Note: The writer of this post has a dyslectic component, and has been using google docs as a tool to help me with the making of the post, to try to negate the dyslectic component. So you have been warned :P.
After the recent change with the signature masking skill, which applies to the bear in mind it is a mid slot usages of this signature reducing module called Signature Radius Suppressors.
Which reduces the sig on the ship, for sure the module has it place in the game but as a med slot hell no, and tywm CCP for hitting the sledgehammer on shield tanking battleships with this module, they are already suffering from high sig already to make up for the tank, and fith the sig module you have to hit your tank secondly they already suffer from penalizing their tank from using med for utility and prop mods. However the armor tanking ships which also come with low signature radius as base can fith this module without a hitting their tanking ability or and thereby lower it base signature radius by even more which makes the enemy hitting it more difficult, secondly they don’t have to hit their utility or prop for their tanking ability…
The way I see this, the module was introduced without thinking it all hearty threw.
From the reasoning I lay out above, I would much rather have the module layout on this one as a utility high slot than a mid as its hits shield tanking ships too hard, compared to armor tanking ships that already has a low sig as a base stats, nor do they suffer their tanking ability from using Signature Radius Suppressors.
When you look further into this and how the skills are laid out in the game, the armor skills have one particular skill I want to put on the table. It is the Armor Layering, which in turn reduces the mass gain you get from adding more armor health through armor plates to your ship.
When you look at the skill layout for the shield tank, it has none sort of skills to reduce the signature radius increase you get from adding more health through the shield extenders in game.
Example of Battleship Hull Signature Radicus base stat
Amar Abaddon vs Caldari Rohk.
Abaddon gets: 470 and Rohk gets 500, not to mention the increased signature radius is from adding more health to is, which the Abaddon doesn’t.
End text,
When you are in a game where it is all about squeezing the numbers to make a good fith which in turns becomes the meta, when you introduce new mechanics or modules to the game, it must go through a well thought out process. When you look at Signature Radius Suppressors as it is now a med slots module, with this in mind the meta will surely drift towards armor tanking battleships, considering the module hits shield tanking battleships too hard. And by that the shield tanking battleships is out of the window in that regard.