FW post Catalyst expansion

The latest Eve Online expansion, the Catalyst, was mostly focused on new mining content and enhancements to this core profession. But buried deep within the patch notes were a few seemingly small changes that are already reshaping the FW landscape. Today we'll take a closer look at what changed and how does it affect your day-to-day militia life!

Changes at a glance

• Defensive and offensive plexing are mechanically the same, with the d-plexing LP penalty removed

• More NPCs per wave mean the time to clear is extended compared to pre-patch

• Rats with Warp Disruptors present as a rare spawn

Uniform plexes

Before the expansion, there was a clear distinction between running sites in a system controlled by your faction where you just sat out the timer, and capturing them in hostile space where you had to shoot down the NPCs guarding them. Now, each plex comes with ships from both factions present, fighting an eternal battle unless a player intervenes.

What does that mean? Passive income that was running d-plexes in empty ships is no more, as no matter where you go, you have to put some effort into the activity. To compensate, the penalty to LP for defensive plexing has been removed, so you are not penalized for reinforcing your faction's control over a system. This change also applies to battlefield sites, and we are already seeing them being more contested as a result. Keep in mind that the d-plexes only pay if the system was contested - you can't just infinitely grind sites in that one frontline system no one cares about. All in all, it is a great change that rewards active play patterns but we're yet to see how it affects the wider FW metagame.

NPC changes

Instead of one NPC from the faction controlling the system spawning we now get up to 5 from both sides of the conflict. While it seems the DPS threshold to beat their tank has been lowered, you have multiple entities that have a tendency to spread out around the grid to handle. This results in overall longer clear time for all but the smallest of the FW complexes. Funnily enough, the Catalyst expansion made the ship of the same name, once the top choice for entry level plexing, obsolete as it now has to chase the rats all over the place to apply its DPS effectively. While there is no consensus on specific fits yet, players are leaning towards ships that can project their damage from about 15km to cut down on the time spent moving between the targets.

Furthermore, NPCs have a rare chance to come in equipped with a Warp Disruptor fitted. That means that you may slide into a plex and find yourself pinned down by the NPCs. Keep in mind that while they have a leash range where they eventually drop pursuit, they have enough speed to keep up with any ship fitted with an Afterburner - quite problematic if you decide to find a fight in a large plex, only to have to moonwalk 100kms out to drop the point. This keeps MWD-based builds at an advantage, as they can simply outrun the rats, rather than having to destroy them or burn really far out to get out of their reach. Something to consider when planning your next fitting.

To help you identify which ships are the biggest threats, here's a cheat sheet with their names listed:

DPS

• Imperial Guard

• State Protector

• Federation Warden

• Republic Defender

Tackle

• Imperial Renouncer

• State Detainer

• Federation Inspector

• Republic Bulwark

Herding the rats

One curious change that wasn't mentioned in the patch notes is how the NPCs interact with the capture progress. In the old system, the timer ticked only if the NPC was not present on the grid - even if it was 200km away from the capture zone, it still blocked it. Currently all you have to do is to make the hostile rats leave the circle - as long as they are out and a player is in, the capture will progress. This provides an alternative strategy, where instead of going for full clear, you thin down the wave to one rat and then push it off the ring. Technically that should result in faster completion time but the aggro mechanic is unreliable, with the rats switching their attention (and as a result, orbit target) to your friendly NPCs. Given such method is more involving than a regular clear, I imagine it will stay in the game as a niche strategy for power gamers - unless someone finds a reliable way to keep the rats interested.

Summary

Thank you for staying with me till the end! I hope you found this breakdown of recent changes helpful. While the expansion is fresh, we cannot say what will be their long-term impact on the FW ecosystem, but most militia players see them as steps in the right direction. Personally, I'm incredibly pleased with all the tweaks, removing the ghost ship problem from defensive plexing, and facilitating PvP by giving small engagement windows where someone can't just run away as soon as they see you on their directional scanner. See you on the battlefields!