Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Ancillary Armour Repairer

On the Down the Pipe podcast there was some talk that the new Ancillary Armour Repairer (aka AAR) is disappointing and I actually heard someone say that if you can use Tech II reppers than the new module is not worth it.

Say what?!

If we look at the modules with all skills level V and no ship bonuses, we see that they are pretty much the same in terms of fitting (tech II actually a little more at 6MW and 6 tf compared to 5 and 5 for the AAR) and we get this result:

Small Armour Repairer II - HP Repaired = 80 (88 overheated) HP
Small Ancillary Armour Repairer I - No Charges = 45 (49.5) HP


Small Ancillary Armour Repairer I - Nanite Repair Paste = 135 (149) HP

In other words, for 36 seconds the tanking ability of the AAR is over 50% better than the Tech II version for the same cost in capacitor and less fitting. This pattern is the same for medium except the amount of time it boosts better is 72 seconds, and large is ~90 seconds.

Much truck was also made about the module being limited to one per ship and, yes, this doth suck. BUt that does not mean that dual rep and triple rep ships cannot have one of the reppers being an ancillary version to increase the short term tank even more.

Ultimately I see this module as being perfect for brawling ships looking to cause as much damage as possible in the shortest amount of time at the start of a fight and I plan to modify my Dual Rep Incursus to include one like so:
Incursus





5 comments:

  1. I spent a good week trying this thing out in real combat situations and came to the same conclusion. It is great for brawling, short burst attacks and not to good for more longer term engagements. When you can however, mixing an aar and a reg rep for dual rep yummy is awesome.

    It has its uses,but it isn't a win button either.

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  2. Then how about the remove of speed penalty on armor rep ship?
    Active tanking Sac or Pilgrim can catch up anything now?

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  3. I feel like this would really work best on a Thorax or Vexor so you have room for the web too. Get in, overheat everything and spend 60 seconds murdering something, and if it doesn't look like you have the upper hand near the end, you still (especially the Thorax) probably have the speed to pull range and get out.

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  4. Anonymous4:48 pm

    I've used the AAR on a couple ships. One of my favorites is as part of a dual-rep vexor. Just a couple days ago I fit up a dual-rep tormentor. I got quite a few kills with each.

    I've found being able to bait tank with them is quite effective, especially when attacking targets that are faster than me. My standard tactic is to use the normal T2 rep at first, keep that cycling, and activate my AAR when I get below 40-50% armor. I always overheat it before cycling to get the most out of it, and generally run it one or two cycles at a time.

    I've never had a fight last long enough that I run out of paste. Most frigate fights last about 50-80 seconds. You only get ~30 seconds running the AAR overheated. But a portion of that 50-80 second fight is spent letting your shields deplete, and using it in burst mode to augment a T2 rep, you'll easily get twice the run time out of it in most circumstances.

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  5. As someone trying to learn PvP in a isk-effective way, I have the following conclusion about the AARs: Very nice, but good lord do they add to the cost of your hull. I was playing with a Myrmidon triple-rep fit, and while the AAR was nice, the cost at build time was 8m vs about 1.4m for the AAR v MAR. Then add the nanite paste. The boost in rep amounts was nice, but I'm not completely comfortable sawpping that out in a ship I'm planning on losing. Just a thought from a new-to-pvp perspective. That might also fit into your discussion about new v old players and new skills. Assume older players have more established income streams.

    Yeah, I mixed two separate but related topics there.

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