Proposed Cloak Mechanic And Scout Changes

Following the assault and heavy changes announced last week, CCP Remnant leaked the way cloaking will work as well as the scout suit changes:

* The cloak field is a piece of equipment.

* When selected the cortex is raised and you press fire to activate it.

* Once activated, it goes away and your weapon is raised. You can switch to other weapons/equipment while cloaked.

* You cloak. The amount of "shimmer" is increased as you move so standing still you will be nigh invisible, but when moving you will be noticeable to an extent. When cloaked, you obviously have no chevron or health bars, but the enemy reticule will flash red if you run past it.

* Cloak can be deactivated by selecting it and pressing fire.

* Once deactivated or it runs out it will start to recharge.

* Firing a weapon while cloaked will rapidly deplete the cloak field (a single shot from a sniper rifle, for instance, will decloak you)

* You can only fit one cloak field at a time.

The ability to cloak will add a lot of survivability to the scout role.  Currently, they get eaten up at range.  If the enemy cannot see you, they won't shoot you.  There will need to be new tactics to develop to utilize this ability.  I think their main prey will be medium suits as heavies and commandos will have the tank to take a shot or two after decloak and then burn down the scouts.

Amarr Scout
Scout Suit Bonus: 10% bonus to PG/CPU cost of cloak field per level.
Amarr Scout Bonus: 5% reduction to cloak field cooldown per level.

Caldari Scout
Scout Suit Bonus: 10% bonus to PG/CPU cost of cloak field per level.
Caldari Scout Bonus: 5% reduction to firing cloak cost per level.

Gallente Scout
Scout Suit Bonus: +10% bonus to PG/CPU of cloak field per level.
Gallente Scout Bonus: 5% to dropsuit scan radius and 5% reduction to scan profile per level.

Minmatar Scout Skill
Scout Suit Bonus: 10% bonus to PG/CPU cost of cloak field per level.
Minmatar Scout Bonus: 5% to melee and nova knife damage per level. 

The interesting change is swapping the profile bonus for the cloaking skill.  This will make scouts easier to see on scans and dropsuit radar.  The Gallente scout keeps its bonuses, making it the best in my opinion.  I'll have to see how practical cloaking is before seeing if the Amarr or Caldari scout is worth it.  Maybe they will have superior base stats compared to the Gallente version to compensate?  We'll see when the patch is deployed.

Overall, I am excited about the buff scouts are receiving.