The recharge is one of the BIGGEST issues. Regs cost a bit but they can be fit. This will be noticeable, not a complete fix but give them time. And havs are VERY valuable on the field. I don't get the hate a forge couldn't kill anything before. Not my tanks anyways. Jumpy plc is no problem stay aware. Would have like to see shield boaters reworked to multiple small pulses and active armour reps brought back with passives being nerfed. Too much for one hotfix though I would assume.

Problem with changes like the cal commando being swarm proficient is that so many people spec'd into min commando's just for swarms.

Won't be the first or the last time this happens.. When the buff the Mass driver is getting on vehicles will make the breach good for applying tank damage so not all is lost.

The recharge is one of the BIGGEST issues. Regs cost a bit but they can be fit. This will be noticeable, not a complete fix but give them time. And havs are VERY valuable on the field. I don't get the hate a forge couldn't kill anything before. Not my tanks anyways. Jumpy plc is no problem stay aware. Would have like to see shield boaters reworked to multiple small pulses and active armour reps brought back with passives being nerfed. Too much for one hotfix though I would assume.

I run double reg gunnis .... I can smell the fanmail already.



I feel sorry for all the drugar pilots that are going to have to learn to drive.

Shield Tanking
We are taking a major step towards a balance between Armor and Shield tanking with this new Hotfix, radically strengthening the shield recharge rates, recharge delays and damage thresholds of Caldari and Minmatar Dropsuits. We also reduced the CPU cost of Shield Regulators by almost 20%t to top it off.

HAV/AV Balance
Secondly, changing the Swarm Launcher profile to be a new Explosive GÇô Missile, and granting the damage bonus to the Caldari Commando, and leaving Minmatar Commandos with Explosive GÇô Explosives (both have a +20% Armor/-20% Shield damage profile.

Rifles
The Gallente Assault Rifle family is fairly underpowered to the rest of them, not statistically per se, but due to other Assault Dropsuits having better Skill bonuses. ThatGÇÖs why we are introducing a very strong bonus into the form of a ROF bonus for Gallente Assault Dropsuits. Players have been clamoring for a better Caldari bonus as well, and that is being added as a Kick/Recoil reduction for Rail Rifles.

Other Weapons
Breach Shotguns get a Clip and Ammo Buff, MagSec gets a healthy damage buff and a charge time reduction. Small Blaster given a robust Splash radius buff to help with Anti Infantry work, especially from the skies, but also from HAVs/LAVs.

Locus Grenade damage progression made Standard and Advanced grenades fairly useless, so we are going to have the same damage for all tiears, with increasing radius per tier. We are also fixing the Packed Locus and buffing the Fused Grenades considerably.


Modules
We wanted to improve the Biotics family so are reducing the PG cost of the KinCats, buffing the Cardiac Regulator. We normalized the Myofib damage bonus but increased base Melee damage on all dropsuits to make up for it.

ThatGÇÖs it for now, go ahead and comment on these changes, that look like they will stir up the meta quite a lot.

To balance the rail rifle's poor performance in CQB (should it be implemented this way), the Caldari Assault should also get a fitting bonus to Assault Rifles, giving it a close quarters option while only retaining bonuses for the rail rifle. I also believe the inverse should be the case for the Gallente Assault..

No.

Your close quarters option is the soon-to-be-buffed MagSec: it's going to be faster charging, higher damage and benefits from the original CalAss bonus (reload speed) and the base Assault fitting bonus.

So no, CalAss should not get another bonus because you don't understand how good you have it already. Especially considering the MagSec is basically as good as the AR anyway.

While your statement is accurate, you misunderstand my intentions and are also going on the assumption that people are only going to use the MagSec, when the Bolt Pistol and the Ion Pistol exist as well. The point of my recommendation is both the Gallente and Caldari Assault are Hybrid Weapon platforms, and as such should receive fitting bonuses to all hybrid weapons, and that's it. It is no different than it already is, but in this circumstance its going on the premise that Ratatti did what needed to be done and limited the assault fitting bonus to racial weapons, which you'd see if you actually read the whole post.

only [/i]sidearm a CalAss should use, but because it is an option that fills a hole that you feel is there.

Bolt pistols? What about them? Are they getting their broken hit detection fixed soon?
Right now it's not far from being shooting-over-your-shoulder-while-farting-in-the-general-direction-to-get-a-sure-kill level hit detection.

It's getting a rof nerf.

It's a start, but sadly doesn't fix the hit detection.

Swarms getting nerfed against ADS'es?
ADS'es are already OP as it is. If anything the swarms should get a +25m range buff instead of a nerf.

ADS's are a flying coffin. A very expensive flying coffin.

It's getting a rof nerf.

I'll have to disagree there. Recharge is NOT the biggest issue, the biggest issue are the massive CPU/PG differences between armor and shields mods as well as the utility over defense.

The new recharge rates are helpful but don't point to the root of the problem. At full health using extenders with hardeners, assuming lets say a value of 4400 on health, it will still take 20 - 24 seconds to fully recover shield damage. Where a maddie will be recovering at a constant rate as you struggle to break fire.

In a straight fight, a maddie will still have the clear cut advantage. I mean just assume a maddie fit dual hards, plate, rep, heatsink, damage mod, nitro. That's fit for FULL tank AND damage augmentation / speed.

Conversely, look at your shield fit. If you want to fit for a full defense, 2 hards, 2 extenders at the very least are required. That leaves just one slot in your highs for an offense related utility mod. But then you need to fit a PG/CPU mod to your lows to make it happen because hardeners are quite intensive on PG/CPU (not to mention extenders).

To even say that right now recharge is the biggest issue right now just seems so ridiculous to me when you could just compare fits and see the obvious. Armor has no need to sacrifice any slots, yet a gunnie MUST to even compare to a poorly fit maddie.


And as far as HAV's usefulness on the field, nope. Yes, I'll admit there are some situations where they could shine. 5 point bridge map for one. But maps like 2 in 2 out cargo, or 3 in 2 out research, tanks are just useless. Home point defense at best if you can even shoot the console, many sockets you can't.

They are good at shooting dropships down, but generally a FG fills this niche better, as they can sit in the middle of the map, elevated. Even swarms work better with their tracking many times, as leading a dropship isn't exactly the easiest thing to do.

Transport, that's what a dropships is for.

Sure in pubs it does seem like the HAV is this unstoppable murder machine winning the match. But then I go run infantry and play to the points mostly ignoring the tank on the field because unless its a blaster, it won't be doing much. Even if it's a blaster, mobility around points can be extremely limited so it's not much an issue ducking behind cover or moving around another area.

It's usually an issue of silly blue dots that think they need to kill this tank doing absolutely nothing for their team, leaving the points undefended in the process or running into the maws of the enemy.

And if all else fails, AV grenades. Oh wait, all explosives do full damage to tanks (more to armor), cores it is! Maybe throw in some mass driver rounds and drive that tank off and never once worry about breaking my infantry slaying capabilities with AV nades that can't damage infantry or swarms that can't shoot at infantry.

Be my guest though, I hope you enjoy those plasma cannon rounds to the fuel cell that basically strip all of your shields in a single round with both hardeners up! It should be quite interesting for those unprepared for the pain!

which is why swarms are also included in the weak spot increase for HAVs

which is why swarms are also included in the weak spot increase for HAVs

This is hilarious and a terrible point. :/ You can't aim swarms, so "weak spots" are irrelevant for them.

You're buffing forges (which are already the only viable anti-dropship weapon, and the best at killing tanks) via this weak spot, and also thrice-over nerfing the swarms, which were already basically useless.

This is hilarious and a terrible point. :/ You can't aim swarms, so "weak spots" are irrelevant for them.

You're buffing forges (which are already the only viable anti-dropship weapon, and the best at killing tanks) via this weak spot, and also thrice-over nerfing the swarms, which were already basically useless.

forges are terrible anti air swarms are way better all I do is ads what are you talking about?

I assume you've tested swarms against weak points in a test environment. Approximately how often are you able to strike the weak point with swarms?