Unless there's a bunch of unwritten changes on this patch, the balance notes leave much to be desired and after probably 15-20 games last night it feels like that is indeed the case.

Ad Mech Ark is still not worth its point in a 2v2 scenario, I don't know if it needs buffed PER SAY as I'm sure it can work in 1v1 lists but just because it's 2v2 I feel like BS picks should still be viable. 2v2 seems more in line with take as many cruisers as you can with 3+ escorts or lose.

Ad Mech in general are still pretty much just IN. Their perks are not that great, they don't have any innate ability that the IN don't get(like a Repair that heals or something), they have no unique weapons that the IN can't take and they even LOST Melta Torps for some reason to IN only.

I played a decent amount of Necrons last night as well, picking the Cairn in 2v2. This is even worse than Ad Mech, 1 BS 2 escorts(phew). But I roll with it knowing it's my choice. Now I will say that Starpulse was addressed and it isn't nearly as bad as it was(good job) and the armor changes do seem to make them tougher(also yay).

The DPS on Necrons is...lacking. For it's point costs it should probably be doing a little more at least, especially with it's relatively shorter ranged weapons and long CD(this needs to be shortened IMO) on it's only mobility skill.

DE were hardly addressed, they seem to be the same cancer they were in first beta. Eldar got buffed to make it even easier to use their front guns and remained untouched on their DPS. These factions cannot remain this way on live.

System Criticals are absolutely out of control. My Necron BS can't go into a fight vs 2-3 ships for more than 7 seconds without a system failure. It is nuts, absolutely nuts.

Random observation but I ran into a Tau BS(the manta ray style one I forget the name) and it absolutely DECIMATED my Cairn in close range. I saw 2 laser pulses go through my ship and lost like 40% of my HP bar. It was out of this world. Nerf? I don't know but holy shit did I not expect that.

I hope there's more balance addressed before launch, but I fear there will not be. I feel like this is just basically early start for pre-orders(although it will be wiped on launch, we still get to have fun earlier).

See I think alot of the issues are better than they were before but I'm coming from a skirmish only campaign players view. I never touched armada 1s multiplayer and I don't plan to for 2.

Overall I feel alot of the balance issues new and some old are not addressed because the player base unlike the A.I really moves the goal post for the devs. They try to address or fix 1 issue, and the player base counters with a new playstyle and a new balance issue is born.

I'm not trying to make excuses, I just think there is more to it than the devs not trying

@swarm492 I mean the Necron issue has always been there since day one, and it’s that they lose to orks in max range shootouts because without starpulse because they are the worst fleet in the game without it. I am not going to copy paste the plethora of issues here since there have been many threads discussing them, but they have been complained about since day one with no response from the devs except the starpulse fiasco. No goalposts were moved, they were just ignored.

The disruption bomb got buffed, the larger range makes it easier to knock out dark eldar holofields. Some of the fighters seem to have gotten speed buffs too, and the cost of the DE ships went way up- no more five battleship fleets, the best they bring now is three. They got a few nerfs, direct and indirect. The cost nerfs other fleets got weren't quite as significant as theirs.

That tau battleship is 500 points. I don't recall cairn cost off the top of my head they're around the same value, and shootyness is the tau speciality.

System crits are too common, yeah. Need more light crit options, I don't think I've seen hull breach at all! Pyramidal reconstruction is a must. Disabling inertialess jumps when the engine systems are out is a double kick in the teeth for an immobile faction, the lack of active repairs for temp crits, waiting for the system regen compounds the problem- likely to suffer the permanent crit before it comes back.

whilst I agree with some of youre comments I would like to point out a few things.
starting with ad mech yea they work in 1v1 but in a 2v2 they are weak unless you play their ships in a more supportive role. This is something I found in game 1 that often 2 players will pick 2 different factions but not try and merge the strategy and just play as if it was a normal 1v1 and this does not work. The tyrinids are a prime example of this and you have to adjust the play style for 2v2 to mesh with the team-mate.
now the Necrons can work with the cairn but you have to keep in mind whilst it is fairly tanky it can still get shot to pieces especially with Eldar torps this is where pulse wave is amazing as it destroys torps and attack craft.while the DPS is lacking it is very consistent due to accuracy and can be done at range due it this. combine that with Necrons regenerative ability allows you to face tank in a 2v2 and when you get damaged teleport away and let your ally pressure the opponent whilst you wait for hp to regen a bit whilst giving long-range fire support (use the increase range stance for that).

whilst Eldar are strong when played right they are very weak to boarding and can be caught out by most factions my advice is to play defensive until you see an opportunity to exploit something and then they go down pretty fast as even with orks i have achieved this.

No idea what the tau hit you with for the 40% damage as the experimental rail gun (my first thought) only does something like 200 if i recal.
at the end of the day there are going to be factions that are stronger against others just like in total war hammer this is unavoidable.

I do agree that there are a few things that still need balance but I am fairly confident they will get round to it but I do think they are being careful not to nee jerk because they did that in the first game a bit and it killed the fun of a lot of factions.

maybe they well fudge some numbers to make them competitive but i dont see them making them fun lol... as they stand now they are by far the most boring to play race. As it stands now i as a SP content player dont think i could make it through the necrons campaign simply due to how monotonous the general fights are.

A DE hit by a disruption bomb will just turn back and wait fields are up again. DE just stay perma stealth and fears nothing.

Augur bomb is not played a lot yet but soon it will be abused, 45s no detection for all enemy ships on all map? I mean wtf?

Disruption bomb new range is insane, it can wipe the shield of 2-3 ships easily for an equivalent 600 damage or more

SM seems better with new armor/LS and lance armor reduction to only 50

Assault boats are the new OP thing, a big wave will rape ships easily unless you have fighter cover + brace. Even for IN, it is better to use assaults and try to drift a ship than use bombers and try to kill

A small bug for IN : Bastion and Koronus color patterns are switched

Also its lacking a button to view the range of all objects on the map (and also squadrons). Sometimes ALT don t work

augur bomb is useless, because everybody competent uses escort scanning to mark targets. that's the big reason, why DE are an extremely easy match-up for every well build shooty list.

Has anyone managed to dodge a disruption bomb or two with a Space Marine Battle Barge?
I found it difficult, but might be just me. I may as well not have had shields in the game they were coming off so easily.

We still have the issue that saving your fleet doesn't save your 'perks' at the same time so again I accidentally sailed off without any upgrades.

Balance isn't good enough yet I agree. I think the devs are still busy implementing features and squashing bugs.

I am hopeful though. We have at least two guaranteed opportunities for balance updates: the live patch and the following co-op campaigns updates. Hopefully there will be even more.

So let's keep testing and providing them feedback.

Feels like they don't care about our feed back.
0 Dev has responded to any of our comments and things we pointed out was bad in 1st Beta was not addressed.
This game is somehow a downgrade from the 1st with less mission diversity and less ship customization.
Unless they come out and promise changes I am getting my refund before release.

@sbun

Even if they don't post alot of what we talked about from the first beta was altered when the second phase started. I'd say they are reading our posts which is all I care about.

I just watched a game where two Eldar ships killed the Necron BS in 10 seconds flat. Wonderful balance, and not at all making wish I hadn't bought this