You May Be Correct, But Not Necessarily Right

So as part of a week of rants, Ripard Teg bemoaned the rise of the Retribution Scythe as a "replacement" for the Tech II Scimitar:

Problem is, the Scythe is not an attractive alternative. It's a replacement. It turns all that time training the actual Logistics skill into wasted time and is going to put 75 million SP characters into T1 cruisers.

This statement stems from the initial numbers of the new Tech I Scythe support cruiser bonuses:

Scythe:
Cruiser skill bonuses:
-> 15% bonus to Shield Transporter boost amount
-> 5% reduction in Shield Transporter cap useRole Bonus:
-> 1000% bonus to the range of Shield Transporters
-> 100% bonus to Logistic Drone (both armor and shield) rep amount

Meanwhile, the Tech II Scimitar Logistic Cruiser has the following bonuses:

Minmatar Cruiser Skill Bonus:
-> 150% bonus to Tracking Link and Shield Transport range
-> 20% bonus to Shield Maintenance Bot transport amount per levelLogistics Skill Bonus:
-> 10% bonus to Tracking Link efficiency
-> 15% reduction in Shield Transport capacitor use per levelRole Bonus:
-> -50% CPU need for Shield Transporters

So for the relevant skills all at level V, we see that the Scythe has 75% bonus to shield transporter amount compared to none for the Scimitar and a 1000% bonus to range compared to 750% bonus for the Tech II ship. In favour to the Scimitar, it has a 75% reductions in cap use compared to only 25% for the Scythe.

So Ripard is correct: the Scythe will out range and out repair the Scimitar by a huge margin. I'm not as inclined to dismiss the tanking and maneuverability of the Scimitar over the Scythe, but I recognize that being able to repair from 90km away larger amount will make the Scythe a strong choice for logistic support in battle.

But I disagree that Logistics skill training is a wasted effort in the long term.

CCP's tiericide started with frigates and has accelerate into destroyers and cruisers for the Retribution patch. Its not inconceivable that the battlecruisers and battleships will be rebalanced in Retribution 1.1, 1.2, and/or 1.3. If their acceleration on balancing continues, we may even see the Tech II frigates addressed before the summer patch. Regardless, I'm willing to bet that the Scimitar and other Logistics ships will come under the microscope in the summer expansion or soon thereafter in a 1.x release. And when these ships are looked at, there is a strong possibility that they will receive similar bonus changes to make them a valid alternative over the Scythe (and I'm not sure they won't be already due to tech II qualities like speed and tank).

In other words, the Scythe and brethren *may* dominate the logistics landscape for 6 months, 8 tops. Then we'll be back to saying its a valid alternative to the more expensive but better performing tech II version.