My character in EVE is of Matari bloodline, I have been using this avatar for 2 years, flying only Matari ships and using long range artillery on missions.
During most of these 2 years I did have this nagging feeling that my character simply isn't achieving comparable results in PvE - I kept hearing success stories from my corp. members of how they AFK-ed their way out of a mission -- the same mission that has me warping out (running away) 4-5 times in order to successfully finish it.
Cross training sucks big time as it makes your character lose a portion of time he used on training some of his skills (which you will not be using any more). Recently I have decided to have a go at it, and begun training Gallente ships (and Hybrid turrets).
I am only half way there and still dont have any lvl V skills (unlike Matari skills, I have lvl 5 Matari battleshit trained and Specialize in Heavy Artillery (rank4) with 8mil SP in gunnery). My Gallente skills are all lvl 4 and I have medium hybrid turrets trained to lvl 3.
I no longer have any problems on missions, the tank (Myrmidon and Dominix) is much sturdier when compared to equivalent class of Matari chassis (Hurricane and Maelstrom). My tanking went up from being able to soak up some 688 dps of damage to 790 (PST Hurricane VS. Dual MAR Myrmidon).
Here are the fits;
Hurricane fit
[Hurricane, Hurricane PST AC 699/333]
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, EMP M
'Arbalest' Heavy Missile Launcher, Widowmaker Heavy Missile
'Arbalest' Heavy Missile Launcher, Widowmaker Heavy Missile
Core Defence Field Purger I
Core Defence Field Purger I
Core Defence Field Purger I
Warrior II x5
Myrmidon fit
[Myrmidon, ACMYR]
Medium Armor Repairer II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Armor Kinetic Hardener II
Armor Kinetic Hardener II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
10MN Afterburner II
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
Capacitor Control Circuit I
Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Nanobot Accelerator I
Warrior II x5
Valkyrie II x5
Berserker I x3
Damage dealing capabilities (according to EFT - Eve Fitting Tool) went down from 334DPS (Hurricane) to 314DPS (Myrmidon).
But, once having flown Myrmidon I can clearly state that DPS went up, and how can this be?
Well EFT does not calculate Matari artillerys main weakness - missing the target in fallof range. Matari DPS falls by hefty 50% (due to accuracy) as soon as the target is not in "optimal" range. Drones are basically a close range weaponry, therefore they arent affected by "range" as such. This means that the drones will remain in optimal for more % of time and will (in the end) do much more damage over time.
One additional benefit - looting after killing. In a PST hurricane you have to keep moving away from your enemies to keep them in optimal - this makes your wrecks stretch out all over the place, making salvaging a more time consuming process. Killing with drones while standing still makes your life a lot easier.
Yet another additional benefit - artillery has no chance in hell of hitting frigate sized craft except if you are moving away from them - which is something PST hurricane cannot hope to do (it doesn't have Afterburner) - Myrmidon can carry many different types of drones, one of these being scout (small) sized drones - which instant-pop frigates!
So, instead of managing your transversal during the entire mission, you just warp in there, let loose the dogs of war and wait (AFK) until everything is dead - now, how comes there's such a difference between the two races when it comes to PvE effectiveness?
Lets have a look at Battleshit sized craft and lets compare Dominix and Maelstrom (which costs 3x as much as a single Dominix).
Maelstrom fit:
[Maelstrom, Maelstrom za sad najbolje] LVL V !, Large artillery spec. lvl IV
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Gyrostabilizer II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Heat Dissipation Field II
Ballistic Deflection Field II
X-Large C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
Shield Boost Amplifier I
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium L
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium L
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium L
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium L
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium L
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium L
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium L
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium L
Capacitor Control Circuit I
Capacitor Control Circuit I
Capacitor Control Circuit I
Berserker II x3
Valkyrie II x2
Dominix fit: LEVEL IV , Large hybrid LVL 1 (!!)
[[Dominix, Dominix: LVL 4 Missioning]
Large Armor Repairer II
Large Armor Repairer II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Armor Kinetic Hardener II
Armor Kinetic Hardener II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Cap Recharger II
Heavy Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800
Drone Navigation Computer I
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Dual 250mm 'Scout' I Accelerator Cannon, Antimatter Charge L
Dual 250mm 'Scout' I Accelerator Cannon, Antimatter Charge L
Dual 250mm 'Scout' I Accelerator Cannon, Antimatter Charge L
Dual 250mm 'Scout' I Accelerator Cannon, Antimatter Charge L
[empty high slot]
Drone Link Augmentor I
Drone Speed Augmentor I
Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Berserker II x5
Tanking comparison: 1135(Dominix, 1 repper permarun, 2nd powered by cap booster) vs. 363 (Maelstrom -- perma-run tank)
Damage dealing comparison: 550 (Maelstrom, in optimal only of course, outside optimal = 230DPS) vs. 403DPS (Dominix)
Once again, due to problems with accuracy Dominix DPS is not as low as EFT would make it appear. All the above mentioned benefits apply once again.
Flying a Dominix, one is able to warp in there, stop the ships engines, tank all incoming DPS (true, expending cap boosters 800) and still be able to kill enemy ships of all sizes!
You might say that Maelstrom is cap steady (perma.run tank) and Dominix is not, but practice shows that as you kill off enemies (especially frigates and cruisers) in your Dominix, incoming DPS deflates quickly - so in almost no time at all you will be able to stop cap. booster and turn the second LAR II off at which point Dominix becomes cap stable as well.
Why such a disbalance? Is it possible?
Lets have a look at the following pictures:
These DPS charts are self explanatory, have a look at them.
And then have a look at the following pictures (taken from EVEs quarterly newsletter);
It would certainly seem that Caldari are #1 race in EVE (both Drake and Raven are Caldari ships), how comes if all the races are supposed to be "equal" ? Well, you guessed it, they ARE NOT :)
Again we can clearly see that Caldari Raven is #1, followed by Dominix.
Seems to me that this is proof of some disbalance among the races.
Last, but not least, lets compare different races starting attribute scores:
Once again, Caldari pull ahead by a huge margin, and Minmatar are pretty much shafted again.
In a min/maxing world, only a fool chooses a race other than that of Caldari - thus making Caldari ships in constant demand, which in turn breeds competition - which makes Caldari ships cheaper (on average).
So, what gives? Is the game turning into "Caldari ONLINE" ?
And finally let me quote a few of the forum members who were discussing the sad state of game balance:
"maelstrom do(es) better dps,range,everything with laser than with projectile where its supposed to have a bonus"
To Mare
"With 3x gyro(stabilizer)s and 8x 800s with hail you get 890 dps at 3km. At 13km you get 445.
With 3x hs and 8x Mega Pulse with conflag(rate) you get 743 dps at 15km and at 25km you get 351.5
Switch to barrage and scorch...
barrage 700 dps at 6km. 350 at 36km.
scroch 584 dps at 45km. 45km... 584... Barrage is inferior as a ranged ammo."
Trojanman190
"7th turret would not increase DPS in a tank-(Tem)pest, since double-bonused autocannons do the same dps as unbonused torp(edo)s"
Your move CCP!
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