Personal improvement / personal goals. If you enjoy GSF then set yourself the challenge of becoming an Ace. Like chess, I set myself the challenge of making 2000 rating. I haven't achieved it yet, but its a goal.

So I want to talk a little about Gunships. When I started training under Drakolich, and when Invis further took over my training, there were two primary things I was working hard to achieve. One was to be good in a Battle Scout, and the other was to be good in a Gunship. These two goals do share transferable skill sets, but they are also very different, and defensive / counter flying in a Gunship is in my opinion the hardest skill in the game, along side on-node clearing in a Scout. I probably sound like a broken record when I say too many people give no thought or effort toward defensive / counter flying in a Gunship. This match is a very good demonstration of how to do that. This match is actually from 30th July, but since I have been busy pruning and organizing my channel, I have only just got around to watching it myself. So its already had a number of views, but its still worth sharing here. It's not me going on a rampage with a sky high score line, and it is not a match where I am allowed to sit still and happily snipe away. Its a good fun match that I have to work hard to win. I have to deal with Strikes and Scouts attacking me at the same time, our spawn being pushed, countering melee ships while avoiding other Gunships, and still get offensive enough to do some good damage. Even when getting offensive, I need to be very careful I don't expose myself to an easy shot. The whole thing is a delicate balance between defensive play and offensive play, and it demonstrates well what a Gunship is really capable of, and how it should be flown.

Yes, I understood what you meant. All I meant was that by using clusters on my Scout in TDM, if I force a break, there's a decent chance that guy is going eat a Protorp from someone else. If he doesn't break - or get evasive, I'm still in a Battle Scout and he's going to get blown up. So while it is not the level of coordination you guys are utilizing, it still serves my team because its one guy with no break and goodness knows how many Protorp spammers trying to lock him. I don't think I would refer to coordinated missile masking as "advanced" but its certainly effective, yes. I'd like to see you guys do a "no ammunition" match. I know you used to do "just for fun" matches before. Maybe you could do a "no ammo" just for fun match. That would include no pods, even though they aren't really missiles....

Welcome back Tenacity. Full disclosure, I wasn't around pre5.5, so I can't speak with authority about that meta. However, I can see from the numerous videos I have watched of the era, that fast kills were a thing back then too. That is not something unique to the post5.5 meta. If you left before 5.5 dropped then for sure there is a big learning curve to the current meta. In some ways the game has been nerfed. Too many people rely on overly powerful Proton Torpedos and "crutch" abilities like Remote Slicing or Feedback, rather than learning advanced skills. There is a reason we call it "Protorp Wars." However for a skilled pilot the mata is in ways harder than pre5.5, because you have to deal with constant missile locks, 90% of which are Protons. The difficulty is amplified if you run a nerfed Scout. You basically play this constant dance between dodging locks and taking moments to burst people. And trust me, when you have 1-2s space between locks to burst someone, you are grateful for fast kill times! I think there is still a lot of fun to be had, but as Ramalina said its far less about dog fighting these days. Few people remaining can actually dog fight, and those that can are more often than not pre5.5 veterans. The skill divide is bigger than ever, and this is caused in part by people spamming Protons rather than learning advanced skills. I would suggest that what's happening is you have had a baptism of fire into the current meta. Once you adapt, you should be fine. I hope you stick around.

Yep;. So just to clarifiy in case you missed it, what Gundahar is doing here - prompted by my tips thread - is trying to improve his proficiency with lasers, and get away from reliance on Protons. To that end I suggested he run with clusters, because that will force better usage of primary weapons. In a team set up, yes spamming clusters forces breaks which means your team mates can then Protorp them. It even works in solo queue and its why I run clusters on my T2S TDM build instead pods. That's just not what we are trying to achieve for him here though. He's trying to get to a point where he is confident in making damage and kills with lasers, and only uses missiles for specific situations rather than spamming them in hope of making a kill.

All good, glad you benefited from them. Hmm, one day I am going to post my collection of "you dirty filthy cheater!" screenshots :D I have tried to speak to this guy so many times, trying to reason with him on why slicing is holding him back. Even offered help. He doesn't listen. Decided it was time to post this, because people like this are what's wrong with GSF.

Double Volley. Agree with Drakolich - the only reason to take Plasma Warhead is to not run out of ammo. That said they can work very effectively. I ran it for a while with almost no discernible change in performance. The trick is that clusters must be landed at the same time as blaster damage, or at least directly before / directly after. Do that and both options work, but Double volley is still better. Go with Efficient Targeting for this build. This gives you 1.1s lock time on Clusters which will land with almost as much reliability as pods. Few people have the mental speed to break clusters that quick. Again agree with Drakolich, Regen Extender is not needed on this build. Crit on rapids is largely pointless I think. Not going to ramble on too much about why but I think the only build worth running crit on is traditional piledriver. For everything else you want accuracy. Don't forget what you really want from that option is the decreased tracking penalty. If you intend to continue out turning people and using Rapids at close range, that option is essential. I don't agree with Drakolich on Offensive choices here. I don't agree that the choice is between Rapid reload and extra arc. On a Scout, yes I always take extra arc and improved accuracy. But on a Strike with Rapids and Heavies? Why do we need extra arc? Rapids already have a huge arc, and adding more arc to Heavies is pointless, as they suck for anything that is not dead ahead. I personally take Pierce in Offensive for this slot. Gault is fine, but clusters reload in 3.0s anyway, so bringing that re-load time down to 2.4s doesn't gain you much. Especially when you consider the goal here is not to spam missiles but to work on your effectiveness with lasers. I can honestly say I have never felt the need for my clusters to reload quicker. I don't think anyone who is confident about their laser damage ever does. I don't think Drakolich feels that need if he really thinks about it. Let's actually think about this for a second. Rapid reload gives you 0.4s faster reload time on Clusters. To actually benefit from that you need to be spamming clusters like a mad man. Because once 3.0s has elapsed, that Rapid Reload option is doing nothing for you. How many times in a match do you need to fire off that many clusters in that quick succession? I can tell you its not often, and if you do feel that need, you're not focusing on ship positioning and being devastating with your lasers, which is the entire point here, isn't it? Pierce gives extra ammo, while both options give improve accuracy. Extra ammo just makes sense when running double volley clusters. That brings your ammo pool up from 12 - 19, which is a far more significant difference, even In TDM, because sometimes you just can't find a yellow when you want it. In DOM, you can't rely on having ammo refill on a repair drone. You have to think as a solo player here, not as someone who knows their team always has a refill ammo repair drone. The only reason to go with Rapid Reload is if you're dying too quickly to make use of 19 clusters. But that's something we are also working on here, right? The better you become at staying alive the more you will appreciate the extra ammo, because 12 clusters does not go far.

My feelings on Remote Slicing are no secret. If you've been here for five minutes, you know I strongly dislike it. But one argument made in defense of Remote Slicing has been that you need a noob friendly way of allowing low-skill people to compete with top pilots. This is an argument that was presented to me by people, who at the time, were significantly more experienced and skilled than me. So I rather accepted that argument in respect of said people's standing in the game. That is not the case anymore. My flying and my experience are at a level where I understand the intricacies far better. So my argument presented today, is if you are a low a skill pilot - whether by being new or by being noob - you should not slice. My reason for saying this is that I firmly believe to slice at an early stage of your development stalls your progress and holds you back as a pilot. You become reliant on it. And as such you do not learn requisite skills like, for example, hitting a moving target with lasers. Case in point, right here. >>>> <<<< This is a video from Satele Shan this week. Every server has its resident low-skill revenge fueled slicer. And since Satele Shan has a lower population than most servers, I encounter said person on SS every time I go there. Which for the record is once a week. I play one weekly per week on SS, and that's it. I do not return until the next week. Sometimes more than a week because I do not religiously play the same days on each server. Every week this same episode plays out. Said person tries relentlessly to slice me. Said person dies repeatedly in the process. Said person desperately needs to stop slicing, because he is excessively reliant on it. Said person is used to slicing doing all the work for him. He comfortably gets 10 kills or so when not facing me. As shown by this screen shot HERE which was from the following match, where we were on the same team. He gets 10 kills to my 19. 35k damage to my 95k damage, and worst of all, only 29% accuracy. So he can't shoot, and he is used to slicing doing all the work for him, which is why he only has 35k damage, because that's mostly Proton kills. But as you see in the video, when faced with someone who knows how to counter slicing, he falls apart. And this is a story that repeats itself every week, usually for at least two matches. In one part of the video, he appears to have given up trying to hunt me. Then he suddenly re-appears, this time with a DO. No doubt the DO has given him more confidence. Result? Exactly the same. DO doesn't make you a good player if you don't know how to use it. And slicing doesn't make you a good player if you don't know basic skills like getting more damage with lasers than missiles, or how to best turn your ship. Heck, he doesn't even know when best to hit the slice button. Its never going to work in this situation or in a fair fight. The only two ways he gets me with slicing is if my team is so bad that I can't make the difference, and I am being hunted by multiple opponents. Then, yes, being sliced can be the death knell. The 2nd is if I make a mistake. Which happens, on occasion, I am not pefect. But the point is its not reliable for him like it is on noobs, and he can't figure out why, because it works on everyone else. In fairness to the other side of the argument, he probably does stop me from going 25+ in this match. I always have to assume every missile lock is him. I always have to Retro out of the lock before the missile is airborne, just in case its him, so that he can't slice me after the missile is launched. I constantly have to pay extra attention to the mini-map, to anticipate when he will appear. I have to make sure I don't reach too far into enemy territory, in case he slices me when I am surrounded. I generally have to play more cautiously. And being Iokath, I have to make sure I always have an EO, so that I can better deal with the effects of being sliced. So there is that. He achieved something. But did he achieve enough to warrant slicing? No, not in in my opinion. And since said person makes a bee line for me every time we are on opposite sides, and repeatedly gets blown up, I strongly feel that the efforts he is putting into focus slicing me would be better served learning some skill in GSF, rather than relying on one component. There is a reason slicers are predominantly low-skill players. There is a reason you rarely see a top tier player slicing. There is a reason when someone gets angry with you, they inevitably pick slicing to try and finally shut you down. Moral of the story kids? If you want to be good, don't slice. If you want to be really good, don't even use missiles. Edit - forgot to mention he was also using Lockdown. He gets a total of 70points of engine drain with that combination, and still couldn't make it work.

Looks like Drakolich covered your questions so no need for me to add anything. I just want to say, remember the goal here is not to ignore missile usage long term or permanently. Its to get you to prioritize laser damage and kills, instead of missile spamming. To make your brain automatically think "lasers first." When you eventually re-equip Protons - if that is your wish - you will no longer be reliant on them, and you will be able to better utilize Protons for when one is needed, to make an opportunist kill (like seeing someone use their break), rather than spamming them in hope that one hits. You're making it harder on yourself now to make it easier on yourself long term. Learning to fly without missiles is something everyone should prove to themselves they can do. I applaud you.

Alright. Sorry about being late getting to this. Just busy and what not. So going to go over this video for you. Not going to go super in depth. Better to keep it to a few key points you will remember and work on. 3:47 - Break for cover faster - could have avoided the next missile. 3:59 - Wait until the missile hits to start repairing - Especially as you are full health. SD - Unfortunate but it happens 4:54 - Good! But switch to rapids at 2.5k. Shoot in F1 not F3. 5:01 - 5:14 - Nice turn pursuit and kill. Well done: Notice here where Rapids work and heavies don’t. Do this in F1 though not F3. You turn faster and get more damage. 5:24 - The moment someone starts to lock you, hit tab to see who it is-and take evasive action accordingly. You were lucky to not eat a missile here. 5:54 - You didn’t need to cross the map to find safety. Stay closer to the engagement zone, just use cover near by. 6:29 - You’re being locked but again you ignore it. It’s the ship directly in front of you. Watch the video and you can see his missile launch. He’s not very good because he is in primary weapons range, but he’s trying to lock you, rather than shoot you. This is a kill opportunity. Flick your sights up, target him, joust him. That said you avoid the missile and pursue him for the kill. Well done. 6:53 - Again tab to see who is locking you and deal with them. Forget about that person you have in your sights. Deal with the threat to you, don’t ignore it. Same again at 7:17 - Tab. You have no idea who is locking you and hence cannot deal with them. 7:53 - 8:18 lovely! 8:32 - Boosting in F4. Boost in F3. 9:14 - Good job. Should have been in F1 though. 9:40 Not your kill, but great job 10:50 -11:11 Boosting in F1. Good kill though. 11:15 - Again being locked, you don't tab. You don’t know where he is so you don’t know where to go. Boosting in F1 meant you didn’t have enough engines to find safety. Result means you SD. 12:06 - You’ve burned most of your engines to get back to the engagement zone, and you're wide open. You break a missile, but you don’t tab to see who it was. You stay wide open rather than seeking cover, but now you have no break. At 12:28 you decide to find cover, but you’ve burned your engines and can’t. You’re lucky to not get taken out by a Gunship or Torpedo’d here. 13:09 - I reckon you knew this would happen here? This one was more predictable? 13:40 - Being locked - no tab. 13:55 - He’s still on you. Tab. 14:07 - Tab. He’s still there. 14:13 - You just broke his missile. If he gets another one off it will hit. Tab and deal with him. 14:18 - Nice kill; but risky because you ignored the guy attacking you. Overall its a really great effort to not use Ammo and focus on primary weapons. You didn't even attempt to fire any clusters, which was more than I was asking of you. By all means use them. They aren't Protons, you can't make kills with them, so use them to supplement your excellent laser damage. But I give you huge props for attempting to do it without firing any at all. You demonstrated some really nice pursuit and positional flying there, enabling you to get kills with lasers that many players who are seasoned veterans can't do. Close range turn fighting with RFL - really great stuff! I can see you've been paying attention to videos of better pilots and trying to emulate them. Keep doing this, it will become more natural. Things to work on. You have a tendency to ignore players attacking you. Tab Tab Tab, and Tab. Tab is how you see what's going on around you. The instant someone starts to lock you Tab! See who it is! If you've taken damage, press R, that will tell you who it was that last damaged you. When you do this, the arrow on your HUD will tell you what direction they are and help you either engage them or get evasive. An advanced technique is to press C after tabbing, which will flick your view around to look directly at them, meaning you can expertly avoid them or engage them. What you are doing is tunneling on one person. This will only get you destroyed. Be ready to switch targets, either to a better one or to the person attacking you. You also have a tendency to be in the wrong power mode. This is just practice, because its also evident you are trying to do it correctly. Its just a lot to think about and it will come more naturally. I'm certain of one thing already. With the potential you are showing here, you will be a different player after doing this for 100 matches. I look forward to your next one. Practice the things I mention here though before you post up another one.

First. Fix the numerous bugs in the game. Sound going out, 50th kill not counting for the person who gets it, crew passives icons, component de-select bug. Second. A new map, with the same TDM / DOM modes we have. Third. A new GSF mode. I still like the idea of fleet battles, but I'd take anything.

Hi Remus. Good to see you here! You're already more than aware of my opinion on this, but I'll put it here for everyone else. Gunships can be good in DOM, but exclusively in the right situation. For the record here we are talking about the T1G. T2G is pants, and the T3G is a Scout hybrid as you say, and can be more effective in Domination. Though realistically only a handful of players can use its Scout characteristics. So, anyway, If the enemy team goes Bomber spam (multiple bombers on one node) and no one else on my team is capable of assisting in clearing those bombers out, then I will go to T1G Gunship. Ion spread is super helpful here. You're probably going to lose this game, but its still the right ship in this situation. The 2nd appropriate situation is if you already have 1-2 strong node clearers on your team, and to be clear here, I mean people who can stay within 5m of a node while still clearing it of enemies. In other words, 1-2 Scout Aces. In that situation its perfectly reasonable to play a GS to support them. I tried this a while back when Invis and myself landed on the same team for a LS DOM. He used T2S, obviously, and typically so would I. As it turned out we were the only two good players on a very very very bad team. I chose GS to support him. We both went over 100k damage. I had 20 something kills and he had 31 kills. We won. For sure, GS worked here. But, I'm confident me playing T2S also would have worked there. So, although it wouldn't be wrong, I still don't typically choose a GS in that situation, because if I have 1-2 Strong node clearers on my team already, adding in me clearing nodes also equals a win. This covers the solo situations where a GS is a good choice. One GS works extremely well in group play. Premades. Because one GS can cover two nodes quickly. Unless you are very adept at getting your Gunship on the right node at the pivotal moment, and actually being able to use it on-node, rather than being dead weight when you get there, then you really should not be playing GS in a Domination match. But the thing is, if you are good enough to do this, you've likely not chosen a GS in the first place. Probably the most common reason I see them being used, is to lure a Scout Ace off node, so that he can't hold / cap / win the node, and then run back to the capital ship when the Scout Ace gets close. Rinse and repeat. Sigh. What can I say about this? Yeah, it arguably has a place in the game. You are serving a role. But you're also cheesing the objective with literally no skill whatsoever. Anyone who runs back to the capital ship in a GS is a bad player, period. These people have a lot to work on, and will never progress as pilots as long as they rely on this tactic. In the event that you take a GS to clear out a bomber spam, but are still being pushed back to the Cap ship (not running - there is a difference) then its time to give up on that game, you aren't going to win it. Change to a Strike or Scout and get as many kills as you can. So they do have their place, but 9/10 (if not more) Gunships in Domination play badly, and would be better served to play a different ship. I feel like the principal reason most people who take Gunships use one, is the easy kill factor. Regardless of whether its TDM or DOM, and they put zero thought or effort into the defensive / counter flying aspect of using GS, let alone actually playing objectives. I mean, most people don't even play objectives in the right ship!

As promised for Gundahar, but also for anyone else interested I did actually equip this ship with stock clusters for this. Its an old toon that "only ever used Protons" back in my early days. And you can see I start the match with 26 and finish with 26. Not one cluster volley fired. The sound goes out for about a 3rd of the match, so I did another video too. Its on the channel under the same name.

Hehehe, don't sweat it. Yep, quite probably. Maybe go Ion + heavies or Ion + rapids for now then. I think at your level, mastered ship, with fully upgraded clusters will be enough to get you concentrating more on laser damage rather than missiles. No need to go stock ship or mastered ship with stock clusters. . Yep, later. 100. Minimum. I always advise, and so did Invis, that if you want to improve any aspect of your flying, or improve in a certain ship / build, fly 100 matches. And fly it in every match. Don't switch to a different ship no matter how bad that match gets. So to better explain that, we are saying do 100 straight matches. Think of it as you get one ship for 100 matches. Even batter take all the other ships off your bar so that you are not tempted to change ships. By the end of it you will have flown that ship in every conceivable type of match and situation.You will be a better pilot by the end of it. You can do more than 100 by all means, but 100 minimum. Perfect. Not too much, not too little.

Regarding playing without secondaries. Here is a video I did a while back where Invis told me to learn to fly the T2S without using Secondaries. You can see the force of habit taking over near the start, where I still fire some Rocket Pods. But I counted and its something like only 26 fired. The rest of the match is Burst Laser Cannons only. So it doesn't matter what level you are at, whether you're a newbie or whether you are practicing advanced stuff, flying without using Secondaries will force you to improve. It worked for me both back as a newbie and recently. You run out of pods fast in a T2S, so this helped me better manage those occasions when I do run out, and still be effective. Which happens quite a lot. These days I don't care much if I run out of pods - unless its a super competitive match. Challenging myself to play without Secondaries. When I log in later, I'll see if I can find an old toon that doesn't have clusters unlocked. Then I'll equip them and leave them stock, and do a demonstration video for you of the T1F with primaries only.

This is exactly what running clusters will solve for you. Even better, don't upgrade them. Leave them completely stock. That will render them utterly useless. it will force your mindset, habits and thinking process to change, because stock clusters is like not having any secondary weapons at all. As "expected" would be a better word. No one comes into GSF and excels from the word go. But the "intention" is to get you there. Drakolich is an excellent teacher and explains things extremely well. I had the privilege of being coached by him for a while before he went to SWS, after which Invis took over and finished my training. I found Drakolich's solo queue videos very informative. The group play stuff less so, because the circumstances of group play and the skills required are very different to solo play. Here are some other channels for you to watch: Remsuqui's Youtube Remus is a friend from Malgus who recently achieved Ace level. Used to be a GS only pilot, now flies everything. Posts a lot. Vilgrim's Youtube My friend Vilgrim, french guy, also mostly plays on Malgus. Scout main. Wrecks. Posts occasionally. Lightsaber-Jerk Youtube US player. Plays on all servers. Post occasionally. Jhingo Youtube Jhingo. My former Padawan. Scout main and Strike Fighters when the mood takes him. I taught Jhingo pretty much from the ground up. He eventually beat me in the final of a Battle Scout tournament. I couldn't have been more proud Posts occasionally. Invis' Youtube Almost a legend in his own time. Still better than me, and the one person I strive to emulate. Himself taught by the greatest player to ever play the game, Neutrinos. Being taught by Invis is like being taught by Neutrinos. Posts occasionally. That should keep you going for now, but there are more! Happy to help any time. Keep up the good work No there's other platforms. Or you can set it to private and send me the link.

Alright lets break this down then Few things to get into here. In regards Accuracy with missiles. Every missile fired counts as a hit toward your accuracy stat, regardless of whether it actually hits or not. To put that in different more simple terms. If you entered a match, and never fired a single laser, but only spammed missiles, and none of your missiles actually hit your target, your end match accuracy would be 100%. Its just how accuracy works with missiles. I guess its rewarding you for getting the lock, not whether it actually hits. So your damage calculation from missiles landed is incorrect. We don't know what it is, because unless you mentally keep track of missiles landed, during a match, there is no way to track how many actually hit from your stats. Even if this wasn't the case, your accuracy also factors in laser hits too. So yeah, non-starter that one. Also you're using Protons in that match screen shot, not concussions. Protons deal damage direct to hull, by-passing shields. So while they appear to do the most damage to a ship, and they do, they actually get less damage numbers. because they ignore shields. Any weapon which does not ignore shields will get you higher damage numbers. So basing match effectiveness and kill ability on damage numbers from missiles is subjective. This tells me there is still too much emphasis on landing missiles in your mindset. High kill / damage counts come from being proficient with lasers, not from landing more missiles. But while its something to work on, it's not a huge issue for you either, because 200 missiles fired over 30 games is only 6.6 missiles fired per match, which isn't much. 41k damage with 44% accuracy in that screen shot when equipping protons at an average of 6.6 fired, means most of your damage is coming from lasers. Which is good! A common problem, closing the kill is an acquired skill. IF you weren't having problems against better pilots that would be astonishing, to put it mildly. GSF takes skill + knowledge to ascend to high skill levels. Someone fairly new, should be struggling against someone who is a skilled old hand. That's correct. Means the game takes effort and tenacity to learn. All in all we need to work on general game play improvements. Have a look at the Defensive flying tips in my Every day tips thread. Focus on Accuracy > damage > kills. One leads to the other. Don't focus on kills for now. Start with better accuracy. If you have the facility to record yourself, I would be happy to analyse it and offer you some pointers. Keep watching videos of better pilots and watch what they do in the way of defensive /offensive flying.

They were the worst laser pre5.5, but they got buffed. You probably read something from back in the old meta. Or, someone who just doesn't know what they are talking about. Accuracy will come up, stick with it. Concentrate on your aim and range, you'll get there.

Not at all man. Enjoy the challenge

This is what Scouts are for. If you're flying "on-nodes" correctly, the walls and structures around C don't interfere or matter to you. If you're going that far off-node that the box is a problem, then you're already no longer interacting with the node and risk losing it, or not capping it. To stay within comms range of the node you essentially need to be within the structure of the node itself. Rough distance for staying in Comms range with a node, is 5m. Less than the width of your ship. So if all those guys you saw orbiting C were having problems killing each other because of the Structure / box around C, then none of them were actually in the right ship for the job, or proficient in the right ship for the job. An Ion, heavy laser, Proton Strike is going to struggle big time there. What you almost undoubtedly saw was bunch of people trying to lock protons on each other while using the box to dodge locks from each other. That's a fundamental lack of understanding of the skills required to play this game. Playing on nodes - staying within 5m and still getting kills - is probably the hardest skill in the game. Too many people think they are playing on-nodes, but they aren't. As evidence by what you saw. Sure, you can do as Drakolich suggested and use CC or interdiction / slow effects to stall your targets out, then kill them while they can't move. And that's fine, if you want to do that. Personally I prefer to teach people how to fly a Scout. One Scout Ace in that mob you saw would've swiftly wiped them all out by the sounds of it.

Welcome contributions too. Made it clear? Hmm, odd wording. I hope you didn't think that post was directed at you, it wasn't. It was general advice for the masses. I have never seen you fly so cannot comment one way or another. You expressed interest in the idea, I was just trying to stay impartial. I like people who like challenges. Certainly was not trying to talk you out of it. I am glad you are willing to test yourself. That is what makes great pilots. I was only suggesting a different approach. But no biggy, was only a suggestion. Carry on good man. It never once entered my mind that there was ruffled feathers or anything that needed smoothing over

I never said it had to be vanilla I think flying stock might be asking a bit too much. Unless you're already Ace level, there's really no need to do that. Plus it could mess with your results. I think a better way to do this would be to have two ships, both T1Fs. They can be on the same toon (one cartel one normal) or different toons. Fly one with Protons and your normal build. Fly the other with clusters. Compare stats at the end of 100 games on each. That will tell you if you (perhaps unknowingly) rely on Protons. Put it here or make a separate thread. Keep the everyday tips thread clean if poss

Its definitely Scout though isn't it? Tier 4 Scout. It just a has a rail gun instead of systems ability

Look forward seeing it Also regarding ship designations - Scouts get the letter S, Strike Fighters get the letter F. So T1S is Tier 1 Scout. T1F is Tier 1 Fighter. Don't worry - took me ages to get this.

100% I would ditch Quads if running Ions. They are the weakest laser on Strikes. Much like LC is on Scouts. Quads are great if running Piledriver build, and if you are well practiced at getting the "double-tap" Quad and Heavy bolt to hit at the same time. But on their own, mediocre at best. Poor range, not enough damage, sub-par accuracy, too high energy drain. Rapids is a far better option if you are running Ions. Most people will go for Qauds over Rapids because they have troubles with aim and range. But once you are over that problem, Rapids are better. Buuuuuuut, I also don't think there's much call for Ions these days. The best combination on the T1F is Heavies and Rapids. Anything in a straight-ish line, Heavies + Rapids is going to burn it down faster than Ions + anything. In a turn fight Ion's don't have a very wide arc, so aren't much use. You're reliant on your Rapids + either Clusters or Concussions in that situation. So you might as well take the hard hitting Heavies. Some people might disapprove of my dismissive attitude towards Quads and Ions. Both individually and separately. Its not like you can't do huge kills counts with them. Ofc you can. I just think the way the meta has gone, as people have refined more and more what works since 5.5, the standout best overall build for T1F is Heavies, Rapids.