Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Allow me to start by stating that ABCs are a horribly broken class.
They are a fun concept, but in practice they are bland and upset ship balance worse than any other class.

These ships are the Naga, Talos, Oracle, & Tornado. Tier 3 battlecruisers.

The combination of their speed+agility & damage+range allow these ships to appear on the field quickly, and do lots of damage from a safe distance. They are quite fragile, and offer minimal ship defense, so they are somewhat fixed to mid-long range engagements, usually with help

There is a problem with these ships, and that problem plagues small gangs and soloers the most.
These ships are what typically appear after a fight has already begun, and will (more often than not) sway the win.

Tier3s are opportunists ships. They do not work terribly well on their own, and require support.
Tier3s are overlapping roles. They are more effective (cost and combat) than a HAC (their closest counterpart), and outperform sniping Cruisers/Battlecruisers & even BS outside of a fleet composition.

Being that EVE is a game of blobs, these ships are generally not the only damage you need to deal with.
I cannot count the number of fights where a gangs composition is made 100% unengagable simply because nobody can tank the gang PLUS an extra 800+ that each t3 brings.

Cruisers can't exactly compete because they get shot out of the sky, and frigates can only kill them if the pilot is blind to someone burning for them.

Tier3 only become less effective at the large fleet level, where HP actually matters.

My suggestions? Do one (or two) of the following set changes;
- Nuke their lock range. Bring their max lock range to around 40km or so, resulting in rigs/mods being used to lock beyond.
- Reduce their speed further. They shouldn't be as fast as Cruisers, they are Battlecruisers.
- Reduce their scan res to somewhere well between BCs & BSs.

Frankly, ATM there isn't even a point trying to fly a tanky ship when these are still about.
I would even go so far as to say that one of these appearing on the field is worse than ECM.

Oh right, "Attack BattleCruisers" aka Tier3.
Naga/Talos/Oracle/Tornado

There's some problems that plague ABCs, too. They're called sensor damps and tracking disruptors.

Rock OP, pls nerf rock.

allow me to remind you that there are no tiers anymore, as if I'm some blathering idiot who doesn't think you actually know this and who also doesn't have the foresight to realize that you may have wanted to help clarify your point a bit.

But on a more serious note, I do think the attack battlecruisers are a bit overpowered. I think they would have been plenty popular if they had been nearly identical except for fitting medium weapons instead of large. They are more mobile and have a smaller sig radius than combat battlecruisers, and their HP/powergrid are lower to match, but still higher than cruisers. They could have even kept a powergrid reduction, say 50%, to make them able to fit a full rack of medium weapons on a smaller powergrid than a combat BC would have.

Don't be cute. A tier is that thing that ships moor to and you fish off of. Oh wait.

If we work really hard at it, maybe we can "balance" every class to the point where ships are indistinguishable from one another. -1, stop with the stupid neuter posts already; you're ruining the game.

ABCs are also pretty limited in their usable scenarios, you pretty much have to have Tacs and be warping in at range. Good luck breaking through a gate camp (even T1 frig gang could face **** a whole bunch of ABCs)

So, you constantly find yourself outgunned and your gonna complain about it? Field a better fleet.

As for ABCs, I think their fine the way they are. Their damage (based on ammo type) diminishes significantly with range and their tank is laughably week. Long range snipe (100+ km) ABC is almost ineffective as a group modifier. Max damage of a tornado would limit it to around 70km (w/ fleet boost). If you don't have at least one ship ship in your fleet that can shoot that far, your fleet is ill formed.

Also, you mention your in a small fleet (assuming a couple toons max). Get a larger fleet! Don't expect CCP to change the game mechanics so you can fly your few players safely.

Your fleet was out classed and out matched. Wouldn't expect too much symapthy in light of the fact that nothing is stopping your from fielding ABCs in your own fleet to counter.

BTW: I'm not being an horses rear (since we can't curse on forums). Check my stats. I get stuff blown up all the time. Learn from it (or not). Don't complain about it being unfair.

--- redacted