hurr durr pythons will still go up in flames vs a incubus. The buff means you can take one and a half small rail hits more before blowing up.

There needs to be more clear av options. Its very hard to balance the existing av against dropships when both viable options are bonused against armor. We have no clear shield cracker AV versus dropships. This is why caldari dropships are preferred.

The first person to seriouspost the plasma cannon will be mocked without mercy.

I respectfully would have to disagree, though for more abstract reasons. I find the massive engine on the two sides of the incubus far easier to target and with an ishokune assault forge you can two shot an incubus if it doesn't get any of its defenses off. The Python however has much smaller engines and is also thinner in any case which matters a lot when the pilots are twirling rising or falling in the sky to avoid shots. Not too mention the python also can near instant repair its shields unlike the incubus armor when the regen does kick in. I actually have a much easier time shooting down gallente dropships then caldari because of the shield regen, stronger hardeners, and Forge armor affinity. And the slightly thinner frame doesn't hurt.

When it comes to forge vs. dropship. No dropship will survive a strong forge fit if the forge can hit the target especially in its weakpoints. This is much harder to do with Caldari dropships then Gallente.

Evasion is the primary defense of dropships against av and Caldari dropships are harder to land hits on. Not too mention I'm pretty sure like the other Caldari vs. Gallente vehicles the Caldari Accelerate faster.

In essence, it's like shield vs. armor on infantry. If shielded variants have the same e/hp as armor variants there isn't much point in armor variants as greater mobility is better than lesser mobility. If the python gets buffed too much shield wise, there wont be much of a point in the incubus.