Eve Online has turned 18 this month and CCP has decided to celebrate! The event brings unique challenges and prizes, with mementos and everyone’s favorite – free stuff. One of these rewards is the free Praxis given to capsuleers. The Praxis, if you don’t know, is a special faction ship made by the Sisters of Eve. It is unique, having no blueprints, and is only acquired through CCP events. It is also unique due to the lack of significant training time and its ability to be fitted with any gun or fit because of its unique slot layout and range of bonuses. It functions as a jack of all trades when it comes to battleships.
Although the viability of the Praxis vs other battleships in combat is questionable, it receives a lot of bonus points due to its cost, compared with ships such as the Raven or Typhoon. At the start of the year, this differential was not large and other ships had advantages the Praxis lacked. Fast forward to now, though, and the cost gap between normal battleships and the Praxis has widened in the Praxis’s favor.
The cost of a Praxis is sitting at about 150M as of this writing, compared to the 170M back in January of 2021. This drop can be attributed to the CCP anniversary with the sudden influx of supply. The second influence on the price, however, is that other battleships have seen price increases. Earlier this year the Typhoon could be purchased for 240M, but with the industry changes their price rests at around 300M. This kind of change affected every battleship and the price changes can be seen below.
| Battleship | Price Before | Price After |
| (Oct 2020) | (May 2021) | |
| Raven | 250,000,000 | 400,000,000 |
| Abaddon | 250,000,000 | 340,000,000 |
| Tempest | 260,000,000 | 419,000,000 |
| Dominix | 250,000,000 | 355,000,000 |
| Hyperion | 280,000,000 | 370,000,000 |
| Typhoon | 240,000,000 | 300,000,000tT |
As shown in the table, the Typhoon is one of the cheaper alternatives for T1 battleships. The Raven and the Tempest are not so lucky, with prices rising past 400mil. When considering how viable one ship is against another, imbalances are sure to exist, but when the Praxis can almost cost three times less than other battleships, is that really just a “small” imbalance? Would you take on three Praxes with your single Raven, or would you decide that wasn’t a fight you could win. I would imagine the latter.
Further, there are examples of cheaper ships being able to take down much more expensive ones. Take bombers, for example. They are seen as a counter to big tanky stuff due to their high damage packed into such a small size. But the Praxis isn’t a counter to battleships and the capital ships are hardly comparable to the T1 battleships in terms of the ability to turn the tide of a fight. In fact they are almost polar opposites right now with battleships becoming more and more obsolete, with the risk of blobs or kitey gangs having their way with battleships.
Finally, a carrier has many uses. It can rat and is an effective money-maker but it can also be used in combat scenarios, such as bashing structures, defending structures and many more. A carrier has many uses and can do these well. Most ships cannot effectively kill a carrier, save for in large gangs, which makes bombers a necessary counter to these larger ships. Imagine if CCP were to release a Sisters of Eve capital, with lower skill requirements and half the cost of other capitals. You would call into question the viability of the other capitals, as their role has been filled by a cheaper alternative.
Therefore, consider the Praxis. After all, everyone likes free things. Just remember that even free things come at a cost. Let me know what you think of the Praxis in the comments section below.
