Monday, December 10, 2012

Destroyers - The Shoe Horned Ship CLass



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.



Friday, December 7, 2012

EvE Retribution - A stealth Pirate buff?



 Eve retribution has been released, and with very few bugs and or extended down times, I am dully impressed I have to say, eve retribution is shaping up to be one of my favorite expansions yet. "But Beck there are very few new features, just a bunch of rehashing." If that’s what your thinking you fail to see the diamond in the ruff. Here is the list of changes that has positively affected my life as a pirate with Eve retribution, and likely allot of pvpers besides pirates.

1: Gate guns no longer shoot drones! - This means that no longer will drone boats be gathering dust for pirates whom wish to take gate guns. Previously gate guns would all but insta pop your drones leaving drone boats out over half their dps.

2: Gate and station guns are no longer persistent - This means if you take gate guns then warp off and come back to a gate they will no longer hoot at you as long as you don’t commit a crime again. Previously frigates whom GCCed had to stay docked or avoid gates in fear of being insta poped, and even cruisers had a hell of a time. No longer, go kill someone, then continue your roam as soon as your ready!

3: GCC is no longer as it was, if you commit a crime, you just become a suspect which means people can shoot you, (for pirates not much will change there) which means you can go suspect on a high sec gate, de agro and jump trough and no more concordadoken!

4: The tracking camera is by far the most awesome UI feature ever! No more fighting the camera to Dsca, watch where a target warps, or to keep a target in your sights, click on them on the overview and watch as you keep perfect track of their every move!

5: A second line of targets! Ever been an RR/dps domi? r shoot a friendly you where supposed to rep by mistake? Well add friends to the second target lien up and almost never have that problem again! Logis rejoice

6: All the T1 cruiser and frig buffs across the board will make pvping in smaller ships not only more fun, but more affordable while still packing a punch! Some of my new cruisers reach BC dps easy.

7: The targeting icons and item tips are way easier to read and helpful, getting info faster and when the target icons flash brighter red for more damage helps you register threats better.

8: Bounty’s finally make sense and if you get a big enough one on your target can make killing them an even better payoff. Also can be set by corp or alliance heads on local enemy’s to encourage the younger members to go after them

Some negative things

1: The limited engagement timers are only 5 min, which is much shorter than the previous 15 min personally agro timers.

2: Gate guns not shooting your drones means they are shooting your ships more, you used to be able to set out drones to kinda let the gate guns chew trough them so you could tank a bit but no longer, but no more.

3: The camera tracking can bug out some times and make it harder rather than easier to track a target lol

4: That Damn safety button! I hate turning it off every time log in! Hate it!

5: Podding people isn’t worth going old GCC, so we are podding way less.

6: The removable of 1-2/10 DeD plexs has kind of killed allot of the activity in the systems that used to hold them, which is seriously sad.

Over all almost everything in the expansion is a net positive to pirates, and it wasn’t even meant for us.