Been reading about proposed buffs for AF’s for nearly 5 years now and how t3ds took their place since they can perform every role better than an AF (save some very niche/rare uses).
All of the most popular suggestions involve afterburner boosts, web resistance and neut resistance. Many popular counter responses are overlapping with Succubus AB role and web/neut resistance would make them nigh unkillable leading to many stalemates between active tanked crusiers/bcs/bbs (where neither ship could kill the other) or the AF ultimately winning the fight with the BC/BB if they were buffer fit.
So I propose the following module that can only be fitted to assault frigs. Likewise the MWD sig penalty buff is removed altogether. This is to make AF’s dedicated Afterburner ships.
. An Afterburner that can only load one charge at a time with a 30 second cooldown upon use and 10 second duration of charge bonus. The UI (user interface) method for using these charges would be similar to t3d’s UI for changing modes.
There are three charges.
A charge that greatly increases the thrust of the Afterburner to fly faster but harder to turn, pretty much making it a temporary 10MN AB for 10 seconds.
A charge that increases the Speed Bonus of the Afterburner (web counter) but damages the AB by 20% (super overheat).
A charge that “consumes the gas” from the AB to convert it into energy, allowing all modules to run free of cap. This would also damage the AB 20%.
AF’s would also get a huge reduction to propulsion overheat damage for the specialized 1MN AB and could repair it while using it with nanite paste. However the repair speed couldn’t be fast enough to allow it to pop an anti-web/neut charge on every cooldown.
Remember these charges could only be active for 10 seconds of out every 30 seconds, so the AF remains the same as it is for 2/3 of the fight. It also makes them distinct from t3ds and much better improvements over their tier 1 analogs, finally justifying the cost.
I didn’t even know about ADCU until I googled it after your post. The ADCU sounds great for HACS.
I’d prefer my change for AF’s over thee ADCU and drop the ADCU altogether for the AF. AF’s don’t need a 20 second brick EHP boost, they need a web/speed/neut resist. My method came pretty close to theirs but keeps it inline with a frigate based class. Frigates shouldn’t be getting 400%ehp bonuses. Retarded.
This guy said ti pretty well in this video about the ADCU
Actually, the ADCU will be great against hopdrops from caps.
A subcap HAC or AF could pop it’s resist and activate an afterburner for sig tanking against hotdropped HAW dreads and carriers and warp off a few second before resists go down. Wait 30 seconds then warp back in.
This module is the hotdrop counter. I like it. AF’s and HACS will be able to completely ignore supers and titans with these modules using the same tactics and just primary down all the subcaps and leave. LOL
CCP accidentally solved the cap drop problem.
I can see it now. A fleet of Afterburner 450dps enyos with 80% natural resists and Thalia logi with evasive maneuvers from a magus giving them 28m sig radius tearing up a dread. The glory days may be returning!
Listened to the vid. I did not like it initially either, but seeing that you maintain basic passive resists after the burst, makes it very useful. I don’t think people are prepared for how insanely good AF gangs are going to be with these. The window for logi to respond to a broadcasts has just widened enormously. That by itself is enough to scare me on how good they will be.
They are still very slow, imo. An overheat bonus might be overkill to suggest atm, but it would have been nice.
Let’s not forget that their sensor strength and lock range were given a nice boost a while back.
If a change comes to ECM, it should come by the module itself and not buffs or immunities. See the navy griffin for example. If you just keep out of blaster null FO you have a high chance of seeing a miss and getting the kill.
I somewhat agree with your first point, seeing that I hollered very loudly for their nerf and exclusion from faction warfare small complexes, as their versatility and stats put them closer to cruisers than anything with small rigging. They have been nerfed already and no longer able to wipe the floor against anything able to enter a medium plex.
They should have come with a skill loss penalty like cruisers, but too many limp wrists around to like hard ideas, imo. That’s why we have citadels coming out our ears.
No. Lorewise the Assault Frigate would have a gas powered generator (like a real-life diesel generator). The charge would divert the AB’s gas to the combustion chamber to provide on-demand cap for all modules. After 10 seconds the generator would shut down for 20 seconds to expel the hot gas products (emission) to protect itself and the ship from melting (in real life empty-space is a very poor radiator, so expelling the combusted gas emission would be the only option). The Afterburner would also take 20% module heat damage from expelling this excess superheated waste gas.
Since the gas generator is producing on-demand power, it can’t be neuted, thus all modules run for free for 10 seconds.
I would prefer this consumable afterburner over the ADCU module. The ADCU module is great for HACs though.
If anything the ADCU module for Armor AF’s is gamebreakingly unbalanced if combined with low sig Thalia armor logisitcs. What is the answer to mass enyos/vengenaces/thalias/magus’s/hyenas/keres ??? I can’t find one. At best the hostile subcap fleet could pop the MWDing hyenas and keres assuming they aren’t dual prop.
