Getting started with GSF - Which Ship?

[lokiwalker]

So I have been playing Swtor for a few months now. I have so far enjoyed all the different parts of the game (havent gotten to end game yet) and recently started playing a lot of the space missions on a few of my characters. As far as GSF goes I have not played much, I did the tutorial and since it first came out I have played a handful of matches.

 

The problem is, as I know that other people have found, I am terribad at it. Sometimes if I run gunship I can get a few lucky shots off while I sit there like a noob and hope that no one notices me for a bit. On the fighters I can sometimes get the the node and get some points, but I think in the limited matches that I have played I dont think I have gotten more than one kill.......

 

Since I do plan on practicing more, my main question:

 

Which is the best ship to learn on?

 

I have read some of the other tips and they are very helpful, but did not know if I should focus on a particular ship since I do have some requsition and could probably get an upgrade soon.

Edited February 13, 2014 by lokiwalker
Making more concise

[Verain]

If you could drink a potion and be an expert with any ship, which would have all upgrades unlocked, which one would it be?

 

 

That will be the ship we will focus on.

 

 

 

But for general skills; Practice shooting at the leading reticule with all the non-gunships. With gunships, practice strategic thinking by positioning yourself at the edge of your range (not normally on a node) to threaten and kill, and then running when enemies close. With the non-gunships, practice tight turns and ensure your max throttle, boost, underthrottle, and kill throttle buttons are all mapped. Become aware of your surrounding with tab.

[Onodrain]

I starter GSF when it came out. I sucked. I was not used to 3D space. It takes time to get oriented.

 

If you are a newbie, I recommend using a scout to start out. This allows you to focus on movement. The nova/blackbolt is fine initially.

 

Use the Boost Recharge rather than targeting telemetry. This will allow you to quickly refill your engine power and move quickly across the map with afterburners/barrel roll.

 

You want to change your crew to allow you maximum engine power with lower engine power costs. You also want to use barrel roll. When you first come out of hyperspace, barrel roll forward. Have your reticle roughly in the middle of the screen. If you have the reticle down, you will barrel roll into your capital ship. Don't be that guy!

 

During initial barrel rolling, hit F3. This maximizes your engine regen and power. After the barrel roll, hit your after burners and head to a satellite. Hit your barrel roll again if you are after satellites A or C. After each barrel roll, you need to hit afterburners again (hold down space bar for afterburners).

 

When you reach the satellites, hit F4 to normalize your power and practice circling the satellite under its wings. You have to be close enough for the green shield to appear around your ship. Upgrading Range Sensors helps your sensor focus range, making it easier to remain in range of the satellite.

 

After the initial run to a satellite, go to whichever satellite your side has captured and hang close to it. Being within sensor focus range keeps the other side from capturing the satellite and it allows the satellite to spawn defensive turrets.

 

You will die a lot while you learn 3D space flight. So just be ready to run into stuff. Just laugh it off. It is not a big deal.

 

After you get good with movement, then focus on taking out stationary targets like satellite turrets and drones. I use light laser cannon and rocket pods. It will take a few blaster upgrades before you can easily take out the satellite turrets with one pass. Line up your shots and use the "S" key to slow down your fighter when you are in blaster range. Use both mouse buttons to shoot blasters and rocket pods. Try not to run into the satellite as you go thru the explosion. You will be blinded by the debris, so make sure your flight path does not run you into things.

 

Those are the basics. Learn them.

 

Most people suck at keeping the satellites. They fly out of sensor focus range or never get into range.

 

You will get better at targeting and flying. It just takes practice.

 

Once you learn the basics, you can better choose which ship you want to fly. But for starters, use the scout.

 

You can use the tutorial space to learn these tactics prior to going live. When you are live, you will die a lot with elite fighters killing you very quickly. And if they do not take you out, then the mines and drones around the satellites will.

 

Don't forget to pick up your daily and weekly star fighter quests. On the base stations they are from the PvP terminals located in the Combat Training areas.

Edited February 13, 2014 by Onodrain
spelling/additional tip

[Nemarus]

The Rycer/StarGuard is the "Mario" of fighters. It's not extraordinary at anything, nor is it terrible at anything. It also has the greatest variety of "normal components" and will let you experiment with lots of different options without accidentally falling into a trap. What do I mean by trap? Well, it's easy to build a Scout (for example) whose components don't mesh well, or to create a build that will require a high amount of skill to be effective.

 

But a Rycer/StarGuard will pretty much always be the sum of its parts, and all of those parts will always work together decently. Plus it's default loadout is just an inherently good tutorial on weapons. You start out with the ability to switch mid-combat between rapid fire short range lasers or slow firing long range lasers. You get a good basic missile to teach you about lock-on weapons.

 

I'd say the only area to be careful at when building a Rycer/StarGuard is shields. You should avoid Charged Plating--it's a very niche component that requires high amount of skill to use correctly. Additionally, while Directional Shield is absolutely awesome once you get the hang of it, make sure to pick up the first upgrade which eliminates cost of changing shield angle. Quick Charge Shield is probably what you want to start off with. It's not as strong as Directional, but it recharges quickly and is easy to use.

[wingzerokia]

Well said Nemarus, well said.

 

I'd go with a strike (Rycer or Star Guard) for a starting ship, as they are the 4 door family sedan of the craft in GSF, they have enough power fire power and speed well still being very forgiving to a new pilot (HP) letting you get your feet under you, before trying to hop into the GT class race car of the family (Type 2 interceptor scouts).

[Kaivers]

Depends on your interests.

 

If you're interested in learning the ropes and acquiring skills that will provide you the best experience, start with fighters that can survive the longest with limited upgrades and actually require some level of player activity (i.e. Strikes and Gunships).

 

If you are looking to accumulate easy kills, assists and high damage you can't lose with the Bomber.

[Slivovidze]

Gunship is a chapter for itself. Dead boring for me, fun and easy for some. If you found gunship fun and you felt like you might have a chance to get good, with some practice, go to gunship.

 

The other two though, I'd put my bet on the scout. Fighter is good, fine damage, fine armor, fine rockets, everything cool. But fact is, that a newbie gets burned down fast, no matter if he is flying a paper plane or armored fighter. So scout has an advantage of speed, or more precisely, lots of boost.

 

This logic made me choose scout, and I set my beginning strategy to "focus on surviving more than on killing". I tried to land a shot or two, or a rocket, every time I had a chance, but whenever I saw a red flash somewhere, I immediately barrel rolled away, and boosted around for a good deal of time, popping my booster recharge when neccessary. This way, you will learn to fly quite well, which is of the same, or even higher importance, than shooting stuff.

Fighter can't boost around half as much as the scout can. You get to deal more damage with your rockets and lasers, but once someone good focuses on you, you are dead meat, until you learn to fly the fighter well and find your favourite loadout.

 

Patience and practice, and you will soon be an ace

[Nemarus]

Gunship is a chapter for itself. Dead boring for me, fun and easy for some. If you found gunship fun and you felt like you might have a chance to get good, with some practice, go to gunship.

 

The other two though, I'd put my bet on the scout. Fighter is good, fine damage, fine armor, fine rockets, everything cool. But fact is, that a newbie gets burned down fast, no matter if he is flying a paper plane or armored fighter. So scout has an advantage of speed, or more precisely, lots of boost.

 

This logic made me choose scout, and I set my beginning strategy to "focus on surviving more than on killing". I tried to land a shot or two, or a rocket, every time I had a chance, but whenever I saw a red flash somewhere, I immediately barrel rolled away, and boosted around for a good deal of time, popping my booster recharge when neccessary. This way, you will learn to fly quite well, which is of the same, or even higher importance, than shooting stuff.

Fighter can't boost around half as much as the scout can. You get to deal more damage with your rockets and lasers, but once someone good focuses on you, you are dead meat, until you learn to fly the fighter well and find your favourite loadout.

 

Patience and practice, and you will soon be an ace

 

This -- focusing on surviving and escaping over killing -- is also good advice. It will especially help your team in Deathmatch, as most of the time a team is undone by one or two new pilots dying over and over again, rather than the overall team having a lack of kills.

[DEATHICIDE]

Flashfire/Sting/Cartel Scout

 

Everyone across the board tends to agree that this ship is the most "op", best at dog-fighting, easiest weapons to control, best agility and offensive capability balance.

Most swear by lightweight armor + distortion field.

 

I personally hate this ship because I see far too much of it, but chances are you will love the lil' bugger.

 

I would suggest taking the stock scout for a spin and seeing if you like the way it handles, if you do, play until you have the 5000 fleet req, or shell out the cartel coins to buy the heavy firepower version.

 

On the other hand, if it is the strike fighter you like, don't assume the Pike/Quell will be an upgrade, as to most it is just a different flavor, whereas there is a true firepower difference between the novadive and flashfire scouts.

 

If you are an avid sniper, then you would not be asking this question and would already have your focus on gunships, so I will skip them.

 

If you are having a really hard time getting the hang of things and frustration is setting in, don't despair!

All you need is 2500 fleet requisition and you can grab yourself a bomber.

These boats are much easier to control, and are meant to capture and hold objectives rather than engage in crazy dogfights.

Even a novice in a bomber can be an asset to their team with little training, and this ship will deliver the know how you may be after to facilitate getting a personal feeling of what you may want to spend your time on next.

 

There is no clear best ship. Many swear by the stock scout and do great. It's all about finding what feels right to you personally.

 

As someone with all ships unlocked, and several gsf toons on the go, those 2 cents are truly the best I've got for you.

Whatever your choice may be, make sure you research various builds and why people like them before draining your valuable requisition on the wrong components. The difference between various load outs can be night/day on any ship.(This last bit may even be the entire reason you are asking what is best to learn on, you may already have your dream learner ship, but just need to swap components)

Edited February 13, 2014 by DEATHICIDE

[Armonddd]

Flashfire/Sting/Cartel Scout

 

Everyone across the board tends to agree that this ship is the most "op", best at dog-fighting, easiest weapons to control, best agility and offensive capability balance.

 

wat? I thought gunships and bombers existed

[DEATHICIDE]

wat? I thought gunships and bombers existed

 

I mentioned bombers, and he already said he wasn't feeling the gunship.

 

I think you are just afraid he will love your baby and eventually show you up in his own!

[Nemarus]

Flashfire/Sting/Cartel Scout

 

Everyone across the board tends to agree that this ship is the most "op", best at dog-fighting, easiest weapons to control, best agility and offensive capability balance.

Most swear by lightweight armor + distortion field.

 

I personally hate this ship because I see far too much of it, but chances are you will love the lil' bugger.

 

I would suggest taking the stock scout for a spin and seeing if you like the way it handles, if you do, play until you have the 5000 fleet req, or shell out the cartel coins to buy the heavy firepower version.

 

On the other hand, if it is the strike fighter you like, don't assume the Pike/Quell will be an upgrade, as to most it is just a different flavor, whereas there is a true firepower difference between the novadive and flashfire scouts.

 

If you are an avid sniper, then you would not be asking this question and would already have your focus on gunships, so I will skip them.

 

If you are having a really hard time getting the hang of things and frustration is setting in, don't despair!

All you need is 2500 fleet requisition and you can grab yourself a bomber.

These boats are much easier to control, and are meant to capture and hold objectives rather than engage in crazy dogfights.

Even a novice in a bomber can be an asset to their team with little training, and this ship will deliver the know how you may be after to facilitate getting a personal feeling of what you may want to spend your time on next.

 

There is no clear best ship. Many swear by the stock scout and do great. It's all about finding what feels right to you personally.

 

As someone with all ships unlocked, and several gsf toons on the go, those 2 cents are truly the best I've got for you.

Whatever your choice may be, make sure you research various builds and why people like them before draining your valuable requisition on the wrong components. The difference between various load outs can be night/day on any ship.(This last bit may even be the entire reason you are asking what is best to learn on, you may already have your dream learner ship, but just need to swap components)

 

Uhm, I'm not sure anyone "across the board" believes the Sting/FF/Ocula/Skybolt is OP after 2.6. Evasion build was massively nerfed. Short range weapons and weak shields aren't nearly as effective in the open space of a Deathmatch as they were hugging satellites in Domination. And Bombers make satellite hugging nearly impossible for Scouts.

 

I'm not saying the battle scout is crap. I'm just saying it's hardly the OP boogieman it used to be.

[DEATHICIDE]

Uhm, I'm not sure anyone "across the board" believes the Sting/FF/Ocula/Skybolt is OP after 2.6. Evasion build was massively nerfed. Short range weapons and weak shields aren't nearly as effective in the open space of a Deathmatch as they were hugging satellites in Domination. And Bombers make satellite hugging nearly impossible for Scouts.

 

I'm not saying the battle scout is crap. I'm just saying it's hardly the OP boogieman it used to be.

 

It is still what most consider to be the top fighter.

Yes, it is not scary broken like it was at launch, but most people WILL tell you that comparing -Nova,FlashFire,Starguard,Pike - the FlashFire is still on top.

 

This is not an argument about FF's being broken, it's about someone asking which ship is best to LTP.

[Armonddd]

It is still what most consider to be the top fighter.

Yes, it is not scary broken like it was at launch, but most people WILL tell you that comparing -Nova,FlashFire,Starguard,Pike - the FlashFire is still on top.

 

Then what you said was wrong. You said it was massively OP, and now you're saying it's the top fighter. You're definitely right that it's the top fighter, but not that it's massively OP.

 

This is not an argument about FF's being broken, it's about someone asking which ship is best to LTP.

 

Then let's not talk about ships that aren't available by default!

[Gavin_Kelvar]

The Rycer/StarGuard is the "Mario" of fighters. It's not extraordinary at anything, nor is it terrible at anything. It also has the greatest variety of "normal components" and will let you experiment with lots of different options without accidentally falling into a trap. What do I mean by trap? Well, it's easy to build a Scout (for example) whose components don't mesh well, or to create a build that will require a high amount of skill to be effective.

 

But a Rycer/StarGuard will pretty much always be the sum of its parts, and all of those parts will always work together decently. Plus it's default loadout is just an inherently good tutorial on weapons. You start out with the ability to switch mid-combat between rapid fire short range lasers or slow firing long range lasers. You get a good basic missile to teach you about lock-on weapons.

 

I'd say the only area to be careful at when building a Rycer/StarGuard is shields. You should avoid Charged Plating--it's a very niche component that requires high amount of skill to use correctly. Additionally, while Directional Shield is absolutely awesome once you get the hang of it, make sure to pick up the first upgrade which eliminates cost of changing shield angle. Quick Charge Shield is probably what you want to start off with. It's not as strong as Directional, but it recharges quickly and is easy to use.

 

I agree completely with this. It's the ship I started with and I found it very forgiving.

[lokiwalker]

Thanks for all the feedback!

 

Looks like I will probably go with mostly Fighter, and probably pepper in some of the Scout/Gunship every once in a while in case I decide to change directions.

 

Is there a good thing to save up req for? I believe the shield upgrade was mentioned?

 

--That or I go bomber just to annoy half of the forum haha...

[Nemarus]

Thanks for all the feedback!

 

Looks like I will probably go with mostly Fighter, and probably pepper in some of the Scout/Gunship every once in a while in case I decide to change directions.

 

Is there a good thing to save up req for? I believe the shield upgrade was mentioned?

 

--That or I go bomber just to annoy half of the forum haha...

 

In any ship aside from Bomber, I'd recommend your first upgrade be switching the Engine to Barrel Roll and then buying the first two tiers of its upgrade tree. Barrel Roll not only lets you evade missiles, but it also propels you forward VERY far, VERY fast, for minimal engine energy. By using Barrel Roll (and boost when BR is on cooldown), you can traverse the map very quickly.

 

That being said, just be careful when you use BR for evading missiles--make sure the space in front of you is clear

[Armonddd]

In any ship aside from Bomber, I'd recommend your first upgrade be switching the Engine to Barrel Roll and then buying the first two tiers of its upgrade tree.

 

Solid advice, though I'll point out that retro thrusters are an equally viable choice. They're not available on all ships, though.

[BobBudJones]

In any ship aside from Bomber, I'd recommend your first upgrade be switching the Engine to Barrel Roll and then buying the first two tiers of its upgrade tree...That being said, just be careful when you use BR for evading missiles--make sure the space in front of you is clear

 

I think as a brand-newb, Barrel Roll killed me almost as often as other ships did. I still don't like the fact that it's somewhat limited where you can use it to evade missiles, and it's mostly for getting somewhere fast.

[lokiwalker]

Thanks for all the advice.

 

I managed to get a few rounds in and used mostly the Scout class ships. Partially because they are the better looking ships and party beacuse barrel roll is alot of fun. Oddly enough I was ok with not flying into things (played a lot of the space missions) my biggest problem is over/under estimating how far away enemies are. And would start shooting when they were too far, or boost and blow right by them...

Thanks again and I look forward to slowly becoming less of a drag on my team.

[Zoom_VI]

It is still what most consider to be the top fighter.

Yes, it is not scary broken like it was at launch, but most people WILL tell you that comparing -Nova,FlashFire,Starguard,Pike - the FlashFire is still on top.

 

This is not an argument about FF's being broken, it's about someone asking which ship is best to LTP.

 

Flashfires post 2.6 probably have one of the higher skill requirements second only to Novas. They are paper thin and the short range aspect puts a large amount of skill hurtles for players get over. The latter is particularly important post 2.6 where the meta has switched towards AoE control and ranged weapons

 

Seriously out of all the Stings I encounter most of them are struggling hard to exceed 12k damage. Compare to gunships and bombers who for the most part do around 20k minimum. (with the exception of the truly terrible ones.)