I've been on a scout and been one-shot by a missile before. 100% health, 100% shields, a missile hit me and I was dead, true 1-shot. Proton torpedo's do 872 damage (with 5% upgrade), with 100% shield piercing and 100% armor piercing. Normally this will just take a scout (base hp of 950) to 78hp, but the Proton Torpedo also has a passive 10% crit chance. While it is very unlikely that someone will lock on to a scout and be able to hit a scout with this missile, AND have it crit, a missile 1 shot is in fact possible and occasionally happens.

Yes, but the big difference between Protorps and gunships is you have PLENTY of warning before getting hit. The lock on time is quite lengthy, and the missile it self is pretty slow.

So even if you ARE in the unlucky 10%, you are least are given a LOUD warning, and the time to break the lock or even evade the missile. This is not the case with gunships.

Likewise, if Gunships had such a lot chance to one-shot, but gave you a very clear warning that Death Was Incoming, it wouldn't nearly be as much of an issue.

Likewise, if Gunships had such a lot chance to one-shot, but gave you a very clear warning that Death Was Incoming, it wouldn't nearly be as much of an issue.

Interesting idea...just a "ping" noting that you were in the scope kinda thing?

Interesting idea...just a "ping" noting that you were in the scope kinda thing?

Maybe, but then good gunships would just learn not to put crosshairs on targets until its time to shoot. Might help, though.

But just rebalancing to ensure scouts can't be one-shotted would work just as well, IMO.

But just rebalancing to ensure scouts can't be one-shotted would work just as well, IMO.

If they can't one-shot a scouter they will say they can't deal enought damage to Strikers before they get r4ped.

I also want to quote this as providing excellent analysis (which I won't quote all of right now), and applauding the conclusions. I would support boosting scout HP because direct nerfs are almost always bad (hence no nerf to bypass or GS base damage).

The problem with boosting scout HP to deal with the bypass issue is hat you would need to add 100 hp, which is more than a 10% boost. That would make a scout far too survivable. (And this is coming from a scout flyer.) Also, it does nothing to address the other ship types using Bypass.

A 5% nerf to Bypass, dropping it to a 30% boost, would be a minor tweak, and yet might accomplish the same thing without having to target one ship class with a nerf or a buff. Overall the three classes are pretty close in balance. It would appear to be the companion skill that's pushing everything over the line.

Excellent analysis. If you still have the numbers up and it's easy to do, I would be interested in seeing what the effect of slowly lowering the Bypass shield penetration level. Say at 30%, 25% and 20% for example.

 

I do agree that Bypass is a bit OP, and I think it's not just gunships that are benefiting from it. Heck, I run with it on my scout to bring down gunships faster. If dropping it's boost to 30% or a bit lower would remove the no-crit-one-shot, it would be a worthy tweak.

The relevant scenario's here would be #2 and #5 from my previous post. I'll repeat a little bit for context.

Scenario #2: Slug railgun w/ damage for T5 Upgrade, Bypass activated

Scenario #5: Slug railgun w/ crit for T5 Upgrade, Bypass activated, no crit

Ship #1: Weakest possible scout: -30% capacity shield, no other components/companions giving any amount to shields or hull: 910 shield, 950 hull

Ship #2: Current common build sting: -30% capacity shield, large reactor, 10% shield companion: 1300 shield, 950 hull

Ship #3: Same as #2, but with reinforced armor (hull hp) instead of evasion: 1300 shield, 1140 hull.

With bypass at 35% (so the same as in my previous post):

Scenario #2 does 616 shield, 1144 hull damage. All 3 ships die without depleting shields.

Scenario #5 does 560 shield, 1040 hull damage. Ships 1 and 2 die without depleting shields, ship 3 survives with 100 hull hp.

With bypass at 34%:

Scenario #2 does 634 shield, 1127 hull damage. Ships 1 and 2 die without depleting shields, ship 3 survives with 13 hull hp.

Scenario #5 does 576 shield, 1024 hull damage. Ships 1 and 2 die without depleting shields, ship 3 survives with 116 hull hp.

So to let a scout with reinforced armor (available to both types of scouts) survive a simple bypass shot (without a crit), bypass only has to be dropped to 34%.

To make a scout without reinforced armor survive noncrit bypass shots, the % must be dropped as follows:

For Scenario #2, bypass at 23%: 828 shield, 933 hull damage.

For Scenario #5, bypass at 29%: 656 shield, 944 hull damage.

Dropping bypass to 23% would be major, so I don't think that route would ever happen to allow base scouts to survive bypass 1-shots. However, I am perfectly fine if you have to build a specific way to counter a specific build, so long as said build exists without undue burden. In this case, you are trading evasion armor for hull hp armor, clearly not a debilitating choice. I am sure plenty of people already choose hull hp.

TLDR: Dropping bypass to 34% (rather than the current 35%) would allow any scout using reinforced armor to survive any single non-crit hit from a gunship. I agree with Brewski that such a tweak would be a good idea, as it wouldn't shift balance in any meaningful way (aside from these one-shots), as it would present only a negligible difference to all ships alike.