I'd shove Fed B low too, so I guess that would move Rock B up a little but it's still broadly below average.
Kestrel A shouldn't be scaling too poorly, since it needs only 50 scrap + either hacking or 3rd weapon (2 power or less) to make it into sector 3-4 transitions at < 200 scrap invest. After that your income/fight goes up so it's reasonable to pick up more stuff on it.
Sulla actually had Slug C 9th (I misremembered), and while I could see nudging it past Crystal A, Lanius A, and maybe Kestrel B the competition starts getting really strong from there...and Mantis C belongs up here if we're allowing micro to manipulate piloting + crystal lockdown bombs, so we're talking a ~3 spot variance at most (still debatable) among ships that are largely comparable in expected winrate on hard. That's pretty good considering how old the discussion was.
Wouldn't you normally hack weapons in sector 1 and shoot weapons out to de-sync them prior to the scrap for shields 2? MC can lower the evasion to make the hit very likely (pilot buffers happen in sector 1 but aren't guaranteed and evasion is still very low with MC'd pilot at those engine levels and tier 2 piloting).
I'd rather not unless target ship can't do damage. Maybe coupled with advanced flak to the weapons. No "medical airlock" is a bit of a nuisance admittedly.
Kestrel A shouldn't be scaling too poorly, since it needs only 50 scrap + either hacking or 3rd weapon (2 power or less) to make it into sector 3-4 transitions at < 200 scrap invest. After that your income/fight goes up so it's reasonable to pick up more stuff on it.
Sulla actually had Slug C 9th (I misremembered), and while I could see nudging it past Crystal A, Lanius A, and maybe Kestrel B the competition starts getting really strong from there...and Mantis C belongs up here if we're allowing micro to manipulate piloting + crystal lockdown bombs, so we're talking a ~3 spot variance at most (still debatable) among ships that are largely comparable in expected winrate on hard. That's pretty good considering how old the discussion was.
Wouldn't you normally hack weapons in sector 1 and shoot weapons out to de-sync them prior to the scrap for shields 2? MC can lower the evasion to make the hit very likely (pilot buffers happen in sector 1 but aren't guaranteed and evasion is still very low with MC'd pilot at those engine levels and tier 2 piloting).
Quote: If you're being real stingy with your Lanius HP, you can shield bait, punch down the O2, and wait for suffocation. It's a bit time-consuming.
I'd rather not unless target ship can't do damage. Maybe coupled with advanced flak to the weapons. No "medical airlock" is a bit of a nuisance admittedly.