Yesterday an update was introduced that reworked the NPCs at factional warfare beacons, making them similar to the NPCs at pirate faction beacons.
Now NPCs warp in as a group, and their landing spread is very wide. Moving around inside the beacon on an AB has become unpleasant — just like it is on pirate beacons.
On top of that, the NPCs now apply a disruptor. So once again, if you’re on an AB, you won’t be able to pull away from them.
A sniper can sit at 60 km on the beacon, and if someone on an AB approaches, the NPC will point them, and the player will pick them off from range.
Closing distance to an ambush victim at 24 km is no longer necessary.
There are also friendly NPCs, which seem to help by adding DPS to enemy NPCs, reducing the need to bring something with extreme damage output. This opens the door for kiting, long-range fits.
It seems to me that with this change, pure AB scram-kite fits on beacons might become a thing of the past. Factional lowsec fits are going to resemble nullsec fits more closely, and the meta will shift toward kite and anti-kite gameplay.
What do you think — are major changes coming to beacon fights, and will some ships or playstyles take on new life because of this?
I don’t quite understand why you said that. Did your prediction match mine, or do you think my assumptions won’t come true? What fits are you planning to try?
If a sniper is 60km from the beacon, they aren’t capturing the site. Also, where are the forum posts complaining about this in Insurgency site? Pretty sure they mostly complain of multi-boxers.
I was running some scout sites in an AB brawling slasher, and timed how long it took to deal with a wave of NPCs and return back to position. It was usually 1 minute, up to 1.5 minutes for 3-4 rats. There are usually 4 waves of NPCs before you complete a site, so lets say you spend 5 minutes out of position chasing NPC rats.
Since scout sites have a 10 minute timer, you spend 33% of the time out of position. This meta disadvantages brawlers and AB ships. On the flip side, drone ships and LM users are probably the winners of this meta. You most likely don’t need to move from your position at all, and can attack any transgressor from position 100% of the time.
Also laser ships. I’ve suddenly become a rail Comet and Slicer pilot overnight. I really miss seeing AB fit T1 frigates gearing up for an anything goes 1v1. I rarely see it anymore, like once per three days. I can never get fights in my own T1 frigs unless I enjoy fighting Comets and Hookbills.