CO should be easily able to dispatch a fighter. In the past this was possible and still is even with the nerf to missile reload time. They should not however, be capable of soloing and destroying the “tank” class of the game IE: The Guard. The main reason this used to be gamebreaking is because, frigates have almost no way to withstand a CO assault other than tank the damage which even Guards struggle to do so (Exception being the LRF reversing to safety) . Fighters on the other hand can either kill the target (Gunship) Hide (Tackler) Attempt to tank or avoid the shots (Command). Not to mention fighters can avoid the plasma arc and dodge at least 25% of incoming Orion charged shots. Frigates on the other hand have to eat everything. If the Guard struggles to withstand the damage, how can the LRF or even the Engineering frigates even have a hope of survival.
A mistake on my part, what i meant was being caught off guard by a single attacking CO should not lead to destruction of a frigate especially if its a Guard Frigate. If the frig is ganged the frigate should die which should only happen if they are caught out of position.
Yes Guards should be able to be destroyed by skilled Gunship pilots if they are caught off guard. This could be done in the past and still can. (Gunships are a lot easier to hit than a spiralling CO)
The honest reason in my opinion why this nerf was brought about is because high tier matches are too small. In the end, there are not enough people to form a team to create a small frigball which creates an area of denial. Taking into account how hard interceptors are to hit and how much damage they can dish out, Frigates have a very low chance of survival especially if the attack is coordinated with an ECM because 90% of the time, they are “out of position” This i believe is also why ECM is overpowered in higher tiers. There is simply, no “safe place” for frigates to stay in such that they can prevent themselves from being ganged and killed. In lower tiers like 3, there is usually always a small frigball of at least 3 frigates. This ball prevents enemy CO from getting close to kill the ship. Higher tiers lacks this, thus interceptors become op, especially when the whole enemy team is full of ECM ships.
CO i believe is also one of the few ships that can actually dish out all 3 types of damage without sacrificing any of its tank. Eg: Plasma cannons, Piercing Missiles, Plasma Arc. Gunships have to sacrifice their shield (Particle purge). LRF such as the JLRF can dish out all 3 types as well, but the difference is it cannot chase you down unlike a CO ship. All you need is cover and you can survive, unless he ambushes you then u deserve to die. This causes Guards to lose their effective phase shield ability because they cannot effectively tank multiple damage types at once, not to mention the shield resistant penalties for guards.
Just torp to da face,activate pulsar and use your main weapon (if you even know how) and CO will be gone in no time,this doesn’t always work in higher tiers but it does in t3 coz most used CO don’t have emergency barrier.
And btw CO should be able to solo any ship that is alone,not close to his team to support him.