![proteus for sansha escalations proteus for sansha escalations](https://i.imgur.com/uLLyTtx.png)
Though Ytterium made this statement a year ago, his comments are still relevant today. Here is the original statement, which was a response from a thread making predictions about Navy Battlecruisers: CCP Ytterbium rocked the boat last year when he addressed the matter with the now-infamous “rabid dog” post. The mention of any change to these ships will often send ripples of fear, ennui, and anger through the forums. The ship iteration team at CCP hasn’t been particularly vocal on just how, or if, any changes will be implemented to T3s. Not all subsystems are created equal, either, and some rarely get used at all. Even the new “Space Yurt” will not allow for subsystem refitting, further rubbing salt in the wound. Even for someone living outside of W-space, the price of rigs and the inability to reuse them still limits that inherent utility. Modules and subsystems are fit after purchase, and that’s often the way it stays until it explodes or is sold. Moreover, the inability to switch subsystems in a POS or Ship Maintenance Arrays has ironically left T3 pilots in W-space altogether unable to utilize the modular nature of their ships. Originally marketed and sold to the playerbase as a hull that would perform many roles off of one platform, these ships are most often utilized by their owners for a single purpose, much like any T1 or T2 hull. Like all things New Eden, not all ships are used purely as intended, and T3 cruisers are no exception. It is not uncommon for a capsuleer to spend well in excess of one billion ISK on fitting a single T3. Perfect skills, particularly when coupled with high grade pirate implants, put T3s into a separate league: a ship with a cruiser-sized signature radius coupled with a hitpoint pool that outstrips battleships.
![proteus for sansha escalations proteus for sansha escalations](https://aws1.discourse-cdn.com/smallgiantgames/original/3X/c/a/ca5ec5580d91b5eaf3533a1c6660180978d13078.jpeg)
This raw economic power provides many capsuleers with the ability to fit Faction and Deadspace modules to extend the already significant capabilities of their T3s. The resources needed to supply New Eden’s insatiable desire for these versatile and powerful ships provide W-space with an almost limitless income stream. In recent years, the hulls and subsystems have proliferated to the point where null-sec alliances will field them en masse, despite the average cost of 600 million for a T2-fit hull for each T3 cruiser. In the four years they have been around, these ships transitioned from tools of the powerful few to a mainline ship of W-space corporations. On March 10th, 2009, CCP released wormholes and four Tech 3 (T3) Strategic Cruisers in the Apocrypha expansion, including one hull for each of the major Empire factions: Legion, Loki, Proteus, and Tengu. Ever since their introduction, Strategic Cruisers have been an indispensable, and often expensive, tool of exploration and destruction. A loss of one will cost you a hit to your accumulated skill points, typically resulting in a three day re-training to a subsystem skill back to level V, which adds a considerable additional cost to an already pricey hull.Įqually reviled and celebrated, little has changed with T3 cruisers mechanically, although their effect on the meta-game was and remains enormous.