State of AF's, CCP Rise's ECM Idea, Sentinel kill, Placid Capital Dunks and more!

Do Assault Frigates need changes?

I have always enjoying flying assault frigates. For me they deliver that perfect combo of tank, dps and utility in solo and small gang. However, with recent changes to the PvP scene, its reasonable to say AF's have been pushed out of the meta, or at least are not as useful as they were a several months ago. I want to talk today about AF's and their place in small gang and solo PvP.

It's also worth mentioning I only fly Gallente AF's (shit sp right here), so I will use them as examples a lot, but I am still aware of how all the other AF's work too.

I feel one of the main reasons AF's are considered 'dead' by a lot of people now is the introduction of T3D's. One of the problems with AF's before T3D's was that they had no defined role, but they still did a good job of simply being combat ships, but now T3D's can literally do everything an AF can and better. They can go much much faster, deal the same dps and tank better. This wouldn't be too much of a problem though if it wasn't for the fact T3D's can fit inside smalls, so AF's would still have a place where they can be useful, but this isn't the case.

Even with the T3D being a better AF though, I still think there could be a place for them as they are cheaper, more types and it's always fun to change things up sometimes. However, AF's still have a huge problem facing them in solo PvP which is their agility is fucking terrible. Normally when you roam in frigates, you have the luxury of being able to get off field much quicker than anyone can lock you. If you land at small plex looking for a fight only to find three thrashers on the gate, most of the time you will be able to warp off without getting two shot. With AF's however, as soon as you land there is no way you are getting off, and you will die just as quickly than as if you were in a T1 frig. The same applied to bait tackle as well. Only yesterday did I land on an enyo, knowing he had another enyo and Svipul in system with him, but I couldn't get off in time because I was in an Ishkur, so I died to a blob without any chance. This makes roaming in AF's that much more difficult.

While AF's may have be having a hard time in solo PvP though, it's worth mentioning that they still have their moments in small gang fleets. I know that Snuffed Out run AF fleets now and then (I should probably be joining those fleets as well) and they seem to work well. A couple months ago with Warp to Cyno, a Placid allinace I helped build, had just started, I used to send out a couple AF fleets myself and I remember getting some really fun fights. Here is a fight of some AF's destroying some T2 cruisers.

Yes I am awear I should of gone for that Huggin many, many times. Hy Wanto still torments me with that to this day. I never claimed to be a good FC alright? Apart from in this video desc.

Fights like these is why I love small gang

I feel one of the reasons AF's still kind of work in fleets is because they are cheaper than T3D's, require slightly less sp and attract less attention. Also, if you roam in a T3D fleet, people are more likely to ship up much higher against you rather than if you were an AF gang. Still though, in terms of actual combat and ignoring the other stuff, T3D's still work better.


So in conclusion I think it's very fair to say AF's are not in a good place right now. Although, there are a couple changes which in my opinion would bring them right back into the meta again.

Firstly, T3D's should not be able to go into small plex's. A lot of people feel this way for other reasons but I am highlighting that one of the benefits of making this change means people will be more encouraged to fly AF's again.

Secondly, AF's desperately need to have an agility buff. If people are going to solo roam in them, they need to be able to warp off quickly when they need to. I don't really see how having low agility balances them in actual combat either, apart from when trying to slingshot. If AF's didn't have to die whenever they accidentally landed on a dessie gang I think that would really help.

Lastly, last night in my stream Suitonia proposed a really interesting idea that give AF's a bit of an edge again. He said because AF's have no specialized role, they should get a bonus that allows them to act as heavy tackle in small gang situations as they already have the tank for it. He suggested giving AF's a bonus to nosferatu's in order to allow them to stick to ships better while maintaining cap and not just get neuted into the ground. I defiantly think giving AF's a specialized bonus like this is a great idea, even if it's not the proposed one here, as it will allow them to be able to do something no other ship class can do, which is what above all they need right now.

CCP Rise's ECM tweet:

This week CCP Rise posted a tweet suggesting a change to the ECM mechanic.

Now, I have no idea if this is something actually being considered or just CCP Rise throwing out awesome ideas as he does but either way I think it's an interesting concept to talk about.

Of course I favorited it, didn't you?

So basically this would mean whenever you are jammed you cannot use your drones, at all. Being a member of the Gallente master race, this sounds horrible, but it is far, far better than not being able to lock at all. It would be quite funny though as it would just remove the drone meta right now, or at least greatly weaken it. As it is now, drones will still attack even if you do not have a lock. This means whenever that pesky rival alliance that lives up the pipe shows up in their 20 man ishtar fleet to kill your pocos you can just scream "SCORPIONS!!!". Well, would probably be Falcons, but Scorpions are cooler. I would think alliances would stop using drone heavy doctrines all together because, while they would still work great without ECM, having a direct counter that you have no idea will turn up or not is too risky. At the very least, ECCM's would be compulsory.

Someone I was talking to about this raised a good question about if non-triage carriers would become useless. I said that because their carriers they should have pretty decent sensor strength, but I guess if the strength of the ECM stays the same a falcon could potentially jam a carrier. At least that's what I was told. I think nerfing the strength of ECM needs to happen either way though, as while it's meant to be RNG, you have to have a couple four leaf clovers strapped to your monitor if you want any hope of keeping lock.

Honestly though if it were up to me ECM would of been removed all together. Fuck Caldari they don't need their own ewar. Just get them to strap neuts onto the end of missiles or some shit idk.


As we're on the topic of CCP Rise, I want to mention that he actually watched my stream at one point, came on a couple times, was a really cool guy to talk to. I ended up having a go at him for making the Worm and the Garmur. That probably explains why he doesn't come on my stream anymore ;_;

What music do you listen to when you play eve?

I know this is a question that has been talked about before, but I like to think that all of us elite solo PvPers extend beyond the average line member's instant response of Taylor Swift. Not that she's bad though.

Anyone who has even loaded my stream instantly knows my music taste is utter shit. Kawaii Japanese computer synthesized voices with the odd song from the USSR Red Army Choir is my main two choices of song for when I'm on the hunt for noobie blood, but I'm curious as to what you guys like.

I feel it's important to listen to different music depending on what you're doing in EVE as well. For example, I wouldn't listen to hardcore death metal (or whatever you class that as) while doing lvl 3 missions in an Ishtar, but during an intense 1v1, it can get the blood pumping so much I forget to active my rep in time and die like a fucking retard.

Do you have specific songs/bands for different activities in eve, or just listen to whatever whenever because you're too scrubbish to fine tune your music listening to properly enhance your EVE Online experience?

What's going on with me:

Once again not much to talk about this week. Although I did get donated two plex, an Orth and a Vigilant on stream last night, so they is that. I cant even use T2 missiles so no idea what im gonna do with the orth. Expect some hilarious whelps from the vigi though. 

Oh and miraculously I'm still in Snuffed Out. My corp recently did a purge and honestly I was expecting to get kicked for inactivity but somehow I'm still here. I told them I'm going to start joining fleets when exams are over so I guess they are listening to me. Only problem now is that I actually have to join fleets when exams are over.

Fit of the week:

We're going with something a little different this week, and focused on small gang fits rather than solo PvP fits. I know a group of people that I used to fly with many months ago and occasionally talk to now and then who seem to having quite a bit of luck with gank thrashers, so much so they used them to try and kill my solo PvP geddon.

Yes, I'm so short on ideas I have resorted to this

So basically the fit costs about 1m for 200 dps. Get five of these and roam around ripping up FW space. They are actually quite good for small gang due to their MWD as well. Now, I am aware that its not exactly new stuff that the gank thrasher is good, but I still think it's good to highlight them as these guys have been using them in placid and null for over a couple months now and are still all under the same corp, which is very rare for these guys, so something must be working. My guess it's these giving them good content.

So if you're a small time FC for some new-ish PvP corp go out with these and if you get any shiny kills while loosing 3m, send me the km's. They are great for getting new players involved and getting roaming experience as an FC'ing as well.

Fight of the week:

As we're on the topic of AF's this week I want to show off a cool kill I got in an Ishkur.

Another reason why Ishkur > Enyo.

This sentinel had been fucking with me in nen for a while, so I decided to go into a plex and see if he would follow. To my surprise he did, with the intention of neuting me out so I couldnt scram him and then burning off. However, through the fine art of spamming I managed to keep my tackle on him just long enough to kill him. It was my first ever sentinel kill and I'm proud. Now fin isn't the only solo PvPer ever to be able to kill one of these things.

Here is the kill: https://zkillboard.com/kill/46816824/

BR of the week:

Rekt

 This Friday Snuffed Out dunked about 17b worth of Nocturnal Romance caps. Looks like a rather clean dunking indeed. I am told this was quite a simple fight. They were trying to RF a pos when snuff scouts saw them. A fleet formed quickly, titan was moved and they then dropped on them with some HIC's, resulting in lots of dead caps. Although knowing Nocturnal Romance, they have already been replaced.

A video was made of the kills, so enjoy: