Ships & Modules

All very good points. I only fly in relatively small gangs in a wormhole, so I don't see the drake as being particular OP. It's extremely versatile as is, with a beast of a tank and comparatively excellent damage projection. But the damage it does isn't overpowering until you get into blob-like numbers, but hell, anything will with that many numbers.

I'd love to see more Caldari ships represented in PvP. Having a handful of useful ships does not balance out the incredible meh of the Caldari HACs (double range Eagle! 20 second missile flight time Cerberus!) and battleships (although the Rokh is seeing some use now, despite its glaring lack of a damage bonus).

I guess my initial complaint was the idea of nerfing one of the few useful Caldari ships with little to no mention of examining any of the other ones sitting in the sidelines gathering dust.

So they are going to nerf the only Caldari ship that is used consistently.

all these frigging rail boats are worthless. we got the raven and drake for missions. that is the only advantage Caldari have. all of our other ships have other racial counter parts that are more desirable in pvp.

Oh god - the Harpy and Hawk are going to be utterly ******* ridiculous after the patch. As in, the most OP of the OP class. Its gonna be kinda funny really.

-Liang

if these changes did go through, i may actually allow drakes back in my fleets, then they may actually be able to do something good for once insted of just dieing VERY slowly.

I fly a Cyclone. I love them, i'm a Cyclone tragic. But, it is always a hassle trying to solo a Drake. If you find one, eg, in full PVE fit with purgers, massive buffer and SPRs, the tank literally cannot be got through without neuting his hardeners off. if you find one PVP fit, with BCU's and a point, you often can DPS him down given enough time, and if it goes badly you just fly away.

Of course, if you know you are going up against a Drake and can refit, the triple-neut capnapper fit Cyclone is the way to go. Their hardeners fold within 20s and you hardly get below 30% shield. Job done.

If CCP does nerf the Drake, as intended, it will make a Drake a soloable target for the tier-1 battlecruisers. Half the issues with the tier system in the BC hulls is the Drake which can just sit there and tank the Brutix, Cyclone and Prophecy with impunity until its own spaghetti limp DPS does the job or its opponent gives up. The way to look at it is, if you remove a chunk of the tank of the Drake it is buffing the other hulls.

Removing the kinetic bonus will be a buff. Make no mistake, these days, if you know you are going up against a Drake you can fit kinetic hardeners and you'll be better off 90% of the time. Without that straitjacket, the Drake will be much more unpredictable and versatile.

As for the discussion of the Cerb, yes this will by default nerf the Cerb because you'll get most of the Cerb's utility in a hull 1/3rd the cost. The Sacrelige will become even more useless.

People are arguing about the Raven. I almost never see Ravens in PVP aside from POS bashes. The Drake, without an OMG BS tank, will definitely see a significant drop in popularity - but that's a good thing. As said, as long as the Ferox gets a bit of a buff to rails and versatility, people will begin using Railroxes.

Another way to look at this is that a velocity bonus on the Drake is a buff to the nanodrake, and the nano-range doctrines for small gangs. You will be able to use the Drake in concert with Nagas, Tornados and artycanes, kiting at 80km and have your missiles hit sometime before the fighting is over. This isn't a bad thing - people will begin flying the Drake, as opposed to just parking it in space and hoping to survive.

This might in the end be the best thing to do for the Drake, turning it from the space brick into a hate-spewing DPS boat.

I'd just like to see further details about some of the other tweaks to the tier-1 hulls. I'd love a 5/5 turret and missile slot versatility in the Cyclone so you could field a full-blown HAMclone with 5 HAMs and 3 neuts. That would be a scary, scary thing.

HAM geared drake should get a slight PG buff if that's going to be the new shape of it
do an equal CPU nerf if must be.

I oppose the Drake Nerf. Let me explain why:

The Drake is a good ship for an average player.

Now what the Drake DOES excel at is exploration. It can go into a lowsec exploration site and hold agro while your dps alt goes in and kills stuff.

This allows the budding explorers a relatively cheap ship to risk in lowsec. It does this BECAUSE of the 5% shield resists per skill level. Tengu's do well in lowsec, except they use shield boosters and at 10x the price can be hard to afford when they pop. Unless you faction fit a Tengu they do explode in lowsec exploration sites fairly easily. Let's not even mention PVP.

So you all think it's a fine idea to nerf the drake because it's PASSIVE shield regeneration is just too much... Guess you never experienced the PASSIVE SHIELD Myrmidon. It's better than the Drake's.

If this Nerf is proposed because of the Drake's "epic" passive shield regeneration "in full PVE fit with purgers, massive buffer and SPRs" then you are an IDIOT. You DO NOT FLY. You are an EFT warrior only.

Because if you feel a KITING ship like the Drake NEEDS a Passive shield REGEN for 3/4's of the missions in EVE you obviously aren't kiting your targets and killing them with missiles. Which means you are dumb. Why are we considering changing this game for the dummies?

Once you can answer that you might be qualified to debate ship mechanics and mathematics.

Regards,

I hope you're not talking about the Maelstrom. Because it's simply better than a drake in every way. It doesn't need tank when it's gank more than compensates for it. A drake's gank is ok at best.
Drake really should be a brick house as it currently is. It's a well balanced ship. Has a good tank and sub par dps. Can project it's damage out far, but it takes time, a lot of time, and is easily reduced by simply moving. I mean, Seriously, there are plenty of ships that beat it up close in a one on one, and if for some reason they're 70km out, you can just warp away...

I don't see the problem with them. What, they can do level 4s? So can my hurricane. ****, I've done some in assault frigates for ***** and giggles. Are you jelly that they can just stand there in a level 4 while other people have to move around and what have you? Because I think it's justified by their **** poor dps. I'll consider Drakes or tengus OP when they can 1-2 volley npc battleships which I don't see happening... ever. I mean, they can kill them, using 7 times the ammo and 5 - 10 times slower than a Mael, but if taking 1-3 minutes to pop 1 battleship npc is fast for you people... I think the issue is with you guys.

No, it's right the reverse - HAM-tailored drake should get a PG/CPU reduction in order to make it even more interesting fitting-wise, so that people start actually doing some trades rather than getting everything as granted.

I guess that's a separate issue. Others being easy to fit don't justify that issue with Drake. Since what's the point then in having CPU and grid in the first place?