This is a straightforward request for a balance pass to Marauders. Specifically:
• All Marauders: A 10% increase to cargo space for all Marauders and a 5% increase to power grid.
• Golem: The Caldari Battleship bonus for the Golem being changed from a 5% explosion velocity to 5% explosion radius bonus (the Golem is a derivative of the Raven, not the Typhoon). +1 additional low slot.
• Kronos: An increase to the Marauder bonus to Large Hybrid tracking speed from 7.5% to 10%. +1 additional medium slot.
• Paladin: An additional 5% increase to the power grid (total of 10%). +1 additional medium slot.
• Vargur: An increase to 86km (from 81km) for the maximum targeting range of the Vargur (T1/Faction battleships had their sensor range buffed to work with a MJD so this is just a similar QOL improvement for the Vargur). +1 additional low slot.
• Bastion II module: Same as the Bastion I module but with the following differences.
You can still get 45% with Faction painters so it’s not a huge deal. The same argument was made when Marauders were changed last time - except wormhole use was justified as the reason. And target painters were buffed since the original Marauder change so it’s not as critical as it once was (if it ever was).
All T1/Faction battleships just had a generous bump in cargo space so it’s not unrealistic to see them gain a few hundred m3 in additional cargo space. 3-4 extra cap boosters isn’t going to be a game changer.
The combat timer for Bastion is just annoying. Not too mention that having a bit more survivability on a 1.5b+ ISK hull isn’t out of the question.
As for the additional medium slot, this primarily benefits the Kronos and Paladin (neither of which see the same use as the Golem or Vargur outside of PvE).
And the DPS is somewhat anemic on Marauders - especially when compared to something like a Rattlesnake. Polarized weapons are primarily short-range, so it’s not like it’s going to up-end any PvE aspect.
Lol. No, just no. And this is from a Golem pilot. It already has godlike EHP and abilities. Or have you not seen the videos on YouTube of a single Golem taking on roaming fleets of up to 20 players…and winning.
The only thing that peaked my interest is a fall off bonus for grapplers. That’s fall off though. And marauders may not be the appropriate platform for that.
It’s difficult to pre-target using the MJD (without an implant or sensor booster). Even with max skills it tops out @101km, so this gives it a bit more wiggle room. The Kronos is 90km, Paladin 91km and the Golem 95km so I don’t think a +5km bump is that unrealistic.
ah was wondering why you singled out the vaguer. i’m not sure if its intended or not but on the fits i plan to utilize the mjd cool down i general fit a sebo. i had always assumed that is how it was meant to be. if its not then yeah but extra 5km may be too much i could see them getting a buff that gave them an extra 5 at max level though.
• +1 slot - This seems fair, as T2 ships tend to have more slots than their T1 variants.
• Combat timer removal - The mechanics of bastion module maybe should be modified instead, and behave more like cloak module. While activated, behaves as normal bastion mode, and when deactivated, it has a cool down timer like cloak, and cannot reactivate or dock with station for one minute. This would possibly be more in line with consistent intended behavior, as currently, bastion timer plus combat timer could mean between 61 seconds or two minutes of no docking depending on when bastion cycled. Seems like pretty random behavior right now.
On a side note, I would also request that disconnect mechanics get a fix for bastion mode. Currently, if disconnected while in bastion mode, the marauder does not emergency warp, and all active modules go offline, which leads to unnecessary ship death and petitions. Perhaps the suggested module timer mechanics could help with that, since bastion mode could be offlined immediately allowing for warp.
• Golem bonus modification - Sounds interesting.
• Grappler bonus - Sounds interesting.
• Cargo space increase - T1 battleships got a cargo increase, seems fair.
• Vargur target range increase - Seems fair.