Electronic warfare: Difference between revisions

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== EWAR drones ==

All four types of EWAR can be ~~generated~~ by electronic warfare drones. Variants of the small, medium and large combat drones of each race provide that race's EWAR specialty effect instead of the usual damage effects. For example, the Gallente EWAR specialty is damps, and so three sizes of Gallente EWAR drone—the small Hobgoblin SD-300, medium-sized Hammerhead SD-600, and large Ogre SD-900—apply damps to targets. The magnitude of each drone's effect is much smaller than that of an individual EWAR module, and stacking penalties make it such that lots of EWAR drones don't have much more of an effect than just two or three drones. As a result, EWAR drones are almost never used in serious combat. The one exception to this would be the Hornet EC-300 ECM drone, because its chance-based effect is not subject to stacking penalties. Industrial ships, and other ships hoping to escape combat, can sometimes use Hornet EC-300's to break the lock of a warp disrupting or warp scrambling attacker, and this can sometimes provide a window for the industrial ship's escape. Nevertheless, this narrow exception illustrates how much less broadly useful EWAR drones are compared to EWAR modules.

All four types of EWAR can be applied by electronic warfare drones.

~~More information on~~ EWAR drones is ~~available~~ in the [[~~Drones_102~~#~~Electronic_Warfare_Drones~~|~~syllabus for Drones 102~~]].

Variants of the small, medium and large combat drones of each race provide that race's EWAR specialty effect instead of the usual damage effects. For example, the Gallente EWAR specialty is damps, and so three sizes of Gallente EWAR drone—the small Hobgoblin SD-300, medium-sized Hammerhead SD-600, and large Ogre SD-900—apply damps to targets.

The magnitude of each drone's effect is much smaller than that of an individual EWAR module, and stacking penalties affect sensor dampening, weapon disrupting and target painting drones. Because drones are normally used in flights of five, the end result is that a flight of EWAR drones give the effect of two-and-a-half very weakened EWAR modules: stacking penalties significantly reduce the third drone’s effect and render the fourth and fifth drones’ effects negligible, and the starting strength of the drones was low anyway.

The one exception to this pattern are ECM drones. ECM drones have weak jamming strength but, like ECM modules, they do not suffer from stacking penalties. Though the chance of any one drone successfully jamming a target is low, the chance of one of five drones getting lucky is rather higher. ECM drones therefore find small-scale PvP uses in situations in which one broken target lock can change a battle, e.g. breaking the damage ramp-up on a Triglavian [[Turrets#Precursor_turrets|entropic disintegrator]] or briefly breaking hostile tackle so a ship can escape. As with other ECM, the downside to this tactic is that it is chance-based, and an unlucky pilot might find that their drones operate for a whole fight without jamming the enemy.

== EWAR Tactics ==

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 == EWAR drones ==
-All four types of EWAR can be generated by electronic warfare drones. Variants of the small, medium and large combat drones of each race provide that race's EWAR specialty effect instead of the usual damage effects. For example, the Gallente EWAR specialty is damps, and so three sizes of Gallente EWAR drone—the small Hobgoblin SD-300, medium-sized Hammerhead SD-600, and large Ogre SD-900—apply damps to targets. The magnitude of each drone's effect is much smaller than that of an individual EWAR module, and stacking penalties make it such that lots of EWAR drones don't have much more of an effect than just two or three drones. As a result, EWAR drones are almost never used in serious combat. The one exception to this would be the Hornet EC-300 ECM drone, because its chance-based effect is not subject to stacking penalties. Industrial ships, and other ships hoping to escape combat, can sometimes use Hornet EC-300's to break the lock of a warp disrupting or warp scrambling attacker, and this can sometimes provide a window for the industrial ship's escape. Nevertheless, this narrow exception illustrates how much less broadly useful EWAR drones are compared to EWAR modules.
+All four types of EWAR can be applied by electronic warfare drones.
-More information on EWAR drones is available in the [[Drones_102#Electronic_Warfare_Drones|syllabus for Drones 102]].
+Variants of the small, medium and large combat drones of each race provide that race's EWAR specialty effect instead of the usual damage effects. For example, the Gallente EWAR specialty is damps, and so three sizes of Gallente EWAR drone—the small Hobgoblin SD-300, medium-sized Hammerhead SD-600, and large Ogre SD-900—apply damps to targets.
+The magnitude of each drone's effect is much smaller than that of an individual EWAR module, and stacking penalties affect sensor dampening, weapon disrupting and target painting drones. Because drones are normally used in flights of five, the end result is that a flight of EWAR drones give the effect of two-and-a-half very weakened EWAR modules: stacking penalties significantly reduce the third drone’s effect and render the fourth and fifth drones’ effects negligible, and the starting strength of the drones was low anyway.
+The one exception to this pattern are ECM drones. ECM drones have weak jamming strength but, like ECM modules, they do not suffer from stacking penalties. Though the chance of any one drone successfully jamming a target is low, the chance of one of five drones getting lucky is rather higher. ECM drones therefore find small-scale PvP uses in situations in which one broken target lock can change a battle, e.g. breaking the damage ramp-up on a Triglavian [[Turrets#Precursor_turrets|entropic disintegrator]] or briefly breaking hostile tackle so a ship can escape. As with other ECM, the downside to this tactic is that it is chance-based, and an unlucky pilot might find that their drones operate for a whole fight without jamming the enemy.
 == EWAR Tactics ==