Ships & Modules

Seeing the new Merlin and Incursus I guess it's not completely wrong to assume this trend will continue. Maybe on cruisers or BCs. Gallente with (stronger) armor rep + damage bonus. Caldari with shield resist + damage bonus. Especially the damage bonus makes things interesting for a certain tactic:

Hit&Run: appear -> destroy my target quickly -> disappear before his friends arrive.

Until now Gallente are superior in this field, just because Caldari hybrid boats have a turret range bonus. Gallente did plain and simple more damage at close range.

But now this changes. Since Caldari boats have a damage bonus as well it comes down to the old question: shield or armor. Not only in terms of tanking itself, also in terms of slot layout. I'm not sure which one could be more interesting and more flexible for said tactic.

My thoughts so far:

Shield and shield slot layout:
- maximum tank&gank possible (tank in med slots, gank in lowslots)
- max gank + ewar possible (interesting at medium range maybe, example: rail/TD Cormorant)
- speed and agility (nano) cannot be boosted that much because of few low slots only

Armor and armor slot layout:
- very high gank but little tank (glass cannon)
- top speed and agility + good damage but less tank (nano fit)
- a compromise of tank&gank + ewar/tackle/cap mods

Glass cannon fitting on ships with armor slot layout seem best suited for hit&run. Overwhelm your target with damage. Also speed. So I tried some glass cannon fits. It worked more or less...but what disturbs me most here: after almost every fight I ended up in deep structure as well. Chaining fights is not possible. So the better tank with top damage of shield tanked hybrid ships looks interesting again. On the other side..a better armor rep bonus should work great to fix my damage for the next fight quickly (in warp for instance). But then again: Caldari shield tanks can fit the new fueled shield booster now. Resist bonus works for active tanks equally good.

What do you think?

Dual Rep incursus. Need I say more

No one will engage that Rokh, because as everyone knows....

You can't stop the Rokh

I kinda wish rails and arty had their damage modifiers and rof switched. I mean, weren't rails supposed to be the premier sniping platform? Caldari rail boats wouldn't need a damage bonus if their alpha was high enough. Look at the mael, for example. It has an rof bonus, not a damage bonus, and it still is an alpha machine.

I don't see it that way. I would like there damage lowered but there ROF kicked up, most of the stuff I've read on the tech you would use for rails point to insane ROF if you could use them in a vacuum with super conductors and memory alloys on acount of no fouling and cartridgeless ammo.(tho ROF only limated by how fast you can load and the speed you can send a pulse of electricity down a rail would be OP as hell )
As is if memory serves they are the fastest ROF long range weapon, but I want them more fasterz


P.S. i also want blasters 1/2 the ROF but 2X damage like a sledge hammer (or my favz plasma based gun the B.F.G. 9000)

It comes down to personal preference. I have been cross training into Caldari and Gallente ships for a while. I will be ready for whatever buffs may come.