This week we saw the release of several new classes of ships, the command dessies, the navy issue ewar frigs and T2 logi frigs. What CCP have tried to do here is interesting, and will change the landscape of frig solo/small gang for sure, however I feel some ships are more balanced than others, in the sense of being over and under powered. I'm going to take a look at each one and talk about how I think this is going to change FW space PvP.
The new command destroyers seem pretty mental honestly. Micro jump field generators. Dont really know what to say about them. I am really interested to see how people are going to be using them, as there are many many possibilities. Could you imagine one of these things getting into the middle of five enemy guardians and being like "ok we're leaving now". Granted, the range is only 6km, so you probably wont be able to keep that many enemy ships within that range for 9 seconds unless they're asleep. Still though, you will be able to make picks on certain ships and remove them from the battle. Maybe if there is one tanky beast that you dont want to put dps into, or a pesky falcon, you can direct a command dessie to get rid of it for the fight. Overall though I think this is more of a fleet thing, but really if used properly anyone could make us of it. Maybe a solo PvPer could pick out a single shiny ship in an outnumbered fight and jump 100km away with it..
Anyway, there is more to these new dessies than the micro jump field. Now that T3D's cannot get into smalls, there is room for new ships to take their place. I am curious to see how interdictors will compare to the command dessies in straight up PvP, but either way one of these new destroyers are going to start dominating FW space in place of T3D's. Interdictors have more dps so will be able to blap things easily, like they already have, but command dessies have more tank and more speed while not really lacking for damage, so I would predict for solo PvP especially the command dessies may be better in FW space. Combined with T2 frig logi command dessies should be a very powerful force in fleets as well.
It would of been nice to see a come back for AF's, but we're still in a situation where there is no real reason to fly them compared to the destroyers. I guess at least it's easier to train into an AF than either of the T2 dessies.
Right I just want to get this one out of the way first.
Really CCP? Really? What were you trying to do here? Do you not understand how ECM even works? The theme among these new ships is that they have stronger ewar but are forced to brawl, giving them a disadvantage. This however, makes no fucking difference to ECM. You can get the same effect from doing tactical sling shot scram kite skillz than clicking approach and sticking to them at 0. This thing could happily jam three ships at the same time, four if it has other things to tackle. Why do you hate fun CCP?
Ok lets move on, I'm getting cancer from just writing about this.
This is a blessing to anyone who likes to fuck around with FW farmers, so I'm looking forward to some of the tears my corp mates will be able to harvest with this. In terms of general PvP though, I think this ship will be quite strong simply because it's a drone boat. As well as that, it can scram kite at further away ranges and still apply the same dps. Scram, web, AB and this thing is going to be very mean to match up against. It does however have slightly lower base speed, which should help to balance it out. I would be cautious in engaging it as hull tanking will give it good dps and tank at the same time.
I'm quite disappointed that CCP have essentially explosive locked this ship. If you want to switch to a more vulnerable resist, you're giving up 25% of your damage you would of got from explosive, so I dont see why CCP even bothered to give it a 20% bonus on the other damage types. They really should of set it all to 25%. Other than that though, the Vigil is quite standard. It should have some decent dps. The web range is actually pretty much useless in solo PvP because you're locked on using rockets, your dps range is always going to be within range of a normal web anyway. It will be useful for sling shotting but that's it. Compared to its counterparts I dont think it will ever be the better choice. It could be very useful in gangs though to give some extra utility or defense if you're a kiting fleet.
I just want to say that I had this idea for the crucifier a while ago and it's really, really fun. I'm happy to see CCP made it a real thing. I'm expecting to see some good fights out of it, as will be trying it out myself. It's basically a straight up brawler that is going to ruin the day of any gun boats. However, I dont think it will be too useful in gangs as it will be able to TD one or two targets but get blapped off the field pretty quickly, you may as well use a normal crucifier if you wanted TD's. Will still be fun in solo PvP though and from first glance this is probably the most balanced out of the four.
I'm going to group all the new logi frigs into one section as I dont think there is as much to talk about. It honestly looks like that for armour you want the Deacon and for the shield you want the Kirin. This is simply because they get resist bonuses while the others get sig reduction. If you're a frig to begin with, less sig really wont make a difference when fighting other frigs as they will be able to apply to you either way, and if they are in range to apply to you it's likely you're scrammed/webbed anyway, meaning your small sig is even less useful. Straight up more tank not only makes other logi pilot's lives easier but is just better if you're caught as you will stay on field longer, tackled or not.
That being said, they all do their job, I just feel going for resist bonuses is much better than sig reduction. If you have gal/min frig V to begin with but not the others, dont let that stop you from jumping in one as they all get the same rep power assuming logistics frigates V.
If you're completely lost on how to be fitting up these new boats, this should give you a rough guide line which you can then optimize for your situation. I will explain my choices for each fit, but you dont have to go with them at really as most of these ships are quite versatile.
I'm only doing this for the new frigs because I honestly don't think I'm confident enough to give advice for the command dessies or logi frigs.
If you really just hate your fellow man you can fit this beast up. It's actually really good, even without the jams, which is what annoys me so much here. Anyway, for standard solo/small gang PvP, this is what you will be running with the Navy Griffin:
Quite standard, but gets 200 dps and 7.5k ehp. Like I said, even without jams that's a strong ship. I chose an MWD for this fit because in brawling range they wont be able to web you anyway as they will be jammed, so really you just need to get close. If you're in a gang and may be fighting against more targets than you can jam, consider an AB. You may have enough power grid after that to switch from an aux core to a mag stab.
If you actually want to have fun in EVE though, here's something some of you solo PvPers may be able to mess around with a bit:
So this is basically an armour Hookbill fit. Honestly I dont know if this is better or worse than its Hookbill counterpart, but either way you will be able to get a couple of kills from the surprise factor alone for the first couple weeks. That is, if anyone will fight you to begin with.
So I basically just fit this up like I would a rail Comet. It does the same thing really, just better, as now instead of orbiting at 7.5km you can orbit at 11km or and still apply max damage while taking none. If anything can hit you out at 11km, you should probably be orbiting it at 500m. Drone boats OP.
The main goal of the Vigil is to just blap your opponent as fast as possible. The Vigil can actually pump out a mean amount of dps, so you should abuse that. That's why I took the dps rig instead of extra tank. In fleets just web down targets and apply face melting dps, do the same in solo. It's quite a tight fit though so be aware of that. Also, only carry explosive rockets. No reason to carry others.
This one is quite simple as well, just go normal brawl and apply your TD to whatever needs it. You have the same dps as the griffin and maulus but not as much tank. Still though, when taking on ships with larger guns this ship will be extremely useful. I took the nos here because you have the TD, rep and lasers, so having something to keep your cap going will be very useful.
In short, quite a bit for small gang and solo battles. There is now a new arsenal of ships to mess around with for all sizes of gangs which I think is going to provide some really fun fights and give a little diversity to what ships we will be seeing out there, especially now that T3D's cannot enter smalls. In fact I'm expecting command dessies to replace them, whether they are more or less cancerous we will have to wait and see. Brawling will probably be a little harder from now on due to the extremely strong ewar power that can operate in brawling range, but if it's on your side you may be able to take on larger gangs or larger ship classes. We're quite quickly going to see 30 man frigate fleets with T2 logi wings that are going to destroy everything in their path - combined with assault frigs and the new command destroyers, getting a mix of high dps while still being able to apply to small fast ships is going to be difficult in lower numbers. Lastly, solo PvPers will just have to learn what new navy frigs their ships can deal with and what ones they cant. A small hint is just to avoid the griffin, in any form, all the time.
If CCP give balances where balances are due as these new ships pan out into our meta, the PvP landscape is going to be much more interesting because of it.
So I get that it's been a while since I made a blog post. This is because of two main things. One being I simply didnt really have much to talk about anymore and two being my school work and applying to Uni. I have not given up on this blog and do intend to keep posting, but I cant promise consistent content anymore.
Apart from boring irl stuff though, in EVE I have been having a lot of fun building my corp. We're 32 members strong now, pulling 10 man fleets of BC's or T2 Cruisers and actually winning fights against local gangs. It's extremely rewarding being a CEO and seeing your members enjoying themselves so much. Also as of today a new corp has applied to join the alliance Quam'Nocent. From my experience after the first corp joins your alliance things tend to take off from there, so look out Placid!
Nah we will still just stick to small insignificant gangs that dont really bother anyone big. For now.
I loose this fight, but I want to use this video to show how weak the Vigil Fleet Issue is.
I take on two Vigil Fleet Issues at the same time in my comet. I begin to slowly work one down but even though I had a scram and web on him he manages to pull range, forcing me to switch targets. I was very confused on how he did this, turns how they were both 10MN AB fit. In this video I very almost kill one of them, and had the other stayed in range I would of killed him too. The 10MN AB is what saved them, although normally I would consider this to be a bad fit due to the lack of tank and dps you get out of it. I suppose it can work in their set up but only because there were two of them and the could switch in and in when they got low. Had they both been normally fit, they would of actually died in a 2v1 vs my Comet. This means that a solo Vigil, that cant really make a 10MN AB work at all, has no chance. My point is that this just shows that the Vigil Fleet Issue really isnt that strong, or the Comet is OP. Probably both. Please dont nerf my comets CCP.
Command Destroyers:
The new command destroyers seem pretty mental honestly. Micro jump field generators. Dont really know what to say about them. I am really interested to see how people are going to be using them, as there are many many possibilities. Could you imagine one of these things getting into the middle of five enemy guardians and being like "ok we're leaving now". Granted, the range is only 6km, so you probably wont be able to keep that many enemy ships within that range for 9 seconds unless they're asleep. Still though, you will be able to make picks on certain ships and remove them from the battle. Maybe if there is one tanky beast that you dont want to put dps into, or a pesky falcon, you can direct a command dessie to get rid of it for the fight. Overall though I think this is more of a fleet thing, but really if used properly anyone could make us of it. Maybe a solo PvPer could pick out a single shiny ship in an outnumbered fight and jump 100km away with it..
Anyway, there is more to these new dessies than the micro jump field. Now that T3D's cannot get into smalls, there is room for new ships to take their place. I am curious to see how interdictors will compare to the command dessies in straight up PvP, but either way one of these new destroyers are going to start dominating FW space in place of T3D's. Interdictors have more dps so will be able to blap things easily, like they already have, but command dessies have more tank and more speed while not really lacking for damage, so I would predict for solo PvP especially the command dessies may be better in FW space. Combined with T2 frig logi command dessies should be a very powerful force in fleets as well.
It would of been nice to see a come back for AF's, but we're still in a situation where there is no real reason to fly them compared to the destroyers. I guess at least it's easier to train into an AF than either of the T2 dessies.
Navy Issue Ewar Frigates:
Griffin Navy Issue:
Right I just want to get this one out of the way first.
Really CCP? Really? What were you trying to do here? Do you not understand how ECM even works? The theme among these new ships is that they have stronger ewar but are forced to brawl, giving them a disadvantage. This however, makes no fucking difference to ECM. You can get the same effect from doing tactical sling shot scram kite skillz than clicking approach and sticking to them at 0. This thing could happily jam three ships at the same time, four if it has other things to tackle. Why do you hate fun CCP?
Ok lets move on, I'm getting cancer from just writing about this.
Maulus Navy Issue:
This is a blessing to anyone who likes to fuck around with FW farmers, so I'm looking forward to some of the tears my corp mates will be able to harvest with this. In terms of general PvP though, I think this ship will be quite strong simply because it's a drone boat. As well as that, it can scram kite at further away ranges and still apply the same dps. Scram, web, AB and this thing is going to be very mean to match up against. It does however have slightly lower base speed, which should help to balance it out. I would be cautious in engaging it as hull tanking will give it good dps and tank at the same time.
Vigil Fleet Issue:
I'm quite disappointed that CCP have essentially explosive locked this ship. If you want to switch to a more vulnerable resist, you're giving up 25% of your damage you would of got from explosive, so I dont see why CCP even bothered to give it a 20% bonus on the other damage types. They really should of set it all to 25%. Other than that though, the Vigil is quite standard. It should have some decent dps. The web range is actually pretty much useless in solo PvP because you're locked on using rockets, your dps range is always going to be within range of a normal web anyway. It will be useful for sling shotting but that's it. Compared to its counterparts I dont think it will ever be the better choice. It could be very useful in gangs though to give some extra utility or defense if you're a kiting fleet.
Crucifier Navy Issue:
I just want to say that I had this idea for the crucifier a while ago and it's really, really fun. I'm happy to see CCP made it a real thing. I'm expecting to see some good fights out of it, as will be trying it out myself. It's basically a straight up brawler that is going to ruin the day of any gun boats. However, I dont think it will be too useful in gangs as it will be able to TD one or two targets but get blapped off the field pretty quickly, you may as well use a normal crucifier if you wanted TD's. Will still be fun in solo PvP though and from first glance this is probably the most balanced out of the four.
New Logistic ships:
I'm going to group all the new logi frigs into one section as I dont think there is as much to talk about. It honestly looks like that for armour you want the Deacon and for the shield you want the Kirin. This is simply because they get resist bonuses while the others get sig reduction. If you're a frig to begin with, less sig really wont make a difference when fighting other frigs as they will be able to apply to you either way, and if they are in range to apply to you it's likely you're scrammed/webbed anyway, meaning your small sig is even less useful. Straight up more tank not only makes other logi pilot's lives easier but is just better if you're caught as you will stay on field longer, tackled or not.
That being said, they all do their job, I just feel going for resist bonuses is much better than sig reduction. If you have gal/min frig V to begin with but not the others, dont let that stop you from jumping in one as they all get the same rep power assuming logistics frigates V.
Fits for new frigs:
If you're completely lost on how to be fitting up these new boats, this should give you a rough guide line which you can then optimize for your situation. I will explain my choices for each fit, but you dont have to go with them at really as most of these ships are quite versatile.
I'm only doing this for the new frigs because I honestly don't think I'm confident enough to give advice for the command dessies or logi frigs.
Navy Griffin:
If you really just hate your fellow man you can fit this beast up. It's actually really good, even without the jams, which is what annoys me so much here. Anyway, for standard solo/small gang PvP, this is what you will be running with the Navy Griffin:
Quite standard, but gets 200 dps and 7.5k ehp. Like I said, even without jams that's a strong ship. I chose an MWD for this fit because in brawling range they wont be able to web you anyway as they will be jammed, so really you just need to get close. If you're in a gang and may be fighting against more targets than you can jam, consider an AB. You may have enough power grid after that to switch from an aux core to a mag stab.
If you actually want to have fun in EVE though, here's something some of you solo PvPers may be able to mess around with a bit:
So this is basically an armour Hookbill fit. Honestly I dont know if this is better or worse than its Hookbill counterpart, but either way you will be able to get a couple of kills from the surprise factor alone for the first couple weeks. That is, if anyone will fight you to begin with.
Navy Maulus:
So I basically just fit this up like I would a rail Comet. It does the same thing really, just better, as now instead of orbiting at 7.5km you can orbit at 11km or and still apply max damage while taking none. If anything can hit you out at 11km, you should probably be orbiting it at 500m. Drone boats OP.
Vigil Fleet Issue:
The main goal of the Vigil is to just blap your opponent as fast as possible. The Vigil can actually pump out a mean amount of dps, so you should abuse that. That's why I took the dps rig instead of extra tank. In fleets just web down targets and apply face melting dps, do the same in solo. It's quite a tight fit though so be aware of that. Also, only carry explosive rockets. No reason to carry others.
Navy Crucifier:
This one is quite simple as well, just go normal brawl and apply your TD to whatever needs it. You have the same dps as the griffin and maulus but not as much tank. Still though, when taking on ships with larger guns this ship will be extremely useful. I took the nos here because you have the TD, rep and lasers, so having something to keep your cap going will be very useful.
How will this all effect FW space?
In short, quite a bit for small gang and solo battles. There is now a new arsenal of ships to mess around with for all sizes of gangs which I think is going to provide some really fun fights and give a little diversity to what ships we will be seeing out there, especially now that T3D's cannot enter smalls. In fact I'm expecting command dessies to replace them, whether they are more or less cancerous we will have to wait and see. Brawling will probably be a little harder from now on due to the extremely strong ewar power that can operate in brawling range, but if it's on your side you may be able to take on larger gangs or larger ship classes. We're quite quickly going to see 30 man frigate fleets with T2 logi wings that are going to destroy everything in their path - combined with assault frigs and the new command destroyers, getting a mix of high dps while still being able to apply to small fast ships is going to be difficult in lower numbers. Lastly, solo PvPers will just have to learn what new navy frigs their ships can deal with and what ones they cant. A small hint is just to avoid the griffin, in any form, all the time.
If CCP give balances where balances are due as these new ships pan out into our meta, the PvP landscape is going to be much more interesting because of it.
What I have been doing:
So I get that it's been a while since I made a blog post. This is because of two main things. One being I simply didnt really have much to talk about anymore and two being my school work and applying to Uni. I have not given up on this blog and do intend to keep posting, but I cant promise consistent content anymore.
Apart from boring irl stuff though, in EVE I have been having a lot of fun building my corp. We're 32 members strong now, pulling 10 man fleets of BC's or T2 Cruisers and actually winning fights against local gangs. It's extremely rewarding being a CEO and seeing your members enjoying themselves so much. Also as of today a new corp has applied to join the alliance Quam'Nocent. From my experience after the first corp joins your alliance things tend to take off from there, so look out Placid!
Nah we will still just stick to small insignificant gangs that dont really bother anyone big. For now.
Fight of the week:
I loose this fight, but I want to use this video to show how weak the Vigil Fleet Issue is.
I take on two Vigil Fleet Issues at the same time in my comet. I begin to slowly work one down but even though I had a scram and web on him he manages to pull range, forcing me to switch targets. I was very confused on how he did this, turns how they were both 10MN AB fit. In this video I very almost kill one of them, and had the other stayed in range I would of killed him too. The 10MN AB is what saved them, although normally I would consider this to be a bad fit due to the lack of tank and dps you get out of it. I suppose it can work in their set up but only because there were two of them and the could switch in and in when they got low. Had they both been normally fit, they would of actually died in a 2v1 vs my Comet. This means that a solo Vigil, that cant really make a 10MN AB work at all, has no chance. My point is that this just shows that the Vigil Fleet Issue really isnt that strong, or the Comet is OP. Probably both. Please dont nerf my comets CCP.
