The Pros and Cons of GSF - 2.7 edition

[nyghtrunner]

so sad to see them charging like the White Brigade into a node covered in bombers, etc..

 

That visual is epic.

 

And I guess while I'm here, I'll toss in my .02.

 

I primarily fly a sting, with the lethal weapon pairing. I get what you're saying... To a point. I've seen some sick numbers come off of BLCs, and I've gotten a few kills I probably shouldn't have essentially winging someone during a flyby as they're trying to break off. But in general, most engagements happen with them hitting in the 450 range, because you're engaging at range. Either we're jousting, or someone's running. The times you get to sneak up on people and unload from 1000m are actually somewhat rare unless you're specifically hunting gunships. It happens, but if it does, it's because you're trying to kill one of my mates. My bad for being 100m behind you under a satellite we're trying to take while you're zeroing in on my wingman, but you're dead if I'm on a blackbolt with light lasers and rockets too. Quite possibly faster.

 

I also love to fly on alts, though, and one of my favorite ships to fly is the type-1 Strike. Do I lose battles to the T2 Scout? Sure. But the ship is more than capable of holding its own. Concussion missiles are no joke, and combined with Ion Blasters (which hit for ~700 at max range, which is considerably MORE than BLCs at the same range, with probably double the firing rate), you can make SHORT work of non-elite scouts. Strip the shields, and 1 conc missile will eat a scout.

 

I don't know much about the type 2 strike (been a long time), and haven't played much with the new one, but the type-1 can be lethal. And coming from someone who LOVES flying scouts, in the JC meta, there are domination matches where outside of trying to get a quick cap for a bomber, scouts are simply inferior to strikes. Strikes can take a beating and keep on going, making them much better for killing bombers. Ion blasters are SO MUCH BETTER against bombers than the piddly BLCs. I still probably need help killing the thing, but I can chew through shields in seconds. And if I can get a lock and shove a conc up their tailpipe after the shields are down, I can swap to heavies or quads and finish the job in short order.

 

Strikes are effective vs. Gunships. They can actually take a slug and not be dead to Reflective Shields. You can sneak up on them similarly to scouts, and when they run, their shields should be low/down, and conc has a 7km range. Oft-times, that's a kill. Even if it doesn't kill outright... Look into the Tier 5 conc upgrade and see if you don't think connecting with that will all but guarantee you a kill.

 

I just don't get this beef you seem have with the T1 Strike, or that the T2 doesn't get Ion Cannons. T2 gets EMP missile, since it has multiple missile bays. T1 gets Ion blasters because it specializes in blasters.

 

And this idea that the GS is worthless now... Really? That same GS that just 1-shotted my Sting from 13km is worthless because it can't get away from my floating remains? Will I even know which way my corpse needs to float to exact revenge?

 

Or the bomber whose mines just killed 4 people in 1 explosion over there at B in Kuat Mesas? He's pretty terrible too?

 

I'll agree with you that the nerfing of barrel roll probably hurt the T2 Strike more than any other ship, because if I remember, the other options are all pretty awful. But the T1 has Retro Thrusters, and if you can get a feel for using them, I think they're by far the best engine component in the game. They don't propel you forward like BR, and that's why you stack booster power/regen, but from a utility/flexibility standpoint, I think Retro is king.

 

As for the T2 Scout... Even if you took away BLCs, they'd still have Quads, and then you'd be complaining about those. They're only marginally worse than BLCs if you get close and hit Targeting Telemetry. More than half the damage at roughly double the firing rate. The big red numbers just aren't quite as pretty. But can you imagine getting back to back crits from 800m with Quads at 175% damage?!

 

Edit - I'll also note that I love the Blackbolt, and think the engine options outside of Barrel Roll are all pretty awful/situational. So I still rock Barrel Roll. And even as my only missile break (I use Quick Charge over Disto Field), that ship is still effective.

Edited April 17, 2014 by nyghtrunner

[dethmute]

Coming back to game and trying to love it again i felt with a feeling of loathing for space combat. I don't hate but i have never once came away with good feeling about how I played towards other. Mostly this is due to me being a bad pilot and other players have far superior fighters than I. In most cases this wouldn't bother me, but here i can't help but scream for a ranking system for new and veteran players. At least then the everyone is on an even playing field. here is just seems unbalanced.

[Gavin_Kelvar]

1. Where did I say scouts are multirole???
   
2. Strikes = X-wings = people will THINK they should be bread-and-butter. And, really, I think aesthetically they ought to be the reasonable "default" ship, with scouts, gunships, and bombers being things you fly if you want to specialize in something. The problem is that scouts are the ships that "specialize" in dogfighting, and right now dogfighting is the only game in town.
   

 

I think people also get confused since the Star Guard's description basically says something to the effect of "as a dogfighter there may be no finer ship in the galaxy." So it's rather logical for people to conclude that it should equal or surpass a Type 2 scout as a dogfighter (especially when the Type 2 striker is billed as a jack of all trades striker variant).

 

IMO Type 1 strikers are really good dogfighters, but being limited to RFLs really holds them back from excelling the way they should. If they had LLC (or if RFL were buffed) I think they'd be in a much better position to live up to their description as one of the best dogfighters.

 

That is what I've been saying - scouts being the best dogfighters would be OK, aesthetically, if dogfighting weren't 95% of the game (i.e. multirole was actually useful).

 

That's kinda why, for all the balance problems, I really like bombers. They give some value to the multirole capability of strikers.

[Pilgrim_Grey]

Coming back to game and trying to love it again i felt with a feeling of loathing for space combat. I don't hate but i have never once came away with good feeling about how I played towards other. Mostly this is due to me being a bad pilot and other players have far superior fighters than I. In most cases this wouldn't bother me, but here i can't help but scream for a ranking system for new and veteran players. At least then the everyone is on an even playing field. here is just seems unbalanced.

 

In and around the complaint threads, there is a lot of good advice about how to play and build your fighter. Looks those up and apply what you have learned, and you'll do a lot better.

 

I think the lack of training is more noticeable with GSF PVP than ground, because with ground you at least have your PVE experience of your powers and can adapt (to some extent, though reading up on tactics and practicing is still a help here). Just try to do the same and hang in there. I have a LOT of GSF matches under my belt and I still have matches where I'm solo queueing and my group of PUGgers gets stomped by a well-coordinated team.

 

Case in point, I was in a deathmatch against an imperial ace on my server, and he had an ungodly amount of kills, 26 or 29 of his team's 50. I could have felt really depressed about that and felt like I and my team sucked, but I have enough experience now to know that he was sniping in a gunship in the middle of a field of bombers and teammates that helped him out, while my team was mostly semi-experienced pilots. Actually, the fact that he did that while my team still got a decent amount of kills shows that we weren't that bad and he just had a really good match.

 

I also have the experience to know that wasn't a typical match for him, even if he always does pretty well.