Arirana wrote:I believe all of the scouts' racial bonuses and overall roles should really be reconsidered, due to issues with their definable roles. Take the min scout for example.
Its the fastest and squishiest of them all in terms of attributes. Makes sense. But the racial bonuses do not really sit right when common sense and deductive reasoning is involved.
+5% bonus to hacking speed and Nova Knife damage per level. Sounds good, speedy, squishy, fast hacks and extra damage with nova knives. Except the Nova Knife is a CALDARI WEAPON. Why would a minmatar suit receive RACIAL bonus damage to a caldari weapon?
A damage bonus so significant you might as well put "Only viable when used by the minmatar scout, really" in the Nova Knife description. The Nova Knife in general appears to primarily be a stealth, charge up cqc weapon. So in order to use it effectively, you HAVE to double damp up (thanks to the team shared scans of the mvp GalEagle-Eye Logi) and run a kin cat to get close (lol cloaks)
But what about the hacking bonus? Does that mean the min scout is meant to be the speed hacker role? That would be the case, if not for the gal logi yet again. Even with 2 proto damps and a codebreaker, the min scout can STILL be scanned by a focused scanner wielded by the gal logi(not to mention you will be rather sluggish to utilize your knives)
Yet the gal scout equipped with double damps and double codebreakers achieves the same HP anf hack speed as that min scout fit, but can beat a gal logi with a focused scanner. This is because of the gal scout's "3% to scan profile per level" bonus, a bonus which would be invaluable to both a speed hacker and someone wielding the Nova Knives.
So heres an idea: set the "3% to scan profile per level" bonus as the scout suit bonus alongside the scout bonus to CPU/pg cost of the lol cloak. Then remove the bonus damage to caldari nova knives from the min scout. To counteract this nerf to the already outclassed-by-the-shotgun nova knives (I know NKs have more DPS, but that doesn't mean anything to a shotgunner dancing just out of butter knife range) just increase the base damage of the nova knives by 25%. Yay viable knives for everyone.
Remove the stamina bonus to the amarr scout to make room for the stealth bonus (if the stamina of the amarr scout really should stay that high then change the base values).
Move the stealth bonus of the cal and gal scout over to the scout suit bonus and boom, almost golden.
Now the racial bonus the gal scout will be left with. A 2% bonus to scan precision simply makes no sense considering the amarr scout bonus is the same thing 2.5 times better. I really can't think of a good replacement bonus, besides maybe an additional bonus to scan profile, but that really seems redundant. Someone else will have to come up with a better one.
All of that^ is my current idea of pro eve lore yet balanced, defined scout roles. Yeah, I know it will mainly be a buff to the min and amarr scout's stealth, no different for the cal scout and maybe only a slight change for the gal scout. I'm not satisfied with that either, so let's discuss it. What do you guys think the bonuses should be?
TL;DR: Give all scouts the same 3% bonus to scan profile, remove min scout DMG bonus to Caldari Nova Knives, remove or apply the amarr scout stamina bonus to directly to its base attributes, change the gal scout 2% scan profile bonus to something not 2/5ths of the amarr scout bonus. Buff base nova knife DMG by 25% (yay useful knives for everyone)