Is maining a scout worth it for dogfighting?

[Dkrewe]

I am an imperial player and use the Sting primarily (it has the model that I like the most). However, I am a bit disturbed by how little damage that I do. I just recently got the quad lasers but even with that and when I am unloading missiles into someone it feels like I am doing no damage to them. Upgraded strike fighters and gunships just seem too tanky....

 

That said, is there a configuration to make my lasers deadly? I was hoping for a glass cannon configuration of zoom in, score a kill to save a buddy or secure a node, then zoom out. What I get is zoom in, hit thme and maybe take 1/4 of their health before running for my life cause they turn around and demolish me.

 

As people progress with their ship upgrades do scouts get worse and worse (due to defensive upgrades) or are there ways to build the scout that I am not seeing that makes my goal possible?

[Armonddd]

Fully upgraded burst lasers three shot people at point blank (two shot if you crit with one of them). Cluster missiles are likewise pretty great, but not huge damage. Damage capacitor is your friend, and I'm in an eternal argument with my guild bro about Blaster Overcharge vs Boost Recharger (I favor Blaster Overcharge because it lets me kill gunships almost instantly, he prefers Boost Recharger because it lets him cross the map twice in a row).

 

That said, there's a guy on my server who's done 65k on a scout just by making sure he's always near another target. There's definitely something to be said for tab-c and moving on instantly from one guy to the next.

[Suzina]

I also chose to unlock the sting first and primarily played the Blackbolt (starter ship). I was slightly confused to by how squishy the Sting felt at first, but I now realize I had level'd my Blackbolt's hull and weapons quite a bit by the time I could afford to even start the Sting.

 

Now that I've put some work into my Sting and actually got the hull strength above my Blackbolt, the Sting feels like the "dog fighter scout" it should. Just use the build designed by dulfy. You only have one good chance to kill someone each time you use Blaster Overcharge, but when you do it's a nice burst damage. And while the ability to use lock-on missiles is an advantage of the Sting, I personally went for rocket pods as I can easily just tap-tap-tap my missiles off for extra damage while shooting. This nukes down gun-ships, turrets, and vessels illegally parked on the satellite.

 

The lock-on missiles aren't as great if your primary use for the ship is sc****** the paint on the satellite, because you'll never lock-on anyone. Sabotoge probe isn't a bad choice either as you can often get other ships circling the satellite to fly straight into a mountain side. Definitely a fun way to kill someone.

[Dkrewe]

So are the burst lasers better than the quad ones? I was led to believe the opposite.

[MCaliban]

Yes, yes, and (oh yeah) yes.

[Armonddd]

Try them both.

 

Quad lasers are better at range, burst lasers are better close up. I find that all the important battles take place in close quarters, so I like the burst lasers. And with the scout's speed and maneuverability, I find their extra short range to be less of a disadvantage than it would be on most other ships.

[Tenacity]

Even the rapid fire lasers are better than quads. Ignore the fact that quads claim to have higher damage and accuracy - unless you have some god like sniper aiming skills you'll get far fewer kills with them than any other scout primary.

 

I unlocked and tried all of the primaries available to scouts, and so far I'm loving rapid fire and burst lasers the best. Rapid fire is better for tracking other scouts, but the damage suffers. Burst lasers are just pure awesomesauce though, nothing like shotguns in space.

 

I also tend to use rockets over cluster missiles, too. Clusters just dont do enough damage to be worth it IMO, and the rockets can be fired alongside your lasers in dogfights to boost your damage quite a bit. I'm working on upgrading sabotage probes though, and will probably switch over to those soon. I think the probes would be better in the end for slowing down a target enough to kill them with burst lasers quickly.

[Dkrewe]

For the cluster missiles, did you unlock the thing that makes them shoot double the missiles and still found the damage lacking?

[MalakaiCaine]

for sting or flashfire you use light laser cannon + blaster overcharge

 

you load up dam reduction armour and stick with the quick charge shield.

 

dam cap is also good.

 

 

sting /ff is all about spkie damage.

 

so play it like a thief. get in fast on somethings ***, blast em, and get out, you ARE far more combatty than the basic scouts, nove / bolt, but you're NOT a definitive dogfighter.

 

unless you're good at gasf anyhoo, then you're raepsauce in a sting/ff

[AlrikFassbauer]

raepsauce

 

What kind of word is that ? "A concealed / masked "rapesauce" ? "Reapsauce" like in "The Reaper" ?

 

I think there should be a word like "non-teamwork-whores" ...

Edited December 14, 2013 by AlrikFassbauer

[JediNg]

Absolutely. Be prepared to really work for your kills though. Doing some damage, reacquiring target, doing some more, etc, until they explode. Being aware of your surroundings also important for capping/defending, when you are hugging that satellite, as your life depends on it Edited December 14, 2013 by JediNg

[MalakaiCaine]

What kind of word is that ? "A concealed / masked "rapesauce" ? "Reapsauce" like in "The Reaper" ?

 

I think there should be a word like "non-teamwork-whores" ...

 

 

in answer to your question, both of course

*miguel and tulio nodding faces *

 

and yeah, what i meaning is that you use your truly nasty speed an manouvreing to boost zoom off your point out flank and kill the target and get back to your guard duty in <2m, at least, it never take me longer than that...