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Brother Grimoire's avatar
Brother Grimoire

Lancers are still very new, so their usages on the battlefield are still being tried and tested. On paper, I approve of their existence because it adds another level to an already dynamic battlefield.

From my experiences with lancers, they are fantastic! Too often you see pilots with their mechanics down to a science safely delivering billions of isk to a destination because they have safe bookmarks and such. The existence of lancers throws this all on its head by providing a method of catching them. The "baby doomsday" as I call it is the perfect nemesis for those people with cynos at an insta-dock. One quick shot disallows docking, leaving those juciy haulers as sitting ducks!

Alex Sinclair's avatar
Alex SinclairMod
Brother Grimoire

Very useful, thanks!

Swagger Olacar's avatar
Swagger Olacar

I think that there is not enough poeple making use of them to tell for sure where they sit in the current capital ship meta. However I have seen some interesting tactics taking advantage of the only ineteresting feature of this hull, the disruptive lance, for isntance:

  1. Disrupting the logistics in a sub-capital fleet by forcing multiple people to broadcast for reps for no reason while reducing the effectiveness of the reps that the poor logistics pilots managed to land.

  2. Preventing capital ships from docking in stations or upwell structures as they land allowing a bit enough windown for friendlies to deploy a bomb dread on them or preventing freighters to take a gate to high-sec from low sec as they land.

Both tactics make great use on the Lance but in all honestly represents too much of a niche to be considered overpowered plus the added tiwst of having to siege-up (meaning that the Lancer is stuck there for 5 minutes) to even make use of the lance. I think that the way that Lancers are being used and the quantities that they are being used don't deserve for a balance change given that they do allow for new advantages and strategies at the expence of having to deal with a not very good DPS dealer or damage tanker for a dreadnought, with a huge price tag that can only be deployed in a very limited amount of situations. As people acquire more of them and maybe the price tag loweres we'll see if it's worth re-evaluating the value of the hull or the bonuses it counts with.

Schadsquatch's avatar
Schadsquatch

Ok, so as a wormholer, I don't have a TON to add to this aside from my own random experience. The one night I joined the Tama Border Patrol in their weekly patrol and they showcased the power of Lancers on capsuleers moving through Tama, much to the laughter of my stream viewers. The ability to be able to 'shut down' jumping seems so ridiculously strong for dedicated gate-camping groups who are able to protect their Lancers. With a relatively short timer, we were able to grab t2 haulers and expensive ships with ease.

I like that not just 'any' group can have access to such powerful tech as its only able to be placed onto a very specific, very expensive ships. It adds another toy for groups to play around with, which I think is great! More toys = more fun for EVE imo.

I personally like them as it increases the difficulty for hauling, which I have seen as a fairly monotonous (albeit very important) career path. Obviously haulers will be upset by a 'nerf' to their playstyle, but the great thing about EVE is that you either adapt or die. I will gnash my teeth when I get caught by one of these death beams hauling my blue loot through "Insert Low-Sec System Here" for sure, but the likelihood of me ever being lasered down by a Lancer seems so small at the moment that it'll be a novel experience.

Kane Carnifex's avatar
Kane Carnifex

From the JF Service perspective we adjusted to the situation. Imagine you fly a Rhea, the end of the caldari hauling ship line and… It's just a big space hull without any defense in a very dangerous universe. Which nerd was inventing this under which circumstances?!

Considering how a JF works the worst place to be is highsec. Lowsec is just for Cyno in and jump out via the gate. Which would be the part of a Lancer to prevent the JF to jump Highsec. An alternative defense tactic  is a close structure by the gate, which will minimize your warptime. Less time for the attacker to set up.

But than again we had cloaky camping on gates, bumping etc before lancers.

So from this perspective it does currently look ok-ish. But it still niche ship type.

But I read from others that they have shutdown their service completely or had some JF losses.

https://zkillboard.com/kill/111264864/

Are Titans a problem? :P

https://zkillboard.com/kill/111249571/

https://zkillboard.com/kill/111236358/

https://zkillboard.com/kill/111217523/

FUN INC's avatar
FUN INC

I don't know enough about this - but am keen to see more replies!

S
Salartarium

Lancers work well in a few areas. A big problem with dreads is that many focused on EHP and DPS and therefore they just served as the proverbial “Dreadbomb” in which they were only used to outform and outspend opponents . Lancers allow a new form of gameplay and require more player skill to be utilized effectively. World War Bee 2 also showed us that with current Citadel Sov it is impossible to effectively siege current Sov null. Throughout the campaign Imperium haulers were still moving freight in effortlessly. While many complained that Lancers would be the end of Jump Freighters. Capsuleers have adapted. New routes have formed and new third party hauling corps haven outcompeted some of the old.

What Lancers haven’t done well is revive Super Cap warfare. Dreads are even more attractive now as besides raw stats they can now replicate some out the prestige of old doomsday weapons. Super caps are still not costly effective to deploy and now they are no longer the anchor for cap gate camps or dragonslaying fleets. Super caps have no utility as flagships while n+1 with dreads is less risky and more cost effective.

orik Kado's avatar
orik Kado

"As I understand the latest update introducing the Lancer, its primary use is essentially to sabotage logistics lines (I'm sorry courier services, but it's a way to make the economy more dynamic). From what I've seen in comments and posts, they seem to be achieving their objective. Managing a courier service is now more dangerous and requires much more attention. However, I don't consider this to be a negative thing. While many players have had to close their services, it has led to the emergence of other ambitious players willing to take the risk and carve out a place in New Eden.

As for their use in larger null sec fleets, I haven't seen anything particularly interesting yet. Perhaps the most effective way to use them in large-scale battles hasn't been discovered yet. We should keep in mind that these are not easy ships to replace, so we probably need to wait longer to see their impact on large-scale wars.

In conclusion, it's a ship that I love. I know it may be annoying for those who are victims of this new type of warfare, but they must remember what, for me, is the premise in EVE Online: 'nothing stays the same for long.' So, all that's left is to adapt and make the most of it. A problem never arises without an incredible opportunity to do new and better things."

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