Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Hey CCP

I know you are in the process of modifying the HACs - which is awesome. I just thought I'd mention a few things I would like to see for changes in the Ishtar. You are probably already aware of its problems, but I thought I'd pipe up anyway. I imagine the community will throw in its two cents as well.


I see two main paths for the Ishtar: Dedicated drone boat, or continuation of mixed bonuses. In keeping with the latest exploration trend, potentially improved exploration bonuses...

Drones: As a nullsec plexer, I would likely prefer a dedicated drone boat. My sentry ishtar squeezes out some wonderful dps and tank against guristas/serpentis using drones, but by in large the guns on the boat are useless as they currently stand. Much of the reason for this useless results from the terribly low CPU for the ship which prevents the fitting of medium hybrids without some significant decrease either in tank or in drone dps. Even with 3 medium neutron blasters, the dps contribution of said guns is minimal compared to drones.

Mixed bonuses: If, for some reason, you would like to keep mixed bonuses on the Ishtar, add more CPU and another gun slot. Though honestly, I don't know why you would want to keep mixed bonuses...

To replace the hybrid dmg bonus, I would recommend a drone tracking bonus. DPS is already pretty good. Alternatively - and I expected a polarized audience on this one - you might consider replacing the hybrid bonus with a scan resolution bonus. Many people use Ishtars as all-in-one ninja explorer ships and a scan resolution bonus could be useful here, though I think a drone tracking bonus would overall be the better choice.

If you decide to get rid of the mixed bonuses, you could likely drop a high slot in favor of either a mid slot or low slot. Either one would be good as the ship is easily shield or armor tanked currently, and there are tank mods available for either slot for both types of tanking. Additionally, there are drone mods for either slot as well.

I imagine many will keep a token gun on their Ishtar for aggro purposes, but right now guns on an ishtar are just that - placeholders.

If you take only one bit of advice from this post, please increase the CPU on the Ishtar - I find it one of the hardest ships to fit satisfactorily.

Thanks for reading my opinon, I hope you find it useful!

So it does. I don't suppose it is possible for me to move it?

The navy vexor gets a 5%/level bonus to drone velocity and tracking. Giving the ishtar a tracking bonus might step on the navy vexor's toes, at least partially, and CCP might wish to avoid that. The same applies to a drone velocity bonus, though in this case it's hard to tell if it's a straight up bonus to all drone velocity, drone MWD speed, or drone orbit speed given that the algos and dragoon have a bonus that specifically stipulates "drone microwarpdrive speed."

As for the pre-existing bonuses the hybrid damage bonus is a bit gimpy currently given that the ship either needs to fit weapons that are very short-ranged, a questionable tactic on a ship with limited survivability compared to some other "heavy" assault ships, or ignore the bonus. Likewise the drone bay size bonus and drone control range bonuses are a bit frustrating given that they don't do much to encourage further training in HAS beyond level 1. More control range without DLAs is nice, but given that you can hit 57km fairly easily and max out at 60km, enough for many if not most PvP situations and probably half or more of all PvE situations it's a bit of a waste.

The drone bay bonuses on the ishkur, ishtar, and eos are, in my opinion, of questionable merit. I'm all for interesting and varied bonuses, but just a straight up bonus like that is a bit of a waste. The eos, for example, would have been far better off if it had had its base drone bandwidth reduced to 25mb or 50mb and the command ship bonus had been +15m3 and +15mb drone capacity per level, and the ishtar and ishkur are in similar positions themselves.

To be honest what I'd like to see are bonuses like the following:
#1
Cruiser bonuses: 10% drone damage/tracking bonus, bonus of 15% drone HP
HAS bonuses: 7.5% armor rep bonus, 5m drone "control" range

#2
Cruiser bonuses: 10% drone HP/damage, 5% hybrid damage
HAS bonuses: 5-7.5% hybrid falloff, 5%/level drone MWD speed

#3
Cruiser bonuses: 10% drone HP/damage, 5% drone velocity/tracking/optimal
HAS bonuses: 2% drone resistances (all three), 10m drone "control" range.

At least this way it will kind of focus the ishtar in different directions of "specialization," though admittedly #2 is a "specialization" of splitting drone and hybrid damage.

Moving this from Ships & Modules to Features & Ideas Discussion.