Hybrid weapon and Tech II ammo balancing

Hybrid turrets have fallen out of grace. Maybe they weren't that amazing to begin with, but things have gotten somewhat worse in recent years. The speed change made it more difficult for blaster ships to get in close. The webifier change meant that blaster tracking suddenly wasn't good enough. The projectile boost made hybrids worse by comparison. Whatever it was that broke the camel's back, this is where we are now; Hybrid turrets do not compare favorably to the other turret systems.

How we go about fixing this is the big question. Not everyone agrees on the direction we should take. Some feel that the ships themselves are at fault. Others point out the inherent incompatibility of armor tanking and close range combat.

I agree that those issues need to be taken into account, but I don't think they are the best place to start when we rebalance hybrid turrets. Before we start looking at armor tanking issues or individual ships, Hybrid weapons as a whole need to be boosted up to a level where using them becomes desirable. The goal is to make them better at what they already do, not to change their roles. Blasters should do high damage at short range. Railguns should do average damage at long range. Now let's dive right into the details.

Hybrid Turrets

Reduce CPU usage:

• XL Turrets: -5 CPU
• L Turrets: -3 CPU
• M Turrets: -2 CPU
• S Turrets: -1 CPU

** Exception: 75mm Railguns (they already have very low CPU requirements.)

Reduce Powergrid usage:

• All hybrid turrets: -12% Powergrid usage. Rounded to nearest whole number.

** Exceptions: Light Electron Blasters, Light Ion Blasters, 125mm Railguns, 75mm Railguns (they already have very low Powergrid requirements.)

Reduced Capacitor usage:

• All hybrid turrets: -30% capacitor use

Tracking Speed Increase:

• All blaster turrets: +20% to Tracking speed

** Exception: XL turrets (they already have good tracking when compared to other XL turrets)

Railguns

Damage Increase:

• All railgun turrets: +10% to Damage modifier

** Exception: XL turrets (they already have good damage when compared to other XL turrets)

Hybrid turret ships

While I am hesitant to boost individual ships right now, I do think that a small speed boost to hybrid turret ships in general is needed. You will notice that a few hybrid turret ships are not mentioned here. The ones that are not listed are either fast enough already or they have range bonuses to hybrid turrets, which means that they are meant for longer range combat and as such should not need a velocity boost as much as other hybrid turret ships.

Max Velocity +10 on the following ships:

Arazu, Astarte, Brutix, Catalyst, Deimos, Dominix, Dominix Navy Issue, Enyo, Eos, Falcon, Guardian-Vexor, Helios, Incursus, Ishtar, Lachesis, Maulus, Megathron, Megathron Federate Issue, Megathron Navy Issue, Thorax, Tristan, Utu, Vexor, Vexor Navy Issue, Vigilant

Max Velocity +5 on the following ships:
Cormorant, Federation Navy Comet, Hyperion, Kronos, Sin, Vindicator

Inertia Modifier -5% on the following ships:

Adrestia, Arazu, Ares, Astarte, Atron, Brutix, Catalyst, Celestis, Cormorant, Daredevil, Deimos, Dominix, Dominix Navy Issue, Eagle, Enyo, Eos, Eris, Exequror Navy Issue, Falcon, Federation Navy Comet, Ferox, Guardian-Vexor, Harpy, Helios, Hyperion, Incursus, Ishkur, Ishtar, Kronos, Lachesis, Maulus, Megathron, Megathron Federate Issue, Megathron Navy Issue, Merlin, Moa, Phobos, Raptor, Rokh, Sin, Taranis, Thorax, Tristan, Utu, Vexor, Vexor Navy Issue, Vigilant, Vindicator, Vulture

Tech II Ammo

I did some comparison between the tech II ammo types and found that one hybrid ammo type did indeed need some work. I also found that the other turret types had some very underwhelming ammo. Rather than limit myself to only boosting the hybrid ammo, I will also be making some changes to other tech II ammo types. Javelin is quite obviously underpowered. The correlating laser and projectile ammo, Gleam and Quake, are equally underwhelming and they all need some change. Additionally, Hail sticks out as terribly underpowered.

• Javelin (all sizes): Removed cap penalty
• Javelin, Gleam and Quake (all sizes): Removed tracking speed penalty, added 25% tracking speed bonus
• Hail (all sizes): Removed falloff penalty

Feedback

If you have issues with this balancing plan, please post your feedback in the comment thread. We are listening.

 

New to EVE? Start your 14-day free trial today.
Returning pilot? Visit Account Management for the latest offers and promotions.