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This has been debunked already.
You can use 3 DPS Squadrons at the same time.


On the Nid:
Yeah, no, you're not going to go 2km/s anymore.
The "old", as in: the current, Nidhoggur gets up to 1800m/s hot with HG snakes and double Nano pre links.
It's basespeed is getting nerfed significantly, this alone will cut 300m/s. It's mass is getting increased significantly, this will put it down by probably another 100m/s or so. So, with skirmish links, you'll probably go 1700 or so HOT, and we all know how fast heated propmods burn out, especially if you have to cycle it three times in a row just to actually get to topspeed...

Unless the math I've seen is wrong, the archon will both outdamage AND outtank a thanny/nid.

Ed: Without EFT/fitting window on sisi working, it is hard to confirm.

how the than and nid don't need to use their lows for tank as they both get a strong shield tank

even if you do armor tank the thanny rather than shield you now have a much faster more cap stable and longer range fighter platform than the archon

EDIT and again you have more fighters in both the nid and thanny

lol have you seen that dreads work even better with HAW and require months less in training time

THIS,
the resi bonuses are plain out ********..
They dont scale at all with the dmg boni of the other races, also
specially considering that Chim/arch have mroe slots for theyr racial tank to start with..

how can ccp not do simple math and overpower two races ??

i love how everyone thinks the chimera and archon are going to be overpowered after using them on sisi the extra tank meant nothing because you could just kill all their fighters

but its not a different problem

its all suitability chimera and archon can survive better under capital fire but than and nid can last better against smaller guns

It's definitely a step in the right direction. The Nidhoggur seems like a reasonable option now for its speed bonus. The Thanatos still seems a bit underwhelming though. 12.5% more fighter durability can't get close to competing with 12.5% speed for most uses. If someone is going to kill your fighters, they'll do it regardless of a little extra durability, while the speed bonus can easily mean the difference between fighters keeping up with their target or the target outrunning them. It's also a range bonus or can mean choosing higher damage but slower fighters.
I propose buffing the Thanatos a little more with a 6% or maybe even 7% damage bonus to give it back the Gallente drone damage niche, and 5% fighter durability so it actually makes a noticeable difference.

With the current bonuses though, there's really no incentive to train a carrier skill to 5 for the normal hulls. Currently they get an extra drone which is effectively a 10-20% damage bonus per level and might justify training a 14x skill to 5. With that bonus removed for the Archon and Chimera, and drastically reduced for the Thanatos and Nidhoggur, you'd be a fool to spend over 40 days training level 5 unless you need it for another ship like a super. And if you have a super there are few reasons to use a carrier instead since they're worse in every way except cost and docking.

The change to 5% dmg is good. No need to fear carriers stepping into Super's terrain anyways. While the skillbonuses of the Nid / Thanatos now get the same damage than Aeon / Wyvern, the latter can field 5 squadrons at once and - which is way more important - can field heavy fighters. Nidhoggur should be a viable choice now compared to the Chimera, on the Thanatos I'm not sure yet.


So, right now with the added damage, it looks like this:

Shield: Chimera, the tanky one, Nidhoggur, the DPS one. A good tradeoff in my opinion.
Armor: Archon, the... better one, sadly. I'll explain why.

Carriers main use will be: DPS. After stripping them from their logistics role, all they can do is apply pressure with their fighter squadrons. While on shield setups, the midslots are used for tanking and the lowslots are used for damage, on armor the lowslots get used for both, tanking AND damage. Thus, the armor carrier that has the most "effective lowslots" is the better one.
In case of the Archon, it has 7 lowslots and 1 "imaginary" or "effective" lowslot through it's hullbonus: 20% resistance on Carrier V, which is very close to an EANM - thus the "effective" lowslot.
The Thanatos has 6 lowslots and 1 effective lowslot in form of it's Fighter Damage Bonus, being slightly above a T2 DDA.

My suggestion would be now: Take away one Highslot from the Thanatos and add it as an additional lowslot, bringing it to 8 effective lowslots aswell and thus on par with the Archon.
If fitting for maximum tank, the Archon would still win and be the tanky choice, as it's having one effective lowslot that is not stacking penalized and will thus reach higher overall resistances. If fitting for maximum dps, it's the other way round, the Thanatos now has the advantage because one of it's effective lowslots is not stacking penalized. When fitting for a balance between dps and tank, they'd come out roughly equal.
They would be differenciated through their High- and Midslot layout though, with the Archon having more "offensive" options - a utility high is usually used for modules like Nos, Neut, Smartbomb, Fighter Support Unit, etc. etc..
The Thanatos would be more versatile however, being able to fit an additional Drone Nav Comp for example, or go for a light shield tank with a maximum dps / mobility setup.

Overall, the move of one high to one low on the Thanatos will put it in line with the Archon and making it NOT the worse choice every time. It would make it an interesting choice instead.

Maybe this could also be adapted to the Nyx and resolve the issues with that one.

What do you guys think?

No, the opposite is my concern.

There's no reason to use carriers as these stats are aside from them being cheaper.