EVE General Discussion

If you could ask CCP one thing to think about when they look at revamping T2 cruisers what would it be and why?

For me it would be fix recons so that they can be Omni tanked better (Armor or Shield). Specifically on the armor side of things. The Rapier and Arazu do a very poor job right now at armor tanking that is why Armor fleets use Loki’s and Proteuses over them. Which I think sucks that I have to jump over T2 to T3 just to get a hull that can proprerly support armor fleets.

The answer lies in specialisation. The T2 cruiser line-up should be really, really good at their intended role but poor if you try to create a generalised setup.

Some quick ideas off the top of my head....

HACS - Assault vessels, should be masters of hit-and-run? So perhaps some more agility and speed would work. There's even the possibility of a prop mod bonus like the AF's got - dunno. There are also some specific cases where the fitting requirements are very tight, Ishtar comes to mind. Perhaps some of the slots could be looked at to remove a few utility slots in place of something else.

RECON - Again should probably be more slippery with higher agility. Perhaps more capacitor as that seems to be an issue and I think is an out-dated limitation. Gallente Recons it might be nice to see a better damp bonus. I actually don't think Force Recon need a tank change if they get the right boosts to agility and cap. Combat recon tanks could do with looking at a little, for example the Lachesis has only 3 low slots, meaning fitting for armor logi support is tough. I think some Combat recons could lose a high slot in place of another mid/low.

LOGI - Probably less of an issue because there is not really a T3 version of it. However, the T1 revamp may have pushed T2 logi to the side a little, I have not had the experience since the Retri patch to see if this is true or not.

You're still able to fit an 80K+ EHP shield Lachesis with fleet bonus (without implants or boosters) and point at over 100km for 1/3rd of your Proteus price, but at the cost of one of it's main roles (Damp).
Lachesis is one of these ships you look at and you ask yourself why it's designed to do whatever when every single mechanic/mod slots layout and ship stats make it clearly undesirable or impossible to fill it's role.

I get it now, it's a smart player ship! -tsk tsk tsk, I really need to improve my opinion...

I would say that the t2 cruiser rebalance depends vastly on the BC rebalance. Recons are fine. I hate logi because they are so boring to fight but they are fine. People prefer BCs to HACs because a BC can do most if not all of the HAC role for a fraction of the price.

You are referring to HACs specifically, right?
Because there is no T3 that can outperform a logistics ship at remote repair, or a recon ship at ewar. Not to mention there's no T3 setup that allows you to perform as a heavy interdictor.
Even if you're referring to HACs, this isn't universally true. The Vagabond, Muninn, Zealot, Deimos, and Ishtar all have roles distinct from their counterpart T3s and are effective in their own right. In many cases they're sometimes better to use because they're cheaper.

I'm not saying HACs don't need to be rebalanced, after all every ship in this game needs to be rebalanced which they are. I'm merely saying that HACs aren't as obsoleted by T3s as you seem to think they are.

That would be like saying the Hawk is obsolete because the Harpy is so much better.

I wasn't expecting some sort of Amarrian Inquisition!

Though to be honest, your complaint about the force recons does not make sense. They are not supposed to tank, they are ewar support. If you want a ship that can tank, you want a HAC. Nobody is complaining that the Falcon is a poor shield tanker, even though it cannot fit much of a tank and fill its primary role as an ewar ship.