Jessie Arr
Order of the Black Dagger Ushra'Khan
15
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Posted - 2012.11.10 19:54:00 -
[1] - Quote
TL;DR - ASBs repair damage as a percentage of the amount incurred during their cycle time, allowing them to scale well in fleet fights as damage increases, while giving less benefit in small-scale fights.
Proposal to rebalance ASBs:
Ancillary Shield Boosters get a 5 second cycle time. At the end of the 5 second cycle, the ASB repairs 50% of the damage you have incurred over the last 5 seconds and automatically consumes an appropriate quantity of capacitor. Cap booster charges will offset the capacitor cost by their appropriate amount while they last.
Let's compare the damage repaired as a percentage by a max skill Drake and Cyclone: Drake: 50% Cyclone: 68.5%
These changes would reduce the disparity between Drake/Cyclone and Rokh/Maelstrom in terms of tanking during large fleet combat. Active tanking would be the most effective form of damage mitigation in the very short term, while cap boosters and capacitor last, but would be less effective than higher resistances over long periods of time, and when receiving remote repair assistance.
Balance issues: Shield boost amplifiers, blue pill, rigs and crystal implants can all increase shield repair amount, however this change is largely self-balancing. Being able to repair more than 100% of incoming damage has little use, and would actually waste capacitor when your shields reach full. And since capacitor consumed is based on the amount repaired, you're only displacing your incoming damage to your capacitor temporarily, rather than stopping it entirely. Let's look at an example:
- An Omen is doing 400 DPS to an ASB ship who is tanking at a rate of 100% - Let's assume 50% shield resistances cut the Omen's damage to 200 - This means the shield tanker is consuming 100 capacitor per second, the equivalent of FOUR HEAVY energy neutralizers against an active tanking ship. - As an example, a Cyclone could only last 25 seconds from full capacitor once cap boosters are depleted while only tanking a single cruiser.
This means that pilots would need to carefully consider what size cap booster charges to bring. Small charges would last for many more cycles, but would assist much less with capacitor under heavy fire. There are also rigs which reduce capacitor cost of shield boosters, but these would be no less powerful for the new ASBs than they always have for active tanking ships, and would suffer for the ASB since you can't use PART of a cap booster charge.
One other balance issue is energy transfers from Basilisks/Guardians/triage Archons. However I feel like this could be easily balanced in one of two ways:
- Significantly reduce the effectiveness of incoming remote assistance modules while the ASB is running. - OR Disallow remote assistance entirely (like Triage carriers and HICs)
Thus in fleet engagements, the active tank would act as a very short burst tank to help you survive until you can receive traditional remote assistance.
Final balance concern: While the large ASB varieties would have obvious advantages due to their large number of cap boosters, anyone not concerned about using cap boosters could simply use a small ASB on any hull. ASB sizes should be confined to Small/Medium on Frigates and Destroyers, Larges on Cruisers/Battlecruisers, and XL on Battleships.
This change would add more variety to the number of ships which are viable in large-scale engagements, while scaling well all the way down to solo and small gang PvP where the ASBs are most overpowered currently.
I would also propose a similar module for armor tankers, though it should likely be introduced after the ASB changes have been introduced, vetted, and tweaked. Here's what I would propose for the stats of the armor equivalent:
- 10 second cycle time. (more vulnerable to alpha) - 2.5 armor per capacitor consumed (more efficient.) - 60% of incoming damage repaired per cycle. (more due to lack of shield boost amplifiers for armor tankers.) - No assistance of cap booster charges. Armor tankers will have to rely on mid-slot cap boosters for capacitor.
I hope these changes are well received and enhance the variety of ships, strategies and styles we see in combat. - Jessie Arr CEO, Order of the Black Dagger Order of the Black Dagger is a corp based around a simple goal: getting as much small gang PvP as we can handle. We accept USTZ PvP pilots of all skill levels.-áIf you are interested in joining, or simply flying with us from time to time, join our ingame channel: Dagger Pub and give us a shout! Our killboard:-áhttp://evedaggers.com/kb |