I've been watching from the sidelines on this whole forum war on ADS vs, well everything. I've seen a lot of tin foil hat moments for both sides. I personally am not in favor of touching the ADS at all, many experienced pilots I've talked to are also agreeing with me on this (except for maybe pythons collision damage, fix this CCP).

Anyway, let's get to the main forms of AV we have out on the field, and what I think should be done. I'll be getting to swarms last as I have the most to say about them.

Rail tanks

Let's start off with rail tanks. First off, I feel your pain, I don't like the way you shout constantly over this and that, but I see where you're coming from. I've done the math on my ADS fit, and a triple damage modded rail takes about 2 shots to kill me, three if I can get my shield booster on in time. I do honestly think that rail tanks got screwed with the nerf they recieved, and I honestly think a 5% damage buff to rails (math could be off) would be enough for them to two shot any python worth a crap out of the sky. But an additional problem lies in this formula meant to take out derps, the fact that tankers can run this fit, and also have 4400 armor on a gunnlogi. Pardon me if I don't see why a tank that is more than likely in the red line than anywhere else strategic should have that much armor, that just encourages camping in the red, and it would take a fit exactly like the redline fit to fish you out. My proposal is to buff the PG of damage mods to where this fit can still be achieved, but at cost to your total armor, so people cant just sit in the red and farm WP and be nigh invincible. (not sure the exact numbers to PG upgrades)

Forge guns

Aside from being a pilot, I also like to forge quite a bit. Forge guns take quite a bit of skill to shoot down pilots and the like, but it's just not enough, even with it in the hands of a good forger. My proposal is to make the proficiencies on the forge a flat damage buff, but that would be rather OP in my opinion if it was at its 3% per level, so I'd say make it a 2% per damage on the forge gun. People would argue to use a PLC if you want to take out a python, but that is a tin foil hat argument.

Rail Incubus

On top of Pythons, I also fly these. Those who complain about it probably don't have the levels needed to take out a python or Incubus. I think they're working as intended, in the right hands they can prove quite deadly to us, you probably just haven't devoted enough time towards the incubus. There is the glitch where our rails don't shoot, or magically drain our clip for some ungodly reason, but that's a glitch, that's nobodies fault.

Ramming

To the pilots out there, there is a module you can fit on your low slots called a range amplifier, it works, trust me.

I think that's all of them, aside from the swarms, which I will now discuss.

Swarm launchers

I fail to see why you guys want a buff, you already got the buff of minus extra swarms with comparable damage, the extra two missiles hurt you as you had to wait 1/3 longer to lock on to your target. And what did you sacrifice for it? I just did the math on a double damage modded Minmando pre-charlie, and post-charlie. I assumed that the stacking penalty is affected per tier, so 5% would be 4% pre-charlie. You lost 34 damage...

Now onto my next point, why should a weapon that is fire and forget, can curve around buildings, and follow my flight pattern almost exactly unless I do some serious Yoda crap be buffed?

A lot of swarmers will say such things that will try to prove it takes skill to fire a swarm. The only three notable points I've ever noticed is:

1) It's about positioning
2) We have to remain undetected or we're dead.
3) You also have to deal with other infantry, and you're nearly unable to defend yourself

First off, all weapons are about positioning. You wouldn't ask someone with a rail rifle to take on an HMG in CQC and win, assuming they have equal skill in their fields.

Another problem I've noticed that works in debunking points one and two is a behavior I've noticed in all swarmers, Never seen an exception to this. I've flown in hundreds of PC's, pubs and FW's alike. The problem with this is that all swarmers tend to camp a single area, with no regard to stealth whatsoever. And all I have to do to find a swarm is to find his hive, it is almost always a guarantee that he/she is no less than 30 meters away from it.

On the remaining undetected issue, I believe a Ludacris song will explain my feelings on this. Swarms launch a volley with a smoke trail, making it easy to find you, wouldn't it make sense to get the hell out of there, and strike from a different angle?

on fighting infantry and being nigh defenseless. Isn't that the way it's supposed to be? If you're that concerned about it, bring a friend.

Anyway, that's my two cents on that, sorry if I took too much time on the soap box.

Swarms are pretty solidly inferior to every other weapon in the game. Particularly when you consider than yes, while swarms arc around buildings, they also hit those buildings more often than not, and that forge gunners can near insta-hit you with ease. Additionally, when you consider the fact that swarms are the only weapon in the game that can't fire at infantry, and also happens to suck at AV, you wonder why they exist at all.

Much simpler would be to tweak afterburners; there's nothing more annoying than facing a dropship (particularly the Incubus) that not only has more HP than a tank, but the ability to dart out of danger at a moment's notice.

@ action: I've used the range amp, it works fine for me. And if you're so certain that I've never flown before, ask me a derp question that is at least chrome build and beyond. I was flying when damage mods were passive, when blaster turrets were the greatest thing since sliced bread, and during that era ironically, rockets were very underrated, as rockets in that day were still awesome. I was around when rockets didn't count as explosive damage, and you could still be revived after being shot by it. Long story short, range amps work for me, I guess they don't work for you. If that's how you roll, fine.

@ massive, I thank you for the compliment. You're a pretty scary forger yourself. But in truth, there are pilots out there that can probably do the things I do better than I can. heck, I've even been trying to teach some people to fly recently, and to be honest, I don't think that good of a job, not a bad job mind you, but I could do better.

@ that one kitty: Show me an ADS pilot that flies in a straight line to avoid swarms. I never said that this should be a good way to dodge them, in fact, any pilot that does that deserves to die.

@ adipem Nothi: The swarm is a pure AV weapon. If you look at the stats and damage towards infantry, it was never meant to kill infantry by design. That is why it didn't fare so well in kills, as it wasn't supposed to kill anything but vehicles. I still maintain that swarms having a lock on feature make me think that it shouldn't get anything buffed, at least damage wise. I will still view it as fire and forget.

I use them on my Amarr logi. Which is my main pilot suit. I thought that would've been common sense, you and Takahiro got it wrong too. My mistake.