Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I fly drakes a lot. When i first heard about the nerf i was sad.
Not anymore. Why?

1) One of the hugely cited bonuses to missiles is selectable damage types. Before, the drake really couldn't do that (kinetic or LOLDPS). Now it can. A lot of people parallel the drake to the cane. Shield canes are now fuuuuuuucked. EMP anyone?

2) If fit properly, HAMS used to do scant more dps for the nearly 1/4 range of HML's. Now that the drake will have a velocity bonus, HAMs will become viable.

3) Caldari missile boats will now have a bit more variety. Nighthawk becomes useful, as before, it was essentially just a drake with a "tiny" bit more dps. Okay, the cerb's speed still needs to be buffed a little.

Well I have (arguably overoptimistic) faith in CCP to take their whines for what they are: the river of tears from utterly clueless Drake pilots who don't know how to do more than lock and press F1, but there's always a chance.

But yeah, people like Joe make it feel a lot like said wall is also covered in spikes and rabid Honey Badgers.
I mean really, do these people know anything about battlecruisers? I'm inclined to believe not judging by the amount of downright wrong information given in this waste of forum space.

Oh that and his downright funny EFT warrioring. "WAHHH I don't want my missileboat changed! Even though I barely even know how missiles actually work! Waaahhhhhh Drake is fine because I have a gimmicky Hurricane that gets a bigger number under "DPS""

God I hate people sometimes.

Alright as no one wants to really sit down and mention the real issue here, I will.

Projectile Weaponry is OVER-POWERED, this is why all Minmatar ships appear to be far better than their counterparts in PvP
Hell I have done an experiment with one of my corp mates, he is purely Minmatar skilled; where-as I'm purely Caldari skilled in terms of weaponry.

We both fit up a Harpy (yes the T2 Hybrid Buffed Assault Frigate)... he used AC 150mm while I use a more traditional Railgun 150mm and Neutron Blaster fits; in both cases we had nearly identical Speed and Tank ... Yet he was able to just annihilate my tank without me having any ability to dictate range, to add insult to injury he was more capable of neutralising all of my cap making my weapons useless while doing the same to him did nothing to prevent his guns from returning fire.

To me THIS is the biggest damn issue we have when it comes to PvP, that frankly Hybrids and even Lasers are unable to compare in terms of ACTUAL Damage you can put down on someone. Missiles are even worse for this, especially the larger you go... where you have to have so much e-war to compensate you have just lost all of your tank.

Seriously sit down and look at each ship in EFT or EVE HQ without turrets/launchers and drones installed.
Their balances come from your choice between Damage, E-War, Defences or Speed. They are actually incredibly balanced, sure the Hurricane won't be able to tank like the other 3 but it will always be faster, that is the Minmatar defence.

The problems appear when you start fitting weaponry, this is where you see the real inbalance.
Projectiles often will be the best choice on ANY ship... even with the Hybrid buff, Railguns are still for the most part pointless.

Sure they do a bit more DPS now, but they still have almost no damn Alpha. This is the same story with Missiles and Lasers...
Artillery has ridiculous Alpha and Autocannons have the best DPS with the added bonus of not requiring any cap. This frankly makes any ship fitted with them far more dangerous.

Right now the Drake is the only REASONABLE answer to the Hurricane in the game, simply because you have the range to put down some form of damage while trying to out tank the ****** as he kites you.

I'm not against the Drake loosing the resist bonus, nor am I against loosing the 5% Kinectic Damage; but having it replaced with a RoF Bonus is a bloody joke. More so when you keep in mind that 25% RoF vs 25% Kinectic Damage is actually a DROP in Damage output.

370 DPS (+25% RoF) = 405 DPS
370 DPS (+25% Dam) = 460 DPS

So if you keep in mind that the ships would still be one of the slowest Battlecruisers... with a reduction to 66% of it's current defensive capabilities, that actually brings it in-line with a heavily tanked Naga on a Standard Fit.

Honestly what this will do is Nerf it in to Oblivion... and remove one more Caldari Ship capable of any form of Warfare outside of the large 100+ man gangs.

Sure most alliances (which is what the CSM is made up of ffs) are like "What's the big deal?" but the MAJORITY of EVE live their lives in High-Sec and Low-Sec, where combat generally is <20 man-gangs and actually often a Solo affair. If I wanted more DPS and Speed at the expense of Defenses I fly a Ferox; which yes they are more entertaining to fly... but I also know they can't really stand toe-to-toe with a Hurricane.

You know what I'd like to see, the top 10 ships list for Low-Sec... this to me is the area that shows a better picture of how ships are balanced. As we have to be more damn creative and fly much smarter than those who live in High-Sec praying on Rookie Corps or Null-Sec where you're roaming with 100+ of your best friends.

I guarentee that the Legion, Loki and Hurricane would be top of that list; followed by the Thrasher.

To me the Drake is fine the way it is, and the Ferox is a very good alternative.
When people use the whole "It's all about the skill of the pilot!" Bullshit, yet these are the same guys who run in these so-called 'Small' 150-man gang roams around Low-Sec... you wouldn't know the need for skill while flying if it came up and smacked you in the damn face.

Try fighting the Solo fights or the <10 pilot gangs around low-sec without resorting to your damn T3 RR gangs, see how long you last. Pandemic Legion tried a week ago against the Gallente Militia, got their asses handed to them so hot-droped a bunch of Titans.

LTF, then you'll be in a damn position to tell us the ships we regularly fly are over-powered or not!