Naval frigate upgrades: Federation Navy Comet
We’ve already looked at the Caldari Navy Hookbill and Republic Fleet Firetail changes coming in EVE Online: Dominion this fall / winter. Today, we’ll investigate the changes coming for the Gallente Navy Comet, including a name change. The ship will henceforth be known as the “Federation Navy Comet”, and it will turn into a competent frigate droneboat.
Drones
The old Comet had vestigial drone capabilities at best, with a 5 m3 capacity and 5 MB/s bandwidth. But after the revamp, the ship will have 30 m3 available and 15 MB/s. This will allow the ship to easily field 2 flights of 3 light drones each, increasing the available firepower by a factor of 3 with more backup available just in case. The loss of the two launcher slots partially offsets this, but in general Gallente pilots tend to train drone skills rather than missile skills so this undoubtedly nets positive for them.
Really, drone users don’t have many choices for T1 frigates. The Gallente Imicus has a 15 m3 bay with 15 MB/s of bandwidth, and the Maulus has 10 m3 and 10 MB/s. No other T1 frigate can carry more than one scout drone.
Design
The Comet not only loses two launchers but one high slot, with a new 3/3/4 layout (though still only two turrets). Interestingly, though, the bonuses make up for this loss of firepower, as the small hybrid turret damage bonus per level of Gallente Frigate increases from 5 to 20%, meaning that a fully trained frigate pilot gets a 100% damage bonus. The 7.5% tracking bonus per level remains unchanged. The CPU gets a nice 21% upgrade also, increasing from 125 to 152 tf. CCP does not plan any capacitor tweaks for the Comet.
Like the Hookbill, speed bumps up a little (282 to 350 m/s) with the corresponding inertia modifier increase we’ve seen in the other naval frigates (2.79 to 3.3). Scan resolution decreases slightly, from 590 to 580 mm, but most pilots should not notice this negligible change in most circumstances.
Most Gallente frigate pilots should really enjoy the ship, as the new design plays to their strengths and receives negligible decreases. It may well replace the Rifter as the preferred PVP frigate, at least for pilots intending to focus on drones rather than turrets. I will almost certainly try to get one for my drone pilot, at any rate, even if they don’t put the “GFPD” back on the texture.
The series will end next time with a look at the Amarr Navy Slicer.
Related posts:
- Naval frigate upgrades: Caldari Navy Hookbill
- Naval frigate upgrades: Imperial Navy Slicer
- Naval frigate upgrades: Republic Fleet Firetail
Tags: Comet, Drones, Gallente Federation, Hybrid Turrets, Imicus, Maulus, Scan Resolution
