Sorry for being late to the party. I’ve been away from Eve for almost a year, and signed on the other day to a very rude surprise. I knew the nerf bat was coming, but damn.
But then I started looking closer and really considering the compromises they made. Obviously, they wanted to end the insanity-tank most of us were guilty of fielding. Combining the Covert sub with the Active-rep sub seemed fair, though I’m still very partial to buffer fits (even on the Deimos gasp).
One thing I’m really excited about is being able to use the old Hybrid sub with the Covert sub. The tracking bonus will help bigtime against small targets, and improve my obsession with using Void on everything. The falloff bonus also helps apply damage on approach or if you need to stay out of neut/web range.
So, we’ve lost valuable lowslots and PG, forcing us to compromise. I’m surprised to see everyone in this thread giving up the Friction sub and the extrndes range scram for the sake of PG. Personally, I rely too heavily on that long-scram capability to catch my prey. Lets face it, everything is faster than the Prote, and you’ve got 5 seconds plus targeting time for them to pull range or warp out. Being able to hold your opponent scrammed out to 19km also gives you the chance to escape if you need to.
For me, its always been about EHP/DPS ratio. No, literally: EHP /divided by/ DPS. I often flew what most would consider an under-tanked Prote (lol) for the sake of HULK-SMASH! dps. As much as four mag-stabs and a hybrid rig at one point (and it worked brutally well!) And, with this new arrangement. you can field six nuetron blasters with a 10% bonus per level instead of the previous five guns and 5%? This could be… hilarious…
So, I tinkered with single-rep and dual-rep fits with a medium cap booster each, and a plate fit. I wont give up my friction sub, which rules out a 1600mm plate, but an 800mm gives the trade-off of better speed and handling. Using transverse bulkheads and a DC in place of trimarks also helps retain speed with minimal loss of ehp. T2 or faction explosive plating and A-type Adaptive plating helps resists and frees up CPU (only bling i really insist on other than the scram).
Also, the Gravitational Sub, in place of the Localized Injectors, trades a mid for a low slot, and adds 25% agility and warp acceleration/speed. More damage, more agility, and the ability to beat your prey to a warp-in? Yes please!
So far, I’ve settled on a plate fit with 42k-ehp (in game), an insane 1080dps heated with hobs, and just about the fastest and most agile you can hope for in the most brick-like cruiser New Eden has ever seen. Open to thoughts comments or concerns! Happy hunting.
