Shadow of Cerberus
Public => EVE World News => Thema gestartet von: Aura am Mai 18, 2013, 08:12:21 Vormittag
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In the navy
The navy battleships have a weird distinction for me in my play of EVE Online: at one time or another in my career, I have owned and flown every single one of them. That's not a claim that I can make for any other group of ships in the game.(1) They're not my favorite group of ships in the game -- that distinction goes to the battle cruisers, and T2 cruisers after them. But navy BSs are such ferocious ships, and relatively inexpensive for how good they are. That makes buying them an easy choice for me. So I was obviously delighted when I heard they were going to be rebalanced for Odyssey.
Amusingly enough, the best change to the navy BSs of all isn't even in CCP Rise's thread on the matter but instead is brought forth by CCP Ytterbium:
Ah yes, this makes me remember to tell you guys something that should make you happy - we're going to increase calibration on all Navy Ships from 350 to 400. While it makes sense for Tech2 hulls to have less rig sots due to the specialized nature of the ships, Navy hulls are supposed to be an improvement over Tech1, but is not always the case right now due to rig / calibration restrictions.
I cannot possibly express how happy that makes me. There are several ships that are going to benefit hugely from that, notably the Navy Raven and Dominix, both of which lose access to excellent fitting options thanks to their current 350 calibration. Kudos to that change!
As for the changes to the ships themselves? All eight of these ships are being fundamentally improved and with a couple of exceptions, I'm pleased with all of the changes. I catch flak sometimes when I classify ships as "losers" (sorry about that, Hyperion) in these re-balance posts but keep in mind when I buy a car, I'm not comparing the 2013 Honda Accord to the 2012 Honda Accord... I'm comparing it to its 2013 competition from other makes and models. And by that metric, all eight of these ships are winners.
Just some more than others. ;-) So I'm going to list them in the order that I'm looking forward to flying them.
#1: Scorpion Navy Issue. Good Heavens, this thing is a monster. It picks up an additional low slot (like the T1 Scorp) and even more base shields. That, combined with the cruise missile buff and the calibration buff, vaults this one right to the top of the navy BSs. PvPers will have their choice of a full T2 torp fit, plus a heavy neut, MWD and MJD, or whatever CML fit they want. Shield brawling battleship gang... it might actually become a thing! PvEers -- particularly incursion-runners -- have to be smiling ear-to-ear about this one between the large amount of extra damage, calibration, and CML speed. The SNI is almost too good.
#2: Typhoon Fleet Issue. In a way, this is a bit of a troll, the Typhoon Fleet Issue slipping right into the Tempest's old role as a fast, nasty battleship with high DPS and two utility high slots. Know what? Don't care. Like the T1 Mega, we're going to be seeing a dozen fantastic TFI fits each better than the last, some shield, some armor, all awesome. In particular, the Tempest never had that 125m3 drone bay.
#3: Raven Navy Issue. That stuff I said about the SNI? It also applies to the CNR. PvPers will be using the extra mid to fit a MJD, and their buffed cruise missiles will be outrunning and spiking interceptors, particularly with Precision loads. That's scary stuff. Torp CNRs are also going to be fun as hell. And you L4 Caldari missioners that aren't in this boat starting with Odyssey will be doing it incredibly wrong. "This ship is going to be an animal," Rise says. Yup.
#4: Armageddon Navy Issue. With the T1 Geddon getting bounced around, the "Neddon" vaults for me into the position of the preeminent brawling battleship. Biggest changes are the increase in sensor strength (Neddons have always been vulnerable to jamming out their already huge DPS) and base armor. The latter should make a 200k EHP Neddon quite achievable... which will still be doing horrific DPS at close range. The upsized drone bay is quite nice (though I would have been happer with 250m3). I've had an occasional running argument with alliance-mate Ben Booley about the Neddon versus the Mega Navy Issue. I reluctantly agreed that the Mega was slightly superior, mostly because the thinner Mega could cut through the Neddon armor before it went down. The balance will be tipping to the Neddon's favor for Odyssey.
#5: Apocalypse Navy Issue. I'm conflicted about this one. Like its T1 counter-part, I'm not a big fan of the changes in cap and I think it renders this one too close to the Abaddon in capabilities, performance, and cost. The buffs to mass and signature, while nice, are not going to off-set the usability issues. The tracking bonus worries me. Every Amarr BS these days fits double Tracking Computers so that opens up the very real possibility that Napocs will be blapping inties right off BS fleets. The changes particularly hurt mid-range L4 mission-runners who rely on the Napoc's cap stability in all regimens. If they could fit a full rack of Tachyons that would be one thing, but unless my math is wrong, they can't without the same fitting mod they need today. Again, I'm conflicted about this one. It's too good in some ways, too weird in others. I can see what the intent was here, but it needs more tweaking, IMO.
#6: Dominix Navy Issue. This one falls firmly in the middle. I'm a huge fan of the throwback nature of the beast (it has this in common with the Neddon). The buff to power grid is quite nice, which are going to make Neutron DNIs quite achieveable. But the biggest buff is to calibration, which is going to make fitting that T2 Sentry Damage Augmentor rig possible. Alternately, for PvE applications, double CCC/Sentry Damage Augmentor rig setups will also be possible, which is going to free up a mid slot for any number of possible uses.
#7: Tempest Fleet Issue. Like the Tempest, the TFI was slightly over-powered relative to the others so it doesn't surprise me to see it's the least changed. The slight tweaks to fitting will be welcomed by newer players who are using this ship. I wonder who those might be?
#8: Megathron Navy Issue. While I love love love the mass decrease, I don't understand the decrease in base armor, and I'm quite sad about it not receiving the 5th mid slot that its T1 counterpart will be enjoying. The ROF bonus will make it an even more withering attack platform and as such it's a distinct improvement over the current model. But most improved compared to the other seven it is definitely not. In the unlikely event it gets that 5th mid slot, jump this one up to #3 or #4 but someone has to be on the bottom and right now this one's it.
EDIT (17/May/2013): Fifth mid-slot also appears to be out for the T1 Mega. Boo.
So, that's where I fall with the navy battleships. Where am I wrong about this list? What did I get right?
(1) T2 frigates comes closest. I've flown every T2 frig in the game except the Helios. T1 BCs comes second closest. I've flown all of them except the Myrmidon.
Source: In the navy (http://jestertrek.blogspot.com/2013/05/in-navy.html)