Wednesday, 18 May 2016
Stellaris
Apparently there's been FC's who've complained their jabber/slack pings are going unanswered due to Stellaris. Can confirm, no one's playing EVE much at the moment due to this game.
New Capital Meta?
The Citadel patch's capital changes have been interesting. Theorycraft Wizards probably haven't settled their doctrines and tactics much. Certainly, the new DPS out of carriers and high-angle dreads has been a rude shock to all and sundry, at least the first time.
The objectives of the capital rebalance was to revitalise the meta, and provide a yuuge swathe of options with fits and flexibility - this has certainly been achieved. Whether or not this is better than the old two-part ( plus supers) meta is yet to be seen, but I'm thinking yes.
There's going to be a time soon when capital mdules will come down in price from the stratosphere, and the ancilliary versions are closer to 150M than 1 billion. This not too distant future will change things a bit, but for now, we have to get used to T1 fit capitals.
I've been tinkering away, and some of my initial thoughts are:
FAXs
The FAXs, especially the Lif, are pretty undersupplied with CPU. In fact, almost all capitals are undersupplied with CPU, which might be the only thing pegging a few of them back. But this is rather uneven. The phoenix, for instance, is fairly luxo-barge rich with fitting if you don't try anything too outre. Back to the FAXs.
The Lif in particular has a particularly odd niche compared to the solo Nid of old. I guess there's not a lot of leeway with triage ships, as usual, on capacitor: it's 3 minutes or nothing. But for a ship with one job, this is a Sam Tarly not a John Snow.
This does 1 outbound rep for 4, 41s with the cap booster running. It can tank for 8m 56s with the cap booster and the local rep, but only 2 mins with a rep and a single outbound rep. This means you are very compromised while under fire (and thank fuck for the cap battery's neut resistance). Not happy, Jan.
The Minokawa can be made into a buffer fit (6.35M EHP) and 3m 24s capacitor with 2 outbound RRs. That's respectable, if you can field a couple of them, so that one can rep the other. Active tanked, it's got massive capacitor and decent CPU, and you can fit it decently without a great deal of blood, sweat and tears. This, really, is the shield FAX.
The Ninazu does well. 2 RR's, cap stable. 2 capital armour reps, cap stable, for 17K DPS tank. Neut or Nos, and a remote cap transmitter. Decent, well-rounded, and easy to fit.
The Apostle, same deal. 2 x 2 RR/RCT's, twin local reps, 17K DPS tank, and capacitor out the wazoo (like, 28 mins). Cap booster and a cap battery.
The CLEAR lame duck here is the Lif. It gets a mediocre local tank, but only as long as your cap boosters last. It can't rep while tanking, and it can't fit a full set of highs without giving up crucial low slots and rig slots. Not that low slots help shield capitals much, beyond the way it used to work, which was a swank blue midslot arrangement and a full rack of Dark Blood PDU's in the lows.
I'm open to suggestions at this point, but I seem to have 2 decent carriers and a letterbox of uselessness.
The objectives of the capital rebalance was to revitalise the meta, and provide a yuuge swathe of options with fits and flexibility - this has certainly been achieved. Whether or not this is better than the old two-part ( plus supers) meta is yet to be seen, but I'm thinking yes.
There's going to be a time soon when capital mdules will come down in price from the stratosphere, and the ancilliary versions are closer to 150M than 1 billion. This not too distant future will change things a bit, but for now, we have to get used to T1 fit capitals.
I've been tinkering away, and some of my initial thoughts are:
FAXs
The FAXs, especially the Lif, are pretty undersupplied with CPU. In fact, almost all capitals are undersupplied with CPU, which might be the only thing pegging a few of them back. But this is rather uneven. The phoenix, for instance, is fairly luxo-barge rich with fitting if you don't try anything too outre. Back to the FAXs.
The Lif in particular has a particularly odd niche compared to the solo Nid of old. I guess there's not a lot of leeway with triage ships, as usual, on capacitor: it's 3 minutes or nothing. But for a ship with one job, this is a Sam Tarly not a John Snow.
[Lif, Shield T1]
Power Diagnostic System II
Co-Processor II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Damage Control II
Capital Capacitor Booster I, Navy Cap Booster 3200
Shield Boost Amplifier II
Gist C-Type EM Ward Field
Gist C-Type Thermal Dissipation Field
Capital Shield Booster I
Capital Cap Battery I
[Empty High slot]
Capital Remote Shield Booster I
Capital Remote Shield Booster I
Triage Module II
Capital Remote Capacitor Transmitter I
[Empty High slot]
Capital Core Defense Capacitor Safeguard I
Capital Core Defense Operational Solidifier I
Capital Core Defense Capacitor Safeguard I
This does 1 outbound rep for 4, 41s with the cap booster running. It can tank for 8m 56s with the cap booster and the local rep, but only 2 mins with a rep and a single outbound rep. This means you are very compromised while under fire (and thank fuck for the cap battery's neut resistance). Not happy, Jan.
The Minokawa can be made into a buffer fit (6.35M EHP) and 3m 24s capacitor with 2 outbound RRs. That's respectable, if you can field a couple of them, so that one can rep the other. Active tanked, it's got massive capacitor and decent CPU, and you can fit it decently without a great deal of blood, sweat and tears. This, really, is the shield FAX.
[Minokawa, Active]
Damage Control II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Dark Blood Reactor Control Unit
Dark Blood Reactor Control Unit
Capital Shield Booster I
Dread Guristas Adaptive Invulnerability Field
Capital Cap Battery I
Capital Capacitor Booster I, Navy Cap Booster 3200
Capital Cap Battery I
Dread Guristas EM Ward Field
Cap Recharger II
Triage Module II
Capital Remote Shield Booster I
Capital Remote Shield Booster I
Capital Energy Nosferatu I
Large Proton Smartbomb II
Large Proton Smartbomb II
Capital Capacitor Control Circuit I
Capital Semiconductor Memory Cell I
Capital Semiconductor Memory Cell I
The Ninazu does well. 2 RR's, cap stable. 2 capital armour reps, cap stable, for 17K DPS tank. Neut or Nos, and a remote cap transmitter. Decent, well-rounded, and easy to fit.
[Ninazu, Ninja]
Capital Armor Repairer I
Capital Armor Repairer I
Damage Control II
Centus C-Type Armor Explosive Hardener
Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Dark Blood Reactor Control Unit
Capital Capacitor Booster I, Navy Cap Booster 3200
Capital Cap Battery I
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Triage Module II
Capital Remote Armor Repairer I
Capital Remote Armor Repairer I
Capital Energy Neutralizer I
Capital Remote Capacitor Transmitter I
Large Proton Smartbomb II
Capital Remote Repair Augmentor I
Capital Remote Repair Augmentor I
Capital Auxiliary Nano Pump I
The Apostle, same deal. 2 x 2 RR/RCT's, twin local reps, 17K DPS tank, and capacitor out the wazoo (like, 28 mins). Cap booster and a cap battery.
[Apostle, Basic]
Capital Armor Repairer I
Capital Armor Repairer I
Dark Blood Armor Explosive Hardener
Dark Blood Armor Kinetic Hardener
Dark Blood Armor Thermal Hardener
Damage Control II
Reactor Control Unit II
Capital Capacitor Booster I, Navy Cap Booster 3200
Capital Cap Battery I
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Capital Remote Capacitor Transmitter I
Capital Remote Capacitor Transmitter I
Triage Module II
Capital Remote Armor Repairer I
Capital Remote Armor Repairer I
[Empty High slot]
Capital Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Capital Capacitor Control Circuit I
Capital Capacitor Control Circuit I
Capital Armor Repairer I
Capital Armor Repairer I
Dark Blood Armor Explosive Hardener
Dark Blood Armor Kinetic Hardener
Dark Blood Armor Thermal Hardener
Damage Control II
Reactor Control Unit II
Capital Capacitor Booster I, Navy Cap Booster 3200
Capital Cap Battery I
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Capital Remote Capacitor Transmitter I
Capital Remote Capacitor Transmitter I
Triage Module II
Capital Remote Armor Repairer I
Capital Remote Armor Repairer I
[Empty High slot]
Capital Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Capital Capacitor Control Circuit I
Capital Capacitor Control Circuit I
The CLEAR lame duck here is the Lif. It gets a mediocre local tank, but only as long as your cap boosters last. It can't rep while tanking, and it can't fit a full set of highs without giving up crucial low slots and rig slots. Not that low slots help shield capitals much, beyond the way it used to work, which was a swank blue midslot arrangement and a full rack of Dark Blood PDU's in the lows.
I'm open to suggestions at this point, but I seem to have 2 decent carriers and a letterbox of uselessness.
Saturday, 14 May 2016
Citadel and the rise of the Slowtars
As they say in France: "plus ca change, plus ca inbound nerf."
I'm talking about capitals.
You know what's hilarious, but broken? Carriers.
What we are doing is, we've anchored an Astrahaus 3500km off a hisec gat in a lowsec system. We warp our carriers (3000 DPS gank Thannies, mostly) down to gate and vomit out a billion fighters. We then warp the carriers up to the Astrahaus.
The fighters have 1200 scan res, and if the instalock HIC or Ceptor/Griffin combo doesn't point the poor fucker, the fighters do. Then they hand out instablappage. If anyone even manages to hotdrop us...well, you can tank away and dock up.
It's everything that was wrong with EVE, rolled into one spot. Docking games faggotry with capitals. Skynetting. DPS carriers with ultra dumb tracking. Plus the added soupcon of POS gun style defences and structure RR for added insanity.
I mean, not broken. No.
Then there's the high-angle guns. Well, I shall admit there was a bit of a chance we all had misplaced angst that high-angle guns were going to turn out shit. It was misplaced. We all admit that now. But can confirm, tracking titans are back and blapping away happily. Happily for the titans not the victims, though.
So...when everyone stops gasping in shock about the cost of capital modules, and we start seeing people throwing their big ships around again in large numbers, we shall see the real whingeing beginning.
That's my prediction.
Also, 8.7M EHP Chimmy. Watch out.
I'm talking about capitals.
You know what's hilarious, but broken? Carriers.
What we are doing is, we've anchored an Astrahaus 3500km off a hisec gat in a lowsec system. We warp our carriers (3000 DPS gank Thannies, mostly) down to gate and vomit out a billion fighters. We then warp the carriers up to the Astrahaus.
The fighters have 1200 scan res, and if the instalock HIC or Ceptor/Griffin combo doesn't point the poor fucker, the fighters do. Then they hand out instablappage. If anyone even manages to hotdrop us...well, you can tank away and dock up.
It's everything that was wrong with EVE, rolled into one spot. Docking games faggotry with capitals. Skynetting. DPS carriers with ultra dumb tracking. Plus the added soupcon of POS gun style defences and structure RR for added insanity.
I mean, not broken. No.
Then there's the high-angle guns. Well, I shall admit there was a bit of a chance we all had misplaced angst that high-angle guns were going to turn out shit. It was misplaced. We all admit that now. But can confirm, tracking titans are back and blapping away happily. Happily for the titans not the victims, though.
So...when everyone stops gasping in shock about the cost of capital modules, and we start seeing people throwing their big ships around again in large numbers, we shall see the real whingeing beginning.
That's my prediction.
Also, 8.7M EHP Chimmy. Watch out.
Saturday, 23 April 2016
Bad Reconnaisance
This last week has been a bad week for Miskoranda and recons.
https://zkillboard.com/kill/53493807/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/53452629/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/53430219/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/53429397/
I think the reason I've lost so many is that they are one of the few ships one can fly around highsec whilst decced by Marmites. I have also been trying to move my shit out of Shenda, having abandoned deepest dullest Aridia for Heimatar lowsec.
I've moved in to the Aralgrund area with the Maggots coalition (which isn't officially a coalition). The war dec has reduced the abilities to move shit around easily, and all my wormhole chains from lowsec to hisec have been into regions I generally have few assets. So my access to ships aside from recons has been minimal, hence the torrid week so far.
However, slowly I'm accumulating crap, and hopefully this weekend we'll go about the place in kitey crap destroying Provibloc idiots and scrublords again.
https://zkillboard.com/kill/53493807/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/53452629/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/53430219/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/53429397/
I think the reason I've lost so many is that they are one of the few ships one can fly around highsec whilst decced by Marmites. I have also been trying to move my shit out of Shenda, having abandoned deepest dullest Aridia for Heimatar lowsec.
I've moved in to the Aralgrund area with the Maggots coalition (which isn't officially a coalition). The war dec has reduced the abilities to move shit around easily, and all my wormhole chains from lowsec to hisec have been into regions I generally have few assets. So my access to ships aside from recons has been minimal, hence the torrid week so far.
However, slowly I'm accumulating crap, and hopefully this weekend we'll go about the place in kitey crap destroying Provibloc idiots and scrublords again.
Tuesday, 19 April 2016
Monday, 18 April 2016
Read the patch notes
You have to occasionally remind yourself some people play this game itinerantly and don't keep up to date with every little patch, tweak, nerf and new vessel. Some people just play the game to collect toys and explore.
Such a person came and anchored a depot 2km off the B274 connection into Shenda yesterday, refitting his Tengu from exploration to combat so he could go run a sleeper radar site and make dank ISK. He was sitting 2.6km off the hole.
I of course leapt through in a Pontifex and he scooped his depot and cloaked up as I burned for him. Then suddenly we were 90km away from the hole, he was uncloaked, and he dieded.
As I was munching on his tasty, tasty hull hitpoints he said
Utolana Yoga> Well fuck, I apparently drifted further off the hole than I thought.
No, buddy, it's called a Command Destroyer.
These have been a huge force multiplier for small gangs fighting logi-heavy cowardblobs....or at least bad cowardblobs who anchor up their logistics and fall prey to CD's.
They have also, apparently, done to death the AFK boosting alt of elitepro "Solo" PVP mega gods of lowsec, who used to leave their boosters hugging stations or gates. A few days of CD's kidnapping boosting T3's and command ships, and that's all come to an end. Now they swon upon their couches at having to put them at a safespot and fall prey, occasionally, to Virtue clone probers. Oh, the humanity.
There's also a good line of Ala Kachuu going on with boosters orbiting POSs in wormholes. Especially if it's an undefended POS or you can drop 3 CD's on the guy and get serial MJD's 300km off the POS.
People are also, for quad escalators, just abducting the webbing Loki away from the triage carrier, which can be an effective way of pissing in the pot if you aren't solo dread running. Can be expensive, but with a few T3D's to DPS the Loki down and GTFO, it's a cost effective way of threatening a bunch of capitals.
Overpowered? It all depends. For ambush uses, maybe. There's not much you can do if you get caught by surprise. For larger fleets which run anti-tackle, and know to prime CD's, not really. And for logi wings who don't cluster up, the effectiveness of the CD's is low.
Friday, 1 April 2016
New Carriers and Supercarriers
Carrier thread
Supercarrier Thread
The TL;DR
So, some interesting things here
Lock ranges
Yeah, so carriers and supers will be Slowtard - a kind of mash-up between Slowcats and ishtars. The Carrier's job will be purely DPS and EWAR at range, and it's going to be extreme range compared to what we are used to - 3,600 to 4,600 before skills for Carriers, and 50% more for Supers.
POS's are going to be in for a rude, rude shock when these hit, since you can now park Carriers at around 5,000km off the POS and drive your fighters in to mess up the defences. With proper aligning of your carriers to a rolling safe, you can keep safe enough from casual tackle.
There's precious little to recommend a dread now, and even Titans will be....lets say kited, by carriers who can shoot from 50x the range of a doomsday / superweapon. Lets say, kinda like Ishtars used to out-range and outmaneuver their slower everything else.
Mobility
Bear in mind that dreads need to be static and carriers assuredly do not want to be static. Capital Ab's and MWD's with 75-85m base speeds (so, 100-120m/s) will see speeds of 250-750m/s, assuming you don't get scrammed and webbed. Nevertheless, this will allow a carrier group to sidle out of range of dreads and maybe even get into a passable close orbit around dreads, which is a further downvote for those ships.
But...look at those base align times. One minute. That's...unacceptable.
Income Generation
So, you can lock out to about 5,000km without sensor boosters. This is good news for nullsec ratters, really. No longer are you restricted to sentry drones at 70km from the warp-in point of a Sanctum - you can just ping off an alt at 2,500km or whatever and, slowly I guess, drive your fighters in to make bank.
Similarly, there's a chance that carriers will become a common C3 and C4 ratting tool with the fighter range abilities, depending on how badly sleepers chew on them. Escalations are up for review but there would be a greater risk to fighters here than would be economical - basically just like now, where dreads are used and carriers use, at best, T1 sentries if anything.
Tank
Waaaay less tank, but you get capital plates and Capital Shield Extenders (CSE's). So who knows what the EHP is going to be except way less. It's possible that carriers could get volleyed off field by large enough subcap fleets, even with CSE's and plates. So, as per Ishtars, the idea is to not get caught in the first place.
The issue for larger battles is of course going to be Force Auxilliaries, which at this stage will be tied down to immobility with Triage. So if you want to get dank reps, you need a ship which gets dank dunked by dreads assuming the dreads can get into position.
The current nullsec meta of preponderance of Archons might be up for review here, to some degree, but I think the capital meta for tank will still be armour biased.
Gank
The real buff is to Minmatar, who now get the same gank factor as Gallente, but more mobility and more mobile fighters. Especially light fighters, which can already with Archons hunt down and gank frigates, a Nidhoggur's light fighters will be a dangerous thing. Plus, 12.5% more velocity on fighters is a significant DPS advantage if your fighters have to slowboat many kilometres to an enemy.
DPS levels? Who knows. Depends on the fighter statistics.
EWAR
The new Suport Fighters will be interesting. Whilst any carrier can obviously use any type of Support Fighters, the racial bonus to racially appropriate fighters might be a determining factor of whether an armour carrier meta develops around Archons or Thannies. Cenobites are obviously neuting fighters and Sirens are scrammers, so for most capital warfare the neuting would be way more useful in anything except small brawls.
Ratting wise, the Chimera might find a niche with the Scarab ECM fighters for better GTFO ability, and unlucky last is going to be the Nidhoggur and its basically useless webbers.
If Valkyrie SW-600's aren't able to catch anything that your ship can't catch itself and don't web anything properly, why the fuck does anyone think a squadron of Dromi will be worthwhile? Yeah, i'm calling it now - web fighters will be as fucking useless as web drones are now.
The New Meta
Slowtars.
Supercarrier Thread
The TL;DR
So, some interesting things here
Lock ranges
Yeah, so carriers and supers will be Slowtard - a kind of mash-up between Slowcats and ishtars. The Carrier's job will be purely DPS and EWAR at range, and it's going to be extreme range compared to what we are used to - 3,600 to 4,600 before skills for Carriers, and 50% more for Supers.
POS's are going to be in for a rude, rude shock when these hit, since you can now park Carriers at around 5,000km off the POS and drive your fighters in to mess up the defences. With proper aligning of your carriers to a rolling safe, you can keep safe enough from casual tackle.
There's precious little to recommend a dread now, and even Titans will be....lets say kited, by carriers who can shoot from 50x the range of a doomsday / superweapon. Lets say, kinda like Ishtars used to out-range and outmaneuver their slower everything else.
Mobility
Bear in mind that dreads need to be static and carriers assuredly do not want to be static. Capital Ab's and MWD's with 75-85m base speeds (so, 100-120m/s) will see speeds of 250-750m/s, assuming you don't get scrammed and webbed. Nevertheless, this will allow a carrier group to sidle out of range of dreads and maybe even get into a passable close orbit around dreads, which is a further downvote for those ships.
But...look at those base align times. One minute. That's...unacceptable.
Income Generation
So, you can lock out to about 5,000km without sensor boosters. This is good news for nullsec ratters, really. No longer are you restricted to sentry drones at 70km from the warp-in point of a Sanctum - you can just ping off an alt at 2,500km or whatever and, slowly I guess, drive your fighters in to make bank.
Similarly, there's a chance that carriers will become a common C3 and C4 ratting tool with the fighter range abilities, depending on how badly sleepers chew on them. Escalations are up for review but there would be a greater risk to fighters here than would be economical - basically just like now, where dreads are used and carriers use, at best, T1 sentries if anything.
Tank
Waaaay less tank, but you get capital plates and Capital Shield Extenders (CSE's). So who knows what the EHP is going to be except way less. It's possible that carriers could get volleyed off field by large enough subcap fleets, even with CSE's and plates. So, as per Ishtars, the idea is to not get caught in the first place.
The issue for larger battles is of course going to be Force Auxilliaries, which at this stage will be tied down to immobility with Triage. So if you want to get dank reps, you need a ship which gets dank dunked by dreads assuming the dreads can get into position.
The current nullsec meta of preponderance of Archons might be up for review here, to some degree, but I think the capital meta for tank will still be armour biased.
Gank
The real buff is to Minmatar, who now get the same gank factor as Gallente, but more mobility and more mobile fighters. Especially light fighters, which can already with Archons hunt down and gank frigates, a Nidhoggur's light fighters will be a dangerous thing. Plus, 12.5% more velocity on fighters is a significant DPS advantage if your fighters have to slowboat many kilometres to an enemy.
DPS levels? Who knows. Depends on the fighter statistics.
EWAR
The new Suport Fighters will be interesting. Whilst any carrier can obviously use any type of Support Fighters, the racial bonus to racially appropriate fighters might be a determining factor of whether an armour carrier meta develops around Archons or Thannies. Cenobites are obviously neuting fighters and Sirens are scrammers, so for most capital warfare the neuting would be way more useful in anything except small brawls.
Ratting wise, the Chimera might find a niche with the Scarab ECM fighters for better GTFO ability, and unlucky last is going to be the Nidhoggur and its basically useless webbers.
If Valkyrie SW-600's aren't able to catch anything that your ship can't catch itself and don't web anything properly, why the fuck does anyone think a squadron of Dromi will be worthwhile? Yeah, i'm calling it now - web fighters will be as fucking useless as web drones are now.
The New Meta
Slowtars.
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