Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I've seen smartbombing mallers get close to wiping out entire waves of sentries and single one putting the flight into armor by the time primary was switched and we actually killed that brick. 2 or 3 would have easily killed the entire blob of sentries.

If you want to do it optimally get a warp in on the sentries and use a mobile depot to refit two active hardners for the damage type of the drones on field (what else are Ishtars going to do to you...shoot?) and fit smartbombs for the same damage type as the drones since your smart bombing ships will be hitting each other. All you need is tank, smartbombs and cap and even on a very quick try fitting a Maller I can get one that using this philosophy against bouncers will tank almost 170k damage straight explosive with 93.4% resist to explosive using a pair of heated T2 hardners. This is unlinked and unslaved, even adding in links takes it over 200k.

Even if they die, that's that much damage not being taken by others in the fleet and it is really easy and not costly to have extra smartbombing mallers around.

Ah, yes, the smartbomb Maller, mainstay of any actual fleet doctrine, ever.

Hell, I'll go ahead and assume that isn't an obvious troll. So, if I have to sacrifice a pilot to *maybe* get a set of drones into armor, let's say I need two pilots to take out a flight of them.

How many flights are typically fielded?

So, I need 2 pilots * number of flights fielded + regular fleet dps + logi. And plus, I will probably more than a few sets of smartbombers, since most perceptive FCs will call for scatter as soon as they see what's going on, so I will have to have different teams chasing them down.

And you think that's cool, right?

[edit: And hell's bells, you do realize that a strategy of burning directly towards them means that I will be getting wrecked with zero transversal with every shot, right?

Have you asked the same question when Hellcats were the standard for Fleet PVP, or Alpha Maels, or Tengus? And surprisingly, these ships haven't even received any nerf in recent years. The Ishtar, and by extension the Dominix, is only as popular because its Sentries allow them to stay away from the big blobs of enemies and stay alive -- and fight. Whatever else you bring that can't stay 100 or so away from the big enemy blob when you fight outnumbered, dies without any effect done to the enemy. Take BS, for example, they would just be obliterated in a matter of minutes by Dreads and you couldn't do anything to prevent this.

Ishtars also allow to continue a fight when the enemy, especially in small scale PVP, brought in the I Win I Am A Coward button, aka Falcon, Rook or Griffin, Kitsune. This way of fighting is just too popular these days and Ishtars are a valid counter to this hypocrisy and bigotry.
Also, with regards to the Armor Ishtars: They are utterly crap. ^^
And another by the way: Shooting Sentry drones is absolutely a valid option and a very effective option. As stated in one of the other topics around the Ishtars: Don't do it with your main fleet, have a second fleet of smaller ships take care of it from long range. I heard that CFC's long range Harpies are very effective in that regard.

So, yes, after first hand experience with Ishtars in big fights as well as small fights, I don't see any reason why the Ishtar is out of place or deserves further nerfs as long as this game's player population continues to be as insular as it is right now.

https://zkillboard.com/

Ishtar isn't even top ship. Yeah it's good but nowhere near out of control.

Top Ships
1.Crow 8,090
2.Sabre 7,177
3.Ishtar 5,626
4.Stiletto 5,597
5.Proteus 4,915
6.Loki 4,764
7.Malediction 4,569

You are trolling right?
If not read about interceptors , missile one especially.
Then check what is sabre , when and where people are using it.
Do not forget about Tech 3 cruisers

This illustrates perfectly why sentry drones are bad.

your only other post in this thread neither mentions bombs nor supplies a suggestion on how to deal with the loss of whole waves of drones.

additionally, is your fleet immobile? is your FC so incompetent as to have bubbled your own fleet instead of the enemy? leaving grid is a perfectly acceptable solution relegating sentry drones to defense only as any competent fleet would simply warp off grid when the ishtars got sufficiently far away from their sentries so as to make them choose to waste time flying back to their drones or abandoning them causing their loss without so much as a shot fired.

Considering you seem to lack all logic and any memory of what actually you addressed, perhaps it is you who should shut up. (additionally note that "shut up" is two words :P)

Haha, and you respond with this ad hominem drivel.

You are complaining about alpha, armor tank your Ishtar, problem solved. OH NO, TRADEOFFS!

"If you are not in null, why are you engaging a fleet of Ishtars?" Haha, man, if you can't see the irony in this statement, God help you.

Sentry drones don't have particularly high alpha considering they are a battleship weapon. Garde's have about the alpha of an arty Rupture. Sure it's a decent amount, but it compares to medium guns. The current meta does not revolve around only high alpha, it revolves around massive DPS, particularly the BS type damage Ishtars can provide and project.

Ishtars are so represented because of their mobility and ability to provide huge dps at the same time. This is the only HAC that can do this successfully. This is the very definition of overpowered, too strong, out of balance, etc.

You have no idea how many Ishtar fleets I have seen and fought against, please use your brain before responding with your Ishtar fanboy bullshit.

DId you just argue that its not OP because you can run away from it? Cant tell if trolling or an idiot.

smartbomb, ecm (if they haven't already started firing), stealth bomber (if in null)

there's 3 ways to counter then right off the top of my head :)

My point is the complainers are making it seem like everyone is using an Ishtar. Facts don't back your claims at all.

If CCP gives and you destroy the Ishtar you'll just move on and ***** about some other ship that you can't handle.