https://steamcommunity.com/games/835860/announcements/detail/1710701432528743158
Some interesting changes this patch, TLDR at bottom.
" Drain Drone (Tactical Cruiser): The energy drained by the drone has increased from 4.2/second to 6.5/second at tier 4, and from 9.8/second to 14/second at tier 5."
- Module has seen very little use. This buff helps quite alot providing a ~55% increase in drain ammount at T4, and a ~43% increase at T5. While substantial, the module remains underwhelming, mostly due to how easily the drone can be destroyed as well as the targeting issues that affect all drones.
Drain Missile (Artillery Cruiser): Reduced energy reduction per missile by 15 at tier 2, and by 10 at tiers 3 and 4. The resulting total energy drained should be 35 at tier 2, 60 at tier 3, 80 at tier 4, and remains 125 at tier 5.
- Probabally not a change artys needed, but it seems they're nerfing drains across the board. No change at T5 seems about right, arty's give up some pretty important modules to take drain missile as it is.
Drain Pulse (Destroyer): Reduced energy reduction from 100 to 65 at tier 4 and from 125 to 85 at tier 5.
- Great change in my view. There has been a very popular trend lately of Vidys just using drain pulse on Drednoughts with little time for them to react, and destroying them too quickly by dumping their burst. This is really going to curtail that suicide move that can be so frustrating for the other side, and provde a window for the Dreadnought to retaliate
Drain Torpedo (Corvette): Reduced energy drained from 65 to 45 at tier 2, from 80 to 55 at tier 3, from 100 to 70 at tier 4, and from 125 to 85 at tier 5.
- Same deal as with the destroyers. 100% energy drain on demand is just too powerful when these ships have access to such high burst damage that is provides no counterplay. Good change.
Drain Torpedo (Destroyer): Slightly increased the cooldown and a significantly increased the damage of this module across all ability tiers. The Drain component should also be equal to the Corvette version of the ability, with energy drained reduced from 65 to 45 at tier 2, from 80 to 55 at tier 3, from 100 to 70 at tier 4, and from 125 to 85 at tier 5.
- Good to bring the damage in line. Before there was no point to taking this as pulse just did its job better in almost every way. Still probably won't take due to other choices being more important, but provides a more compelling reason to take.
Energy Generator (Destroyer and Tactical Cruiser): Normalized the total amount of energy granted by this module. The module now provides about 14 energy per second at all tiers, and the duration and cooldown of the two versions have been standardized.
- Energy module seemed fine to me. Not sure exactly what standardizing the cooldown and duration means exactly as no numbers are provided, but hopefully its just a QoL change that makes the modules between the differient tiers more consistint to use.
Nuclear Missile (Dreadnought): The effect radius and damage of this module have been increased.
- Again, no numbers given (why?), but I am very happy to see this change. As it is now, at T4 & T5, Nuke is a complete joke. The warning comes super early so higher tier players have no issue raising shield in time to parry it. This would be ok if the Nuke literally one shot everything except for Dreadnoughts, but it doesn't even do that. Hopefully the increased damage and radius will make this module worth taking again.
Offensive Lockdown (Dreadnought): This module's functionality has been standardized across all tiers. The module now increases rate of fire by 30%, reduced reload time by 50%, and increases damage per shot by 20% for 10 seconds at every tier, with cooldowns that vary by tier.
- Module is still garbage across all Dreds except for maybe oberon dred thats built like a destroyer. With what you have to give up to take this module (Warp or Armor Amp), I am not sure there is anything they could do to this module to make me use it. Personally, I would like to see this module moved to a differient module slot.
Storm Missiles (Destroyer): Reduced the missile count from 16 to 12 at tier 4 and from 32 to 24 at tier 5.
- Unclear on this one. Is this a nerf or a buff? I suspect nerf. If overall damage is the same its a buff because it means fewer missiles do more damage each. But I suspect the damage is also being reduced proportional to the number of missiles removed (-25% T4 & T5). If nerf, this is also a great change imho. Doubles down on destroyers zipping around one shotting everyone including dreds in a few seconds. Hopefully this combined with the drain pulse nerf will lead to some new playstyle stratigies emerging from desto players.
Triad Pods (Dreadnought): The damage output and the duration of the pods spawned by this module have been increased substantially.
- I like the word "substantially" in this. Again no numbers given, please just give us the numbers in the patch notes, but regardless this module is absolute garbage in its current state and there is, in my opinion, literally no reason to ever take this module over literally anything else in the tree except for maybe T4 bombers. Hopefully the buff is enough to make this a compelling pick for dred players.
Stasis Pulse (Artillery Cruiser and Dreadnought): Increased pulse radius from 1200 to 1600, decreased Stasis duration from 10s to 6s at tier 4, and from 12s to 8s at tier 5.
- Sort of backpeddling from a previous patch where the range was reduced. I like this change. Makes it easier to hit, but also provides a bigger window for the vette to escape with the reduced duration. I use stasis pulse all the time on my Jutland, and while the duration nerf will really suck, prob won't be able to so easily kill vettes that get to close anymore, I appreciate that the range was increased so I can more easily pulse other ships a bit farther away after I warp in.
Rapid Fire: The module will no longer hold the user in place at tiers 4 and 5, and will remove the user's energy at every tier. In addition, the effects have been standardized across all of its tiers.
- Not a fan of this one. Honestly the module should have no drawbacks. I don't really play Artys, but it seems they have it hard enough as it is. No comment on this change really.
TL;DR: Overall positive changes. Destroyer drain+storm spam heavily nerfed. Nuke may see glory again. Some sidegrade changes for other classes.