Ships & Modules

Hey everyone,

I returned to EVE two days ago after a year hiatus (IRL stuff happened, etc.). I've always been an FW pilot and recently joined a settled FW corp, but I have difficulties finding my bearings in the game again. Mostly because I left shortly before the entire FW overhaul, but also because I absolutely do not understand the entire ship balancing that happened. This is what where I'd like your help if possible.

Point in case, I jumped into a plex yesterday while flying a Blaster Taranis (DPS fit with only a Damage Control for incoming DPS management). I see a Pie on D-Scan in an Atron. Sure enough, he enters, and I decide to take the fight. It all goes rather well when suddenly I see his Armor shoot up again. "Is he armor tanking? What?" It all pretty much went downhill from there. I could not outdamage him and lost. Good fight, the guy obviously knew what he was doing, and I don't think my fit really allowed for any different scenarios there. But I'm left wondering if I'm doing things wrong (fittings etc.).

I considered refitting the Taranis with a Small Ancillary Repper, but that would significantly lower my DPS output, and I'm being told that's a really bad idea in the current Frig hull meta. So, for my first question, should I stick to damage (aka suicidal) damage fits or do you have any other Ranis fits I should try? Is the Taranis even a still a good ship? I hear pretty mixed things on that.

Secondly, a more broad question. I see a lot of people flying T1 Frigates in FW nowadays. Prior to 2012 I often saw Faction Frigates, but not really Vanilla T1. Yet now this is what everyone does. I understand this is because of the balance changes; are T1 Vanilla Frigates rebalanced to be more on par with Faction/T2 nowadays? And if so, any suggestions as to what I should fly? I'm a Gallente pilot, and I hear pretty good things about Atrons nowadays, but can you actually take solo fights with that ship (obviously the pie did but then again he was obviously more experienced than me)?

Lastly, the Algos looks like a really interesting Destroyer and much more versatile than the Catalyst. Any recommended fittings and tactics for those?

I would greatly appreciate any help I can get. Thanks in advance!

The situation regarding T1 vs T2 balance is what it is currently because T2 ships are yet to be rebalanced. You are not the first Ranis pilot dying to an Atron, don't be hard on yourself for that :) Ranis is still a good ship, it's just that many ships are better than they were before. This has made PVP much more accessible than before.

I have no experience flying the Navitas (logi frigate now!), but all the other Gallente small ships are nothing short of amazing. Spend some quality time with EFT, examine the ship bonuses, make your own fits and then go out and try them- I find this area of game immensely rewarding and interesting, giving me higher value for sub money than simply mimicking known tactics and fits.

CCP did an amazing job with frig and cruiser rebalancing, resulting in tons of practically new and viable ships. Their meta is still relatively fresh, meaning that people still come up with new ways to fly them. Several proven ways to fly most of the frigs and dessies exist.

Figure out their strengths from ship bonuses, layouts and fitting restrictions and work from there, and have fun finding your pwnage!

The 2012 balance changes really changed up FW.

Frigates

Rifter is mostly unchanged, but is no longer king.
Tristan now fields a 25m drone bandwidth, so expect 5 light drones!
Slasher, Atron, Executioner, Condor get 80% reduction to Capacitor need for warp jammers!
Griffin fits more jammers
Merlin is all hybrids, no more missiles
Incursus is often seen with a dual rep beast of a tank.

Destroyers
Coercer lost a low slot, gained a mid slow
Cormorant lost a mid, gained a low
Watch out for Talwars, they get a 25% speed boost at Destroyer V (but their tank is often weak)

Cruisers

All T1 cruisers are now amazing. T1 cruisers are strong enough that in the Caldari/Gallente zone at least, BC roams have almost completely ended.

[b[Battlecruisers[/b[

Hurricane nerfed, Cyclone is now missile ship, Ferox is fixed, Prophecy is fixed into a strong drone boat with a beastly tank. Myrmidon bandwith increased to 100m