Abyss Prizes - Goresaber & Dragonfire

Some info is coming out about the new prizes in the Raid.  

We also have a (very light) tips post here: https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/551718
The only actual tips are a few changes to the Assault Platform and the Nexus targets.  I am quite in favor of the rebubble / unbubble behavior after 24 hours for Assault Platforms. 

Looking at the upcoming prize blueprints, it seems the rotating wheel of weapons love has stopped on Rockets this month.  We have a new rocket-enhanced hull with (possibly) a Limited version, as well as a new Inferno-style rocket weapon and a brand new long-range pinch rocket.

UPDATE: The raid prize info and video is out, no Limited Hull, no Pinch rocket, and the Goresaber DOES have a 100% repair modifier, not 150%.

The Gorburger



I mean Goresaber:

The Goresaber is a rocket enhanced hull with some changes from the Hellstrike.  Most notable are the improved rocket range and the increased resistances, but the reduced Evade looks like it might be a big drawback.  For the chart below, I am including a little bit of unofficial data as well as unofficial info about a limited version.  To chart it...



The Limited version, as well as the repair modifiers and the build times are not on the prints provided to Battle Vortex, so they may be changed, or may not happen at all.  I didn't include Borba's version in the red/green highlighting for that reason.  

The Pinchstrike that shows up in the mined data has a range of 81, reload of 6, and almost no damage.  But the name implies it has a pinch effect.  It is unclear whether the Borba bonus will apply to the Pinchstrike stats, or if this hull/weapon will even show up for us.

NO BORBA'S & NO PINCHSTRIKE.  However, the Goresaber Repair Modifier is 100%.

The original mined data is at the Dark Alliance forums: http://www.thedarkalliance.org/forum/threads/454-Abyss-The-Raid/page2

As an overall evaluation, the Goresaber is a little bit better than the Hellstrike in most areas except evade, and in some situations, the loss of evade is a big drawback.  The question is whether we are going to see rocket attacks come back in vogue with this hull - we will have to look at the new weapon first.

Dragonfire Rockets:

When these rockets get mounted on a Goresaber, they start to get range equivalent to a mortar, so I'm going to compare these to both rockets and mortars.



Well those have some crazy high DPS and DPS per weight numbers (at zero rank). The reload of these rockets on the Goresaber will max out at around 33% rank bonus (reload time can't get below 0.2), but the slower firing Rocket and Mortar weapon DPS will keep increasing as the ships approach Legendary rank, so that will close the DPS gap somewhat.

Some people like this chart style... one guy didn't. He will just have to deal.  Sorry I haven't updated for the new hull yet, but I think you'll get the idea.



This chart shows damage per weight versus range at 45% rank.  The bubble size represents build time per weight.  This chart not only shows how effective these rockets are expected to be, but also highlights the attractive build time of these weapons versus the Infernos.  The build time info comes from the mined data, so we will see if it changes before release.

Overall: 
So will we start seeing Dragonfire-armed Goresabers running around ruling the high seas?  Maybe... the range increase combined with the very high Wall/Building DPS should allow these ships to crack bases more effectively than current Hellstrikes.  Evade might be a bit of an Achilles heel for these ships, but many base defenses have been moving away from aimed weapons recently (Locust UAVs, Apocalypse Mortars, Arbalest), so the extra resistances might more than make up for that.  In FvF, rockets have been difficult to use for two reasons - range and outrunning.  The Dragonfire range still won't match Arbalests on Crusaders, but maybe in combination with a D33-DR armed 40% range bonus ballistic ship... these might start to be effective.

For those who can't reach the Goresaber in the raid, the Dragonfire rockets may be worth going after anyway... with their high damage and more reasonable build time, they could be effective on Hellstrikes or Threshers.  Remember that the "elite" weapons we have seen recently can be effective on a wide range of hulls, but "elite" hulls without good weapons often seem like a waste of build time.  When we see the prize list, I'll publish some recommendations.  Hopefully we'll also get some more information on being able to purchase tokens with raid points.