Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Dualprop Med Ancilary Shield Booster Blaster Raptor

Some toys go (poor Crow...) some toys come. The Fozzie gives, the Fozzie takes away.

Decreasing means nerf. Light missiles specialisation increase RoF. So decreasing it is nerf. Lights needs range reduction not RoF reduction. Duo of Nerf strikes again.

so why does the crow get all these special considerations to let it kill people, while the stiletto and ares just do nothing with their highslots?

kill crow please.

I've had some time to let these changes sink in, and overall I think they're good changes. The Khanid line of ships typically favors short-range missiles, so having the Malediction's RoF bonus only apply to rockets makes perfect sense. I think the changes to the Raptor will go a long way towards making it more viable, and most of the other changes I think are good.

But I think CCP is really breaking things with the Crow. Currently, the Crow can do too much at once with relatively cheap fits, and I agree with CCP that it needs to be toned down a bit. I like the change from missile damage to explosion radius and I think this part of the Crow change will go a long way towards toning it down a good bit from it's current state. But the proposed slot layout changes I think are horrible and really leave the Crow out of place with other 'ceptors, and leave the Caldari 'ceptors out of place with the other races. Here's why.

1. The Crow will be the only "fleet" 'ceptor with 4 high slots. Traditionally, only the "combat" 'ceptors have 4 high slots, whereas the fleet 'ceptors focus more on speed and tackle, not DPS. Increasing the number of weapons, even in the face of losing a damage bonus, is not focusing on speed and tackle.

2. The Crow will be the only 'ceptor with only two low slots period. This puts the Crow in a unique place in that it goes from being able to do everything to not being able to do enough. Speed is life to a 'ceptor, and to a 'ceptor that isn't the fastest of the bunch, only having two lows will cripple it. If it was already the fastest and most nimble 'ceptor, maybe this would be okay, but it's not.

3. What Caldari will end up with is effectively two combat 'ceptors. Even if it fits rockets for defensive use (which is fine for a fleet 'ceptor in my book), the Crow won't be able to maintain the mobility it needs to do it's primary job, which is fleet tackle. On the flip side, the Crow will become an incredible rocket kiter, arguably better at that role than at the fleet tackle role.

4. What happened to CCP's philosophy of making iterative, small changes instead of large ones? This change to the Crow is pretty large as it completely redefines it's strengths and roles.


Please, CCP, don't break the 'ceptor lineup in an attempt to fix one of it's members. Keep the change from damage to application, but for the love of all that is good and holy, please keep the Crow's slot and hardpoint layout the same as they are now.

great! That makes MY malediction way more interesting.

Fozzie, woudl you have any info on the general usage of rockets in game? Woudl not be the case that the rocket rebalance have not been enough to bring it on par with the other small weapon systems? Just seeing the general feel of " this is a massive nerf" on the bonus changes for malediction, you can see clearly that rockets are not highly regarded by players.

Fozzie, I really appreciate you chiming in on this. Honestly, I would rather have either simply lowered the damage bonus or perhaps looked at something similar to the Mordu's Legion line that increases velocity but shortens flight time but not to the same extent you do with that Pirate Faction.

My bigger concern is the slot layout and CPU / Power grid. My rough look at the Crow tells me that we are losing a significant amount of capability by having to make fitting trade offs that are deeper than the other interceptor lines.

I would vastly prefer taking the DPS nerf, staying with 3 highs and retaining the 3rd low slot. It looks like Caldari will have two decent combat frigates (but that's why we have AF's, right?) with these changes but really lack capability in fast tackle / scout role.

Can you please reconsider making the crow only have 2 lowslots? I was looking at the interceptor lines and this would make the crow the ONLY interceptor that has 2 lows. Low slots matter a lot on intys because you frequently need a MAPC to fit a bit of tank, MWD, and some turrets/launchers. Then you can fit a DC for a touch more tank, and a nano for more speed. Making the crow the only inty not capable of doing this makes the crow go from one of the best interceptors to hands down the worst. I agree that the crow needed a nerf, but this makes it instantly worse as an inty than any other inty available.

What? Please read my post about 2 slots up.

What do you mean "based on a strict interpretation ... it's a buff" ???

Sir/Madam, think about what you're saying for just a moment. Fozzie says a %6 DECREASE, A DECREASE in the rate of fire. How could you interpret that to mean an increase in damage?

He is saying this: THE RATE OF FIRE IS SLOWING DOWN BY 6 PERCENT ON ALL LIGHT MISSILE LAUNCHERS.

That's it, that's what he's saying. Read my other post above, and you'll realize that this means a decrease in overall light missile launcher damage.

Fozzie leaves no room for interpretation of the fact that this is a heavy-handed swing with the nerfbat. A decrease in Rate of Fire correlates to an increase in Cycle Time, and vice versa. A cycle time of 12 seconds means a rate of fire of 5 per minute, if you decrease that rate of fire to 4 per second the cycle time must be 15 seconds. This really can't be made any clearer without using crayons and drawing pictures. Stop being obtuse please.

As for Fozzie, whether these are his changes or not, he is still the face of them and I hold him responsible for the explanation of why such a heavy nerfbatting was required for an entire weapon system instead of particular hulls or ammunition.
Edited for phone spelling fixes

You're being pedantic.

In real game practical EVE application: he's slowing the frequency of how often the light missiles come out of the launchers, thus reducing DPS.

It's a NERF.

That's it, there's nothing else to it.