Originally by: murder one

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Blasterthrons are an all-or-nothing ship. You either crush your target or get completely destroyed. There is no turning back. There are no options once you engage. You are fully commited. Every time.

Blasterthrons are quickly becoming a rarity in PVP due to the skills required to fly them (both in skillpoints and pilot experience) and the cost to operate one effectively.

The 25% HP increase and the 20% damage reduction to T2 short range ammo, in addition to the huge (-50%) tracking nerf to short range T2 ammo in Rev1 was a massive blow to the effectiveness of the Blasterthron. Once rigs were introduced that increased active tanks by another 35% or more, the margin with which a Blasterthron could overcome a single target's tank has been reduced to almost zero.

Blasterthrons need maxed out skills in order to get that last 10-15% DPS increase in order to compete with the tremendous tanking increases brought about by rigs and the Tier 3 battleships. It's quite easy to build a Rokh or Maelstrom or Dominx, or even a Typhoon with relatively little ISK and less than maximum skills that is competitive with other battleship setups in PVP. With the Blasterthron (and also the Blaster Hype), if you don't have every applicable skill to five, you're probably going to die in a 1v1 fight with another BS if it's properly fit for PVP.

Now that the T2 EANMs have been increased to 36 CPU per module, Blasterthron pilots will have to resort to faction modules and a 5% CPU reduction implant (requireing Cybernetics 5- another skill required to be maxed), just to get a basic fit. Nothing spectacular and overwhelmingly effective, just an entry level setup.

So what do the rest of you think? Is this a good thing? Should flying a Blasterthron be reserved for only the best and most expert pilots in Eve? Or should it be more accessible for use to those with less than perfect skills and a smaller bank roll?

For me, adding an extra 160 million ISK to the cost of my setup, a full 80% increase in cost over my previous setup, just to fly a Blasterthron won't really make that much of a difference. I'll continue to fly it just because I can't stomach flying anything else.

I can fly Minmatar, Caldari and Gallente BS with equal effectiveness (I won't touch Amarr, as they're completely worthless, with the EANM change just making it worse), but I'm sticking with my Blasterthron. It just doesn't feel right defeating my targets with a battleship fit with more nos than guns. Or all nos and torp launchers. There just isn't any skill or style in it.

So I guess in the end, CCP's efforts to remove the Blasterthron from the playing field is a good thing. Those who fly one, and do it well, will be held in high regard, as an esteemed elite, a select few to be held in awe by the common low rank PVP pilots flying second rate nos ships.

Cheers CCP. Keep the nerfs coming. Pretty soon no one will be flying anything that doesn't use nos or capless weapons, and no one will ever undock unless they have at least a four man gang for backup. Looks like a bright future.

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