Upcoming Blockade Runner Changes...

Ok, so CCP Fozzie posted the first iteration of the Blockade Runner re-balance.  Let's take a look at this. Bearing in mind that I am biased on how I think a BR should be fit.

For the record my belief is that at ALL TIMES a BR should be fit for evasion (in the case of the current prowler that means 2 Low Friction Nozzle Joint I's and 2 Inertia Stabilizer II's) along with the cov-ops cloak with either a cyno or a scan probe launcher in the highs and an MWD, resists and a ECM burst in the mids as being the correct way to fit these beasts. And remember - there is no such thing as flying TOO paranoid in a BR in EVE.  If you need to fit for 10k m3, you are using the wrong ship.

I don't know what percentage of EVE BR are fit like I do, but one look at kill board history and most of the BR that die are of the expanded+cargohold optimization fits.  I will note that my Prowler is the original one I bought and that it still has BS sized Low Friction Nozzle Joints from the days when Blockade Runners could not fit cov-ops cloaks (yes Fozzie, you're not the first to mess with this ship).  So like I said, I'm prejudiced when it comes to my Prowler fits.  It should also be noted that I've always considered the Prowler the only worth while BR to get due to it's having 2 high slots and native 4k+ cargo hold (no puny 3.x k cargo hold for me).  This ship has seen me thru 2 solid years of living in wormholes, 2 trips to 0.0 and plenty of retreats (I've seen PL curbstomps from the other side so yea...) and of course 2 sessions with faction warfare.

Given the above I was understandably worried when I saw that the BR was due for a re-vamp this summer.  Let's see what is actually planned.

• They all now have two highslots for a probe launcher or covert cyno alongside the cloak. The Prowler gets a third low.

Humm, I really can't complain about that at all.  I will probably throw a 3rd Inertia Stabilizer II in there for that last microscopic percentage of extra agility but yea rock on.  Also a solid change for the class as a whole since the prowler will no longer be the only go to BR.  Pirates will be happy too since that means that future cargo expanded BR will be EVEN easier to de-cloak since they will not be able to get as far from where they started from when they cloak up to get to warp than now - and be easier to kill (remember ExpCarg modules reduce top speed and reduce structure) - side note this will not change the align time of BR but since it can't have moved as far as the previous easy to de-cloak version it should be slightly easier to de-cloak.  Overall I approve of point 1.

• A pretty significant cargohold increase across the whole line. They still have significantly less max cargo than any of the T1 haulers, but they can now all break the 10k threshold with T1 rigs.

I sneer at what I consider to be a fail fit, but hey, if it brings parity to the class so there is more variation out there, still no complaints.  I still think anyone who does this to their personal BR is asking to get caught but hey whatever floats your boat.  I can see reasons for Doctrine fits to have extenders but it's understood that the reduced survivability is the price to pay for operational objectives.  Insure the fuckers, they're going to die at some point.

• Replaced the useless tanking bonus with +5% warp speed per level. This means that at Transport Ships level 5 they go 7.5au/s.

Woah, an actual, honest to goodness BUFF.  I'll take it.  For reference, un-modified interceptors have a warp speed of 8.  BR start at 6au/s currently.  After the re-balance they'll start at 6.3au/s (At Transport Ships I).  Humm this may make it worth doing a 1x warp speed rig, 1x agility rig and 3x agility mods to see if you can push it over 8 without sacrificing too much of the "get to warp quickly" since the IS diminishing returns on the number of agility modules you keep adding.  Getting to warp faster than most frigates and warping as fast as most interceptors would indeed be nice.  We'll see.

• Their tanks still aren't anything to write home about, but we have given them full T2 resists.

Well their tank was never going to save them in most circumstances anyway.  That's why I usually when with additional passive resists (don't have to turn them on) and an ECM Burst as secondary (or is that tertiary) defence.  But I'm not about to say no to more resists.

Overall the highlights for the class as a whole can be seen to be more of an evening of the playing field with a few outright buffs thrown in. Time to look at the prowler in specific.  Since it's what I fly.

Humm, the mass and agility numbers published by Fozzie do not give me the stated 7.57s default time to warp.  The old calculated default was actually 7.62s and the new numbers work out to 7.81s.  It's entirely possible that we're not seeing the exact agility numbers to full precision, but it's still not a drastic change since I'll should still be able to get to sub-5 second to warp times but the.  For reference Pyfa give the same 7.62 for an un-fit prowler with a no skill pilot.  A max skill pilot will get that down to 5.15s, (looks like I have maxed the relative skills since it's the same for me).  When fit for Evasion as described above I get to 4.5s.  As a rule I like to be as far bellow 5 as I can manage since it gives less time for inties to get to you and de-cloak you.  So it looks like the Prowler is getting a weee bit of an agility nerf due to it's mass increase even if it's agility has gone down (normally you would think this makes it more agile).  Remember effective agility is mass times raw agility number.  with the lower result the better.

As a class I can see that Fozzie has balanced the class around the assumption that people will rig their BR for cargo.  Not what I do but it's an Ok assumption based on killboard results.  The result is that for evasion fit BRs the prowler is looking rather juicy, but I`d hate to be a Prorator pilot since it`s cargo space is based on the assumption that there will be Cargohold Optimization rigs involved.  But again that`s because of my clearly stated bias.

Overall I think it's a good balance pass on the class as a whole.  I am amused by the assumptions that were made about fits when designing the cargo capacities of the individual ships but due to the way I use and fit my BR, not overly worried about it.  Although I understand the reasoning, I would still have given the Prorator a bit more default cargo, but that`s just me.

Status Report.

Hey all,

Been active in FW for the last little bit.  Stayed on after the 1 month reactivation expired.  So looks like the burnout is no longer an issue.  Just haven't been motivated to post much since most of what I've been doing in FW is fly logi.  That's been going well.  It's nice to be part of a corp where we have consistent logi piloting in our fleets.  I am getting better as a logi pilot through plenty of practice.  So much so that I need to remember to make isk sometimes.  The times I am on are also the times for lots of Aideron fleet activity so I literally could be fleeting up every single evening.  Which is great as far as getting my PvP on goes, but not so much for isk related activities on my main.

The alt is not active.  Just on one account for the moment, but things are going well.

Apart from this quick status report, I'll be making some posts in the upcoming weeks regarding the industry revamp.  There are quite a lot of changes coming and I must admit to being pleased they are happening.  But details coming in other posts.

Hang loose people it's going to be an interesting summer one way or another.

Let.

Yep... Burnout city.

Hello anyone who's left.  Just a quick update.  Last august, I pretty much had a complete burnout on EVE.  Let the sub slide etc... etc... etc... (no you can't have my stuff).  I've just re-subbed for the month on the special 9.99 for a month deal, I'll do a quick check to see if my burn out is over (probably not) and skill for a month.

Some notes about the break:  I've been playing other games to get a real break from EVE.  Some Kerbal, Some Space Engineers, some FFXIV, some Minecraft and some World of Tanks seem to be my main-stays these days.  I will be back in EVE at some point in time.  Or, as I've been calling it "Hotel California Online".

Anyways just a quick update.

And two Scythes bite the bullet.

After an attempt by the corp CEO to get a hub bash going, it was decided to fold our small fleet into a larger fleet that was going after other targets.  Amusingly enough we initially started out in gank thrashers and a lone bait Hurricane appeared on grid.  With 5 Thrashers and a Heretic it's shields vanished with surprising rapidity.  At which point it's damage intake slowed to a crawl and the Guardians and Harbingers jumped in.  We obviously bail although one of the Thrashers didn't make it out (tackled by the Hurricane).  Obvious bait cane is obvious.

Then we re-ship to join the larger fleet.  Guess who we tangle with again?  yep C.L.O.N.E. again.  This time I loose the Scythe I'm in.  The fleet commander dis-engages and asks for some re-ships so that we may engage these guys and take out the Guardians.  4 Scythes and 3 Blackbirds (Amarr targeted obviously) make up the key composition.  Once again I'm in a Scythe.  This time I go down 3rd in line.  But the Scythes kept the Blackbirds alive long enough for the assault frigates to kill the enemy Guardians.  Apparently one hero Scythe and one Blackbird survived the main engagement.  For 4 Guardian kills.

Nice.

All in all I don't mind loosing ships when we're getting exchanges like that.  Figure the average Scythe is about 20mil (hull, fittings and drones) and the Blackbirds were being valued at about 13mil each.  The Guardians were apparently worth about 136 mil each.  (according to eve-kill, here).

Once the Guardians were down the AFs went to after the Hurricanes and Harbingers.  We ended up with control of the field.  And all told I think it's obvious we won the Isk war in that engagement.  Although I'm left with some supply logistics work to get some Scythe hulls (and fitting kits) to the war zone.

In an aside issue, I just noticed that there is currently an over supply of Scythes in Dodixie.  As evidenced by their under mineral value sell prices.  Note to: self buy the hulls in Dodixie until the price goes above mineral value.  I assume we're still burning thru the pre-(Scythe re-ballance) supply of hulls (when Scythes were only worth something like 2.5-3 mil each).

Another corp fleet

I started off the evening doing some plexing.  Rather slow due to the initially excited pirates and squids in the area.  Then things settled down and I was able to finish a medium and a small plex.  Only loosing a novice plex to a squid.  Hookbil vs Slasher... na, I'm going to stay cloaked thank you very much.  Which wisdom was revealed when two pirate Condors came in and got waxed.  Things were quiet after that until it was time for a corp fleet.

Only 4 of us this time.  But a good time was had none the less.

Quiet night

So, I had my first corp roam last night with my new corpies.  We did not encounter a lot of action.  The only engagement of the period during which I was online, was a poor lonely Rifter.  Who obviously didn't know what he was doing.  He probably panicked radically when being confronted with 6 Tristans and a Navitas.  I didn't need to rep anyone.  Most disappointing.

We did run into a pirate cruiser gang at one point.  I'm surprised none of them locked up any of our slow lumbering Tristans but I'll take a roam with no losses.  Heck I'm logi.  It's what we aim for when we ship up.  We're usually wildly unsuccessful at it but it's what we aim for.

The FW front was kind of quiet last night at least when we were roaming around.  We'll need to see if the next corp roam has more action.  Looking forward to it.

Moved to a new corp

Having decided that I was not going to go down the road of starting recruitment and building up my own corp for the time being.  I decided to accept the invitation from Marcel Devereux and join Aideron Robotics.  So I made sure the old corp is under control of one of the many alts and it's currently sleeping the sleep of the just.  Ready for re-activation sometime in the future, when I need it.