Actually, after giving it some thought, I realized that the first option would be overpowered if the drone attacks in a consistent manner (cannon, not rail). Since a drone with health equivalent to a bomber is several times its current rate. Number two is actually great (maybe even op), there should be an option to spec into this. Thanks for the input. For a "slight" reduction, we are talking about at least 15 seconds right? And yes, you rarely get the chance to pop out more than one drone anyways. Waiting for drones to come off CD is like watching the paint dry; and at the same time, you want someone to come into your and be rewarded for your patience, but you also don't want them to come because they would probably blow something up and destroy your "hard" work. Good points, I too have concluded that underneath the sat is the best place to be from my countless gunship involved deaths. Due to their natural positioning, the top lip of the structure provides natural cover for you and the person being repaired. While we lose nothing in return because all our drones are updated with the latest edition of OS Wallhack.

I see what you mean, and your points are valid, however I feel that you may have misunderstood some parts of my post. A drone is definitely no more dangerous than any player ships (which I accept). A rail gun drone takes 5.5 seconds shortest to charge, while delivering only around 500~800 damage. The problem isn't the attacks, it is that drones do not attack consistently enough to stop shield regen by themselves. Any laser drones have too short a range. I'm not saying we should all have 3 drones out at all times, but rather, I would like to see a CD reduction when all your drones are blow up. Or the ability to re-position them when needed. Also, on a Scout to Scout note, the only time I become stationary is when I pop DF. I assure you it is rather safe, and allows to fire for a longer period before I have to suffer from tracking penalty or be forced to re-position my self. (Again, being off topic, I am not sure why they nerfed rocket pods while leaving the other armor pene weapons untouched, but I would love to see a drone with rocket pods[Drones have no tracking penalty btw].) A drone by itself can put out moderate dps, but it is paper thin and range is its enemy. I just want some QoL improvements such as notifications of when your drone is blown up(with map indications}, or the ability to take in your own drone, get a CD reset, and deploy it somewhere else. Sometimes i get so bored waiting for the CD that i take my flying brick into mid and dog fight with heavy cannons. It is actually pretty effective, partly because I am an experienced Flashfire pilot, but mostly because the poor bugger chasing me have no idea he is about to eat a seeker mine.

Flying a bomber and against, drones feel very squishy. I find that that drones are pretty much just mines that have more than one use. The difference is that mines are practically a death sentence if you trip off 2 or more, while drones might take out your shields at best before you are out or range. When I am flying my Flashfire, I can shoot down drones in 2 hits, and often they don't pose much of a threat unless they sneak up on you. In which case, I would just afterburn in a straight or corkscrew direction (To getting hit by a rail gun from a player gunship), get out of its pitiful range, and take that drone out. Drones do not have enough health to be deployed in a combat zone, nor do they have enough range to be useful from a safe position. Honestly, I am not sure if anyone is actually stupid enough to be taken out by one at near full hull and shield. Since for a missile drone to be effective, you must be within 5km, and the rail gun drone does not fire fast enough to prevent shield regen from starting. Flying a drone bomber myself, I find the one minute cool down to be excessive for something so fragile Instead of buffing drones in damage or shield, I rather have them be mobile so it actually take some aiming to shoot them down. Anyways, that's just my opinion. If there is some hidden benefits with drones that I didn't take into consideration, I would love to hear it. (No Sarcasm, since i have a bomber)

It is called Distortion field, a shield component. As a tier 2 scout, you can have it too. Basically, what it does is that it gives an increase to RNG dodge by a large amount. DF was nerfed recently, and before, it was total invincibility , even against missiles if you spec into it, for 3 seconds. Chances are, they saw you pop blaster overcharge, and popped their DCDs. The 450 damage you seen is probably from your secondary. Stock DF doesn't protect against lock on weapons.

The turrets shouldn't be much of a problem unless you fly a bomber. Just switch all power to cannons or shields and charge them head on. It is also recommended to use a damage increase from ether systems or co-pilot if available In your post, you said that you fly a gunship (quarrel I hope). With a GS, you can actually turn the turrets to your advantage by upgrading ion rail gun to AOE, charge it to full blast, and fire on any hostile objects. Since most of them, turrets, drones, and mines, are stationary, it is very unlikely to miss, and you will end up taking out everyone in the vicinity. Ion rail gun will strip all ships in that area of their shield, engine, and cannon power for 6 seconds. Simply follow up with a damage rail gun. This tactic will even work if you are dueling an enemy GS and they pop distortion field. Ion aoe has 100% hit chance, and their rail charge will fire prematurely. The second, less cowardly method is to fly the tier 2 scout (my main ship.) Equip it with burst laser cannons, and blaster overcharge system. This combo is optimal for close range dogfights, and you will have a natural advantage against anyone else using another type of cannon. I also advise to use distortion field for shield component to deal with turret fire. The only ship that will cause you trouble in this matchup is another tier 2 scout. You can take out mines with cluster missiles or rocket pods at max range. Drones, you can charge head on because they die in 2 shots. Bombers are pretty much a free kill unless they catch you by surprise or are backed up by some buddies. One last thing, for the engine component, always go with barrel roll. Use it as often as possible en route to the satellite. It allows you to take out the turrets, die, respawn, and make it back fast enough to block the turrets from respawning.

Can anyone tell me how do they deal with CCs as a combat sentinel in PvP? Just to be clear, I am not asking for rotation/spec advise, as I have been playing sentinel (formerly Watchman) since 1.2. I switched to Combat after Watchman was pretty much nerfed to the ground during 2.0. I find that people often CC me or pop a DCD almost immediately once I get my first PS attack in, since they notice the sudden drop on their health bar. So I am asking, what methods do you use to deal with this? Here are some of the problems concerning CCs that I have: 1. Hard Stuns, or Mezz makes me miss my burst window. 2. While CCed, Ataru procs don't trigger, which causes the ICD to become misaligned with PS CD. This could make the next HoJ pop a few seconds before PS comes off CD again. 3. I get rooted or slowed while leap and camo is on CD already. If you guys could input your solutions, that be great. Thanks

That be sweet. The GS wouldn`t know which one is the right one even after he hit it!

Railguns shouldn't exist, yet they do. Also, can anyone explains how distortion field works while the user isn't moving? Obviously though, you're right, holograms in Star Wars is and never was good quality. Perhaps we can play it so the ship turns into a blue blur only within ~7km, because we are talking about using for long range purposes. Pass that range, they won't notice the decoy quality probably. (Or maybe they will and crashes into asteroid because they mistook it for a proton torpedo.)

Really? I do not recall reading it in the notes. By how much exactly? Also, as long as GS have barrel roll, maneuverability isn't much of a problem.

I agree with what you said, but the problem with that is the Distortion Shields allows you to be immune to Rail gunshots and fire at the same time, without all the fancy tricks. This obviously would be a cool design if it is implemented, but I think it has to give a lot more benefits than just a holo ship. The best way based on my opinion is to make the 2nd ship a real ship that can "absorb" damage. When the shield is activated, all damage received will be mitigated 50% to the hologram. When it exceeds certain amounts, the hologram ends prematurely. The general idea is that it should have a 90% uptime unless you are shot at. We should be able to further upgrade its defensive, and offensive capabilities as well. Honestly though, I would love to see this shield in the game, much more flashy than the other ones. As mentioned above, GS gets distortion field. This shield might actually back fire on this one since in order for you to know your hologram has been hit when scoped in, it needs to be damaged or destroyed along with a promote. However, this might end up allowing ion rail guns, the one that most GS start firing with, to AOE you as well. I think this shield would be mostly for Strikes as only they do not have access to DF.

Yeah, I agree with you that ion is going to fine since it will be requiring a minimum charge rate. The difference between ion now and slug is that ion is spammable, drains all your power quickly, leave you with no recharge, an does AOE damage. While a slug needs a good 3 (or 2.7) seconds plus bypass or a lucky concentrate fire crit to kill you in one hit. Escaping from a slugger GS is easy, surviving an ion shot is not. The only mechanic in the game that can save you is the Engine system for scouts, as it gives a boon to your engine pool, and can also regenerate other powers while it is active. If you have ever flew against 4 gunships using only ion with Sting buddies hanging around, you would know what I mean by: The only effective counter is flying gunships of your own. It is rather difficult to use any other weapon as the GS doesn't allow you to get into range. The second longest ranged weapon is proton torpedo, but that only works if ether the gunship doesn't have barrel roll, or you started locking on the moment his roll ended. However, I agree that in the majority of cases, switching to GS is not absolutely necessary. I like your use of sabotage probe as comparison, but I think it isn't exactly accurate. I mained Starguard before I unlocked my Pike and Flashfire, and here is a more accurate analogy. I use ion and quad (I know quad seems like a bad choice, but let me explain) cannons, directional shielding, concussion missiles, and retro thruster combo on my Strike. Most of the components are maxed out. My strategy is to get someone to joust with me, open up with ion cannon, drain their power while locking on with a concussion missile. You see, most of the time, this agitate them to pop afterburner, wasting their engine power further, and cutting off their use of an engine component. Right before us two meet, I pop retro thruster, use my concussion missile, which drains any engine power that were regenerated, and switch to quad. In the meantime, my shields are at front, and the moment their shields are down, I switch to quad, highest dps cannon while suffering non of its massive tracking penalties. I agree that if an experienced player wants you dead enough, you will get blown to pieces. But what I mentioned above is a method that works almost all the time. Does it really take skill to shoot at the center of the screen at an enemy who CAN'T FIGHT BACK? This is the same with ion rail gun, they lose all control, and cannot retaliate. (The only time I fly my GS is against other GS spamming ion) While, if you are hit by a sabotage probe, or a slugger rail gun, sure your chances aren't that great ether, but it is nice to know that you are fighting a person who can time things right, rather than a trigger-happy pilot who was trying to shoot you for 4 seconds already.

Just like Kain Turibar said, the majority of pilots have access to armor penetration anyways ether as a mandatory upgrade along the line, or as an optional perk that is obviously superior due to turrets having 50% DR. If you take a loot at charged plating (not "reactive" btw), you will see that is would actually be useful if not for armor penetration that actually end up reducing the effective health of Strikes. However, I think your ideas would be great, if all these benefits mentioned were added on as an option to charge plating. It could ether work like directional shield, or being only able to active one at a time throw the skill tree. The hit point increase is a major necessity due to the bleed through nature of Charged plating. Instead of 25% DR, just make it nullify all Shield penetration buffs instead up to a point of ~ 25%.(Ending up 10% regardless in most cases) That way, a Strike would not get one shot killed with by a Slugger Rail since it have a 30% shield and 100% armor penetration. Generally, the only positive to Strike fighter survivability is their incredible shield regen rate. Since almost everyone carry some form of Shield and Armor Pen in at least one ship in their fleet, it would be great to have a shield that counters that. Instead of being vulnerable to penetration attacks, it would be nice to have a build that can say: "Look, I know you are going to bypass my shields so I am just going to have 10% bleed through no matter what and make you waste your perk."

It'd be obvious when you fire, and especially when you turn. As only one pair of laser bolts will be hitting reasonably near the target, and the turn arc would be come notably too wide or short. I say just make it so it projects in front or behind you(~500-2000m). Make it so that both targets are target-able, except when the enemy is within ~ 7km range. Have your shots line up as a triangle so the enemy don't know which one is real. Having fire at an angle down or upwards is much less noticeable, and more convincing than if a ship is firing left or right, but not turning in that direction. Your current upgrades with spawning 3 ships at your side would be a dead give away when you open your cannons. Perhaps duration upgrades, shorter CDs, and actual damage from hologram would be much less counter intuitive.

I'm fine with getting one shot K/Oed on my Flashfire once in a while. The problem is that in other games, sniping is difficult. The only time someone should kill anyone with one hit is if they perfectly align a head shot, not when they just happen to press some buttons. Although, I am still fine with getting one shotted, because Gunships are rather vulnerable at a closer range. The real problem with GS is their ion railgun, it doesn't require skill to use, as it is practically spammable in its current state, and, it kills their victims' engine and weapon power, plus regeneration. The AOE is also unavoidable no matter how much evasion you stack. Personally, as a Flashfire pilot, I admit my ship is OP, I get over 1.7k req every match with 2x on, and 11~15 medals. These are scores I cannot ever achieve on a strike with out a premade team supporting me. However, with FS or Sting, at least the enemy has a chance to fight back, or run. With a Gunship's ungraded ion rail, it is pretty much a "I Win" button. The result of this is that when there are more than one GS in an area, the only effective counter becomes flying GS of your own if they have fully upgraded ion and slug rail guns. Again, I am fine with getting one shotted once in a while. I always keep a upgraded ion rail GS in my fleet in case I run into one of these premades on my server who are using ion rail. I understand that the majority of pilots thinks that flying a GS is a lot easier than it is, as I too fly one. But lets face it, it takes a lot less skill to be good at flying a GS than to master a Rycer, or Nova dive.

I absolutely agree. Personally, I always switch to Flashfire/sting evasion build with burst lasers and DF to take out gunships. They are an absolute menace on slower ships such as Starguard or Rycer that don't stack evasion, so they can't dodge, whether spacial or RNG the shots, nor can they chase the GS down. Missiles aren't effective against them because often they would just barrel roll away, or break your lock with DF if they specced into it. However, the main problem with GS atm is their ion rail gun. 1 shot, no damage, but all energy gone, plus no regeneration for 6 seconds. The worst part is that it is AOE, so even as a flashfire, sometimes I get caught up and just picked off by some other ships. Essentially, the only effective counter against groups of GS becomes flying GS on your side as well. Makes GSF terribly boring, but I always keep a GS with upgraded ion, slug, DF and roll just in case in my fleet.

I believe you are right actually, I play both the watchman and combat specs, and dealing damage has never been a problem. Zero meter leaps, speed boosts, slows, and roots makes it easy to keep on the target. However, despite this I do believe Watchman needs a buff, not in damage of course. The reason for this is that, when I play Watchman, I can end up doing 600k on one or two healers alone without killing them. This is incredibly frustrating(I do use crippling slash). Sure, I can shut them off for the duration, but eventually, I would get stunned, taunted, or pulled by some other player guarding the healer. The ramp up time again is rather long, which makes the spec sub par in Arenas. If the enemy isn't being healed, this spec can kill them just fine, but if a healer is present, your DoTs get cleansed halfway, and most of their heals just heal slightly above a MS. I played Watchman since 1.2, yes, they were OP in P.v.P then. But now that all the classes has been buffed, Watchman simply isn't viable anymore. (Damage is fine, you just get shut down too easily, and no burst.) Honestly, to make Watchman more useful, they need to restore the self heals, and make burning focus and plasma blade give ~ 36% DoT crit again. A lot of the higher up talents such as heal on attack during Ward or 10% damage reduce isn't that useful for Watchman, they need to be changed. MS and Juyo needs to fall of stack by stack instead, and there needs to be a faster way to get them stacked up. Sentinels, having no stun, have always had a problem with other CCs, since they involve a lot of RNG in their rotation. I think they should just get a damage reduction while slowed, stunned, etc. and make DcDs poppable when stunned. If possible, Watchman can also use a slight hard stun on a extremely long CD to kill healers.

Yeah, watchman definitely needs a buff PVP, and somewhat PVE wise. I main watchman since 1.2, and it used to be extremely versatile in PvP, but now, it is pointless. The primary problems with this spec is its lowered survivability, marginal crit chance, and long ramp up time and penalties. Lowering the heals by 1% and changing GBTF was uncalled for, it wasn't as if people were complaining at ether times. Plus, with the crit nerf to the stat and the spec, are heals are a joke now. The changes to expertise and bolstered where one would take more damage is the final nail on the coffin for our "self-heals." Despite numerous requests, Bioware has also never made MS and juyo stacks to decrimate instead of dropping off immediately. Both Combat and Watchman are heavily RNG and short buff based, which pretty much forces us to stick to the target to pull off any dps. For a class with no stuns, this is surprisingly hard to pull off[sarcasm]. Watchman need an overall defense update, and more useful talents instead of heal on hit when saberward is active.

Just like tunewalker said, I unless you self-destruct, there is no other way to refill ammunition or repair armor as of now. The game was supposed to be released with bombers. Personally, if an enemy is behind me and I want to get behind him, depending on the ship, I would ether use retro thrusters and pop up behind or after-burn for half a second or so and immediately hit x if he's close. (Where blasters have their massive accuracy drop off) If he is a little farther, I would turn by banking towards one direction, while pitching upwards (my up, could be his down, or left) I find that this is the most effective way to turn. If you hit after burner, or speed up, the arc becomes wider although the turn might be a bit faster. This is almost always effective, however, it requires around ~5000m to do it properly depending on what ship I'm flying. You could ether face him, or get behind him. If both of you are locked in a turning-war, or there isn't enough distance,use ether barrel roll, or retro trusters (the only two engines I think are worth using.) With barrel roll, follow with above method, and joust him. With retro, it is pretty much self-explanatory.

I too have unlocked and upgraded at least halfway on all the ships (except comet breaker, absolutely useless), and I am somewhat inclined to agree with you. Although I do view gunships with an extreme prejudice, mainly due to their ion railgun. The strikes, especially the starguard/rycer, I find much easier to fly than a gunship or scout, primarily due to their shield regen. Since the stock strike can use ion cannons and directional shields, it is a lot more versatile on lancing. I would open with ion cannons, retro trust at the last second, and shoot a concussion missle at point blank. It creates a similar crippling effect as a gunship would, except they would also stop your regeneration for 6 seconds, during the time your only hope is popping a DCD. However make no mistake, even though gunships are more difficult to use, all the star fighters in the game are shockingly easy to master, and there is a huge difference between a raw component and an upgraded one. I run distortion field w/ missle break and barrel roll on mine. With that set up, statistically no one should be able to lock on a missile due to the timing of the DCDs and the factor of distance gained while popping them. Simply run to help while you chain your DCDs. Ion "love taps" are also extremely useful, the part that ticks me off the most is that it is AOE damage, you can literally stop attackers and drain them of their blaster power at the same time. While your pursuers won't be able to lock on ether. Gunships aren't all that hard to play, it may seem challenging w/o upgrades, but I can assure you of all the ships, I find it have the lowest skill ceiling, and rewards the most based on your experience than the other ships. If you often find your shots missing, a trick I use is to zoom out and zoom in in quick succession to zero in on the target for a 100% shot if the RNG gods are with me. (I main Combat, don't judge.)

How about engine power regeneration system? Just in case you get hit by an ion, when the gunship is running, he or she won't expect you to catch up so quickly. Honestly, the only reason you aren't having problem with that is because or distortion field. Try fighting a gunship without it maxed, and see why most people consider ion railgun far too op.

But the problem of who wins simply then rest on whoever shoots first. If the scout pops bypass and load a couple missiles into you, you are dead. If he or she gets a couple taps by your Ion railgun, he or she is dead, because you can follow up with a slugger, and they (with a couple near by buddies) will never be able to fly to you in time. In this case, Gunships obviously have an advantage, because they can shoot a lot sooner than a scout. Even if they have max sensor dampening, that is not an excuse because their reticle will show up around the 5km mark minimum, and you can simply snare then with ion, and booster away. Yes, scouts are powerful, and can kill you, but with all the utitlites of a gunship, it is only because you let them.

Unless certain weapons are going to be banned in these matches and have a separate que, I really don't think it would be a good idea. Team Deathmatch, Free for all, or any type of matches centering on kills won't be much fun when you are always rooted by ion railguns from Gunship or get constantly ambushed by a couple of scouts with bypass who decided to team up, whom you never saw coming because they had max sensor damping, so you can't even target them beyond 6km.

Because it takes a fully charged shot to get instantly vaporized. Being disabled takes less than a second, and more importantly, you can't fight back.

I am more of less inclined to agree with you. The problem with ion railgun is that a slugger does so much damage that it stripts the shield away anyways. Ion rail gun would be useless if its only use is against shields. However we are trying to suggest that the debuff and chaining should only work if they took the time to fully charge it. Currently leaving the victim with no power and regeneration in less than 2 seconds is too overpowered.