EVE General Discussion

CCP is being so bold as to adjust the statistics of ships they're creating?!?
THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! I SPENT TWELVE HOURS IN EFT FITTING OUT MY TALOS TO THE EXACT SPECIFICATIONS I WAS GIVEN! SAGED, REPORTED, UNSUBBING, DELETING MY ACCOUNTS, SETTING MY CAT ON FIRE, CALLED THE POLICE.
IT'S OVER, CCP IS FINISHED!

I am aware of this, and do not discount the point, but two things to consider.

I seriously doubt you will be putting 425mm rails on this ship in the first place (definately could be wrong). I'm expecting them to be aimed more towards the lesser used smaller BS sized weaponry.

I tend to think of these BC's as beefed up cruisers able to mount BS weapons (similar in concept to a stealth bomber) instead of thinking about their tactical use in terms of how a BC is traditionally used in combat. You would deal with this variety of threats exactly as you would if you were flying a medium to long range cruiser or HAC.

You will not devote much to a tank, instead you will devote most of your fit to tracking and dictating range while staying aligned for a quick warp out. That is your defense, just as it is with a cruiser. Your chief worry will be getting tackled by something small, anything large pounding on you and you will warp out and then reposition.

None of these ships are designed for a slug fest, this is intentional. They are designed to keep up with a small gang and be most effective against larger, slower targets. Again, similar in concept to a steal bomber (no cloak yes, but fast enough to keep up with a fast moving gang, fragile as hell, but delivering a big punch to big targets).

So I"m not saying you are wrong in your thinking "if" you try to use them like a standard BC... I'm saying you won't want to use them that way to be effective.

You could very well end up being correct, but I think I will wait until the balancing of the ships and hybrids is a little further along (and I have the chance to test them in a variety of situations myself on the test server) before I make that judgement.

I'd didn't say anything about a frigate I said a nano-drake.

Go fit up a 425mm mega and try it.

You say that NONE of these ships are designed for a slug fest. But CCP clearly introduced the Talos as an in your FACE glass cannon blaster boat. Very specifically their idea was originally that this ship fly in close and use blasters. Thus the web so that unlike all other blaster boats, it could control range. WHY would CCP produce 4 ships that all do the same thing essentially. People will figure out which one does it the best (probably the Tornado- shocking) and fly only that one. I was fine with having some variety out there to use, not just eye candy. They just needed to leave that web on, and shield tank the hell out of it! NOW that would have been fun and new. Would have spiced the game up. But can't upset the hurricane and drake kiters now can we.

The only thing rails have to offer over other weapons systems, is superior range with spike. Thats the only thing I can think of. Does it make a difference? In my opinions peas shot to 150-200km are still peas.

In this respect giving bonus to what the ship would actually be good at (range) makes sense. (as opposed to web bonus, which I already said doesnt fit in)

Which makes the Talo completely useless for anything other than gate camping and hisec antics.

Rail guns don't work in point range (so no small roaming gangs, and are of dubious value in larger fleets because without alpha it'll take a LOT of Taloses to knock down something and they have to do it from way out there. Against target that can't shoot back.


Blasters don't work on ships with no tank.
and large blasters are a poor choice if you are trying to kite.,,,Specially when you are looking at about 700dps of 800mm sexiness from a Tornado.

So what are we going to do with it again?

Keep training matar stuff peeps, so you'll not be disappointed (more)

With the significant buff coming to the railgun platform, I'll go out on a whim and say 'yes', Talos, like the others is being aimed at the longer range weaponry.

I originally penned the idea of the 'Pocket Battleship' back in 2007 (linked it in another post). As per the comparisons drawn with the real life variants, a Pocket Battleship was never meant to be able to go toe to toe with it's bigger counterpart, not 1v1 any way.

However the pocket Battleship, as displayed in the 2nd World War, provided a platform for the Germany navy especially, which were A) not only a cheaper ship to build but also B) provided the similar, immense firepower of the bigger counterpart, on a much lower signature hull. It made them harder to spot, harder to hit and made them deadly to the Allied Navies. The Graf Spee alone claimed 9 hulls during it's sorties in the period.

These ships are being pigeon holed into a nice role which Eve really needs. Being able to field a fleet of these that offer the training benchmark and overhead cost that can equate to several months and 50-100million ISK in difference (remembering that rigs will also be a medium asset), this class has a huge future in Eve. They are a quintessential stepping stone to create mobile, roaming 0.0 fleets and also provide the PvP in High and Low sec with new toys to weave into current tactics and doctrine.

A 10% to the damage modifier along with the huge buffs to tracking, capacitance and so forth is going to make rail boats extremely competitive.

That huge buff to tracking had best bring it down to current 250mm rail levels on 425s, or my statement will hold, they simply won't work inside long point range, specially on a ship that only has room for a lunch box and two TEs.