Wu Fey
Ghost Headquarters
The Marmite Collective
1
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Posted - 2013.04.08 19:36:00 -
[1] - Quote
Right now the caldari ECM ships are nearly always fit in a way that is contrary to caldari fleet doctrine (armor tanked). This, I imagine, makes balancing very difficult. ECM has been nerfed due to its ability to completely shut down enemy ships, but the ECM platforms have not received any increase in viability or utility. They still tend to be paper-thin, and oft-called primary. Due to the reduction in ECM strength, fitting a half-shield-tank / half-ECM fit is even less viable.
But what do we do? Do we give caldari ECM ships more low slots? What about an armor bonus? These methods only make the ECM ships stray further from the caldari design philosophy. Adding more mids is also problematic, due to the possibility of someone simply filling them all with tanking modules.
Although many may consider it ridiculous, I think the concept of ECM as a high-slot is actually quite sound. In many ways ECM fills a similar function to neuts, which are also high-slots.
I realize that this would require you to take a look at nearly every ship in the game, since ECM would become a new contender for high-slot utility, but I think this opens up some pretty interesting options.
Un-bonused ECM is not very strong, and I doubt having one ECM module on a BC or Cruiser is going to be substantially more powerful than a medium neut. After all, people don't generally fit a single ECM module on armor tanked ships with 4 or more mids. However, it would have greater range than a neut, making it much more appropriate for long range fits. It would also open up some utility to ships that don't have the PG for a medium neut, but have some CPU left over. Often times a small neut is just not that attractive, and only serves as a heat sink. In general high slot utility for combat ships is fairly lacking in variety, and this may help with that.
Where this might become a problem is on frigates, but the large CPU cost of ECM modules probably makes this a non-issue.
With ECM as a high slot module, caldari ECM ships could be balanced very similarly to their Amarr counterparts. The Scorpion could feature a robust shield tank and an ECM strength bonus, making it a viable close range ECM platform, in a similar vein to the new geddon. It would assuredly have to receive some balance changes, specifically to slot layout, but it would be functioning within the intended design, making balancing much more feasible.
The cruiser range of ECM ships will naturally need to rely on speed or utility due to their high targeting priority in any engagement, but they will be able to fit at least some tank. This is similar to the way the curse / pilgrim already function.
In addition, if appropriate, drone bonuses could be granted to some of the above ships. This solution works really well for neut dedicated platforms and, I imagine, it would work well here too for the same reasons.
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