Navy Battlecruisers – All that you could want, and in some cases, had.

So, there was this post a long time ago wondering why we didn’t have Navy Issue Battlecruisers.

Well, now we have them.  And strangely enough, in at least one case, we had it all along.

Presenting the newest ships to be released with Odyssey: The Navy Issue Battlecruisers:

First in the line-up is the former top dog of Amarr Battlecruisers, then Harbinger.  It has been brought into new life…

HARBINGER NAVY ISSUE

We decided to give this ship some much needed flexibility by adding a 5th medium slot, and replacing the Medium Energy Turret capacitor reduction bonus with a 7.5% Medium Energy Turret tracking bonus per level. However, the drone bay has been slightly reduced next to its regular counterpart.

• Amarr Battlecruiser skill bonuses: +10% medium energy turret damage and +7.5% to medium energy turret tracking per level
• Slot layout: 7 H, 5 M, 6 L, 6 turrets, 0 launchers
• Fittings: 1495 PWG, 410 CPU
• Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 4500 / 7500 / 6750
• Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 3125 / 822 s / 3.8
• Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 150 / 0.69 / 13800000 / 13.2 s
• Drones (bandwidth / bay): 50 / 50
• Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 55km / 210 / 6
• Sensor strength: 21 Radar
• Signature radius: 270

So, the Navy Issue Harbinger gets back to its damage dealing roots with a nice damage bonus and tracking bonus which will be beloved by those laser lovers.  The drone bay reduction really isn’t a big deal as you still have enough to have a wing of medium drones or two wings of small drones (likely a set of damage and a set of ECM smalls).  Its agility and speed are the same as the current standard Harbinger, but the Powergrid is equal to pre-Retribution and the CPU has been boosted as well.  With five midslots, expect Shield tanked versions of these ships to be the new standard.

DRAKE NAVY ISSUE:

Unwilling to imitate our dear friend Victor by creating a Drakenstein monster, the Navy version focuses on flexibility instead of improving the already good raw firepower and tank of the standard Drake. It has a 10% missile velocity and 5% missile explosion radius bonus per level, 8 launchers and improved mobility.

• Caldari Battlecruiser skill bonuses: +10% to heavy missile and heavy assault missile velocity and 5% bonus to explosion radius of heavy missile and heavy assault missile per level
• Slot layout: 8 H, 6 M, 4 L, 0 turrets, 8 launchers
• Fittings: 880 PWG, 550 CPU
• Defense (shields / armor / hull) :7875 / 4875 / 5625
• Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 2500 / 658 s / 3.8
• Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 150 / 0.64 / 13329000 / 11.8 s
• Drones (bandwidth / bay): 25 / 25
• Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 60km / 195 / 8
• Sensor strength: 23 Gravimetric
• Signature radius: 295

The new Navy Issue Drake gets back the High slot it lost while retaining its mid and low slots.  The Damage bonuses along with the extra missile launcher will mean that more damage gets on target sooner and more effectively than the standard issue Drake.  The downside is that the tank is significantly less resistant, though it does gain a nearly 50% shield HP increase.  Its higher speed and agility, coupled with about 1mil m3 less mass will give it some options in using speed.  The other thing is that both the powergrid and the CPU have been upgraded over the Standard Drake setup so many of your old pre-Retribution fit will fit rather nicely on this hull.
BRUTIX NAVY ISSUE

This vessel is an iteration over the regular version. The Armor Repairer amount bonus has been swapped for a 7.5% Medium Hybrid Turret tracking bonus per level, another low slot has been added and it is a bit more maneuverable as well.

• Gallente Battlecruiser skill bonuses: +10% to medium hybrid turret damage and 7.5% bonus to medium hybrid turret tracking per level
• Slot layout: 7 H, 4 M, 7 L, 6 turrets, 0 launchers
• Fittings: 1235 PWG, 455 CPU
• Defense (shields / armor / hull): 5250 / 6750 / 7125
• Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 3000 / 789 s / 3.8
• Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 155 / 0.704 / 11875000 / 11.6 s
• Drones (bandwidth / bay): 50 / 50
• Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 55km / 200 / 7
• Sensor strength: 22 Magnetometric
• Signature radius: 305

Oh, if Gallente pilots could have had a wet dream, this would be it.  In what must be a virtual slap in the face to the frogs, CCP has decided to remove the repair bonus from the Navy Issue model and replace it with a tracking mod.  Shields, Armor, and Hull have been massively upgraded in comparison to the post-Retribution Brutix.  Powergrid and CPU also have been pushed up for the Navy Issue, and this has been supplemented with an extra low and a bit less mass.  This ship is likely going to show up on the battlefield in two flavors:  A Shield, heavy DPS version with 3x Magstabs and 3x TEs, but a little light on tank or a Heavily tanked nut that could also field long range Railguns.  This is absolutely the ship you wanna use if you have Armor Honeycombing trained up.

HURRICANE FLEET ISSUE

Over its regular version, this ship has 8 high slots, two utility slots, slightly more mobility and fittings, while the role itself doesn’t change. Kind of reminds us of something, but what could that be? Memory must be playing tricks on us.
• Minmatar Battlecruiser skill bonuses: +5% to medium projectile damage and 5% bonus to medium projectile rate of fire per level
• Slot layout: 8 H, 4 M, 6 L, 6 turrets, 3 launchers
• Fittings: 1235 PWG, 420 CPU
• Defense (shields / armor / hull): 6375 / 6750 / 5250
• Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 2250 / 592 s / 3.8
• Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 165 / 0.704 / 12500000 / 12.2 s
• Drones (bandwidth / bay): 30 / 30
• Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 50km / 220 / 6
• Sensor strength: 20 Ladar
• Signature radius: 250

Oh.. haha.. a trick of the memory.  Yes, a wonderfully sad trick about how we Minmatar lost our best and favorite Tech 1 ship, only to get it sold back to us for more isk.  Gotta love those “diminishing returns”, right guys?  First, the bad news.  The Navy Issue Hurricane is ALMOST like our old love, but while it did get increased powergrid and a little more CPU, the powergrid still is short from the original Hurricane model.  It also managed to get a tad bit fatter while off sipping margaritas in CCP’s backyard scarp pile.  On the plus side, the Hurricane snagged a 50% bonus to shield, armor, and hull HP as well as a significant increase in the sensor stats.

Cost Plus

No idea what these ships will cost but I figure that they will at least take a month before we see the serious price range show up as usual.  I figure serious price will be in the 170 to 200mil isk range because the LP costs run roughly about half of Navy issue Battleships.  I also think they will probably get a secondary boost as people stop buying Navy issue cruisers to see if they can jump on the Battlecruiser bandwagon.  Having the deficit of Navy Cruisers, their prices will go up and push the price of Navy BCs up that much more.  These battlecruisers have significantly upgraded stats, and combat focused bonuses, which will make them utterly dangerous to just about any cruiser to battleship engagement.  The interesting note is that many of the old Pre-retribution fits will work quite well in these ships.

Meta Creep Worries?

Kirith Kodachi has written an interesting article on what might be some interesting issues related to the release of Navy Issue BCs.

General PVP Prowess of new Navy Issue BCs

Will we see many of these Navy Issue BCs in effective combat practice.  Yes, but likely on in more specialized and better trained smaller fleets.  The reason behind it is that all it does is the same role as attack battlecruisers do, only a little better.. at a 4x to 5x price.  Not good numbers there for the larger fleets to try and field, particularly since the recently released Tier 3 Battlecruisers like the Tornado, Naga, etc are still able to fulfill that role regardless with support (as the larger fleets are likely to have).  In essence, what you have is what amounts to a pirate boost.  A ship that is just as fast (faster in some cases) as current BCs, with a much, much better tank, similar fitting requirements and more combat orientated bonuses.  If pirates were thinking that CCP busily crapping on them, this had better make them think twice.

You may see these ships also begin a role in the fleets of Faction Warfare.  Likely the income generated from the sales of these ships will allow those in FW to fly these better class of ships into battle more often, mowing down enemy standard BCs with relative ease.

The Minmatar Cyclone – Revised for Retribution

The Minmatar Cyclone has long been an unpopular PVP ship.  The primary reason for this was that it had retained the very old concept of “versatility”.  This was forced onto Minmatar pilots to fly a ship that could only mount 5 Projectile weapons, 3 Missile weapons, had only one damage bonus, and the tanking bonus to shield was cap heavy and obsolete.  Some solo or small gang configurations were possible, but relied heavily on overpowered shield boosters and cap boosters.  The DPS the Cyclone could field was rather quite poor, and was instantly regulated to non-existence when the Hurricane arrived on the scene.

Fast forward to Retribution.

Retribution changed the entire game for many battlecruisers, including those in the Minmatar lineup.  In the past, Minmatars were primarily Projectile users, with some need for missiles and drones to round out their damage capability.  This unfortunately meant that for a ship to be on part with those in other races who had to primary only one weapon system, Minmatar pilots using the Cyclone would have to do at least two, and ideally three.  Just to be competitive.

CCP Fozzie and CCP Ytterbium changed all that.  As tiercide rolled on, and frigates, then cruisers changed to something more likely, more reasonable, and more useful in actual PVP fights, the Cyclone finally got its just deserts…

As a missile boat.

Of course, if you are a Minmatar pilot who favored missiles over projectiles, you absolutely are going to have a bad time.  However, here are some PVP configurations that might give you a bit of an edge.

First off, we’re going to do a couple configurations without the ASB, mainly because passive tanks still handle larger engagements better.  That and the best configuration for the Cyclone is still passively tanked.

Heavy Assault Missile Configurations

[Cyclone, HAMs Passive w Guns]
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Signal Amplifier II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Warp Scrambler II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I

Hammerhead II x5

This particular configuration is a short range, all DPS variant.  Oddly enough there is enough PG and CPU available that should you wish to improve your combat utility, you can switch out the 425mm ACs for Medium neutralizers, if you switch out the ACs for Neutralizers, you will lose about 65 DPS.  In its current form, you will produce about 619 DPS, with a passive tank holding at about 61k EHP.  The problem is that your effective combat radius is just at 20km and as such, I chose to use a warp scrambler instead of a disruptor for this configuration for the simple fact that you need to keep within a certain range to be effective.

Now as far as active configurations go, with the changes made to the ASB, you’re going to find that you might need a bit more to help you out.  However, that depends on your situation.  A solo operator in a Cyclone might throw this out:

[Cyclone, HAMs Active wGuns X2ASB]
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Co-Processor II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 400
Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 150
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I

Prototype ‘Arbalest’ Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Prototype ‘Arbalest’ Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Prototype ‘Arbalest’ Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Prototype ‘Arbalest’ Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Prototype ‘Arbalest’ Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, EMP S
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, EMP S

Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I

Hammerhead II x5

The above configuration produces about 506 DPS, just a hundred shy of best possible, while still retaining about 36k EHP shield and 1122 max shield boost.  The downside to this configuration is obviously the cargo space as well as some significant EM weakness.

This configuration dials back to just one X-Large ASB:

[Cyclone, HAMs Active]
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Reactor Control Unit II
Co-Processor II

10MN Microwarpdrive II
Faint Warp Disruptor I
X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 400
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I

Hammerhead II x5

This was clearly the intended design spec because of how close the PG and CPU match up.  This particular active tank configuration produces 575 DPS, while holding onto 46k EHP and a shield boost value of 936.  This configuration can also be changed to use Meta 4 Destabilizers or a mix of one medium vamp with one medium destabilizer.  Either way, the Cyclone now has a nice pair of utility highs.

Heavy Missile Configurations

I really debated if I should put the severely reduced Heavy Missile variants because the damage is considerably less, and at this point in the game, I honestly have my doubts now as to their use outside of blog tactical combat.  If you working in a small gang or solo, you are going to be operating with the 24km killzone anyway, with the possibility of doing even upwards of 50% more damage than a Heavy Missile Launcher variant.

However, here’s a couple configs I came up with:

[Cyclone, HMLs Active]
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Reactor Control Unit II
Co-Processor II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Warp Disruptor II
X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 400
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

‘Arbalest’ Heavy Missile Launcher, Mjolnir Heavy Missile
‘Arbalest’ Heavy Missile Launcher, Mjolnir Heavy Missile
‘Arbalest’ Heavy Missile Launcher, Mjolnir Heavy Missile
‘Arbalest’ Heavy Missile Launcher, Mjolnir Heavy Missile
‘Arbalest’ Heavy Missile Launcher, Mjolnir Heavy Missile
650mm Artillery Cannon II, EMP M
650mm Artillery Cannon II, EMP M

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I

Hammerhead II x5

This configuration has an effective combat range of 60km or below and a low DPS of 400.  The tank is still rather decent with 46k EHP coupled with a 936 HP boost.

[Cyclone, HMLs Passive]
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Signal Amplifier II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Warp Disruptor II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Heavy Missile
650mm Artillery Cannon II, EMP M
650mm Artillery Cannon II, EMP M

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I

Hammerhead II x5

Going for passive combat, this particular integration allows for the same 60km combat radius, but gaining about 61k EHP for its defense.

Speed Tanked

Ah, well now that the Cyclone no longer has to concern itself with tracking issues, you now have an option to speed tank it.

[Cyclone, HAMs Passive Speed]
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Warp Disruptor II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M

Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I
Medium Rocket Fuel Cache Partition I

Hammerhead II x5

This little beauty sports an 8.4 turn radius, max sustainable speed of 1552m/s (for up to 4.5 minutes) while delivering 570 dps on the target.

Conclusion

Overall the new Cyclone definitely mixes up the options for Minmatar pilots, and not badly either.  Many of the short range configurations match the Hurricane for both DPS and Tank.  This is important because the Cyclones damage will remain constant compared to the Hurricane’s ACs, and because of that, the Cyclone can be configured to do more effective damage to short range targets than its brother.

Will we see very many Cyclone on the battlefield?  Not likely for a little bit.  Despite the fact that the Cyclone now is on par with the Hurricane, the Hurricane still retains a good reputation whereas the Cyclone will need some time to throw off its old one.  However, if you are wanting to give your enemies a bit of a shock.. beating them in a Cyclone certainly isn’t a bad way to go.