Undertow Latheus
In. Theory
0
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Posted - 2013.05.16 07:40:00 -
[1] - Quote
Really, before we can do anything to save the Tempest, we need to figure out what the hell it's supposed to do. Right now, if you want to do any sort of armor tank, you use the Typhoon for its 7 low slots. If you want to have a strong shield tank, you use the Maelstrom with its 6 mids and shield boost bonus. If you want to do DPS, you choose the typhoon or maelstrom. If you want to have a fast kiting battleship, you also choose the typhoon, because cruises will be hilariously better than trying to kite using Barrage, and because the typhoon is faster and has a better slot layout. If you want to snipe, you use the Maelstrom which has higher DPS and alpha.
After the Typhoon is buffed, there will be no circumstance where the Tempest will be preferred for anything. In fact, the only time you will want to use anything other than the Typhoon will be if you want to either have 1400's for alpha, or if for some reason you want to fit a strong active shield tank. There needs to some circumstance, at least one, where the Tempest is the (minmatar) battleship of choice. Right now there isn't. If CCP really wants it to be an "attack battleship" it needs to have a buff to agility and damage application (either falloff or tracking). Maybe the Pest could have higher top speed while the Phoon has better agility and sig radius, or vice versa. Personally, I agree with the idea to give it 10% ROF and 7.5% Tracking, along with increasing speed and taking a look at the viability of Large Autocannons as a weapon system. In particular, it is sad that large autocannons sacrifice some of their already low DPS once you shoot past a mere 5km.
Now I'd like to switch gears a little bit, and talk about the Maelstrom, the oft-forgotten battleship. It is a very straightforward ship meant to be the slow gank and tank Minmatar battleship, but overall the ship just doesn't make sense. As a solo or pve ship, it can fit a strong active tank and have respectable DPS, but projectiles are ineffective for PVE when we can use a cruise missile phoon instead, and a maelstrom can not effectively solo pvp because it is impossible to simultaneously fit a tank and enough tackle to actually apply its DPS. As a gang or fleet ship, its active tank bonus is useless since fleets rely either on RR or passive buffer. As a sniper, its shield bonus makes no sense, and its ROF bonus fails to take advantage of arty's high alpha.
My proposal for the Maelstrom is to truly make it the Minmatar 'Ship of the Line'. First, replace its ROF bonus with a damage bonus to make it the king of alpha, while the Pest receives its 10% ROF bonus. The second change is a bit more unorthodox, but I think really is needed in order to make the Maelstrom viable for gang PvP. As mentioned above, one of the Maelstrom's biggest problems is that a shield boost bonus is only really useful for solo pvp/pve, but the maelstrom is incapable of soloing due to its low speed and lack of utility or extra tackle slots. My proposal is to make its shield boost bonus also apply to amount of remote shield rep received (maybe at 5% instead of 7.5%). This would give people a reason to use the maelstrom in gangs or fleets as a durable gank/tank platform, which its current bonus is ineffective for.
TL;DR
Give Tempest 10% ROF and 7.5% tracking per level, increase speed, potentially rebalance Large AC's so that the Pest is capable of applying almost full dps at 24km.
Give Maelstrom 5% Damage Bonus instead of ROF Bonus, and make its active shield boost bonus also apply to receiving shield transfers, making the Maelstrom viable for gangs or fleets.
Even if these exact changes arent done, most importantly, figure out what the hell the Pest and Maelstrom are supposed to do, and redesign them so that they actually make sense for those roles. |