Battlecruisers Are Cool Again!

When I began my Eve career, I made the mistake of trying to jump into the largest ships I could.  My support skills were weak, and since I was doing mostly PvE, I saw Ravens as the absolute best ships in the game.  There was little in-game information available to players that explained explosion radius, signature radius, and damage application, so I figured the biggest guns were simply more expensive, not focused in use.

My second ship loss was a Ferox (hilariously poorly fit, by the way…).  I loved my battlecruisers, proceeding to lose far more of them than I had any business losing in the next several years.  Before Tengus, the Drake was my preferred ratting boat, like many.

And then, battlecruisers became fat and slow, and fell through the fabric of the universe.  Combined with the cruiser buffs, battlecruisers were more of a liability than a benefit to a fleet, and more often than not were simply tackled as stragglers in any mobile gang.

The situation became so bad that prior to a week ago (when I purchased some faction doctrine battleships), my hangar included exactly one subcap larger than a cruiser, a hull-tanked Brutix Navy Issue.

But, my friends, deliverance is at hand!  In just three days, with the Vanguard release, we’re going to see battlecruisers become cool again. I’m not going to go through all of the changes, since Crossing Zebras put together a nice battlecruiser review that I’d be hard-pressed to top.

Generally speaking, this list of balance changes – while not addressing the incredibly slow warp speed that still limits their role in mixed fleets – does much to adjust their damage projection issues.  In particular, I’m intrigued by the possibilities of the dual-projection benefits for the class and hulls together.  Fitting will be far better without having to face the choice of improving both range and tracking at close ranges.

For those of you who started playing Eve only recently, you’re in for a wild ride.  Battlecruisers were intended to bridge the gap between roam doctrines and structure and capital-bashing battleship doctrines.  When folks bring Gilas or Ishtars, for instance, battlecruisers are supposed to be the answer.  But lacking the mobility, this wasn’t possible.

But it’s a brand new (old) world again.  I’m eager to see whether players return to the old tactics of the past, or leverage the battlecruisers in new ways.  It should be enjoyable to see!

P.S. Congratulations to all those players who bought up the Navy Hurricanes.  Based on the stat changes, I think it was a very good investment!