My EVE

Great ep as usual.

Regarding ASB's, I think you guys are pretty much spot on that the best way to balance them is probably to restrict them to 1 asb per ship.

Also something I'm interested to hear both your thoughts on is whether you get the feeling that the asb's have become so popular and so powerful, so fast, that the meta has already swung the other way and now most people expect asb's rather than a normal shield booster

Not that it really matters even if it has I guess, for so long as you can fit multiple asb's to a single ship there really is almost no benefit of a traditional shield booster :/

About having EWar support other than ECM in a fleet, Ive been toying with a Cormorant fit to use it as a Tracking Disruption platform that sits about 30 or 40 kms off the fight.. However I feel an Arbitrator would be More useful to the gang as a whole.. I guess I just want to find a viable/unexpected support ship other than the expected Arbitrator/Blackbird Crucifier/Griffin which doesnt cry insta primary me, and Cormorant certainly has the midslots for it... Maybe a Hawk/Hookbill/Caracal?

I know Damping was nerfed bad in the past (before I even started playing so not really any idea how strong it was), but how useless is a Celestis?? Has anyone tried it in small gang compositions as ewar support?

Actually 3xnavy 400s in a T2 medium injector is better under neuts than 1x800. There are similar rare cases to use the greater numbers of weaker charges per reload.

ASBs are OP. Maybe CCP will tone them down and also give armour something better than they've had until now (excluding the terrible RAH). Or maybe they just keep adding new unbalanced things so we forget about the last even-worse-than-before issues like Tier3s, ECM, Tengus/Machs/etc, etc.

And IIRC w.r.t. EP17 and lack of tier2 BCs packing a link each, you briefly touched on the point that ganglinks need SP, but IMHO it's really a lot of dedicated SP to get decent links, and thus usually involving a remap to Charisma, which isn't something very tempting for anyone to do to their main if they want to unlock more direct PvP ships & weapons. There's a lot more people able to fly BCs than ever planning to be able to run even a T1 ganglink, let alone the skills for mindlinks & command processors.
A gang of 5 newer players can quickly be effective in BCs with medium weapons while also skilling for T2 things they want to & improving their isk-making options much before leadership skills seem worthwhile. I'd assume much more 10+ man gangs are organised enough to pack such cheap link ships, but that gangs smaller than that are liable to just learn to try pilot their unbonused ships better than their equally unbonused enemies.
Once they're decent & older they might decide the mindlink is worth acquiring and risking, as it vastly increases what they're putting on the line in nullsec with today's mindlink prices. It's got to be doubling your loss costs with each pod vs just an insured BC gang getting wiped.

Remember newer players are likely to use their initial remaps to get core int/mem skills, and older players can fund an alt to train stuff like ganglinks. By which point the older ones are perhaps happy in T2 ships, or larger fleets with T3 links, or solo BCs that have no ability to benefit from links they can fit. Link modules might need an SP/attributes requirements change if you want T1 destroyers/smaller than BCs to fit them for newer players to specialise into. Not to say that highly planned young characters couldnt go straight to powerful AT-style gangs, but how would many noobs know so much about mechanics to make such informed choices so early in their game lives for it to be a common thing?

P.S. forum ate part of my post and it's too late for me to hunt for missing minor edits, apologies in advance :/

Still the best tread in eve-o forums by far

A few points about the Prom/Honour/uncertain fights discussion:
Things that can take on more, i.e. shiny BSs, can't easily catch what they can comfortably take on & overwhelm (cruiser/nano BC gang). As you increase dps or range or tank without loses from these other stats you go up ship sizes, and that loses you mobility and basic things like lock speed. So as much as a powerful ship needs to seek out larger numbers or tougher ships to maintain uncertainty in the outcome, they also lose the ability to take the most easy wins/ganks. IIRC the largest mechanical enforcement of this reasonable power-matching is tracking. Second would be that tackle doesn't increase in range/power with other stats for a solo ship, and only T3s and linked pirate BSs really buck this.

Honour is a 'prisoner dilemma' style problem.
Focusing more on the ECM issue than blobbing, I see it that with the assumption people want those uncertain good close fights, they would agree that ECM is overpowered. If everyone was without ECM in any form, almost all fights would probably be better (at least more fun and better for your fun/isk or time invested). As you say, ignoring the direct 1v1s which would then have less uncertaintly, at least 1 or many v many would have more player-action-dependant outcomes.
But as soon as someone chooses not to bring the ec-300s because of this, but others still have them, you only weaken your chances of better fights. When you're caught in a bad situation that is or isn't avoidable, you can't easily escape/win, while the other people can, and also probably make the average fight go their way as much as dps/other ewar drones would have, or at least cause too many annoying RNG-based results than desired.

As for the tiny gangs/roam corp ideal, I think people just need a 'matchmaking' service to find a wingmate or two. If each day you could easily find someone in the same TZ/availability as yourself, and wants to fly in the same ship class/a complimentary setup as you were after at that moment, you would probably find loads of people happy to mix it up with a constantly changing bunch of fleetmates. As soon as they have a ship/setup they feel worth taking the risk on, they'll be out there flying & dying until they need a change of pace to cover the fun loses, or want to try another ship/setup they've skilled for/feel suits the changing meta. Even switching to another setup is likely to happen due to someone else honing it first, having noticed success and all skilling for it to ensure they have it 90% cloned before they take it out once.

My thoughts of a static corp are that people fixate on specific setups that outperform the average, that they find reliable, and will focus on using them and converting others to the flock, and min-maxing the fits around their strengths or at least not widening what they engage with it, rather than seeking another setup with comparable overall cost and abilities but very different hull sizes or tech levels. E.g. a tiny corp/gang of 3 nano BCs or 3 armour HACs are more likely to have a 4th person available in the same TZ pick up the same ship to ensure they're consistently able to field their gang each night, rather than swap to 3 frigs and a BS, or 2 t2 frigs and 2 t1 cruisers, or 2 frigs, 1 T3, 1 logi.
A 10+ man corp based in the same game area and activity TZ is surely most likely to be together due to overlapping SP and ship experience and then ensure all are keeping up with a gradually rising standard for 'their' fleet than because they can each bring very varied options to the table and develop some round-robin/daisy-chaining of passing setups & knowledge.

If I could find a couple of previously-unknown-to-me people that were online when I could be, and some basic way to ensure they were similarly-minded & competent, I wouldn't mind taking it in turns to try each other's crafted setups, be that as the only lynchpin T3 or logi or t1 frig in a brawling or kiting gang. As long as there was some way to convey that '**** happens' or you all knew you were taking a big risk and that's why it looks like you performed badly, reputations would be able to be sustained so that you could hook up with another player or 2 the next day/week and still be as trusted to bring the full envisioned fit & fly your best to have the rarer fights with a variety of compositions.

A concrete implentation might be that people can upload gang fits & key required skills to a site, along with a TZ window, and others can draw slots to fill such gangs. You'd be able to assess if you thought the idea would work, even discuss with the creators before committing to buying & turning up, but then once all are willing to give it a go, you know what you'll be trying & that it wasn't missing something/someone key, and had a very wide selection of similar and different fleets to take a slot for instead.
The example that comes quickest to mind was the Daily Roams channel briefly run by Leeloo of Hydra. Upfront approved fits available online with enforcement prior to being fleeted, a minor upfront fee with deadline to coerce commitment to attendance, a reputation to preserve & develop.

Basically everything he said, most people in null are terrible with frigs. I go to low to learn and get blown up,I live in 0.0 to get kills.

As for the E-honor my general policy is dont be a jerk and dont fly something you dont want someone to use on you, never bait for a blob in a ship you fly solo with, and if you smack in local keep it light and for the most part friendly. Having a reputation for being a good dude can go a long way towards getting good fights. (Especially if that reputation includes 665 ships lost in under 2 years of playing) Tear Farming only makes people want your tears and this breeds a cycle which is why those people tend to think all of new eden is full jerks and falcons, when the reality is its full of decent people.

I loved the blob is subjective part, And have a pretty good example.

I was in what was undeniably a blob, armor Battleships BCs carriers on standby the works (not proud of it but cant deny it) we dropped on a gang of 5 Cains on a gate called in the carriers and everything (again not proud it just happens). The obligatory good fights and apologies were exchanged in local and then some bystander started calling foul saying it was disgusting what we had done (no argument there it was) and that we had no honor because we didnt fight small gang like him. Being a usually solo pilot who is 9 times out of ten on the receiving end of ten to one odds i asked him to show me an example. The Small gang kills that this random guy had were a bunch of lone battle cruisers mostly pve fit that he had killed with 5 other tech three cruisers and two falcons.

join xXpiZzAXx kil2

Good idea. Edited OP

read that for ammo choices!

http://fleeonsight.blogspot.de/2012/08/complete-guide-to-ammunition-choices.html