Covert ops are really better suited for RF blasters with Super Novas. Because its there JOB to get in close to deal with damage but there weakness lies in that close proximity to the enemy increases there chances to get killed exponentially.
Using a interceptor the way it was NOT designed for, is going against the mechanics of the meta game.
the mechanics of the meta game.
I lol’d.
Covert ops are really better suited for RF blasters with Super Novas. Because its there JOB to get in close to deal with damage but there weakness lies in that close proximity to the enemy increases there chances to get killed exponentially.
Using a interceptor the way it was NOT designed for, is going against the mechanics of the meta game.
Yeah, but using a supernova plasma gun gives you about 80% of the damage from a safe distance and without exposing you to close range defence abilities, like plasma torp, pulsar, drones, etc…
So yes, why should I bother with RFB?
Why you should bother with Interceptors if you’re so scared from close range damage…
Yeah, but using a supernova plasma gun gives you about 80% of the damage from a safe distance and without exposing you to close range defence abilities, like plasma torp, pulsar, drones, etc…
So yes, why should I bother with RFB?
Not intended to be a direct threat, reply, or other wise flaming. Just making a point.
Not intended to be a direct threat, reply, or other wise flaming. Just making a point.
Well, that is a fair point, and exactly the point I’m trying to show you. You don’t need skill to kill stuff with supernova Plasmas. Is easier, safer and you will get the same results.
Why bother with other weapons?
Why you should bother with Interceptors if you’re so scared from close range damage…
Because you still have speed, maneuverability and GTFO capacities. All without the con of having to be close to the enemy to do damage.
Anyway, is not interceptors what I’m talking about. Standard interceptors fare well with the plasma gun.
The main problem is that all the PG buffs have made possible that a covert ops (with insane native critic chance) use the damage ammo + orion + critic builds as the main weapon, thus having a LRF positron DPS in a small and fast ship, without the con of having to be close to dish damage.
Well, that is a fair point, and exactly the point I’m trying to show you. You don’t need skill to kill stuff with supernova Plasmas. Is easier, safer and you will get the same results.
Why bother with other weapons?
True. I think we can agree that regardless on HOW you do it, its all about IF you get it done in a timely fashion
Because by using good weapons you actualy kill targets and capable of killing those who matters, instead of finishing people off or just killing not so smart people
It’s like you guys conveniently forgot that being at medium range also make it much harder to hit a skilled fighter pilot and alot easier for them to hit you since their weapon will likely have much better projectile speed. Most frigates will also be able to keep you in their reticule if you stay at medium range and you better hope they don’t have positrons then. However the pg is an excellent tool to flank and kill weakened ships and gtfo in a games of asteroid peak a boo without getting in range of the guards modules and drones.
I stopped using interceptors, and that would happen even if they didn’t nerf the Sharpnel Cannon. Developers made clear to the players that they want to buff the weak players and nerf the strong players so no one cries. Tehy want to see frigballs in game, without dynamic battlefield. Frigballs now is a widespread phenomenon in every single game, like the captains who sit in the spawn point of their team without pushing the enemy to the victory.
With every new patch interceptors were weaker, while frigballs became stronger. Now I feel comfortable on Gunships, they are way better if you want to deal damage.
After the nerf of the 1 and 6 implants of Federation there’s no reason to fly an interceptor at close range, 1 EM torpedo and you are gone, and trying to kill inside an enemy frigball with new Sharpnel’s damage is very high risk. I will be more useful in a Gunship.
I agree in a sense with Takamina.
The nerf for shrapnel cannons to make them easier to use made them 1. less powerful and 2. Made them less exclusive to use for the good pilots.
Interceptors are getting pushed away while frigate balls are making a HUGE comeback. With the lack of interceptors to counter balance the amount of frigate balls and with weapons against interceptors prove too effective a counter, the whole game can get swayed into a highly unbalanced state.
Covert ops are really better suited for RF blasters with Super Novas. Because its there JOB to get in close to deal with damage but there weakness lies in that close proximity to the enemy increases there chances to get killed exponentially.
Using a interceptor the way it was NOT designed for, is going against the mechanics of the meta game.
Meta game is what the players do with the tools the devs put in their hands… If plasma gun for cov ops can be used efficiently in an exotic way, that’s fine. But it shouldn’t be the best option. I like the fact that you can build set up that a same ship can fit 2 differents roles depending on weapon / modules you chosse for it. RFB is still way more bursty.
My main conern as ceptor is the EM torpedo that you just can’t do anything about it… If it take 1 / 2 sec to be “armed” after it was fired, that would be perfect…
Meta game is what the players do with the tools the devs put in their hands… If plasma gun for cov ops can be used efficiently in an exotic way, that’s fine. I like the fact that you can build set up that a same ship can fit 2 differents roles depending on weapon / modules you chosse for it. RFB is still way more bursty.
My main conern as ceptor is the EM torpedo that you just can’t do anything about it… If it take 1 / 2 sec to be “armed” after it was fired, that would be perfect…
No, no, no! Just no!
It would make 6k dps weapon and everyone would use it… We have frigballs already and add to that torp that can be spammed. Game would end up with frigball campfest
No, no, no! Just no!
It would make 6k dps weapon and everyone would use it… We have frigballs already and add to that torp that can be spammed. Game would end up with frigball campfest
He meant that it should take 1-2 seconds after you fire it for it to explode so it cannot be used for extreme close range defense. But I don’t agree with that either, balance must be found without making frigates helpless.
He meant that it should take 1-2 seconds after you fire it for it to explode so it cannot be used for extreme close range defense. But I don’t agree with that either, balance must be found without making frigates helpless.
They will never be helpless, at least the Engineers… about Guards, Aces love to use them. Same goes for LRF.
So IMO they won’t ever die.
He meant that it should take 1-2 seconds after you fire it for it to explode so it cannot be used for extreme close range defense. But I don’t agree with that either, balance must be found without making frigates helpless.
Face torp is annoying, but I find it balanced. Is a close range, last resort weapon, and many times the engi can die with it.
If you are worried about face torps, fit EB and also if you know that some guy is using them, just pick another target.
And here i am, thinking that 10 000 games give people an ability to see a big picture and understand how the game and everything around it works. Well i guess i was wrong.
I stopped using interceptors, and that would happen even if they didn’t nerf the Sharpnel Cannon. Developers made clear to the players that they want to buff the weak players and nerf the strong players so no one cries. Tehy want to see frigballs in game, without dynamic battlefield. Frigballs now is a widespread phenomenon in every single game, like the captains who sit in the spawn point of their team without pushing the enemy to the victory.
With every new patch interceptors were weaker, while frigballs became stronger. Now I feel comfortable on Gunships, they are way better if you want to deal damage.
After the nerf of the 1 and 6 implants of Federation there’s no reason to fly an interceptor at close range, 1 EM torpedo and you are gone, and trying to kill inside an enemy frigball with new Sharpnel’s damage is very high risk. I will be more useful in a Gunship.
This is a very close minded post:
A) New shrapnel has much better efficiency at killing frigates and fighters after this change
B) By developers plan Shrapnel was not meant to be a go to weapon, and be that efficient at killing interceptors, but that is exactly what i was, ultimate anti interceptor weapon in right hands, and it was much less efficient vs more tankier targets, now they shifted efficiency of the weapon quite well, and it is the versatile “jack of all trades” type of thing, you just can’t use it on all the ships
C) This one really bugs me, that your CovOp build was ultimate anti interceptor and stay alive build, and flying almost exclusively that you were complaining about how frigs are affecting your game play, of course they did, your build was terrible vs frigates, duuh! And Interceptors are not designed to directly counter Frig Ball in face to face combat, that is what Fighters are for, and still inties can and do create a tons of problems for frigates.
D) Frig Balls,
Frigate is the easiest ship to be effective for new and not so “skilled” players.
Some maps and game modes are basically made for frig balling, and massing interceptors in those modes is just stupid.
The only “Frig ball” that is effective vs randoms is Styx Ball with mass drones, because people ignore drones and just olololo fly around getting destroyed by them, but this is more local to a certain ship rather than a Frigates in General.
In Sec Con frigs balls can not do anything, they are getting disassembled into parts in no time, by mix of fighters and interceptors. And the same thing is true for lower tiers, there are plenty of tools to crack a Frig Ball
E) We have plenty of rock-paper-scissors with lots of overlaps between class-roles-builds, but this is not a right game to complain that my certain l33t ship-build can not win vs everything.
And at the end i will repeat myself again, we will never see a “good” balance in random skirmish games with that many distinctively different game modes, you tune for one or couple, you screw up something else. And i sure hope that we will ultimately balance for Capture The Beacon mode above all else.
Personal opinion - I think frigate weapons are clumsy.
Haven’t played current version T3 yet but in T5 interceptors are near impossible to kill if the pilot knows how to avoid getting killed. The only time I could kill an inty while flying frigate is when the inty insists on fighting at a disadvantage. Otherwise they skip around like butterflies taking non decisive damage and can withdraw at will back to safety for heals whenever they need to.
But
Frig weapons being so clumsy, even fighters suddenly seem ok to fly. More importantly, fighters can deal convincing damage. Something T5 interceptors cannot do unless they pounce someone by surprise in a 1v1. Inty weapons are too weak. Not strong enough to convince a Guard to back down from a fight and take cover. Which probably makes sense in the real world but in a game where you need balance between classes, that situation is not ok.
So T5 interceptors
= easy to stay alive in if you are not a fool
= cannot deal decisive damage in regular encounters
Fighters vs Frigates = almost perfect
Interceptors vs Fighters = ok
Frigate vs Interceptors = Not ok
Interceptors survivability should be LOWER
Interceptor damage should be ALOT HIGHER
Fighters weapon range should be SHORTER
Frigate weapon should be FURTHER
Meta should be Frigates are responsible for keeping interceptors at bay all the way down the field from long range
But if interceptors are able to close in and pounce, Frigates should die almost all the time
Fighters should be tuned to mid-close range operations as anti interceptor instead of anti frigate as it is now.
ALL short range effective weapons in the Frigate arsenal torps / mines should be given to interceptor.
ie. EM torp on a recon instead of on an Engineer
But Frigates should have mid-long range effective secondaries to compensate like high velocity missiles or even smart scatter missiles
This is how I would go about tuning T5 fights. Personal opinion.
T5 DD interceptors definitely do not need more dmg.
As I see Sec Con balance: The only 2 thing that falls out of a great picture are Jericho Guards and Empire Gunships (and common to all tiers Shield vs Hull tanking)
ALL short range effective weapons in the Frigate arsenal torps / mines should be given to interceptor.
ie. EM torp on a recon instead of on an Engineer
But Frigates should have mid-long range effective secondaries to compensate like high velocity missiles or even smart scatter missiles
This is how I would go about tuning T5 fights. Personal opinion.
Do you remember when, a while back, where there were limited missiles for each ship and once you ran out of missiles, that was it? I recall some interceptors back then could actually fit one nuke and some small rockets. One interceptor had 21 small missle slots and 3 medium slots. It was great, it was tactical, it had varity. But now everyone runs the same thing that its almost too predictable.
Frigates = EM torps
Fighters = Medium Missles
Recons = Mines and slowing missles
CO + ECM = Unguided or guided.
