Ships & Modules

Removing the kinetic damage bonus and moving it to an ROF damage bonus does two things:

Breaks the racial damage emphasis of Caldari on Kinetic;
Brings it too close to the Khanid ships, which enjoy a ROF bonus to missiles but no damage type bonus.

People complain about the damage projection of the Drake with HMLs, and now they want to give it more range? Buh?

I'm really confused. Someone help me. Has the CSM gone full speed ahead into insanity?

The Drake isn't overpowered the way it is. People don't like the large EHP, that's a fair criticism, but at least compensate by giving it bonuses that make sense.

I really want this new Drake

I'll grant you that you do see them with BCUs fitted. Still not fantastic DPS compared to the other tier2 BCs though unless you're using kinetic, which is reasonably high %-wise in most resist profiles.

As for treading on the toes of the caracal and cerb, that's kind of an issue with tier2 BCs in general.

I find it ******* hilarious that people ***** about Kinetic damage and then go on to talk about how Canes do good damage. Has it occurred to you that most of the time that Barrage Cane is hitting the absolute highest resists of whatever its trying to shoot? But don't let me keep interrupt your pity party.

As to it stepping on the toes of the Cerb and Caracal: no... it really doesn't. They have a niche with long range missiles and that niche is going to be severely impinged upon with the longer ranged Drake. The real kick in the nuts is that the missile velocity bonus precludes any use the ships might be modified to have - since I think its a fairly realistic assertion that they aren't going to become up close Deimos-like gankers.

Furthermore, they're changing the role the ship has, and there has never been anything wrong with a bruiser BC. I'm all for the ROF change but the missile velocity change really needs better thought out than it is.

-Liang

Sounds to me like you've never encountered a proper "crappy drake". Again, don't let me interrupt your pity party. :)

-Liang

main problem of drakes is that they are boring above anything else, beside that they are fine really.

One bay thruster II puts the drake's range just over 100km and it delivers a higher damage volley which is important when the target can simply warp off most of the time. Then there's the fact it's only marginally slower, has far more ehp, costs less, etc. etc. You know, the obvious stuff. When do you think that this is not enough? Of course there's a theoretical niche where a cerb can lob missiles at 2x that range, but when is it useful? It's not.

The drake shouldn't be stepping on toes, but this role is garbage anyway. Unless there's a missile revamp dramatically increasing velocity and decreasing flight time of HML in particular, the cerb's might as well be an opux. You fly it for luls, that's it. It's too slow to skirmish, doesn't have the grid/ehp to brawl, and it's time to deliver dps at it's ideal range(s) is horrifying.

tl;dr: Do whatever you want with the drake, fix bad hacs.

You don't seem to understand: you can't "fix" the bad HACs if the Drake gets this bonus - it ***** all over them and leaves them literally nowhere to turn.

-Liang

You seem to be missing the point. Leaving them that niche is immaterial. It is a nearly-useless niche to have. I am not arguing the drake past, present, or future should or should not occupy that niche. I am saying that the niche should be revised, ie. making guided missiles faster and shorter range, or these ships should be changed to occupy fulfill another role.

You seem to assume I am (despite the fact i've repeatedly stated otherwise) arguing for the drake changes presented. This is not the case. I'm telling you the hac role you said it would eliminiate, was never worth occupying to begin with. Even with a small range reduction, just for the drake, it would still be more useful than a cerb.

My point was entirely to say, regardless of how effective or ineffective the drake is/becomes, the cerb is already obsolete. Sure, this might add insult to injury, but that's immaterial.