Function similar to guns, reduce resists to zero in exchange for faster activation and more generous heat management.
Why? To shake up a stale meta of reppers and remote rep gameplay that has cemented itself, Polarized reppers will greatly benefit ships running polarized guns while keeping the element of danger inherent to having a squishy ship that just so happens to be marginally better at staying alive. Expert tankers will find extra challenge in managing a cap hungry, fast cycling system that they can heat for a really long time.
Drawbacks? Possibility of producing some super tanks on very blingy ships like T3 or marauders. The kinda ships you want to dogpile or neut dry in the current meta anyway. Kiters may see some benefit too but this will require much bravery on their part.
Downside is that these polarized reppers are dependent on polarised weapons as nobody would fit them except on ships that are already polarised.
Second downside is that these reppers, if powerful enough to fit them, make polarised ships have better defences than they have now, which is the opposite of the point of polarised weapon: better firepower yet sacrificing defences.
I don’t think polarised ships need tools for better defences.
No I think that will be their primary use case not their only use case, artillery ships with buffer will maybe have a usage too. I use a Tengu with polarized hams, 2 extenders and implants to hit 24k buffer, which I think is more slot efficient than spending 3 slots on an x-type with boost amp and injector. A new repper for polarized ships trims the fat and makes me reconsider not just fitting 20-30k in buffer. P.s. my tengu does over 2k dps.
Polarized guns work on meme shipfits and Aug Navy Issue because of its massive armor health pool. It wouldn’t make sense to exchange buffer tank for an active one that’ll just get you killed much faster than the reps can cycle. Active reps benefit from having higher resistances and polarized reps would completely ruin the entire point.
the trig remote reps are a joke, you need to get several cycles in before they even start to compete and by the time they show their worth any competent FC has long since changed targets.
It will be fine. Somewhere around +50% repair/second. Hit at buffer is just too big.
DPS/Tank will still be worse than without polarized weapons (except some trash T1 frigate/destroyer fits).
Much less buffer and no logistic synergy.
Also remember that deadspace reps exist.
So it cannot be used in medium+ fleets and will not be used for high price solo/small scale.
So it will buff cheap solo/small gang warfare.
So this is good idea =)
T2/T3 will not be a problem here. Maraders have low HP before resists (for battleship). T3 (and most T2) have too good resist profiles to use polarized weapons
As possible use cases I see T1/Faction ships that can mitigate loss of tank by mobility. Notably sansha ships.
Also some low/unbalanced resist fits like shield curse may become a bit better.
On the contrary, I really like the idea of polarized weapons and occasionally use them myself.
I think it’s great that players can make the choice to sacrifice their defence for just a bit of extra firepower, that players can fly their ship like ‘glass cannons’.
For that reason, I don’t think polarised remote repairers make any sense. Just like your earlier idea of non-remote repairers, if you choose to give up most of your defences for a bit more firepower, why would that choice be on a defensive module? It makes no sense. If you’re flying in a situation where you rely on repairs or remote repairs to stay alive, you do not use polarised equipment.
Polarised neuts are a different story. The problem of polarised neuts is that for every extra piece of ‘polarised’ equipment on your ship, your ship cannot get any more polarised. There is a meaningful choice to add polarised weapons to your ship, as you get more firepower but it kills your defences. There would not be a meaningful choice to add a second polarised module to a ship that already is polarised - people don’t fit 1 polarised gun, they fit the full rack.
For polarised neuts this means that fitting polarised neuts to a ship that already is using polarised weapons has literally no downside.
Polarised weapons are a great concept because they give players a meaningful choice to turn their ship into a glass cannon by having a heavy drawback on their main weapon system.
If CCP then add all sorts of other polarised equipment, people wouldn’t think twice to equip all of that on ships that are already polarised (because no downsides). The result is that the already existing polarised ship fits get stronger, without adding meaningful fitting choices to players.
What you’re asking for is simply ‘buff polarised ships’. And I don’t agree that polarised ships need buffs.
Polarised weapons are useful in any scenario where more dps is preferred and you are unlikely to get shot at. Kiting is indeed a good scenario for polarised weapons.
I use them for bashing structures, bomber ratting and in blops fleets - dropping a polarised bomber is quite nice as you get access to T2 ammo and higher rate of fire for the fitting space of meta weapons.
And I’m sure other players have thought of more concepts.
If ‘kiting’ was the one concept you know for polarised weapons, then I add
ratting,
structure bashing and
asymmetrical covops PvP
Polarized weapons work rather well for high damage low tank scenarios. As it happens, bombers are a perfect example of a ship that is used in high damage low tank scenarios, so it’s not surprising that in many situations where you would use a bomber, using polarised weapons works well. I really wouldn’t use polarized weapons on a hunting bomber though…
Structure bashing can also done in other polarized ships by the way. I’ve heard reports of polarized Taloses doing quite well.
And using polarised weapons in asymmetrical covops PvP is not limited to bombers. If you a have big enough wallet (and balls) to pull it off, you can drop up to a polarised Marshal.