How to counter gunships

[MCaliban]

Do you really need someone to explain to you detailed step by step how to force a gunship to maneuver?

Yes, that's exactly what I'm looking for.

[SammuelSK]

was there a example of how to counter gunships in this thread? and in what situations?

 

There really isn't one, unless you queue up as a full group and are communicating/coordinating an effort to take them down.

 

Personally I find gunships boring to play, but if you want to rack up godly amounts of kills they're the ship to do it in. Normally I fly scout, do a match and have 4-8 kills. Switch it up to a gunship though, and 8 kills is the lower end of the scale with 11-12 being the average. Full geared gunships, with players who I've seen doing nothing but play gunships... they fall into the 18-22 kill range.

 

Honestly, gunships seem extremely imbalanced when you see the kill totals at the end of the match.

[Sarlegant]

all of these "easy to kill gunship" answers are all based on killing the average joe gunship...

this is all as if it's the skilled scout hunting the average gunship...

 

A gunship only needs 3 seconds to stop and fire that rail, to put some serious hurt on before he is moving again.

A gunship doesn't have to stop for 3 seconds to fire that rail, equaling any other missle in the game.

 

A gunship can tab target too... and can manuever to set up shots too... he can hunt scouts as easily as scouts hunt him... the difference is, not just who sees who first, the gunship is lethal at 1 thru 15K yards, and the scout is lethal at 1 to 3k.

 

BUT it's not the power of his guns that make him OP directly... it's the ease at which he can find his targets... as simple as flying to the nearest point, A B or C, and in 6 seconds someone is 2 shotted... That is OP, compared against the time it takes a Scout to find, setup, and kill the average gunship.

 

I only play my gunship each day long enough to use up the 2xp... I have not tricked out my rail shots beyond 2nd tier... I am average joe gunship pilot... but I don't hover with my back to rocks, and I don't setup with other gunships covering each other... I just launch, pick a direction to go, and kill the first target I see... and I continue to kill, till I have to dogfight for my life... and as noob as I am, my kills/assist ratio is always at least 3:1 to deaths.

 

All this thread seems to have done is assume the gunship pilot has forgetten he also has afterburners, cannons, shields, and a thick hull... A gunship might be best suited to sniping at range, but he is not limited to sniping.

 

Most of my time is spend on the Flashfire, and I enjoy my Novadive... so please, do add some useful tips on how to counter the NOT dumb as rocks Gunship.

[ArchangelLBC]

Do you really need someone to explain to you detailed step by step how to force a gunship to maneuver?

 

In a thread which purports to be a "How to" guide? Yes.

[xOxDarkyxOx]

How do you deal with 4+ gunships taking potshots at the same time? There just isn't enough places to LoS them. LoSing one puts you in the view of 2 more.

[Sarlegant]

ok, I had my fun with my last rant...

my counter to the gunship, is jumping in my own gunship... whats good for the goose is good for another goose too.

take that plasma shot pal, cause there is a slug following in 3, 2, oppps already on it's way....

Edited December 11, 2013 by Sarlegant

[SemperFido]

Nerfbat the gun and sensor dampening in exchange for being able to maneuver while firing... This is Star Wars, the idea of sitting still in a Spaceship is just fracking stupid!

[Cleet_Xia]

Gunships are inherently self limiting. Several things can be expected of their pilots.

 

1) They will locate somewhere within 15000m of an objective, or a common traffic path.

2) If they wish to perform well, they need a location with a wide field of view.

3) Their close range capabilities are poor. Their only real options are to turtle or to run.

4) The field of view for the rail gun weapon makes it progressively more difficult to track a target as that target gets closer.

 

I counter gunships by closing on them in two ways.

1) Along a path that is at a wide angle from where they are facing ~ this can be seen in the target picture shown by the UI.

2) I approach head on along a path which zig zags across their field of view, at full boost speed.

 

I employ both approaches with full power to engines.

 

At 4250m I end my boost, begin firing ions, & fire a missle. As soon as the shield is down I switch to quads. If they run, I switch back to ions ~ to take down their rear shield. If they fire on me in self defense, at full health I am able to weather the first hit just fine. If they fire and miss, I throttle back and kill them before I pass them.

 

My goal as a strike is to knock them off their perch, and remove their shields so that a scout will see them as a target of opportunity and polish them off. That said, if they don't quickly decide to make a run for it/ or I catch them without enough engine power, I am generally able to finish them off myself. I can usually take all of their forward shield and 3/4 of their hull in the first pass, without losing any of my own hull. But, I will use my shield CD if they turn & fire on me during my approach, my self heal if necessary.

[Vanarion]

Some possibilities for scout configurations to hunt gunships:

 

Nova Dive "Detector":

http://dulfy.net/2013/11/16/swtor-galactic-starfighter/?link=dGEAAAEMBAUABRAB8gHyAuAB9ALQAOAA4ALgAuA=

+ sensor range (detects sensor damping gunboats within 23500m)

+ weapon range

+ primary weapon burst potential

+ target disabling capabilities

+ gap closing capabilities

Flight Deck officer Ban Keldo says "Use Targeting Telemetry and they'll all pop up".

 

Nova Dive "Ninja":

http://dulfy.net/2013/11/16/swtor-galactic-starfighter/?link=dGEAAAEMBAUBBRMB8gDqAuAB9ALQAuAA4ALgAuA=

+ some ability to approach undetected

+ weapon range

+ no missle lock warning will warn them

+ copilot ability makes all weapons pierce shields

Flight Deck officer Ban Keldo says "You know where they'll hide. They won't see you coming".

 

Have fun

 

Silan

[Brewski]

I ran into the first match where gunships scored double digit kills in a while last night, but the problem wasn't that we face mastered gunships, it was that we faced a team of two mastered gunships covered by two mastered scouts. They would take an objective and then just park covering each other. Any single ship approaching the gunships would be chased off or killed by the scouts while the two gunships two shot everyone. (One with an Ion blast and the other with a slug right after.) I did manage to kill one, and my group managed to force them to reposition a couple of times, but in general they totally dominated the match.

 

Of course, this was immediately followed by another match where the opposing team ran with 7 gunships. We completely cleaned house, and I scored 8 gunship kills plus a few others, and we won the match 1000 to 300 despite having only 1 (possibly 2) players on our side flying gunships.

 

Morale of the story: Gunships aren't as OP as team play and coordination. The only way we could have resolved the first match would have been to have another group just as coordinated, and we didn't.

 

Having seen the numbers, I do agree that Bypass needs a bit of a nerf, but really, that's the only change needed. Even that one needs to be slight because if they drop it below 25% it would just be worthless.

[AlrikFassbauer]

After having defeated 1-3 enemy fighters with my gunships, I'm soon facing 2-3 enemy fighters (mostly Scouts, but sometimes Strike Fighters as well) relentlessy going against me until I'm defeated.

 

Repeat ad nauseam.

Edited December 11, 2013 by AlrikFassbauer

[Zoom_VI]

The idea of a sniper ship in a dogfighting game is a problem in itself.

[TUXs]

Morale of the story: Gunships aren't as OP as team play and coordination. The only way we could have resolved the first match would have been to have another group just as coordinated, and we didn't.

 

Having seen the numbers, I do agree that Bypass needs a bit of a nerf, but really, that's the only change needed. Even that one needs to be slight because if they drop it below 25% it would just be worthless.

 

Good post Brewski! Coordination is key. I generally fly with friends and that's one thing we always do...TALK! We coordinate taking nodes, we coordinate targets.

[Zoom_VI]

Counter to Gunsjips ?

 

Easy :

 

Get close to them.

 

Please tell how I am supposed to know if a gunship is around before he one-shots me

[Itkovian]

The main problem with gunships is people need to realize they must be hunted down like the dogs that they are.

 

Which is to say, if you go up against a skilled gunship team, and it turns out only 1 or 2 people know how to hunt gunships, then you're in trouble. Even more so if those 1 or 2 people are the ones who know how to fight for objectives best (having found myself in that position several times, I have to say it's not pleasant and quite frustrating).

 

But if your team has good gunship hunters and others who know how to cap, then the match is a lot more enjoyable.

 

Ultimately, what it comes down to is if your team's gunship hunters ALSO have to try and cap, it just doesn't work against skilled gunships. Because to try and cap they need to move into the gunship's kill zone. Dedicated gunship hunters, meanwhile, will be able to properly approach the gunships and kill/drive them off.

[TUXs]

The idea of a sniper ship in a dogfighting game is a problem in itself.

 

The idea that it's a "dogfighting" game is half your problem. It's an objective based game.

[TUXs]

Please tell how I am supposed to know if a gunship is around before he one-shots me

 

Trick question? TAB key...and big deal...he kills you once, get in a scout and kill him next.

[Phantasym]

Please tell how I am supposed to know if a gunship is around before he one-shots me

 

If he is in range to shoot you with the current dampening bug then he is in range for you to tab target. Also with communication sensor range you can often see people 40k out. I just look for little red boxes hanging around the outskirts of objectives, and I tab or E target them if the picture comes up as a gunship, then I hit engines, and boost myself to their side/back/top then turn to face them and close to 3000m.. I hit blaster overload and open up with that and rockets, if they survive they have a sliver of health left when they run and I maneuver a lot better I give chase and finish them.

 

If they run to their capital ship, I just turn around and boost out of range back to the objective. Ill be back in cap range in maybe 10 seconds while they are still flying back because of low engine power and a slow ship. When they show up again just repeat this.

 

If you have to approach head on you just zig zag and juke as you do it, when you are within 3000m or if they use their rotational thrusters and open up on you right away hit the evasion shield, you wont get hit for 6 seconds while you are blasting away at them. The only time this doesn't work is if you unload into the reflect shield and might kill yourself, you can always stop firing blasters for a few seconds to prevent this, rockets and missiles go through. and just fly past them and whip around for another pass much faster then they can turn.

[Phantasym]

all of these "easy to kill gunship" answers are all based on killing the average joe gunship...

this is all as if it's the skilled scout hunting the average gunship...

 

A gunship only needs 3 seconds to stop and fire that rail, to put some serious hurt on before he is moving again.

A gunship doesn't have to stop for 3 seconds to fire that rail, equaling any other missle in the game.

 

A gunship can tab target too... and can manuever to set up shots too... he can hunt scouts as easily as scouts hunt him... the difference is, not just who sees who first, the gunship is lethal at 1 thru 15K yards, and the scout is lethal at 1 to 3k.

 

BUT it's not the power of his guns that make him OP directly... it's the ease at which he can find his targets... as simple as flying to the nearest point, A B or C, and in 6 seconds someone is 2 shotted... That is OP, compared against the time it takes a Scout to find, setup, and kill the average gunship.

 

I only play my gunship each day long enough to use up the 2xp... I have not tricked out my rail shots beyond 2nd tier... I am average joe gunship pilot... but I don't hover with my back to rocks, and I don't setup with other gunships covering each other... I just launch, pick a direction to go, and kill the first target I see... and I continue to kill, till I have to dogfight for my life... and as noob as I am, my kills/assist ratio is always at least 3:1 to deaths.

 

All this thread seems to have done is assume the gunship pilot has forgetten he also has afterburners, cannons, shields, and a thick hull... A gunship might be best suited to sniping at range, but he is not limited to sniping.

 

Most of my time is spend on the Flashfire, and I enjoy my Novadive... so please, do add some useful tips on how to counter the NOT dumb as rocks Gunship.

 

Most of the methods posted here work on any gunship not just bad ones not just good ones. If you use blaster overcharge and have power to weapons even a good gunship will die or be extremely wounded, fully speced out or not. My scout has only 2 mastered systems and before yesterday had 0 mastered and I still had no trouble taking out gunships either with surprise or in a dogfight. Do I die to it occasionally sure, but even when that happens they are away from the objective we are trying to cap or easy pickings for anyone who saw them boost off.

 

Thick shields, afterburners, cannons etc make no difference at all, the gunship cannot out boost a scout, period, they would have to be under a demo probe, or an ion rail shot to even have a chance, shields and hull only last so long under concentrated attack, and a gunships cannons can only be used if you can get them in your sights and with the scout bonus speed and turning speed its going to be impossible to get the scout lined up for a shot unless the scout is a moron, or you use rotational thrusters, and scouts have counters too, on top of a lot of base evasion they have a cooldown that gives over 100% evasion for a short time.

[Arlanon]

L2ParabolicArc

[Itkovian]

Please tell how I am supposed to know if a gunship is around before he one-shots me

 

Whatever anyone else replies, your point is correct: YOU CAN'T. Not unless you don't have anything else to do but scan for gunships.

 

That said, you can try to mitigate it by spending time to look for gunships as you approach an objective, but the simple fact of the matter is that if you are busy doing ANYTHING OTHER THAN LOOKING FOR GUNSHIPS, you cannot prevent being one-shotted.

 

That is a major issue, and it needs to be rectified. It should not be possible to one-shot someone without any warnings whatsoever.

[TUXs]

Whatever anyone else replies, your point is correct: YOU CAN'T. Not unless you don't have anything else to do but scan for gunships.

 

That said, you can try to mitigate it by spending time to look for gunships as you approach an objective, but the simple fact of the matter is that if you are busy doing ANYTHING OTHER THAN LOOKING FOR GUNSHIPS, you cannot prevent being one-shotted.

 

That is a major issue, and it needs to be rectified. It should not be possible to one-shot someone without any warnings whatsoever.

 

Would a warning *chime* while a gun is being primed be enough?

[SawneyRath]

Please tell how I am supposed to know if a gunship is around before he one-shots me

 

Communicate with teammates, recognize players who routinely use them, and use tab to cycle through the various enemies close to you. Also, look for the bright glowing mist that surrounds them when they charge their guns. Upgrade your survivability (Defense, Shields, Damage Reduction, Evasion ect ect.) as this will prevent the One Hit kills on you.

 

Also, use cover, don't fly in a straight line, and be aware of your surroundings. Always assume a Sniper has you in their sights.

Edited December 11, 2013 by SawneyRath

[Itkovian]

Would a warning *chime* while a gun is being primed be enough?

 

If there was a warning tone or some such (different from missiles) that fired up whenever an enemy gunship in sensor range charged up his railgun, then I think it would be enough yes.

 

Not only would it give you a chance to dodge, but it'd also alert anyone to the threat and give people a chance to look for and engage him.

 

Personally that's a solution I rather like, but it really needs to be something audibly different from a missile lock.

[SawneyRath]

Would a warning *chime* while a gun is being primed be enough?

 

I think the bright mist that surrounds them is enough. A noise would be to much, and make them stick out like a sore thumb, in essence destroying their viability as a Sniper.

 

Just see my above post for tips on avoiding being the Sniped.