EVE Search - What does the Phantasm even do?

Sidus Isaacs wrote:

CCP Ytterbium wrote:

Merin Ryskin wrote:

The Phantasm used to be awesome. It had HAC-level firepower with a nice buffer tank and very reasonable cost, and effectively replaced the Zealot. The problem was that it was the first faction cruiser to be updated, so when CCP released the faction ship boost patch they assumed the Phantasm was already good enough since it had been updated more recently than the others. Unfortunately they were wrong, and the Phantasm is now a terrible ship since everything else around it has been made so much better.

Ah yes, this dates back to 2009, and you're looking at the one responsible for that (along with the Dramiel, Cynabal and Machariel uberness) Oops

Considering I was the one breaking this ship in the first place, the least I can do is to post here what we think of pirate ships at the moment.

Blood Raiders: Bhaalgorn is nice, Ashimmu and Cruor need some iteration. Need to find ways to make them useful at what they do without them competing too much with the Amarr Recon Ships.

Sansha's Nation: Nightmare is very good, Phantasm and Succubus also need some love. Probably going to need to have a look at their mobility and EHP. Open to ideas however, so this thread will be watched.

Guristas: Rattlesnake and Gila we are happy with, not so much with the Worm.

Serpentis: we are quite pleased with all the ships in this line.

Angel Cartel: while the Dramiel has been brought back into line, the Cynabal and Machariel need a nerf. Not necessarily a big one mind you, but at the moment they are just too much versatile with their flexible slot layouts, extended drone bays coupled with amazing speed and good damage. Their theoretical weaknesses (lack of EHP, poor damage projection) don't matter as much in the field as they should.

As a guy that loves phantams, and was a bit sad to see it got a bit of a nerf when cynabal got a boost (if I remember correctly it lost some hp), in my opinion it need more mobility. The shield tank lets it be faster than the armor variants, and it could be a kiter. However now the cynabal, vaga and many others outshine it completely while having room for lots of utility. A bit of ehp boost would also be nice, but if given enough mobility, might not be needed. A little bit of grid would not hurt either, just so you can squeeze in a cap booster or a neut in addition to the largest lasers that gives you the magic 20km+ range.

Al inn all: better mobiliy, in form of more base speed and maybe agility. A tad more grid.