The High Sec Carebear has finally moved to 0.0, Adventures with TEST awaits.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Phoebe, So Far.

No more force projection, at least not like it used to be.

I'll preface this with saying I've really no idea of how it used to be either, so take this with a pinch of salt.
As I'm sure everyone is aware, Phoebe, with it's dreaded jump change has now dropped on TQ and it seems as though some love it and some hate it.  Jump drives have been nerfed into the dirt with reduced jump range, they've added the fatigue timer on every jump and deathcloning is gone.

I don't own a capital, so the only real impact this has on me is in relation to jump bridges.  I've only recently moved into 0.0, and have enjoyed the jump bridges immensely in that time, but now the usage of them is somewhat restricted.
The day Phoebe dropped I grabbed an interceptor and headed through the closest bridge, just to check it out, roughly 1 hour fatigue timer from one jump.
Now, I can live with this, it means JB's are no longer a convenience and more of a strategic asset.  I won't be using them for easy, convenient travel anymore, but rather for high value transport and safer routes.
The fact that interceptors are nullified and turns on a dime these days, A - B travel is not really that hard, say from home base to staging system, slightly more of a hassle, but no more than that.

The redeeming factor so far is that they held back on the "industrial" ship nerf, any ship classified as such enjoys a 90% reduction in distance traveled, so the same jump in my Blockade Runner resulted in a 15 minute fatigue timer.  This makes travel in Blockade Runners and Transport Ships more feasible for bringing cargo to trade hubs etc.  Blockade Runners in themselves would make excellent travel ships, rather safe with the align time and cloak, all though somewhat expensive at around 170 mill and up.

I've been looking at other alternatives as well, something like a "poor mans" Blockade Runner and the Wreathe fits the bill nicely.  It's fast, cheap and gets down towards 3 sec of align time with decent skills and some Inertia Stabs in the lows.  Yeah, it gets caught, you're dead, but it's not like it's gonna break the bank.
Caution is advised if you're hauling high value stuff in it, but that's what Blockade Runners and Deep Space Transports are for anyways, and as a taxi it should be pretty ok.

On to some other stuff from Phoebe, bookmark changes and multisell.

Bookmark changes are awesome, hotkey for quick access, visible in space, it can't really get any better.
Making BM's, tacs, bounces and pings are fast and easy compared to pre patch and you can quickly find them via the compass and overlay.  It also takes some of the guessing out of it when the FC asks if anyone has a ping close to that annoying inty above the gate.

Multisell has also proven to be a lot quicker then the old one, all though it seemed weird the first times, I quickly got used to it.  There is a lot less clicking needed to sell things and less clicks are always good.

That pretty much sums up my immediate impressions of Phoebe, overall a very good patch in my opinion, the fatigue is a hassle in many cases, but nothing one can't adapt to.

Providence is still proving to be very kind to me, I'm loving every minute of it and I haven't even managed to die yet, even though I have actually been joining some PvP fleets.
Provi Block is currently in the process of retaking sov in D-GTMI after settling on a very favourable peace treaty with the HERO Coalition and eagerly awaiting the changes coming with Phoebe.
I've been running in some Cruiser defence fleets chasing bad people away from hitting a few towers in a Providence high sec border system and I even got to fly a Zealot around a bit.  I'll get back to my unhealthy obsession with Omen hulls at a later date.

Fly hard, Amarr Victor.

No comments:

Post a Comment