CCP are doing a Battlecruiser balancing pass for the next release. Battlecruisers? What ever happened to them?
I know they didn't go away but they certainly dropped in popularity. I recall back in 2009 the Caldari-Gallente warzone was full of Battlecruiser skirmishes. They were the most popular fleet ship by far and a staple of faction war battles.
Their popularity declined a lot. There were many reasons. Nerfs, the plex system which only allowed BC's to capture large plex, rebalancing and tiericide that gave other classes a new lease of life. Obviously my in-game experience is focused on low-sec faction war, and that really saw a nose dive in BC use. The top killboard stat below is from Oct 2009, the bottom one is Nov 2013. Both had 200 and something kills. Two different ship profiles.
I was surprised that the Drake was still the most popular BC in the stats Fozzie provided.
Drake 37.4%
Myrmidon 17.4%
Hurricane 11.7%
Prophecy 7.4%
Harbinger 7.3%
Ferox 7.3%
Brutix 7.2%
Cyclone 4.3%
I guess people still say yes when asked "Can I Bring a Drake?". The Ferox was no surprise to be down the bottom but I was shocked to see how little the Cyclone was used. I liked using the Cyclone back in the day, when it was still a projectile boat. The balance pass is adding a 25% role bonus to missile velocity. This will give it some more range and with the "above average mobility buff" it might be a choice in the future. However the big issue with my gameplay is that in faction war they can only be used in the large plex. Taking a fleet of BC out means you can only take 25% of the plex type and the one that takes the longest to capture. Compared to a frigate gang that can enter every plex type it makes no sense to take a BC gang out when you cannot get through most gates.
I'd love to see BC fleets a thing again in faction war, but with current mechanics its not going to happen. I'll watch with interest how the null guys respond to these changes. You can read all about the proposed changes here.
I know they didn't go away but they certainly dropped in popularity. I recall back in 2009 the Caldari-Gallente warzone was full of Battlecruiser skirmishes. They were the most popular fleet ship by far and a staple of faction war battles.
I was surprised that the Drake was still the most popular BC in the stats Fozzie provided.
Drake 37.4%
Myrmidon 17.4%
Hurricane 11.7%
Prophecy 7.4%
Harbinger 7.3%
Ferox 7.3%
Brutix 7.2%
Cyclone 4.3%
I guess people still say yes when asked "Can I Bring a Drake?". The Ferox was no surprise to be down the bottom but I was shocked to see how little the Cyclone was used. I liked using the Cyclone back in the day, when it was still a projectile boat. The balance pass is adding a 25% role bonus to missile velocity. This will give it some more range and with the "above average mobility buff" it might be a choice in the future. However the big issue with my gameplay is that in faction war they can only be used in the large plex. Taking a fleet of BC out means you can only take 25% of the plex type and the one that takes the longest to capture. Compared to a frigate gang that can enter every plex type it makes no sense to take a BC gang out when you cannot get through most gates.
Hmmm.... I like numbers - more on that on my blog: http://absenceofsubstance.blogspot.co.nz/2015/09/what-you-know-for-certain-that-just.html
ReplyDeleteWhat I get from your two screen shots is that in 2009 the ships used and killed were a lot more diverse than in 2013. Personally I think that is bad.
Then again, maybe that sample set of numbers does not say what I think it does.