One thing that sort of makes this hard to understand in faction war is the plex restrictions versus the actual intended power of the ships.

http://cdn1.eveonline.com/www/newssystem/media/8742/1/Shiptech_1920.jpg

Note some modification of this here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKx87NwKaIE&feature=youtu.be&t=8m19s

Now according to this chart it would seem that pirate faction frigates are supposed to be more powerful than tech 2 frigates. Now I think with interceptors ccp did accomplish its objective. I wouldn't say interceptors are more powerful than pirate frigates but they are more specialized and perform their specialized role better. But assault frigates just seem clearly more powerful than pirate ships except for the garmur and worm.

So the question is whether the other pirate ships are supposed to be where the garmur and worm are, or are assault ships supposed to be stronger than pirate frigates as the current plex restrictions seem to imply?

It would make sense that a pirate frigate that costs 2 to 3 times as much as a assault frigate would be more powerful. But it seems to me that other than the worm and garmur they are clearly less powerful. The daredevil is sort of middle of the road. But the dram succubus and cruror are quite a bit weaker than afs. I would say the succubus cruror and dram are on par with plain navy frigates that often cost about 20% as much. I would say you have in order gaining power
1)vannilla t1 frigates,
2)navy faction frigates along with succubus, cruror and dram,
3)Daredevil and t1 destroyers
4) AFs
5) worm and garmur

IMO if ccp wants to justify the price of pirate frigates so they are more powerfull than afs then they need to bring the other pirate frigs up to be competitive with the worm and garmur. (I would think they would also then not allow pirate frigates in novices)

If however they want the power of the ships to match the plex restrictions so t2 ships should be more powerfull then it would seem we should bring the pirate ships in line with the daredevil.

I don't know what to say other than I just disagree on both a fleet level and on a smaller gang/solo level. Wolves and Jags are not great I agree. But a gang of them could easilly fight off a group succubus. The retribution is one ship that I agree could use a buff. The succubus may be able to get away but it won't hold a plex from the vast majority of assault ships.

They cost 2-3xs as much and are just weaker than afs.