I am going to /sign that statement, as others have and will certainly continue to do so...
The Vasari vs. Advent matchup relative to the Vasari vs. TEC matchup is likely to be the single greatest balance issue after this patch, and it will be almost entirely because of phase missiles...as has been mentioned countless times, the base damage of Vasari bombers is too high...not only is this because they wield PMs, but also because in general higher HP units should have less DPS per fleet supply (as is the case for most things in the game)...
/signed.
Vasari bombers continue to be a joke. Every other phase missile unit in the game balances it's phase missiles by having about 30% less DPS per supply thyen the equivalent advent/TEC ships of the same class. By contrast Vasari bombers have the second highest base DPS(Higher then TEC!) AND are the hardest to kill(most HP per bomber).
When it comes down to it, it's a simple numbers game. Most weapon weapons gain +30-40% damage when fully upgraded. a 30% shield bypass chance by contrast is a 100% damage average increase against a capship/titan with 70% shield mitigation. This increase goes higher the more shield mitigation the tsrget ship has, up to +200% average damage against ships with 85% mitigation.
Not to mention, most of that damage is dealt directly to hull, making it even more effective- most ships targeted by vasari bombers die with thier shields still intact- meaning not only do they do more damage, but they don't have to do as much total damage.
All said, fully upgraded phase missiles easily kill capitalships & titans twice as fast as any other equally upgraded weapon type- and they do so while negating the usefulness of any shield mitigation bonuses or shield regen skills.
The Advent are hit hardest of course, but this is a general game balance problem that extends to every race and faction. Even TEC are drastically affected by the fact that The vasari need substantially fewer bombers to hit "critical mass' then any other race. Most factions need upwards of 80 wings to start killing Capitalships in 1-2 passes- Vasari only need 40-50.
That alone is a huge advantage being that bombers are such an enormous part of the late game.
Again, a 30% hit to Vasari bomber base DPS would be sufficient- after all all the other phase missile units are balanced by their inferior base DPS.
Anyway, now with my rant out of the way, I'd like to wrap up by saying that this patch as a whole looks absolutely phenomenal. The patch tackles pretty much every major issue besides the Vasari Bomber problem- not to mentions includes a substantial buff to a very cool but previously inefficient strategic element(artifact discovery/control). I'd like to stress that this patch has done nothing but exceed my expectation- while I may argue that phase missile changes will be necessary in the future, I don't consider the lack of them in this patch to in any way reduce how great this patch is.
Outstanding job!
