Lili Lu
Victory Not Vengeance
Intrepid Crossing
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Posted - 2008.12.17 21:40:00 -
[1]
 Originally by: darkmancer
ECM is a vital part of the game, especially in medium scale fights regards to disrupting spider tanks.
The falcons abit ott with it's range and cloak abilities. The best solution i've seen so far is the optimal -> falloff change talked about in the other nearby falcon post.
Another was to change ecm mods from a mid to a high slot item, change the slot layout & bonus's on the falcon/rook, and lose the sig amps. This would allow the ships the slight tank + speed mods to operate in the short @ mid range and have a hope of survival.
But more important is what has been said else where - changing the counters, stealth bombers need higher cpu & pg they are far to tight to fit sensibly.
Sensor damps were slightly over nerfed (although they got a bit riculous before). Change the t2 strength 17 -> 20% and change the scripts to + 100% x - 50% y to make them more rounded items. Boosts to the falloff range might make people people start to use sensor damps as falcon counters too.
Horray, finally we're getting somewhere. We don't even need to switch the optimal and falloff on the jammers themselves. And, not sure I can agree with all the high slot switching etc. However, yes Gallente recons dampening needs to become more effective as a counter to ECM boats. I doubt CCP will re-buff the damps, but they could rework the bonus to include damping range for the damping ships.
The range has to be knocked down on ECM ships as well. Reduce the 20% to 15% for range. I'd like to see the strength bonus reduced as well, but really the range is the biggest problem. Forcing them closer to the fray or to a place where they might be countered might be enough and would be a compromise I'd be willing to make in balancing them. Putting them into the damp recon's damp falloff range would balance. Arazu would have to roll lucky with falloff and Falcon lucky with racial chance.
Another overlooked problem with ECM boats is that the ecm remains in effect after the Falcon or Rook cloaks. Conversely the very much more fragile stealth bomber will lose its damage potential if it cloaks. Unless that stealth bomber gets a lucky on top warp in to the Falcon it's quickly lights out for the bomber. Two things could be done. All ew could lose effect once the recon cloaks. I'm not sure I would like that myself. However, the better solution, and one which I'm sure Falcon apologists would prefer, would be to buff stealth bombers so that the cruises remain locked on target and do damage even if the bomber cloaks.
Actually, I like that bomber buff a great deal. Bombers are like submarines. Submarines could launch torpedos and dive. There is no real reason I can think of to not allow bombers to cloak and still have the missiles remain locked on target. They are meant to be a fragile, frustrating damage dealer, like the submarine. They still could not warp cloaked which would be overpowered. But they would still necessitate decloaking by cepters etc, which is a viable counter.
Anyway, thanks for recognizing that ECM boats are a problem. When fleets, as is happening now, show up with 10-20 or more falcons you know it's out of balance. Fleet fight slug fests, when not lagged out, are quite exciting. An occasional jam is and should be part of it. But to have the fight become who brought more Falcons, and thus turn the fight into a one side jams out the other romp is no fun.
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