On Measuring the Value of Ships
As a confessed and confirmed JOAT, I manage to get into a lot of things, but rarely do them well. As my corporation mates would probably affirm, I’m not the one to call for overwhelming DPS, scanning, stalking, mining, PI, hauling, racing, 1 vs. 1, or drone support. IF however you happen to need all of those things in moderation at the same time, then I am the one to call. This is symptomatic of having 55 million skill points in 279 skills. I like to do a lot and be able to fly a lot of ships no matter where I go. It’s a matter of taste that I don’t really have any battleship skills to speak of other than the very limited ability to fly a Tech 2 fit EWAR Scorpion. But for ships of smaller classes, I can at least make a showing, but am far from good.
With that background in mind, I think I am fairly qualified to speak on most ships and the whole gamut of possible roles those ships need to perform. To begin with, I recently had the opportunity to pilot a good friend’s strategic cruiser. Through a series of PVE and PVP encounters it worked well and performed above my expectations, even given the obvious stats and potential. It demonstrated the ability to adequately tank a larger amount of damage than expected, manoeuvre and fly with more agility and apply more of its damage potential to the targets than anticipated. Understand that I have been fairly reluctant to fly the Tech 3 ships as they are referred to, because I tend to overestimate hype and flavour. While I knew that they were good ships and competent in their ability and application, I did not fully realise how good until the other day.
After a particularly good stretch in the ship, I made the passing comment to the owner that, “This is what a 1/2 billion dollar ship should feel like.”
I look forward to picking out a couple of my own someday to fly around and abuse.
I resemble that remark
Hehe, yep although people try to convince themselves that T3 ships are just glorified BC/Hac/Command ship substitutes, they aren’t. Properly fit they are sweeeeet.
You schould not be that modest about your skill set.
And besides that, actual game experiance, weights more then having skills to level 5.
Flying with WHEN in the past months, made me realize that a 500 million is not very much these days.
Let the isk roll…………
Yeppers. Strategic Cruisers are hot stuff. I firmly believe that they are good ships for a lot of situations, especially if you can find a rig setup that works for multiple subsystem configurations.
I flew the Proteus for a while in null-sec, and I ended up having three different hulls because one set of rigs wouldn’t work for multiple configurations. I have been more successful in that regard with the Loki, as I have found a rig setup that works for all three of my preferred configurations. Now I just have one hull and many subsystems for it.
Unfortunately, I recently suffered my first Strategic Cruiser loss, and on its maiden voyage even. I hadn’t had one in months as I couldn’t afford to lose it since my easy-money tap (null-sec anomalies) ran dry when I left null-sec to become a low-sec pirate. Finally I was able to purchase the ship, and then I go an lose it on the first day. I’m convinced that I was hit by a ‘faction curse’ or something, as I had equipped the Loki with 300M or so worth of faction modules as well. None of the other T3s I’d had before were equipped with expensive modules like that.
Anybody within earshot would have been amused by the string of curses I voiced for the first minute or two after the loss. Then I opened up the Market screen and placed an order for another complete ship, this time without the faction items. Within an hour, the delivery crate was in my low-sec station hangar. I wasn’t about to give up that easily.
I’m currently training for my third type of Strategic Cruiser — the Legion. I know … it’s widely proclaimed to be the least effective T3 ship. I happen to think it’s the best-looking one, and that matters to me as well. I will eventually complete my T3 collection by training for the Tengu, but I’m going to thoroughly test the others first.
I hear a lot of negativity surrounding the Legion. I have to admit to liking the looks and have the skills to fit and fly one, but never been in one. I’ll have to put that on my list of things to do. The Legion pilot in our corporation does really well in his and thoroughly enjoys it.
The Tengu really shines as an isk-generator for plexes, wormhole anomalies and even low-sec missions, but I don’t think it really has the “punch” if you will for solo PVP that the Proteus and Loki can bring to the table. This is probably in line with the various racial backgrounds that created each ship.
[...] piercing the vacuum all around, is actually really good fun. And I get paid iskies for doing this! The Tengu is beautiful to fly. I end up enjoying the combat so much I clear five anomalies with the fleet before the late hour [...]