I'm glad to see the Coronata is starting to get some attention with the recent Subjugating Assault buff. That said, the Coronata still has some pretty severe unaddressed issues.
The Problems:
First off, while the buff to subjugating assault is nice, one fundamental flaw of the ability is still present: It does absolutely nothing against capitalships/titans. The problem with this is that due to the scaling, subjugating Assault needs a heavy skillpoint investment to be come dependable. But once you invest those points the opponent can make this investment utterly wasted simply by using a carrier-heavy fleet which they park on the far side of the gravity well, keeping only capitalships and titans on the frontline. And frankly this strategy is very strong in general so it's not like the opponent is sacrificing much by doing so.
Obviously Subjugating assault shouldn't ever steal capitalships, but it could easily be given an alternate effect when the coronata attacks capitalships.
The other large issue is Unity Mass. This ability is pretty much inferior to snipe- 1/2 the range, 3x the cooldown, and a hefty nearby unit requirement to deal it's full damage. The range in particular is nasty as it makes it difficult to use unity mass as an opener when the enemy hasn't yet built up shield mitigation and if used on a fleeing ship, often the fleeing ship is out of range before the Coronata turns to face them.
My Proposed Solutions:
#1). Subjugating Assault: Add "When attacking capitalships with Subjugating Assault active, each hit of the coronata's weapon systems additionally drains 2/3/4/5 Antimatter"
[comments: This idea has been bouncing around the forums for awhile and it's perfect IMO. It makes the ability decent against capitalships, but still better against frigates(a stolen frigate takes about as long as draining 33 AM from capitalships(and that 33 is likely divided between 3-4 ships)).]
#2) Unity Mass: make this ability omnidirectional, reduce cooldown to 15 seconds, and increase bonus damage per ally by 5 at all ranks
[comments: The ability being omnidirectional makes up for the lack of range compared to snipe as it will mean the coronata doesn't have to turn to fire, meaning it can reliably fire on a fleeing ship before said ship is out of range. The cooldown reduction results in a cooldown still longer then snipe, but much better then now. The extra 5 damage per ally makes the payoff for the hefty nearby ally requirement a bit better relative to the consistent damage value of snipe]
Other Poster's Ideas:
I thought it would be a good idea to collect other alternative solutions other post in the thread up here in the OP:
From Volt_Cruelerz on Unity Mass:
....I think that could be a very fun ability and would make Unity Mass it's own beast instead of just trying to be an incompetent version of Snipe. Heck, damage might have to be nerfed slightly to accommodate such a change, but I really think such a thing could be worthwhile.
Unity Mass right now:
Damage: 2500+65*50=5750
Unity Mass 2.0:
Damage: 2000+65*50=5250
AM: 150+3.5*50=325
Conclusion:
Anyway, post your own ideas, thought on the Coronata, or feedback to other people's ideas here.
