My
favorite class of ships in game, I may have mentioned a few times in the past
is cruisers. Cruisers contain a balance of DPS, speed and slots for tank or
Ewar, Also relatively cheep. Retribution has breathed new life into that class,
but there is one ship class I have always wanted to love that I feel is getting
more and more boxed in, Destroyers. The out lining problem with destroyers, is
that CCP tells you right out they are the ultimate frig killer, which can be
damn true, but its like CCP is unconsciously driven to keep them just that.
Destroyers in my opinion are the pour mans way of dealing with AFs, who’s extra
tank while maintaining agility makes them even better frig killers and they can
take on most above class ships as well. Destroyers are by far now the slowest
pvp ship class besides battle ships and armor BCs. Cruisers now outpace them,
with a little effort, frigs far outpace them, and AFs and BCs can reach close
enough speeds that a dessy is likely not to escape. One additional problem is
that everyone sees a destroyer, and usually try’s to avoid them with their
frigates for dear life, because they know without thinking that you are there
to kill them above all others. At least cruisers or AFs could be looking for
any ship class, but the destroyers game plan is written all over their face.
Now
with CCP Fozzies mission of teiracide, all ship classes are being broken down
into specific "roles", but dessys roles are still only anti frigate
and gank boat. We even just got handed a new set of four destroyers, but
instead of making them fit another role, they made them fill the same role as
the old ones, just using different weapon systems. In my opinion while I think
the new dessys are fun, is kinda lame. That also brings us to T2 destroyers,
CCP may claim they haven't got around to rebalancing the T2 versions yet, but I’m
not 100% certain they will, since they seam to be shoehorned into being suicidal
0.0 SC bubblers and usually die in their own bubble. Not to mention costing a whopping
50 mil for about a Merlins EHP, and CCP seam ok with that role. Over all while
dessys can shoot at bigger ships and win, and they do have great dps for a
frigate sized ship, they are overall under used and lack vision.
A
few ways I would try to liven up the destroyer class would be to first introduce
roles, make the old Dessys faster with a little less DPs, and make the new ones
tankyer with a bonus to some form of Ewar. Give the Algos a bonus to Ewar effectiveness
of drones, the Talwar a bonus to web range, so it goes out to about 15kms, the
Dragoon newt range out to about 15kms, and the Corax a big bonus to lock time
or something. This will make the two roles a little more unique, but not really
to far from the direction they where leaning anyway. Next Make the T2
interdictors have FULL T2 resists that their cruiser HAC versions have, one additional
low or mid slot, and make their base stats more like that of the current
destroyers. Next make a new Class of T2 Dessys based off the new destroyer
models that can fit a single Warfair link modual, with a decent tank, Keeping
their Ewar bonus, but reducing their damage output. This will Give frig gangs a
link ship or two to take out on frig roams, without having to drag along a T3
cloaky cruiser. I think frig, and Dessy gangs deserve their own dedicated fleet
command ship, so they can stay mobile and will also be able to survive on grid
once CCP Fozzie fixes off grid boosting. Finally I wouldn’t mind a 3rd T1 dessy
class similar to Tr3 Battle cruisrs, A dessy class able to fit 2 Medium guns,
with low sig, low ehps, and 400% bonus to their weapon system damage, but a
reduction in rate of fire, which should still make them mighty fine gank boats,
but maybe not too OP. I’m not exactly sure what this class would be needed for,
but just imagining a mini dreadnought makes me smile. Make Destroyers good at killign frigs, but dont make it their full tiem job.
