Eheufaucan
VIRTUAL LIFE VANGUARD
Initiative Mercenaries
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Posted - 2009.10.11 00:56:00 -
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Edited by: Eheufaucan on 11/10/2009 01:03:12
Edited by: Eheufaucan on 11/10/2009 00:58:57
Edited by: Eheufaucan on 11/10/2009 00:56:13
As a Phoenix pilot I was really happy that I didn't had to choose between long range and short range weapons. Constant damage no matter if the target is 20km or 120km away. Sounds unfair but on the other hand you do less damage, other capitals can "speedtank" your citadel torpedos (when in siege the explosion velocity is reduced to 17.4 m/s), it takes a long time until the first missiles hit and start doing damage (37.5 seconds flight time if you're firing from max range (if you think about such long flight times an Interceptor could follow the torps (4,125 km/s max torp speed), target and destroy them before they reach the target) and 6 smartbombs can destroy a citadel torp (I don't think a capital pilot will fit 6 SBs but its still possible). I think this compensates for the ability to do damage from short to long range. But now with the current changes missile users have more disadvantages compared to gunners.
First: the training time. To use Citadel Torps you had to train Torpedos up to 5. Now with the Citadel Cruise Missiles I bet you have to train Cruise Missiles up to 5 too because it doesn't make any sense if you have the torpedo skill as a prerequisit for the cruise missiles. Thats additional training time for Caldari and Minmar. Just look at the capital tank modules. To fit a Capital Armor Repairer you need Mechanic 5, Hull Upgrades 5 and Repair Systems 5. Thats two rank 1 and one rank 2 skills. To fit a Capital Shield Booster you need Engineering 5, Shield Operation 5 and Shield Management 5. Thats two rank 1 and one rank 3 skills. Again more training time for Caldari and shield tanking Minmatar. And don't forget that until a few weeks ago you had that useless rank 4 skill Tactical Shield Manipulation as a prerequisit.
To make it short for each race you need the following skills:
Amarr:
Gunnery (1)
Large Energy Turret (5)
Capital Energy Turrets (7)
Gallente:
Gunnery (1)
Large Hybrid Turret (5)
Capital Hybrid Turrets (7)
+ Drone skills (BUT as someone already mentioned before each race can use Drones, you can also use them on sub-capitals and every fighter should train for
Heavy T2 Drones sooner or later)
Caldari:
Missile Launcher Operation (1)
Torpedos (4)
Cruise Missiles (5)
Citadel Torpedos (7)
Citadel Cruise (?)
Minmatar:
Gunnery (1)
Large Projectil Turret (5)
Missile Launcher Operation (1)
Torpedos (4)
Cruise Missiles (5)
Citadel Torpedos (7)
Citadel Cruise (?)
Capital Projectil Turrets (7)
When I started playing EVE years ago they told me that for the Amarr you need lots of skills to be effectiv but these numbers say something completely different.
Next: maximum range. I did some math with the changes to the short range weapons and with all the weapon range skills at 5 (Sharpshooter, Trajectory Analysis, Missile Bombardement and Missile Projection) you get the following numbers:
Amarr:
62,5 + 6,3 km Standard
31,3 + 6,3 km Short Range Ammo
78,1 + 6,3 km Long Range Ammo
Gallente:
56,3 + 12,5 km Standard
28,1 + 12,5 km Short
90,0 + 12,5 km Long
(75,0 + 30,0 km with T2 Warden Sentry)
Minmatar:
56,3 + 18,8 km Standard
28,1 + 18,8 km Long
90,0 + 18,8 km Short
Caldari:
59,1 km
So if the Fleet Commander wants a max damage short range setups (for POS takedowns for example) gunners are still flexible enough and can switch to long range ammo at any time if hostile caps show up at long distances. Of course they're losing damage with long range ammo but at least they DO some damage at all. If the enemy shows up more than 59km away a Phoenix pilot does ZERO damage an can do nothing except waiting to come out of siege and move closer.
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