Hybrids – Rail Rebalancing

Hi All,

I’ve been thinking  (uh-oh) about the proposed balances to hybrids that is up and coming and what I’ve like to see as far as bringing them in to line with the other races damage and tracking. Lets start with Marauders at all L5 with faction ammo and 3x faction damage enhancers (no implants) and the long range guns, rails, tachyons, etc. For the races that use guns, we get the following:

Kronos 731 DPS, tracking 0.01653, 36 and 30

Vargur 721 DPS, tracking 0.01547, 30 and 66 – nearly 12k alpha, tunable damage

Paladin 915 DPS, tracking 0.0174, 33 and 25

All have a drone bandwidth  of 75 and have no drone bonus. In other words we can discount drones as a factor. Assuming there is at least a 20% difference in the ratio between the highest and lowest resistances (the closest I’ve found according to Grismar is 85% to 74% or over 14%, and it’s usually MUCH bigger), we could easily see a 20% boost to damage for rails to bring them in to line.

My argument is that tuning for damage in the final analysis is as damaging as raw DPS. Net result is the same. Kabloooie!

Admittedly, it’s unlikely to be anything as big as that, at a guess I’d say it’s likely to be in the order of 10 to 15%.  Even at 20% it still bring the DPS to a not all that inspiring 844.

Lets try another test case, this time with battleships. Same proposition but this time 8 guns with a single 5%/level damage bonus.

Abaddon 915 DPS

Hyperion 731 DPS

Maelstrom 721 DPS

Admittedly the Abaddon loses out a wee bit due to at 75 bandwidth dronebay vs 100 for the other two (and yes, it’s a ROF bonus for the Mael as opposed to a 5% damage/level bonus), but it’s close enough not to matter all that much.

Righto… lets have a look at the smaller hulls. Cruisers to start with – standard T2 rails and 3x damage mods, AM, EMP, EM – and totally ignoring the fitting issues. Each hull can fit 5 guns and has either a 5% level damage or ROF bonus. And it appears we have the same issues:

Thorax 282 DPS, 0.02875 tracking, 18 optimal + 15 fall off

Stabber Fleet Issue 287 DPS, 0.04125, 15+22

Omen 348 DPS, 0.04125, 15+10

And onto the frigates. Which ended up being far more of a problem because there isn’t really too much in the way of direct comparatives – no gun using caldari frigate with a damage bonus for example – but assault frigates aren’t too bad (with some caveats). This time 4 x guns, 3 x damage modifier, and a single level/damage bonus (two for the wolf):

Enyo 169 DPS

Retribution 196 DPS

Harpy 150 DPS (only two low slots)

Wolf 252 DPS (twin damage bonus)

Somewhat ironically the Retribution also out tracks the Enyo despite it’s tracking bonus (something we also see with the Megathron in comparison with Amarr battleships). Ignoring the Harpy and the Wolf for a moment, the difference between the Enyo and Retribution damage wise is around 15% for fixed damage output.

Base tracking for guns (all T2)

425mm Rails 0.00962     250 mm 0.023             150mm 0.07

Tachyons 0.01392            Heavy Beam 0.033      Medium Beam 0.1

1400mm 0.009                  720mm 0.022              280mm  0.066

So, and in keeping with all of the above, I’d suggest a 10% increase in tracking and 15% increase in damage across the board for rails (much as I’d like to suggest it 20% is probably a little overpowered once you factor in drone damage, and compare grid and CPU requirements).

On the other hand, you have an extraordinarily high alpha and no cap requirement for Minmatar guns, plus their tunability…. and 20% doesn’t even bring them in to line with the raw DPS of Amarr weaponry. 20% tracking won’t do it either…

So, am I barking up the wrong tree, or just barking?

H

 

P.S Note to self – check the T3’s when you have a chance of it..!