Okay, if you're going to buff swarms considerably, could the price reduction for the ADS be considered once again? I wouldn't mind if were reduced to at least 120k. 323k is a tad ridiculous for a STD dropship... regardless of it being an ADS.

EDIT: It's not so much that the regular dropship isn't viable, but why even use it? Every other role can easily supply itself with WP, but you simply can't even do that much in a regular dropship... mCRUs don't offer WP, and you're fully dependent upon gunners. There's very little you can do with that kind of a role...

When those swarm changes go trough then the ADS will become just a flying coffin and a nonfactor in every aspect. All it needs is a cloaked scout with a swarm launcher and there goes the dropship up in flames. They wont be aible to take damage and aswell not be capable to avoid it.

Allright lets start this then. Lets assume we got a scout with a proto swarm launcher, 2DMG mods and proficency 5 into it. Base damage from swarms will be then at 1572HP. Times 3 is 4716HP damage which you cannot avoid oh and thats omni damage without damage boost vs armor or damage penalty vs shields (+/- 20%). So lets see how much damage it would cause vs a incubus (armor tank) and a python (shield tank).

Armor damage: 5659 HP damage with 3 volleys
shield damage: 3772 HP damage with 3 volleys

So lets put this in perspective with how much HP you can squeeze out of both dropships:
Incubus fit
Python

The Incubus got a max HP of about 5197ehp
The python has a max HP of 3955ehp

The incubus will die allready due to the high damage output alone and the little bit of shields wont save it. You might would think that going for the python would be a better idea but as soon the shields are breaking the damage gets a boost vs armor and its going to crash with its nose into the ground. Oh and please ignore the warning that PG is not sufficent on the right. The site is bugged so that PG upgrades dont add to the PG of the fit.

So whats going to happend is that a ADS wont be capable to avoid beeing blowed up without a chance to escape the swarms. Most of the time pilots hit the AB when they have beeing hit with the 1st volley but with the changes that will be too late cause 2 more are incoming and are granted to hit.

Watch the video that Tesfa and I linked to in the above posts: that video will demonstrate how and why Swarms aren't actually outrun by ADS, rather that ADSs reach their top speed quicker. The only thing to be said for Swarm/ADS speed is that the ADS can scale lock-on range quickly, but this has very little to do with the Afterburner anyway: most engagements take place at a range of about 60-80m, meaning the dropship only has to travel 100m or so to escape lock-on range. That distance is covered very quickly, usually regardless of vehicle (HAVs and LAVs both also run this distance in a very short time), which means that an ADS that runs is usually facing only the volleys launched before it runs, which is almost always two but mstill fairly often three.

Essentially, ADSs don't outrun Swarms, they outrange them (ie, get ahead of them and stay ahead until they run out of fuel) which is a key difference. With the proposed changes to swarm speed/acceleration, an ADS will almost never escape a swarm volley, because Afterburners do not increase top speed, meaning that they will get hit by two volleys and almost certainly by three.



If price shouldn't be an issue, then a much greater price drop should not be an issue. 200-300k for a fully fitted (solo) ADS is still expensive, but it would mean that pilots are not getting shafted for several battles by losing a single ship. Price not being factor cuts both ways: if price doesn't make something better, then why is it more expensive? Plain and simple, why is that question so difficult for some people to answer?

Now, tell me what can a pilot do against a lock-on, auto-tracking weapon that they cannot outrun? We have speed as an advantage, which we are losing from the proposal; we have resilience, which is essentially sufficient to survive the first two hits and give us the opportunity to react, but then we still have to absorb more damage before we even acquire our enemy and we have very little to no cover depending on the map/how well the Swarmer has positioned.

What can a pilot do if: there's nowhere to hide and we cannot escape using speed?



Tell me, what manoeuvres will help? The Swarms will still track you, they fly faster than you and then you still have an enemy to deal with who has exactly the same advantage next time (assuming you survive somehow) if you try and engage.