To Be... No? To Do or Not? - That is the Question?

A whole article as a veiled attempt at...

By: George Argyropoulos     

a/k/a Dragon_Noob       

wait... that's not right... 

Triggered yet? Hehehe... Anyway, enough fun. I see a lot of people dogging on the Icebreaker hull that will be available in the upcoming raid.

Given the limitations that we currently have with regard to our knowledge of what April's raid targets are, and not being able to evaluate the hull, it seems easy to dismiss this hull as "not being worth it". The hull and its abilities are not simple and straightforward. Instead, the hull is, at first glance, more complex than the Cannoneer was.

With compounding abilities and resistances the potential for this hull is not readily apparent at first glance. Once we have had a chance to evaluate the hull, and possibly new targets, a better understanding of the hull will emerge.

This is by no means ideal. Quite honestly I expected Kixeye to have some sort of test server in which we would be able to evaluate both of these things before having to make a decision on spending 105 million points in order to get this hull. Once this opportunity presents itself I will likely write an Anatomy of Design article for this hull after we have seen the raid targets. Quite possibly I will have a speculative build article out soon.

Putting all of that aside, I want to discuss very quickly my perspective on this hull and the repercussions that players may face should they make a decision based on the perception of mediocrity that this hull is currently receiving. Remember please, while reading beyond this point, that these are just possibilities that I have contemplated. This is purely speculation on my part. What reality delivers to us could be better or worse than what I am discussing herein.

The most apparent repercussion that could occur is that the next raid set will be tuned accordingly for the Icebreaker. We may yet again see no top-tier S target in the first raid of the series. Much like the first of this current series we may also see that the A set is tuned down for the first month of the raid, enabling the Icebreaker to cruise through the raid with the least amount of effort of all available hulls.

Another aspect to consider, for those contemplating passing up on the Icebreaker, is that the next raid is likely going to go back to the typical prize redemption layout where you can only pick one prize from each level. If you skip the Icebreaker this raid with the plan of getting it next raid at a heavily discounted cost, there is a good possibility that you may miss out on a hull combo on the other side that could be key in daily game play. The obvious caveat to this possibility is that Kixeye has generally placed PvP hulls on the other side in the first raid so that this may not be an issue for many players.

And the final thing to try and keep in mind is that we still have yet to glimpse or get any information about the "skill" hull for the next raid set. Speculation currently is that this hull will come out in a TLC, however, we have zero information with regard to the scheduling of said TLC nor do we have any confirmation that this is the plan going forward. If it is in fact due to come out in a TLC, that TLC could occur the day after this week's raid or it could occur the week before the next raid. No one knows.

Due to the above and more, I would humbly ask Kixeye to end the speculation by giving us even just a little bit of information so that we can make a better informed decision in the raid upcoming.

That all said... Currently, with what we know, I think that it is a heavy gamble to pass on the Icebreaker if it is within your means to acquire it. Personally I am not going to pass it up.