Are Hornet EC-300 of any practical use in solo/small gang PvP?
I’m looking at a fit for a ship whose primary DPS are not drones, but has a decent drone bay. A single ECM jam during a fight, if successful, would yield 20 seconds of no incoming DPS from the target ship (or a chance to run, if needed). However, the ECM strength of the drone is only 1, which gives a very small chance of that actually happening… but on the other hand, I can launch 5 of them, so the probability gets a bit higher.
Of course, I’m not expecting frequent successful jam cycles that I could rely on as a primary form of electronic warfare… just 1 (or in the best case “wild dream” scenario: 2) per fight would be OK for me.
If anyone has used EC-300’s extensively, can you, please, share your experience with them? Does a jam cycle happen at least once during a fight or are they totally useless and I should look either at some other e-war drones or simply go with a bit more DPS?
Their jam duration is only 5 seconds but they still cycle for 20. Also they are disposed of easily, their EHP is really low so if your opponent is on the ball, they will get rid of a couple before the drones cycle their jams again. They can keep the jamming drone locked in the meantime as well.
ECM drones have always been mostly only good for last ditch escape attempts, even before the nerf to their jam duration. The DPS afforded by regular drones can’t really be beaten, especially in ships like Breacher where a good chunk of the damage output is in drones.
Didn’t know about the 5 seconds. I’ll take a look at the attributes more closely next time. Thanks.
Hmm… so the conclusion is that they are a panic button which have a slight chance of working and mostly against tackle. That answers my question perfectly
Often used by an entire small gang that don’t have drone bonus because several flights of ec drones are much more likely to remove the dps or reping power from an enemy ship than what they would make up in added dps anyhow.
