EVE General Discussion

Interesting.

I have a battle cruiser with rapid light launchers on it. The DPS is ALMOST that of a ship with HML, but not quite there.

Ultimately what I have is a BC that can take apart frigates. This is no big deal, since there were many tools already on the shelf for that purpose. So while the rapid light missile launchers are a neat concept AND they make a very cool sound too, I'm having trouble finding a use for them.

Now they are taking it a notch up, coming up with a rapid heavy launcher that can fit on battle ships. I think the idea would be a ship that can deliver a lot of damage to smaller class ships. But as before, there are already tools for it.

At the least, the variety should be applauded and welcomed, even if we have to scratch our heads and wonder what can be done with them. Another module that puts me in this situation is the Target Lock Breaker.

While a cruiser or BC with rapid LMLs can become a Q-ship styled death trap for tackle frigates, dictors, and destroyers, it's still a big target.

The same could be said of a battleship with a rapid heavy launcher - the DPS is down, but it's still going to be a big ship, slow, and easy to hit, and take more damage.

Therefore, in the aspect of "DPS as tank" - the means of which your DPS is part of your tank because it removes incoming DPS from the field, is entirely lost. Going "one down" on your ammo size, and being just short of the regular DPS you'd normally get from the more conventional fitting, is likely to create a situation where it's only a matter of time before losing your ship. You might have plenty of power left for tanking, but if you cannot remove the DPS from the field, that's a huge missing element of tanking.

So this observation and some scant work with my BC (having not had much time to actually fly it) I can only guess that ships fitted with these modules would be best suited for those situations where there is an expectation that you are only dealing with smaller ships or ships lacking in a tank. For example a BC with rapid LMLs can be terror for destroyers and frigates, but if another BC shows up, it's time to get out of there. I can imagine that a BS running a rapid heavy setup would be an ideal counter for those tier 3 BCs running heavy guns or launchers, like a Tornado. For here you have a BS running "one down" in ammo size more ideal for dealing with smaller hulls, and working against a ship that has "one up" in ammo size enabling it to destroy larger hulls.

Most notably, now that I think about it, the "one up" ships like the new battle cruisers and the stealth bomber have the large turret/launcher capability come at the expense of tanking capability and the "one down" modules, usable on any ship, enable them to deal with this threat but on great reliance to intel and a changing battlefield whereby the arrival of likewise hulls fitting more proper launchers brings the survivability of the former down drastically.


My prediction:
The light and heavy rapid launchers will see great use in small gangs. I can see the caracel. a cruiser that has a bonus for SMALL missiles(!) running light rapid launchers evolving into a small gang tackle/dessie/drone wrecker. There will be a lot of trial and error. The day will come when people in the "tier 3" (as they were called before Tiericide) , going up against battleships for which their larger guns are not as effective, and having sacrificed a lot of DPS to field that, will cry foul against the new rapid heavy launcher on the claims that those fielding it didn't require a special hull to do so. Whether they are correct or not will be a topic hotly debated by the usual brigade of trolls and players resistant to adaptation.

Let's see ... the Raven is a big, slow battleship. The Tengu is a cruiser with the ability to fit subsystems that enable it to zip around with relative ease in areas where a mission-fit Raven would last three seconds.

So, no. Even after all these nerfs that Baltec is dying for, strategic cruisers will be useful for something.

I can warp through bubbles. I can fit a covert OR normal cyno to my tengu. I can warp cloaked. I can find your ratting carriers and faction/t2 BS ratting alot better and faster then your raven will.

Just because of the new launcher doesn't mean any ship will be "outclassed" considering the Tengu is a Strategic Cruiser, medium class weapons. Then the raven is a battleshipwith large class weapons. It should have ALWAYS outdamaged the Tengu, it should have always out tanked the tengu. It should never be able to do all the other stuff a T3 can do because different class ships or different roles.

Raven - rebalanced.
Tengu - nerf pending.

OP, you will learn quickly that there are a number of dedicated trolls, who appears to have one twisted joy in their life, which is denigrating any attempts at rational thought. They will respond almost instantly with a post trying to out-clever the next in line with the best insult they can come up with them.

Ignore them.

Now, that being said, you will find that CCP treats anything with non null-sec impact with disdain, much like the trolls.
It is up to you to decide if it is worth posting valid points in the face of such opposition.

I for one hope that you do.

3 will as Legions are already ****.

These are good arguments. If the DPS stays the same with the new launcher it's way overpowered and nothing will beat it except 1600 goons in megathrons blaping.

Lol what?

A raven without range.....OP? Are you serious? Have you ever flown this hull?

It matters not to me.

Where do battlecruisers fit into these schema?