EVE General Discussion

The problem is that it doesn't need that much in the way of skills to get going.

Things like the 'cane - you do have to have the skills or you are screwed - a noob drake still works (I know because I've just trained an alt straight into one for isk making purposes).

Personally I don't mind them being an easy PvE boat - I just want people to stop liking them for PvP fleets because they are so dull to fly (although they do make good 'bait' ships)

So dull to fly? Maybe for you. As a new drake pilot at the time I absolutely loved flying them. They are perfectly balanced to rise well from heavy skill dedication.

They need to be left alone. And considering the CSM wants the drake nuked from orbit I seriously question their views on the Naga as well.

Nerf the Drake only when CCP finally give the Caldari something else useful to fly.

I'm trying to run a corp in Caldari Militia and recruit new players. The goal of this corp is to build a competent fighting force from the ground up starting with mostly new guys that we train. Being it's Caldari Militia we of course get mostly new Caldari pilots. When I sit down and try to create a skill plan for a a brand new Caldari pilot I'm stuck with a pretty big problem as someone whom is trying to run a range of compete gang types.

For a brand new pilot Caldari is a crap race for every ship except the Drake. You have to pick either Guns or missiles. So being the Drake is the best all around ship Caldari have for gangs I have to tell new guys to train missiles. Meanwhile their path is then set pretty much in stone for a limited time of ships they can fly. Kestral > Caracal > Drake.. (don't make me even mention Raven)

This means as a corp we are pretty much stuck with the Drake as our 1 useful ship. I can get new guys from a base char into a Drake that is fit "decent" but is useful in about 2 months. Yet that is really his only "useful" ship for gangs unless you go to faction frigs like say the Hookbill or a T2 frig like the Hawk.

I can't put them in Merlins, because while a Merlin can be an awesome frig, it takes a lot of skill points to fit it properly and dual weapon system. Kestrals? Well to fit them properly it again takes some pretty high fittings skills. Caracals? yea ok we have Caracals.. You really think a gang of Caracals is going to not die in fire to Ruptures, Stabbers, Thoraxs , Vexors or even freaking Omens?

Ok maybe they could kill Omens..

Meanwhile.. new Minmatar piliots have a very clear and useful path.. Rifter > Thrasher>Stabber or Rupture > Hurricane/ Cyclone/Tornado > Tempest, Mael or evena damn Phoon is semi useful as a gun ship.

Gallente while maybe not anyone's favorite race can go Incurus/Tristian >Cat> Thorax or Vexor > Myrm/ Brutix/ Talos > Mega, Dommi (people don't use Gal ships in gangs because most people are KM whores, but Gal ships rock in small gangs/solo)

Amarr get a little screwed on their T1's but once u get BC up they rock.

Punisher > Coercer> Omen/Maller > Proph/Harbi/Orcale > Apoc, baddon, geddon. (obviously Punisher isn't great nor is the Maller very outstanding)

Every race except Caldari has at the very least Semi useful T1 frigs/Dessies/Cruisers/BC & battles ships. for their main weapon system with out "HAVING" to cross train weapons to get something semi useful.

Caldari has the Drake for a useful gang ship as a Missile platform. Meanwhile anything else that is remotely useful in a gang environment for a Caldari piliot require cross training the guns. Once done they then get the Naga & Rokh.

Sure the Drake might be un balanced or maybe the Naga is pretty good, but when do the rest of the crap line up Caldari has, get rebalanced to be useful? Are we just supposed to fight frigs with Caracal if we want to run a Caldari Cruiser gang or should we just run gangs of Griffens & Blackbirds?

I will be straight up and say when I decided to take on a project of creating a new corp full of mostly noobs from FW, I seriously considered swapping to Minmatar, because it would have been 10 times easier. To get useful gangs with noobs in Rifters, Stabbers and Ruptures rather than having to train them pretty much straight to Drakes.

Yes lets Nerf Caldari because they need even less ships to fly. Why is the Drake so popular? Because it's the only damn useful PVP ship Caldari has out side ECM and smart bombing Rokhs. Fix the other Caldari ships if you want to see less Drakes.

I pretty much have to tell new guys that it might be best to side train Minmatar so they can fly Rifters, Thrashers & Ruptures because even with t1 guns they are better than the Kestral, Corm & Caracal. Insted we are stuck with Drakes that people whine about being OP..

Are you trolling. AB Harb with named pulses? Test server? I have no clue how you think that KM is relevant to anything, but you're welcome to enlighten me. I don't want to see both of your fits, tbh.

ok - I agree with your take on that. You do see plenty of the specialised caldari about in fights but far less of the smaller general boats.

Perhaps the answer is to balance the whole a little rather than just focus on one ship

Indeed! Ferox for the win!

The last time I actually flew one was the day prior to the patch that added the Drake. :P (Same patch that added the Rokh... But lets not speak of that)

Not like we had any other choice in BC's at the time.

The problem isn't the Drake, it's PVE and tier 2 BCs in general. Now, nobody really cares about PVE and Gurista-Drake balance, but let's pretend that they do. Fix this by giving BCs the shield recharge rates of BS. The PVP effect will be minimal.

Now to solve the problem of tier 2 BCs obsoleting tier 1s, cruisers and (to a considerable extent) close-range HACs, with the result that cruisers have no role and half the gangs that you see in space are tier 2 BC blobs. Fix this by cutting tier 2 BCs down to tier 1 levels; cutting their slots, HP and making the Hurricane in particular much harder to fit.

There, fixed.

As in Nuke half of EVE from orbit right?

Do not change the Drake!

So the ship should be nerfed because it is "boring" to fly? Fly something else?

You have me wrong. I'm not saying it *should* be nerfed because *I* don't like it - I don't like it and am cheering on the nerf because of that.



Why do I fly it - for PvE it sadly is the *right* answer - everything else is less optimal and when you are trying to get some cash together for more things to get blown up then optimum is the way to go.

However because I *can* fly it there are situations I end up being compelled to fly it in fleets for PvP which accounts for my dislike because it's like fighting with a damp facecloth instead of a pointy stick.