:Largeish reply to some questions and comments posted on Jan 22nd here:

Decided that the title was probably being less than helpful by raising expectations and suggesting that we wouldn't continue iterating after these changes. So I adjusted it.

We've got the resources all properly committed so I'm now ready to share with you all our initial plan to fix some of the biggest problems that face armor tanking in this game. Sorry for the extended period of teasing, hopefully the happy ending will make it all worthwhile.

I was going to go into this big spiel about all the problems with armor tanking in general and active armor tanking in particular, but you all know this so I'll jump straight to the interesting bits.

Here's what we're looking for feedback on:

Armor Rigs

UPDATE: Overheating Rig is pulled while I re-evaluate the method used to apply the bonus.


• Change the penalty on all active armor rigs (Aux Nano Pump, Nanobot Accelerator, and the new Nanobot Overcharger) to increase the powergrid use of local armor reps by 10% instead of reducing ship velocity. Note this is increasing the PG use of the reps by 10% (or 5% at Armor Rigging V) not decreasing the total PG of the ship.

Plates

• Add a new skill to the game called Armor Upgrades. This skill reduces the mass penalty of all armor plates by 5% per level. (Int/Mem, rank 3, requires Mechanics 3) This skill affects all plates (including 1600mm) and is separate from the stat change listed below.
• Reduce the base mass penalty on all 800mm, 200mm and 50mm plates by 20%

Armor Reps:New:

• Reduce the Powergrid requirements of all Medium Armor Repair units by 20%
• Reduce the Powergrid requirements of all Large Armor Repair units by 10%

Ancillary Armor Repairer

• Not the same mechanic as the ASB, please read to the end.
• Always uses the same cap as a normal (T1/T2/Named) Armor Repper
• When not loaded with Nanite Repair Paste, has 3/4 the rep amount as a T1 Armor Repairer
• When loaded with Nanite Repair Paste triples rep amount (so reps 2.25x a T1 repairer when loaded)
• Same cycle time and fittings as T1 reps
• Smalls use 1 paste per cycle, mediums 4, larges 8. Can hold 8 cycles worth of paste at a time. Reload time is 1 minute just like an ASB, but the longer cycle time of armor reps means it goes longer between reloads
• Limited to one per ship

:Edit:
Incursus
With these changes we're looking to reduce the Incursus rep bonus from 10% to 7.5% because otherwise it would be wtfbbqop. Forgot to mention that initially :mybad:

Quick Q&A about the AAR:

Why limited to one per ship?

The longer time between reloads is a big part of the playstyle we wanted to give the AAR, but that with multiple copies would completely negate the burst tanking ideal. In addition, there is more of a tradition of lowslot tanking modules restricted to one per ship so I made the call that in this case the restriction would be worthwhile. The ASB debate is a separate issue unconnected. Please note that nothing is preventing current dual or triple rep fits from swapping one of their reps into an AAR.

Why keep the cap use consistent?

The elimination of cap consumption when loaded is a huge advantage of ASBs, but we decided with the AAR to build the strengths in another direction, focusing on greater stability instead. In addition, one downside of the ASB's zero cap use is the inability of one player to influence the tank of another through neuts. This works ok for the ASB but I am not inclined to expand that mechanic further.

Why not just buff all armor reps?

One of the aspects I really like about the ASB is that it allowed CCP to decouple burst tanking from sustained tanking in a new and interesting way. Burst tanking is key for most PVP active tank scenarios while sustained tanking is more common for PVE. We wanted to carry that aspect over to armor tanking, allowing us to create new burst tanking gameplay without making current sustained tanking gameplay overpowered.

So we are very interested in hearing your feedback on this proposal. Expect at least most of these changes to make it into the next Sisi build for playtesting (the AARs might not catch this upcoming build but they should at least be in the one after that).