Aw droneboat still has the least amount of slots total. I just can't understand why you keep cuting this one slot down. Is there a reason beside:

- Drones are a destructible source of damage/debuff
- Drones have travel time
- Utility drones don't work(except for jamming ones)
- Drones are user unfriendly
- Drones deal only EM and Exp damage types

... to handicap the ships so much?

Please. CCP Forzie, tell me that an in-built damage amplifier takes up that slot or maybe a drone bay leaves no internal hull space.

Maller:
Cruiser skill bonuses:
5% bonus to Medium Energy Turret damage
5% bonus to all Armor Resistances
Slot layout: 5 H (-1), 3 M, 6 L, 5 turrets
Fittings: 1000 PWG (+100), 280 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 1200(-168) / 2100(+225) / 1700(-19)
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / average cap per second): 1550(+50) / 515s(-22.5s) / 3 (+0.2)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 205(+41) / 0.56(-0.045) / 11550000 / 6.1s (-0.4)
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 0 / 0
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 47.5km / 280(+10) / 6
Sensor strength: 16 Radar (+2)
Signature radius: 130
Cargo capacity: 480 (+200)

Omen:
Cruiser skill bonuses:
10% bonus to Medium Energy Turret capacitor use
5% bonus to Medium Energy Turret rate of fire
Slot layout: 5 H, 3 M, 6 L (+1), 5 turrets
Fittings: 925 PWG (+195), 315 CPU (+65)
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 1200(+27) / 1700(+137) / 1600(+37)
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / average cap per second): 1475(+225) / 526s(+79.75s) / 2.8
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 225(+44) / 0.51(-0.05) / 11650000 / 5.6s (-0.5)
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 40(+25) / 40(+25)
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 55km(+10) / 300(+7) / 6(-1)
Sensor strength: 15 Radar (+2)
Signature radius: 125
Cargo capacity: 400(-50)

Vexor:
Cruiser skill bonuses:
5% bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret damage
10% bonus to drone hitpoints, damage and mining yield
Slot layout: 4 H (-1), 4 M (+1), 5 L (+1), 4 turrets
Fittings: 800 PWG (+125), 300 CPU (+30)
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 1100(-73) / 2000(+515) / 2000(+515)
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / average cap per second): 1450(+200) / 482.5s(+36.25s) / 3 (+0.2)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 215(+46) / 0.6(+0.03) / 10310000 / 5.8s (+0.3)
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 75 / 100
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 52.5km / 280(+4) / 6(+1)
Sensor strength: 16 Magnetometric (+2)
Signature radius: 145 (-5)
Cargo capacity: 480

Rupture:
Cruiser skill bonuses:
5% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret firing speed
5% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret damage
Slot layout: 5 H (-1), 4 M (+1), 5 L, 4 turrets, 2 launchers
Fittings: 860 PWG, 350 CPU (+25)
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 1500(-63) / 1800(+159) / 1600(+37)
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / average cap per second): 1275(+25) / 425s(-21.25s) / 3(+0.2)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 240(+48) / 0.54 / 11650000 / 5.9s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 30 / 30
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 50km(+5) / 290(+8) / 6(+1)
Sensor strength: 15 Ladar (+3)
Signature radius: 125 (-5)
Cargo capacity: 450 (+150)

CCP has flatly stated that they dislike the buffer shield tank trend happening in EVE and the lot of you ignore that and continue to cry out for the ability to do it on all shield tanked ships.

Most of these threads are all over the place but there seems to be general consensus on most points here:

Moa - needs another mid. More PG.
Rupture - too much
Maller - underwhelming.

I like how instead of making medium rails good, they're simply making all Caldari gunboats blasterboats.

Woo homogeneity

The new Merlin doesn't have the utility high so probably Moa shouldn't either. Another mid would allow for ridiculous shield tank which would be awesome.

Rupture(and Minmatar in general). CCP thinks 40 m/s is not so much. Well yeah... probably... until you multiply it by 6 and then 1.094 on top of the best agility in the class.

Kinda agree on the Maller. It still lacks the soul or purpose.

I like how instead of making medium rails good, they're simply making all Caldari gunboats blasterboats.

Woo homogeneity

Besides, Gallente have to deal with the suck that is Railguns too, so it's hardly homogeneity.

Droneboats in general need a LOT more CPU to work with. A t2 drone link augmenter uses 55 CPU alone. A t1, 50cpu. The drone rigs decrease cpu by 10%, on ships that already have sever cpu limitations, their drone based damage mods are ridiculously hard to fit. The ishtar suffers from this problem immensely.

Wut? Isn't that exactly what homogeneity is?

You may have noticed that all the combat frigates with utility highslots are absolute trash.

Hello everyone! We've got the final set of T1 Cruisers here for you all. The Combat Cruisers are designed as frontline warships with both solid damage and good staying power.

These ships got somewhat less dramatic changes than the others. The average EHP of the set is only 2% higher than the average EHP of the old Tier 3 cruisers. Their main advantages over the other t1 cruisers are in tanking and a more robust capacitor pool.

Vexor:
Cruiser skill bonuses:
5% bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret damage
10% bonus to drone hitpoints, damage and mining yield
Slot layout: 4 H (-1), 4 M (+1), 5 L (+1), 4 turrets
Fittings: 800 PWG (+125), 300 CPU (+30)
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 1100(-73) / 2000(+515) / 2000(+515)
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / average cap per second): 1450(+200) / 482.5s(+36.25s) / 3 (+0.2)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 215(+46) / 0.6(+0.03) / 10310000 / 5.8s (+0.3)
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 75 / 100
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 52.5km / 280(+4) / 6(+1)
Sensor strength: 16 Magnetometric (+2)
Signature radius: 145 (-5)
Cargo capacity: 480

So I take it Gallente drone boats will never get away from split weapon systems?

So they're both slow armor brawlers. I guess the Omen vs Maller is a question of better fittings + resist bonus vs drones? I honestly don't see the point of the Omen.

Maller with laser bonus \o/

Rifter? The old AC Punisher was nice too.

Rupture:
Cruiser skill bonuses:
5% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret firing speed
5% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret damage

The new Omen and Maller demonstrate why the Maller should really have been redesigned as HAM ship.

I believe the Maller not having drones is an attempt to differentiate it from the Omen. The drone bay and the second ship bonus (-10% cap usage vs +5% armor resists) are the only major differences between the two ships. The slot layout is identical and minor differences in armor and speed don't really affect the "feel" of the ship.

Now the Maller is running into problems because not having a drone bay hurts especially with lasers. But if you give it a drone bay, it's going to be very, very similar to the Omen. At the same time, the Maller pretty much needs a cap injector too because it doesn't have a laser cap usage bonus. So it would need one more slot than its peers which is "breaking the rules" so to speak.

If the Maller becomes a HAM ship you don't need to give it a drone bay nor an extra slot and it's going to be a very different ship from the Omen.

There is a similar problem at the frigate level too, with too many laser ships being too similar to each other.

Also, to address the whole Maller thing here.

Why not turn it into a missile ship? I mean, we have the Sacrilege, which is a T2 Maller hull. It's a missile ship. What I think, is that the Maller should not be specialized to using just Heavy Assault Launchers. Definitely give it a rate of fire bonus to heavy and heavy assault missiles, and keep the 5% bonus to armor resistances per level. This will make it somewhat different from the Omen, which is something I hear people complaining about in multiple threads.

And yes, I do think the Maller could use a drone bay. 15m^3 at the most.

I don't really know if that'd help but it's capacitor would then be able to be set aside for mobility and defense.

I feel like the right answer is to turn the Omen into a giant Slicer - make it fast with an optimal+damage bonus. Then give the Maller the brawler role with a 25m^3 drone bay.

-Liang

I feel like the right answer is to turn the Omen into a giant Slicer - make it fast with an optimal+damage bonus. Then give the Maller the brawler role with a 25m^3 drone bay.

-Liang