if you can scout your enemy, then their KB can say a lot about them.
The Maulus? So that you can see an artist at work?
Or is it the Worm so that you can have a cheap ego boost and farm some isk?
I’m not sure - what is the correct answer?
Depends on the engagement profiles. The Worm is kitey fit, so you would not be able to blaster it down with your comet, just drones vs. drones but with the Worm being able to disengage at any time (that’s why the green KB 
). KB checks can only be part of the decision process. Of course if you see a brawling Worm on the KB, I would go all in.
There’s red killboards and red killboards, though.
If you are solo duelling several times and lose fw frigs, you impress a PvP fond recruiter much more than a rather green carebear who only fights when in fleet, or if you’ve just lost indus in Uedama.
So yes, your killboard IS importand, but not because of the color or the ratio, these are just numbers.
Carry on fighting and don’t care about the number of losses, but concentrate on the reasons why you’ve lost.
Nobody cares tbh. Any group will appreciate a guy trying
No recruiter and pretty new myself but if I where to guess activity is what matters more then anything else. If one want’s to join a corp which focuses on PvP an active but red KB would probably be seen as more positive then a not-so-active green KB. But that’s just my newb take on it.
Thanks for the heads up guy!