The Nerf Hammer, a Brief History:
Item overperforms. Becomes FoTM. CCP nerfs multiple aspects of the item at once. Item gets broken. Oops. CCP says they'll be more careful next time. CCP says they'll stick to small changes. No more nerf hammer.


Hotfix Alpha:
* Combat Rifle overperforming. Rattati grabs scalpel.
* Tanks overperforming. Rattati grabs scalpel.
* GalScout overperforming. Rattati reaches for hammer.

* the crowd goes wild *

I honestly think that the changes in current form are fair. The range reduction was to allow Cal to have scan supremacy (we reduced the wallhack range on CA too), a small dampening change so an unscannable fit doesnt give you 2 slots to brick tank, and finally no changes to regen as we planned, even though that's in fact one more free slot. Combined with a 3% dmg increase of the GAR, it sure doesn't feel like overkill on a universally accepted OP suit.

I may have started out with a hammer, but I believe it ended up being a scalpel job.

I honestly think that the changes in current form are fair. The range reduction was to allow Cal to have scan supremacy (we reduced the wallhack range on CA too), a small dampening change so an unscannable fit doesnt give you 2 slots to brick tank, and finally no changes to regen as we planned, even though that's in fact one more free slot. Combined with a 3% dmg increase of the GAR, it sure doesn't feel like overkill on a universally accepted OP suit.

I may have started out with a hammer, but I believe it ended up being a scalpel job.

[...] and finally no changes to regen as we planned [...]

I honestly think that the changes in current form are fair. The range reduction was to allow Cal to have scan supremacy (we reduced the wallhack range on CA too), a small dampening change so an unscannable fit doesnt give you 2 slots to brick tank, and finally no changes to regen as we planned, even though that's in fact one more free slot. Combined with a 3% dmg increase of the GAR, it sure doesn't feel like overkill on a universally accepted OP suit.

I may have started out with a hammer, but I believe it ended up being a scalpel job.

I'm confused; to which suit are you refering: the Caldari or Gallente? Hopefully you are referring to Gallente keeping its 3hp/s armor reps, right? I'm ok with the scan radius nerf, but losing the regen seems like too much.

yes, keeping 3 hp/s.

yes, keeping 3 hp/s.

I may have started out with a hammer, but I believe it ended up being a scalpel job.

yes, keeping 3 hp/s.

Which if you've ever played with a shotgun or even taken the chance to notice how ludicrously fast the falloff rate is, you'd agree that getting outside shotgun range greatly puts the combat results in favor of the Fine Rifle user.

I honestly think that the changes in current form are fair. The range reduction was to allow Cal to have scan supremacy (we reduced the wallhack range on CA too), a small dampening change so an unscannable fit doesnt give you 2 slots to brick tank, and finally no changes to regen as we planned, even though that's in fact one more free slot. Combined with a 3% dmg increase of the GAR, it sure doesn't feel like overkill on a universally accepted OP suit.

I may have started out with a hammer, but I believe it ended up being a scalpel job.

HOWEVER, in this scenario you chose to point out (a shotty against a guy backing away) your forward movement is faster than his ability to back-peddle. Which means that even if he continues to back away, you will still be closing on him.

I honestly think that the changes in current form are fair. The range reduction was to allow Cal to have scan supremacy (we reduced the wallhack range on CA too), a small dampening change so an unscannable fit doesnt give you 2 slots to brick tank, and finally no changes to regen as we planned, even though that's in fact one more free slot. Combined with a 3% dmg increase of the GAR, it sure doesn't feel like overkill on a universally accepted OP suit.

I may have started out with a hammer, but I believe it ended up being a scalpel job.

Here are the problems:
A. Two plates is not enough to brick a scout, they're still fairly fragile at that point
B. You're forgetting armor repairer modules. Nobody relies on the built in repair rate alone. Only very few do.
C. 3% damage increase on the GAR won't change anything considering everyone and their mother run CR's and ACR's. (And a 2% damage change won't change that)


In short, you're making a lot of assumptions that simply aren't true in game.
People don't stack two dampeners and say "Whelp! TIME FOR PLATES BITCHES!".

There are repairers, kinetic catalyzers, cardiac regulators, CPU/PG upgrades, so many things to put into low slots, all useful for a scout.
With the nerf to plates alone scouts should already use less plates, regardless of if you changed the scouts themselves.

Here are the problems:
A. Two plates is not enough to brick a scout, they're still fairly fragile at that point
B. You're forgetting armor repairer modules. Nobody relies on the built in repair rate alone. Only very few do.
C. 3% damage increase on the GAR won't change anything considering everyone and their mother run CR's and ACR's. (And a 2% damage change won't change that)


In short, you're making a lot of assumptions that simply aren't true in game.
People don't stack two dampeners and say "Whelp! TIME FOR PLATES BITCHES!".

There are repairers, kinetic catalyzers, cardiac regulators, CPU/PG upgrades, so many things to put into low slots, all useful for a scout.
With the nerf to plates alone scouts should already use less plates, regardless of if you changed the scouts themselves.

People don't stack two dampeners and say "Whelp! TIME FOR PLATES BITCHES!".

Ghost Kaiser. "eHP" means Effective HP. Please do not use it in place of Total HP

There is a drastic difference between the two, please read the first set of posts where I point out the need for 500 EHP.
When the most prominent weapons are rail rifles and combat rifles and HMGs all with proficiency 3-5 your values are so very far off.

If folks were slower to respond to attacks from behind, then Scouts would not neither need nor want mountains of HP and Reps.

Hence the suggestion ...
Apply Armor Plate movement penalty to rotation speed.

As for shield-tankers ...
A clever scout might open up from behind with a flux grenade or ScP headshot.


Afterthought: Fixing Stun-Lock would help tremendously in this area.

"Fairly Fragile"

2x Plates gives you 460 armor. That's not fragile at all.

Also, I struck out cardiacs and CPU/PG upgrades. Cardiacs are generally not used over tanking modules or eWar modules and we don't need extra CPU or PG. Especially the Gal Scout.

Anyways.

This is what I see people running the Gal Scout with in HA

1x Plate 1x Speed 2x Damp for those who want speed and tank ( +2x Shields gets you 543 eHP, while sprinting at 8.57)

1x Ferro 1x Repair 2x Damp for those who want to Tank and Repair without losing speed (with 1 shield, you still have 400 eHP)

Crazy people who want Tank and Rep WITHOUT losing speed or stealth can run 2x Reactives and 2x Damp. Gets them 300 armor with 5 hp/s rep. Throw on a shield and you have over 450 eHP.

I don't see any problems with these fits. By basically forcing the Gal Scout to use at least two damps if they want to be totally hidden, you stop the real abuse which was fits like these:

2x Plate 1x Speed 2x Shield and 1x Damp. Made you invisible with cloak with almost 700 eHP. You sprinted at 8.14 m/s and had 3 HP/s rep (Which actually really helped in the long run)

Or the infamous 3x Plate 2x Shield 1x Damp. With around 840 eHP, this thing was basically a walking Tanked Gal Assault that was invisible.

These are the fits that will no longer be viable, as you will be easily detected by other scouts who use eWar. 1x Damp will get you below a lot of scans, but the Cal Scout with 2x Precision will find you and kill you.

Why all the balancing is assuming all people run proto all the time?

I mean c'mon, i run adv most of the time, sometimes std to make some cash and very rarely proto as you only need to die about 3-4 times to go negative. so the balancing is for pc guys and proto stompers or what?

I am COMPLETELY 100% fine with requiring two damps.
But according to the math I saw around here, it will require three damps.
That's crossing the line IMHO.

You can run circles around a Gallente Heavy with 4x plates being repaired by a logi. I have done it, it's hilarious.

As far as I know, Cat, two damps on a GalScout should cut it in all but extreme cases.
Source: https://googledrive.com/host/0B_YSJ6FRJlihQjFXdzdNYU5MQWM/alpha.html

Extreme Cases:
* CalScout w/3 Precision (if you're uncloaked)
* CalScout w/4 Precision Enhancers
* GalLogi w/Duvolle Focused

If 2 complex dampeners and a proto cloak don't get you below the extreme then there becomes no difference in any scout type in that regards. Which is dumb if the Gallente scout get a bonus to dampening. It means that they have a skill bonus that doesn't do anything

The GalScout is unique in that it is the only Scout which can beat 28 dB Prototype Scanners, without the aid of Damps or Cloak.

As far as I know, Cat, two damps on a GalScout should cut it in all but extreme cases.
Source: https://googledrive.com/host/0B_YSJ6FRJlihQjFXdzdNYU5MQWM/alpha.html

Extreme Cases:
* CalScout w/3 Precision (if you're uncloaked)
* CalScout w/4 Precision Enhancers
* GalLogi w/Duvolle Focused

1) The GalLogi + Duvolle focused can do 360 spin scans because that's not fixed.

2) The Cal Scout with 4 enhancers can stay cloaked all day while he shares what he sees on his TacNet. Since he knows where everyone is, he can also choose the perfect time and place to attack, to minimize his eHP disadvantage.

It doesn't actually.
It hits 30dB.

This was not my own writing, and I won't say who the original author was, only if he wants to come out and say it was him will you find out from me.



This seems very much a problem right now. There seems to be too many variable changing all at once when it comes to scouts.