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[Rubicon] Marauder rebalancing

First post First post First post
Author
Cade Windstalker
#3481 - 2013-09-10 21:53:50 UTC
Ranger 1 wrote:
Keep in mind that many players don't understand fitting for gank if your NPC targets are weak to your weapons, and max tank if you are weak to their weapons. It doesn't make sense to them unless their chosen NPC target is both weak to their damage type and also using weapons that deal damage the players ship is strongest versus.

Limiting yourself to your own racial space is a somewhat silly concept in EVE. Choose and fit your ship according to what you will be facing. Stop demanding that a ship have ideal resists and the perfect damage type for the local enemy.

And in the unlikely event that you can't choose or fit a ship to fit your purposes vs. a particular NPC... choose a different target.

Meanwhile, carry on. Smile


Still runs into the problem of ships that don't have to make this trade-off (Kronos and Golem) vs ships that do (Vargur and Paladin). Which would overall be much less of an issue if they still had their local repair bonuses, even with the T2 resists.

Wedgetail wrote:
"fast" wasn't just in terms of velocity, but reaction time - referring in the sense that "whatever they do it must be done quickly"

takes less time for cruiser gangs to move to and from a target several systems away than a battleship, easier to chase down people over many systems.

and with the bastion loads the dps battleships have to get close enough, without bastion range bonuses most of these marauders can already fire effectively at near on 150 km with close range weapons, afterwards this'll be pushed out to near 170 - a standard t1 battleship with close range guns will function at a max of 50-60 km and a pirate BS at about 100 (yes damage reduction over extreme range applies but that's still a damn long way to be slow boating under fire)

let alone the idea that these ships will be able to effectively carry heavy artillery weapons with the fitting requirements - props to anyone that manages to survive the journey of approaching the marauders sitting off the gate camping, then surviving again after they MJD off into the distance when you get 50 km from them -.- (the scenario i worry about when saying 'the only effective way to remove these things is with artillery')


Um, what?

You lost me at 150km with close-range weapons. The only ship that has a hope or a prayer of dealing any amount of DPS at 150km with its short-range weapons system is the Paladin and even with four Fed Navy Tracking Computers Scorch only goes to 93+22 (generally optimal+falloff is where you stop doing "good" damage). Autocannons, Torpedoes, and Blasters all don't have a hope or a prayer of getting much past 50km.

This actually won't be increased much by Bastion because the last we heard the Bastion range bonus was stacking penalized.

As for the idea that these ships will be blapping everything before it can get close is a little ridiculous. There are certainly setups that already make use of this idea with other hulls but they're not exactly common because if you can get a warp-in on top of your 100km sniper squad then they're too close to warp to (and if they're far enough to warp to then someone will warp to them from the gate) and out of range of the rest of your fleet's help.

In general though long range guns or even short range guns firing at long range don't deal enough DPS to really turn the tide of a pitched fight unless you have overwhelming numbers anyway in which case the fight isn't really pitched. Against even numbers a short-range squad with logi support will burn down your close-range tackle/DPS on the gate and then just warp off or burn out of the bubble, possibly then warping back on top of your Marauders with the aid of a cloaky scout and/or probes.

At this point they're dead meat so long as they can't do something silly like use a MJD while E-war immune... >.>
Tyberius Franklin
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#3482 - 2013-09-10 21:58:39 UTC
Cade Windstalker wrote:
Ranger 1 wrote:
Keep in mind that many players don't understand fitting for gank if your NPC targets are weak to your weapons, and max tank if you are weak to their weapons. It doesn't make sense to them unless their chosen NPC target is both weak to their damage type and also using weapons that deal damage the players ship is strongest versus.

Limiting yourself to your own racial space is a somewhat silly concept in EVE. Choose and fit your ship according to what you will be facing. Stop demanding that a ship have ideal resists and the perfect damage type for the local enemy.

And in the unlikely event that you can't choose or fit a ship to fit your purposes vs. a particular NPC... choose a different target.

Meanwhile, carry on. Smile


Still runs into the problem of ships that don't have to make this trade-off (Kronos and Golem) vs ships that do (Vargur and Paladin). Which would overall be much less of an issue if they still had their local repair bonuses, even with the T2 resists.
Vargur not so much, it can output EM fine while having native EM/therm resists. Vargur and Golem also have better versatility for single ship pilots.
Cassius Invictus
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#3483 - 2013-09-10 22:07:57 UTC
Ranger 1 wrote:
Keep in mind that many players don't understand fitting for gank if your NPC targets are weak to your weapons, and max tank if you are weak to their weapons. It doesn't make sense to them unless their chosen NPC target is both weak to their damage type and also using weapons that deal damage the players ship is strongest versus.

Limiting yourself to your own racial space is a somewhat silly concept in EVE. Choose and fit your ship according to what you will be facing. Stop demanding that a ship have ideal resists and the perfect damage type for the local enemy.

And in the unlikely event that you can't choose or fit a ship to fit your purposes vs. a particular NPC... choose a different target.

Meanwhile, carry on. Smile


Sure. So why Kronos and Golem gets it and Paladin and Vargur don't? And since Kin and Ther are the best (arguably) resists in PvP it adds up. Its not about making perfect ship for racial missions its about equality between marauder hulls. Kronos is just much better at fitting for missions than Paladin, while also being better at pvp (since it gets the most benefits out of web bonus).

Anyway criticizing the current version is redundant as it probably will get scrapped. Now we should supply CCP with fresh, both good and bad ideas for them to consider (Mini doomsday weapon while sieged! Yey!).
Cade Windstalker
#3484 - 2013-09-10 22:14:22 UTC
Gabriel Karade wrote:
You never replied to my points here:

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=3570733#post3570733

But I understand now that is because you have no background or experience flying blaster Battleships and therefore are in no position to comment on changes that occured before your time - concession accepted.

Edit: You ducked/misunderstood my point about self-repair for 'high end stuff' - it's totally useless, as Incursions e.t.c ('High end stuff') are all based around remote repair....


Woops, must have missed your post. One second while I dig into some numbers.

Also for reference I'm a dedicated Hybrids pilot, I fly almost exclusively Blaster and Railgun boats and am well versed in their strengths and weaknesses. If you believe 90% webs are required for a Blaster ship then you're using them wrong.

Gabriel Karade wrote:
I’ll keep it straightforward:

90% webs today cannot be viewed in the same light as pre 2008. Back then AB’s were rubbish (double digit % bonus meaning bugger all difference to speed), tracking disrupters were rubbish and the bit about MWD you have completely misunderstood – the blaster pilot could light his MWD to pull some range to get better hits – if the other pilot did the same the sig bloom would kill them. With MWD killing scrams you no longer have to worry about this, going toe-to-toe with a blaster battleship.

In my opinion 90% webs should have never been taken away from any blaster platforms. Period.

I did point out back at the time ( http://oldforums.eveonline.com/?a=topic&threadID=834365&page=15#424) the absurdity of removing 90% webs from the slow platforms with sub 10km optimal range and how this equated to a 400% increase in target transversal – in that particular test a zero fit stabber (no modules) orbiting a Ion II Megathron with impunity – with no corresponding increase in tracking. Fundamentally this is down to a flaw in the tracking formula (doesn’t account for actual target size up close) but that is never going to get fixed.

As to my Frigate example, you completely forgot a crucial variable; scan resolution – by the time the Battleship has the frigate locked up from a typical gate encounter, if it is appropriately AB fit to counter said blaster Battleship it will be sufficiently close to mitigate the speed drop. If he has double webs? (Vindi - 5 mids, doesn’t help Kronos) Well don’t fight him on his terms, it’s really quite straightforward….

Fundamentally Battleship-sized blaster platforms were shafted by the 2008 speed changes and have never recovered and I speak as someone who has roughly half his career kills flying a blaster Megathron solo. CCP momentarily recognised this when they re-worked Serpentis hulls back in 2009, getting rid of the MWD cap bonus for the only blaster related bonus to make sense *drum roll*…. 90% webs.

Don’t take it off the last viable solo/very small gang pure Gallente blaster Battleship.


First off, the AB buff works both ways, helping Blaster boats as well as their enemies, so does the MWD/scram changes. With a web and a scram an enemy with a MWD is going to have a hard time pulling range on a Blaster ship.

You are of-course entitled to your opinion, but I fail to see any good justification for a system that completely destroyed smaller ships if they get within web-range and reduced combat to a nearly static "I shoot then you shoot" scenario.

I was curious about your claims of "orbiting with impunity" so I decided to take a fairly stock Megathron fit and throw it against, as you said, a purely blank Stabber (with all 5s on both). This was the result with Neutrons on the Megathron and one T2 web.

As for your claim that a frigate can get in close enough to mitigate this, this is only true right up until that web turns on. At this point the Battleship is actually moving faster than the ABing frigate (and he's certainly not going to be MWDing at that range either because he's scrammed or because it would kill his tracking and the sig bloom would kill him). This means that the Battleship can now pull range on the frigate and reduce the traversal to almost nothing, and that's without even turning on a prop-mod.

As for the dual web scenario, anything that makes the answer "well you can't engage that ship with an entire ship class" is bad balancing. Battleships are supposed to be at least somewhat vulnerable to smaller hulls due to their speed and maneuverability. This is why smaller hulls do less damage and have less HP. If you can completely negate that advantage then there's a balance problem since no other battleship can do that.

Back in 2009 they also created one of the single most powerful hulls in the game that's proceeded to over-shadow every other T1 and T2 hybrids platform with its raw DPS and web bonus. It's even generally considered flat better than many ships that don't use the same weapons system because that web bonus makes it essentially immune to smaller ships getting under its guns and if they pull range then they're easier to track.

Overall you're just sounding like a bitter-vet whose favorite OP toy got taken away. Ugh
Kusum Fawn
Perkone
Caldari State
#3485 - 2013-09-10 22:44:30 UTC  |  Edited by: Kusum Fawn
Cade Windstalker wrote:

Wedgetail wrote:
"fast" wasn't just in terms of velocity, but reaction time - referring in the sense that "whatever they do it must be done quickly"

takes less time for cruiser gangs to move to and from a target several systems away than a battleship, easier to chase down people over many systems.

and with the bastion loads the dps battleships have to get close enough, without bastion range bonuses most of these marauders can already fire effectively at near on 150 km with close range weapons, afterwards this'll be pushed out to near 170 - a standard t1 battleship with close range guns will function at a max of 50-60 km and a pirate BS at about 100 (yes damage reduction over extreme range applies but that's still a damn long way to be slow boating under fire)

let alone the idea that these ships will be able to effectively carry heavy artillery weapons with the fitting requirements - props to anyone that manages to survive the journey of approaching the marauders sitting off the gate camping, then surviving again after they MJD off into the distance when you get 50 km from them -.- (the scenario i worry about when saying 'the only effective way to remove these things is with artillery')


Um, what?

You lost me at 150km with close-range weapons. The only ship that has a hope or a prayer of dealing any amount of DPS at 150km with its short-range weapons system is the Paladin and even with four Fed Navy Tracking Computers Scorch only goes to 93+22 (generally optimal+falloff is where you stop doing "good" damage). Autocannons, Torpedoes, and Blasters all don't have a hope or a prayer of getting much past 50km.

This actually won't be increased much by Bastion because the last we heard the Bastion range bonus was stacking penalized.

As for the idea that these ships will be blapping everything before it can get close is a little ridiculous. There are certainly setups that already make use of this idea with other hulls but they're not exactly common because if you can get a warp-in on top of your 100km sniper squad then they're too close to warp to (and if they're far enough to warp to then someone will warp to them from the gate) and out of range of the rest of your fleet's help.

In general though long range guns or even short range guns firing at long range don't deal enough DPS to really turn the tide of a pitched fight unless you have overwhelming numbers anyway in which case the fight isn't really pitched. Against even numbers a short-range squad with logi support will burn down your close-range tackle/DPS on the gate and then just warp off or burn out of the bubble, possibly then warping back on top of your Marauders with the aid of a cloaky scout and/or probes.

At this point they're dead meat so long as they can't do something silly like use a MJD while E-war immune... >.>


I believe that what hes talking about is the second tier artillery, 1200's vs 1400's as close range weapons. OR possibly about falloff on 800 ac which has a chance to hit things at 150km but is very unlikely. (there is a chance to hit things at Optimal+falloff+falloff but its very low. Since AC is the only one that has the range on falloff i can only assume hes talking about this or is completely stupid. )

Its not possible to please all the people all the time, but it sure as hell is possible to Displease all the people, most of the time.

Cade Windstalker
#3486 - 2013-09-10 23:00:14 UTC
Kusum Fawn wrote:
I believe that what hes talking about is the second tier artillery, 1200's vs 1400's as close range weapons. OR possibly about falloff on 800 ac which has a chance to hit things at 150km but is very unlikely. (there is a chance to hit things at Optimal+falloff+falloff but its very low. Since AC is the only one that has the range on falloff i can only assume hes talking about this or is completely stupid. )


Technically there's a 1% chance to deal a wrecking hit at any range, which is roughly 300% strength, which is why your DPS never drops belong 3% no matter how long your range goes, relying on this is extremely impractical however.
Wolfgang Achari
Morior Invictus.
#3487 - 2013-09-10 23:14:47 UTC
Cade Windstalker wrote:
Going to break this up because there's a lot of different points in one 'paragraph'...

I am honestly not sure where you got this since it's certainly not in that large block of text you quoted.

If you're referring to the Bastion, then I would very much prefer the Bastion Module to be a mostly self-contained set of trade-offs that are balanced against the Marauder hulls (not all trade-offs are balanced for all ships) rather than a module that rounds out an otherwise incomplete hull and is largely required for the ship to function usefully.

This is simply my preference because I believe it makes for a more rounded ship and more balanced gameplay overall.


I went into this in a great deal of detail a number of pages back but I'll sum up the main points for you.

First, a majority of T1 ships do, in fact, have trouble tanking a lot of higher damage missions. They have to warp out, possibly repeatedly, if they can't bring down incomming DPS fast enough.

Second as has been pointed out repeatedly the local repair bonus lets you juggle around modules more freely and/or fit a less shiny tank which makes you less of a gank target. As things stood before the local-repair buffs of the last patch a dead-space tank was pretty much a requirement for efficient mission running. There are certainly exceptions to this but not very many.

As for your claim that they get a significant buff against a majority of other rats, that's somewhat up for debate. As I pointed out previously though, you're generally best off fighting your faction's rats in that faction's ship because you can hit them in their weakest resists. This is less true for the Golem and Vargur but the Vargur also gains the least out of its resists since Thermal is only a primary damage type on Mercenaries (generally not hard to tank anyway) and laser ships. On the flip side the Kinetic on the Paladin is hurt by most Kinetic damage enemies not taking as much damage from lasers as other weapon systems.

This creates an inequality between the various Marauders where the Kronos and Golem are left with a flat buff to their resists for most missions while the Vargur and Paladin are forced to choose between dealing more damage or tanking better and still won't tank as well as the Kronos and Vargur for most rats anyway.

If they were keeping the local repair bonus this wouldn't be as much off an issue. The inequality would still exist to some extent but at least these ships wouldn't be getting a straight downgrade from their current stats on TQ.

It's also worth pointing out that given this flat downgrade you're generally going to be better off swapping to a Pirate Battleship for the higher DPS since you're not really tanking any better.

Yes, but the Armageddon's old role was pretty sub-standard anyway. It was an intro level Battleship and with the skill requirements moved around and the other hulls rebalanced it would have been left as little brother to either the Abaddon or the Apocalypse.

On the other hand in its new role it has quite a strong use as a dedicated cap-warfare ship with strong drone damage which is quite useful in a variety of PvP situations.

Overall this is hardly comparable to the Marauders which have something of a dedicated little niche already, they just need to fill out that niche better and be expanded into other roles, not be moved to a completely different part of the balance map.


- That first one did kind of come out of left field, but switching to a T2 resist profile has never made a hull incomplete.

- Which missions exactly? I haven't ever used anything greater than T2 modules for tanking during missions. I even pulled out a few old non-faction T1 missions ships to give them a go over the last couple of days. Not once did I find myself needing to warp out of a mission, whether it be world's collide or any of the extravaganza missions (including bonus rooms).

- With a T1 resist profile a rep bonus certainly does allow you to juggle tank mods, with a T2 resist profile you can get away with using fewer tank mods to begin with.

- When 3 out of 4 resists are 50% or higher before adding any tank mods, you are going to be at a distinct advantage when facing a majority of NPC's compared to other ships. However since I'm clearly missing the point, would you be so kind to explain to me how that is debatable? I am genuinely curious.

As for the Paladin, it has the exact same problem nearly all other (T1/T2/Faction) Amarrian hulls have. Perhaps we should just switch either the primary weapon system or tanks on Amarr hulls altogether to alleviate this problem.

- Then request a more appropriate T2 resist profile for those two ships. This gives you the tank you want for your local NPC's, providing greater opportunities for PvE fits to fulfill it's niche role better, and allows the ship to be more flexible in other play styles as well.

- Again, if better resists are such a downgrade why are resist bonuses still on the chopping block? I also didn't realize that there was ever a point in bringing less DPS to missions. Especially when you aren't applying the DPS any better.

- Nothing wrong with having an inexpensive DPS boat, though a bit unimaginative I'll grant you. My point was that the hull was used much more frequently than marauders ever have been and it survived a very significant balance change just fine.

Another point from left field, I have noticed that a few people have been pointing out that there have been 40-50+ pages since the announcement of dropping the rep bonus in favor of T2 resists. What they haven't been pointing out is that a majority of those posts are by the same people. So either the marauder club in EVE has hired a spokesperson(s) or there are just a few very vocal people who don't like the switch.
Wedgetail
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#3488 - 2013-09-10 23:16:36 UTC
Cade Windstalker wrote:
Kusum Fawn wrote:
I believe that what hes talking about is the second tier artillery, 1200's vs 1400's as close range weapons. OR possibly about falloff on 800 ac which has a chance to hit things at 150km but is very unlikely. (there is a chance to hit things at Optimal+falloff+falloff but its very low. Since AC is the only one that has the range on falloff i can only assume hes talking about this or is completely stupid. )


Technically there's a 1% chance to deal a wrecking hit at any range, which is roughly 300% strength, which is why your DPS never drops belong 3% no matter how long your range goes, relying on this is extremely impractical however.



i had been typing an explanation but forum said no not posting - so i'll sort it out later

first cade: i have to apologize for neglecting to factor in the golem and kronos into my consideration, my neglect detracted from the discussion.

- yes i was referring to autocanons specifically loaded with barrage and a pair of TC's (50 km is the range a vargur has using EMP)

range works as: optimal + falloff = 50% damage optimal + falloffx2 = near 0

minmatar fight at optimal + (falloff x 1.5) (~33% max damage application) - something vagabonds do all the time - this is considered acceptable and the vargur's weapon range and tracking combinations is what makes this viable.

the thinking was based upon the premise that the majority of gangs are cruisers and frigates, battleships not becoming prevalent until the gang reaches about 10-15 people or more (due to the fact that battleships are cumbersome and difficult to support in lower numbers)

so there is not one or two marauders, but 4 or 5, prioritising the destruction of cruiser size hulls from about 80-150 km - which is my maximum expected engagement range for a marauder using short range weapons (if they started pelting me with autocannon fire from 200 km i'd be a bit shocked yea? XD )

(i used 150 as the upper limit, the "worst case" out of laziness, and the assumption that anything lower than that range would be more manageable for an aggressor)
Chimpface Holocaust
Brutor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#3489 - 2013-09-10 23:17:22 UTC
When can we expect to see some concept art for the visual Bastion transformation?
Marco Uvex
Brutor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#3490 - 2013-09-10 23:30:52 UTC
After all I read a refund of SP woud be the best solution for all ( if the "rebalancing" ever getting real).

Until you wake up Brother .... I' ll fight for you!

Tyberius Franklin
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#3491 - 2013-09-10 23:43:41 UTC  |  Edited by: Tyberius Franklin
Wolfgang Achari wrote:
- That first one did kind of come out of left field, but switching to a T2 resist profile has never made a hull incomplete.

- Which missions exactly? I haven't ever used anything greater than T2 modules for tanking during missions. I even pulled out a few old non-faction T1 missions ships to give them a go over the last couple of days. Not once did I find myself needing to warp out of a mission, whether it be world's collide or any of the extravaganza missions (including bonus rooms).

- With a T1 resist profile a rep bonus certainly does allow you to juggle tank mods, with a T2 resist profile you can get away with using fewer tank mods to begin with.

- When 3 out of 4 resists are 50% or higher before adding any tank mods, you are going to be at a distinct advantage when facing a majority of NPC's compared to other ships. However since I'm clearly missing the point, would you be so kind to explain to me how that is debatable? I am genuinely curious.
The inclusion of T2 resists has similarly never completed a ship. Also, since the resist increase is selective vs the rep bonus which applies to whatever you are tanking it means that sometimes it may reduce the need for a slot to be used vs always with the rep bonus. This is more applicable with the 2 ships with selectable damage output. The absolute resist number is irrelevant since you 50% number needs to draw upon base resists in all cases. Counting T1 resist strengths is not a defense for T2 resists.

Wolfgang Achari wrote:
As for the Paladin, it has the exact same problem nearly all other (T1/T2/Faction) Amarrian hulls have. Perhaps we should just switch either the primary weapon system or tanks on Amarr hulls altogether to alleviate this problem.

- Then request a more appropriate T2 resist profile for those two ships. This gives you the tank you want for your local NPC's, providing greater opportunities for PvE fits to fulfill it's niche role better, and allows the ship to be more flexible in other play styles as well.
Maybe, but that is beyond the scope here. One thing that can be said is that there isn't really another class that has had this issue since none had had the PvE focus of the Marauders. I certainly don't think it reasonable to address the entire concept for this case, especially when till proposed it never applied.

Wolfgang Achari wrote:
- Again, if better resists are such a downgrade why are resist bonuses still on the chopping block? I also didn't realize that there was ever a point in bringing less DPS to missions. Especially when you aren't applying the DPS any better.

- Nothing wrong with having an inexpensive DPS boat, though a bit unimaginative I'll grant you. My point was that the hull was used much more frequently than marauders ever have been and it survived a very significant balance change just fine.
All of your arguments ignore the fact that T2 resists are a selective bonus, not a wholesale one. If it was an across the board buff no one would be complaining. It's not, it's 2 of 4 (not 3) per ship which in some cases aligns poorly with the damage tanking/output pairs.

Also which is on the chopping block? You mean the decidedly better 30% to all that was proposed earlier as part of bastion? Probably because it was deemed to be overpowered. It was more effective than the active tank bonus while providing more buffer than a maxed 10% per level HP bonus since it gave almost the same per layer + being applied to all 3 layers.

Wolfgang Achari wrote:
Another point from left field, I have noticed that a few people have been pointing out that there have been 40-50+ pages since the announcement of dropping the rep bonus in favor of T2 resists. What they haven't been pointing out is that a majority of those posts are by the same people. So either the marauder club in EVE has hired a spokesperson(s) or there are just a few very vocal people who don't like the switch.
It's more likely, given the current place marauders hold, that it's only a small number of people who use them enough to care.
Cade Windstalker
#3492 - 2013-09-11 00:13:38 UTC
Segmenting things off because this is a lot of points and I'd rather things not get convoluted.

Wolfgang Achari wrote:
- That first one did kind of come out of left field, but switching to a T2 resist profile has never made a hull incomplete.

- Which missions exactly? I haven't ever used anything greater than T2 modules for tanking during missions. I even pulled out a few old non-faction T1 missions ships to give them a go over the last couple of days. Not once did I find myself needing to warp out of a mission, whether it be world's collide or any of the extravaganza missions (including bonus rooms).


-I'm not claiming it makes the hulls incomplete I'm saying that trading the local rep bonus for the T2 resists makes 2 of these hulls noticeably worse at PvE than the other two because they have to make a trade-off that the other two do not.

- Lets see, Blockade, ____ Extravaganza, Worlds Collide, Cargo Delivery is pretty nasty due to the neuting, and there's a good number of others.

Remember, my claim was not that ANY T1 battleship couldn't tank missions, it was that most can't. There's a reason the Raven and Dominix are most of what you hear about for T1 mission ships in PvE circles. The Dominix relies on either 2-3 repair modules or a MJD and the Raven relies on burning down incomming damage before it can either get in range or break your tank and that strategy may still require warp-outs for some missions.


Wolfgang Achari wrote:
- With a T1 resist profile a rep bonus certainly does allow you to juggle tank mods, with a T2 resist profile you can get away with using fewer tank mods to begin with.

- When 3 out of 4 resists are 50% or higher before adding any tank mods, you are going to be at a distinct advantage when facing a majority of NPC's compared to other ships. However since I'm clearly missing the point, would you be so kind to explain to me how that is debatable? I am genuinely curious.


The ability to juggle tank mods due to T2 resists only applies if you're facing rats that deal the type of damage your T2 resists are bonused toward. As my previous post points out the vast majority of mission damage is Kinetic and Thermal and both Gallente and Caldari T2 hulls get bonuses against both. This means that no matter what rats they're going against they'll be able to take advantage of at least part of their bonus and against most rats they can take advantage of the full bonus. They also don't have to make a trade-off between resisting damage better and dealing damage better since their resist profiles give them a buff against the rats that they deal the best damage against already.

For Amarr and Minmattar however you have secondary bonuses to Kinetic and Thermal respectively which are smaller than their primary bonus by a good margin. On top of this the rats that they deal the best damage against don't deal either of the types they're bonused toward.

This means that overall with the loss of the 7.5% per level local tank bonus they are in a worse state as mission ships than they are on TQ currently since they now have to make a trade-off that the other two do not in addition to losing overall repair power.

Wolfgang Achari wrote:
As for the Paladin, it has the exact same problem nearly all other (T1/T2/Faction) Amarrian hulls have. Perhaps we should just switch either the primary weapon system or tanks on Amarr hulls altogether to alleviate this problem.


The damage profile on Amarr ships is only an issue if it forces you to choose between things you can tank effectively and things you can deal damage to effectively.

In PvP this isn't much of an issue since most people tend to be omni-tanked anyway and Thermal is a good damage type to deal and EM tends to be one of the lower resistances on at least armored tanked ships post hole patching.

Wolfgang Achari wrote:
- Then request a more appropriate T2 resist profile for those two ships. This gives you the tank you want for your local NPC's, providing greater opportunities for PvE fits to fulfill it's niche role better, and allows the ship to be more flexible in other play styles as well.

- Again, if better resists are such a downgrade why are resist bonuses still on the chopping block? I also didn't realize that there was ever a point in bringing less DPS to missions. Especially when you aren't applying the DPS any better.


Tweaking resists to match mission rats hurts the ships in PvP. I'm not advocating for the T2 resists to go away or for the resist profile to change, I'm advocating for a local repair bonus on the hulls, preferably rather than on the Bastion module since having one on each seems to be a bit problematic.

Wolfgang Achari wrote:
- Nothing wrong with having an inexpensive DPS boat, though a bit unimaginative I'll grant you. My point was that the hull was used much more frequently than marauders ever have been and it survived a very significant balance change just fine.

Another point from left field, I have noticed that a few people have been pointing out that there have been 40-50+ pages since the announcement of dropping the rep bonus in favor of T2 resists. What they haven't been pointing out is that a majority of those posts are by the same people. So either the marauder club in EVE has hired a spokesperson(s) or there are just a few very vocal people who don't like the switch.


Yes, however it partly survived this change because another ship using the same skill requirements dropped into the slot it used to occupy with very little fuss.

Since the Marauders only have one ship per race under this skill it makes sense for them to keep their role and niche rather than seeing a drastic shift. If you want a ship for another role it should go under another skill.

You'll also note that the 50+ pages before that were a different set of "same people" where as there's been many new faces against the current proposal.
Cade Windstalker
#3493 - 2013-09-11 00:13:58 UTC
Wedgetail wrote:
i had been typing an explanation but forum said no not posting - so i'll sort it out later

first cade: i have to apologize for neglecting to factor in the golem and kronos into my consideration, my neglect detracted from the discussion.

- yes i was referring to autocanons specifically loaded with barrage and a pair of TC's (50 km is the range a vargur has using EMP)

range works as: optimal + falloff = 50% damage optimal + falloffx2 = near 0

minmatar fight at optimal + (falloff x 1.5) (~33% max damage application) - something vagabonds do all the time - this is considered acceptable and the vargur's weapon range and tracking combinations is what makes this viable.

the thinking was based upon the premise that the majority of gangs are cruisers and frigates, battleships not becoming prevalent until the gang reaches about 10-15 people or more (due to the fact that battleships are cumbersome and difficult to support in lower numbers)

so there is not one or two marauders, but 4 or 5, prioritising the destruction of cruiser size hulls from about 80-150 km - which is my maximum expected engagement range for a marauder using short range weapons (if they started pelting me with autocannon fire from 200 km i'd be a bit shocked yea? XD )

(i used 150 as the upper limit, the "worst case" out of laziness, and the assumption that anything lower than that range would be more manageable for an aggressor)


With four tracking computers on 800mm Autocannons with Barrage you end up with an absolutely ticklish 200 DPS at 150km and at 100km you're still only getting ~400 DPS.

This is hardly game-breaking for the reasons I've already mentioned. You're not going to out-DPS short range ships and you're going to need some amount of tackle down at the gate to hold things in place or they're just going to either burn back to the gate before you can kill anything or warp off. If you're in null they can burn out of your bubbles as well if that's what you were relying on. Overall you would be far better off bringing long-range guns which won't track very well if your enemy gets in close.

Taking the example of the Vargur, with 1400mm Artillery I'm getting 150-250 more DPS depending on ammo and which range you're talking about. with the added bonus of being able to alpha-strike soft targets.

A Cruiser with any sort of decent tank and remote assistance should be able to weather ~1000 DPS pretty easily, at 2000 you'd better have at least two dedicated logistics but you're still going to be able to burn back to gate if there's no tackle on-grid.

Never mind that this completely assumes that your enemy jumped a cruiser gang into your perched Battleship gate-camp without a plan to deal with them. If they're doing that you can do the same thing with Maelstroms or almost any other long-range weapons platform for less money and get the same result.

Also you don't tend to perch your artillery 150km off the gate unless you've got a lot of bubbles in place because you're very susceptible to on-grid warps at that range or anything within ~10km of it.
Kusum Fawn
Perkone
Caldari State
#3494 - 2013-09-11 00:23:28 UTC
I just want state that as a Kronos and Vargur pilot (i never liked the paladin or golem but i can currently fly them) I dont like the Bastion module, Nor do i particularly like the resist changes. The Marauders Active tank bonus helps keep it from being super effective at PvP applications as buffer is usually better (though the Vargur does interesting things with it due to the OPness of the XLASB)

the real issue that i see is what exactly is this ship being rebalanced to do? The bastion module is not good for pvp, Sitting at stand still is a good way to die in a fire, very fast, and with a vulnerability to neuts, active armor tanks are dead where they stand.
The only pvp winner there is the Vargur, as it gets an incredible boost to local tank (Dual XLASB, one reloads while one runs in Bastion) and has no significant issues applying its dps at engagement ranges.

For PvE, most missions require travel of 10-50 km ranges, rarely does one need to move more then 70km within a mission at a time, It is usually only the salvaging of a mission that requires the long distance movement that a mjd would provide though generally only for one or two wrecks.*

* The only mission i can think of that i need to move a lot in is Mordus headhunters, where the farthest group at ~140km only has an engagement range of some 50km and will return back to their spawn after moving that far.

This role is most often taken by a Noctis, as they have much longer tractor ranges then a marauder and can do that specific part of the job better. *

* this is all play style and choices. I personally will wait till enemies are within my tractor range (which on a kronos is the same as optimal engagement ranges) and thus generally do not need a noctis.

I havent seen any indication that Bastion is any better then current performance, As the CCP dev who used it in an example has not shown it to be better in any way, only different. And only in one very specific fitting style.

Its not possible to please all the people all the time, but it sure as hell is possible to Displease all the people, most of the time.

Darkwolf
#3495 - 2013-09-11 00:32:37 UTC
I just find it hilarious how we get this statement from CCP Ytterbium (sp?) before we got round 2;

Quote:
I'm not sure I follow this Shocked - if you're talking about missions, a web bonus is not needed - with turrets, you snipe the frigates first before they come in close. Even when they do come close, a 90% web usually isn't enough to keep transversal down to hit them with large guns.


And then we get a nerfed web bonus on the Kronos and Paladin, and we get web bonuses added to everything else and tank bonuses taken away.

Yay for consistency!
Cade Windstalker
#3496 - 2013-09-11 00:39:08 UTC  |  Edited by: Cade Windstalker
Darkwolf wrote:
I just find it hilarious how we get this statement from CCP Ytterbium (sp?) before we got round 2;

Quote:
I'm not sure I follow this Shocked - if you're talking about missions, a web bonus is not needed - with turrets, you snipe the frigates first before they come in close. Even when they do come close, a 90% web usually isn't enough to keep transversal down to hit them with large guns.


And then we get a nerfed web bonus on the Kronos and Paladin, and we get web bonuses added to everything else and tank bonuses taken away.

Yay for consistency!


The worst thing the Devs can threaten the player-base with is giving them what they ask for Lol

As he said in his last post, they're testing both setups and probably some others we haven't seen yet.

Plus the web-bonus was mostly requested by the PvP crowd, not the PvE people, who since the last version seem to be mostly against the web bonus.
Darkwolf
#3497 - 2013-09-11 00:47:02 UTC
Cade Windstalker wrote:
The worst thing the GMs can threaten the player-base with is giving them what they ask for Lol


Indeed. Made me laugh, that's all. It's like "Web bonuses are terrible. BTW guys! http://i.imgur.com/vmHsOIz.jpg ".

Here's hoping they do something reasonable with it.
Lloyd Roses
Artificial Memories
#3498 - 2013-09-11 00:55:34 UTC
Many longer playing pvp'ers are blaming 90% webs for dreadblapping working aswell as it currently does (and should imo), with 81% (?) webs, stacking penalties will reduce the max efficiency of the two webs max you could ever justify from some 97% down to some 90% (?). It is a whole lot better in comparison to a traditional unbonused web, but it doesn't push them over the edge I believe. 7.5% bonus is a fine thing, now that the repairbonus mostly got built into the hull by resistances.

As was looking forward to flying a Vargur with the first revision, now looking forward to fly a paladin :>
Gareth Burns
GeoCorp.
The Initiative.
#3499 - 2013-09-11 01:05:41 UTC
CCP wut r you doin!? Stahp.

don't give me a damn web bonus on a ship that gets bonuses on micro jump drives!

Noblesse Oblige ► Gareth Burns

Cade Windstalker
#3500 - 2013-09-11 01:19:09 UTC
Lloyd Roses wrote:
Many longer playing pvp'ers are blaming 90% webs for dreadblapping working aswell as it currently does (and should imo), with 81% (?) webs, stacking penalties will reduce the max efficiency of the two webs max you could ever justify from some 97% down to some 90% (?). It is a whole lot better in comparison to a traditional unbonused web, but it doesn't push them over the edge I believe. 7.5% bonus is a fine thing, now that the repairbonus mostly got built into the hull by resistances.

As was looking forward to flying a Vargur with the first revision, now looking forward to fly a paladin :>


Actually with two webs it only drops from around 97.83% to 95.06%. Still very dread-blap viable.

As for whether or not dread-blapping *should* work as well as it does... not the place for that debate. We can wait for when the capital-ships balance threadnaught starts up in six months to a year for that doozy of a debate Ugh