I've spent some time playing a free alt this week and focused mostly on combat. I'd recommend anyone claiming the existing non engineers meta for PvE is fine try it.
I did that last year when i started on PC. I started at the end of November. Basically about an year ago.
As a reference - in the last CG from december 2019 (Reorte, Davies High) i ended in top 50% in Trade GC using a T6 and in top50% in the bounty CG using a C3
Both ships obviously non-engineered.
Combat zones have various levels. Low, medium, high and hazardous.
Yes, but, as been said already, they differ not in the hardness of the opponents but in the content and the win/loss conditions
A low CZ is finished after the 6th kill - maybe you can get a 7th if you manage to nail one of the ships that are waking out. There are no missions
A medium CZ will spawn most of the time SpecOps Wing as its sole mission. To finish it takes 15-18kills (harder to count, completing the mission will also advance the progress bar)
A high CZ will spawn various missions, sometime 2-3 of them. And completing the missions will advance the progress bar too. It can take 15-22 kills to finish a high CZ.
Mind you, these are not your kills - the ships killed by your side are counting too. Also If you lose a SLF, it will count for the opposition. So make sure you are not wasting SLF, else you will make it easier for the other side to win it.
If you fly a non-engineered ship - it is recommended to engage ships already engaged and damaged by your side.
This is valid if you fly engineered ships too. Going head on, all by yourself against a ship in CZ will just take you much longer than focusing them enemies with your sidekicks
Also not all the ships in a CZ are engineered, only the higher ranks are. But they are fitted with multiple hrp, mrp and some of them have scb too (duracell pythons, cutters, anacondas, corvettes - i've seen vultures too sporting scb)
SpecOps are highly engineered, including some nasty experimentals. They cover each other if they are not too dispersed and they are very good at killing SLF in a matter of seconds
Enemy Captain is too highly engineered, also with nasty experimentals
And one more thing.
ED has no difficulty sliders - the difficulty stands in the player choices in terms of combination of ships and engineering.
Your choice of playing non-engineered means only one thing, you are playing on
mode.
Kudos to you!