Are PVTers gonna be worthless in pvp.

[Phayze]

I keep reading about the great group buffs you get with 4 NO's and 1 freetrader and how SOLs are the best ships for port battles. With groups only needing 1 PVT is that gonna leave the rest of them on the sidelines for pvp. Will all nationals eventually just have 1 trader for economy and 1 NO for pvp.

I have already started hearing many national guild talking and forcing members who want to participate in the contention battles into making NO's for pvp.

[Trobon]

That's strange I hear that NOs are great at port battles, but I hear Pvts are good at small group PvP and are good at harrasing NOs.

[Salenta1]

Privateers make excellent tacklers, but they don't fare as well when lining up and pounding.

Worth is a judgement call, in this case. Ideal group composition is hindered by the player factor. A poor NO can be replaced with a good Privateer, and the reverse applies.

[Eric1201]

I have already started hearing many national guild talking and forcing members who want to participate in the contention battles into making NO's for pvp.

I doubt you'll actually see much of that once pvp gets rolling. It certainly wasn't like that in beta from my experience...everyone was happy to see anyone come help get those points up quickly.

[Sardus]

I keep reading about the great group buffs you get with 4 NO's and 1 freetrader and how SOLs are the best ships for port battles. With groups only needing 1 PVT is that gonna leave the rest of them on the sidelines for pvp. Will all nationals eventually just have 1 trader for economy and 1 NO for pvp.

I have already started hearing many national guild talking and forcing members who want to participate in the contention battles into making NO's for pvp.

That's utter crap. I love having PVTs in my group and we have been enormously successful.

I like to have 3-4 NOs, 1-2 PVTs, and 1-2 FTs

[Sardus]

Worth is a judgement call, in this case. Ideal group composition is hindered by the player factor. A poor NO can be replaced with a good Privateer, and the reverse applies.

Very... VERY true

[garborg]

PVT make great tacklers... no use having lots of power and buffs if you can't catch the guy.

[dherki]

Tackling skills and Sanctioned Piracy, nuff said.

[skypig]

For the final 25v25 Port contention battles it was my understanding that participants are chosen randomly by number of contention points so would group compostion matter? What if the NO's are off their game for the week leading up to the battle and the final run consists of mostly PVT's.

[blakkmantis]

90% of the people who make a FT don't do so to PVP or Even PVE, they are usually used as an alt to make money for their NO or Privy.

Yeah I know not true in all cases, but if you want to fight why would you purposely make a FT anyways? Thats kinda silly. Theres a reason why they give them all those Barks, and Trader ships.

[Gaunthor]

I am a Freetrader and I think... I repeat I think... I can manage my own in a PvP fight. But then again you can always prove me wrong anytime you like.

Randall Keane

[garborg]

Yeah I know not true in all cases, but if you want to fight why would you purposely make a FT anyways? Thats kinda silly. Theres a reason why they give them all those Barks, and Trader ships.

Group buffs... Why are you doing production on your NO, kinda silly?? It's not really, just same silly logic. FT can bring much to combat groups.

[Phayze]

That's utter crap. I love having PVTs in my group and we have been enormously successful.

I like to have 3-4 NOs, 1-2 PVTs, and 1-2 FTs


You guys are sorta proving my point...everyone is saying PVT make great tacklers(but you only really need 1 per group), We need PVT for sanctioned piracy(again you only need 1 per group) Once a group has thier 1 PVT they will only be looking for more NO's for thier buffs. With a 4 : 1 ratio demand of NO over PVT their will be alot of PVT on the sidelines or forced to make NO's if they want to get into good warparties.

I know this didnt happen in beta but people are taking the pvp in release alot more seriously.

[Caldes]

A 4:1 ratio doesn't seem too much of a problem. LBT roughly has a 4:1:1 ratio of NO to Privvie to FT, and that's with no cajoling from the officers to get recruits to go a certain class. I think LBT is large enough (100+) to prove to be a reasonable random sampling of a small group population (>10000) for the purposes of predicting how the national population will play out on a larger scale, though it may be more 3:1:1.

If anything, people tend to group more with their fellow society members than based on class.

[CShaughnessy]

It's not true that you just need 1 tackler, anyway. Consider this:

Group of 6 nationals is chasing a Pirate that they know is carrying raw materials. His ship is outfitted for speed/stealth and not combat. You figure they can't lose, right? Well:
-Tackler is the first of the group to catch the pirate
-Pirate uses Deter Pursuit on the tackler
-Tackler uses Cut Shroud on Pirate
-Pirate uses Cut Shroud on the tackler

Boom, away he goes unless you've got another tackler.

[Dachi07]

The privateer or tackler can use many of his speed boost buffs.

[CShaughnessy]

The privateer or tackler can use many of his speed boost buffs.

Anything you can do, rat can do better; rat can do anything, better than you!

[ZaiRoX]

Anything you can do, rat can do better; rat can do anything, better than you!

-Privateers can accomplish higher speeds when going at 90 degrees than a Pirate. (+15% compared to pirates +11%). Unless you start dumping guns ofcourse. Pirates can get faster speeds by going 135

-Privateers MC Herc can outrange any (non-invalid pvp) pirate ship.

-Privateers can do more burst damage over a 1min period than a pirate can (even if it is slightly difficult to do and often require a keg of rum and very spesific skills)

-Privateers can group with NO's and FT's and recieve group buffs (you are really going to miss those buffs at endgame)

-Privateers get a passive skills that gives them six times more cash from NPC hunting compared to rats. NO's and FT's get five times more cash compared to pirates.¨

The only thing I really miss from playing a Pirate in beta is Deter Pursuit (which in my opinion should have been kept as a FT unique skill) and "Run em down" which Is a Pirate career skill.



-

[ZaiRoX]

It's not true that you just need 1 tackler, anyway. Consider this:

Group of 6 nationals is chasing a Pirate that they know is carrying raw materials. His ship is outfitted for speed/stealth and not combat. You figure they can't lose, right? Well:
-Tackler is the first of the group to catch the pirate
-Pirate uses Deter Pursuit on the tackler
-Tackler uses Cut Shroud on Pirate
-Pirate uses Cut Shroud on the tackler

Boom, away he goes unless you've got another tackler.

It's more like this.

-Tackler catches Pirate and uses cut shroud
-Pirate turns a broadside and uses Deter Pursuit, but because of the turn loose speed. He can use stern cannons but at that range runs the chance of missing with the added group defence buffs on the tackler.
-The 30sec DP debuff runs out and with NO's speed buffs (+20%) the tackler igain reaches the pirate
-Pirate makes another broadside and use Cut shroud but it's just barely enough (-5%) to prevent the tackler from getting whitin range
-1min later the tackler has a speed advancement and gets whitin range whitin 30sec and uses cut shroud.
-Pirate dead

It's all very situational, and it mostly depends on ship and if the pirate is moving at 135 or 90 but I wouldn't rely on deter pursuit and the pirate speed buffs to always escape. A group of nationals can get higher speeds than a pirate trough group buffs. In fact, often FT's will act as tacklers and they got deter pursuit aswell....

[Bonham]

90% of the people who make a FT don't do so to PVP or Even PVE, they are usually used as an alt to make money for their NO or Privy.

Yeah I know not true in all cases, but if you want to fight why would you purposely make a FT anyways? Thats kinda silly. Theres a reason why they give them all those Barks, and Trader ships.

I don't know a single player with a FT alt currently. I do know a lot of FT's who play then as their main char. So, while I don't have any proof that they are the vast majority... personal experience tells me more people play them as their main.

[GundamX]

What group buffs are you refering to? Is it either: 3 extra defense, 3 extra accuracy, 6%/10% acceleration, or "boarding buffs". Cos all those are pathetic group buffs.

Extra Rations? 10% rof, 2% acc, 5% dmg for 2 minutes out of every 5 minutes.. That's 4% rof, 0.8% accuracy and a huge 2% dmg increase over time. In a group of 6, why would you even warrant the "desire or need" to have a FT when you can simply take another NO or privateer and they will perform much better.

[ZaiRoX]

Freetraders are the only national with Deter Pursuit, better effectiveness with experts and they have some extra group buffs to provide their allies. They also have a short duration (+25%) speed buffs that can be granted to allies and "Give the Slip" to decrease the speeds of enemys on the OS to assist in engaging. By themself they will still get something like a 15% reload buff and near equal amounts of +damage while pounding out +40% damage shots every 1min while still having more speed and maneuverability than a NO. And if they consume an expert gunner for extra damage they get another +15% damage and 15% reload.

Freetraders need to use consumables to remain effective, but once they do are fairly equal and can in many areas surpass other classes in PvP.

The optimal group setting is in my opinion 1Privateer, 1Freetrader and 4NO's.

4NO's and 1Freetrader will combined add:
Reload Rate +8% (2% for each NO)
Turn Rate, All +12% (3% for each NO)
Maximum Cannon Range +8% (2% for each NO)
Accuracy +3% (Freetrader, not stackable)

[One-Eyed Vlad]

When I go out and get a 1v1, I am much more happy when I get it against a NO then when its against another Privateer.....NOs are so much easier to disable.

[Phayze]

What group buffs are you refering to? Is it either: 3 extra defense, 3 extra accuracy, 6%/10% acceleration, or "boarding buffs". Cos all those are pathetic group buffs.

Extra Rations? 10% rof, 2% acc, 5% dmg for 2 minutes out of every 5 minutes.. That's 4% rof, 0.8% accuracy and a huge 2% dmg increase over time. In a group of 6, why would you even warrant the "desire or need" to have a FT when you can simply take another NO or privateer and they will perform much better.

Honestly, I'm not sure which buffs they are, but I have heard alot of talk concerning 4 NO's using thier buffs in such a way( I think it was called twisting the buffs??) that the group becomes very powerfull.

Anyway I didnt want to start a doom thread on PVTers. I am new to the game and so far I have been enjoying the PVT class the most. I was just looking for reassurances that they wont become the class no one needs later on in the game.