Catherine Laartii
Providence Guard
Templis Dragonaors
9
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Posted - 2013.04.22 03:57:00 -
[2] - Quote
CCP Rise wrote:
Rokh:
The Rokh, like most of the former tier 3 battleships, is in a very healthy place currently. It hasn't been changed, except for a tweak to the resist bonus. This change is significant, and we are going to dedicate an entire thread to discussing the power of resistance bonuses later in the day. If you want to talk about this bonus here, in relation to the Rokh specifically, feel free. The general idea from our end is that the current bonus to resistance is one of the most powerful ship bonuses in the game. It adds to the power of local tanks (active and passive) as well as remote tanks, which has consistently positioned ships with this bonus at the center of some of the most powerful gameplay available. We feel that the Rokh is a good example of this powerful gameplay, and expect it to thrive despite this change.
Caldari Battleship Skill Bonuses:
+10% to large Hybrid Turret optimal range
+4% Shield resistances per level (-1% per level)
Oh my poor, poor Rokh. Why are you so neglected?
First off, quoting CCP Rise: "The Rokh, like most of the former tier 3 battleships, is in a very healthy place currently. "
Supressing riotous laughter and rivers of tears at the ignorance of that statement, I would like to point out that the rokh is, as awful as it is for me to put this in a pun, "Between a Rokh and a hard place." Hybrids are currently broken in the realm of the caldari, as their usefulness is in CCP trying to force Caldari to use just rails, and Gallente just blasters.
This is the single largest problem facing the ship rebalancing initiative as it stands, and it cannot be understated.
How this is so is by looking at weapons "sharing" of different races.
Caldari + Minmatar = missiles. Caldari's secondary weapon systems are hybrids, and the matari's are missiles. They have projectiles unique to them, but the current spec for them seems to be using missiles much more heavily than before, to the order of hybrids for caldari.
Gallente + Amarr = Drones. Both the gallente and amarr have drone boats at every level, with the exception of amarr frigates. Like the matari in the sense of unique weapon systems, the amarr specialize in lasers, but have a wide variety of drone boats all the same.
Gallente + Caldari = Hybrids...but not quite. Here's where we run into problems. a full quarter to a third, I repeat, ALMOST A FULL THIRD OF THE SHIPS IN THE GAME are BROKEN because of how massively screwed up hybrids are, and the intended roles of their ships are.
The solution to this quandry is simple: Increase rail range, and substitue one of the range bonuses on all caldari ships with a damage bonus. a 50% increase in rail range while reducing the 10% optimal range per level bonus on caldari ships that don't get damage bonuses means that they can now interchangeably snipe with rails and brawl with blasters just as effectively. And the SAME goes for the gallente boats.
Why, you might ask, is this a good idea if two races use the same weapons system to homogenize them?
The answer is simple:
GUNS ARE NOT BEHOLDEN AS A PRIMARY WEAPON SYSTEM. ALL weapons systems are EQUAL in regards to usability to their parent ships as long as they get appropriate bonuses. Drones, missiles, and guns are ALL
individually as effective as the other in regards to a ship using one as a primary weapons system. The problem is when you try to COMBINE those two. Split weapon loadouts are the bane of ship fitting, as they do not allow you to effectively use one over the other effectively. This has been mitigated nicely by the current tiercide initiative, and I praise them for that, but they are not seeing the other side of the issue as it was previously stated: Forcing guns as primary weapon systems.
The rokh, then, would best benefit with this setup after the aforementioned hybrid rebalance with a 50% increase in rail range, and possibly balancing blasters to have even optimal and falloff range:
Caldari Battleship Skill Bonuses:
+10% to large Hybrid Turret Damage
+4% Shield resistances per level (-1% per level)
Reallocate slots to a 6/8/5 slot loadout. This allows the rokh to become a 'combat' battleship with sturdy defenses and solid damage. I can build a rokh with LASERS that's more effective than a rail or blaster ship. This is because the rokh is the only battleship aside from the oddity that is the Scorpion that doest get an applied damage bonus (This is under my belief that Tracking Speed bonuses are an applied damage bonus, since they allow you to 'apply' your damage better with hitting your target for more damage).
While the scorpion provides a valuable role of heavy ECM support, it does suffer badly from a split weapons loadout that prevents it from having a primary weapons system. My solution to this issue would be rebalance the scorpion appropriately to this end:
Scorpion:
Caldari Battleship Skill Bonuses:
25% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength per level
5% bonus to Cruise and Torpedo Launcher rate of fire per level
Slot layout: 6H, 8M, 5L(+1); 0 turrets -4 , 6 launchers
This allows the Scorpion the option to become a fully-fledged pvp-capable, dps dealing battleship. This negates the issue of it being a 'disruption' battleship by allowing it to balance its roles effectively without displacing its current capabilities, and giving it the dps it needs to contribute in ANY situation, since it does dps currently on-par with a cruiser, which is absurdly underpowered. |