Player Features and Ideas Discussion

you play devils advocate well, so lets polish the idea a little, how about adding resistance to TP's this synergises with the mwd sig bonus, perhaps other e-war bonuses could be geared more to each ship/race possibly with some base stats being reduced too compensate

I say they need a buff to their speed and maneuverability to make them feel a bit closer to T1 Frigates. This will help them catch more targets and define them as a tackling frigate that can take enough of a beating for reinforcements to arrive.

I justify this because AF's are relatively difficult to fit for kiting and, at the very least, sacrifice a great deal to do so.

Of course, this might mean they might need to have their MWD signature bloom role bonus turned down to compensate for an increase in their "speed/signature tank" while approaching a target.

As a side note the Retribution and Wolf could probably use some minor fitting increases because it's really a pain to get a fit that's solid.

This, alongside a few minor tweaks to T3D's (probably a slight speed, tank, and mode switching nerf), will put them in a good spot.

Interceptors are kiting frigates.

Assault frigates are not kiting frigates.

There are too many ninnies on here trying to make AF into tanky interceptors. CCP already took away their role by giving a mwd bonus instead of AB bonus. The ROLE of the AF his brawling / heavy frigate tackle. Just stop w/ the kiting crap. There are already enough kiting options out there. (pro hint - every other frigate in the game)

TL/DR: Can we please have one frigate class that isn't designed from the ground up to kite and run away from a fight?

I think you may have misread or misinterpreted what I was saying. AF's need speed so they can TACKLE targets. Tackle being a scram/web combination. AF's in no way should be re-purposed to kite like most interceptors do.

One of the defining characteristics of Assault Frigates is full T2 resists. How does a polarized weapon overheating bonus make sense in that regard?

Because there are many more frigates than assault frigs, and while keeping larger ships effective against all other frigate classes this would create a niche role for assault frigs specifically, which was the idea in my proposal for improving their usage.


Well done dismissing thousands of players involved in nullsec and looking for more diversity in their environment.

Even if nullsec was empty (which it isn't, and I could invite you to Querious to bear witness to that) that would still be a very poor argument against fixing a ship class for usage.

Well said. Even if TDs get nerfed in terms of sig radius /speed /etc they're still fundamentally in the similar role as AFs, and that is the issue in my opinion. It's similar to how nobody (maybe apart from FW players who find themselves in artificially limited terms of ship classes they can choose) even remembers the existence of T1 destroyers now as three other destroyer classes are there for the choosing. And they're so simple and quick to train for the T1 versions can't even claim a 'training and preparation' role for themselves.
It's understandable CCP feel they need to keep bringing new ships to draw players in with juicy announcements but that also makes other ships obsolete unless you make them distinctive via specific, unique, niche roles.

Thats just it though. Larger ship classes are not good against frigates unless they design the fit to be anti-frig. This means they are at a disadvantage to other large ships. You are asking for a counter to ships specifically designed to kill frigs but are already at a disadvantage to other big ships.

Assault frigs are heavy tackle, that is their niche. They dont need ewar gimmicks to the only counter large ships have against smaller ships. Especially ships that sacrifice their fitting to specifically kill frigs.

There are fewer AF than standard frigs because t3d are doing thr AF role better. Once t3ds are nerfed with hopefully larger sigs and slower speeds, then AF have a niche to fill again. From there its just tweaking of stats and AF will be in a good spot.

Like ive mentioned earlier, why do AF get special treatment? They are assault frigs. Its a slippery slope to applying the same mentality to HACs which are also categorized as "assault" ships. Like i said to reaver, do you really want to see neut resistant deimos or web resistant vagabonds?

Once t3ds are properly nerfed, then AF wont be obsolete. From there they get tweaked.

For all AF
Increase base cap/recharge
A minor EHP buff

Jaguar - Roll double damage bonus into 1 trait, this frees a slot for maybe a shield boost bonus or velocity/sig/shield HP bonus. Or, redesign jag to be the t2 breacher.

Wolf - Roll double damage bonus into 1 trait. Give a 2nd falloff bonus. Drop utility high for 3rd mid perhaps. Give more CPU.

Enyo - its already a solid ship, mainly EHP/cap buffs and maybe some minor fitting tweaks

Ishkur - remove drone bandwidth trait, just give it 5 drones. Add armor rep amount trait (heavy tackle)

Harpy - Again another fairly solid ship, cap/EHP buffs and fitting tweaks

Hawk - remove shield boost bonus (idk why it got a minmatar bonus and minny got no tank bonuses), replace with shield HP bonus or explosion radius bonus. Increase shield HP to compensate, remove utility high and put into a low. Increase fitting and increase speed a bit.

Vengeance - EHP buff, otherwise i think its a solid ship, arguably the best cap out of all the AF.

Retribution - mainly fitting/EHP/cap buffs with minor speed increase. Maybe have tracking bonus go from 7.5% to 10% per level.

Once t3ds are nerfed, changes similar to these are all thats needed to bring AF back into a good position. Yes, some of my recommendations could push some ships into being strong brawlers or even a kiter, bit they are heavy tackle and need to live up to it. These changes with solidify that role. They could be strong, but not OP like EWAR resistant frigs, and not be just another nerf to bigger ships.

Our wh chain opened up into syndicate yesterday. We started rolling out in command ships and hacs to educate some ratters on the finer points of being careful. 2 jumps in we had to fall back and look elsewhere. There was an inty/AF gang harassing a t3d fleet. They were both moving fast and having a great time (which I think is the point of both eve and syndicate). Anyway there were a lot of assault frigates mixed into both of the fleets. They were ripping around having fun.

t3d are in the process of being adjusted and AF are in a good spot (a great spot once t3d finish their callibration pass). Just keep in mind what they are and what they are not.

Yeah, let's. Come to think of it, since the Corax is the most powerful destroyer bar none we should nerf down everything to her powerlevel.

It will only take one day after that release we will see a lot of shiptoasting done. Lowsec - they only place there is in New Eden will be farmvill- errm fixed.