I ran a few sites last night to test out the new drifter. I used the double rr rattlesnake fit that has been circulating around reddit for a bit. I was doing about 2500 dps cause I was in a C5 mag. It took about 15 minutes to go through the shields, 25 min for the armor, and about 2 min for structure. The damage the drifter put out wasn't too bad, it was the neuting that really hurt. It'd take half my cap every 10 sec or so. At first I had to pay much more attention to my cap management, but about halfway through the drifters shields I figured out a routine that worked well but was very boring.

If the drifter is intended only for capitals, I think it is fine in its current itteration. But if subcaps are supposed to be able to do it I think it is very overpowered. You would need a significant fleet to defeat it, at which point you could just burn through normal anomalies instead. So the change to having it spawn when you shoot the structure is an important change. If anything, maybe reduce the ehp of the drifter if subcaps are intended to be able to kill it.

So you killed it with just two rattlesnakes? That surprises me. How much does one of those rattles cost?

What was the name of the drifter? To check if I got the same one.

And yes, I assume the drifter is NOT supposed to be killed (efficiently) with subcaps.

edit: And how did you tackle it? It should warp off if you didn't.

If you kill using 2 passive rattlesnakes - then it need quite big rework. Time needed to kill it was only so long, as you where on edge of his 'local reps' add 1-2 rattlesnakes more and this will make killing this drifters very easy.
Why someone will bring capitals, when he can get 4 passive rattlesnakes.

They weren't passive. They were cap transfer rattles with pith x type xl shield boosts. I also had high grade crystals and shield links. Could tank it fine except for the neuts which required some pulsing of the booster instead of constantly running it. I did not notice the drifter repping while I was shooting it. Each rattle was about 800mil tq prices.

I also had 2 warp disruptors on each rattle so I could keep the drifter on field.

So our tester here fought the drifter with two ships that cost 800m apiece plus 2.2b worth of implants in each of the pods. That is 6b on field, enabling him to kill a 300m NPC in 45 minutes.

So where was the problem again? ^^

So even if you could achieve the same result with 4 alts in ships that cost only 2b total. That is still just a 300m npc in 45 minutes. That is 400m ISK/hour split four ways, either 4 chars or 4 players... That is ****** income, worse than some...

There's currently a bug that causes the Arithmos to sometimes accelerate to 200,000 m/s while fighting. We have found the cause and are getting it fixed right now.

So even if you could achieve the same result with 4 alts in ships that cost only 2b total. That is still just a 300m npc in 45 minutes. That is 400m ISK/hour split four ways, either 4 chars or 4 players, doesn't matter, that is 4 accounts that need to be paid or plexed. That is ****** income, worse than some other known methods that require only 1-2 chars. So surely not imbalanced.

And it would mean that you sit in the same site for over an hour. if you see new incoming hole after 35 minutes shooting the drifter you go away with nothing.

And people doing it with many alts will be especially vulnerable to ganks because they are very distracted.

People risk caps outside WH space for less.

I dont like this ad-hoc solution to "filthy rich wormholer" problem.
But this... simply doesnt make sense.

So I put a Heavy Warp Disruptor II on my Thanatos to hold down the drifter (3 points of strength). And while he was ~16km away from me he warped away. We had a faction scram (also 3 points) on a Proteus the last time we tried, and it stayed on field.

Does the drifter have more warp strength now or do the Heavy Disruptors just not work on him?

Also still wondering why the Upgraded Avengers takes less damage from Fighters than frigates do...

W-space, especially C5/C6 is these days plagued by renters and Goon pets. Nerfing it is a good thing.

Confirming that wormhole space needs less people.

Confirming that wormhole space needs less people.

Initial intention was not to live in one anyway afaik ... or at least "we never thought someone would live there at all" ... so if everyone leaves ... would be like CCPs initial prediction. :D