Update Musings

Do we need pitchforks? Not really... I think...

by: George Argyropoulos

a/k/a Dragon_Bane   

Today we got a serious update. A new Odyssey Campaign, changes to the Charged Armors, and a serious buff to the Monolith and the Combat Mortar O/U-10. These are my initial thoughts...

Odyssey Campaign :

Given the changes to the Charged Armors, the Monolith and the Combat Mortar O/U-10, this is likely a very much needed TLC in order to allow players to adjust their builds to the changes. The buffs to the Hull and Mortar are likely to change many players builds. It is a good move on Kixeye's part to allow players to adjust at, hopefully, minimal to zero expense - granted, those that can't do the TLC may not be in the same boat.

Initial reactions seem to be that many players are upset that the Gridiron Monolith is available, as well as a 20 day build token. Personally, I am torn about the Gridiron being offered. I would be much happier if the limit were raised to two so that players who already invested in getting one, prioritized it and built it early had a second one they could build in order to have a second tank option for the FM that is to follow this raid set. I think increasing the capacity of the Gridiron is something that should seriously be looked at given that this Raid Set is going to be converted into the new FM.

As for the 20 day token... Honestly, I'm sort of O.K. with this. Those that invested early into the Gridiron have one already built and likely ranked. The one that I am building (in this fleet from this article) takes just under 24 days to build with an officer and R&D level 30. Given the proximity of the raid, I think you can see the thought process behind offering the 20 day build token. I understand than many players are upset at losing out on the 'discount', however, this is offset by their higher level of preparedness. In this instance I can see both sides of the coin and, if I'm honest, this is a good addition to the TLC for the community overall.

Charged Armors : 

At first blush, not having been able to test anything as yet, this seems... complicated. The addition of the resistances and the deflection put this armor on par with the D5 versions, without the repair time. We also get a flat amount reduction as well. If this is how they were rolled out initially, I think things would have been fine. The change however makes us necessitate a comparison.

The flat reduction amount was drastically decreased, as was the total pool amount. I'm not exactly sure how that is going to play out in the raid. With the drastic decrease in up-front reduction, I would think that the pool size would not have been decreased to such an extent.

On the other hand we could look at it comparative to D5 armors and note that you do get a serious mitigation factor above and beyond the D5 versions. The question for the player then becomes - Is this additional mitigation factor with the 10 million price point. That, of course, is up to the individual player. I'm not sure that current targets have been tuned to the armor, I presume the next raid will be (I hope). I think this means that the final judgement on this is going to truly be their performance in the next raid.

Monolith and Combat Mortar O/U-10 :

This is a significant buff to these items. Previous to this players were noting that a Harlock Citadel / R5 Citadel fleet had, on paper and apparently in practice, better damage numbers than the Gridiron / Monolith combination. The addition of the damage stack to the Monoliths (adding 120% damage with four monoliths) as well as the increase n splash, now make the Monolith much more formidable. Again, this is a within-the-hour-first-blush article, so I do need to spend some time playing with these, but it does seem that with the buff to the mortar and hull, this combination now easily surpasses the Hcit/Cit combo.

The buff to the damage of the Combat Mortar O/U-10 helps this in conjunction to being able to get more of them on the Monolith than the Citadel. Can the Citadels be refitted with the Combat Mortar O/U-10? Absolutely, however, it does not offer as much potential for use as the Monolith does.

It seems that with this update, the Monolith is now the best mortar hull in the game currently.

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Side Notes:

- If you are using only 1 Charged Armor, you may want to consider at least 2 of the same type. You'll now need multiples to build up the total pool to be most effective / not run out in the middle of combat.

- If you don't do a hard armor-to-armor swap when adding in charged armors, (say you exchange weapons / specials to put it on), then there is no guarantee that you will see a repair improvement, because you messed with your TTK (time-to-kill).

- Testing stuff against the 112 or 115 is in no way indicative of the tuning for the upcoming raid. Sounds obvious, but when people are testing, they like to try to show old targets as a basis or proof that something "sucks". Next raid targets will determine the worth of these updates.