SFX Bladerunner
Minmatar
Bite me inc.
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Posted - 2010.06.14 14:21:00 -
[1]
The problem with current EA frigates is that they are not worth their price.
They provide a certain role on the field, which is specialized ewar.
They ARE meant to get blown up and primaried, pilots know this.
Their purpose is to provide ewar long enough on hostiles as to let your fleet gain the upper hand in the battle,
to die in a honourable flame of having fullfilled its duty.
In order for the above scenario to be plausible, and for pilots to actually concider playing this part in a fleet,
some changes need to be made.
As it stands right now EA frigates have some issues.
The issues preventing it from fullfilling its designated role (and, if you like, as CCP 'intended') stated above
can be summised as one SINGLE problem:
Its ewar/projected survivability graph is all wrong.
It provides too little ewar for too short a lifespan to be worth flying over any other frigate hull that has a much better rolespecific ability/projected lifespan.
Thus to fix EA frigates one or both of the above stated issues could be addressed, let's look at both of them in turn and subdivide.
1. It's 'ability', or in other words, effects it can project onto enemies and/or friendlies that are beneficial to the gang.
In order to increase the 'ability' rating of the EA frigates certain steps can be taken:
- One could add on top of the abilities currently inhabited by EA frigates by adding new ones such as: cloaking, probing or any form of Ewar not currently covered by them.
- One could broaden it's ability by adding side 'roles' to it in the form of for instance: adding more offensive (hp dmg) power, a better projection of said power and/or abilities.
- One could increase its current bonuses thus directly increasing its current efficiency with its current arsenal.
2. It's 'projected lifespan', or in other words, how fast and for how long the EA frigate can do its 'job' before dying in projected engagements.
In order to increase the 'lifespan' rating of EA frigates the following steps can be taken:
- One could simply increase raw hitpoints and/or resistances thus merely increasing its lifespan under hostile fire.
- One could take actions to decrease damage sustained on the ship by either making it faster (and/or more agile), making the signature smaller and/or increasing the range of it's 'ability', all to reduce incoming damage and enlargen the projected lifespan.
Those are rougly the non-specific scematics of what can be done, these are not in a 'practical' form of "+1 medslot" or the likes and that might seem useless and irritating to some of you, but rest assured this is done on purpose.
The matter of EA frigates is not "what specific fix would fix them" but "which role should it be enhanced on".
It is not a matter of working bottom to top by insinuating a 'fix' and then waiting for the results to filter through as the players on TQ find and exploit all the new posibilities of so called 'fix'. To effectively enhance EA frigates (or any other 'broken' ship (type) for that matter) one first has to decide which specific aspect of it you'd like to address and improve upon.
Once this has taken place THEN can you decide which practical application 'fix' would yield the desired result.
TL;DR: You're doing it wrong.
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