Is it just me, or is chaff pointless in a CZ? [PvE]

[Aashenfox]

If your large ship is fast enough - and Cutters often fall into this category, Chaff CAN be helpful if you need to put some distance between yourself and whoever is shooting at you.

Sorry, Corvette, but you're more Federal Chevette when it comes to raw thruster speed.

But as stated, large ships do suffer from Large Ship Syndrome - small ships can pull right up on you, and all that chaff jitter becomes meaningless. I also make use of this fact myself when fighting against large NPC's, because they can spam chaff endlessly, and do - which is why chaff dispensers become a primary target for me. I just love shooting those little things off their hulls - then half their tactics are elminiated, and if they happen to stop to reboot, it's rammin' time!

Point Defense... it seems useful on every single ship, except the Type-10. I've tried positioning a PD or even two in multiple locations, but... they generally don't seem to be all that effective. I've started using both PD and ECM on my combat Type-10 with much better results, but the ECM is still a little weird to use.

ECM is a waste, point defence does same job and works against things that aren't locked onto you too. I love it when my pd shots down a NPC missile in flight that was aimed at my target. I'm like "oh no ya don't, he's mine!"

 

[Darkslayer]

HAven't flown it for a while, but I think it has 4, the VM3 has 2.

Edit, nope you're right it has two, so for me that would have been PD and chaff, makes it even easier. Musta been thinking of the courier.

"give the VM4 two more utilities" thread anyone? lol

I would gladly pay 100,000,000 credits for 2 more utilities for my VM4. I resist asking for buffs but I am starting the thread now.

 

[Sylow]

"give the VM4 two more utilities" thread anyone? lol

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I would've agreed before i saw what Fretnox can do with that little ship...
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Point Defense... it seems useful on every single ship, except the Type-10. I've tried positioning a PD or even two in multiple locations, but... they generally don't seem to be all that effective. I've started using both PD and ECM on my combat Type-10 with much better results, but the ECM is still a little weird to use.

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Probably true for PvP, only partly true for PvE. PD is only of use when you expect your ship to keep fighting when shield are down. NPCs don't fire missiles at you as long as you have shields. That's a legacy from old times, when resists were mostly fixed. Not with engineers and people often balancing their resists, it makes limited sense for NPCs to hold back the missiles.
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Still, as long as NPCs do hold back on missiles as long as shields are up, any ship which can keep shields up doesn't profit from PD. (For example my lightweight Courier, which is a very fragile ship under a strong shield. No PD will be enough to save that ship, if enough damage comes in to break the shield. )
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For chaff it depends on the size and agility of the ship, if it is useful or not. For the PD, the ships hull strength (and thus the ships setup) and the positioning of the utility slots make all the difference. So you really have to look at the complete ship to be able to tell how much of an advantage a PD can be.
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Mind you, as said above, that's all about PvE and the NPCs behaviour. In PvP things look different, as players are more adjusted to changes of the game and don't behave as predictably.
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