Tuesday 8 January 2013

Quick & Dirty - BC Changes

I was working on another post for tonight, but then Fozzie went ahead and published the proposed battlecruiser changes. I'm not going to spend too long on the ramifications since these are still open to modification (and likely will change again to some extent before they go live), but here's a quick rundown:


Global Changes

Across the board, tier 1 BCs are getting small HP increases on their primary tank (e.g. armour for the Prophecy, shield for the Cyclone) while tier 2s are getting small HP decreases bringing them down to around where the tier 1s are. Powergrid and CPU are adjusted, but these stay roughly in line with the typical modules found in the added/removed slots so shouldn't be a net gain nor a loss. Everything gets a tiny bit more capacitor/second (except for the Harby, but its new turret configuration equates to the same), and a tiny increase to sig radius.

Prophecy

Becomes a drone boat with similar capabilities to the old Myrmidon - 10% damage/hp bonus, 75mbit/s bandwidth, 225m3 bay. Gets a 4th mid and a 7th low, keeps the armour resist bonus to contrast the Myrm's rep bonus. Swaps the turrets for a mix of turrets and launchers (up to 4 of each in its 5 high slots), but without a bonus it's not like it really matters. Moderate mass decrease, +1 sensor strength. Not really like anything that the Amarr have now (kind of a super-tanked Arbitrator without the TD bonus) - damage output will be low (similar to the old Myrm), but it's a big improvement over what it has now.

Harbinger

Loses a turret, but gets a 10% damage bonus giving it about the same number of effective turrets as the Hurricane (the 'Cane still gets slightly more since its bonus is partly to rate of fire). Gets an extra 25m3 of drone bay for good measure. Small mass increase, +1 sensor strength, tiny bit more locking range. Should out-range and out-damage the Hurricane now, although it will remain slower and more cap-dependent.

Ferox

Gets an extra turret and an extra low. Keeps the range bonus instead of getting a damage bonus like the Moa/Merlin. Moderate mass decrease, tiny bit more locking range. Powergrid increase (+25) is less than the new turret is likely to use, but the Ferox isn't really lacking there anyway. Big cargo buff to 475m3 (tied with the Myrm for the top spot) - active tanked Ferox is go. Quite a significant buff for what was quite an underpowered ship. Not as big as it could have been (let's not kid ourselves, it's not going to be used as a 'sniper' when you could just fly a Naga - optimal range bonus or not), as a close range rail ship or blaster ship with some extra reach, it should be quite strong.

Drake

Loses its utility high, small mass increase. Aside from the HP change (which is mainly to armour), that's about it. Also gets a big cargo buff (to 450m3) - missioners rejoice! A conservative change, but avoids bashing on Drake pilots too much after the recent HML nerf. Edit: It's actually a small nerf for wormhole Drakes, since it no longer has a slot for a probe launcher.

Brutix

Gets a low slot, and a large mass decrease (about 8%). Large cargo buff (to 475m3) which is good for active tanks. Doesn't seem like much, but should combine to make the active tanked Brutix actually pretty good, while adding some extra dps and/or speed to the shield variant.

Myrmidon

Loses a high slot and a turret. Gains 25m3 drone bay and 25mbit/s bandwidth, putting it at 100/175. More bandwidth than the new Prophecy but less bay, which is consistent with the rest of the Gallente/Amarr drone boat range. Big improvement if you like using the Myrm as a dedicated drone ship rather than a drone/turret combo.

Cyclone

Becomes a missile boat, with 5 launchers/2 turrets and a missile rate of fire bonus. Moves a high slot to a low slot, and gains 10/10 on drones to put it at 50/50. Keeps the shield boost bonus from before. CPU increase is quite big, but fitting launchers will require it. Small cargo nerf (my cap charge backbone), but don't worry - at 450m3 it's still almost the largest. Damage output will probably increase a bit (especially with HAMs), and the switch of weapon system gives it something more to offer over the Hurricane.

Hurricane

Loses one of its utility highs (but doesn't lose any CPU/grid with it - it already lost those after all). Small mass increase. Unlike the other tier2s, the Hurricane actually gets a small HP buff (the shield HP gets nerfed a tiny bit, but its negligible). Moderate cargo nerf (to 400m3), but not may people active tank 'Canes anyway. If you switched your hurricanes from dual medium neut to one medium/one small after the last change, this shouldn't change things for you very much.


9 comments:

  1. Thanks for the quick write-up! I'm excited to see how it all turns out. Hopefully Fozzie will be generous and not nerf the T3 Battlecruisers too much. Also, minor typo for your 'Myrmidon' section:

    "Gains 25mbit/s drone bay and 25m3 bandwidth" <-stats should be swapped.

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    1. Thanks, I've fixed it. We'll see what happens I suppose - they're pretty strong right now so will probably be getting a bit of a nerf, but then they've not been around for long as the others so don't suffer from the same outdatedness in terms of how they're designed to fit into the game.

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  2. Brutix get significant Capacitor buff (+625), being the second large cap ship just under Harbinger.

    cyclone +1 low, would be the fastest BC if aim on speed.

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    1. It shoots like a Drake and flies faster than a Drake?

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  3. looks fantastic! mmm prophecy.

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  4. Seems that Harbinger will stay pretty much the same, cpu nerf and capacitor recharge rate nerf with one less turret, same fitting options and same cap stability.

    It will do a little more damage with new 10% bonus even with 6 turrets so i guess its really in a good place. But i really wish they dont nerf the cpu so i can finally place something in that utility high slot without an implant. Really hate fitting implants for some reason :)

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  5. My main beef with the BC changes is that it leaves them with less a purpose than they have been - cruisers being strengthened, BCs now are (relatively) slow and will have hard times using range advantages over quite a bit faster cruisers (which are also way cheaper).

    The current tier3 BCs are the exception, but they have been since their introduction.

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    1. That had to happen, and it's a good thing. It's widely accepted that there was no reason to use T1 cruisers before - if BCs remained just as good relative to T1 cruisers, that fact would never change. To make that class useful, CCP had to reduce the advantage that BCs had over them.

      There's still a reason to use BCs, but it's naturally going to be a much smaller one than it used to be. Instead of basically being a cruiser with more dps and tank at the expense of sig radius, they're now more directly in line between cruisers and BS.

      Does it suck that nano cane/drake gangs aren't going to be as good any more? Yes. Is it ok because we now have nano stabber/caracal/thorax/etc gangs instead? Also yes.

      As for the tier 3s - I expect they just haven't put up the post for those yet, but it's probably coming.

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  6. To my mind, the tier-3s were pretty damn close to what I'd think a "battle-cruiser" should be: slightly larger than a cruiser hull (that's accordingly a little slower, slightly tankier, and a bit easier to hit), but mounting BB-calibre weapons, just, not as many of them as a true battleship, obviously. ;-).

    "C&C" ships are a good idea, but should prob be a separate "class" from BCs, and be geared more towards gang boosting functions and increased survivability.

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