The latest EVE Online update is dropping today and heralds tweaks to torpedoes and Dreadnaught hulls. Listen closely, and you may hear Caldari fans’ celebratory cheers as Explosive Velocity could return the Phoenix to relevance.
TL;DR Update Details
According to CCP’s release, Explosive Velocity includes:
- An increase in damage, explosion velocity, and missile velocity for XL torpedoes.
- An increase to explosion and missile velocity to all other torpedoes but at the cost of an explosion radius decrease.
- An increase to power grid and CPU allowance for the Phoenix.
- One additional low slot and the loss of a mid slot for the Moros.
- A significant balance revamp for the Griffin Navy Issue.
- A reduction in the maximum torpedo velocity bonus and removal of the explosion velocity bonus for Stealth Bombers.
A Resurrected Phoenix?
The Phoenix has long been the red-headed step-child of the Dreadnaught class, with its inability to apply DPS in a class heavily reliant on it. The number of kills (courtesy of zKillboard) by Dreadnaughts in the past seven days bears this out:
Despite capsuleer love for all things Caldari, the Phoenix ranks near the back of the pack with almost one-quarter of the kills by the top dog Revelation. While the Phoenix still can’t match the Rev’s ability to take the field without carrying a lot of ammo and switch ranges near instantaneously, these changes should at least make it serviceable on the battlefield.
One wonders if the Moros, the laggard in usage, is getting enough love with the slot switch. While an additional low slot should allow it to fit another damage mod or tank better, it’s not getting the weapon buff the Phoenix is getting with torpedoes.
Our take: Get yourself a Rev, but you can stop laughing at the guy fielding the Phoenix now.
Damn the Torpedoes!
Blopsing Stealth Bomber pilots everywhere were probably giddy with excitement when reading the torpedo buffs. Their OP dreams were quickly dashed though, when CCP was thoughtful enough to scale back Stealth Bomber bonuses to offset some of the gains.
Still, Rorqual pilots everywhere should take notice (and stop going AFK) as these buffs to torps promise to make the Stealth Bomber even more deadly despite the tweak to some of its bonuses. The velocity tweak alone should add a healthy dose of DPS.
Raven and Typhoon pilots should also be pleased with these tweaks as the torp battleships of choice. Perhaps Goonswarm will be rejoicing for its next Keepstar attack? We shall see.
From the “That’s an Actual Ship?” Department
Yes, the Griffin Navy Issue is an actual ship and owns all of 27 kills in the past seven days. Startling, I know. CCP claims the numerous tweaks are aimed at making it an ECM drone platform. The tweaks include:
- An ECM drone jam duration bonus.
- A drone bandwidth and capacity increase.
- Penalties to drone damage, hit points, and control range.
These changes could push it into a valuable fleet support role. With the popularity of small and fast fleets, such as the Jackdaw doctrine employed by many alliances, perhaps the GNI could compliment them and help keep them alive by jamming opponents? We’ll have to see what the FCs have up their sleeve.
View the full patch notes here.
