Strategy against Gunships?( i need one)

[dwaine]

I love my scout, my scout is my ship and i cant exist without it. Its fast its evasive and itll tear your **** to pieces before you can figure out whats touching you. Only issue i have is against gunships. I'm still relatively new to GSF so im not ranting about them merely asking whats a Scout's strat against them?

 

Most GSF's arnt coordinated so traveling in a pack isnt an option, the only time i ever have an issue with a GS is when im pretty much dogfighting someone else. Damn Republic scum love to jump me...

 

Anyway i wanna improve my Scout currently using the S-12 Blackbolt. its basic and i dont see a reason to change just yet. I've dipped points into to dampening systems, upgraded dmg, and Evasion.

 

Any tips would be nice thanks!

[dancezwithnubz]

the Bypass co-pilot ability + rocket pods work wonders if you get the jump on them.

 

but if you're busy capping a node or in a dogfight, you're eZ fodder for a GS.

[dwaine]

I actually use the Sab probe for the DoT and slow running Bypass and Targeting telemetry for 10% accuract and 5% crit chance, gun wise im using the Light laser cannons with 2 points for increased dmg and 10% reduction cost. I'd list my entire set if thatll help

[dancezwithnubz]

I actually use the Sab probe.....

 

well, THERE'S your problem.

 

seriously, Rocket Pods are THE most awesome weapon available on a Blackbolt/Novadive scout. they take a lot of getting used to and need a fair bit of skill to routinely land shots (beware the tracking penalty!), but once you have it sussed out, they rock.

[dwaine]

Ha! ill save up for the rocket pods well actually by default i have rocket pods the ones that dont locking. are you saying stick with those or go for the upgrade? Also what would you reccommend as a general rule of thumb against a GS

[Verain]

The Sting is generally a better ship, and can kill anything faster than a Blackbolt. But the strat is similar versus a gunship.

 

First, as stated, you want rocket pods. You also want the six second distortion field, and the bypass copilot ability. Once you are close, you will, as stated, be using all these together. This should force the gunship to run, or outright kill him.

 

To maintain situational awareness, the tab key will cycle sighted targets. If these targets include a gunship, either LOS the gunship whilst waiting for engine power, or if you already have it, boost. You can boost right towards him, but if you do, watch the glow. If you see him looking at you and glowing, you can pitch suddenly, or press your distortion field. Barrel roll will also get you there with some degree of success. You are more likely to survive if you instead take a more circuitous route towards him. Remember, your lateral direction relative to him shuts him down if he is trying to target you- enough lateral direction and it is literally impossible to hit you with anything more substantial than an ion love tap. Once you are close, simply chase him, using your cooldowns to burn into him. He'll retreat or try to kill you with burst lasers, but you should win a dogfight unless badly injured.

[Sharee]

First thing is to look at the enemy team during a pre-game setup. Take note of which enemy players selected gunship for their craft(also, with experience you will know the usual gunship pilots by name). This way you will roughly know what to expect.

 

Gunships usually hang out at the open sats, A and C in the atmospheric map, and A and B in te space map. If you want to avoid them, choose the sat that is enclosed in rock/forcefields. Not a guarantee to be safe, but from experience i get shot by gunships there a lot less.

 

If you are alone at a sat, shift power to shields. A gunship can oneshot a scout sometimes, but not always. This will help your chances.

 

If you get hit by a gunship, your ship's hull will show electric-like sparks on it. If you see this happen(assuming you didn't get one-shot) hit barrel roll immediately, then hit R to target the gunship who just shot you. Use boost to get close to it, but not straight at it, go at a ~30, ~45 degree angle above the gunship, then swoop down on it when you are no longer in it's field of view(you can check whether the gunship is facing you in the target camera upper right). Get close to it *without* using lockon missiles! The beeping will just warn the gunship that it is about to be attacked. Use rockets instead. Get close from above or behind, then open fire from both laser and rockets. Often you will kill it before it even starts moving.

 

Alternatively, do not wait for the gunship to shoot you. If you saw someone using a gunship in the pre-flight screen, immediately head to where gunships like to hang out(you will know with experience) and start actively hunting him. Chances are, hell get frustrated after the 3rd death and change to some other ship.

Edited January 13, 2014 by Sharee

[dancezwithnubz]

Ha! ill save up for the rocket pods well actually by default i have rocket pods the ones that dont locking. are you saying stick with those or go for the upgrade? Also what would you reccommend as a general rule of thumb against a GS

 

yup, the stock secondary weapon on a BoltDive. get that first tier 'ignore armor' upgrade ASAP on 'em, grab a 25% extra ammo Offensive crew member (preferably with the Bypass co-pilot ability, i use Khem Val) and start tossing 'em about.

 

the MAIN thing to remember is the Tracking Penalty of a whomping 5%/degree. so every degree off center your target is in the reticule, you're 5% more likely to miss, basically, get the target right bang in the center at a range of <2000m, hit Bypass and just let rip with everything you have. if said target is a GS, if they run, pursue. if they start charging up their railgun, hit Distortion Field and carry on regardless.

 

you can practice using rocket pods on Turrets, which they also excel at taking out.

[dwaine]

Thanks for the advice guys, I havnt had any recent encounters with GS's yet mostly scouts and SFs but i will definitly take these into consideration. Should i be working towards the upgraded Scout fighter or just upgrade my blackbolt?

[Wainamoinen]

Thanks for the advice guys, I havnt had any recent encounters with GS's yet mostly scouts and SFs but i will definitly take these into consideration. Should i be working towards the upgraded Scout fighter or just upgrade my blackbolt?

 

Both I 'd say. You can buy the second scout (not really an upgrade, just a differrent variant) with the fleet reqs you earn, but the Novadive/Blackbolt can take out Gunships just fine. The Flashfire/Sting and CM variants are probably stronger dogfighters. Then you'll have another option to call on during the battle.

 

Most important thing is to buy your distortion shield - the extra evasion it grants makes you near-immune to gunship hits while its ability is active. Also good when popping turrets or just taking fire from another craft. Rocket Pods plus blasters at close range, combined with an ability (Bypass is good, Concentrated Fire also) make for nice burst on a static target.

[Elly_Dawn]

Thanks for the advice guys, I havnt had any recent encounters with GS's yet mostly scouts and SFs but i will definitly take these into consideration. Should i be working towards the upgraded Scout fighter or just upgrade my blackbolt?

 

personally i'm saving up my F•Req. and waiting till they give us the Interceptor when GSF goes live...

Edited January 13, 2014 by Elly_Dawn

[Luneward]

Thanks for the advice guys, I havnt had any recent encounters with GS's yet mostly scouts and SFs but i will definitly take these into consideration. Should i be working towards the upgraded Scout fighter or just upgrade my blackbolt?

 

Depends on what role you want to fill. The Blackbolt/Novadive is a general all purpose scout. It can fill most roles based on what components you have loaded. (For example - typical utility scout would be sab probe, communication sensors, sensor beacon. A dogfighter/objective capture would use rocket pods, targeting telemetry, and maybe dampening sensors).

 

The Sting/Flashfire is a straight up dogfighter. It gets cluster missiles, burst and quad lasers, the sensors are replaced with a shield reactor. More specialized, but better at what it does. All purpose? Quad lasers and cluster missiles. Short range burst? (What I like to call gunship killer) Burst lasers, rocket pods, blaster overcharge, bypass.

 

It doesn't really sound like you want to specialize in hunting gunships, but I kind of like having multiple fighters for different purposes. Unless your time is limited, it really doesn't hurt to get both ships leveled up.

[Brewski]

The Sting/Flashfire is a straight up dogfighter. ... Short range burst? (What I like to call gunship killer) Burst lasers, rocket pods, blaster overcharge, bypass.

Actually, if you swap out rocket pods for clusters, this build can easily work as a objective capture/clear build as well as a gunship hunter. Nothing beats burst + clusters for clearing a satellite humper. That combo still gives you decent turret killing and gunship killing power as well.

Edited January 13, 2014 by Brewski

[Luneward]

Actually, if you swap out rocket pods for clusters, this build can easily work as a objective capture/clear build as well as a gunship hunter. Nothing beats burst + clusters for clearing a satellite humper. That combo still gives you decent turret killing and gunship killing power as well.

 

Eh I suppose. I swap to clusters when I want to just dogfight. Still kind of prefer rocket pods for not giving a gunship a warning before you unload on them.

[Sadishist]

How to beat a gunship? Simple- close range.

[xyrmagus]

How to beat a gunship? Simple- close range.

 

While I can typically beat them 1v1 on my strike fighter, burst lasers HURT, and some of them have some pretty rediculous maneuverability even compared to my strike (although of course, not a scout). Point being they aren't sitting ducks, and if you approach them with low hull health, regardless of shields, you're asking for a beating.

[Brewski]

Eh I suppose. I swap to clusters when I want to just dogfight. Still kind of prefer rocket pods for not giving a gunship a warning before you unload on them.

 

Pods are excellent for sitting targets, but lately I've found that the good Gunship pilots either see me coming and rabbit before I get there, or notice the damage as soon as I start and Barrel Roll away before I can finish. That actually makes clusters better for finishing them off on the run.

 

The bad gunship pilots I melt with blasters only anyway, so it makes no difference.

[Luneward]

While I can typically beat them 1v1 on my strike fighter, burst lasers HURT, and some of them have some pretty rediculous maneuverability even compared to my strike (although of course, not a scout). Point being they aren't sitting ducks, and if you approach them with low hull health, regardless of shields, you're asking for a beating.

 

The new gunship will turn that on its head. No burst laser, no distortion field, no armor component, and no rotational thrusters. Those guys won't be able to dogfight anything but a bomber.

Edited January 14, 2014 by Luneward
Clarified thruster type

[Kain_Turinbar]

The new gunship will turn that on its head. No burst laser, no distortion field, no armor component, and no quick turn thrusters. Those guys won't be able to dogfight anything but a bomber.

 

Wow if that is the case no one will use it.

[Luneward]

Wow if that is the case no one will use it.

 

I imagine they'll get used less than the missile boats do. It adds a medium range option that's not really very useful when they already have a railgun at the expense of almost all their short range defense and offense. I suggest treating all gunships you see as if they are Manglers/Quells... because quite frankly I can't see anyone liking the Dustmaker.

[dancezwithnubz]

Actually, if you swap out rocket pods for clusters, this build can easily work as a objective capture/clear build as well as a gunship hunter. Nothing beats burst + clusters for clearing a satellite humper. That combo still gives you decent turret killing and gunship killing power as well.

 

having used both extensively, I've come to the conclusion that rocket pods > cluster missiles in most scenarios.

 

rocket pods are trickier to use (TRACKING PENALTY!), but getting off a shot with zero warning to the target is a blessing for a scout.

 

'pods are also far, far better at Turret destruction than clusters.

 

pity the top tier cluster missile upgrades (double volley?) completely blow the rocket pods final upgrades out of the water. i'd LOVE a double volley rocket pod attack

[Armonddd]

having used both extensively, I've come to the conclusion that rocket pods > cluster missiles in most scenarios.

 

rocket pods are trickier to use (TRACKING PENALTY!), but getting off a shot with zero warning to the target is a blessing for a scout.

 

'pods are also far, far better at Turret destruction than clusters.

 

pity the top tier cluster missile upgrades (double volley?) completely blow the rocket pods final upgrades out of the water. i'd LOVE a double volley rocket pod attack

 

Dat 5% tracking penalty and 40 ammo count.

 

Rocket pods hit really really hard, though... and 30% shield piercing with 100% armor piercing is pretty great.

 

Still, lining up those shots is really, really hard.

[dancezwithnubz]

Dat 5% tracking penalty and 40 ammo count.

 

Rocket pods hit really really hard, though... and 30% shield piercing with 100% armor piercing is pretty great.

 

Still, lining up those shots is really, really hard.

 

but oh so worth it when you see their ship light up with a lovely pink glow before disappearing in a cloud of smoke and fire

 

i run with 50 ammo count. currently playing around with crew members, but the +25% ammo offensive passive and T4 upgrades come in handy. the 4 degree firing arc T4 upgrade flatout isn't worth getting imho. -20% accuracy? nty.

 

still not sure if Concentrated Fire works with rockets, I suspect it doesn't.

[Brewski]

My targets don't generally get a warning either, since I don't bother with Clusters at a sitting target. Three volleys from Burst Lasers with Bypass + BO and you can melt just about any sitting target.

 

Yeah, Rocket Pods are excellent at taking out standing targets, and Clusters are better at moving/evading targets. Which explains why I used pods exclusively when I was spending all my time hunting gunships, and switched to clusters when the number of gunships per match dropped to a reasonable amount.