Abyssal Problem, Maybe

PvE Gameplay Center Missions
#1

Just started doing Abyssals about 10 days ago and in the process was looking at fits I noticed nearly every fit is shield tanked. Even ships meant to be armor tanked are shield tanked. The damage mods for guns and drones are all low slots, which basically results in armor tank getting the boot. Any armor tanks able to rival the super blingy shield tanks sacrifice DPS and since abyssals are time limited, nobody wants lower DPS, so they shield tank everything. The whole thing seems to heavily favor missiles, drones and shield. Im seeing the odd Deimos and Zealots but nothing significant maybe?

The rats heavily nerf guns, both with tracking disruption and speed tanking you. The pylons help a bit if you can get to them. Stuff is tough to hit if you are speed tanking yourself. Missiles and drones don’t really suffer. Drones get aggroed but with faction drones and ship drone HP bonuses, some are nearly immortal.

I have limited experience but I was wondering if this is regarded as an issue and/or is going to get balanced out? Maybe make some abyssals that favors armor tank, some guns and give unique loot? The problem still remains however that armor tank competes with DPS so low DPS will get you killed as surely as lack of tank due to the time limit.

Can you please make the Firestorms increase armor resists and NOT HP? :slight_smile:

#2

Nah, the issue isn’t that armor tanks suck, it’s that the ships that can use armor tanks happen to not be the kings of the meta due to their weapon systems.

The Sacrilege is always armor tanked and is good but its worse than some of its alternatives. The Ikitursa and Deimos both basically have to fit an armor tank but both struggle with tracking, as all turrets in the abyss do, so they see less use than other ships.

The Stormbringer, Gila, and Cerberus are all doing pretty well and theyre all intended to be shield tanked, they also dont use turrets because theyre generally the worst option for the abyss.

The only cases I’ve seen of traditionally armor tanked ships being shield fit are the Ishtar, which is shield fit because an armor fit lacks buffer or DPS, pick your poison, or meme fits like the shield regen polarized Vigilant/Deimos.

I definitely do agree though that it would be nice if the firestorm weather “buff” was in fact a buff and not a nerf by virtue of meaning you need more DPS but don’t gain anything to help with it, aside from the resist hole that all other weathers except dark also give.

#3

It’s not an issue and I wouldn’t expect things to change significantly at this point.

Did you have a look at this: Zealot T4 Abyss (<500 mil fit)

Might be what you’re looking for.

Regards,
Cypr3ss.

#4

I think its an issue. From what I saw, many think the same thing. Zealot is nice, not great, but nice. Has extremely limited damage type, confined to electrical for the most part due to its damage application and cap, and mediocre at both. Only reason to take this over an Ishtar / Gila is because you are bored with those two.

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#5

A Vagabond is pretty solid for the Abyss. Obviously not armor tanked but at least it’s a gunboat. Gunboats in general and armor in particular are not great for higher end PvE with the sort of exception of Incursions