Even with as messed up as it initially sounds, I also found this statement to make a hell of a lot of sense.

Since you specifically said "plates and extenders", does this mean you are against the idea of say... Regulators or Rechargers?

In my opinion Assaults being "combat oriented" also means that.. theoretically they are exposed to more direct combat than other suits. I'm a Caldari Assault main that prefers mid to long ranged engagements (and was even during the "Slayer Logi" debacle) I find faster and more efficient shield recharge to be surprisingly more effective for "skirmish" type play than simply attempting to "out-tank" your opponent. As a Caldari using a Caldari Rifle, I was a lot better at doing what I was "supposed to" with this type of fitting.

Obviously not having bonuses to Extenders as Caldari kind of sucks, but at the same time we shouldn't be in the kind of situations where extender stacking is absolutely necessary to ensure survival. Hopefully 1.8 will shift suit roles and playstyles into a much more..."focused" area than currently.


I may come off as a bit arrogant with my next statement, and with the game being as messed up as it is I am somewhat wrong, but at the same time I feel like I need to say it.

Assaults (Caldari in particular) need a mixture of damage, defense and mobility to do what they need to do. Just enough survival to not be scouts, and just enough damage to not be Sentinels. We have to sacrifice something, and the current build's "Stack defenses or die without doing anything" is a part of the messed up time to kill.

As far as I understand it, the logic behind the Caldari reload is to encourage aggression and "Assault" type gameplay. We don't know 100% what the TTK is going to be in 1.8, nor do we know how all these moving parts are going to affect one another. At first glance the reload bonus seems a bit pointless, but at the same time it may both be necessary to compensate for the Rail Rifle nerf, and also help Caldari soldiers keep pressure on their targets at the distance the weapon is intended to be used. Caldari typically have higher shields than the other races (if EVE is the example that is being followed) so we all ready start ahead of them in terms of immediate defenses.

CCP seems to be building suit bonuses under the impression that you're going to be playing as a certain race, wielding that race's weapon. So Caldari will have a powerful mid-ranged weapon, higher base shields and be able to reload their weapon faster than most other races (thanks to the bonus). The Rail rifle tends to reload fairly slowly without heavy skill investment otherwise. That to me sounds like quite a dangerous combination.

The only way it would be underwhelming is if you're playing the game in 1.8 the way you play the game now: as a frontline Caldari soldier stacking shield extenders and nothing else. Think outside the box for a little while. Read some of the other threads CCP has made, and try looking up Iron Wolf Saber's thread about the mantras. Also keep in mind that IWS has access to information that WE don't, and also tends to drop some clues about content under NDA that has more than once landed him in hot water. He's trying to tell us, a lot of people are just really not paying attention or listening.

CCP has always called Dust 514 a "thinking man's shooter" but there hasn't been a whole lot of anything to think about. I get the feeling 1.8 will change that based on the information we've been getting so far.