Ships & Modules

Hi.
Recently I received a Harbinger, my first battlecruiser. I am mostly going to do PVE with it, but I am curious as to how good this ship fares in (solo) PVP compared to the other factions' tier 1 and tier 2 battlecruisers. What are the Harbinger's advantages and disadvantages compared to other battlecruisers? Is the Prophecy good as well?

Thanks in advance.

The Prophecy have always been a clumsy, high-defensive yet low-offensive ship mainly used for auxillary roles - such as bait. It has never really been a mainline ship as far back as i can remember.

The Harbinger is much better allround but have been suffering a little bit lately because what it does have fallen out of trend. One of the appealing things about the Harby in the past was it's ability to adapt to different gangs and be effective in many different setups.

It's demise in popularity is multifold as well, in part the buffs to Projectiles have both made them very popular allround and, in part, the changes to falloff on tracking modules have made them overstep Laser niche of midrange projection. More ships have appeared with popularity in the mid- to longrange distances making lighter kiting gangs, where Harbingers once were one of the most popular BC used as fire support, less popular overall. On a more sluggish setup the Harbinger also meet issues with being far more volatile than Minmatar options, as the game has been driven over more into control in that area of the game, while Projectiles are close enough to Lasers to appeal in ease of application. Notably, that was another appeal Lasers used to have with it's quick reloads - while Projectile now have it with a combination of both selectable damage type and application type (all damages at all groups, beyond traditional racial ammo niches).

In short:
- Alpha profiling over precision DPS as scale grow (and overall profiling of larger gangs).
- Barrage stepping into Scorch distance, with powerful optional ammo.
- Overall decline of "Nano" and "semi-Snipers" (where Amarr Cruiser and BC had appeal).
- Overall trending of Sniping, BS-blap and "tank-Snipe" (where Amarr BS still have alot of appeal).
- With less snap at smaller scale the cap- and utility issues plus smaller buffers begin to lose ground.

Overall the Harbinger is still a good ship. They can still play. Capable as a nano-midrange kiter in shield with Pulse, as a support-sniper with Beams or as a midrange brawler- or brawling support in an armor tank with Pulse. It just doesn't excel in the environment that is currently trending, and have stood alot to lose with recent changes and continued trends.

Amarr have always been a bit more about larger ships, but right now the race clearly have better appeal in BS and Capitals, where they still arguable are the best allround. Somewhat amusingly, what the Baddon, Oracle and Apoc are capable of is part of the reason why Harbingers are less popular. I don't necessarily see the ship or the weapon system needing a buff though. It's more a question of finding a way to make smaller scale and mobile midrange more appealing in the environment again. Even smaller gameplay have seen some recent attention and popularity (blasters, active armor, asb etc.), but at the moment the trends kind of skip over the area where the Harbinger sit and leave nothing inbetween.

Winmatar battlecruisers are superior and way more versatile.

Sorry but its a fact.

Harby is goon. Has the expected drawbacks of laser boats.

The Proph is good as bait, though since it is expected to be either a bait or a noob, your mileage may vary.

this. pretty much anything you would want to do in a BC, a cane will do better than a harbi

The biggest issue would be damage selection, no?

Seeing how it is pretty much non-existent on the Harbinger.

The Harbinger actually have a pretty decent damage selection (when you account for omni-tanks and resistance holes).

The biggest issue is the looming death of roaming PvP (and corporation sized multi-region content).

The most severe actual change is the introduction of Tier 3 BC that entirely poop over all other BC configurations (nano, armor, 70km sniping).

The whole Minmatar thing is just adding insult to injury within the class - but the class as a whole is facing much severe outside pressure and the Hurricane is equally affected by that and relegated to peripheral roles.

The rest is just trend related to any of those three things.

The Harby, like most Amarr ships, does very well vs. shield tanked boats. Seeing as your average Caldari ship has beefy shields and paper underneath, a Harby can peel through those shields pretty well. Once you're through those, it's pretty much already over.

For solo work, harbinger is decent but not the best. Has dps but it don't have much range compared to a hurricane or drake. That be said all depends on what you are against. If cane gets too close and doesn't have neuts, cya! I usually go heavy pulse shield fit or FMP /armor tank. If you active tank put a cap booster on it just incase you get neuted.

Don't use the Prophecy in solo PVP; I've been blueballed many times simply because someone thinks I'm going to drop a waiting fleet on their head.
My personal favourite use for a Proph is to slap blasters on them(no damage bonus, so may as well trade in for something that does pain) and put a brick on the accelerator. People never expect a blaster-fit Prophecy... >:D