I'll start off by saying that I still use this suit. I went back into it with all 5 levels so I can keep using my energy weapons that I love so much to their full potential.

It does have some rather serious issues, though. The first is that the slot layouts are all wonky.

For the longest time I was OK with it having one less slot than any other suit because it had so many things going for it such as high stamina, loads of extra PG/CPU and most importantly good shields AND armor.

Being an omni tank made the amarr assault a distinct choice when compared to any other suit. It could easily get crazy high buffers without having any real weakness. kinetic/rail weapons would have trouble with the shields and plasma/lasers would have problem with the armor.

It was a great suit that you could brick out, still get good damage and not have to worry about any one particular damage type.

Now, however. things are different. It's a dedicated armor tank. That raises some issues with it's ability to field an effective tank due to it's slot layout. I know the devs are aware of this issue (thanks for responding to my first thread, logibro) but just tweaking the slot layouts doesn't really do too much to address my other concerns.

Just what are the amarr suits supposed to be good at? They were the best at being able to field not just the biggest tank, but also the most balanced tank due to being able to have the right type of defense for the right enemy.

Currently the other suits have their themes down pat. Minnie are the fastest, caldari are the best at shields, and gallente can field some surprisingly fast high armor suits.

Where does that leave the poor amarr medium frame? It's the slowest, bad shields and can't get as high of armor as the gallente. It doesn't do anything all that well. All of the other amarr suits have that issue too. Anything they can do other suits can do better. But you'll be forced to use mediocre suits if you want to use lasers well. The pitiful amarr scout doesn't really even have a purpose too. Besides looking like a pen1s (no, seriously. the back of it's head looks like the underside of the glans...) there is nothing it does that other scout suits don't do better. well besides run really far. Not fast, mind you. just far.

So what can be done to make the amarr suits both useful and a distinct choice for people looking for something different than the other suits.

Trying to make there be a tangible difference between brick tanking and regen tanking seems like a pointless endeavor. Until there are more bonuses to each suit (i.e. gallente have a built in 1.5x bonus to reppers, and amarr have 1.5x bonus to plates) people will fit it pretty much the same.

So what can be done to make amarr suits different than any other suit without making it overlap the strengths of another suit?

I say they should get a built in damage mod. This would give it a defined role in the field as well as fleshing out the flavor of the suits even more. It also lets them use their high slots to greater effect.

I'd even be supportive of it getting the damage boost instead of getting the mod slot that it's missing compared to other suits. provided the mlt/std suits are rebalanced (1/1 for MLT and 1/2 for STD) to take account for the new armor focus.

It would fit in well with the existing rivalries out there, too. Minnie suits are fast with low EHP, so pitting it against a suit that can deal extra damage while being slower and easily flanked and have a hard time recovering from hit and run attacks sets up an interesting dynamic of the two suits being able to capitalize on the other suits weakness.

As far as the RP'ers out there who'd take issue with Amarr suits being damage focused instead of armor focused, besides asking "Haven't you done enough already?" I'd like to point out that these are dropsuits, not spaceships and they maybe, just maybe they might be designed with different tactics in mind.

I think having a suit made for people who have no reason to fear death, but in their zealotry look to fight as hard as they can until they get their eternal reward fits much better than "lol high armor because EVE". Leave the high armor buffer to the gallente who are culturally more focused on making sure they bring their people home.

Every suit needs a distinct theme and purpose. Something that makes it stand out enough to justify people speccing into the basic frame for access to that bonus even if they don't want to go racial assault for a bonus to a certain weapon. Caldari and Gallente are shield and armor. Minmatar are speed. Amarr should be damage.