New Dropsuits, Weapons, and Bonuses on SiSi

The development process for Uprising 1.7 was seen as mostly encouraging to the DUST community.  We saw roughly two months of open and transparent discussion in regards to the all-important vehicle overhaul.  Since that patch was released nearly a month ago, many were worried about the lack of information concerning Uprising 1.8.  Due to how little we knew, many assumed it was going to be a balancing patch with a few tweaks here and there, probably relating to vehicles and how fast you can blow them up.  That all changed today with the news of widespread changes posted to Singularity, the EVE Online public test server.  

These changes could always be adjusted, delayed, or removed.  Here's the list:

Amarr Commando
Commando Suit Bonus: 5% reduction to reload speed of light weapons per level.
Amarr Commando Bonus: +2% damage to laser light weapons per level

Amarr Logistics
Logistics Suit Bonus: 5% reduction to PG/CPU cost of equipment per level.
Amarr Logistics Bonus: 10% reduction to drop uplink spawn time and +2 to max. spawn count per level.

Amarr Sentinel
Sentinel Suit Bonus: 5% resistance to blast damage per level
Amarr Sentinel Bonus: 3% armor resistance to projectile weapons, 2% shield resistance to hybrid - blaster weapons.

Caldari Commando
Commando Suit Bonus: 5% reduction to reload speed of light weapons per level.
Caldari Commando Bonus: +2% damage to hybrid - railgun light weapons per level.

Caldari Logistics
Logistics Suit Bonus: 5% reduction to PG/CPU cost of equipment per level.
Caldari Logistics Bonus: +10% to nanohive max. nanites and +5% to supply rate and repair amount per level.

Caldari Sentinel
Sentinel Suit Bonus: 5% resistance to blast damage per level.
Caldari Sentinel Bonus: 3% shield resistance to hybrid - blaster weapons, 2% shield resistance to laser weapons. 

Gallente Commando
Commando Suit Bonus: 5% reduction to reload speed of light weapons per level.
Gallente Commando Bonus: +2% damage to hybrid - blaster light weapons per level.

Gallente Logistics
Logistics Suit Bonus: 5% reduction to PG/CPU cost of equipment per level.
Gallente Logistics Bonus: +10% to active scanner visibility duration and +5% to active scanner precision per level.

Gallente Sentinel
Sentinel Skill: 5% resistance to blast damage per level.
Gallente Sentinel Bonus: 3% armor resistance to hybrid - railgun weapons, 2% armor resistance to projectile weapons.

Minmatar Commando 
Commando Suit Bonus: 5% reduction to reload speed of light weapons per level.
Minmatar Commando Bonus: +2% damage to projectile and explosive light weapons per level.

Minmatar Logistics 
Logistics Suit Bonus: 5% reduction to PG/CPU cost of equipment per level.
Minmatar Logistics Bonus: +10% to repair tool range and 5% to repair amount per level.

Minmatar Sentinel
Sentinel Suit Bonus: 5% resistance to blast damage per level.
Minmatar Sentinel Bonus: 3% shield resistance to laser weapons, 2% armor resistance to hybrid - blaster weapons.

There's a lot to digest here.  Logistics are getting bonuses to actual logistical stuff.  Gone is the Minmatar Logi speed hacker, replaced by quite a few tears.  Seriously, who thought that bonus would last on a logi suit?

We are getting six new heavy suits, which is exciting.  Many people are calling for a complete universal respec.  Personally, I'm expecting a respec for all points into heavy suits either in the next patch or after they round out the heavy weapons.  Hopefully, that will occur by 1.9.  One of the cool things is the damage to blasts on all of the heavy suits, allowing them to better stand up to vehicles.  The weapon-specific damage resists are neat, I like how they apply to either shields or armor.  They would be even cooler if the assault bonuses were not universal to all weapons:

Caldari Assault
+2% to light weapon RoF bonus per level
+5% to HP bonus of shield extender modules per level.

Gallente Assault
+2% to light weapon RoF bonus per level.
+5% to HP bonus of armor plate modules per level.

Minmatar Assault
+2% to light weapon RoF bonus per level.
+5% to damage bonus of damage modifier modules per level.

Amarr Assault
+2% to light weapon RoF bonus per level.
+5% to repair rate of armor repair modules per level.

Just a quick glance and it seems Minmatar has taken the assault crown from the Caldari suit.  I think the new bonuses distance them from their logi counterparts, something that was needed.  I wish they had specialized the RoF bonuses to certain weapon types.  That way, favored suit types could be countered by the new heavy suits merely by looking at the opposing team on the field.  You can still do that, but it usually takes dieing a few time.

There are also two more sidearms in the mix, a SMG variant and the Bolt Pistol.  However, I think I can speak for the community in that we want to see the three racial heavy weapons.  Here's hoping they are unique and not just larger caliber rifles.

The racial variants for the Commando suits let me down a bit.  Yes, I do like how they are giving bonuses to weapon types.  It's just that I was holding out hope each race's commando would do something cool like run what would be considered auras in other games, make it more of a leadership role, etc...

Other than that, I happen to like the changes.