You're correct - it's only a 6.3% nerf with the new Rattlesnake. It's a 25% nerf to any other hull.
Feel free to let me know if I made a mistake anywhere on the math...

Gecko (pre-Kronos)
GÇó 128 damage, 2.05x amplifier, 2.0x drone interface, 0.25x heavy drone (2.5x total)
GÇó (2) * 2.05 * 128 * 2.5 (skills) * 1.778 (4 T2 DDAs) / 4s ROF = 583.2 dps

Gecko (post-Kronos)
GÇó 128 damage, 2.05x amplifier, 1.5x drone interface, 0.25x heavy drone (1.875 total)
* (2) * 2.05 * 128 * 1.875 (skills) * 1.778 (4 T2 DDAs) / 4s ROF = 437.4 daps

I'm pretty sure I heard Fozzie say that the drone damage was being changed to compensate for the 100% to 50% drop. The change in the skill affect is to limit the apparent requirement to train to level V and not to nerf the damage output of drones.

Whether directly or indirectly, it's the only drone getting weaker.

So technicalities aside, any sane person would call it a nerf.

You are correct, the drone is not getting weaker, the skill applying to the drone is, thus causing the drones performance under a pilot with that skill to drop.

Don't be surprised when your dps drops 25%...

Drone nerf, Gecko nerf - same difference...

If your definition of a nerf excludes the buff of all comparable items but the item in question, sure, it wasn't nerfed. Though I think you will find that others believe that definition to be reasonable.

1. See revised title.
2. Gecko dps will drop 6.3-25% on June 3.

So a nerf or buff is not related to performance changes? Even when those changes are limited to a single item or item type? Seems dishonest to completely decouple the 2 concepts.

It's losing 50% of the drone interface bonus June 3.
But you're right, I must be imagining that it could possible have an effect...

You're not stupid enough to think you're talking about the whole picture here.

We can conclude that you have nothing insightful to offer.

You're arguing semantics. The Gecko still gets 100% of the drone interfacing bonus. Unfortunately, it's being reduced 50%, which cuts the total damage output of the Gecko from current levels by 25%.

good job

This is where I am confused, for any pilot with drone interfacing trained the output of the gecko is going down. This is a change, but for some reason, since the change isn't on the base stats of the item itself it doesn't count as a nerf? I can genuinely say that this reasoning doesn't make sense to me. I would expect that if any series of interactions is changed in a way to benefit or harm a single entity, regardless of whether the entity itself was changed, would count as a buff or nerf.

IE: Eliminating the controlled burst skill would be a nerf to Lasers and to a lesser degree hybrid weapons, or so I would reason, but I take it you would disagree?

You don't get to take your own interpretations of the word's meaning and stamp it as fact.

At the same time the gecko is the only drone not being compensated.

An item does not have to be changed in order to be nerfed.

No it doesn't and restricting the definition of nerf in this way is unhelpful.

My definition:
Nerf - A change made to a game that reduces the effectiveness or desirability of something in the game.
Your definition:
A change made to something in a game that reduces the effectiveness or desirability of that something.

Yours is more restrictive. So yes, you are restricting it.

So you have no credibility then. Glad we cleared that up.

Pulled straight from his ass, I imagine.

Put more simply: CCP put something in the game, knowingly in a much stronger state than what they intend for the game.
Do you see why this causes problems?

I thought the complaining was because folk found $20 in the street only to be told that very shortly said $20 would in fact be worth $10.

Still waiting on the source of that definition.

Did not like his definition, so in effect you accused him of making one up to suit his argument, so you made one up to suit your own instead.

+1 to James then.

Yeah, that can happen when there's no official definition to work from, which is something you kind of need for your argument to hold any water.

Thus in that case, yes, there would be no gecko nerf as it effectiveness in the game as a whole would remain unchanged.

Too bad that isn't what is happening and there is a gecko nerf. Also, selective quoting does not a valid argument make.

the base stats aren't.

Yes, it is. A nerf to a skill is a nerf to the items using that skill, conceded by even Tippia indirectly.

Which is a nerf to all drones save those being compensated. The Gecko is not being compensated, thus it is being nerfed.

Yes, the Gecko is being nerfed. It doesn't exist in a vacuum isolated from the drone interfacing skill. Thus a drone interfacing nerf is a Gecko nerf.

Which will affect gecko drones relative to how they perform pre- Kronos.

Which is a drone nerf. Nerfing a skill nerfs the items affected by that skill. The exception would be if the base stats are changing to compensate, but as you state, that isn't happening, thus the nerf.

It's not retaining it's current capabilities

I'm aware of the devblog. Doesn't change that the gecko is being nerfed by was of the changes to drone interfacing. I've demonstrated I'm aware of the blog and this thread.
Feel free to demonstrate how damage with skills, specifically drone interfacing, is not being changed.

The Gecko doesn't exist in isolation, and thus doesn't need to be changed directly to be nerfed. It can be nerfed by any number of external but interacting factors. Factors like the Drone interfacing skill.

You've yet to actually directly address the fact that nerfing drone interfacing nerfs the gecko.

So you are saying that nerfing drone interfacing has no effect on the items that drone interfacing effects? That doesn't logically make sense.

I did, You said that a nerf to drone interfacing is not a nerf to the gecko, which can only be true if drone interfacing has no effect on the gecko.

So you are saying that drone interfacing has no effect on the gecko? You still haven't addressed that directly, or the reasoning of how, if the 2 are related, DI changing can't buff or nerf the gecko (or any other drone for that matter).

How can that be if drone interfacing has an effect on the gecko? How do you justify divorcing an item from everything that effects it?

Because, as stated before, it doesn't exist in isolation. There are factors which have constant effects on it. The only way those factors can't nerf or buff the items they effect is if the definition of "nerf" explicitly says they don't or explicitly says altering the item itself is the only way it can be caused. I've not found a definition that satisfies either.

Changing something isn't limited to it's base stats.

Changing something isn't limited to it's base stats.

Which doesn't change the fact that the drone is changing by way of the changes to drone interfacing. which is changing in Kronos.

Edit: Do you have a source for that definition of nerf which excludes all but the base stats of something?

Do you have a source for that definition of nerf which excludes all but the base stats of something? If not that means external changes, such as the one to DI still count.

Again bringing up another comparable scenario, would nerfing controlled bursts not be a nerf to lasers or hybrids?

No, it doesn't because every laser and hybrid would be changing as a result, and that change would be quantifiable as positive or negative, and consequently be labelled as a buff or nerf.

Unless of course nerf is explicitly limited to the items base stats, something you seem very insistent upon despite refusing to own up to it and further saying that there is not actual definition, thus making your claim actually unprovable.

So if controlled bursts changes, you are saying there will be no corresponding change in the performance of the items which the skill effects? That lasers and hybrids will take the same amount of cap to fire as they did prior to the change for players, and that this will have no affect on their desirability?

So you have decided that a nerf is defined by the base stats, correct?

Things are changing, you have admitted so, you keep telling me to go back and read a blog that says they are, then you tell me to read a thread where those changes are reiterated. but for some reason you have disassociated those changes with the items they directly affect. That and refused to provide any logic or reasoning for doing so.

So let me ask again, how do you define a nerf or buff?

But something affecting the gecko is changing. Why do you see it appropriate to separate the item from the factors effecting it?

So what you are saying is that you concept of a nerf is only related to individual numbers and has no bearing on the actual performance of an element or item in the game?

I'm going to give a Gecko to whoever wins this debate...

So the measure of a nerf is uniformity?

New question, does the base stat increase on the other drones count as a buff even though the change is 0 for the DI 5 charaters even though the base stats did change?

Cool answers my original question. Thanks