Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Been looking at the Claw and theorycrafting in EFT.

And I just can't for the life of me figure out what to do with it.

Going AC fit with 2 mids seems counter productive except in small gang fights. ACs seem to just suck. They don't have the best tracking, they have poor damage, and having long falloff is overrated when lasers get optimals that reach just as far; lasers just do more damage at AC falloff.

Relying on scram in the last mid will cause your target to stop - to deal damage effectively you will need to slow down and orbit, putting you at low transversal against other enemies on the field. Against a blaster fit victim you are outgunned. A laser ship wouldn't let you get close and will outgun you too.
Scram Claws also have a limited ship engagement scope - you only really get to chase down other fleet inties and drop them to let your friendlies escape.

For a ship with the highest base speed its pretty slow with MWD. Ares has higher speed potential, can be shield tanked. Claw in comparison has to be plate tanked, slowing it down. If you go for speed, you lose the tank. If you keep the tank you cannot chase down other inties, which begs the question - what is your damn role? Ares is just flat out better.

The Rubicon thread mentioned the possibility of "valid arty fits". You will find that arties don't really get respectable range on a claw. Suffering the same fate as ACs, falloff is overrated - at falloff edge you deal just 40% of your DPS. Being in 30% of your falloff you are too close to scram/web, nvm the lethal range of other guns.

The alpha damage of 280mm at this short range is comparable to the longer range LML Condors that don't require Tracking Enhancers or 12PG per turret. 250mm are easier to fit, but the low alpha and range are not worth it.

I don't think the fault is in the hull. Rather Projectile turrets just generally suck, at least on small scale. Outside of arty thrashers, it seems their only other application is on unbonused support ships; for the ACs low fitting and the general no cap use perk of projectiles.

The falloff trait should be largely overbloated. Scorch lasers reach 20kms OPTIMAL on select hulls. 200mm AC with Barrage only reach 18km falloff on 50% falloff hulls? And you deal 40% DPS at that range. Doesn't feel right at all, does it?
Not sure what of small Arties.

Inb4 "claw fain git gud u mad"

On a srs note, help me out here. Am I being picky?

But the situation with lasers is not a conflict of expectations, or am I wrong on what scorch does with pulse lasers?
I mean hulls with laser optimal bonuses reach ~20km optimal, do they not? And within optimal range you deal full damage, bar any errors due to tracking.
Whilst with ACs and barrage you are at the edge of your falloff. The damage doesnt go down but the chance to hit is low due to range alone, nvm tracking.

And the question still stands - what to do with the claw?

the LML nerf stops making RoF rig the superior choice for damage boost compared to damage rig. Thats reasonable. But why do RLMLs exist? No cruiser gets a substantial fire rate bonus for setting small turrets on their ship to deal with frigs. Why would missile launchers get such a bonus? Were they not powerful enough for what you give up? Wouldn't that mean LML's are even less powerful, since therre's no small turret bonus on cruisers like using an RLML to use light missiles for better damage?



Not garbage. They just consistent and lower damage than the alpha of slot machine ACs or hybrids. A really good shot at the right time with the other two is massive damage, but low damage at other times. A pulse laser is moderate damage at all times, so it looks worse. You think people fly face melt coercers for no reason? The real awful damage laser is the beam laser. high fitting costs, high cap use, and terrible DPS compared to hybrids or projectiles.