Eran Mintor
Esoteric Philosophy
475
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Posted - 2014.02.26 16:20:00 -
[1] - Quote
I do not understand the reasoning for some of these changes, namely the Rifter and the Punisher.
The Punisher is already a great ship. It has one of the best tanks of the T1 frigates and applies decent dps as well. Its weakness has always been its speed and agility, making it easier to evade or kite. A small squad of Punishers equipped with 1 small remote armor repper each is nothing to take lightly, and often ends with any similar class squad of frigates destroyed or running.
Now you intend to remove it's weakness, speed, and buff it even more by increasing the capacitor recharge and sensor strength. So not only will jams be less often, but energy neutralizers will be less effective. On top of that, it's speed is increased so forget running away unless you're one of the quickest frigates. These changes are not needed and do not "balance" frigate warfare.
The Rifter is my favorite frigate, mainly because it's the first ship I flew in PvP and it looks awesome, so I know it quite well. It has fallen from grace as one of the best combat frigates to a mediocre one, to what will now be one of the worst with these changes. You intend to replace the tracking bonus with falloff on a frigate that already has great falloff range. You can get 13km effective range with barrage on autocannons and, with the short lock range of a frigate, artillery already reaches as far as you'll lock without significant sensor mods/rigs.
The tracking bonus is necessary. Because other Minmatar ships have a tracking bonus is no real reason to remove it, and it frankly makes no sense to. They have that bonus for good reason. The tracking bonus allows turrets to still hit their targets while kiting, and at close ranges it allows it to still hit while under tracking disruption-if piloted correctly. While a falloff bonus could theoretically increase damage output, the lowered tracking will give it zero damage output if it can't track its target. Tracking disruptors being the main ewar of the Amarr hulls mean you'll often find yourself under a situation that is going to make it difficult to track. These changes would make it nearly impossible.
Put this in perspective with the reality that Minmatar "ewar" is terrible when compared to the other 3 races, and you have a serious issue. Tracking disruptors could mitigate damage on a whole fleet, while target painters only increase the signature radius of a single target, which likely won't even increase damage in frigate warfare due to the fact that the turrets are already small enough to hit and speed and ranges often mitigate any benefits target painters make for missiles in frigate warfare. There's something you should rebalance-ewar.
You could argue that tracking links/computers are the solution, but this "solution" would not be necessary if the bonus is not removed. Further, this "solution" removes another midslot that should be used for tackling or ewar, not electronics boosting. With these changes I'd have to fit a MWD, Sensor Booster, and Tracking Computer/Link....I have no space left for tackle.
These are not the changes to make. I don't think you, CCP Fozzie, have much experience in T1 frigate warfare otherwise we wouldn't be heading down this road. Don't "fix" what's not broken.
(I'd like to end this post by mentioning how terrible your forums are. I spent 15 minutes writing a nice reply to the OP when I went to post it, and forums ate it with no draft saved or anything. I know other people who refuse to spend the same time to write the same post over and instead decide not to contribute at all. This needs to be fixed, get rid of that "draft saving" function that is the bane of eve-o forums.) |