Which Frigate role do you prefer?
Engineer, no question.
Long Range can be fun, but they’re built out of balsa wood and have very little hope of surviving a direct confrontation short of luring their opponent into a minefield.
Guards are… I just hate flying them. They are slow and clunky and I feel like I’m being hamstrung; it’s as though the Guard frigate should have some kind of powerful ability that lets me inflict a massive beatdown on my opponents… but it doesn’t.
Engineers are the best all round. Decent speed and agility (especially with Warp Gates), buffs with good range to ensure I can assist allies from a good range and turrets that let me hammer one enemy whilst the main guns pummel another.
Don’t need even numbers of each type per team. One Long Range is enough for most maps. 2 Guards for every 3 Engineers or thereabouts is a balanced team. 6 frigs + 6 non frigs. And since Engies are constantly targeted, non frig pilots like myself would more likely keep engineers on backup for respawns to keep frig numbers up when needed.
Also fly the engineer Frig but that is because they took away the Torpedo from the Jericho Frig. I used to fly that almost exclusively but now it is a fat slow under armed pig. It is a real shame to because before I could really be a big help with defending a beacon or against swarms of fighters/interceptors. Now I can only give buffs until I die … which is usually pretty quick since the Engineer is the first to get targeted. The Guard is so slow now you can always come back to it and kill it at your leisure. Give the all the Jericho frigs their torpedo back and would play that exclusively again it was the best ship in the game for my play style.