EVE General Discussion

Yes, because sentries are a short range weapon system for use under 10k and Stasis Webifiers add optimal range to all weapon system don't they, genius.


The old bonus on omni's was good. However you are mistaken in that it was not excessive compared to the bonus increases offered by other comparable faction/deadspace gear. For example:


Faction bonus over T2

---

Armour Hardener (A type), 12%.
MWD, 50% cap bonus.
Shield Hardeners, 25% bonus over T2
Scan Probe Launcher, 100% bonus over T2
All damage modules, 25% bonus over T2


As you can see, I could go through EFT and find examples in almost every other category of gear where the bonus for elite gear easily exceeds 10%, (and none of this is even the best gear).

One glaring exception to this though is tracking computers and enhancers which have practically no bonus at all. So in that respect the change to Omni's might seem to be consistent. However, if you look a bit deeper you'll see that there are significant differences between turrets and drones that result in the downgrading of omni's having an excessively detrimental effect.

Here are some other mechanism turret users can use to enhance their range.

T2 long range ammo.
Lowslot tracking enhancers.
Rigs.
Implants.
Boosters.

Here are the other mechanisms drones users have to enhance their range.

Nothing.


Omni's were the only thing that drones users had for making Gardes usable for their only viable role (sniping). There's no point whatsoever using Gardes at close range since heavy drones do more dps and at close range the time to take for them to reach the target isn't an issue, especially not with a drone navigation computer or two, and this will be even less of an issue with the summer expansion where heavy drones will be made to travel faster.

Making the Omnis use cap also rules out using sentries in wspace where medium sized ships will commonly be capped out by the sleepers, so this change also destroys existing gameplay, and in general the obsession with making modules and weapons pointless on all ships apart from those which have specific bonuses to them (specifically drones and ewar) is clearly removing diversity and the potential for creativity in ship design.

Imo nerf was heavy handed and should be revised somewhat to prevent Gardes from being pointless on all except a couple of specific ships.

* There are other drones besides grades use one of them to alter your range, trading off damage - just like tech 2 long range ammo.

* Coming in next summer expansion as part of drones rebalance

* Drone Scope Chip - tech 1 gives 15% optimal, tech 2 gives 20% optimal

* Implants & Boosters - I'll give you that one but since they are looking at drone perhaps these are on the drawing board.

Oh quit whining. The balance on sentry drones was way out of whack.

Ever since we got drone damage mods, sentries have been easy-mode for a lot of things, and Gardes are the sentry I use least.

(Hint, the advantage is in the long range sentries)

For what it's worth though, Gardes are getting a big boost to falloff in the coming expansion to make them more useable again.

Interesting take on it but let's look at one other point.

Racial drone skills do not affect sentry performance. Sentry drone skill alone affects this.

As such, deploying different models of sentries is no different than changing ammo - if you want range, swap drones. If you want hitting power, swap drones.

Gardes are the heavy hitter version so range is more limited than other models but you don't need different skills to get more range - just swap what you use.

As for the rest - it sounds like room for other drone enhancements and I'd be behind that - implants, etc.

One last bit:

Drones were once, very long ago, the primary purview and domain of Gallente. Now they are ubiquitous for virtually all larger class hulls. Each other weapon system is far more specialized to a given group - missiles to whom? Projectiles? How about Lasers? ...

So drones have fewer options but are deployed on ships to a far broader degree than any other systems. It balances out more than the other components you list and are calculated to balance differently.

Just my take on it.

I always snicker at "next expansion..." and other such 'future' based expectations. Oft times this it doesn't seem to synch well. You know: Expectations vs deliverables? It tends to be a bit like a manual transmission with the clutch giving out... *snicker*

"Wait and see" is best but avoid planning on what one thinks they'll get. :-)

Ouch...it seems this one has peered into your soul Doc and seen the nasty. I guess people are getting tired of the asshattery of the one liners and are loosing patience.

tldr: The cuteness is wearing off for the non troll forum users.

:cripes:

TBH I have not done the figures but the blog post was suggesting someone with max drone skills as well as V in racial drones will end up pretty close to the same T2 damage they now have.

The same person will do significantly more damage with T1 and faction drones then they currently manage.

You completely left off the duration bonus. Which is identical. You have to factor in both to find out how much greater the bonus is. When you do this, it's 12%, not 25%. I know it's maybe not the crux of your argument. However, when you chide someone for the lack of "maths" and leave out half of the equation yourself, you should be called out.

Hmm... lets check the numbers because I was talking from memory and I think I was wrong:

Today Garde IIs:

Base damage: 50 thermal
Damage multiplier: 1.96

So base damage output: 98 thermal (50*1.96)

Tomorrow's Garde IIs - (based on the spreadsheet released in the blog)

Base damage: 64 thermal
Damage multiplier: 1.7
Benefit from up to 10% bonus from gallente drone specialisation V.

So base damage output: 119.68 thermal (64*1.7*1.1)

Now I might have my formulas wrong - but it looks to me as if the Garde IIs are actually getting a potential 20% damage BOOST in the summer (but it's more dependent on skills than today). Even without the drone specs you will still be doing 108.8 base damage which is an improvement over what we have today.

Good fun all round or did I completely miss something?