Electronic Counter Measures jammers, when successful, reduce the jammed ship's maximum number of locked targets to zero. This breaks all of the targeted ship's locks and prevents any new locks from being made until the ECM module finishes its cycle, which is 20 seconds. As most non-drone ships are incapable of fighting without locking targets, ECM will almost always castrate your target. As you might imagine, this is extremely infuriating and as a result ECM is one of the more fun things a pilot can do. It's also extremely useful, and can easily turn the tide of a battle.

There are five “flavors” of ECM:

• Multispectral
• Ion Field
• Phase Inverter
• Spatial Destabilizer
• White Noise.

Multispectral have equal strength vs all ships and standard range. The other four are racially focused. They all have double range, as well as double strength vs their racial target, and half strength vs all other races. Below are the four types of racial ECM jammers, presented with the associated race and sensor type. This list is followed by the pirate faction list.

As you can see, the ECM modules are not named after the sensor type that they jam. For example, an ECM - Spatial Destabilizer module is best at jamming Gravimetric sensors, which are used chiefly by Caldari ships. Because these different names are confusing even to many experienced players, it is advisable for newer players to print out this table and keep it handy when using ECM. You should also consider the following two tips:

• Fit your jammers to your mid slots in alphabetical order: Amarr, Caldari, Gallente, and Minmatar. This allow you to be able to find the jammer for whatever ship pops up on the overview faster.

• The Racial Jammer colors match the backgrounds of targeted ships. Amarr = Yellow, Caldari = Blue, Gallente = Green, Minmatar = Red. You don't have to memorize every ship, just lock up a bunch of ships and then match up the colors.

ECM Number Crunching

Each ECM module has a jam strength for each of the four racial varieties. Ships have a sensor strength, which indicates how difficult it is to jam them. Different classes of ships have different sensor strengths. Typically large and T2 ships have higher sensor strengths than small and/or T1 ships.

An ECM - Multispectral has equal strength against all ships. Racial jammers have double strength versus their specific racial type, and half strength vs all others. Racial jammers also have extra range and use less capacitor than multispectral jammers.

The probability of a jamming attempt succeeding is: 'Your ECM Strength divided by their Ship Sensor Strength.' This check is made for every 20 second cycle of a jamming module.

For example, a single ECM - Spatial Destabilizer module used against a Merlin (without any other factors involved) has a 27.27% chance of success per module activation. The Spatial Destabilizer has a Gravimetric jamming strength of 3, the Merlin has a sensor strength of 11, and 3 divided by 11 equals .2727. That same Spatial Destabilizer would have only an 11.11% chance of jamming a Punisher, which also has a sensor strength of 9, because it only has a Radar jamming strength of 1 against non-Caldari ships.

Because ECM relies so heavily on sensor strength, it is nearly worthless when used on a ship without bonuses. If we repeat the above example, but assume that the Spatial Destabilizer is being used by a pilot in a Blackbird with Caldari Cruiser IV trained, the chance of jamming increases to 38%, or 15% against a Punisher.

Activating concurrent ECM jammers on an enemy that has been successfully jammed has no additional effect, each activated module attempts to jam and either succeeds or fails. You can tell the enemy is jammed because the ECM icon next to the targeted ship will be brightly colored. A failed attempt will show the icon as subdued in color. The old timer bar no longer appears. In small gang settings right click each ECM module and set them to manual activation as this gives you greater control, saving activation cycles and cap.

In large fleet battles such micromanagement is completely impossible. Instead set your ECM modules to autorepeat, lock as many targets as you can and spread your modules out among them and just let them roll. Being able to lock several targets is very important when you're doing electronic warfare, train Targeting.

Within optimal range the jamming probability works as shown above. For targets outside of optimal and within falloff there is a possibility that the ECM module can fail entirely. This fail check is made before the ECM strength / sensor strength check and is entirely separate and in addition to that check. The probability that the module will fail the falloff check depends on how far out into falloff the target is.

At near optimal range, the chance to fail is of course near zero. At Falloff, the chance is approximately 50%. At double falloff the chance to fail is near 100%. The chance to fail does not scale linearly across the entire range. For reference consult the following table, where the first value is % distance into falloff and the second value is the chance to succeed the falloff check. The third and fourth columns are a continuation of that from falloff to falloff*2. If the falloff check does not fail the normal ECM strength / sensor strength check is then made.

Jamming strength can be increased with Signal Distortion Amplifiers.

• Electronic Warfare - 5% less capacitor need for ECM systems per skill level. Requires Electronics I.
• Frequency Modulation - 10% bonus to all EW falloff per level. Requires Electronics III and Electronic Warfare II.
• Long Distance Jamming - 10% bonus to all EW optimal range per level. Requires Electronics IV and Electronic Warfare III.
• Signal Dispersion - 5% bonus to jam strength of all ECM jammers per level. Requires Electronics V and Electronic Warfare IV.

Particle Dispersion Augmentor Is increase ECM effectiveness by 10%. T2 increases effectiveness by 15%. But the calibration cost on these is obscene at 200. No ship can fit more than two of these at once. They carry a -10% maximum shield capacity penalty that is reduced by 2% per level of Electronic Superiority Rigging level.

Particle Dispersion Projectors increase ECM optimal range by 20%. They have identical penalties to Augmentors. But require only 100 calibration.

Whenever you're involved in large scale fleet combat you need to have an overview setting that show ONLY things you will be jamming. Otherwise, you overview will be cluttered with primary dps ships that you will not be jamming unless there is nothing else left or within range.

Once you are in a fleet battle, your fleet commander is going to be calling primary targets. As an ECM user, your job is to ignore him entirely. The primary target is going to be melting quickly, and your ECM is better used neutralizing other members of the enemy fleet. What you should do is use the ECM Overview described above to target and jam ships of the appropriate race, that are flown by pilots with names similar to your own.

The primary target for ECM is almost always logistics ships. So Guardian, Oneiros, Basilisk, and Scimitar, followed by their T1 variants. After that either dps ships or other targets as directed by your FC.

For example, because my name is Vio Geraci, I use ECM on targets whose names start with the letter V, or another letter near that part of the alphabet. Because all ECM users will be doing this, your jams will be spread out and not needlessly focused on one target. This is so important that it needs repeating: 'In large fleet battles, do not just fire all your ECMs at the primary.'

Lock up as many appropriate targets as your targeting skills allow, activate an ECM module on each and let them roll until they or you die/warp out.

Griffin, Blackbird, and Scorpion are the T1 ECM ships. For T2 there is the Kitsune, Rook, Falcon, and Widow. Do not fly the T2 versions in a large fleet. They tend to have shorter range but higher strength. You will get primaried and blapped instantly. The T1 ships tend to have longer range. This range is what keeps you alive.

Until recently, Caldari were the only race with dedicated EWAR battleships. Amarr now has the Armageddon. But that's a different thread. The Widow is a T2 Black Ops battleship. Flying one of these in a large-scale fleet fight is absolutely stupid and guaranteed to get you primaried instantly. They lack T2 resists and like all ECM ships are generally paper thin. At the cost of over 1,000,000,000 (yes, that's one billion) ISK fully fit, they are far from practicle. Stick to T1. Keep the Blops for covert hotdrops and bridging bombers onto unsuspecting PvE pilots.

The Scorpion, while effective and bringing an improvement in performance over a Blackbird, costs a lot more than a Blackbird for only a modest improvement. However, with certain specialized fits and in a battleship fleet it can be utilized similarly to the blackbird.

As a newbie in TEST, you should use ECM if you fly Caldari ships and are capable of using cruisers or battleships. If you are still in a frigate, you will probably do more good as a tackler than futzing around with the moderately skill-intensive ECM process. Once you are able to use cruisers, an ECM-packing Blackbird is amazingly effective. Our fleet commanders absolutely love Blackbirds, and you will find yourself amazingly effective despite your relatively few skill points. As soon as you break through to battleships, you may prefer to fly an ECM-specialized Scorpion. But only in an appropriately-sized fleet.

ECM Bursts are a special ECM module that functions like an electronic warfare smartbomb. They send an electronic pulse around your ship, disrupting the targeting systems of all ships within said radius. The problem with this is that, like smartbombs, they do not distinguish friend from foe and they have a fairly short range. ECM burst module jamming strengths are significantly stronger than multispectral ECM modules and like multispecs, affect all racial sensors the same. However, they fire only once every 30 seconds. These drawbacks make them generally unsuitable for most tactical situations, the only exception being:

• Pipe-bombing Scorpions. The Scorpion gets a decent range bonus to ECM Bursts. With Caldari Battleship level 5 and appropriate links it has a range of 27km + 9km falloff.

ECCM are mid-slot modules that increase your sensor strength. They come in two flavors - ECCM (T2 = +96% sensor strength) and Projected ECCM (T2 = +120% sensor strength). Basically, each module you add makes it twice as hard to jam you. Some rough numbers (assuming all skills at IV, hull skills at V, T2 modules:)

If you are flying a logistics ship, having an ECCM can make the difference between getting jammed a lot, and only occasionally. Of particular note is that internal (not projected) ECCM can be overheated for a massive 30% bonus, which brings it up to ~125%. The modules produce very little heat damage and can be run for minutes at a time without breaking. There is no reason not to overheat your ECCM if you can.