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Blog Posts / Re: Skill Tweaks
« on: December 13, 2023, 04:18:05 AM »Quote
Ordnance Expertise increases the ship’s flux stats (in brief, flux builds up when you fire weapons, the more of it you can dissipate, and the higher your ship’s capacity, the more weapons fire you can sustain). Its elite effects isn’t flashy, but it’s good enough. The baseline effect, +2 flux dissipation for every ordnance point spent on weapons, though… well, it’s too strong. This skill is almost an auto-pick on an officer, but more problematically, it changes the balance of the game by letting ships fit too many offense-focused weapons and making things like point-defense less valuable. There are other factors involved here, for sure – some overall reduction in weapon flux generation, a few new low-flux weapon options, other means available for improving flux stats – but Ordnance Expertise is part of the picture, too. So the baseline effect gets a modest reduction – 1.5 instead of 2 points. It doesn’t need to be nerfed into the ground, just enough that other skills might be more competitive against it, so I think it makes sense to start with a conservative change.
Tbh, I grew to resent this skill because of flux dissipation gains. Its practically enslaved me. I always grab it on every single officer or I just can't help myself but feel like I am missing out. Winning flux war is always useful, no matter the build or ship design. Doesn't matter if you build for offense or defense (shield elite allows to vent hard flux with raised shield so more dissipation = better). For the same reason, I never leave any weapon slots empty anymore. This skill made me obsessed and I definitely enjoyed tweaking builds way more when it was not a factor.
