It’s the lot of any massively multiplayer online game to be harder to balance than a ball full of overexcited hamsters, so when we asked our community of expert EVE players what was underpowered in EVE Online, we got plenty of insights. What sees no play in the game right now? What fun weapons, ships, or modules would you love to use, but can’t, because they suck? What’s in desperate need of a buff?

You may call it an unimaginative but logical follow-up to our recent discussion of what’s overpowered in EVE Online, but you can’t argue it stirred plenty of lively and useful discussion. Read on for the real opinions of real capsuleers, and be sure to let us know which ones you agree or disagree with in the comments:

Underpowered ships

Destroyers

Both yan57436 and ShoMenao are of the opinion that Destroyers are in need of some help, and think that a speed boost should be on the cards. Here's what yan57436 has to say:

"Today I see [Destroyers] being slower, less resistant and even flashy, it's almost like travelling with a flashy glass ball. I think that a brief speed buff could have a big impact on their effectiveness."

Svipul

Sticking on the Destroyer front, Sturmer wants a buff to the Svipul's speed and tracking to bring it back to its glory days:

"This ship desperately needs some love. Back in 2016, it was the king of PvP, but after several nerfs, it’s been left behind."

Electronic Attack Frigates

JHenckes believes that the rewards for using EAFs aren't worth it, and they need a buff to make them more viable:

"EAFs are in that category of ships that generally don't get flown simply because they scale poorly in large fleet engagements and just get overshadowed by Recon Ships or other support roles. A survivability buff or even an increase to the electronic warfare range would let them see more viability in small-gang scenarios or add a few more strategic options in larger fleets. As it stands, their paper-thin tank makes them a poor risk for minimal reward."

Assault Frigates

Kaiser Friedlich believes that Assault Frigates are being outgunned by Tactical Destroyers and suggests a buff to bring them more in line:

"Boost the base damage of all Assault Frigates by 5-10% and improve their speed slightly. This would give them a clearer role as nimble damage dealers and improve their standing in the small-gang and solo PvP meta."

The Zealot

The Zealot's former popularity has dipped over time, and iBeast wants to see a buff to make it more viable for solo players:

"The easiest solution is to add a middle slot to the ship, which will allow you to actively use it as part of a small fleet or solo. I think there are many players who would like to use such a ship in a solo format."

Underpowered weapons, modules and structures

Short-range medium guns

ShoMenao believes that many short-range guns simply cannot compete with their long-range equivalents right now, and need to be made more viable:

"Blasters and autocannons, and even medium pulse are heavily outperformed in nearly all aspects by their respective long-range systems… We could use an improvement to either the raw damage output or tracking of these short-range weapon systems so that they provide a viable alternative to their long-range counterparts."

Auto ore compression

Technically an Orca buff, but it's about a module so we've placed it here; Eaglefirefly has come up with an idea for the 'autocompression module' to let the Orca automatically compress ore:

"This buff would enhance quality of life for players, especially those engaged in large-scale mining operations. In large mining fleets, the use of multiboxing and window switching is a difficult and lengthy process."

Hybrid Turrets

JHenckes wants to see some changes made to hybrid turrets, and has their sights set on Blasters in particular:

"Blasters deal very serious damage inside of 600 meters, but their extreme range limitations and bad tracking make them far less practical than either autocannons or pulse lasers, which can project better damage over range. A slight range or tracking buff to blasters would make them more competitive without breaking the balance of close-range combat."

Mobile Siphon Units

While mobile siphon units used to be used to steal ore from player-owned structures, they don't really have a use right now, and Kane Carnifex wants to remedy that:

"Maybe you should be able to sneak from Metanox or Skyhooks? Why not have one in the ESS? As they are currently without a function, a buff that gives them a use would be awesome." 

Jamming

Amoni P feels that ECMs could use some tweaking to improve their viability in combat:

"I'd like to see ECM become a script so that you have an empty ECM module that can be applied on any ship the way an multispectrum ECM module would, but if you put in the Radar/Yellow script now you've got the full bonus applied to Radar ECM. No other EWAR of any kind works like ECM and I think it makes ECM less viable in a fight."

Underpowered…everything else?

High-Security Planetary Interaction

For Sturmer, planetary interaction is basically useless in high-security space, and comes with a huge skill point investment to boot. They think a buff is needed to make it more accessible for new players:

"This could include lowering the skill ranks and the price of skill books. A dedicated tutorial for planetary interaction would also be helpful. While adjusting yields is an option, this is a danger area that should be approached cautiously."

Faction Warfare rewards

Kaiser Friedlich and JHenckes think that faction warfare is simply too much risk for not very much reward, and have suggested some fixes. Here's JHenckes' plan: 

"Increasing the payouts or introducing new, exclusive rewards - like ships or modules - would give more life to that part of the game and more incentive for players to engage in smaller-scale, more approachable PvP content."

Character Mapping

Most experienced players will have no issue with planning out their skill points, but Kane Carnifex thinks it's a fairly unattractive system for new players who just want to try things out, and could use some improvement:

"With all the Planning Tools you provided this would benefit beginners for their 'I want to fly this, then maybe this and tomorrow this…' Veterans already know how to skill plan in advance so they could also handle the regular clone swaps."

0.0 Space Anomalies

iBeast wants to see some better rewards for anomalies in 0.0 space, saying that in their current form, they're little more than AFK content:

"0.0 space was once associated with dangerous and complex space, now this space may be safer than high-sec, and for competition in earnings, it loses to other corners of space, which is sad."

If you're after some more in-depth knowledge from our EVE experts, these survival tips will be invaluable to new players, and maybe even to some veterans. And on the subject of new players, if you're finding some of the jargon hard to follow, your next stop ought to be the EVE Online glossary.

Some text has been edited for brevity, clarity, or spelling, punctuation, and grammar. You can find the original wording here. Image credit: CCP Games and Razorien on Flickr.