Are you kidding? A rail tank is currently the ONLY way to take down a dropship. And even then, all you have to do is fly close or high and you're completely invulnerable to them.

By your "plight" I can only assume you mean "the only thing killing me right now".

After some time of attempting to practice normal dropships (and often getting shot down by rail tanks) I recently acquired enough SP to finally get my assault dropship.

On the first call-in at the very start of a skirmish it got sniped from the other redline in two shots.
I was a little pissed and I realised that I wouldn't be able to continue that match with an ADS.

On my second try, I got into a Domination and I actually killed someone. That someone immediately went back to their redline and called in a rail tank and killed me in two shots.

On the third try, I was just leaving the redline when I was OHKO'd by a Gunnlogi with more armour than shields.

On the fourth try, I engaged a rail tank in the combat zone. He rolled back a little bit onto a hill and proceeded to explode me while he laughed off my pitiful damage.

There will be no fifth try. I really can't be bothered to deal with this kind of bullshit. Anyone who thinks that rail tanks are fine because they're 'keeping assault dropships in check' is mad - they cost far more than even tanks and tanks have a much, much greater effect on every part of the field.

While Rail tanks are a problem to both DS and HAVs the problem is there isn't any really good ground to air options if removed. Swarm Launchers I see try an fail and I have had ADS shrug off an entire forge gun clip and still be ballsy enough to fly low enough to va grenade him to death.

Both Blasters and missiles are not that efficient in dropship killing due to the small envelopes and horrible damage compression.

Railguns are bad because they excel in damage compression.

There is no high angle option between the railgun and blaster and there should be.

Either bring railgun damage lower OR introduce fall off (but this would change railguns to hit scan so that's a scary thing to even to consider) AND THEN Increase the fitting difficulty of the railgun currently its the easiest turret to install.

If rails cannot be touched then buff dropship HP and increase swarm damage and speed.

dude id suggest having a super cheap fit (vipers are perfectly good enough) for the first dropship per game..... if it survives ok-ish then trade it in for an assault dropship later on,,,, if you bring the assault dropship out at the beginning of a battle you will be virtually 100% guaranteed to lose it

ADS are only viable to fly in occasional matches (especially when you;re just starting out with them and the more sensitive control style/complications with aiming)..... make sure the conditions are right before you bring it out.... otherwise that ISK will flutter away before you know it

they are by far the most awesome thing in the game when you get used to them and how to evade the difficulties (it's possible to fit out the ADS to withstand the majority of hits,,, just forget about putting the 2nd and 3rd turrets on it)


im not so sure the need to be wise about as and when you bring a vehicle out proves there's a broken mechanic,,, also (i'm not saying you;ve done this but more to people in general)..... MOST PILOTS DONT KNOW FOR SURE WHAT KILLED THEM.... its usually co-ordinated tank strikes or railguns turrets,,,, but since you can jump out the ship before it blows you never see what killed you because it records as a suicide.....

the vehicle balance here is only slightly off,,, seems everyones in agreement about the redline issue,,, and once thats sorted (as well as damage mods) then it'll be a lot 'fairer' for everyone

Too much of this dropship complaining seems like pilots trying to make the ships a 1-man killing machine..... they're not designed for that,,, stop trying to turn them into that and enjoy what the ships are right now,,,, they are awesome fun and with the exception of a few pesky railguns they can be incredibly effective

Stop using Vocabulary to feign relevance by attempting to mask your ignorance...... The bulk of what you stated is utter rubbish, & the BOLD statement most of all....... FFS you have no place in Vehicle Balancing Discussio, GTFO.


As for everyone else......NOBODY, not F**KING 1 of you, has taken into account that there is no ADS Spam. Get 3 or more "Birds" in the air & then F**KING talk. An Experienced Pilot in a PROPERLY fit Dropship can survive 3-4 2x Damage Modded ADV Rail Shots from a SINGLE Source. You are being Focus Fired.....get over it. As for the 3x Damage Modded Gunnlogi with a Proto Rail.....1-2 Rail Shots & they go POOF. Without Resistances they are basically a "Genji Sword", High Alpha w/ Low Constitution.

The Redline is often the ONLY area of the Map, with the exception of the opposite East/West side (Assuming the Dropship is not flying Mid-Field), that a Rail can even get a bead on a Dropship. The Rail's Range is not Infinite...... But w/e the hell CCP decides to Break.......errrr....."Tweak" matters not much to me. I Adapt & Overcome, this is a proven FACT.

TL;DR: Get Gud, & IWS = Duncecap King

nope as a fan of flying dropships, I have no issue with rail tanks ability to swat DS out of the air. I do have a problem with redline rail tanks but nerfing rails is not the correct fix for that.

nope as a fan of flying dropships, I have no issue with rail tanks ability to swat DS out of the air. I do have a problem with redline rail tanks but nerfing rails is not the correct fix for that.

Umm, hahaha, you survive 3-4 shots? Bullshit, a dsmage modded railgun 3 shots any ship and I've been 2 shotted by mlt railguns with [highest shields or armor.

You must be unaware of your Damage Sources. Also, you're not taking into account that Shield & Armor Vehicles act differently. Example: Shield as Main HP means if you were not Pre-Hardened you will die fast. Armor as Main HP means you have 1 hit of leeway before your Main HP takes a considerable hit, allowing more time to HTFU & GTFO. I personally watched my 4 2x Damage Modded ADV Rail Shots get shrugged off by a Shield ADS, & it was back @ Full HP by the time I readjusted & cooled down on Heat Build-up. Lastly.....as per your statement in BOLD, you are doing it wrong..... HP Stacking is trash compared to Hardening. L2P KthxBAI

The problem with the rail tank is it's range and it's ability to sit with virtual impunity behind the redline while denying much of the playable map to dropship and other vehicles. A reduction to range is needed to prevent redline abuse while still allowing tanks to fulfill the role of high damage, long range AV. No one want or should want to make rails worthless, the aim should be to make them fair.

I must laugh that you assume rails are the only thing checking dropship. Forges are still very viable (due to their mobility and ability to hide). Even swarms give me trouble when they knock me around in tight quarters or near structures and throw off my aim and flight paths.

I agree with you. Red line tanks are the only problem that drop ship pilots should have. If they have a enemy tank or AV infantry on the field. It is fair game because you can either harass them or run away. I think they should either get rid of red line for everyone or just allow DS to bypass the red line to give them more of a reason to be in matches - to destroy red line tankers and snipers if they are behind the red line.

Place a small barrier 50 meters below the height ceiling that only prevents rails to pass through. This way if a rail tanker is hiding in the redline we can put on our hardeners and afterburner to to the height ceiling wait for our stuff to cool down, find drop location and turn on hardeners and dive, then after the pick up/ drop turn on after burners until needed again.

No nerfs.
No messing with the redline.
No need for counter measures.
Balances by giving a safe zone to counter someone hiding in a safe zone.
Pretty much recycles the MCC barrier code.
Should stop a lot of QQ.

While Rail tanks are a problem to both DS and HAVs the problem is there isn't any really good ground to air options if removed. Swarm Launchers I see try an fail and I have had ADS shrug off an entire forge gun clip and still be ballsy enough to fly low enough to va grenade him to death.

Both Blasters and missiles are not that efficient in dropship killing due to the small envelopes and horrible damage compression.

Railguns are bad because they excel in damage compression.

There is no high angle option between the railgun and blaster and there should be.

Either bring railgun damage lower OR introduce fall off (but this would change railguns to hit scan so that's a scary thing to even to consider) AND THEN Increase the fitting difficulty of the railgun currently its the easiest turret to install.

If rails cannot be touched then buff dropship HP and increase swarm damage and speed.

2555 shield

Adv heavy shield extender
Complex shield hardenee
Complex booster
2 or 3 shotted and takes slightly less time to kill than a hardened sica, and if you hit a python without a hardener you will 2 shot it.
I know what im doing railkiddie.

Taken from here


The basic idea is that since we are the only ting in the game with no cover, we don't have anywhere near the same range, and it's surpemely difficult to transport due to how long we are vulnerable, we should have a safe zone at the very top of the map.

Should a tank be able to attack a dropship hovering over it? I think that's a great check to solo tanks and forces tanks to use teamwork.

Firing volley after volley of missiles or rails at a tank can take a while even of stock militia fits, not even to mention if there are repairs or hardeners fitted as well. This leaves the dropship vulnerable to AV or other tanks, meaning if there's something, even a militia swarm, firing at the dropship, it can effectively protect the tank or at least make the dropship's attempt more difficult.

Allowing tanks to be self-sufficiently defensive takes away from the teamwork aspect of the game.

Rail tanks have made dropships almost unusable and ruined strategic play for real tankers and LAV specialists.

Rail tanks have made dropships almost unusable and ruined strategic play for real tankers and LAV specialists. While we understand that fixing things takes time, and that resources are limited there are some issues that are a problem and some that are so bad that the game is broken. Rail tanks fall into the latter. They ruin every single match. So this is a simple request. Here it is below :

CCP please acknowledge that rails need work. Tell us in this thread that you have heard our complaints. No need to say what you will do or when you will do it, Just let us know you hear our voices.

Or you could squad with a tanker, and stop crying to have tanks nerfed. I respected you before, but not anymore. Now you sound like the people that want tanks needed so bad that people stop using them.

Why exactly should everyone be forced to squad up with a tanker again?

Nobody wants tanks to be nerfed to the point where nobody wants to use them. I don't even want that.

But you cannot be the best counter to yourself. That's broken.