I'll put the drone back on the Sentinel.

The ecm and recon bonuses are still there.

I see..


Well I'm not fully satisfied with these changes but they are good. I still want the bonuses for remote sensor dampeners and tracking disruptors removed.

I'll put the drone back on the Sentinel.

CCP never makes a specialized ship to be GOOD solo.

Okay I've updated the OP with the newest iteration.

Highlights include:

Bonuses adjusted for Kitsune, Keres and Hyena to shorten the range slightly for each

Mass increased for all four by 10%

Lowered lock range to match t1 disruption frigs

Lowered signature radius for all four

Small adjustments to maxvelocity for some and drone bandwidth tweaks for Sentinel and Keres

Two main things going on.

First, lowering the ewar ranges should draw them in a bit closer to the fight. The Kitsune will still be the longest effective range EAF but that's natural to ECM and there's not much more we can do. It was limited before only by the absurdly low lock range and while I don't want it to be out at 100k being effective, there's also no sensible way to pull it closer than this, but I think that's fine.

Second, adding mass and making some maxvelocity changes while also lowering their sig radius should make them easier to catch for frigs and other anti-support, while also increasing their survivability vs larger targets trying to shoot them from far away. This helps push them towards a more recon-ish play style and further from interceptors, which is what we want.

I expect that those of you hoping to use these will be a little disappointed, while those of expecting to fight against them might not think this is enough. Hopefully that means we are fairly close to a good spot for them. Regardless, please let me know what you think.

To explain why to give back the drone so quickly - I think looking at the Sentinel relative to the rest of the class it seems unfairly allocated for offense, and we didn't intend for the class to be self sufficient offensively. That said, if that drone feels make or break to the people using it in a small niche, I don't think it's having a very impact outside the niche and therefor don't see a need to remove it.

I think the debate about the Sentinel's power overall is much more centered on the neut range, as others have said, but I actually don't think it needs to be shorter range. Energy war is powerful of course, but it doesn't have the same kind of binary and pronounced impact that the rest of the EAFs can have with disruptors/webs/ECM.

Will the new Sentinel/Crucifier model shown at Fanfest make it into Rubicon's release?

i still think keres should be a better droneboat its not like it can fit rails or gets close enough for blasters and why should amarr get a better droneboat?
A creodron keres would be nice
you could always switch a high to a low and then maybe it could armour tank

Amarr e-war ships are typically drone ships, even the crucifier while only having 15mbps of bandwidth has a 45m3 drone bay, the Tristan has a 40m3 drone bay.
Gallente drone ships are combat ships not e-war ships.

even the maulus has more drones than the keres

True, and I think it's easy to go down this reasoning path, but the fact of the matter is that the Sentinel uses its high slots for its neut ewar, so it makes some sense that its damage application would be shifted toward drones. Highs and mids are taken up with ewar stuff on a Sentinel.

On a Keres, though, the highs *can* be used for rail guns, so it's a fair balance. The buff to an additional drone is nice, although a complimentary drone bay buff to at least 15 (if not 20) should be in order. These boats don't have drone bonuses to hitpoints, and considering that drones are going to be the only things being shot when the target is under heavy damps, having the ability to launch one or two replacements when the others get inevitably destroyed would be nice. It's not even as if the Keres would offend the Amarr traditional flavor of 3x the drone bay, since the Sentinel would still have 60m3. 20 m3 bay on the Keres would round out the changes nicely.

Avoid overlap with other classes (interceptors and disruption frigs?)

Energy war is powerful of course, but it doesn't have the same kind of binary and pronounced impact that the rest of the EAFs can have with disruptors/webs/ECM.

I understand the reasoning to give something more to the Sentinel, could you please apply that same line of though with the EAF little brothers? Are target painters that powerful that justify the Vigil we have now?

47 sig on a kitsune is still way too high you would think being electronic specialist ships they would be able to reduce their own sig somewhat more substantially... perhaps they all should have the hyena sig reduction bonus but at varying percentages???

even the griffin has better sig than the kitsune with 42

I understand the reasoning to give something more to the Sentinel, could you please apply that same line of though with the EAF little brothers? Are target painters that powerful that justify the Vigil we have now?

To explain why to give back the drone so quickly - I think looking at the Sentinel relative to the rest of the class it seems unfairly allocated for offense, and we didn't intend for the class to be self sufficient offensively. That said, if that drone feels make or break to the people using it in a small niche, I don't think it's having a very impact outside the niche and therefor don't see a need to remove it.

I think the debate about the Sentinel's power overall is much more centered on the neut range, as others have said, but I actually don't think it needs to be shorter range. Energy war is powerful of course, but it doesn't have the same kind of binary and pronounced impact that the rest of the EAFs can have with disruptors/webs/ECM.