Ozy wrote:Arga wrote:Oriamen wrote:The "problem" with ECM is that it's good in large engagements but even better in small engagements.
The 'Problem' is when agressors only bring DPS and they run into a smart group of players that have a balanced squad with dedicated ECM bots.
I've been out of the game for a while, so correct me if i'm wrong here, but it wouldn't it be more correct to state that a DPS bias can indeed be disadvantageous, while an EWAR bias will most likely not be (unless the opponent is either using loads of ECCMs or the DPS in question are ranged gropho mk2s). So, it's not necessarily about balanced groups but having a sufficient amount of ewar.
Too much Ewar can certainly be an issue.
Balanced groups have to bring suffcient DPS to overcome HPS (Sheilds/Rep) or it becomes a standoff at best but more likely due to the RNG nature of Ewar/ECM, a losing scenerio (unless they can call in DPS reinforcements).
How an encounter plays out depends as much on how the FCs recognize and react to the groups they meet, as well as the groups composition. Meeting a group that has ewar in it almost certainly means a drawn-out battle of attrition. Groups out to blitz are going to want to avoid ewar, this is especially true if they are aggressing into enemy territory.
Edit: What Sydic said. But also the ewar nerf topic is very old. General concensus is that tuners probably need a tweak downward. Vocal parties continue to call for no change or major nerfs.
Also, I had wanted to say that group composition is highly dependant on what you're trying to accomplish with it. So in that sense, if the goal of the FC is to harrass and slow opposition, than having a heavy bias to ewar would be the balance they wanted.
Lastly, ECCM isn't useless, but because it's a head slot the trade-off makes it undesirable... unless you know your coming up against heavy ECM/Suppression group where SOME dps is better than lower DPS.