I have around 8 alt accounts I had collecting SP for the purpose of testing (in fact my corp i just a bank for alts to easily take ISK from), some are over a year old. I tested the new sentinels, the commandos, and the scouts. I always make it a priority to test new items when they come out. On one of such alts I tested out the Amarr scout everyone has been complaining about, and it made me realize something awful; Amarr assault is obsolete.

The Amarr scout has more module slots than the Amarr assault at standard and advanced, and at prototype it has he same number of module slots as the prototype Amarr assault. On all tiers I am able to achieve higher HP fits with the Amarr scout than the Amarr assault. While having 700+ HP (I call the fit "ABOMINATION"), I am still be faster, has 2 equipment slots (1 of which is a cloak), passive scan better, passive scan longer, be harder to detect, and have more stamina than the Amarr assault. Why use the Amarr assault if the Amarr scout can tank as much, if not more HP, and still have those aforementioned advantages? there is no reason to use the Amarr assault. What is the point of a suit having less base HP than another if you're going to let it surpass the other's HP through more slots? (same as the slayer logi problem)

This issue actually applies to all scouts and their racial assault counterparts, but the Amarr assault is a special case of suckage because its particularly lacking in slots; it has 1 less total module slot than all other assaults at all tiers. Why does the Amarr assault have less slot than others? it has a tiny 30 more base HP than the Caldari and Gallente assault, a small advantage easily countered by being the slowest assault. Its quite a silly design decision to deny the Amarr assault the slot. It should be noted that the Amarr scout, Amarr sentinel, and Amarr commando also has more base HP compared to the other races' dropsuits of the same roles, yet these other Amarr aren't forced to give up a slot; they shouldn't have to give up a slot, and neither should the Amarr assault since the extra HP is already balanced by the speed loss.

The Amarr assault may be a special case, but the "scout > assault" thing seems to be prevalent for all scouts and assaults of the same race and tier. With the exception of the Amarr assault, all assaults currently have 4 module slots at standard, 5 advanced, and 7 at prototype. The scouts have 4 at standard, 5 at advanced, and 6 at prototype. The scouts are superior; they have the module slots to tank comparable amounts of HP, while also being stealthier, better at passive scanning, being faster, 2 equipment slots and a bunch of other advantages.

I don't think scouts need a nerf, but I do thing medium frames (basic, assault, and logi) need to be tweaked and buffed. I posted about medium frame problems before here for the purpose of balancing logis and assaults (logis were underpowered at standard tier, and overpowered at prototype), and to give basic medium frames a purpose (though no relevant for this thread), but the slot changes I proposed seem relevant now since I think they would fix the problem. What I think needs to be done to fix the situation:

6 module slots at standard, 7 module slots at advanced, and 8 module slots at prototype (2 of the logis currently have 8 slots at proto already, one has 9) for ALL assaults and logis (no more screwing over the Amarr ones). The prototype assaults won't be that much tougher than they currently are, but one more module slot enough to keep their role viable. Making the assaults and logis start at 6 module slots on standard, 7 at advanced, and 8 at prototype would make progression more smooth; currently medium frames are the only ones that have a 2 module slot gap between one tie and the next, and that creates an unnecessarily high tier gap that other suits don't have. This would also be good for logis because right now at At standard tier all logis (with the odd exception of the Amarr one) have inferior module slot layouts compared to the STD assault counterparts.

Equalize not only module slot count, but also the exact module slot layouts of assault and logis. This is to prevent logis from being able to tank more HP than assaults, and their lower base HP will actually matter. The slayer logi issue is not actually fixed in 1.8 since logis can still tank more HP because of having more slots, its just that there are bigger issues from the other frame sizes.

Specific module slot layout proposals can be found here in this thread. I will quote in the the second post for convenience.

Thank you for reading.