Today CCP Fozzie announced a huge array of re-balances to ships, mostly frigates at the moment, but one can only wonder if this is part of a much bigger attempt by CCP to re-balance ships after the release of T3 destroyers. The rebalancing is intended to be released this winter. You can read the full forum post here, or below.
Hey everyone! We are planning a big set of ship and module updates for this Winter, including 13 new ships, module tiericide and much more. This thread will cover some of the ship balance tweaks we are currently planning so we can start gathering your feedback.
Many of these changes were sparked by discussion with the community, and I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to pitch your ideas and feedback to us on the forums, reddit, blogs, podcasts and at real life events.
Special thanks to community member Suitonia who produces tons of great content on his blog and on youtube. Quite a few of the balance changes in this pass were inspired by his feedback.The changes in this thread are primarily focused on T1 frigates and faction ships of all sizes (with one HAC buff thrown in). We’re really interested in hearing what you think.
Breacher:
The Breacher is in a pretty decent place overall, but we think it’s could use a bit of help to really shine (and it is quite underused) so we’re planning this slight mobility improvement.
-0.08 inertia, +5 m/sTormentor:
Another ship that’s in a pretty decent place but that tends to be overlooked, so we’re adding this nice quality of life improvement that also fits the general Amarrian theme of having plenty of backup drones.
+10m3 DronebayRifter and Slasher:
Rifter and Slasher are getting a moderate fittings buff to help artillery fits and to make it easier to use the utility highs.
Rifter: +5 CPU, +3 PWG
Slasher: +5 CPU, +2 PWGTristan:
Slight speed drop to the current top-dog of T1 frigates to help even out the field. The Tristan is a great and flexible ship, and doesn’t really need to be quite as fast as it currently is.
-10 m/sPunisher:
Let’s talk about the Punisher.
Quite a few people have asked about missile Punishers, but we currently aren’t huge fans of dropping a missile T1 frigate into Amarr’s stable without having solid support all along the T1 lineup for a missile-focused skillplan. With only Khanid T2 ships (and unbonused launchers on the droneships) further along the path, we feel this would act as a confusing set of breadcrumbs for a new player to follow.
We also think that the “laser tank and gank” archetype deserves to be represented in Amarrian T1 frigates, especially to provide a less skill-intensive alternative to the Tormentor. We don’t expect it to become a dominant solo powerhouse for veterans, but it will continue to be extremely good as a newer player PVE boat and to strengthen its (quite niche) existing role in T1 frigate gangs. The two midslot layout definitely hurts the ship’s power and flexibility, but that can be an interesting tradeoff if compensated for in other ways.
These changes give the Punisher one more slot than most T1 frigs, and increase damage slightly (4 effective turrets instead of 3.75) while reducing weapon cap use and adding the significant buff of an extra lowslot. In exchange it loses its utility high.
+1 Turret
+1 Lowslot
+10 PWG
+13 CPU
Replace the 5% damage bonus with -10% laser cap use per levelFiretail and Hookbill:
We’re planning moderate buffs to the two least used Navy Frigates. The Firetail now matches the Fleet Stabber and Fleet Hurricane tracking bonus, and the Hookbill gets a bit better with kinetic and a ton better with other damage types.
Firetail: Increase tracking bonus to 10% per level
Hookbill: Change damage bonus to 25% Kin, 20% Em/Therm/ExpNavy Osprey:
The Navy Osprey is well below the power curve and overshadowed by other ships overlapping its role. The goal of these changes are to refocus the ship as a flexible destroyer of small ships worthy of a favoured role in the Caldari Navy’s auxiliary forces.
All in all, these changes leave the Navy Osprey with a moderate damage increase (6.75 effective launchers instead of 6, and the added drones) with extra benefits when using non-kinetic damage types. The second utility high also opens up new options for energy warfare.
-1 Launcher (second utility high)
Change the damage bonus to 25% Kinetic, 20% EM/Therm/Exp
+100 pwg
+15 dronebay and bandwidthSacrilege:
Quality of life bonus for roaming Sacs, while continuing to bring the ship closer in line with Amarrian (and Khanid) trends in drone use.
+50m3 dronebayWorm and Gila:
Two of the most dominant ships in their classes, we’re going to tone them down a bit by bringing their slot numbers in line with most other drone ships. These represent fairly significant nerfs but we feel the ships remain among the strongest in their classes. Currently we have decided to leave the Rattlesnake alone, partially as it’s not as dominant in its class as the smaller ships. However we won’t rule out future changes.
Worm: -1 Lowslot, -20 CPU
Gila: -1 Lowslot, -20 CPUOrthrus:
Another extremely dominant ship, this nerf is relatively mild compared to the Orthrus’ strength but we feel pretty comfortable moving incrementally here. I know that many people will be unhappy that we’re not nerfing the Orthrus harder at this time, but we feel that especially combined with the addition of the missile disruptors we are best served by making this change (which is quite significant by most standards) and observing the results before moving further.
Reduce damage bonus to +15% per levelBarghest:
The Barghest is underperforming a tad in our eyes, so this change provides a slight DPS buff at high skill levels (9 effective launchers vs the previous 8.75) while providing a second utility high.
-1 Launcher (second utility high)
Change damage bonus to 10% per levelAs we keep working and incorporate feedback, it’s very possible that some of these changes may be adjusted or removed, or that more could be added. This is also not the complete list of balance changes coming this Winter, keep an eye on this forum section for the latest updates.
The above video also sees everyone’s favourite CCP staffer discussing the addition of 13 completely new ships: The Discovery, which is an Ice Mining Frigate, the four announced Micro-jump Drive capable T2 Destroyers, along with T2 Logistics Frigates and Navy E-War frigates. This can only be a good thing, as small ship combat has become somewhat stale, and unchanged recently. Fozzie also briefly mentions the planned tiericide of modules. It would appear CCP have listened to community feedback, and are planning a major re-work of small-ship game-play.
What is your opinion on the proposed new ships, and the re-balancing of the current ones? Are we going to see more changes, and if so, what do you feel needs changing?
