Player Features and Ideas Discussion

If we nerf the Ishtar warfare in low/null will become domis online. Sentrys have all the advantages of drones, like selectable damage types, without the drawbacks of delayed damage or vulnerability to fire walling ships armed with smart bombs. Nine times out of ten sentrys are the best choice for drone boats, while medium and heavy drones see little use in pvp.

This is not a nerf to ishtar nor is it intended to be, drones need to be balanced against each other before modifiers (ie ship bonuses) are applied to them.

If sentry tracking speed were reduced to 0.004 (the same as dread guns) their use would be limited to bashing structures and shooting capitals, while buffing the velocity of medium and heavy drones would increase their use in pvp.

Now for the hard numbers, I suggest,

All sentrys:
Tracking speed reduced to 0.004
Signature resolution increased to 2000 (protip: sig resolution is not the same as sig radius, http://www.evealtruist.com/2011/12/truth-about-signature-resolution.html )



I'm using Minmatar T2 drones as an example, other drones should get proportional changes.

Warrior II
Max velocity increased from 5040m/s to 6000m/s
Orbit velocity increased to 1500
Signature resolution increased to 80
Tracking speed reduced to .38

Valkyrie II
Max velocity increased from 3000m/s to 4500m/s
Orbit velocity increased to 1200
Signature resolution increased to 200
Tracking speed reduced to .12

Berserker II
Max velocity increased from 1800m/s to 3000m/s
Orbit velocity increased to 800
Signature resolution increased to 400
Tracking speed reduced to .052

tl:dr Sentry drones apply minimal damage to subcaps, medium and heavy drones are much faster but can be sig tanked by ships smaller then their intended targets.

All numbers require playtesting and are subject to change etc. etc.

How do you propose any blanket nerf that doesnt wreck domis but keeps the ishtar balanced? Domis online is a vastly different deal from ishtars online.

The problem with ishtars is the synergy - excellent projection, T2 resists, fast speeds so highly mobile, MWD sig bloom reduction, lower sig, drone control range bonuses. Add that to the same projection, dps, drone availability of a domi and pretty quickly we can see why there are issues.

Domis are too fat to run, lack the same range out the box as ishtars. They are admittedly more tanky and can MJD, but can be countered much more easily than ishtars. More damage can be effectively applied for a start, range can be dictated in a far more controlled manner.


I am a pretty big fan of balancing little and often. First I'd sort the ishtar, THEN let the meta adapt to domis and see what happens (and ban them from carriers, but that's another story). If that doesnt work and it might not, then we reasses. But we're smart people I think players would be able to fight domis markedly more effectively than they can ishtars.


Again, the problem isn't sentries as a whole, it's the ships bonused for them (and capitals). No-one sees any other ships with 125m3 bays using sentries and thinks they're a problem.

(also drone assist needs to die in a fire)

Just no, killing off drones as a weapon is what you are doing rather than actually seeing the real issue. The Ishtar uses Battleship weapons, that is what needs to be addressed but that would require reworking drones as a whole and then modifing every ship with a drone bay.

I am in agreement > that it isn't the drones at fault, but the ships that which can use the drones which are at fault.

The issue IS the drone, sentrys are a do everything wonder weapon which consistently outperform medium and heavy drones in their own role, and I'm not just talking about ishtars and domis, sentrys are the preferred drones of carriers and supercarriers as well.

When will people learn that the drones aren't the problem but the Bonuses on the ship hulls? Try to use sentries on an unbonused hull and you will quickly realize that you wasted your drone hole space. Give Ishtars the same boni to Sentries as the Armageddon has and it's infeasible to use as PVP boat, but remains it's usefulness in structure grinds and PVE. Problem solved.

Domis are easily countered by other BS who alpha them off the field. They are also easily bombed by bombers. They are extremely hard to import into Null sec (which is why Ishtars are so popular, by the way). Firewalls in the form of dedicated firewalling ships smartbombing off the drones work. Attacking the drones when you realize that the enemy can't kill you but you can't kill them works as well. Just get creative for a change, there are counters out there.

Sentry drones are ok if they are used in battleships, and not cruisers or carriers.

And yet, no-one uses them unbonsed, save maybe mission bears. I wonder why.....maybe it's because they couldnt hit the floor if they fell on it.

Solar Vex, Where have you been all the time? Sentries doing well for years now but at some point people dtart thinking hell these things are very powerfull let's fukin nerf them vs switch on brains and develop a solid anti-ishtar/sentry doctrine.

Someone will say hey shut up the only thing is good against ishtar is only an ishtar. Ok then switch your brains on and propise a new weapon new ship or whatever is.

I still have both sentry domi and a sin for ratting purposes and i don't want to loose them due to someone's failure of relationship with drones.

Another way to approach it would be to address the control range of sentrys , to get them in line with other weapon systems, and then scale controll range vs damage/tracking from gal to cal to get them in line.