Strike Fighter Guide/Help?

[BJBSRR]

I often do GSF for the daily/weekly, and have gained a ton of ship req. in the past few weeks since early access went live. You guys on the forum here, and Dulfy, have been an immeasurable help with allowing me to tweak my scout and GS, but for some reason there seems to be lacking a "guide" (must have compenents/crew) for the strike fighter. I really want to give it a shot, but don't really know where to start. I mean, I could always just tinker around with it and see what happens, but I thought I'd come here and ask the experts for advice.

[Armonddd]

The Strike is kind of the worst ship class right now. Hopefully new game modes in February will fix that, but until then, it's hard for me to recommend a strike build in good faith when a scout build can do so much better.

[reclipsed]

Don't listen to the burstfappers, Strike Fighters can hold their own against most targets. Just don't play them like a Scout up close. Use HLC's or Quads (my personal choice). Of course if you wanna go lolsmash they are very fun, and fast.

 

-don't try to go toe to toe with a Scout, they can out turn/ out quickburst you

[Armonddd]

Don't listen to the burstfappers, Strike Fighters can hold their own against most targets. Just don't play them like a Scout up close. Use HLC's or Quads (my personal choice). Of course if you wanna go lolsmash they are very fun, and fast.

 

-don't try to go toe to toe with a Scout, they can out turn/ out quickburst you

 

The problem is, scouts have the tools to force you to fight at close range, and strikes can't match their mobility, so they lose.

 

I can't remember the last time I died to a strike without being weakened significantly by a scout or a gunship.

[Resipsal]

Don't listen to the burstfappers

 

To be fair, burst cannons are not the primary reason the Flashfire is so strong. Distortionfapper is probably the more accurate pejorative you're going to want coin.

 

-don't try to go toe to toe with a Scout, they can out turn/ out quickburst you

 

Rather than tell us that we're playing our strikers wrong, why not tell us how to play a striker correctly?

[Kain_Turinbar]

To be fair, burst cannons are not the primary reason the Flashfire is so strong. Distortionfapper is probably the more accurate pejorative you're going to want coin.

 

 

 

Rather than tell us that we're playing our strikers wrong, why not tell us how to play a striker correctly?

 

My main weapon against them are missiles due to distortion shield. I prioritized increasing my turn speed to facilitate missile locks and do all I can to stay at least 5000m meters away. Whenever they get close or I see they have their cooldowns on, barrel roll and retry. The concussion missile upgrade that slows them and robs engine power is great if you can land it, after that they will be much easier to finish.

 

I've noticed lots of scouts will settle for head to head blaster passes (probably used to melting people) at medium range. I've won more than a few of these with my power to shields, maxed heavy lasers combo and hitting my shield cooldown as soon as it weakens.

 

I play a long range (well, not compared to gunships) oriented strike fighter and try to stay there and not get into turning contests unless I can tell it is a lowbie/unupgraded ship.

[Grahame]

If you take all the turning upgrades on a strike, how many scouts will you actually encounter that can actually out turn you?

 

I keep reading posts by people that scouts always out turn strikes, but how many scouts take both turning thrusters and the tier 3 engine turning upgrade? Flying my strike, I have both turning upgrades which giving me a pitch rate of 1.90. A scout with just a single 10% turning upgrade has a pitch rate of 1.98. It's an advantage, but it's not that huge, especially if you consider dogfighting around obstacles.

 

From my (admittedly limited) experience, I've never been out turned in a dogfight with a scout after mastering just the turning thrusters.

[Kain_Turinbar]

If you take all the turning upgrades on a strike, how many scouts will you actually encounter that can actually out turn you?

 

I keep reading posts by people that scouts always out turn strikes, but how many scouts take both turning thrusters and the tier 3 engine turning upgrade? Flying my strike, I have both turning upgrades which giving me a pitch rate of 1.90. A scout with just a single 10% turning upgrade has a pitch rate of 1.98. It's an advantage, but it's not that huge, especially if you consider dogfighting around obstacles.

 

From my (admittedly limited) experience, I've never been out turned in a dogfight with a scout after mastering just the turning thrusters.

 

Taking all the turning upgrades certainly helps. I still try to avoid turning contests just because my advantage is at range but I noticed a huge difference in my hit rate with concussion missiles after maxing turning thrusters and taking the final tier of barrel roll. Even if I don't get a lock sometimes I can chase them away just with repeated missile lock attempts that force them to burn engine power.

[Altheran]

Thanks for your input you two. I planned to take the turning thursters on my strike (haven't touch them yet) and your experiences seem to confirm that this what I'm looking for.

[Kain_Turinbar]

Thanks for your input you two. I planned to take the turning thursters on my strike (haven't touch them yet) and your experiences seem to confirm that this what I'm looking for.

 

For me the decision was easy. At first I really thought about the speed thrusters but then thought really what is the point? You won't outrun them or catch them (scouts) no matter what if they don't really want you to because of their engine pool and speed so deciding to focus on turn rate was a no brainer for me. The clincher was when I lost dogfights to gunships using burst lasers and distortion field in the stock Strike Fighters.

Edited January 16, 2014 by Kain_Turinbar

[xyrmagus]

You can compare the turning stats in the main ship window. My FULLY turning radius upgraded Pike still turns slightly slower than a base Flashfire (which in turn can also get turning upgrades and vastly surpass it). The exact difference is extremely minimal (Pitch - aka vertical turn rate - is 1.78 on Pike vs 1.8 on a Flashfire; I believe the Yaw - horizontal turn rate - is a good bit slower though). That being said, if you're in a dogfight, it's always better to roll so the target is "above" you than try to follow them on the left or right side.

 

You really can't out-dogfight a scout in a strike fighter (which is adorable, because the actual description of the flashfire specifically says it can't go toe to toe with a strike fighter... and it clearly can). In the current game meta, I agree, strikes are weaker than other ship types. Of course, a skilled, fully upgraded pike will easily stomp on bad players of other ships (I really do believe skill > ugprades in GSF). Additionally, I can't help but wonder if Strike Fighters will have a place after we get bombers and some new game modes. Honestly, I struggle with the fact that I chose the pike as my "main" ship. I know I like to be "in the action" so gunships aren't for me (confirmed after trying one this tuesday), but going to build a flashfire feels so FOTM to me.

 

The main problem I see with strike fighters is that it's clear bioware didn't have a real "role" in mind for them. Reading the Pike descripton says it's a jack of all trades, but the Flashfire description implies that scouts should lose to the superior defenses and firepower of a strike. Clearly, neither of these are the case. Pikes are CONSIDERABLY worse at ranged combat than gunships, and all things being equal a pike has NO chance against a scout (mostly due to distortion shield; even though a scout has weaker hull and shields, the evasion is so high that it is effectively MUCH tankier than a SF). Evasion being a retarded stat in a space sim aside (as is a shield ability that breaks missile lock), it's clear the existing two strikes were designed as a weapons platform. The base one is the laser platform, and the Pike/Quell are the missile platforms. I propose they are given bonuses to these weapons types. It could range from a simple 5-10% damage bonus for that weapon types over other ships, to something like allowing Pikes to drop a missile slot for a system that prevents a single missile evasion on a 30s-1min or so cooldown (that being said, this would be BRUTAL with concussion or protons).

Edited January 16, 2014 by xyrmagus

[Armonddd]

If you take all the turning upgrades on a strike, how many scouts will you actually encounter that can actually out turn you?

 

Me. I specifically take all the turning upgrades so I have an easier time fighting around satellites. But you're right, a lot of people will go for one or the other - and who knows, maybe I'll join them sooner or later. It'll depend on the meta. Currently I take massive turn rate upgrades so I can out-turn other scouts, and out-turning strikes is just an added bonus.

 

The bigger problem with this line of reasoning is that you don't want to be in a turning war - not as an attacker, anyway. Turning wars stall games, and that doesn't benefit you unless you're the defender, in which case you have better ways to stall the game (circling sats, for one).

 

People have posted their thoughts on how to make an effective strike fighter. My personal build includes heavy lasers with ignore armor and shield piercing, rapid fire lasers with crit and shield damage, concussion missiles with range and engine targeting, barrel roll with turn rate, and bypass. With bypass, a concussion missile does something around 650 damage before armor (and right now, most targets have 0% armor). Without bypass, a half dozen heavy laser shots and a concussion missile kill almost anything.

 

I stopped playing my Rycer because I realized I was playing catchup to my scout. Why should I wait for a 2.6 second lock to do 1.1k damage when I can boost up next to the guy and burst laser him for the same? Why should I use barrel roll to get from place to place when I can instead be a scout and have higher base engine speed and more efficient afterburner use? Remember, all lasers are more effective at close range, not just burst lasers - so logically you want to be as close as reasonably possible while taking shots at the other guy. The Rycer and Quell can kind of support that with rapid fire lasers and cluster missiles, but their rapid fire lasers are just not as effective as burst lasers against most targets (at least, in my experience - YMMV, I know some Blackbolt/Novadive pilots that clean house with rapids), their afterburners are not efficient enough to keep them in close range, and you're forced to take certain upgrades (turning thrusters, barrel roll with turn rate) to maintain a facade of competitiveness. I also hate barrel roll - once someone paints a lock on me, I have to choose between abandoning the point (which often means they cap it, or at least deny it to me) and eating a missile. Every time I try to play a close range strike, I feel like I'm playing a clunky scout that can't boost worth a damn, has a significantly worse survivability cooldown, and - most importantly - takes three or four times as long to destroy a target.

 

I've also tried long range strikes. Both the Rycer and the Quell can do this decently with some combination of heavy lasers, proton torpedoes, and concussion missiles (though the Quell will probably want clusters as their backup option). I again feel like a slow and clunky ship that has the added disadvantage of being fairly predictable - I absolutely need to get my missile lock in order to be effective, so I'm not going to deviate course while trying to get it. At close range, if someone starts attacking you, you can afford to boost behind cover and come back from another angle; at long range, breaking a missile lock means you achieved something close to zero progress towards that kill. (It doesn't help that most secondary weapons have such long lock and reload times that a block of tofu with retro thrusters can survive infinite missiles.)

 

Worst of all, the long range strike is essentially trying to be a gunship, and gunships are significantly better suited towards that task. Slug railguns charge as fast as a concussion missile locks, do more damage than a missile or torpedo, have the same level of shield and armor penetration (better, if you spec your missile for the very powerful debuff), have longer range, don't have a travel time, are significantly harder to dodge with engine abilities, and can be released before they're fully charged if the target is weakened. Slugs share most of these advantages over proton torpedoes as well, except torpedoes take even longer to lock and reload, do even less damage, travel even more slowly, and still don't have anything close to the range of a railgun. On the upside... 100% shield piercing, instead of 30%? Not that their shields matter much when you're doing double the damage per shot, but hey.

 

Oh, and gunships also get ion railguns, which essentially ban multiple targets from the game with each shot... while also instantly destroying their shields, so you don't have to worry about doing that with your slug. Yeah, why would I want to try to be a ranged combatant in anything other than a gunship?

 

It's not about distortion field, it's not about burst lasers, and it's not about proton torpedoes or concussion missiles. It's about the whole package that a ship brings to the table - and currently, everything the strike brings (weapons, mobility, defenses) is outclassed by the other ships, with no significant advantages to make up for these flaws.

Edited January 16, 2014 by Armonddd

[BJBSRR]

This is sad, sad news

 

I do however, appreciate the feedback!

Edited January 16, 2014 by BJBSRR

[Grahame]

Thanks for the reply Armonddd, this is by far the best post I've seen describing the current weaknesses of strikes.

 

What sort of niche do you think they could potentially fill given some sort of buff? Perhaps boost their weapons capabilities making them medium range powerhouses? That would probably fulfill their in game description better.

[Itkovian]

Personally I have great success in a Strike, but it's true that at this time they're sub-par... but still you can achieve excellent results (and there's something to be said about having nowhere to go but up in game balance *grin*).

 

That said, a lot about strikes depends on the weapon they can use that other classes (particularly scouts). that's the Heavy Laser, Concussion Missiles, and Proton Torpedoes, and (to a lesser extent) Quad Lasers.

 

One thing you'll notice is that these tend to lend themselves to medium-range gameplay, which is basically where the Strike fighters excel. Close in scouts definitely dominate, while long range is the domain of the Gunship. Now this in itself isn't that much of an advantage, since Gunships still get to snipe you, and Scouts can easily boost up to get in close. So while it is nice to be able to plug people from 7000m away, it's not THAT great.

 

But Strikes do get some versatility at least, due to their weapon sets. The Star Guard's 2 primaries allows you to load Heavy Lasers and then something for close up work, while the Pike's 2 missiles allows you to load Proton Torpedoes and also something for dogfighting (I favour clusters). That's really the main advantage strikes currently possess: because of your various weapons, you can be effective at both short to medium range (or even long with Protorps, but not as long as gunships).

 

But that is still a somewhat minor advantage, and until some rebalancing occurs, Strikes will be the less effective role.

 

Mind you, it's possible the bomber will change that, since they have no way to break missile locks, and getting up close and personal is very dangerous.

 

But despite all this, I wouldn't trade my Pike and Starguard for anything else. They're great fun to play, and there is something of an accomplishment in succeeding even when game balance is skewed against you.

[Altheran]

Offensively, in order to increase the Strike efficiency, since the srikes' signature is strong missiles, I'd say they should do something to ease their use... but that's only my guess...

 

PS : I know it's a scout's weapon, but I'd also improve the ease to use of the sabotage probe. After all, it's weak, it has a fairly long CD, making it more of a support weapon or opportunity weapon, and the lock time added to short-range makes it a bit too hard to fire IMO.

Edited January 16, 2014 by Altheran

[Kain_Turinbar]

But despite all this, I wouldn't trade my Pike and Starguard for anything else. They're great fun to play, and there is something of an accomplishment in succeeding even when game balance is skewed against you.

 

I guess I get sense of enjoyment from this as well. I had 4 matches out of about 20 last night where I absolutely dominated (didn't die at all with 10 or more kills) including a few where I spent most of the time holding the A sat while multiple scouts tried to dislodge me for a long portion of the match and couldn't and resorted to hurling insults at me via whisper.

Edited January 16, 2014 by Kain_Turinbar

[MColes]

One thing that is evident from replies is this - Don't be afraid to disengage or switch targets. If you're in a turning battle with a scout up close, but you see a team mate engaged with someone else at medium range, don't be afraid to suddenly break off and try to assist and burst down the enemy, which then gives you a wingman. This isn't a 1v1 game mode. Don't get tunnel visioned.

 

Also, always take a close range weapon. Whether it be clusters, light-lasers, rapid-fire, ions. Strikes are flexible, and if you do not maintain that flexibility as you upgrade, you'll be feeling the burn of enemy blaster fire.

[Gavin_Kelvar]

I'm going to leave the scout/striker debate to others and give you my break down of the components speaking from my experience flying a Star Guard (Rycer); (sorry I don't have experience with the Pike so I can't comment much on components that are exclusive to that Striker variant):

 

primaries:

Ion cannons used for quickly eliminating shields but they do minimal hull damage so once you've erased a shield arc you'll need to switch to a blaster cannon. Currently not terribly useful since most blaster cannons can shred shielding pretty fast but I imagine it will become very useful when bombers are introduced. This will get you a lot of assists but unless you're really good a switching weapons you probably won't see it netting you lots of kills.

 

Heavy Laser Cannons It's the only Striker cannon that gets both armor penetration and some shield penetration. Those two upgrades make the heavies your go to guns for turret busting and destroying slow/immobile targets with heavy defenses. Less useful in a turning dogfight due to slow ROF it has the potential to be a powerful opener or closer if you use it's range to your advantage. These come equipped by default.

 

Quad Laser Cannons your general purpose guns. They can down a turret pretty well and are also useful in a dogfight although their ROF prevents them from excelling at close range. Probably best paired with heavies or ions to give you flexibility.

 

Rapid-Fire laser cannons these are your close range dogfighting guns. They aren't really going to be useful for busting turrets as they do too little damage against them. I wouldn't recommend pairing them with quads as you won't really be giving yourself a flexible load out that can handle a wide range of target types. It could pair well with heavies by giving you a weapon to switch to if you're forced into a close range dogfight or use ions and want a blaster than can rapidly shred an enemy's hull. These come equipped by default.

 

Secondary Weapons:

 

Proton Torpedoes Useful for taking out stationary targets but they won't serve you well in closer range dogfights due to the small firing arc. Personally I don't think these play to the Star Guard's strengths and if you use heavy laser cannons they'll be redundant for turret busting.

 

Concussion Missiles IMO these are the best missile the Star Guard can equip. They penetrate up to 30% of shields and combined with their range makes them effective for delivering a kill shot to a fleeing enemy. While not ideally suited to close range dogfighting (which you should avoid anyway) their high damage and good range compliments a Star Guard's strengths well. This is equipped by default

 

Cluster Missiles I tried them but IMO they're overrated. They have less range than some of your blaster cannon options and get minimal shield penetration (10%). Most damage will get absorbed by an enemy's shields and combined with their low range they won't be very good at delivering a kill shot to a fleeing enemy. That being said they might go well on a Pike/Quell where you could combine them with concussion missiles/torpedoes to give you range versatility (functioning similar to modern fighter sims where you have close and mid/long range air to air missiles).

 

Engine

*Koiogran Turn This is equipped by default. I use this engine as it allows you to break a missile lock and is useful in confined spaces. I've found it to be perfectly adequate for my needs.

 

*Retro Thrusters Functioning the same as on the Flashfire scout variant. It also breaks missile locks and gives you the tactical diversity of either getting on an enemy's tail or extending an attack run against a stationary target.

 

Weapon Power Converter transfers engine power to weapons. To my knowledge this doesn't break missile locks so it's probably not the best option unless you find yourself running out of blaster energy very often.

 

*Barrel Roll Like on all ships it has mobility benefits as well as breaking missile locks. Not terribly useful in confined spaces so probably not advisable for a newbie who is just getting used to playing.

 

*these shield components offer options to boost either your turn rate or engine speed. Useful for countering two of the biggest weaknesses of the striker class. You can either combine the upgrade with a thruster minor component that buffs the same stat to give a major boost to either turning or engine power significantly or combine the engine upgrade with a thruster minor component that buffs the other stat to give a moderate boost to both turning and engine speed.

 

Shield projectors

Quick Charge shields equipped by default. The active ability allows you to instantly restore some shield strength. Provides passive benefits to shield regen rate and engine power regen rate. Comes at the cost of 30% less shield strength. I haven't tried this with all upgrades but it sounds entirely viable for a striker.

 

Directional ShieldThis is my personal choice right now. You MUST get the first upgrade or else transferring shield power between arcs will cost you some of your shield strength. Currently shifting power to forward/rear shield arcs can be risking as you have to cycle through the settings rather than having dedicated buttons for front/rear/equal. This could leave you vulnerable if you try shifting power to shield arcs during combat. Outside of combat it can be very useful for transferring power from an undamaged shield arc to reinforce a shield arc that has recently taken damage. Can also be used to buff a shield arc prior to beginning an attack run. Unlike Quick Charge shields there is no penalty to shield capacity.

 

Charged Plating Do NOT use them. It sounds cool and powerful but in practice it is probably one of the worst if not worst shield components in game. This is because 40% of the damage done by ANY weapon will penetrate your shields. This 40% penetration will stack with any shield penetration that weapon has so you face the very real possibility of having 50% or more of the damage done by a weapon go to your hull instead of being absorbed with shields. Since most weapons that have a large amount of shield penetration also completely bypass armor they can completely nullify the component's active ability which buffs your armor rating so it is impossible to mitigate the damage.

 

Reactor

Turbo Reactor equipped by default. This decreases the time delay before your shields start regenerating. Probably less useful with quick charge shields than can regen 60% of normal even while taking damage. May be useful for directional shields.

 

Regeneration Reactor This boosts your regen rate (how much shield power is restored per second. Probably useful with any shield but likely of biggest benefit to quick charge shields.

 

Large Reactor This buffs the shield power of each shield arc. Combined with Directional Shields you get the strongest shields available for a Star Guard/Rycer. Perfectly usable for any shield component and a good choice if you feel that you need extra shield power to help tank damage.

 

Thrusters

*Speed Thrusters They increase your ship's base speed and useful for improving a striker's only average speed. Useful to either combine with an engine component upgrade that also buffs engine speed to net a 20% increase or combine with an engine component upgrade that boosts turn rate to get an 10% increase to both turn rate and engine speed.

 

*Turning Thrusters increases a ship's turn rate, very useful for countering the sluggish turning of strikers. Like the speed thruster this can be combined with an engine component upgrade to either buff turn rate by a total of 20% or combine with an engine component upgrade to speed to buff both your turn rate and speed by 10% each.

 

power thrusters Increases engine power pool. For a striker probably less useful than speed or turning thrusters as it is not directly buffing either the turn rate or base speed weaknesses of strikers.

 

Regeneration thrusters Improves the rate at which you regen your engine speed. Again IMO it isn't as useful as speed or turning thrusters as it is not directly buffing the weaknesses of strikers.

 

Capacitors

 

Range capacitors increases the range of your primary weapons. Useful to either buff the good range of a blaster cannon or increase the range of a blaster cannon that has a short range. Good but IMO not the most useful component of the three. As pilots with good aim will benefit most from this upgrade it's less useful if you have poor accuracy.

 

Damage capacitor This increases the damage per shot of your primary weapons. Very good if you want to give a weapon that already hits hard a little extra power (such as heavies) or compensate for a weapon's weakness if they do low damage per shot (such as rapids). Pilots with good aim will benefit most from this component so if you don't have good aim this is probably not a good choice. Depending on your load out/what you feel needs to be buffed this can be a good option.

 

Frequency capacitor Increases the ROF of your primaries. Useful for increasing the ROF of slow weapons (such as heavies) or making fast firing weapons fire even faster (rapids). If you have bad aim this is probably a solid choice as it lets you fire more shots at your target. Likewise if you have trouble with the accuracy/evasion mechanic in the game it will let you get more shots at your target and thus have more RNG rolls.

 

Magazine

 

munitions capacity extender Increases your secondary ammo. For a Star Guard/Rycer not as useful since you have only 1 secondary but 2 primaries. For the Pike/Quell this is much more useful since you have the exact opposite situation and thus benefit much more from the increased ammo capacity. Regardless, unless you run out of secondary ammo very regularly this is best passed up.

 

regeneration extender increases the rate at which you regen your blaster power pool. If your combat is usually brief but frequent this is a good option by improving how soon your blaster power will return to full. If your fights usually have you firing for a prolonged time with a good break between engagements this will be less useful as you'll probably have enough time to regen your blasters regardless.

 

power pool extender This increases your total blaster power pool. If you use blasters that draw a lot of power and/or fire for prolonged periods of time with long breaks in between this is a good option. Less useful if combat has you only firing in short bursts with only short breaks between bursts and/or you have blasters that draw minimal power.

 

Overall there is no "best" magazine. Which benefits you most depends on your individual weapon load out and combat experiences.

 

Crew

 

Engineering

 

Since Star Guards/Rycers rely heavily on their blaster weaponry IMO you should pick a companion with either power to blasters (increasing power pool) or efficient fire (decrease cost of using blasters).

 

Like with the magazine components which of those two passive buffs should be the priority depends on your weapon set up and combat style. You can of course select the companion that offers both passive buffs if you don't mind not having a buff to engines.

 

If you pick an engineering crew who also has a passive buff to engines personally I'd go with one that grants efficient manuevers to decrease how much energy your engine ability uses and boosting. Power to engines (increasing total engine power pool) is also a reasonable option although IMO using your existing engine power more efficiently if of greater benefit to having more energy to use less efficiently.

 

Picking an engineering crew with all passive buffs to engines is probably less useful for strikers since they don't have high mobility to begin with and thus benefit less from these passives than scouts.

 

offensive

 

First off pinpointing buffs accuracy and that benefits blasters the most whereas improved kill zone buffs the firing arc which benefits missiles the most. For a Star Guard/Rycer accuracy is of the greatest benefit to them since they have two primaries and only one secondary. I would overall not pick improved kill zone for a passive buff due it not giving much of a benefit to a Star Guard/Rycer unless that companion has an active ability you want.

 

For Star Guards/Rycers I'd go with a crew member that grants the pinpointing buff to accuracy and then for their second passive either has rapid reload that decreases the time it takes to reload your secondaries or spare ammo to increase your total secondary weapon count.

 

Worth noting: the pinpointing is the only passive buff to accuracy strikers can get for their hull damaging blasters. While the amount granted isn't even enough to nullify a scout's base passive evasion it's better than nothing. (strikers have no option to mitigate the impact of a scout stacking passive evasion with passive buffs to accuracy nor do they have components to actively buff accuracy so they rely entirely on crew to counter evasion with passive/active buffs to accuracy).

 

tactical

 

peripheral vision This buffs your mini map's sensor radius. Personally I like this passive as I use the minimap to help intercept enemies before they reach a satelite I'm guarding and make tactical choices of whether going to help my allies at another sat without putting the one I'm guarding in jepordy. Also helps increase your ability to spot enemies trying to flank you.

 

depth of field What this does was recently disclosed in this thread: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=714366 It buffs the sensor cone that highlights enemies in front of your ship (basically highlighting the enemies that are on your screen; I'm unsure if it also pings them on your mini map). While useful IMO the buff to your sensor radius is more useful.

 

Silent running forces the enemy to get closer to you before you show up on their radar. This is the only option strikers have to get any sensor dampening. Useful if you're very good at ambushing enemies, less useful for anyone who has a more direct approach to piloting.

 

comm boost Recently disclosed in the thread linked to above. This not only buffs the range at which you communicate targets to your allies but also increases the range at which you can receive communications from allies about the location of enemy targets. Very useful for helping to chain together allied sensors to give you an idea of where enemies are on the map and also if you use the minimap a lot.

 

defensive

 

structural support increases your armor (which reduces damage to your hull) but as a fair amount of weapons bypass armor completely this is not of greatly high value. That being said it isn't a bad choice for a passive.

 

response turning This increases your evasion, which for a Star Guard/Rycer means a total rating of 11%. IMO not very useful since 11% evasion isn't enough to make a noticeable impact on your enemy's accuracy.

 

power to shields increases the power of each shield arc. Strikers have good shield strength to begin with so you can't go wrong here either increasing your shield strength further or reducing the shield power penalty of quick charge shields by a third.

 

quick recharge basically this gives you a buff like the Regeneration Reactor component. Highly useful if you're using quick charge shields but probably useful regardless of shield component.

 

Overall I'd say that since armor rating can be bypassed by some weapons and Star Guards/Rycers get minimal benefit from evasion your best bet is to select a crew member that gives both passive buffs to shields.

Edited January 17, 2014 by Gavin_Kelvar

[mr_sim]

I often do GSF for the daily/weekly, and have gained a ton of ship req. in the past few weeks since early access went live. You guys on the forum here, and Dulfy, have been an immeasurable help with allowing me to tweak my scout and GS, but for some reason there seems to be lacking a "guide" (must have compenents/crew) for the strike fighter. I really want to give it a shot, but don't really know where to start. I mean, I could always just tinker around with it and see what happens, but I thought I'd come here and ask the experts for advice.

 

I've skimmed everyone else and didn't see a very good answer to your question. (edit: galvin_kelvar hadn't posted yet, he say good stuff)

 

So as my signature says I'm a Strike fighter Pilot, I love this ship. I have both Striker types and have made significant upgrades to each though neither is full mastery yet, part of the reason they are not full mastered is because I have been experimenting a lot and sent plenty of ship req down rabbit trails.

 

Strikers are the definitive Mutirole ship in the game, they currently are hurting a bit because the game is still early access and the current content and ship combinations favor Scouts over strike fighters, I don't expect this to continue though. Bioware holds balanced gemeplay as the highest principal and won't want one class to be chosen over another by players.

 

The key to everything GSF is to know you job and know your strengths. These are the strikers strengths:

 

- highest weapon to maneuverability ratio, meaning it stays very mobile and can pack good and different weapn types.

- Strong shields

- Best steering ship making it best ship in confined spaces

- Access to best missiles(vs what a scout can get)

- Can engage at short, medium, and long(up to 11 000m) range effectively.

- Three weapon slots allow one primary role and one secondary role to be built for.

 

So I think of the biggest strength that striker has and scout can never have is Weapons range. The stock striker demonstrates my point best, it has.

 

rapid fire lasers(short - medium range)

heavy lasers (medium range)

concussion missiles (long range)

 

this fighter can attack at any range other than GS range, a scout cannot, they only fight in short and medium-short and their longer ranged missiles are inferior in one way or another.

 

So how to strike fighter.

 

- Don't do a scouts job, rather follow it up and make the scouts work last.

- Eat the GS attacks, the scouts can't survive it the way you can.

- Block captures, hug the surface of the control satellites and use your shields to absorb damage, but don't leave the satellite just stay alive as long as possible. Help will come when your teammates see the flashing icon.

- use your toughness to tie up opponents away from control points, the striker really can evade with the best of them especially in a turning fight, you don't need lots of kills to win you just need to keep the enemy away from you capture points.

 

There are other things that are universal but these are things a striker does best and you should focus doing.

Edited January 17, 2014 by mr_sim

[Armonddd]

Thanks for the reply Armonddd, this is by far the best post I've seen describing the current weaknesses of strikes.

 

What sort of niche do you think they could potentially fill given some sort of buff? Perhaps boost their weapons capabilities making them medium range powerhouses? That would probably fulfill their in game description better.

 

Thanks for the compliment. I'm glad my insights are useful.

 

I know all too well the flaws of suggesting major changes without an environment to test them in, so instead of saying "this is what should happen", I'll simply throw out a few ideas I think would be worth looking into if I were a game developer (for now, I'm merely a game designer). Bear in mind that some of them won't be appropriate, and all of them at once would almost certainly not be appropriate.

 

1. In my opinion, the strike fighter has no business specializing in mid-range combat. This is because, in my analysis, mid range combat is the area between gunship and scout - that is to say, 4000m to 12500m or so. The strike fighter already gets some excellent missiles to lob around in that range. Instead, they should be able to focus on armor and shield penetration. (Edit: I'm smarter after sleep. Let me clarify that I think the strike already specializes in mid-range combat with weapons such as torps, quads, concs, and heavies - how many of us don't frantically dodge their torps already? The problem is as much that they're ineffective at mid-range combat, compared to scouts at short range and gunships at long range.) This not only makes them scary midliners, but it sets them up for success in future gameplay modes (the rumored capital ship vs capital ship comes to mind). For example...
   
2. Reduce armor penetration on all non-strike fighter weapons to 50%. Remove armor penetration from burst lasers entirely, replacing it with cost reduction or something. (Scouts are versatile enough that they don't need to compete with strikes in yet another capacity.)
   
3. Add to the magazine slot of the Rycer/Starguard a new option: Plasma Intensification Unit. While equipped, the ship's primary weapons' shield piercing is increased by ([(9 base + 2 per tier upgraded) * MAXWEAPONPOWER / 100] + 10)% - thus, +25% shield piercing on all attacks for your first hit, but progressively less as you drain power (17.5% at half weapon power, etc). And oh, yeah, you're not taking the increased power regen for that slot, so you'll have to be more careful about making sure you're not running out.
   
4. Add to the magazine slot of the Pike/Quell and their cartel equivalents a new option: Tracking Sensors. This upgrade decreases the time it takes to acquire a missile lock by (24 stock + 4 per tier upgraded)%, stacking linearly with the 14% reduction each missile gets to a minimum of 1 second. Thus, a fully upgraded Pike/Quell would launch a cluster missile in 1 second, a proton torpedo in 2 seconds, and a concussion missile in 1.5 seconds. (These numbers should be played with - perhaps 17 stock + 3 per tier would be more appropriate, for a total reduction of 40%, especially if the base lock on times are reduced as I mention above.)
   
5. Introduce objectives that strikes are good at. Scouts are good at zipping to a satellite, clearing out bogies, and capping the node. Gunships are good at racking up kills and banning people from the game. Bombers are good at keeping allies alive so they can do objectives, and also get to lay traps around choke points and domination nodes. Maybe in a new map you need to blow up a turret or satellite in order to progress. Right now, that satellite needs a frankly ridiculous amount of shields and armor in order to stay alive against gunships and scouts (who are fast enough and have enough cooldowns that they can afford to do burst laser strafing runs for large amounts of damage). Give this theoretical turret ray shielding (blocking lasers and railguns), armor of about 75% (which my vision of strikes would have no trouble penetrating), and/or make it take double damage from missiles and torpedoes - now you're suddenly much more interested in bringing a strike. The Rycer can lay into it with heavy lasers (now with more shield piercing!) and concussion missiles, and the Quell can lob torps in for days, but everyone can contribute if they bring a missile. The Mangler/Quarrel would not be able to help on this one, but they're so amazingly effective at shooting down the ships harassing your attackers that I don't think it really matters.
   
6. 25/90 gunships. They have so many issues, and one of the bigger ones is taking the strike's job. Honestly, the only balanced version of a gunship we're ever going to see is a Quell with reduced lock on times.
   

 

There's also a number of easier tweaks that could be done within the current system to make the strike's job easier:

 

1. First and foremost, make primary weapons fire if you're holding down the left mouse button. This is as much a quality of life thing as a balance idea, but I find I waste a lot of potential shots when I'm fumbling around changing my active lasers. (On the other hand, it could be considered a mark of skill if you can change between lasers quickly without interrupting your fire. I personally find it clunky control-wise, since releasing and re-pressing the mouse button tends to jiggle my aim, much less pressing the mouse button to change primaries in the first place.)
   
2. Adjust the strike's afterburner cost and cost per second to match the scout's - from 5 to 4, and 10.4 to 8.7, respectively. This is one of those major changes that requires a fair amount of testing. The scout should still hold major advantages in (stock) turning radius, engine speed, and power regen, and of course their access to Booster Recharge will always solidify their superiority in the maneuverability department. However, the strike has issues with what I would call basic maneuverability - they can't meet the demands placed on them by the maps to get from point A to point B in time to make a difference. (My Rycer can't get to point C on either map before running out of engine power. That's pathetic. Powerups in TDM are just going to exasperate the issue.)
   
3. Increase the maximum range of ion cannons to 7000 meters. This lets them combo more effectively with the other cannons. (If anyone says "ions shouldn't be long range because lore", let me remind you that the first ion cannon we ever saw was orbital. If the Death Mark laser can exist, I'm sure not-so-long-range ion cannons can exist too.)
   
4. Fix ion missiles. As of right now, they're basically completely inferior to clusters - fully upgraded, they only do about 3% more damage than a cluster, but can't do hull damage worth a damn, and their debuffs just aren't strong enough to make up for it.
   
5. Reduce the cooldown and/or lock on times of ion missiles, concussion missiles, and proton torpedoes. Right now, a sufficiently intelligent block of tofu can, in a 1v1 situation, use any fully upgraded engine ability every time one of these missiles is launched at it to ignore all missiles forever.

 

Well, that's just a few things on both counts. I'm sure I could think of more, but I'm not getting paid to do this and I'm low on sleep right now, so I'll stop until one or the other of those are fixed.

Edited January 17, 2014 by Armonddd

[Verain]

A few of your points are ok, but really, any more than two of those things would break the game hardcore, and some two of them do as well.

[BrianDavion]

one thing I'm gonna add here.

 

rebalance sheild/armor penatration.

 

 

strike fighters big advantage is their toughness. that's HUGELY irrelevent when everyone and his mother has a "ignore half your sheilds and all your armor LOL" weapon.

 

100% armor penatration is WAAAAAAAAAAAAY too common.

[JadedJasper]

My favorite fighter is the Nova Dive, but I do well with a Pike and to a lesser extent Star Guard too.

 

PIKE

- Quad Lasers: Good middle of the road option, though I might switch to Heavy Lasers.

- Proton Torpedos: The entire point of playing a Pike. Get double speed protons as fast as you can!

- Concussion Missiles: Good synergy with the Protons. Clusters are too low damage, and you don't want to be close anyway. I'd take double Concussion Missiles if I could!

- Quick Charge Shield: The increased Thruster regen is often overlooked but key.

- Barrel Roll: Obvious choice for the strategic mobility. Upgrade quickly for either +Turn or +Speed.

- Deflection Armor: A bit of a lark, but it works better than I expected! Effective against your biggest threats, Scouts.

- Damage Capacitor: Could go range. Probably would go Frequency with Heavy Lasers.

- Munitions: Otherwise you risk having to suicide to reload!

- Turning Thrusters: Crucial to retain lock.

 

CREW

- Offense: B-3G9 for faster reloads, more accurate blasters and Hydro Spanner. Corso is tempting too, but I like Hydro Spanner here.

- Defense: Bowdaar for increased blaster resistance and synergy with Hydro Spanner.

- Tactical: Akaavi Spar to make foes find you a bit slower, and Communication to hopefully attract allies.

- Engineer: C2-N2 as you need all the engine power you can get. T7-01 is tempting so you can take Corso on offense, but is just too slow.

 

The Pike is all about staying at range in the open, and alternating Protons and Concussion. Ideally you find a target who's just popped his evade, but even if they do evade you just switch missiles and relock. Generally I start Proton, cautiously close to Concussion Range for the second shot, then pursue with Blasters. Helps if you find a foe who's pursuing an ally and so low on Thrust.

 

If you're jousting with another ship learn to open the range up with a properly timed Barrel Roll. Then missile them as you re-engage. Works against weak-mid players but good players can wreck you, in which case you abort and haul ***. If they pop Distortion Field, just jink then come back for another pass.

 

The Pike also does a surprisingly good job holding Satellites as it's so tough against Blasters. Not really where you want to be though, even if sometimes it's necessary to stay alive.

Edited January 17, 2014 by JadedJasper

[JeepWithGuy]

I've got a guide for the Pike Strike Fighter here, and a

here.

 

I won't debate whether Scouts or Strike Fighters are doing better, but the PT-6 Pike (Quell) does great for me. Any buffs it gets (some already announced) will only improve things. Don't let this stop you from playing the Strike Fighters.

Edited January 17, 2014 by JeepWithGuy