Progression - The New Eve...

It has been a little bit since my last post and in that time much has happened mainly in the form of dev blogs that have either pissed you off or made you the happiest Eve pilot ever.  I am sure you can figure out the one that I'm taking talking about.  Yes, it is the one about missile balancing and the indirect Drake and Tengu nerf.  If you have not read it please read it now here (link).  Ok, now that you have become informed of the upcoming changes to missiles, lets talk about them.  I am going to start off with some hard facts focused mainly on what this will mean to heavy missile users and then give out my opinion.

First the facts, and lets start with a quote directly from the dev blog:

                                Heavy Missiles
                               -Base flight time reduced by 30%
                               -Base velocity increased by 6.66%
                               -In total, base range reduced by ~25%
                               -Damage decreased by 20% (rounded to closest digit)
                               -Affects all variant Heavy missiles, including FOF.

 So there you have it the changes to heavy missiles that are being tested right now.  Before we get into the math, here is the set up of my old ratting Tengu that I used against Angel Cartel rats which will be the baseline.

[Tengu, Tengu 44]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Power Diagnostic System II

Federation Navy 10MN Afterburner
Pithi C-Type Small Shield Booster
Explosive Deflection Field II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Cap Recharger II

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile

Medium Warhead Rigor Catalyst II
Medium Warhead Rigor Catalyst II
Medium Warhead Rigor Catalyst I

Tengu Defensive - Amplification Node
Tengu Electronics - Dissolution Sequencer
Tengu Engineering - Augmented Capacitor Reservoir
Tengu Offensive - Accelerated Ejection Bay
Tengu Propulsion - Fuel Catalyst

A nice fit that according to EFT puts out ~609 DPS at a range of 106.3 km with my skills (most skills level 5, some level 4).  The rest of stats are not very necessary since we are only looking at the changes to DPS and range of heavy missiles.  That is with the current state of heavy missiles or pre-nerf.  Now, Fozzie says that they are going to reduce heavy missile damage by 20% across the board so that 609 DPS goes down by 122 DPS to put you at 486 DPS or in simpler terms, "A lot less".  On top of that, the range will decreased by ~25% which is a loss of ~25.5 km putting you at ~79 km.  The range decrease is rather frustrating but not going to cause many headaches.  Seventy-nine kilometers is still plenty of range to play around with and is well outside most NPC rat's range.  The big thing that is making me think about selling my Tengu is the DPS nerf.  This is a big change and one that will really affect not just Tengu pilots but all ships that use heavy missiles, but more on that further down.

Now for a ship that is a bit more common, the dreaded Drake.  As I did with the Tengu, lets start with a baseline fit for ratting, or a common passive drake.

[Drake, Drake 17]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II

Thermic Dissipation Field II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
Thermic Dissipation Amplifier II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
[empty high slot]

Medium Core Defense Field Purger I
Medium Core Defense Field Purger I
Medium Core Defense Field Purger I


Hobgoblin II x5

A standard passive drake with a ton of tank and OK DPS.  The DPS on this is ~395 DPS without drones and my skills and has a range of ~70.9 km.  After the winter expansion changes the DPS will be brought down by ~79 DPS to put you at ~316 dps and the range will be lowered by ~18 km to bring you down to ~52 km.  This time around the amount of DPS that was lost does not concern me all that much mainly due to the fact that pilots using a drake for PVE are not trying to get the most DPS they are simply trying to get a ship that will work while they skill or grind for better more expensive ships.  The range nerf on the other hand does greatly concern me.  At ~52 km you will be in range of most BS's size rats but since passive drakes are commonly fitted without an AB, since most just sit there and tank the damage, it means that you have to spend more time slow bloating to your enemy or have to fit an AB, which is not necessarily a bad thing.  The range of a PVP Drake is going to be the same, unless fitted with range rigs, which will greatly nerf the effectiveness of the dreaded Drake army/blob.  One of the strengths of the drake blob was its ability to pull range on anything smaller than a BS and with these changes that will effectively be lost. The dreaded Drake nerf was not a nerf to the ship at all is seems.

The math and facts now out of the way, what does this say to me?  Well the first thing that comes to mind is, "What the hell am I going to rat/mission in now?"  The Tengu will be making about the same money has a Raven fitted with cruise missiles, if not less, and well the drake always sucked for PVE in the first place.  In fact, these changes really remove the ability to rat in anything smaller than a BS.  You could fit out a HAM Tengu but I found it a lot easier to tank the rats from afar than it was up close and personal.  So that is pretty much out, and the only other ship I can think of that will work is, the other ship I used to rat with, the Ishtar.  A baseline sentry Ishtar fit:

 [Ishtar, Ishtar 16]
Medium Armor Repairer II
Dark Blood Armor Explosive Hardener
Dark Blood Armor Explosive Hardener
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Adaptive Nano Plating II

10MN Afterburner II
Omnidirectional Tracking Link I
Sensor Booster II
Large Peroxide Capacitor Power Cell
Dark Blood Cap Recharger

Drone Link Augmentor I
Drone Link Augmentor I
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

Medium Sentry Damage Augmentor I
Medium Sentry Damage Augmentor I


Garde II x5

This Ishtar puts out ~538 DPS from drones alone and after the missile changes I am hard pressed to find a cruiser/battle cruiser size ship that is better at PVE.  That begs the question, "Does CCP not want people PVEing in ships smaller than battleship size?"  It really is starting to look that way.  The Tengu was always seen has the ship that pilots, like my self, who did not like BS size ships used.  It was used has a way to make money at a speed comparable to everyone else.  Given its close DPS and its better ability to hit smaller rats it made comparable isk to any BS size ship, but now BS size ships will simply do better than it in every way and I for one find that very disheartening.

CCP has been trying to make the game more extensive by bringing all other ships in line and setting up ship classes/lines that would be good at some things but bad at others.  This expansion on the other hand is starting to look like CCP is setting up a natural progression to battleships and capital ships for PVE and large fleet warfare while leaving cruisers stuck in the small gang and solo category.

Welcome to the New Eve....