I’m not infallible, but I do listen 😉

When a few people told me that the Vengeance and Retribution were lacking something compared to the other races’ Assault Ships I  was initially skeptical. After all the Vengeance fit I use can tank something like 300dps as a heavy tackler (though with sod all DPS which is fine for the role) and I’ve flown 260DPS gank fitted Retributions which are wonderfully destructive but lack any spare midslots.

However I had to check into this a issue a little more because I use these ships for fleet work, and the complaint was that neither were suitable for solo PvP. Now I don’t see a problem with having some ships that are not good for solo PvP work as long as they are fine in a fleet, but it looks like pure Amarr pilots haven’t got a choice with their Assault Ships.

So what is the problem and how to rectify this?

The requirements for a solo PvP ship are a decent balance between DPS, tank and ewar. Without enough DPS you can’t kill anything. Without some tank you can’t survive long enough to kill anything (though doing more DPS than the opponent is also a form of tank in smaller fights). Without ewar, specifically a warp scram you can’t hold the opponent down if they wish to escape.

I understand all that but what is the issue with Amarr Assault Ships for Solo PvP work?

Firstly the Retribution has excellent DPS and can fit a decent buffer tank. However it only has one midslot, so if you fit a scram you’ll be limited to taking on really slow ships or camping catch bubbles. If you fit a propulsion mod instead then your target will warp off. To address this some people would be happy to lose the utility high on the Retri to give it 2 mids, others would prefer to lose a low. Giving it a 4L 2M 5H layout would match the wolf however lasers have some range advantage over the autocannons thus this would have to be looked at carefully.

To the Vengeance then. I fly a heavy tackle version but I had assumed that gank fitted it would be on a par with other Assault Ships (though not as hard hitting at the Retri) and with the spare mids for tackle it would seem fine as a solo ship. Sadly it seems that the rocket damage output is so bad that even with the ship bonus and 3 damage mods that the Veng struggles to match other ships. In this case I put the blame at the rockets themselves and I know there have been many threads about those already ranging from the detailed and well thought out to the “Fix rockets kkthx”.

As per a previous CSM suggestion it is planned that Assault Ships will get an afterburner speed bonus which will likely make them more popular and as things stand it would appear that the Amarr versions do have a disadvantage for solo PvP. In my opinion at least one of these ships should be capable of solo PvP and thus I think the Vengeance should be fitted into this role, once rocket changes have been made (hopefully soon tm).

If this issue has effected you in some way, please put on your thinking caps and submit a thread to the Assembly Hall to be voted on. With enough player support the CSM will be able to champion these ideas to CCP.

TL:DR

If elected to CSM I will look into issues raised by the players, evaluate them objectively and ensure I am equipped to represent the players faithfully in discussions.