Upcoming Feature and Change Feedback Center

A few things..

One: CCP has very little absolute control over how much we farm rattlesnake BPCs. They could triple the mineral price and we will still make rattlesnakes dirt cheap. If the rattlesnake spawned in any other region of eve online they would be nearly 1b per hull.

Two: The rattlesnake does not do "great damage" without "great sacrifice". Half its damage is crippled by zero application. This paired with a really tight CPU limit actually balances the hull. In the majority of applications a rattlesnake cant break 1100-1200 applied dps which puts it squarely in line with other pirate boats.
This is further balanced by the absolutely slow as dirt nature of a snake. Even with MWD you cant travel very quick with one. It's a semimobile turret. Vindicator can at least dance as it blaps.

Three: Where are the rattlesnake fleets blotting out the sky? You dont really seem them all that much because they are extremely limited utility compared to just about any other docrine. Being semimobile high sp turrets you dont really roll them out if you have a risk of getting bombed to death(because a rattlesnakes sig is bigger than a bloody carriers) and you absolute cannot chase anyone with a rattlesnake fleet short of a lamed crippled unfit supercarrier with no fuel... and even then its a slow race.

The snakes unique problems actually work in its favor for balance. It found its special niche and does that niche well. The gila and the worm were operating significantly above their weight classes and had no real drawbacks compared to other similar hulls.

It puts out great damage with no sacrifice whatsoever. It has plenty of free low slots for damage mods, and try fitting rapid heavy missile launchers, you can easily put out 1750 dps with cruiser sized weapons, so you have perfect application at 50km+ versus anything battlecruiser and above, and you'll apply a good chunk to cruisers too, with 1750 dps even half your dps will wipe the floor with them.

So you could only be complaining that you can't apply good dps to destroyers and below, but then every other battleship has it a lot worse.

The Rattlesnake is a beast in small gang pvp bordering on OP much like the Gila and Worm.

Can we look at full line battleship re-balancing?
It's needed now.

A brawler has to chase and capture a target or it will be incapable of killing said target. A snake can never chase and it can only capture things for an extremely limited time..
Even within its own weight class a snake is going to die to the majority of other battleship doctrines.

Hell.. Show me a KB where snakes have been used more than machs or domis. You'll be hard pressed to find it.
The ships inherent slowness (94m/s) really does cripple it. Most of your complaints are EFT numbers in one to one situations. In fleet fights the snakes don't have the option of pursuing.

This is the type of fit you seem to be terrified of:
[Rattlesnake, Testbead]

Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Damage Control II

X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Navy Cap Booster 800
X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Navy Cap Booster 800
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
EM Ward Field II
500MN Cold-Gas Enduring Microwarpdrive
Large Micro Jump Drive

Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Heavy Missile
[Empty High slot]

Large Core Defense Field Extender II
Large Core Defense Field Extender II
Large Core Defense Field Extender II


Berserker II x2

---

Trouble is... that fit cant exist. The snake doesn't have the raw CPU to do it. Hell I even left off the obligatory utility high.
For a brief moment lets consider the snake received a free 37% CPU. Lets say that fit exists.
Literally every single battleship doctrine out ranges it. Whats worse.. unlike most other battleship doctrines once this fit is out ranged its done. No damage will be applied period.

Its also HALF the speed of the currently widely used mach.
This doesn't even get into HACs and T3s...
It's also using the fastest heavy drones.. and the longest ranged heavy missiles.

The first thing you will say is "MGC". The second thing you will say is "cruise missiles".. The third thing you will say is "it has enough tank i can take some off". Notice a pattern? To get a snake to compete directly within the current fleet meta you have to sacrifice. This paired with a retardedly high SP requirement and slow speed makes it relatively self balancing.

Hate to tell you this fellas... EFT is not real life. If it was rattlesnakes would be the only thing we ever used. On paper they look better than even T3s unless you know what you are actually looking at. As it stands snakes are better positioned to be newbie friendly PVE boats and the rare high stakes defensive operation.

*chuckles* I've killed and died to rattlesnakes friend. Yourself on the other hand obviously has not had much experience outside of PvE given that fitting you posted, I've never seen any fitted like that.

Trust me from experience in small gang PvP situation rattlesnakes are the best battleships out there excluding marauders. If your talking large scale fleet situations such as you get in karma fleet then they are not as good as some of the others due to not being able to volley stuff off the field. In small and mid gang then it is a different story though.

With MWD and MJD which is the standard pvp fit you get plenty of manoeuvrability for a battleship. Like you say at 1350 it can keep up with battlecruisers and AB fitted cruisers.

Nawh, that is silly.

With the exception of the Nestor and the Barghest, i.e. ones you can't farm via anomalies, all the pirate battleships have tumbled in price over the past year, and it's not just the over-farming. Yes Grr Gons is obligatory in that the Rattlesnake has perhaps taken a huge dive in price, but it's not like other regions don't have lots of ratting going on too. As of writing this post...

Bhaalgorn - 406m
Vindicator - 608
Nightmare - 368
Rattlesnake - 338
Machariel - 458


Mach sees pretty good usage; you can rat, fleet, or solo with it just fine. Clearly they know how to farm in Angel Space too. It might be a little higher in a musical sov scenario, but not by that much.

The thing is you are trying to use it as a fleet ship when it isn't a fleet ship, your trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

Small gang is where the rattlesnake excels. Like I said the RS has exceptional DPS and application against anything above a cruiser, and anything cruiser and below will be overwhelmed by even half of its dps anyway. It has a spare high for neut or nos against anything that comes near, and it can field a massive shield tank keeping the ship very agile so a skilled pilot can actually kite their opponents up to 50 / 60km, and being missiles and drones it has no falloff so all of its 1750 dps is applied no matter what range you are as long as the target isn't cruiser or below.

Head on its raw stats are enough to beat pretty much any other battleship in a one on one fight barring mauraders, it has room for an exceptional shield tank, and no other battleships come close to dealing 1750dps, and that isn't considering the fact it can do this at 50km+.

It's main weakness is that its damage (drones and missiles) take some time to reach the target, which is why it is not seen much in large fleets.

dude. dont tell me how to kite out and refit and counter RS. When your POS going out of RF and cyno is up you wont have much time to do that.
We are talking about rebalancing and personally i compair one BS (rattlesnake) to the rest ships of its class.
Show me other BS's with same price with same stats. And i'm not gona discus how to catch a stilleto on Rattle or any other BS. Once again im here about balance. Cos i see everyday same picture. Most BS fleets are taking Rattlesnakes, most HAC fleets use Cerberus (recently were ishtars before nerfe). Balancing game is about making people fly different ships lol, cos all of them have their benefits and weaknesses.

I just want ccp to make a good clean balance instead of killing ship classes like T3 Destroyers did with Assaults. Anyway i'm glad ccp took a balancing vector in their patches. And once again i'm repeating that Rattlesnake has damn disbalanced DPS+EHP+Range combination.

Price wise sure, pvp wise no. A mach, vindi or barhest is a lot scarier to face then a rattler.