CCP announced today in a forum post that with the September 29 Vanguard release, combat battlecruisers and their navy counterparts will be getting buffed heavily to make them viable options for PvP. This has been met with general enthusiasm from the player base with a few common complaints.
CCP Fozzie started with these introductory words:
“Hello everyone! By now most of you know that we’ve been working on a Combat Battlecruiser balance pass, and we’re now ready to start getting your feedback on the planned specifics! These changes are currently scheduled for our Vanguard release on September 29th.
We’re giving the class in general a significant buff, with every individual ship benefiting. The centerpiece of this pass is a new role bonus that adds damage projection to each ship. The bonus helps provide a unifying element across the entire class and helps Battlecruisers deal with opponents at a variety of ranges. The turret version of the bonus applies to both optimal and falloff, which makes it applicable for a larger variety of weapons.
The class is also getting a noticeable boost to speed and agility across the board. Some ships benefit more than others, but on average the Combat and Navy BCs will move ~8.4% faster with a propulsion module running and require ~8.2% less time to align.
The ships that are weaker and/or less popular are generally receiving bigger buffs, and the more popular ships get smaller buffs (although every ship in the class gets a net buff of some kind).
When evaluating the existing states of these ships we are using a variety of factors, including subjective feedback from experienced players, our own personal experiences flying these ships on TQ, and usage metrics.”
Many metrics regarding combat battlecruisers were also provided, along with an overview of changes for each ship.
Prophecy – 12.5% drone velocity role bonus along with normal agility/mass changes. This is possibly aimed at promoting the use of drones apart from sentries. The relatively light buff is due to the Prophecy being fairly well regarded currently.
Harbinger – 10% bonus to Medium Energy Turret capacitor use per Amarr Battlecruiser skill level and a 25% role bonus to Medium Energy Turret optimal and falloff. The Harbinger is noticeably underpowered and is therefore getting greater buffs.
Ferox – 5% bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret damage per Caldari Battlecruiser skill level (a change from previous 4% resistance buff) and a 25% role bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret optimal range and falloff. In addition, the Ferox is getting one highslot removed along with a turret hardpoint and one midslot added. This is to compensate for the damage buff – it doesn’t give the Ferox too much damage but still buffs it from 7 effective turrets to 7.5. The extra midslot makes up for the loss of shield resistance buffs.
Drake – 25% role bonus to missile velocity along with +30 powergrid and +250 base shields. CCP seems to want the Drake to see more use with the missile range buff but Fozzie stated that there are no plans to phase out kinetic locks for many missile ships.
Brutix – 25% role bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret optimal and falloff along with +250 base hull and significant agility bonuses, making it now the most agile T1 battlecruiser. CCP seems to approve of hull tanking and of course is going along their current theme of improving damage projection.
Myrmidon – 12.5% role bonus to drone velocity, same as the Prophecy. CCP feels the Myrmidon is in a good place and therefore has given it lighter agiltiy buffs.
Cyclone – 25% role bonus to missile velocity, same as the Drake along with above average agility buffs. CCP thinks the Cyclone is in a pretty good position as long as it is used in the right hands.
Hurricane – 25% role bonus to Medium Projectile Turret optimal and falloff along with +15 powergrid, +250 base shields, +10 drone bandwidth and bay and great agility buffs. The Hurricane is the #1 alltime and recent ship on zkillboard and CCP seems to like that, buffing the Hurricane tremendously.
Harbinger Navy Issue – 25% role bonus to Medium Energy Turret optimal and falloff along with +375 base armor, increased Capacitor, +25m/s base speed and agility buffs, and +25 drone bay.
Drake Navy Issue – 4% bonus to all shield resistances per Caldari Battlecruiser skill level (instead of old 10% missile velocity bonus) and 25% role bonus to missile velocity along with +50 powergrid, +375 base shields, +25 drone bandwidth, +50 drone bay and heavy agility buffs making it the most agile navy battlecruiser. This will make it much tankier and hopefully more popular for PvP and PvE.
Brutix Navy Issue – 25% role bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret optimal and falloff along with +25 drone bay and +375 base hull and normal level agility buffs. CCP likes the Navy Brutix mostly where it is and seems to like the player love for the hulltanked Navy Brutix.
Hurricane Fleet Issue – Throwing out old double 5% bonuses to Medium Projectile Turret damage and rate of fire, CCP is giving the HFI double 10% bonuses to Medium Projectile Turret damage and tracking speed per Minmatar Battlecruiser skill along, +20 powergrid, +375 base shields, +20 drone bandwidth and bay and a 25% role bonus to Medium Projectile Turret optimal and falloff. These are huge buffs and show CCP wants to see this ship used.
That’s it for now. Stay tuned to TMC for more EVE news!
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was written by Siaka Stevens and originally appeared on TheMittani.com under his byline.)
