Im going to be assuming you don’t mean points and webs. the two most common forms of E-war. So common most don’t class them as E-war.
yes there are even some ships like the navy E-war frigates built around solo (with mixed results) however in small gangs a dedicated E-war ship can be a massive force multiplier and have you hit well above your weight.
There are no limits other than the ECM burst that I would say to never use in HS and only use in LS if you don’t care about sec status.
the main reason to use most forms of E-war is to limit or outright remove an opponent from a fight. It can also be used to force an opponent into the fight you want.
ECM is by far the worst but I would argue it’s the easiest to understand (it’s either working or it’s not) when it comes to drones it is the best choice. The rest of the E-war drones are arguably useless. The ‘strongest’ while unlike ECM they technically don’t prevent your target from locking on paper they do in reality easily able to take a BB down under 6km lock range with a dedicated ship (even under 2km if using heat)
I put strongest in quotes because while it definitely does have the most powerful effect weapon disruptors do a similar thing but are limited only to the ships weapons. Their biggest disadvantage is needing two different modules to work on turrets or missiles. However where they shine is unlike with damps your target often does not realize just how weekend their ship has become right away (or at all) causing them to stay on grind longer rather than start running.
Target painters on there own are really niche when it comes to dedicating an entire bonused ship to them and I would argue give ECM a run for its money as the worst E-war in that situation. However the minmatar T2 give bonuses to both web range and target painters this makes a single paint (or even a double if running with a BB) more than worth it. You have the amazing control given to you from the webs and the multiply the effect of the painters.
Now for why ECM is the worst. Well… damps just do everything they do better they still leave the ECM ship vulnerable and while a good ECM pilot can manipulate the RNG in his favor it still means lady luck decides your fate in a fleet reliant on ECM. It’s one nice is countering a set up like T3 logistics that sits in close with its fleet protecting it from damps. Problem is those ships naturally have some of the highest resistance to ECM and are fit to counter it further making damps geared toward lock speed a better option imo.
I’m classing ECM burst separate from ECM as their use and intended hulls are different. They can be fitted to anything but outside of some memes or yolo fits it will be the scorpion or the widow that you use these on. If you know what you’re doing, or better yet in a fleet that knows how to work with these setups they can be extremely oppressive. Likewise despite what some people will try to tell you the widow and scorpion should not be fit with standard ECM the blackbird and falcon will always do that job better for cheaper.
nuets are not E-war but rather like NOS are cap-warfare modules. This distinction may seem like semantics but they are handled differently both in their usefulness on unbonused ships and being more restrictive in use do it them being high slots. However I would say if you do have an open high and the required fitting you should always slap a nuet on there (or a nos where applicable) even if its only used defensively.
as stated before ECM is probably the weakest. its even worse in small fleets where its easy to focus and kill or chase off whatever is using the ECM. Particularly when there are a lot of ships that have the range and firepower to 1shot many ECM boats on there own and you become the only thing they can shoot.
T1 I would say either damps or WD is the best for small scale PvP. WD ships also tend to come with more DPS and nuets however damps are just crazy strong and will be more useful in a wider variety of fights.
T2 it’s going to be the gallente damp ships as they also get extended scram and crazy levels of point range. T2 also gives you some nice nuet bonuses with the amarr WD but I would still rather have the damps and points in most fleets.
only the ECM drones… in fact if your ship only holds a few unbonused drones I would say use the ECM ones. being as it is either a jammed or not jammed situation the low chance doesn’t matter particularly in you have 10+ drones constantly checking if they jam independently. the larger nuet drones are the only other ones that don’t have a stacking penalty so can become effective in large numbers (or even small numbers if you are already nueting and just need to keep a ship capped out) but it’s very niche. The rest all have stacking penalties and are pretty much useless. CCP needs to up their bandwidth and effectiveness by x5 and maybe they would see use.
in 1v1s I have seen a few fits that make use of web drones just to eek out a small advantage but it’s rare.
