Legion Major Update
The Legion Major Update is now live!
Features and Changes:
**Balancing: **🤝
- Reduced the Maximum Number of drones that can be assigned to a character from 50 drones to 20 drones.
We’re cutting down on the number of drones that can be assigned to a single character at a time from 50 to 20 drones. There are things that we really like about drone assistance: there is a skillful element of assigning drones to someone else when you are jammed, damped or out of range. There is also some niche gameplay such as assigning drones to an interceptor to decloak players at gatecamps, assigning light drones to a dedicated anti-frigate ship in PVE such as incursions or PVP, and you can assign drones if you’re doing some specialized task like Logistics. Further, if you’re a new player you can assign drones to your more knowledgeable friends & fleet mates so you can focus on piloting your own ship.
We feel like dropping down to 20 drones will still keep most of these cool use cases intact, while cutting down on undesirable gameplay.
Increasing the signature radius on Sentry Drones to Battlecruiser size so that they take more damage from Missiles, Bombs and Vorton Projectors, and are faster to lock so that they can be countered more effectively.
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Armor Rigs
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Changed the drawback from Armor Rigs to be Agility instead of Max Velocity.
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New Skill added - Advanced Armor Layering
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Grants 2% reduction to the mass penalty of armor plates per level.
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Rank 5 skill.
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Available in all empire school stations to purchase for 15,000,000 ISK, or from the character sheet for 19,500,000 ISK.
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Skill Requirements
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Armor Layering IV
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Mechanics V
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Hull Upgrades V
We’ve heard concerns that shield setups are dominating and armor doesn’t feel great for skirmishing now. To help address this, we’re introducing a new advanced skill to shave off a bit more mass from armor plates and changing the drawback on most armor rigs to be a penalty to Agility instead of Max Velocity. This will still keep the original design intent and tradeoff that exists with armor/shield rigs in that they reduce some of your ability to mitigate damage in exchange for more tank. Losing turning speed and handling means you won’t be able to orbit as tightly or get as high angular velocity as before, but you now won’t also be giving up range control anymore which should make them feel much better on the field.
We hope that this will make armor more viable especially at smaller scales and help promote more ships that have fallen out of favor such as AHACs.
Cutting down on some frustrating gameplay where snipers could enter the ESS and then cloak in the site to ambush players as they come in.
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Marauders
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Removed -70% Micro Jump Drive reactivation cooldown role bonus from all Marauders.
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Vargur: 7.5% Falloff bonus per Minmatar Battleship level reduced to 5%.
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Marauders are now unable to access the main bank room of the ESS.
Marauders continue to be dominant and oppressive at smaller scales of PVP. Marauders currently have incredible damage, high projection, a durable tank, and incredible mobility. We’re making an adjustment here to reign them in a bit while solidifying their role as ships which trade mobility for improved offense and defensive capabilities, and making the Bastion Module their core identity.
We’re making another small adjustment to the Vargur because it is still an outlier. This set of changes should still keep them as apex PVE and PVP ships and the undisputed kings of firepower and defense, but allow for counterplay opportunities when it comes to facing them on grid.
Additionally, we are experimenting by blocking Marauders from the ESS main bank room. This should hopefully lead to a more diverse meta for ESS engagements and allow other battleship and battlecruiser hulls to shine. We’ll be keeping an eye on this change to see if it leads to a healthier ecosystem overall.
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Bastion Module
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Armor Repair and Shield Boost Amount Reduced from 100% to 60% while active.
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Added new bonus, 20% reduction in cycle time and capacitor cost for Armor Repairers and Shield Boosters while active.
This retains the current repair effectiveness over time values as now without increasing the capacitor cost per second.
We are doing this to help improve active armor Marauders which could sometimes end up repairing for most, or even exceeding their maximum Armor Hitpoints when using Asklepian Implants, boosters, x-type hardeners, et cetera. This would limit the ability of armor Marauders like the Kronos and Paladin when outfitted with high-end modules. It also made them require a disproportionally higher skill cap relative to shield Marauders given how armor repairers apply their reps at the end of the cycle.
This will make Armor Repairers easier to use without over-repping on armor Marauders and limit them less when it comes to high-end fits that push the limits.
Additionally, this change will help reduce the power of Ancillary Shield Booster Marauders a bit in PVP. We’ve heard a lot of frustration from the playerbase about multiple XLASB shield fit Marauders (Looking at you Vargur!) since they’re both very cheap and bypass the normal weakness that active tank marauder fits have against capacitor warfare. By moving some of the power of the bastion module into cycle time, this specifically hurts ancillary shield booster fits since they mostly just want raw boost amount to get the most effectiveness out of each charge and clip, rather than cycle time and the capacitor cost reduction.
We're giving Tactical Destroyers some more roaming utility by allowing them to enter the ESS site. Like with Marauders, we’re experimenting a little here to mix things up, we’ll make changes if things end up going in an unhealthy direction like with 10mn T3Ds becoming meta or becoming too hard to catch.
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Confessor
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New Defense Mode Bonus: 33% bonus to Remote Armor Repairer amount, and reduction in activation cost.
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Damage per level of Tactical Destroyer increased from 5% to 7.5%.
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Max Velocity increased from 230m/s to 250m/s.
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Svipul
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New Defense Mode Bonus: 33% bonus to Remote Shield Booster amount, and reduction in activation cost.
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Damage per level of Tactical Destroyer increased from 5% to 7.5%.
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Max Velocity increased from 220m/s to 240m/s.
Both the Confessor and Svipul are suffering a bit in usability. The Confessor has a bit too much overlap with the Retribution right now, which has significantly better mitigation while also having high damage with a range bonus. The Confessor's only strengths over the Retribution is the added utility, commonly used as a probe launcher, and the added damage and ewar resistance in sharpshooter mode. The Svipul has also struggled with other new ships entering the game like the Thrasher Fleet Issue and buffs to the Stabber, Navy Cruisers and medium Autocannons.
The Hecate and Jackdaw are doing very well right now and are some of the most used ships in the game, so we’re giving both the Confessor and Svipul a bit more base damage and speed to hopefully make them stand out a bit more. We’re also adding a Remote Armor/Shield Booster bonus to them in defensive mode, to give them some more utility to potentially open up some spider tanking fleet options in PVP and PVE.
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Ferox Navy Issue
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Medium Hybrid Damage per level bonus reduced from 10% to 7.5%.
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Medium Hybrid Tracking per level bonus reduced from 7.5% to 5.0%.
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Powergrid Reduced from 1250 to 1150 (same as regular Ferox).
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CPU reduced from 565 to 515 (same as regular Ferox).
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Reduction in Shield Booster power and CPU requirements per level bonus improved from 7.5% to 10%.
We’re making some adjustments specifically to the Ferox Navy Issue to address its dominance in the fleet meta. Specifically, we are reducing the damage, tracking and reducing the Powergrid and CPU that it has, setting it back to the same values that the regular Tech 1 Ferox has. This should still mean it is viable but make it harder to fit a 5-6 slot tank and a DLA with railguns without fitting modules. At the same time we are improving the shield booster fitting bonus that it has which should compensate active tanking fits with a fitting reduction to make up for the loss in base PG and CPU.
Additionally, we know there are concerns about the dominance of other railgun ships that may just simply replace the FNI as the top meta railgun ship, with those being the Vulture, Ferox (t1), Naga and Rokh. So we are going to make some adjustments to all rails overall.
Railguns are dominating at all sizes, so we’re going to reduce their tracking and optimal & falloff slightly for medium and large railguns. Medium Railguns have been very strong for a very long time now, while Large Railguns have recently taken the top spot since the Viridian expansion where we gave a significant buff to the Rokh with a tracking and rate of fire bonus.
This will mean that most of the Tracking Speed bonus for Large Railguns got rolled back, maintaining about 3.5% of it, but they’ll keep the rate of fire bonus they received. We hope this will mean that Large Rails will land in a good spot between now (Super Dominant) and pre-Viridian (Considered weak).
We will continue to keep a close eye on the Vulture, Ferox, Ferox Navy Issue, Rokh and Naga after this set of changes and make further adjustments in the upcoming expansion if needed, whether they continue to dominate or end up too weak.
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Naglfar
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Midslots improved from 6 to 7.
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Lowslots reduced from 6 to 5.
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Naglfar Fleet Issue
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Midslots improved from 6 to 7.
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Lowslots reduced from 6 to 5.
Improving the shield tank effectiveness of the Naglfar line by improving the number of midslots they have available at the cost of a lowslot. This should mean the Naglfar can take advantage of the shield booster bonus a bit more effectively in HAW setups and open the door for stronger shield based anti-capital turret dreadnoughts. While we do think we are trading some of the unique versatility of the Naglfar hull here, the dreadnought meta has been heavily dominated by Revelations for the last half-decade, and the T1 Phoenix (that the T1 Naglfar now shares a slot layout with) are missile based so we feel comfortable making this change.
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Sin
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Removed 10% bonus to logistic drone transfer amount per level.
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Added 10% bonus to Warp Scrambler range per level.
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Added +1 bonus to Warp Scrambler strength per level.
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These bonuses only apply to Warp Scramblers and not Warp Disruptors.
The Sin is the least used Black Ops, and the logistics drone transfer amount bonus is fairly weak. We are replacing this with a 10% bonus to the range of Warp Scramblers, and then a +1 bonus to strength per level to Warp Scramblers. This bonus should be a lot more desirable and makes more sense for the role of Black Ops. We hope this bonus will improve the Sins utility in drops by making it more powerful at holding targets, and give it a niche in super hunting with the extra point strength.
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Apocalypse
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Removed 7.5% Large Energy Turret Tracking bonus per level.
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Large Energy Turret optimal range bonus improved from 7.5% to 10% per level.
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Added 5% Large Energy Turret damage per level.
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Added 10% reduction in Large Energy Turret capacitor cost per level.
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Apocalypse Navy Issue
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Removed 7.5% Large Energy Turret Tracking bonus per level.
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Large Energy Turret optimal range bonus improved from 7.5% to 10% per level.
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Added 7.5% Large Energy Turret damage per level.
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Added 10% reduction in Large Energy Turret capacitor cost per level.
Reworking the Apocalypse. There is a lot of competition for large energy turret ships with the Apoc, Apoc Navy, Abaddon, Nightmare, Bhaalgorn, Armageddon Navy Issue and Oracle all fighting for the same space. Currently, the Apocalypse feels weak due to lack of a damage bonus, while the tracking bonus doesn’t feel particularly strong because a lot of other laser ships are better in applying damage in practice, such as the Bhaalgorn (Webs+Neut), Nightmare (Superior mobility and same tracking bonus), Armageddon/Armageddon Navy Issue (Ranged neuts and can fit Rapid Heavys/Bonused Drones) and the Oracles superior mobility allowing it to get better tracking through managing traversal. The unique selling point of the Apocalypse hull is the optimal range bonus, however the damage is still underwhelming.
The aim here is to move the Apocalypse more towards a sniper attack role, focusing it more on ranged damage. so we are removing the tracking bonus of the Apocalypse, while giving it more damage, giving it a cap reduction bonus for lasers so that it doesn’t hurt as much running a MWD while shooting, and then improving the optimal range bonus slightly. We feel like this should make the Apocalypse stand out more in the lineup of Amarr Battleships.
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Maelstrom
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Highslots reduced from 8 to 7.
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Turrets reduced from 8 to 6.
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Midslots increased from 6 to 7.
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Removed 5% bonus to Large Projectile Turret rate of fire bonus per level.
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Added 10% bonus to Large Projectile Turret damage per level.
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Powergrid reduced from 21000 to 18000.
Reworking the Maelstrom to be a shield mirror of the Hyperion. This should help make it much more viable as a small gang brawler and PVE platform with the extra utility high and the extra midslot, while also making it more attractive in fleets by being a bit easier to fit with a pure artillery fit and increasing the alpha capability slightly at the cost of some DPS. We hope this will make it stand out a bit more from other Minmatar projectile ships like the Tempest Fleet Issue by leaning it more towards alpha strike damage and less towards rate of fire in fleets as an alternative option, and making it more viable as a counterpart to the Rokh.
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Megathron Navy Issue
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Tracking bonus improved from 7.5% to 10% per level.
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Added 15% reduction in Armor Plate mass penalty per level.
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Maximum Velocity improved from 130m/s to 135m/s.
Giving some extra tracking to the Megathron Navy Issue to compensate it for the adjustment to large railguns, which will also mean a direct improvement to it with blasters fitted. Also adding a small speed boost and an armor plate mass reduction bonus to the Megathron Navy Issue to improve it for nano/skirmish armor fleets. This bonus has worked well on other ships, like the Oneiros, Eris, Catalyst Navy and Exequror Navy Issue, so we're excited to see the effect this will have on the Navy Mega.
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Cenotaph
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Ladar Sensor Strength reduced from 25 to 15.
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Armor Hitpoints reduced from 5,000 to 3,500 (-1500).
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Structure Hitpoints improved from 6,000 to 7,500 (+1500).
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Low Slots reduced from 3 to 2.
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Role bonus to Medium Projectile Turret and Heavy Assault Missile damage improved from 100% to 125%.
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Max Velocity Improved from 160 to 170m/s.
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Agility improved from 0.6x to 0.55x.
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Tholos
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Ladar Sensor Strength reduced from 16 to 8.
We’re hearing about complaints of the Cenotaph's strength from wormholers and to a lesser extent other areas of space where very expensive, high resistance ships are used at very close range around fixed locations. These fits allow the Cenotaph to survive even with a 3 slot tank. In this environment things like range and speed don’t matter as much. We are making a set of adjustments to the Cenotaph to try and retain its strength in other areas of space where it’s not as dominant, while also adding more meaningful counterplay options to the Deathless ships as a whole.
We are reducing the sensor strength of the Deathless ships to make ECM a very effective counter against them, especially in wormhole environments where their very close range missiles are not at as much as a disadvantage as they are in other areas of space. This should hopefully allow wormholers to more reliably counter while preserving a lot of their strength in other environments, where it is very difficult to ever get close to their maximum potential paper DPS output. ECM also is not very punishing in situations where you only have a DoT on 1-2 targets (since as long as you get a lock every 75 seconds then you can keep up the damage), but ECM is very effective at lowering the total DPS across the whole field since even a 25% chance to jam results in dropping the number of pods spread in optimal scenarios from 7 to 5.
Additionally, we are shifting some hitpoints from Armor away into Structure to make armor tanked Cenotaphs more vulnerable, and taking away a low slot, which should make heavy armor cenotaphs much less viable. To compensate it for the lost lowslot and buff it in situations where it isn’t using the lowslots for tank, we are improving the damage role bonus and also giving it some extra speed and agility to partially compensate the potential loss of modules such as nanofibers and gyrostabilizers/ballistic controls.
The Cyclone Fleet Issue is a bit healthier than the Ferox Navy Issue, but still overperforming somewhat. We’re reducing the speed slightly and also reducing the signature radius reduction bonus to the same as the Hyena to remove some of the mitigation it has.
The Harbinger Navy Issue is underused so we’re giving it some PG to open up a few more fits. Combined with the changes to armor rigs and the other dominant battlecruisers being knocked down a bit, we hope this will make this a more attractive pick.