In the effort to see how good or bad Ancillary Shield Boosters are I spent some time in game, testing the ASB using a ship that would likely benefit the most from the upgrade. The Minmatar Cyclone. Since these tests were set up at the very introduction of ASBs, there was some question as to how they actually operated. I ran some of these tests against the premier battlecruiser in Eve Online, the Hurricane.
Using the Hurricane also allowed me to remove some factors that might have muddied the results. The fact that they both used Autocannons removed the problem of range and tracking speed. The type of combat, a simple orbit around each other, also removed things like pilot skill, the element of surprise, and tactical superiority. To me, running several tests showed that the ASB was a powerful module, but not an overly powerful one (well, all except for the Maelstrom). Tests can be found here: http://2ndanomalyfromtheleft.wordpress.com/tag/ancillary-shield-booster/. However, that view is under a considerable amount of debate, with a well known forum poster, Liang Nuren, taking the view that the ASBs are indeed very overpowered.
First off, let me re-iterate that I OFTEN agree with Liang’s viewpoints. Liang was right up in the front row with information regarding the Minmatar Projectile issue years ago, and there aren’t very many of his viewpoints that I don’t agree with (in fact, I can’t think of any aside from the ASB issue). Liang often backs up what he says with facts and figures and is extremely knowledgable about Eve ships (unlike other posters). So, it was with a little trepidation that I took a point counter to his. Nevertheless, what I was seeing from my testing and the combat I ran into, indicated that, while the ASB had certain advantages, the disadvantages were strong as well.
That all being said, I don’t like to be wrong. Now, don’t take that as “I CAN’T be wrong.”, or “I WON’T be wrong.”, merely take it as, I really dislike making mistakes. I have done ship configurations for, gulp, years now as well as had commentary on various changes in the game of Eve, without very much, if any, bad feedback. So, on that note, I put it up to the rest of the blogging community, as well as those who read my blog, to critique how I tested the ASBs. Could they have been done better? The only caveat to this is that you have to explain why. Just saying, “No, it sucked.” doesn’t cut it.. in fact, I won’t even display those comments.
Have fun!
