Ships & Modules

10 percent damage nerf and decreased range will hurt the nighthawk alot, we can only hope that the ship balancing next summer that includes field command ships will put the bird where it should be. Until then, I hope you have cross trained other factions ships. The nighthawk is my favorite ship but it will be docked after the missile changes until next summer.

The question is... How much that 10% slows down your killing. Are there any mission boats where you barely break the tank? Are there any mission boats you have to kill asap or are in turn decimated by?

I doubt this. If a drake with t1 launchers can handle most, if not all level 4s, I doubt your nighthawk will be hurting. Yes, it may be a little slower going. Yes, you won't be blowing up both pockets of world's collide from the warp in. Still, you shoukd not have major problems and if a 10% drop in kill rate is that detrimental, you should probably not be flying the nighthawk in the first place.

And if you do, ravens will still work well. Train cal BS to 4,get t2 cruise launchers ans don't stress about it.

Besides unless you lose nighthawks regularly or use missions to fund heavy pvp loss, you've built up enough isk that a minor slow down will not hurt you.

Basically, a heavy missile nerf does not mean the sky is falling. And if it does... Switch to HAMs, add an mwd, and go that route.

Its not just the 10 percent, the flight time and explosion radius change hurt as well. Its not like the nighthawk will be total garbage, but it currently is weaker than it should be and this just makes it worse, especially considering the amount of skills needed to fly it. Not sure I want to use hams on it though.

Technically you'll be able to regain some of the range back by using a TE or TC, so the range of heavy missiles won't be as greatly impacted. Of course you'll be most likely dropping a BCU to fit this which will further hurt your DPS.

Nonetheless, you'll probably still be able to solo lvl 4's in a nighthawk, it will just be a bit slower. I have said before that I understood the need to nerf damage of Heavy missiles, but nerfing their range didn't make sense as they are (atm) exactly half way between light and cruise missiles in range. But CCP has determined this is the best way, besides the tradeoff is a significant buff to Rockets, Torps and (especially) Hams which is something I am really looking forward too. Having fitting options is always a good thing.

I wouldn't expect great changes in t2 ships, and it could well be another year or more before t2 command ships are touched, which is a shame as the nighthawk really needs more grid (or gang links need to use less grid).

As a Damnation pilot, I feel your pain, but I dont see it making L4's impossible or even that much harder for the NH. It will simply be closer to the bad guys, and take a little longer to kill them. I guess we shall see soon enough (anyone been able to try it on Test yet? I am really curious about the performance of both boats).

~Z

Great! Then I might not need to buy a new gfx-card after all

Oh come on. The tengu will still breeze through lvl 4s after the missile nerf.

WAY too many people confuse the terms "viable" and "optimal".

This^^

I've probably spent way more than a year on training skills to optimise the Nighthawk for tank and gank (and supporting skills), so my question is related to the effectiveness of the Nighthawk after the nerfs - not any concern about the tank (tank and gank almost maxed) .

Missioning is a bread and butter activity, so anything that slows missioning down is going to annoy. With 3 BCUs I get about 516dps (613 with drones added), so anything less is going to be of dubious worth. After spending so much time training the extensive skills required to get the most out of the Nighthawk (let alone the original training just so I could fly it), I feel that this nerf may be a game-breaker for me.

Just not happy about about this nerf at all.

In my experience its completely opposite of this. Splitting launchers in to 2 or 3 significantly increases the overall killing speed.

Not to mention, with HMLs getting a solid speed boost it will be easier to just swap once you've shot the recuired amount of volleys to kill your target.

And then I havent even mentioned HAMs and how it looks like they're gonna be completely amazing.

when you have to spend half the time 'flying' instead of shooting, your effective dps is cut in half. at that point, you might as well fly an assault frigate.