So as most of you would know - I like Destroyers. I also felt like supporting the Devs recently, so as a result I picked up the Black Ghost. Here’s some feedback on the current version of the ship.
General Feedback
The Black Ghost is the very first Premium Destroyer and also furthermore the first Destroyer that you cannot configure the slots and synergy passives on which is unfortunately a bad thing.
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The current version of the Ghost has horrible energy economy
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The Black Ghost is an Empire Destroyer so the missile slot is unusable 90% of the time thanks to the aforementioned energy issues
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No passive hull regen
The ‘Black Ghost’ also happened to come with what is in my eyes the most useless Destroyer synergy passive of 10% suppressor module strength - this should have been an energy consumption reduction instead to make the energy economy of the ship tolerable. Firing a photon and then trying to Wormhole currently requires close to a 5 second gap in module uses (with my implants) as the first module use burns half the capacitor and if you happen to be afterburning which as this is an Empire Destroyer; you probably will be - then you can expect your capacitor to be fully drained as a result of both module uses.
These points alone make the ship inferior to Vigilant which is currently (now formerly) known as the worst Rank 14 Destroyer. If this ship is to remain a Premium ship it should hold some benefit to usage other than repair cost mitigation as Destroyer ammunition is far from cheap regardless.
Major Concerns
This ship is listed as an ‘event’ exclusive and only usable during haloween but it’s a DLC ship.
If this ship is to remain DLC it should be usable permanently
Players shouldn’t have to pay to use an event item let alone have their payment effectively nullified 90% of the year. Please reconsider this Targem. This ship is far from game breaking and furthermore barely warrants being a DLC at all due to it’s inferiority to currently existing counterparts coupled with an argument several players have brought up prior:
Other non-thematic event ships are available permanently
This ship should not be an exception as it is only going to cause backlash and harm the playerbase.
Design Feedback
The ship’s design is overall aesthetically pleasing and has elements which set it apart from traditional Naval ships to make it seem somewhat canonical. The smoke effects are well done and don’t cause frame drops and furthermore barely obstruct view thanks to the general FoV of Destroyers.
The module placement of the ‘Black Ghost’ however is… another downside.
The current module setup of the ship is two top, one rear left, one rear right - with absolutely nothing on the underside further meaning there is a gigantic dead zone of the ship thanks to this. I can understand that thanks to it’s Naval theme the ship would be difficult to design otherwise but the current module layout is:
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Extremely vulernable to splash damage
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Extremely vulernable to plasma arc
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Easy to hit accidentally due to positioning of the ship
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Easy to destroyer thanks to the innate weaker shields of Empire Destroyers
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Targets below you cannot be hit by most modules/turrets
Module Feedback
The unique module included with the DLC which is seemingly usable year-round is currently the main selling point of this DLC as it has:
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High damage
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Medium range
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Medium - high projectile speed
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Explosive damage
The module seemingly has standard respawn time (close to 90 seconds) upon destruction so once again plasma arc and ‘sting’ overdrive are a massive threat.
The unique special module on the otherhand is somewhat lackluster in practice although it seemed fine on paper. The large speed boost although it seemed excessive on paper is seemingly underwhelming in PvP as it does not help you evade typical threats to Destroyers and coupled with the downsides of the ‘transparency’ invincibility type cannot stop Energy Converter from getting you killed as even though you may not be charged it the Energy Converter can still be charged via allies and Self Damage caused by the user.
Unfortunately although I do like the horn attached to the special module I would have to call this yet another downside purely out of the ideal of diversity in builds.
PvP Demo video
You’ll have to excuse the quality of the battle as I didn’t want to deal with PvP for too long in an Empire Destroyer but one thing will be apparent almost from the get-go. I’m being rushed. A lot.
This isn’t a rare occurence as the balance team seems to think it is - this is common place practice in PvP when using a Destroyer.
Regardless, I hope some of this feedback makes it to the development team/ balancing team.
Summary
The ‘Black Ghost’ suffers from being an Empire ship and furthermore from being a Premium as it cannot be customised to the player’s liking. This coupled with the exclusivity and price associated make it an undesirable ship in the long run.
The only redeeming element of the DLC is the unique module.