Worms fine with the new drone changes. Actually good with how it will fly (why have 5 weak drones when you can have two mega drones).

I don't quite get the fixation with having to have 5 drones when these superior drones will out damage, out tank, and outperform the old 5.

Eventually drones themselves will get a real balance pass. God knows they have needed it for years, more with recent AI changes, drones on every hull and new drone focused ships being introduced.

If they wind up reducing drone numbers this way they should probably look at making drones actually immune or at least highly resistant to ewar. Its one of their few advantages and drones pay a very steep price for their power in the form of destructibility.

5/10 drones with better survivability would work, their is no need to have two super mega brutal drones of doom on the Worm.

To anybody complaining about the Worm.

Stop.


Full stop.

Run the numbers on it first before you complain. Think about what its going to be like using faction drones on your pirate shipo, or rather don't think and let me tell you what its going to be like:

Augmented Warriors

Shield -464 (dd5 580)
Armor -692 (dd5 865)
Structure -1040 (dd5 1300)

2196 (dd5 2745) total hp and Damage output per drone, 24 kinetic and 40 explosive every 4 seconds.(skills will bring this to 30/50 at max)

Republic Fleet Warriors

Shield -616 (dd5 770)
Armor -920 (dd5 1150)
Structure-576 (dd5 720)

2112 (dd5 2640) Total Hp and Damage output per drone, 60 explosive damage every 4 seconds. (Skills will bring this up to 75 at max)


Those are serious can's of whup ass. You have drones with the hit points of a frigate who punch extremely hard. You are effectively getting 8 drones worth of damage from 2 drones, and if you're engaged in one on one combat with another frigate, he'd be insane to go after your drones because it has two thousand hit points.

He would essentially have to kill you 6 times if he tried to kill off your drones first (once for each of your 5 drones and then once for you).

You should literally have zero complaints about that ship, its nothing short of amazing. Even for PVE, its absolutely amazing, as the drones will tank like a boss. In fact each of your light drones will have nearly twice the Hit points of its relative Heavy drone counterpart (above example - Beserker II has 1459 hp).

Let that sink in for a bit and think about what they're offering you in the new and 100% improved Worm.

EDIT: Drone Durability 5 will raise those totals by about 500 each, Damage totals will also go up 25% more as well

I personally can't wait to fly it, I think its going to be amazingly fun.

I am not the best at this sort of thing... But I believe the drones will each have somewhere in the neighborhood of double the raw hitpoints of the ship they are launched from. Should make the shield tanked drones have some impressive passive tank. I would not be surprised if this is why they suddenly felt it neccessary to 'adjust' regen rates on drones.

That is all it is, other than the arbitrary new rule about only 50 drones being able to watch a single ship to see what it fires at.

The Worm, and if the trend continues up the chain all the other Gurista ships, will be able to make more effective use of this mechanic as their drones will be worth 4 of any other ships' drones. It does not have to be a sentry, but only sentries have inspired the rage as they are direct fireing rather than requiring flight time to target and so deliver much more efficient alpha strikes this way.

Figuring out if the Cruors mis-matched bonuses can work together or not is really the only major issue I see with the proposed changes.

WORM

Gallente Frigate Bonus:
10% bonus to kinetic and thermal missile damage (was 5m3 Drone Bay Capacity per level)

Caldari Frigate Bonus:
4% bonus to all shield resistances

Role Bonus:
300% bonus to light combat drone damage and hitpoints (was 50% bonus to Rocket and Light Missile velocity)


Slot layout: 3H, 4M, 3L; 0 turrets, 2 launchers
Fittings: 40 PWG(+5), 180 CPU(+20)
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 830(+33) / 500(-82) / 620(-3)
Capacitor (amount / recharge / cap per second) : 380(+30) / 212000 (-22375) / 1.79 (+.29)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 320(+33) / 3.8(+.31) / 965000 / 5.17s(+.42)
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 10(-15) / 25
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 30km / 650 / 5
Sensor strength: 15
Signature radius: 40

I am not about to worry what a given bonus will do to the cruisers or battleships. These things can be adjusted on those hulls when the time comes. These ships follow themes, they are not cloned and just made bigger.

My main worry with a %hp shield bonus is the passive Regen. At some point you can get enough shields that you have the regen of a booster without actually having a booster. I dont think this will be much of an issue with a frigates limited slots though, so 10%/level is probably fine. It bears watching though. I am not terribly pleased with a tracking bonus as both Amarr and Caldari favor optimal range bonuses on their turrets. I can see where a tracking bonus is needed at the boosted AB speed, but I am not sure that it would not be better to have them pull some range, fly at something other than 100% when fireing, or other pilot skill solutions to that problem. I would like to see this:

SUCCUBUS

Amarr Frigate Bonus:
30% bonus to Small Energy Turret damage per level

Caldari Frigate Bonus:
10% bonus to shield hitpoints per lvl

Role Bonus:
100% bonus to Afterburner Velocity
35% bonus to Small Energy Turret Optimal Range (or tracking if it determined this is really needed, not just better)

Yeah, but it would have a turn radius of like 40km.

I can't understand the hate on the Worm. The ship will be insanely powerful, if not OP. A new bro for the caldari lineup of insanely effective ships, trading a mid slot for raw firepower.

Really, if anyone start shooting at the Worm drones, he is insane. A Hobgobelin 2 will reach ~4kehp, which is more than a lightly tanked frigate, and he have 3 brothers in the dronebay. Of course you can use EWAR or whatever against the drones, but don't forget the Worm is still here spewing missiles.

As for the Cruor, it's a Tormentor on steroids : hp compensate for the fourth low slot, and it earn more laser dps, long range web and good old OP nosferatu. Granted nos bonus + web bonus don't complement each other very well, but even without any one of them the ship will be brutal. Remember pulse laser are the mightest weapon between 5 and 10km, and the usual strategy against them is to dive and outtrack them. Here, if you dive the nos will be your doom.

...or... You could focus that same dps on the easier to hit Worm itself and cut its damage to nothing.

Killing a Worm drone is almost as hard as the Worm, and only accounts for about1/3 of its dps, counting its own launchers.

I dont think its a case of not fixing the game so much as 90% webs would be OP for everyone, but not on just one line of easily recognized hulls. The only thing that would make it better is if Serpentis didnt look so Gallente, rather than unique like Angel & Sansha.

If Only Serpentis ships can do it, then as soon as you see it that ship becomes your primary target. If solo you dont engage it.

If it was a widely available bonus, then it is not good... But they just removed that bonus from evrrything else that had it.

Odd. Thats the only counter allowed to most PvE boats.

Having it on the one line of ships breaks nothing and gives those ships a known element of danger.