I'm Down
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Posted - 2010.10.22 06:33:00 -
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Edited by: I''m Down on 22/10/2010 06:40:10
The problem with drakes isn't about their damage, it's about their tank. If you don't understand how tanking works, any omni tank shield setup will always naturally have a higher average resist than any omni armor tank, with or with out the additional comp skills. With 0 compensations, an EAN 2 does 20% resist each type, with skills at 5, it does 25%. Compare that with a 0 skill Invul 2 providing 30%. And the ship bonus which doesn't stack with invuls.
What's happened is that when speed got nerfed, and probing got way way better, missiles became more viable in fleets.
So now you have a high average resist ship and a better punch from missiles. Thus the drake boom.
If you are unaware of how Logistics work, let me educate you. Resistances > buffer. Battleships have a huge buffer, but most people omnitank which means lower resistances than a drake. So fewer logistics are needed for equal effect with drakes. The other problem is that battleships cannot work effectively outside of 10km against enemy logistics. Logistics are way to hard to hit with guns beyond that range b/c you can't web them down. But drakes fire cruiser sized missiles. Which means that they can hit and kill enemy logistics way easier.
So you have a ship that can more easily kill enemy logistics, has higher average resistances, average damage, effective range, and the benefits of todays eve environment including easy probing, and no speed.
Then add to it that no other battle cruiser can tank, or do as much damage at range as the drake, and that Hac's have a very small margin of range advantage if you snipe, or lower range and speed than drakes with armor fleets, and you start to run out of options.
I do think there are counters to drakes currently. I do not think that the counters are enough. Remove the resist bonus of the drake....
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The easy solution is to change the resist bonus on a drake to a missile velocity bonus or missile flight time bonus just like every tech 1 missile boat. This places it's resist in line with the rest of the BC class which means less effective logistics. And in order for drakes to actually use their new found range, they'd have to choose to lose more tank to fit a sensor booster.
It would also give back the advantage that the old ferox had, and make it relevant again.
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