Dealing with Minefields (and drones) with Strike fighters or Scouts- Suggestions?

[KorinHyvek]

First off- I'm not complaining about bombers here- I personally feel a lot of the frustration had to deal with metagame adjustments, and while some tuning might still be needed, it's not the game breaker some have called it. But, that's not what I'm talking about.

 

So, as we all know, when 2-3 bombers work in concert to defend an area*, you can protect a pretty large area of the map. Now, the easiest way to deal with this is "Don't fly into the area." And that works, to a point, but what if the minefield is on a turret? Or if most of the enemy team is sticking close to the mine/drone-field? Or if you've got a couple of people who refuse to read your warnings not to fly into the minefield and just keep making a beeline for the target-rich environment?

 

So, since this has come up a few times when I've been playing, and I've struggled with it/ seen the other team struggle with it, I was wondering what some of the more experienced GSF players recommended. I've tried keeping dedicated mineclearing builds, but I've found that these a) are not the easiest to play, and those countermeasures don't seem to do enough to hinder the bombers, and b) the blackbolt/novadive and quell/pike both give up a lot of their usual role for their dedicated mine-clearing options. So, since this tactic isn't working, and, at least by myself, keeping a minefield clear with just lasers and engine manuvers (for the seeker mines) proved to be a full-time job that didn't actually seem to be doing enough to help the team get kills, what sort of tactics would you recommend that I can do by myself, or maybe with just one other person? Also, I'd appreciate if these were tactics a strike fighter or scout could use- the ion railgun wars have kind of ruined gunships for me at the moment.

 

 

*this isn't really special to the bomber, though. Any group of 3 ships working in tandem is going to wreck an uncoordinated team. 2-3 Gunships can cover each other. And you're going to be pulling your hair out if 3 blackbolts team up to hunt you from different parts of the map. It's just that a) instructions like "Put mines here" are easier to follow than, "You two, flank my target," and b) the minefield is staring you in the face, taunting you. Those blackbolts will just vape you and move on to other prey.

Edited March 20, 2014 by KorinHyvek

[Gavin_Kelvar]

generally I've found two things to be important:

 

1) having scouts that focus on engaging any enemy fighters in the area

2) having strikers or other heavy fighters focus on clearing the minefield and kill the bombers

 

In my experience scouts generally lack the heavy weapons necessary to kill bombers and armor to tank the damage the bombers may dish out. Strikers on the other hand do have the heavy weaponry and armor but become incredibly vulnerable to escort fighters during their attack runs.

 

I almost exclusively fly strikers and I've found that clearing minefields/bombers works out best when scouts focus on engaging enemy fighters while strikers focus on killing bombers. If the strikers do their job well they'll keep the minefield dangers minimized for the scouts who in turn keep enemy fighters off the striker's backs so the strikers can finish the job of killing the bombers (and once a bomber dies all their pets go too as I understand it).

 

Overall I don't think there's a "best build" for dealing with minefields on your own and it comes down to whether the pilots on your team understand their ship's role in that context or whether everyone becomes hell bent on killing bombers regardless of the ship they're flying. You don't need coordination, you just need everyone to understand their roles.

Edited March 20, 2014 by Gavin_Kelvar

[-Streven-]

Heavy lasers are the best weapon in the game to clear out mines, dones and the bombers that lay them. Remember killing the bomber kills all his toys. And heavies allow you to safely dispose of minefields if need be in order to engage the bomber itself.

 

I also find an emp scout with sabo probe does a great job of killing bombers but that takes more skill and spatial awareness and does not do well solo if the bomber is suppprted.

[NotThatOne]

First off- I'm not complaining about bombers here- I personally feel a lot of the frustration had to deal with metagame adjustments, and while some tuning might still be needed, it's not the game breaker some have called it. But, that's not what I'm talking about.

 

So, as we all know, when 2-3 bombers work in concert to defend an area*, you can protect a pretty large area of the map. Now, the easiest way to deal with this is "Don't fly into the area." And that works, to a point, but what if the minefield is on a turret? Or if most of the enemy team is sticking close to the mine/drone-field? Or if you've got a couple of people who refuse to read your warnings not to fly into the minefield and just keep making a beeline for the target-rich environment?

 

So, since this has come up a few times when I've been playing, and I've struggled with it/ seen the other team struggle with it, I was wondering what some of the more experienced GSF players recommended. I've tried keeping dedicated mineclearing builds, but I've found that these a) are not the easiest to play, and those countermeasures don't seem to do enough to hinder the bombers, and b) the blackbolt/novadive and quell/pike both give up a lot of their usual role for their dedicated mine-clearing options. So, since this tactic isn't working, and, at least by myself, keeping a minefield clear with just lasers and engine manuvers (for the seeker mines) proved to be a full-time job that didn't actually seem to be doing enough to help the team get kills, what sort of tactics would you recommend that I can do by myself, or maybe with just one other person? Also, I'd appreciate if these were tactics a strike fighter or scout could use- the ion railgun wars have kind of ruined gunships for me at the moment.

 

 

*this isn't really special to the bomber, though. Any group of 3 ships working in tandem is going to wreck an uncoordinated team. 2-3 Gunships can cover each other. And you're going to be pulling your hair out if 3 blackbolts team up to hunt you from different parts of the map. It's just that a) instructions like "Put mines here" are easier to follow than, "You two, flank my target," and b) the minefield is staring you in the face, taunting you. Those blackbolts will just vape you and move on to other prey.

 

Two Words: Ion Railgun

Two More Words: AOE Spec

[KorinHyvek]

Two Words: Ion Railgun

Two More Words: AOE Spec

 

Err... I mentioned that. I was asking for non-GS strategies specifically.

 

EDIT: Changed the title in case you just didn't see me mention that I wanted non-gunship strategies.

Edited March 20, 2014 by KorinHyvek

[Davionix]

EMP missile. Use it and love it

 

After you use it a couple of times you will have a general idea about its explosion radius.

 

While shooting it you have to consider :

 

Is the bomber in range of explosion radius ?

Are most of mines, drones, and satellite turrets in range of explosion radius ?

 

Make sure the bomber is hit by the EMP so they cant drop drones / mines. ( Seeker and seismic mines are secondary weapon so they can still be used when other mines can not )

 

Swoop in and start chipping away at the shield of bomber while locking on concussion. Concussion does not have penetration of protons but it has more raw damage. You can also spec for armor ignore if you want to.Lob that concussion missile at the exposed hull of the bomber and enjoy the fireworks.

[magecutter]

for scouts, try EMP burst.

all enemy mines and drones are damaged and disabled for up to 18 seconds. also, has a nice debuff on enemy ships. plus, at T4 (?) you get a missile 'anti-lock' for 3 seconds for you and up to 3 of your team mates.

 

nice for attacking and defending bomber emplacements.

Edited March 20, 2014 by magecutter

[NotThatOne]

Err... I mentioned that. I was asking for non-GS strategies specifically.

 

EDIT: Changed the title in case you just didn't see me mention that I wanted non-gunship strategies.

 

Yeah, completely missed that bit, sorry.

[WedgeFan]

I agree about the EMP missile.

 

I've only recently started using it (it's at T4 now) and it does a very good job at eliminating minefields. And if you can catch a bomber or two in the blast radius, so much the better.

 

I hope when it reaches T5 I can also use it for anti-GS purposes.....disabling engine abilities for 18s! Muhahahaha

[Altheran]

I also find an emp scout with sabo probe does a great job of killing bombers but that takes more skill and spatial awareness and does not do well solo if the bomber is suppprted.

 

It works, but it is a one-time attempt. If for a reason, something don't go well, that Scout is dead meat.

[Ramalina]

Well mines have a short range compared to starfigher primary weapons, and drones have enough reaction time that if you see them in time you can always get the first shot if you really want to.

 

So in principle, you just shoot them down as fast as you can.

 

In practice the problem is usually either that there is a gunship in the minefield, or that the mines/drones have been cleverly placed so that you need to fly around obstacles to get LOS on the mines and shoot them down. In which case by the time you've flown around and shot all the mines the minelayer had time to dispense more mines.

 

For clever placement, numerical parity and good flying are the solution. For clever placement and gunship(s) numerical superiority, good flying and if at all possible a gunship of you own.