More new stuff - EM Rails, FAT, & Holdouts

Yeah, I can't keep up with all the new stuff coming out, but the EM rails came out a week late, so Kixeye can't either.  Doesn't make me feel better about it, but maybe Kixeye will take their own hint.

SLOW DOWN.

Sorry - that's not very hint-like. Nope, not sorry.

Anyway.  I'll go through:
- Supercharged EM Rails released in this week's Forsaken Mission
- Vassago's Prototype Hunter, Hydraulic Resistors, and the Cobra Scattergun released in the Forsaken Arena Tournament.
- Reaver Holdout Fleet prizes

Supercharged EM Rails 1-3:



This is a turret special that is awarded in Tiers 2 - 4 that gives ballistic turrets (Javelins, Harpoons, and Dead-Eye Ballista) a chance for high-damage critical hits.  The special is fairly power hungry (same as Depleted Uranium Shells 3), so let's see if the DPS increase is worth the power.



It looks like the DU Shells are more effective at increasing your DPS, so I wouldn't go refitting EM Rails over those.  Against lower evade targets, the DU shells would not look as good, because they add 40% accuracy to a weapon that is already at 100%.  However, I don't think too many basers come in with less than 50% evade, do they?  It is also interesting to note that the Level 1 & Level 2 EM Rails are basically junk - they do increase your DPS, but if you are power limited, they really aren't worth putting on.  But with OP7 giving lots more power and the two special slots available in a Level 6 turret, these may find a place eventually.

A few more thoughts - the refit time on these is less than 12 hours, so that isn't too bad (similar to DU Shells).  Also, the one case where the Critical Hit would be really nice is against incoming Neptunes with Siege Deflection.  The increased damage means that the Siege Deflection capability on those hulls would start to get seriously overwhelmed.

Vassago's Prototype Hunter:

 

For those of you who blew through the Caustic Warfare campaign to win 5 of the Prototype Hunter, enjoy your kick in the balls.  Now you'd rather build one of these (if you can come in the top 3 places in your bracket).  Although the total capacity on the blueprint shown to us gives 3 as the max capacity, only 1 hull blueprint will be given to the players in the top 3.

Vassago's version of the Prototype Hunter hull increases quite a few stats, but also gives a Subsonic Cavitator field effect with range of 60 that surfaces submarines.  Like the regular Prototype Hunter, this should prove to be a very effective weapon against the Scourge.

 

The stat increases affect some of the hull's best qualities, but you will suffer an extra 31 hours of build time.

Hydraulic Resistors:


The top three players in each bracket will also win this limited special, Hydraulic Resistors. Once you realize that these are just Speed System 5 with 1% extra weight and 15% Concussive Defense, you realize it's kind of a terrible name.  I don't have much more to say on this but that you should use this on your anti-Scourge ships if you get it.  If you win just one, you'll probably be best off putting it on a flagship or tank of some sort.  With a build time of 16 hours 37 minutes, it takes a little longer than Speed 5, but not too much more.

Cobra Scattergun:


This weapon is the first of a new type - the Scattergun.  It also is the first weapon we've had that does all Corrosive damage.  Also note that it can only be installed in hybrid or underwater (I misread this on initial release, must be a Hybrid slot) slots.  The top 50 players in each FAT bracket will win at least one of these.

This weapon is going to be difficult for me to analyze and compare, because it is a splash weapon, it has a new statistic "Multi-shot", and it also does the corrosive damage over time.

I am going to assume that the Multi shot is a sort of "simultaneous salvo" so the 5 shots are fired all at once, then the weapon has the quite long 12 second reload.  I really don't know if the splash effect means that shots that land wide will have reduced DoT damage as well as reduced direct damage.  As a point of reference, I'll compare this to Cryo Depth Charges:



The straight DPS doesn't look that great, but if the Corrosive time effect of 2400 DPS x 6 seconds is accurate, then that adds an average of 1200 DPS to the weapon, which dwarfs the direct damage.  That Damage over Time is probably lower based on spread effects.  Build time is not as long as a Cryo Depth Charge, but still long.

So I don't really know if I will recommend building this weapon right away, because I can't tell how effective it will be.  When no ships have any corrosive damage resistance, that is another factor in the Cobra's favor.  

I also don't know exactly where I would use it.  With its requirement of a Hybrid weapon slot, some of the applications that come to mind are:

• Subs - unless you are using Charon Torpedoes, the Cobra will have a similar range to your other torpedoes.  (only Cudas or Reapers)
• Hunter - 4 underwater slots, but probably will be shorter range than your missiles.
• Interceptor V2-H - 4 hybrid slots, but this will be shorter range than missiles.  
• Monarch - some players may be planning Sub Cav or other types of fields... I never know what weapons to put on a Monarch, and since these new Scatterguns don't have any specials available to affect them (and a Monarch has 2 hybrid slots), they will be just as effective on a Monarch as on any of your 'main' hulls.

So yeah, this one is a stumper.  Lots of players will be winning at least one of these, so maybe we'll see some effective uses over the next few weeks.

And the Holdout Fleets:

HOLDOUT FLEETS HAVE BEEN CANCELLED INDEFINITELY.
I'LL LEAVE THE REST OF THE ARTICLE JUST IN CASE THEY COME BACK.

These made a one day appearance last week, and should come back again 9/28 - 9/30


changed:Tuesday at 10 am PDT to Wednesday at 9am PDT
(that's Tuesday 29 Sept at 1 PM US East Coast / 6 PM UK through Wed 30 Sept)

.  My anti-Reaver fleet took a fair amount of damage doing these, so I had better luck doing some using zombie Rhino/Mastodons, then using subs to finish off the last two large ships (Hades & Hulk).  Note that the Hulk can't hurt your underwater subs even if it sees you, but the Hades can, so get the Hades (missile ship on the right) first.

Beating a Holdout fleet results in a chance of a Limited blueprint drop.  You can't use Lucky Bastards to improve your chance.  Each of the prints from these Holdouts are an improved version of something we already have.  From what I'm finding and hearing, I think the chances of getting a print are about 1 in 3, with the majority of prizes being the Gale anti-mortar weapon.

Gale Defense System:


This is an improved version of the Hailstorm anti-mortar, with more range, shots, and accuracy.  Build time isn't too much longer than a Hailstorm, so use these instead of Hails if you get them.  However, I usually prefer speed to outrun mortars, and high accuracy Phalanx for UAV defense.


(Woops those are Phalanx weights - Hails weigh 480 / 240 / 120 tons)

Compound Defense System D6-A:


This is the one I would like the most - I use D5-X on many fleets (and have it at R15), so this is a nice upgrade with an extra 5% resistance for 2% armor weight, but with (only?) an extra 4.5 hours of build time.

Fallout Armor 4:


This adds an extra 5% against Explosive and Penetrating and 8% against Radioactive for 3% Armor Weight and 5 hours extra on the (already long) build time.  I never seem to find a good use for Fallout Armor - the loss of ballistic resistance is tough for me to swallow.  (SCX builds are the exception with only 3 specials.)

Agility System 4:

This adds an extra 7% Evade and 10% Stun/Slow Resistance for 3% Total Weight and 5 hours extra on the (already long) build time.  Cutting the stun time can be really useful - putting the basic Stun resistance at 60% matches the Shielded Electronics 3 special, and retrofit can improve that even more.

The Artemis and a little bit of Tourney Advice

The second iteration of the "Toybox" Forsaken Arena Tournament is on, and I wanted to give a review of the new hull prize.  I also have a little bit of advice, so read on...

The Artemis:

 

This hull is the first minelayer we have seen.  It lays up to 4 Cryo mines, which seem like the ones we have run across in the Arctic-style Draconian campaigns.  Hard information on these was tough to come by, but it looks like there has been an update to the blueprint since Wednesday when we took a look at this hull on the Battle Pirates Crib show.  The Mine damage has been changed from "2 Concussive" to "4296 Radioactive".  That's not small potatoes!  On the show we had more of a wait-and-see attitude towards this one, but with the mines doing significant damage (as well as laying a cryo field), the Artemis might have some uses.

Mines may be of most use in PvE targets, where ships that don't have sonar could be easily lured into running into mines.  Even ships with sonar might be distracted by mines, taking fire away from the player's ships. In PvP, players will be able to see and react to what you are doing.. although ships with no sonar would be vulnerable anyway.  This may also be a good addition to anti-sub fleets.  

Base defense with the Artemis would be tricky - ideally you'd like to lay mines in your channel, but since ships move towards the enemy, you'd have to start your Artemis on the inside of your base and let it move outward to lay the mines.  That seems like awfully preppable behavior.  Depending on the drifting / homing behavior, it may also be possible that simply putting this ship on the inside and letting it sit still while laying mines would work out.  I think it will take some experimentation.

When building this ship, I would recommend keeping it light.  Although it has some ballistic enhancements, it really doesn't have enough slots or weight to be useful as a slugger, so just use its high speed and keep it out of trouble.  A few countermeasures may be a possibility.  It may actually be a real nice match for escorting Valkyrie Carriers...

Overall, I don't see a reason to build a fleet of these, so even if you only win one, I think you'll be satisfied.  The question is - will it earn a place in your build queue?  Maybe... I'd rather have a fleet of Fusion Cruisers, but a one week "detour" to build a light Artemis might not be a terrible idea.

Arena Advice:

The biggest difference in the Arena format this month is that the Toybox has been focused quite a bit.  The numbers of hull (regular and flagship) and weapons has been narrowed a lot.  There is really only one hull for each weapon type, and only 1 - 3 weapons of each weapon type.  The Flagship choices have narrowed to only the Grimshine Wrath, Grimshine Berzerker, Frostburn Interceptor, and Phantom Nighthawk.  Armor choices are also narrower, but almost the full range of special and tactical module choices are available.

The biggest mistake I'm seeing in arena builds is the flagship choice.  Many players are using the Frostburn... because the Frostburn is awesome.  But what is the Frostburn accomplishing?  Is anyone getting inside the field?  Firebats sure aren't.  I think the Grimshine Berzerker is likely the best flagship choice for most (non-Firebat) Arena fleets.  The fleet defense, speed, and triple salvo you get on overload helps all your ships just when you need it.  The Grim Wrath with its offensive shockwave might help rush fleets, or help Proto-Masts with the missile reload bonus.  One of the very early articles I wrote on this blog was an article about fleet design - make sure you have a concept of how the fleet is going to work.

My other piece of advice is that you should favor offense over defense.  You want to get the maximum number of points with the least amount of repairs, so just deal heavy damage.  Sometimes you will be outclassed & get your butt kicked.  In that case, you'll want the minimum repair time to get back in there.  So leave the Reaver Bulkhead at home & load up on weapons.

A few other notable changes with the Arena:

• The straight Win totals for prizes has gone down a lot.  You can win tournament fleet repair tokens at 2 wins and 3 wins. I plan to use them when I want to get an extra fight in before going to bed.
• You'll need to be in the top 50 to earn a hull blueprint, not the top 65.  But 25 wins will get you a hull no matter what (although... I'm guessing 25 wins will get you into the top 50 in most brackets).
• The amount of Uranium it costs to open more fleet slots has gone up quite a bit. The cost is 10k to open the 2nd fleet slot, then 15k, 20k, and 30k for the 5th slot.  (the 5th slot used to be 10k.)  Having extra fleet slots gets you extra battles and also lets you try different fleet combinations.  It is also useful to help you manage your time better, allowing you to (hopefully) choose between a fleet with a short repair or a long repair, depending on when you want to fight again.

Overall:

Although the Arena format heavily favors big coiners, I think we are seeing that not too many players are coining heavily.  Non-coiners with a little dedication and skill can earn a hull prize in these FATs, no matter how long they have been playing or what hulls they have on their dock.  So get in there & give it a shot!

Forsaken Tournament Changes & Aegis Hull

(quick update - it looks like they might have updated the Aegis description for some new capabilities... I'll try to catch up.

Update 2: The additional ability for the Aegis is a friendly field with 40 range that gives Fire Extinguishing (like Frostburn) and a 40% defense boost (all damage types) to your ships.  This is really good.  I'll update the article soon... sorry for publishing with incomplete info!

Update 3: There was another update that added countermeasure accuracy to the hull.  I'm going to do a new article on the Aegis instead of updating this one - I'll include a couple builds that I compare to the alternatives.)

The Forsaken Arena Tournament is described here: https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/550199 

I'm not going to repeat all the prize lists. There are ship build tokens added to the bracket (normal / elite) prizes, and ship repair tokens added to the prizes from racking up wins.  Grease Monkeys is still a prize at 50 wins. Check out the Kixeye post for details.

If you are on track to win a ship build token (or any other token that you already have), make sure you are not maxed out on your tokens.  Each token has a maximum number of tokens that you can hold.  You will see this in your token list.  For example, in the picture below, I can hold 7 more 1 hour ship build tokens (5 / 12), but no more 12 hour ship build tokens (1 / 1).  If I were on track to win a 12 hour ship build token, I would want to spend the one I have before winning another.  I have heard of a few players "losing" tokens in this manner.

Changes to the Arena Tournament

When using Repair Insurance, there is no Uranium back from a win.

Under the previous system, a 100% win rate resulted in a 120% Uranium return.  Which means that the average player, with a 50% win rate, would have expected a 60% uranium return.  So that player would see their uranium costs go from 40% of their Repair Insurance Uranium cost to 100% of their Repair Insurance Uranium Cost... a 2.5x increase to the average player.  A worse than average player would see their Uranium costs go up less, since they win less. A better then average player would see their Uranium costs go up even more than 2.5x (a player that would win 5/6 of their matches used to break even).

And just in case you were wondering, the Uranium Prize pool is unchanged (10% of insurance cost goes in the pot).

If players opt to use Repair Insurance, they will also gain a 2x bonus to Veterancy Experience Points during matches. However, if a player opts not to purchase Repair insurance, they will gain a 2x bonus to Tournament points instead.

So a player who risks their fleet will get double tournament points.  My only observation here is that if a player plans to coin arena repairs, that can get very expensive very quickly.

The Aegis Hull:

In classical mythology, the Aegis was a powerful and fearsome shield used by Athena.  In real life, the Aegis Combat System is an electronically scanned array radar system along with defensive (like the Phalanx anti-missile gun) and offensive weapons used by the US Navy (and more recently other allied navies).

In Battle Pirates, the Aegis is a useless piece of junk.

This hull has no offensive bonuses other than the improved anti-mortar range.  It has a high max weight and lots of armor slots, but only 3 special and 4 weapon slots.  Its resistances are OK (missing ballistic), but its evade starts at zero.  

I just don't understand what this hull would be useful for.  With its armor slots and weight, it might be usable as a tank, but its low resistances compared to the Reaver hulls would limit it there (at least it doesn't have a 150% repair bonus).  As a countermeasure ship, it doesn't have enough weapon slots - I'd rather use a retrofitted Battlecruiser with its accuracy bonus (or a retrofitted Vindicator with more weapons slots and an accuracy bonus). As a sub spotter, it has thermal imaging but it isn't particularly fast or able to stand up to torpedo fire.  With any sort of weapon, I'd rather use a hull that buffed that weapon.  What makes this hull worth over 9 days to build (empty)???

Now there is also a variant ship model for the Aegis available at 250 wins, and I think it looks decent.  I generally respect the whale coiners - they support the game with their wallets... Who am I to argue how someone wants to spend their disposable income?  But to get 250 wins, a player will probably need to use their full warehouse capacity of Uranium (at least).  Basically if I see someone running around with a skinned Aegis I will know that they spent their butt off for junk.

(Sorry - this all needs revision since the blueprint has been updated twice.  Look for another article coming soon.)

I certainly don't plan to participate much in this Forsaken Arena tournament (I'll get in a bracket and maybe use my free matches) - but it has gotten more expensive, and the prize is just not worth it.  I'll save my Uranium for retrofits, and I recommend you do the same.

The Monarch

The Forsaken Arena tournament is underway.  You can see the Battle Pirates Crib Hangout show where we described the format and prize structure at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjuTREJhis4

Slides from that show (and all previous shows) are available at: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BxXLrXRQdnkNfldGZEFxV1RNY3VTSTdWQTFzNHRaaW9nZlJNaU1qX0dPd1ZRU3QyOXJiYUE&usp=sharing

There aren't too many changes from last time, so for this article I'll focus on the new hull prize: the Monarch.



This limited hull has a lot of possibilities, with hybrid (underwater), UAV, and regular weapon slots to go along with its tactical module slot.  It has the double drone ability like the Hurricane, it has the lighter tactical module weight and the slot configuration of a Vanguard (but better), So I'll compare it to both of those hulls.

Statistic	Monarch	Hurricane R5	Vanguard R5
Weapon Slots	10	2	10
Armor Slots	5	2	5
Special Slots	3	3	3
Max Weight	15,260	13,200	15,260
Base Armor	3,980	1,289	3,980
Combat Speed	13	12	10
Turn Speed	16	15	16
Evade	0%	25%	0%
Ballistic Defense	30%	0%	40%
Explosive Defense	10%	20%	30%
Penetrative Defense	40%	0%	0%
Concussive Defense	0%	0%	0%
Radioactive Defense	30%	0%	30%
Tac Module Weight	-70%	0%	-40%
UAV Damage	40%	0%	0%
Drone Modifier	x2	x2	x1
Building Damage	0%	0%	100%
Repair Modifier	100%	100%	100%
Hull Build Time w/off	5d 9h 36m	4d 1h 12m	5d 9h 36m
Total U needed	0	0	102,878

The Vanguard doesn't have the 4 UAV or the 2 underwater capable slots of the Monarch, and you should also keep in mind that before it is retrofitted, it has a -25% evade and a combat speed of 9.  Also note that the Vanguard is flagship-only, but the Monarch is not.  

The Hurricane doesn't have the defense or the weapon slots to be much more useful than a standoff drone carrier, and the Vanguard doesn't have the speed or the defense to stand up to "modern" fleets... but the Monarch's speed, weapons, and defense can help it to be a useful addition to your arsenal.

I thought I'd talk about a few possible uses of this ship with some example builds.  I think that if you build a Monarch to go with existing ships, you'll need to look at your own ships carefully and not just copy builds you see here (or somewhere else).  Especially with retrofitted engines, speed matching for mixed fleets is harder than ever.  

The first thought that popped into my head for this ship is the "poor-man's Frostburn".  I use my Frostburn against Reavers as a spotter for Mastodons.  Although you can't make the extinguishing effects with the existing tactical modules, you could make the slowdown with an Engine Disrupter module.  You could also use the Microwave Dampener to reduce damage, but that has no effect on radioactive damage, so it would likely not be as useful, especially against Reavers.

This build uses the Hornet to give the maximum spotting range, and B torps for additional speed.  With Evade at 61% and Radioactive Defense at 47%, it might be a good idea to swap some of the E armor for R.

(click for Huggy's link)

Another build concept would be to mix drones and UAVs... 6 Piranha drones would keep many fleets from charging in, and using Locusts would be ideal for hit and run tactics to keep the enemy at range. Lightning carriers would fill in for any additional weight available.


(click for Huggy's link)

As I look at this one, I think it isn't fast enough to deal with Frostburn-led interceptors (which would keep the drones away), and the build time gets kind of long (as any Level 3 drone module does), so I'm not sure I like this one too much.  But i know some people are willing to put up with the Level 3 Drone module build times... so have at it.  I would advise players that Piranha Drones are probably the only ones worth building.  I know that when I see Siege drones or Blitz drones, I tend to ignore them and just go for the drone carrier.  Piranha drones are a bit more difficult to charge through unscathed.

The other thing I've heard players talking about is to use the Monarch in base guard.  This might be useful for defending against blitzing Hellhounds (or other blitzers).  The Armor Bypass 3 field gives 50% bypass against ballistic, explosive, and penetrative defense.  As resistances get high, that can become a significant multiplier on DPS... for example, reducing 80% resistance to 40% resistance triples DPS (20% gets through before, 60% gets through after).  The range on that field is only 74 though, so tactical modules generally are not useful against standoff base attack fleets.

When it was new, players tried a lot of different uses for the Vanguard, and I could see the same happening for the Monarch.  I suspect that players will come up with lots of useful build concepts that I haven't even considered.  There are also some leaks coming out about the next faction we are fighting (the Shroud), and it is expected that they will make extensive use of tactical fields.  If we have some new tactical fields coming, it may be best to hold off on building the Monarch just to see what new tricks are on the way.

Warbird Carrier and Arena Changes

The Forsaken Arena tournament is here (started already), and I'm falling a little behind on the blog...

For those of you who really want timely information, I have been a weekly participant in the Battle Pirates Crib Hangout show on Wednesdays (7 PM US EST, Midnight UK time).  I generally use the charts from the blog on the show.  Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TheBattlePiratesCrib for announcements and other great info from a great group of players.

I'm not going to go into much detail on the Arena changes or the whole prize list, but you can get Kixeye's summary here: https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/530323

Or watch the Battle Pirates Crib show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfnqN3gOOG8

Warbird Carrier:

The limited Warbird Carrier hull is the top prize in the Elite bracket, and anyone who finishes in the top half of their prize group will win at least one Warbird blueprint (this is a change from the initial announcement, where only the top 65 of 250 would win one) .  This hull is similar to the Harlock's Atlas Carrier, with the UAV launch overrides, but it has slightly more speed and a fourth special slot.  It also has a new ability: Remote Targeting Evade.

Statistic	Warbird Carrier	Harlock's Atlas	Atlas	Lightning R5
Weapon Slots	8	8	8	7 (5 UAV)
Armor Slots	4	4	4	2
Special Slots	4	3	3	4
Max Weight	14,245	14,245	14,245	6,200
Base Armor	6,095	6,095	6,095	1,493
Combat Speed	12	11	11	14
Turn Speed	15	15	15	30
Evade	20%	10%	-10%	20%
Ballistic Defense	0%	0%	0%	0%
Explosive Defense	20%	30%	0%	0%
Penetrative Defense	50%	50%	50%	40%
Concussive Defense	0%	0%	0%	0%
Radioactive Defense	20%	40%	20%	0%
UAV Damage	50%	60%	30%	40%
Ballistic Range	0	0	0	20%
Ballistic Reload	0	0	0	60%
Other	Remote Evade 62.5%, UAV Launch Override	UAV Launch Override
Repair Modifier	100%	100%	100%	100%
Hull Build Time w/off	?	4d 22h 42m	4d 22h 42m	4d 22h 42m
Total U needed	0	0	0	146,477

Remote Targeting Evade (RTE) is described as:

"...making indirect fire weapons miss more often. This stat scales based on the Remote Targeting range of a ship firing on it. Ships like the Proto-Mastodon, the standard Mastodon, and the Reaver Hades ship found in Reaver targets during the events should hit Warbird Carrier fewer times, depending on the range that the projectile has to travel."

What it seems like will happen is that when you are fired upon by a ship like a Mastodon using remote targeting, the RTE will kick in and provide an extra evade bonus.  The assumptions that I am making are: 

• RTE, described as "up to" 62.5% will be at that maximum 62.5% when the enemy is at the outer limit of their remote targeting range.  As they close in, then the RTE bonus will be reduced until it hits zero at the "standard" weapon range.
• The RTE bonus will stack with the Carrier's normal evade multiplicatively, just like any other evade special.  So a 50% RTE bonus with a 50% ship evade will result in a 75% final evade.
• Bullseye Brigade and Disciples of Skullduggery rogue crews will override the RTE just like any other evade.

When building this ship, the 4th special slot is really welcomed.  For Atlas/Harlock builds, the dilemma is always that you want to use an Engine, Armor, Evade, and Powercell special, but only have three slots.  The 4th slot allows all four of those specials to be used.

I think the best uses of this hull - especially if you only win one or two prints - will be in Base Guarding and in the Forsaken Arena.  

In the Arena, this can be used as a lead ship for Mastodons, and builds should focus on resistance rather than evade (since so many players use Bullseye).  One more thought - if you are serious about the Arena, you are usually using repair insurance, so the extra repair time from a Reaver Bulkhead won't matter and the extra armor will help you live a lot longer.

As a Base Guard, Dragonflies might be more usable to lower enemy accuracy, but Hornets will maximize your chances of a launch override.  No engine special is generally needed, so Evade Upgrade or Shielded Electronics would be good choices.

Thoughts on the Arena:

Some important changes to the Arena are:

• You can get points even if you lose. If you do 50% damage to the other fleet, you will earn 50 points, even if you are completely sunk.
• You have to sink the other fleet to win.  Dropping a Bunker Buster on the enemy and hiding for 5 minutes will not get you a win, it will only get you a point or two.
• You get one free repair every 24 hours.  Use it.
• There is a self-destruct button.  If you don't mind giving the other player the "win" points, you can use the self-destruct button to end a match.  This may be useful if you are running a Rogue Crew and thus you want to end the match quickly and start another one to get as many matches as possible with the crew. You will still earn the points from doing damage.

I think these changes, along with the much wider prize pool, are really good - they encourage more players to play in the arena.  My previous attitude was that since I didn't have the fleet to do really well, or the time to sit by the computer all weekend, I didn't have a chance at the top ten in my pool and so there was no point in trying.  With the partial points in a loss, and the need to only reach the top half of players to earn a Warbird, I'm going to be playing in this tournament a lot more than I was.  Looking at my prize pool, I think lots of other players agree and have given it a try... I was at #236 this morning (having played zero matches).

Tips on the Arena:
I'm not a top player in the arena, so I may not be the very best source, but here's what I see from a general sense:

• Use a crew.  Bullseye Brigade with Mastodons is very common.  Most of my enemies are using crews.
• Frostburns & Mastodons are great.  Carriers have seemed useful as well. Mixed fleets are common, and some players are dropping a sub into fleets as a "second strike" weapon.
• Rank helps. My Mastodons are around 45% rank bonus.  I've lost some matches simply by being outranked.
• Split up. Pinch happens.