I pilot most of the time with an incubus (AV) or a grimsnes (infantry support).

This is the bit I don't understand:
Infantry, your suits and weapons cost about ten percent of the cost of an ADS, possibly twenty percent for all you protos, and that's for an ADV ADS, not proto. When you are having a hard time killing it, consider that; the pilot has invested huge amounts of SP and ISK, whereas a militia forge gun on a militia frame can end an ADS quite easily. I am actually very happy with AV at the moment - flying can be easy, unless the enemy work together (wait, what? :P) to take you down. When 2-3 infantry / a rail tank and a forge work together to take me out, I feel that I'm fair game.

What I don't want to see are the return of the days where I lift off and suddenly get mullered by 7 groups of unrendered swarms, 2 forge guns and a rail installation within 5 seconds, every time. :/

One other idea: why can't it be a food chain? Infantry>Tanks>dropships>infantry for example? Aren't some match ups meant to be more one-sided than others? :)

My AV fit (STD MinCom/ADV Swarm) costs 20,000 ISK, and while soloing a vehicle is difficult, it is not impossible for me. I realise not everyone runs Commandos, and that is fair, but even a single Swarmer is something for your average ADS pilot to be concerned about.

Take a look at the other example: does your Proto heavy cost 4x that of a standard heavy, and should you not have an advantage? You have the better gun, more HP, higher bonuses and just plain more. That Proto heavy does have a significant advantage: the ADS does have a significant advantage over even the most expensive AVer, but for all of that advantage, a single AVer can drop them all the same. I know! I've been on both sides of that equation (albeit not even as expensive as you!)

If a half invested AVer can take down ADSs, surely a fully invested AVer can. I don't want to say get good, but how are you approaching Swarm/ADS combat? Are you just launching at first sight? Do you wait and optimise your approach? Do you get behind it, wait til it gets lower for better shots?

I still feel the Swarm has a low skill cap (ie, the difference between a poor Swarmer and a great Swarmer is not a large gap) but there are measures you can take to make your attacks more effective.

all levels are a bit powerful against dropships. they need a slight tone done. I think a 70/70/80/110 might be too far, i'm still running models. Perhaps start with an 80/70/80/120 or even 70/70/100/120. There are a few options. The most balanced are based not on the raw data, but on the realistically available builds.

One of the biggest issues is first mover. Because of the limits of the pilot view and the terrible rendering the first a pilot knows about swarms is when that first volley hits. We then have to react but by then the second volley is on the way. Most swarms get two shots in. That is my experience (recorded and documented) of being a swarmer and a pilot.

Where we are now is 3 volley kills. With two volleys being an almost guaranteed number of hits this is just too much. If rendering was better, or we had lock on warnings, or swarmers were not able to hot and skip and maintain lock, or swarmers lost lock on damage then this might be okay. As it stands now they have too many strength against the dropships defensive weakness.

If its a transport centric one such as logistics or standard then hell yeah it should have MORE survivability than a tank. A tank is a single man operable vehicle, it does not require more than 1 person to utilise it in order to be effective.

A transport dropship however requires AT LEAST 3, and that is just to be a poor representation of a Helicopter Gunship, the main role of a dropship is to transport troops. Therefore you give more survivability because your not gonna convince 6 people to get into a flying steel coffin.