Skirmish Matches 1 or 2 vs 1 or 2 is too small

#1

Skirmish has to have matchmaker wait a little longer for more than 1 vs 1 or 2 vs 2. I’ll explain.

 

If we go a step toward what would be realistic deployment of (not real) fighters, who would send 1 or 2 ships out to conquer a sector? They’d at least send a full squad of 4, for 4 vs 4.

 

You have too many team ships for 1 vs 1. Everything indicates teams being the reason to be going into Skirmish. 1 person is not a team. 2 are not a team; they are a pair or duo.

 

ECM is the only possible ship to win in 1 vs 1 unless the other doesn’t have an ECM either. Some of us abandoned ECM’s before tier 3. If we really have to be prepared for 1 vs 1, that means we have no choice but to always have a 1 vs 1 ECM on the tables. I’ll do it if this is how it’s going to be. But, I don’t want to.

 

What happens with 2 vs 2 skirmish:

 

I landed in a 2 vs 2 match yesterday. My only ally disconnected. I went in there and lured, separated and dueled both of the other team. I was able to dogfight and win against both individually just because that was the only way to scrounge some satisfaction out of a guaranteed lost game. The way this game is designed, one dude is shooting a dude who’s shooting another dude and so on, so the other opponent shows up after a dogfight to get a very easy cheap shot kill. This is a waste of time and effort. I can win dogfights, but I don’t go into Skirmish looking for dogfights where the reward is to get vultured by a straggler.

 

Several minutes of miserable 1 vs 2 skirmish or wait a little longer for at least 4 vs 4? I’ll vote for waiting a little longer for 4 vs 4.

 

I’m also on the side of not wanting the bots in Skirmish. I know that was discussed recently, so I thought I’d throw that in.

#2

A single guard with a good amount of regeneration and defense, both via the active modules and passive modules, will be able to easily take on any ecm, in a 1 vs 1. 

Same with healers, tacklers, and commands. provided that they’re jericho, of course, aside from the healers, I mean. 

With the other ships, it depends largely on a pilot’s skill, use of modules and positioning.

#3

A single guard with a good amount of regeneration and defense, both via the active modules and passive modules, will be able to easily take on any ecm, in a 1 vs 1. 

Same with healers, tacklers, and commands. provided that they’re jericho, of course, aside from the healers, I mean. 

With the other ships, it depends largely on a pilot’s skill, use of modules and positioning.

 

If it did work out with the guard winning the duel against the ecm, the guard can’t get around quick enough to do Skirmish objectives alone. Any of the interceptor roles could be capturing every beacon even if they get shot down a couple of times during the match. All the interceptor would have to do is not go where the guard is.

#4

Depends on the beacon mode and map.  A guard needs to only take a beacon so long before moving towards the next beacon. if you’re spending so much time on one beacon that you can’t get to the next one in time, you’re managing your time wrong.

 

Tip -  skip the first beacon, if it’s too far away, and go straight for the second beacon. Make sure you bring torps. Send your first torp to the first beacon, just in case you get lucky, and it’s also a good practice for the larger matches. go to the next beacon with about 30 to 20 seconds left on the timer, depending on your speed, warps available, etc.

 

Use at least one vernier engine on the engine slot, so you’ll have enough turn speed to keep an interceptor in view. Of course, you should also have the 5-1/5a/E5 implant to increase that turn rate.

Heavy blasters without any spread reduction used on the cpu slot is great for hitting even some decently good pilots who dodge a lot against other gun types. 

Using the spread reduction, however, makes it easier to see where you’re aiming for your enemy, and you’ll have less of a chance of landing a shot. 

 

In any case, my comment was simply to convince you that the ecm is not over powered in any way. 

Properly fit, you can fight anything. How you move your ship towards objectives is another thing entirely, and everyone should think about how to use their craft to the best of their abilities, in all situations.

 

As for a good interceptor type to fight ecms, both recons and covert ops are well and able to do as such. 

Coverts can kill an ecm’s tracking, cloak themselves before they attack, and hit with an astounding amount of damage initially. 

The Recon is more focused on skill, and it depends on your module layout, actives, passives, etc. 

Proximity mines help.

 

In any case, go where the interceptor is not, and fight only when needed. 

If played right, an interceptor will have no choice but to fight you head-on.

Of course, from that point on, it’s a battle of fit and skill.

 

 

Here’s one thing a frigate can do that an interceptor can’t:

Go through a warp, stop, back-up a small amount into the same direction you came from a short distance, and, if you’re a jericho lrf, turn to the point where your hull takes up the whole area where the warp would send in ships. stay still - and walla *Boom* you survive with 100% health, and the enemy dies, provided that it’s a set map warp, of course. Make sure to not do this to your friendlies.

#5

I have succeeded while flying low-health recon when full health ecm’s chase me to the edges of the maps to attempt a cheap easy kill. It takes a long time to do it in a recon. You know… recon gets to beacon first, gets shot up first, warps off, gets chased. I think I have won every time that happened. Skill is what you indicated, but it’s also incredible patience. When I see them chasing me, I settle in and accept this is the rest of the match for me… fighting an ECM ten thousand kilometers away from the team and the objectives. If we do it near a beacon, whichever one has the guard drones on their side wins.

#6

The earlier 2 vs 1 that I described previously was a team mate who completely disconnected right at the beginning.

 

This screenshot is a 2 vs 2 game where the team mate had “Loading” trouble for a long time. I was flying a Jericho Guard and able to capture 1 beacon, destroy both opponent ships, and start capturing a second beacon when the team mate gets in. As he gets in range of the 2 vs 1 action, it’s my ship being destroyed by both of the ships I destroyed.

 

Make every Skirmish wait for 4 vs 4 is what I’m going for.

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#7

Today, 3 vs 3, Capture the Beacons, tier 5. Ally disconnects making it 2 vs 3.

#8

While I agree a sortie of a few ships would be more realistic than a lone ship going off to fight another lone ship somewhere, did OP just state that in a 1v1 an ECM will always win? That’s ridiculous.

#9

While I agree a sortie of a few ships would be more realistic than a lone ship going off to fight another lone ship somewhere, did OP just state that in a 1v1 an ECM will always win? That’s ridiculous.

 

There are some conditions such as build, familiarity in flying ECM, the random luck of packet loss and ping effect. ECM winning isn’t a guarantee; it is currently the ship with the offensive tools for the clearest shot at success in when it is 1 vs 1. A recon is almost as formidable. A likely recon configuration will do less damage, and all it can drain is shields which are gone immediately in dogfights anyway. Even the recon’s freshly leeched shield is removed in seconds.