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« on: April 06, 2021, 04:46:09 AM »
TL:DR Frigates are way overtuned and tools to deal with them either lacking or nerfed into the ground.
Yeah....after smashing my fleet into red beacon system for an entire week I came to a conclusion that I have no ways to deal with enemy frigates. They are too fast to hit with any projectile weapons (even with elite skill), they are too fast to engage when you manage to catch them and they are too fast to disengage from when you need a room to breath. Also contrary to fighters they have way more firepower, too sturdy to kill with some random projectiles and have lvl 8 officer each. Not the matter they also usually outnumber you 5 to 1 at best.
So what's the options to deal with them? Beams and fighters (interceptors specifically). Beams just don't cut it against Remnants, you need enough of them to punch through 0.4 shield with almost cruiser level flux stats and enemy likely fall back way before you start dealing hull damage. All the while a dozen of his friends close in on you from all sides.
And fighters just lack any effective options against frigates now with sparks nerfed. Fighters specifically completely useless in this role simply because they are too slow. 150-180 speed is an embarrassment when frigates have close to 200 speed on average. To be effective against frigates fighters must have around 300 speed which leaves us with 4 options: Talons, Wasps, Sparks and Thunders. Talons and Wasps are too fragile for late game fights and former ones also drain your crew like crazy. Thunders have only 2 fighters in a wing and armor penetration of a finger. And Sparks...they are a qiuntessence of everything you want from fighter/interceptor: 300+ speed, shield, 0 crew, hitscan burst weapon, 5 in a wing and all this for 8 points. But now they barely competent in dealing with unshielded enemy fighters and that's it. Removing fighter skills was more than enough nerf to fighter spam, because now reaching critical mass of fighters is harder.
Now Ai has superior numbers, superior stats, superior officers (which I think is a part of stats), extremely aggressive behavior and I left with 0 tools to counter that. Every fight this entire week plays exactly the same: immediately got encircled by dozens of enemy frigates, got swarmed by insanely aggressive AI, while any enemy I'm trying to focus dash out of my range and got shielded by a swarm of allies.
Also about range. Who's idea that was to give 40+ ECM rating to all fleets? Even pirates and pathers fleets regularly have 40+. -20% to range is massive especially when closing in with target is a suicide.