Ships & Modules

Hey all,

I've been away for the better part of a year, and I am looking to catch up on all the changes. It looks like a while ago missiles got the nerf bat, but I may be mistaken. I am looking to be able to function well in low sec PVP (Faction Warfare), and I have skills in Hybrids, Projectiles, Missiles and Drones. I have a couple billion saved up so I don't mind spending a bit more cash, anyone have any suggestions on a good place to start with for ships?

Thanks!

What I would do is to read the last few patchnotes, those might contain all the information you seek.

Drake. or Navy Drake.

Missiles didn't get the nerf bat so much as heavy missiles got the nerf bat, light missiles out perform many other weapons for frigates at least. Rapid lights are functional but you'll need either massive tank or people to cover you between reloads, not recommended for solo work.

Cruise missiles are actually pretty strong these days although the warp speed changes mean you don't see battleships in pvp very often but when you do Cruise missiles will typically be preferred to Torpedoes. Cruiser and smaller for the most part is what you're looking at for small scale work. HAMs can now be affected by your guided missile precision as well as things like rigor rigs which didn't affect them before but they still suffer from poor applied damage when fighting frigate hulls. Situationally HAMs can be pretty good though.

Railguns are very strong now since you have hybrids, blasters are still strong but the meta has pushed engagement ranges out farther than before thanks in part to the railgun buff so they can be tricky to use in some cases. Projectiles are largely seen as useless which is a mostly an oversimplification. They are certainly less of a standout winner due to other weapons being buffed around them and generally I would probably use artillery unless your hull has a falloff bonus.

Sentries are the almost the definition of EVE atm. Ishtars are everywhere. The HAC lineup in general is pretty nice since the rebalance pass on them but the thing is the good ones are all like Batman. Competent and good at what they do but forever overshadowed by Superman. The Ishtar is Superman.

If you're not aware ships had their warp speeds changed and your warp speed now also changes how fast you accelerate and decelerate into and out of warp as well as how quickly you actually make the warp. Battlecruisers and battleships now are quite literally left behind as they take longer to land on grid than smaller ships and with their long lock time they are easier to get away from or catch than ever. Cruisers set the bar and if you remember how your cruisers warped pre-warp speed patch they are completely unchanged by warp speed. Anything smaller is now faster, anything larger is slower.

The addition of Large and Medium micro jump drives (only fittable to BS and BC respectively) has the potential to help in this regard as they allow the ship to "blink" 100 km forward after a short ramp up timer while the ship maintains speed and heading on the other end of the jump as well. MJDs can be stopped with a scram but it you are trying to kite the slower ship to death it forces your kitey ships to come into a very dangerous area if you want to prevent a micro jump drive fit ship from escaping.

The HAM Drake can sometimes be OK, but the old HML Drake spam has been pretty much killed by a flurry of nerfs to the hull, its warp speed, its primary weapon etc.