"Now bob our decently skilled FPS'er tries his best but the damage of the big bad proto's weapon combined with his huge HP advantage is insurmountable, throughout the rest of the game bob tries and tries but he just can't win."

Proto gear is somewhat like titans when you look at it, the only effective counter is to field proto gear yourself

Fits should provide an advantage that augments your play style, not make you invincible to anyone who isn't carrying the same meta as you.

a large segment of gear still remains worthless once you reach a certain point

I'm curious - is there anyone here who agrees with the current system and is at least familiar to how tiers work in EVE? Reading this thread it seems like two types of people disagree with tiericide - people who currently protostomp (to be expected naturally) and people who don't seem to fully grasp what OP and others are suggesting, which I can only presume is because they haven't seen it in action.

Though the criticism that because various mechanics are so borked and there is only pvp split across 3 game modes, stands I guess - if there is nothing to do, there is nothing to specialise in other than 'kill moar people betta!'. I mean protostomping isn't just end game - it is the game. What else does it offer?

Though I think the point is, we should be looking to future, not looking to make the best lobby shooter there is.

You make some good points cross, and I agree with them to an extent.

First off, you right corp squads will always stomp pubbies, no question or issue there, it's a good thing, teamwork and tactics should carry the day. "bob" was a bit if a poor example but it was the best I could come up with at the time.

Secondly, the comparison with titans and proto gear was meant more in comparison of blob on blob and man on respectively, the best way to counter a Titan blob is with another Titan blob (or so I am given to understand) and on a 1 on 1 basis the best way to deal with a proto suit is another proto suit. I'm aware that proto suits are fa from invincible will still die, it's just the HP/DPS advantage they have with virtually no drawbacks is ridiculous.

As for emulating BF3 and COD, I meant that in regard to to EHP levels, with a similar line across all players other factors become more important, rather than just HP/DPS levels, engagements in those games feel more more satisfying and exciting than firefights in dust, don't misunderstand me, I don't want to see dust become a clone of either of those games in anyway, I'm just pointing out how neither game provides players with HP advantages and how it might be better for dust to tone down the numbers you can achieve here or balance it in some other way.

As for what you said about the various tiercide ideas I'm in agreement with you to an extent there, I know my own ideas are probably not the best and the other ideas I've seen are interesting I'm not 100% sure whether they're the best that they could be. What's important is that CCP takes some measures to reduce the EHP and DPS gap between tiers that exist right now. If someone wants to run around with as much health as a heavy on a assault suit let him, he better suffer in the DPS department though. An advantage with a drawback is balanced, two advanatges with no drawbacks isn't. Current prototype players are effectively heavies without the mobility penalty, that needs to change.

And I have to agree with you, dust lacks the variety needed to insure that tiercide would work best, I'm not demanding for a change now, I just want to the principle of what I'm proposing being executed in rebalances and new content additions.