Player Features and Ideas Discussion

When I was a little ol' newb I started off as a Gallente pilot.

I had little to no experience to wtf I would be doing once I aged more, but I was still playing around with many different things.

I had quickly trained up to Gallente Battleships and man, did I suck with them, but I continued to press on not know what I was doing.

One day I decided to go out scanning with probes, which I knew pretty much nothing about.

Well, I managed to get 3 golems down to 100%.

Well, I had never seen a golem before so I warped in.

What I saw that day forever changed the way I played Eve.

I saw 3 Golems sitting in what I believe to have been When Worlds Collide.

All 3 were using cruise missiles (which I know now to not be quite effective) but at range in the starting room of Worlds Collide it was amazing.

Sitting there in my little frig underneath the massive ships, I couldn't help but be struck with Awe and amazement.


That moment would forever change my goals and outlook in Eve.

I soon began to train for a very very long time in both missiles and Caldari ships.

Over 8 million SP in missiles and plenty of SP in Caldari ships I was finally able to fly a pimped out Golem with t2 torps, t2 range rigs, and all the bells and whistles.

So, I spent a couple of months and 20 dollars on a Plex before I was finally able to buy and fit a golem.

One month later, I traded it and all the fittings for a tengu that I had just spent the last month training for.

I spent so so long working towards that golem and I ended up with nothing but disappointment.

Sure, the damage was amazing, and I could take down battleships in 3-5 volleys. Hell, I could take down frigs and cruisers in 1 volley as long as I cought them on the approach and didn't let them get into orbit.

Where it truly was just a terrible ship was in tank and sensors.

I've tanked better and had more locks in lvl 4 missions with a drake than I could have imagined with that Golem.


Now, I mention this because not only am I disapointed with Marauders as they are, but also, I'm afraid of what CCP is going to do to Marauders.

I love the thought of having a ship dedicated to pve.
That's its only design and goal. Sure, they can be used to high effect in pvp, but are also very easily countered, but the fact that we missioners have a ship dedicated to us is awesome.

Now, if only those ships didn't suck so bad.


Basically, I'm pleading with CCP not to take Marauders in a different direction.
If you want a pvp focused Marauder than either use a black ops, or design an entirely new Marauder specifically for that purpose.
Hell, the tier 3 hulls are in need of a t2 variant, they would be perfect for the job.


I've heard a lot of balancing ideas on Marauders, but so far the best I've heard is.

1) NPC ewar immunity
2) reduce sig radius
3) Exchange shield boost/armor rep bonuses for increased effectiveness towards resistance modules.
4) Increase salvager cycle time
5) 150% bonus towards tractor beam range.

What these do is

1) more effective against npcs but still retain their weakness in pvp
2) makes them more in line with faction bs's on how big a target they are
3) Makes them better capable of fitting buffer tanks which is more common based on fitting capabilities
4) makes them more competitive with the noctis on salvaging
5) gives more to 4 as well as with t2 tractor beams makes them capable of collecting wrecks within their engagement range


My ultimate goal here is not only to leave the existing Marauders as the kings of pve but also to make them functional in pve in general.

I'd rather see them drop the sensor strength weakness. That could make things interesting.

The Golem - The "Meh" of Marauders

Vargur is fine as is. Can't speak for the Kronos and Paladin.

Actually, one of the ways to improve the efficency of (all) marauders is to use Cap boosters in conjuction with your tank. this seems to work for both shield and armor setups.

I just EFTed a Golem with this setup and the tank seems fairly decent as well as its DPS.

Edit: Marauders have the advantage of MASSIVE cargo bays to hold all those cap boosters too

not to mention the large capacity of marauders isn't there to hold cap boosters.

It's there to hold loot.

This is like saying that the golem has 2 rig slots for cap and/or whatever else, yet people fail to realize we have no choice but to use range rigs if we wanna use torps.

I always thought Marauders are mainly battleships which are as good in dealing with smaller ships as dealing with other battleships. Just because of their bonis for target painters, webbers, tracking speed and explosion velocity, they are more effective when it goes against smaller ships then other battleships. I would also say they may be more effective then pirate BS.

I would have to agree with OP.

While Marauders have pretty good damage, they're not that effective due to their weakness to ecm, their large sig, and their difficulty in fitting.

They're the only ships that I've flown that require you to use ded space mods in order for them to be effective, and they can barely hold up when built in that manner.

There are still many missions that they struggle to complete even without ecm.

Smash the Supplier

Final room of When Worlds Collide.


These are due to the high damage output of these mission and the massive sig radius of the Marauders forcing them to basically take the full blunt of all the damage incoming.

It's even worse in the golem if you're using rage torps due to the increased sig radius.

In your opinion, what areas do marauders need buffs?

Personally,

I feel the dps output is decent, but where they lack is in tanking capability, applied dps, and weakness to ewar.

As the golem is the only one that I have flown, I feel it needs a buff to

1) Torpedo range - The golem requires more SP investment than any other Marauder due to this issue. You require t2 torps for javelins, missile bombardment and missile projection both have to be at 5, and you need the skills for t2 range rigs.

Even then, your range is rather limited being able to hit about 56km after acceleration time of torpedoes.

2) Tanking capability - While is does have a rather large tank on paper, it doesn't blend well in pve. They might be pretty tanky, but since their so large, and since the range of the golem puts npc within their optimal range on us, then we take a crap ton of damage. Perhaps swapping the shield boost bonus for a bonus to resistance modules may help this, or it may require a bonus to both.

3) Buff the target painter bonus. As it sits, torpedoes need a minimum of 2 target painters to be effective, but 3 in order to pull out the best effectiveness. I would like to see the target painter buff allow for 2 target painters to be optimal.

4) Perhaps an extra mid slot and some extra cap to allow for more varied fits.

5) npc ewar immunity - this is just a toss up idea for all marauders that would make them highly effective in pve, while still having draw backs such as size, but also they would retain their weakness in pvp if it's deemed they even need that weakness anymore with how much damage pirates bs's can put out.

6) Reduce salvager cycle time

7) Increase range of tractors.

6 and 7 are due to the fact that even if you're using a Marauder in missions, it's still faster and you can collect more loot when using them in conjunction with the noctis. So, more isk faster with a marauder noctis combo.

8) Make it prettier. lol


All said though, I have out shined the golem I had flown with a Tengu. The tengu I am flying has 705 dps, with the same capable tank in a smaller, faster package and at greater range with the need of only 1 target painter, and with t1 cap rigs, which I've learned I don't even need, but still use, AND I have a stronger sensor strength (35).

I got all that for less isk investment (using a pithum c-type medium shield booster) and a lot less SP and time investment.

Seriously, the golem was way less dependible in missions than the tengu by far.

Even if you were going to salvage, you'd actually get it done faster without using the salvage and tractor on the marauder, and instead coming back in a noctis due to the limited range of tractors and slow movement speed of the Marauder.

Now, as far as a more versatile ship, that's not what t2 ships are.

T2 ships are actually designed to be more specialized.

No ship should ever out perform a t2 ship at their specific focus, however, they underform in other areas where t1, faction, and pirate ships are more versatile and should be able to perform in most situations, but with less effectiveness in each individual task than a t2.

So, redesigning marauders to be more versatile won't happen because they're supposed to be focused.

As they sit not they're supposed to be focused on pve, but are outperformed by many other ships in game, some even smaller ships.

@ hellboundman

I agree with your observation. I said more versatile, as in more versatile than current marauder - they still would have to be specialized. But because it would be ship with PVP use too, I've thought it would be best if SP reimbursement is offered.

If marauders remain for PVE only, they must be able to compete with Noctis/Tengu, or Noctis/Machariel setups.