Ships & Modules

im logging on right now to see how my HAM drake fared ........

What is the DPS of normal faction HAMs? In case something smaller then a BC tackles you?

plus medium neut with genos and 4% grid implant. or small neut with no fitting mods.

and hasn't the ham drake been this good for a while?

Get kited son. You realise that your HAM drake has a max range of ~16kms right? I can kill that in just about ANY other BC.

At which point his DPS drops to nothing for 10 seconds, and then is significantly lower and I can kill him with scorch/barrage or dive in and use close range ammo.

The Drake is pretty good, but it is still killable.

1. Don't get tackled
2. When Neuts shut down your hardener, with 0% resists instead of 15% previously, watch ur 'EHP' evaporate. The above fit is BAD for brawling, sorry
3. Plug that EM hole
4. Get better missile skills and maybe a fuel/Bay rig and ur Faction HAMs will hit at 22km, Javs are for Chumps
5. Pray the other person hasn't got 80%+ Kinetic resists, cause your non Kinetic Dmg is sub Cruiser level

They did a great job with the Drake balance this patch, true tradeoffs. The Cane however ...

Meh,

Look it's a Drake, here people fit a kinetic hardened it can't do anything else.

Or if you're more evil.

Look it's a Drake, lets kite it with a Caracal just out his range and he never gets in range because it has the agillity of a Whale.

Nice damage projection on paper but,

1) you are avoided, bacause you can't catch them
2) you're not avaoided because people lauch about Kinetic damage and you get killed.

It is quite nice in larger gangs but the days of "The Drake" are over.

as the kill list already show, Caracal is higher now.

You just need a Deimos, 91% Kinetic resistance. <3

Pretty much. Drake will hard counter, say, an armour Brutix, which it outdamages at 10+km where it'll be kiting it at flinging HAMs while not getting close enough to be threatened. The Drake is countered by the Deimos. Of course there are more on both sides than just that, but regardless, it has both upsides and downsides. It will beat some but be beaten by others.

The Cane vs Drake matchup is pretty brutal.

Previously, it was tough, but the Cane HAD a chance - with dual neuts shutting down Drakes hardeners and punching through right before its own, weaker buffer gave out.

Now its just LOL.

For people who scream, "Oh, just tank Kinetic"--- thats simply metagaming your fit.
Congrats, you are now gimped against all other ships. Also, Drakes can easily swap damage types the minute they run into a lol-90% Kin-resisted metagamer.

General fit ACs vs HAMs?

-Short Range, Max Damage? <5Km Hurricane dies.
Cane has a slight damage advantage - but not by nearly enough to compensate for the Drake's huge passive tank. And at short range you are simply scrammed, webbed and killed.

-Moderate 'point range' out to 25km or so? Hurricane runs.
At longer ranges you get crushed even worse as your damage drops deep into falloff, while the Drake is doing full damage.

-Outside Jav 30km range? Hurricane simply runs or runs out of ammo, or Drake runs.
- A) You don't have him pointed. B) you are just tickling his passive tank.

Long ranged Medium Arties vs HMLs is a similar situation.

In the few places that the Cane' can 'out-slug' the Drake (slightly), the Drake's tank simply makes up the difference in spades.
At moderate ranges, the Drake out tanks and out slugs.
At long ranges (outside missile range), the Cane is striking so weakly it doesn't hurt the Drake at all, and without a point, it hardly matters.