Want a better Scrambler/Disruptor --> Keres/ Navy Maulus
Want a stronger web --> Daredevil
Make them stronger --> how ? Straight Overall buff ? Or whats on your mind?
How should the be able to catch stabbed frigates??? some sorts of anti stepped bubble which surounds them (seems pretty op to me).
Which part will they Play in a camp?
I can´t see one valid idea in the whole Point your first ideas are already inside the game. The other are only Statements without any idea.
-1
Hmmmmmmmm, why don’t we take a second and establish what exactly even is an AF’s role…
IMO an AF is designed to punch up with big damage and a tank that makes it extra hard to swat. But it still needs to get under the guns… Maybe an AF only specialized module? I mean, lots of other ships now got their own specialized module… Why not?
Assault Jump Drive: Allows AF to jump within 2.5km (?) of target. (Spools up after designating jump location allowing faster ships to move out of the way. Skill lowers Spool time? Range < 50kish to not counter to MJD? Lets you jump in but not out.)
There are ways to prevent this from taking over interceptor role. OR mabye the Interceptor role could be revised to fit a more traditional role for the namesake, or the name could be changed to more of what it’s designed for, scouting. In fact, the reason interceptors have taken on the role of “tackle” is only because their speed and small sig allows them to close the gap. Maybe AFs should take on the role of tackle. At least for larger ships.
Assault Frigate: Tackle and Punching up.
Interceptor: Anti-Frigate like intended.
Great post, agree 1000%.
Here’s my 2 cents, put the AF into the role of BC/BS killer. Make it able to fit HAM/Pulse/Blaster/Duct-Tape medium modules(like how bombers use bomb launchers). It also seems like a lot of the talk here is about ewar/cap resist, so lets tie that into the Assault DC(ADC),say with a base of 20% +2%/level of AF. That way the resists aren’t permanent, but can still provide a boost when needed. Here’s another idea, make it so that when the ADC is active Void Bombs and area effect weapons are only 50% effective, +5%/level of AF. Now that might not be workable when theres 100+ bombs in the mix, so maybe limit the amount of damage area effect weapons do instead(only when the ADC is active). In addition make them resistant to webs, which would allow them to reach their target faster.
It would be a specific role for the ships as the same would apply to HACs but with heavy/capital launchers?(I’m not familiar with caps). AFs would still be vulnerable to other frigates and dessies or cruisers with anti-frigate fits, but would excel against the larger, slower ships.
There’s my 0.02 isk.
Since they called “Assault” they should be able to bring high dps in a short period of time while the main forces are on route. So the more logical is to add them an advantage gained through overheated scenario when dps bonus increased x3 times for a short period of time. Do it or die. Its like juggernaut kamikaze but with predicted end. And yes boosters should not be mixed with that or make it vice versa and with boosters its gonna be crazy but effect of overheating needs to be reduced.
I see it differently. They are t2, so a fleet ship. I want my frigates to basically tackle and hold for larger dps ships. EWAR is also nice. But for any FC, frigates are your fast and cheap way to lock down enemy on grid.
So, for me an “Assault frigate” is a frigate that works with heavy dps gangs, tackling for them, giving FC grid control, and generally living on the front line of fleet battles.
This is why i like the mini MJD and mini grappler concept. Give me two of those per squad and it opens up all kinds of possibilities for other ships.
Has that ever been defined as the exclusive role of a T2 ship?
While I cannot answer your question, I must point out that there is never an “exclusive” role for a ship. Only an intended role. There is a substantial and relevant difference between the terms.
Thus a ship “intended” for fleets (I do believe T2 ships are “intended” for fleets generally speaking, though most certainly with exceptions) should have the flexibility to be used in small gang, but be best suited to large groups.
This must be the new 0-meta, 500 Lachesis roaming around and pointing everyone in their path…
First of all, nothing said that large group had to be one ship type. We use Lachesis in our HAC and arty battleship doctrines for their ability to point nice and far out, however. Yes they can certainly be used in small gang too… hence I said:
Other obvious exceptions, if you need them to be directly accounted for, would be Interceptors, EAS, and Recons (which you did already bring up), which function very well in small gang.
On the flip side, a small gang of HACs will eat a bag of dicks and die. As would a small gang of AF (although even a large gang of those is useless at the moment). Even just being one in a small gang, they’re of marginal use and easily replaced with something far more appropriate.
Isn’t that always the case?
I do not think it does make much of a difference if you fly an assault ship or not if you run into a larger blobbh, since large blobbh > small one.
I was just being sarcastic as always because I wanted to debunk your thesis of t2 ships only suits large account number groups.
But back to topic, I think it would be best to wait and see what CCP is cooking up for the assault class of ships in the coming months.
That damage control thingy sounds interesting but play testing is needed to see if that helps the class of no-role ships.
So far, I am not convinced they need even more tank.
And what I am most afraid of is, that they will increase in price so much that nobody whom does not have a “birth-right black credit card” will be able to afford them.
I’m not talking about getting out-blobed. I’m talking about equal numbers with different comps. A small gang of HACs will fare very poorly against a mixed small gang, and a HAC inside a mixed small gang will negatively impact the performance of their small gang when compared with a better ship.
HACs are made for blobs. Yes you can absolutely use them outside of a blob, but they do not perform as well as other ships would at a similar price point.
Honestly, I think that a heavy tackle frigate is a perfect role for AFs. It would see them in pretty much any medium sized gang. Cepters for initial tackle, cepters burn out and warp off when they need to, AFs use their buffer to survive while holding point. They’re faster than destroyers, small, quick align, quick locking speeds. They’re less of all of that than an interceptor, but trade it all for a LOT more tank.
HACs, I agree completely. They’re already very tanky and they would benefit much more from speed over more tank… however HACs are a perfectly valid doctrine now so they don’t really NEED a big buff. Although, it’s a gimmicky long cooldown module, so it won’t really change much.
In thinking about it, carriers are going to suffer horrendously from this. A HAC gang would face-rape a carrier (or group of carriers) with these modules. Fighters will melt LONG before the module finishes.
I never claimed they weren’t. I said they are doing okay even in small numbers.
I like that very much and I think that is very viable.
Before the holidays, I was dusting the assault frigates of a bit and flew them a few times on SiSi, changed all of my old fits and even violated a Barghest a bit, until his second account or buddy with a troll-gorn showed up.
If I had a better capacitor at the time, I would have been able to violate him too.
I hope they don’t change that at all, them assault frigates have a small signature and the mwd bonus does indeed help - until you are close.
And for the love of assault frigates, let the Retribution fit a tackle mod among the cap injector.
So you want AF convert into small HIC?
Nope. No interdiction capabilities at all - any kind of bubbling capability would 99% invalidate a DIC. Just a heavy frigate, able to take some real pain while holding point.
For example, if you can land a scram on an Orth - nothing’s a better frigate killer imo, and while I wouldn’t expect or want any frigate to be able to /lol at a RLML Orth, these WOULD be able to hold a scram for the 20 or so seconds it would take to kill them (with the active DCU soaking up the damage) whilst still being able to keep up to an orth that doesn’t have a dual point.
Anyone that even thinks about doign the above in a cepter would be toast. But an AF could do it with this module.
If nothing else, I would give them more capacitor. The amount of capacitor assault frigates have is pathetic and usually not even slightly better than on their T1 variants. Even a 50% increase wouldn’t be too much.
No silly, imagine a very tanky Raptor or Cruisader.
Once upon a time the ebil battlships were so ebil, you needed a small ship class to dead with them.
Then CCP made all bombers the same with 4 different colors and nerfed battleships so much that them ebil battleships have to fear corvettes now.
Since then the sad assault frigates are looking for prey.
You mean a T1 ship might be worse than a T2? Say it isn’t so!
Well its not that bad )) it’s all about how bad the BS pilot and how good the corvette pilot are.
Noooo, t1 ship is better than AT?..