Eve’s marauders to be turned into deployable weapons platforms

In their ongoing project to rebalance all the ships in Eve, CCP have released their plans for updating marauders. They found the ships had become largely redundant when it came to PvE and PvP play, with players adopting the power of the ships in the tier above or the speed of ships in the tier below rather than play with the slow moving semi-powerful ship class.

The update will turn marauders into a ship which can teleport about the battlefield and deploy into a heavy weapons platform.

The ship’s receiving a boost to micro jump drive recharge rate. This allows them to relocate quickly around in a fight. They can use this to jump a good 100km out of the fight and transform into what CCP are called Bastion mode. The transformation sticks the marauder in place but gives it “a bonus to resistances, tanking, damage projection and receiving EW immunity,” writes CCP Ytterbium. The change comes with a cost: “they cannot be remote assisted or even move when that happens. They also cannot use Micro Jump Drives in that mode.“

“The combination of both results in a ship that can jump 100km away to quickly react to a shifting environment, then go into bastion mode and use its increased damage application to deal with opposition while absorbing damage,” Ytterbium continues. “However, due to the lack of remote assistance in that mode and isolating nature of Micro Jump Drives, they will still die easily in larger fights where DPS is concentrated. Remember that the spool up nature of the Micro Jump Drives plus the time needed to align will give opponents a window of opportunity to tackle them before they can jump again.

“This also provides a stepping stone between sub-capitals / capital and their various siege / triage operation. It is noteworthy to remember we don’t necessarily want them to out-damage or go faster than Pirate Battleships – instead, they tank and project damage better.”

Here are the specs CCP are proposing for the bastion module:

BASTION MODULE

• Provides 30% shield, armor and hull resistances when activated, which function on the same way than Damage Control modules (not stacking penalized)

• Increases shield and armor repair amount by 100%

• Extends all large turret falloff and optimal by 25%

• Increases all large missile max velocity by 25%

• Has a cycle time of 60 seconds.

• When in bastion mode, Marauder is immune to EW but cannot be remote assisted in any way

• When in bastion mode, Marauder speed is set to 0 m/s, mass is increased by a factor of 10, cannot warp. Also receives a weapons timer that prevents station docking or gate jumping. Weapon time should not require the user to drop weapon safeties in high-sec (being investigated)

• Only one may be fitted per Marauder, cannot be deactivated before cycle ends

• Uses 10 CPU and 100 powergrid to fit

• Uses no specific fuel or capacitor – we were discussing the use of Heavy Water as fuel. However, it doesn’t really provide any gameplay (as CCP Rise mentioned, capacitor is the main limiting factor in combat with those ships). Plus it adds more consumables to a class that already commonly uses charges for weapons, cap boosters and need to keep cargo for possible salvaging.

• Skill requirements: High Energy Physics 4 and Energy Grid Upgrades 5

To encourage marauder pilots to use the bastion module, CCP are removing the ship’s drone bay. It pushes pilots to adopt more direct fire weapons.

Here are the detailed changes CCP are proposing for each marauder:

• PALADIN

• Role Bonus: 100% bonus to large energy weapon damage, 100% bonus to range and velocity of tractor beams, 70% reduction in Micro Jump Drive reactivation delay

• Amarr Battleship Skill Bonus:

• 5% bonus to capacitor capacity

• 7.5% bonus to Large Energy Turret optimal range (instead of 10% bonus to the velocity factor of stasis webifiers per level)

• Marauder Skill Bonus:

• 7.5% bonus to repair amount of armor repair systems

• 5% bonus to large energy turret damage per level

• Slot layout: 8H(+1), 4M, 7L; 4 turrets, 0 launchers

• Fittings: 16500 PWG (+3000), 530 CPU (+30)

• Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 6300(-500) / 8000(-200) / 7700(+400)

• Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap/s) : 8000(+2375) / 1000s (+76.1s) / 8 cap/s (+2)

• Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 85 m/s(-20) / .119(-0.009) / 111665000(+6465000) / 18.42s

• Drones (bandwidth / bay): 25(-50) / 50(-25)

• Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 91km(+10km) / 120(+39) / 10

• Sensor strength: 12 Radar

• Signature radius: 420(-80)

GOLEM

• Role Bonus: 100% bonus to cruise missile and torpedo damage, 100% bonus to range and velocity of tractor beams, 70% reduction in Micro Jump Drive reactivation delay

• Caldari Battleship Skill Bonus:

• 10% bonus to cruise missile and torpedo velocity

• 5% bonus to cruise missile and torpedo explosion velocity per level

• Marauders Skill Bonus:

• 7.5% bonus to shield boost amount

• 10% bonus to effectiveness of target painters per level

• Slot layout: 8H(+1), 7M, 4L; 0 turrets, 4 launchers

• Fittings: 8500 PWG (+2000), 715 CPU

• Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 8000(-200) / 6100(-1200) / 7000(+300)

• Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap/s) : 6325(+700) / 1150s (+226.1s) / 5.5 cap/s (-0.5)

• Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 85 m/s(-20) / .12 / 114195000(+8995000) / 19s

• Drones (bandwidth / bay): 25(-50) / 50(-25)

• Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 95km(+5km) / 105(+32) / 10

• Sensor strength: 14 Gravimetric

• Signature radius: 450(-125)

KRONOS

• Role Bonus: 100% bonus to large hybrid weapon damage, 100% bonus to range and velocity of tractor beams, 70% reduction in Micro Jump Drive reactivation delay

• Gallente Battleship Skill Bonus:

• 5% bonus to large hybrid weapon damage

• 10% bonus to large Hybrid Turret Falloff per level (instead of 10% bonus to the velocity factor of stasis webifiers per level)

• Marauder Skill Bonus:

• 7.5% bonus to repair amount of armor repair systems

• 7.5% bonus to large hybrid weapon tracking per level

• Slot layout: 8H(+1), 4M, 7L; 4 turrets, 0 launchers

• Fittings: 14000 PWG (+2000), 580 CPU (+30)

• Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 6600(-200) / 7200(-100) / 8600(+400)

• Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap/s) : 6900(+1275) / 1150s (+226.1s) / 6 cap/s

• Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 92 m/s(-28) / .114(-0.0038) / 113160000(+11360000) / 17.8s

• Drones (bandwidth / bay): 50(-25) / 50(-75)

• Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 90km(+3km) / 120(+39) / 10

• Sensor strength: 13 Magnetometric

• Signature radius: 420(-80)

VARGUR

• Role Bonus: 100% bonus to large projectile weapon damage, 100% bonus to range and velocity of tractor beams, 70% reduction in Micro Jump Drive reactivation delay

• Minmatar Battleship Skill Bonus:

• 5% bonus to large projectile turret rate of fire

• 10% bonus to large projectile turret falloff per level

• Marauder Skill Bonus:

• 7.5% bonus to shield boost amount

• 7.5% bonus to large projectile turret tracking per level

• Slot layout: 8H(+1), 6M, 5L; 4 turrets, 0 launchers

• Fittings: 12900 PWG(+5000), 625 CPU

• Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 7500(-100) / 6600(-200) / 6300 (-1000)

• Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap/s) : 6200(+575) / 1100s(+176.1s) / 5.6 cap/s (-0.4)

• Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 100 m/s(-30) / .112(-0.004) / 116840000(+10740000) / 18.1s

• Drones (bandwidth / bay): 50(-25) / 50(-25)

• Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 81km(+6km) / 145(+60) / 10

• Sensor strength: 11 Ladar

• Signature radius: 360(-65)