Armor Tanking 1.5

This is one of the shorter posts I’m oh-so-creatively thinking of as “miniposts”, mostly I get my thoughts down and out rather than having them languish as drafts.

So may have noticed the thread on armor tanking proposals, perhaps thanks to the link from Jester’s Trek.  You are reading Jester’s Trek, right?  If not, stop reading this and go read that for a few hours.  In a later post, CCP Fozzie mentioned that this was going up on SiSi any day now - it was supposed to be today but they had some problems.  Once again this reinforces that I need to set up for SiSi, huh?  But what it really does is make me go back and review my plan.

Change in Plans?
Once I’m back skilling Jakob I had planned to get CovOps skills up and launch into the skills needed for shield tanked ships.  That was then to support the posted requirements I’d seen from various WH corps that prospective applicants should be able to fly shield-tanked ships for running anoms.

The real difference of course is what races I want to try next.  I can get to Amarr faster since I already have strong turret support skills, and Amarr’s second weapon is drones (which I have decent skills at).  And LAZORS!1!  Alternatively I go into the hybrid Caldari (since I have no missile skills) and Minmatar (and learn projectiles).  As a side effect I get shield-tanked Gallente variants.

Change in reputation of armor factions?
So, will the new “armor tanking 1.5” change the meta so that we’ll be seeing faster Gallente and Amarr?  Will the perception of “PVP Gallente are shield tanked Gallente” fully fade away? I’d say it already is for frigates, but it sounds like for cruisers are up if you’re going PVP then you’re probably shield-tanked with some exceptions (triple-rep Myrm bait ships, for instance).

What will this mean for FW?
I had considered trying out FW again, and since the Gallente/Caldari FW sounds pretty dead the idea for joining Amarr is interesting (though I’d have to up my Amarr standings to get them positive I think).  But if Amarr and Gallente are getting boosts like this, and they already are winning their zones, will this be crushing to Caldari and Minmatar morale?  Even if the change is more even handed than OP, certainly lots of people may jump in just to try out the new meta.

What will this mean for industry?
Should my alt start churning out T2 armor repairers, related rigs, or even try Amarr and Gallente hulls?  Of course, far bigger producers than I are already doing that even as I write this.

You got to give it to CCP Fozzie.  If nothing else he’s going to generate a lot of interest in yet more hulls, and those hulls will be out there getting blown up.