Jurgen Cartis
Caldari
Interstellar Corporation of Exploration
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Posted - 2008.02.03 09:20:00 -
[1]
 Originally by: Atius Tirawa
Merin, I honestly don't see your problem.
The Rokh can still use Cal/Gal navy ammo and out damge the Apoc, it also still reaches further out. It does do more damage then the Megathron, but it also tracks a lot less.
Now the dev blog is clear as to what the role of Amarr ships will be - they are the gank and tank race with good range. Caldari get the massive range but low damage. So its a good selection - range for damage.
Merin's point is that this tradeoff is not happening. An Apoc can be fitted such that it will hit at 250km, same as the Rokh, so the Rokh does not have a range advantage over the Apoc. This Apoc will also deal more damage and track better. The Rokh can, if similarly pushed, achieve 300km optimal. It just cannot use the 300km optimal.
It will scratch paint at the distances we're talking about, but that's the tradeoff for such ranges. I see no problem with allowing a Rokh pilot willing to give up most everything else for raw max range to hit at 300, 350 km. Getting a fleet of such things would require many maxed out Rokh pilots, and that fleet certainly won't be doomsday tanked. They'll be glass cannons. Your own fleet can also probably get a warp-in point on a covops a little closer to their own optimals, where other sniper BS will out-damage the Rokhs rather badly.
An Officer-pimped, max skilled, both 5% range implants (optimal and falloff), without drugs, could theoretically hit out to almost 410 km, but he wouldn't even scratch paint at that range, and the setup is really rather impractical for anything except comedy killmails and alphaing frigates.
As for your contention that the Rokh will out-damage the Apoc at closer ranges by using high-damage ammo, this is not true at most ranges. Beyond 150km, everyone will be using Spike/Aurora anyway (Apoc wins). CN Iridium has about the same DPS as Spike, but an optimal of about 160km. Great tracking, though. But to get the same 357 DPS as our theoretical Apoc it has to bump all the way down to Thorium, at which point our Apoc has swapped out for AN Standards and is doing even better DPS.
The Rokh's real advantage in the current environment is that it can hit sniper ranges while still fitting a doomsday tank. This advantage is not to be underestimated. However, it seems fair to give Rokh pilots the option to gimp their fits to achieve some truly ridiculous ranges, if the Apoc can gimp theirs to reach current Rokh range.
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