Clarion or Pike?

[MasterPromithes]

So I have been doing GSF on various characters and I have a Clarion and a Pike however I've been leveling a new alt and am now torn between getting the Pike or Clarion first. I just wanted to get other peoples opinion on each ship.

[-Streven-]

Pike=one of the most powerful offensive platforms in the game. Extremely deadly in rounds with high ratios of dogfighters. Can also be specialised to take virtually zero damage from mines.

 

Clarion=true support ship. Can be deadly but its real strength is in being a force multiplier. If you like being a team player who lifts his teammates up over personal glory this is the ship for you.

[Slivovidze]

Clarion looks awesome. It is quite fun to fly, but of course it has less offensive tools than Pike. On the other hand Clarion can take huge amount of punishment.

If you want better ship, probably choose Pike, but if you want a good, nice ship with a bit of added challenge, take Clarion. I would take it. (but my heart is with Spearpoint atm)

Edited April 26, 2014 by Slivovidze

[Verain]

I really like both ships. Both have a lot of good builds, so every Pike is different, etc.

 

 

The advantage of the Pike is that you are always able to threaten an enemy. You may not put up the numbers that some of the other ships can, but many of your shots will get kills, and many more of them will force people to break off of targets, an invaluable thing not represented in the scoreboard. Common builds include: concussion/proton, cluster/proton, cluster/concussion. Less common include ion/concussion, EMP/concussion, ion/cluster. Pikes can play charged plating, but they need a heal source to make it really solid.

 

The Clarion does not have the offensive tricks of the Pike, but it CAN have different ones. Clarions always help their allies out, which is quite nice. Heal probes are really good and combine very well with charged plating. Command aura is underrated and can make a dogfight ball resolve much faster. Remote slicing has no advantage until final tier, at which point it pretty much guarantees delivery of thermites on a lot of ships.

 

Hard call man. I would suggest that you get both and play each a bit to see which you like, but as for which one is first... I would say Clarion, but if you like the sound of the missile platform better, then that.

[Devrius]

Well one is mainly support one is a fighter, while the clarion can help your team a lot the pike can function solo.

 

Like it has already been said the clarion is a force multiplier, meaning it power depends a lot on your team.

 

It more or less comes down to the pike being more solo queue "safe" but the clarion can tip the balance in a relatively close match too.

 

There is also how much experience you have playing GSF, the clarion requires more knowledge of the game to play to it max potential since it's more then a flying missile platform.

 

I personally prefer the pike, but it may come from the fact I love HLCs more then anything else.

[Smuglebunny]

Im creating a quell(pike) with ions and clusters. I have upgraded turning to that of a scout for dogfighting and it tends to fight from a 7700 - 1000m range.

 

Opens from range with ion missile and close with quad lasers and fast locking cluster missiles.

 

Ive got it set up with lots of shields and hull. Its a hardened version of a T2 scout with just a touch less speed and turning but slightly more range and firepower. Wish i had retro thrusters but you cant have everything.

[Kalphitis]

Pike/Quell doesn't have retro thrusters I cry myself to sleep at night because of this...

[Kalphitis]

Wish i had retro thrusters but you cant have everything.

 

^^ this

 

Just read your post

[Armonddd]

Both ships are cool and can perform admirably well. Clarions tend to be kind of an unsung hero, but it is amazing when a Clarion sees me having some trouble and boosts over to toss me some repair probes. Pikes, on the other hand, have excellent versatility and mid-range weaponry, and thus are particularly good against bombers.

[Korithras]

If you want to be able to actually pull your weight, fly the pike. If you want to be in an underpowered, underarmed ship that can provide support to teammates but can't stand up on it's own in a one-on-one dogfight, go clarion.

[Icebergy]

My opinion is to avoid the Strikes. They are the weakest class, and the Clarion is the weakest of the Strikes. It is great for anti bomber duty, but weak against everything else.

 

If you are skilled at flying and can handle high speed maneuvers, you will want to go for a Scout. Scouts have just as much firepower as Strikes, but they actually have the speed to survive.

 

If you are newer, go for a Bomber or Gunship. These have high offensive capabilities combined with good defense. And you won't run into walls as much if you are new to flying.

[SammyGStatus]

My opinion is to avoid the Strikes. They are the weakest class, and the Clarion is the weakest of the Strikes. It is great for anti bomber duty, but weak against everything else.

 

If you are skilled at flying and can handle high speed maneuvers, you will want to go for a Scout. Scouts have just as much firepower as Strikes, but they actually have the speed to survive.

 

If you are newer, go for a Bomber or Gunship. These have high offensive capabilities combined with good defense. And you won't run into walls as much if you are new to flying.

 

I can't tell you how many times I fat fingered 3 and BRd into an asteroid.... or the capitol ship.......

[Luneward]

My opinion is to avoid the Strikes. They are the weakest class, and the Clarion is the weakest of the Strikes. It is great for anti bomber duty, but weak against everything else.

 

They're only weakest if you are evaluating them in a vacuum. They're not the best dogfighters. Scouts handle that. Not the best long range offense. Gunships. Bombers fill the area defense/interference role. And yet none of these can be fitted out for more than one task at a time. Other roles are specialists, while strikes are the flexible multi-use ship.

 

If you kit a strike out for a single purpose, they will be very weak compared to the specialists. And if you still find them to be weak? Well stop playing their game and start playing your own.

[Warhelm]

My opinion is to avoid the Strikes. They are the weakest class, and the Clarion is the weakest of the Strikes. It is great for anti bomber duty, but weak against everything else.

 

If you are skilled at flying and can handle high speed maneuvers, you will want to go for a Scout. Scouts have just as much firepower as Strikes, but they actually have the speed to survive.

 

If you are newer, go for a Bomber or Gunship. These have high offensive capabilities combined with good defense. And you won't run into walls as much if you are new to flying.

 

I have to strongly disagree. I am a Strike pilot. They fit my personal play-style perfectly. (although I have yet to get the Clarion where I like it)

 

For me;

Scouts are too fast, and require better aiming than I can achieve.

Gunships require a style of play that doesn't come naturally to me.

Bombers are too slow. While I am perfectly capable of flying them, I don't really enjoy the task.

Strikes are just right. Fast enough, strong enough, and gosh-darn-it, I like them.

 

While I am in no way an Ace, I always put up my best numbers while flying my Pike/Quell.

[Gavin_Kelvar]

I've been finding the Clarion to be quite a good ship once you start upgrading it. I'm in the top 4 for my team flying a Star Guard more often than not and I've slowly been making my way back up the scoreboard ladder in the Clarion.

 

The main thing I see with the Clarion is that you can't fly it the way you would a Star Guard or Pike. If you've ever played old X-Wing or Rogue Squadron games I think it's basically the different approach to flying an X-Wing versus a B-Wing. Both are really good at what they do but require different techniques to fly well.

 

My impression is that a Clarion, with all of its defensive tools, can be set to basically be a heavy fighter bomber so its builds aren't just limited to being a pure support ship. Whatever you may lack in dog fighting ability you can make up for in being able to take a lot of punishment. You have two of the best blasters available to strikers (Quads and LLC, my preference being for Quads) and your offensive missile options (thermites and protons) aren't too shabby either so you're far from defenseless.

 

Personally what I've been using is:

Quads (I'll be taking the crit chance, rather than power efficiency, for extra damage and might take the T5 hull damage to help counter damage reduction from armor)

Thermites (on impact cause shield bleedthrough and reduce DR, both which help compensate for your quads/LLC not having the shield/armor penetration of HLC, stack nicely with the bypass co-pilot ability, and has the support function of making an enemy more vulnerable to fire from your allies)

Power Dive (takes some getting used to but I think it's worth it since it has the shortest CD of your missile break options)

Repair Probes (plan to take T4 Improved Repair and T5 ammo resupply)

Shield Projector (helps the team, functions similar to quick charge shields although I might switch it for Directional)

Range Sensor (if you're in a group your base comm range should be enough and dampening isn't likely to help much in that case; because you have lower mobility than other strikes having a little extra advanced warning of inbound enemy fighters is helpful, especially if you get caught on your own)

Large Reactor

Light weight armor (You can get 19% evasion which further helps compensate for your lower mobility although reinforced armor might be equally viable)

Damage capacitor (buffs the damage of quads without draining extra power)

 

Overall I've found that build to have good survival, pack a real punch offensively, and still have some group support utility. The main drawback with repair probes is that you have no means of assessing allied hull strength so, unless they're smoking, you can't tell whether they need a heal or not (but hopefully the devs will eventually add some target friendly option).

Edited April 28, 2014 by Gavin_Kelvar

[-Streven-]

My opinion is to avoid the Strikes. They are the weakest class, and the Clarion is the weakest of the Strikes. It is great for anti bomber duty, but weak against everything else.

 

If you are skilled at flying and can handle high speed maneuvers, you will want to go for a Scout. Scouts have just as much firepower as Strikes, but they actually have the speed to survive.

 

If you are newer, go for a Bomber or Gunship. These have high offensive capabilities combined with good defense. And you won't run into walls as much if you are new to flying.

 

This is a bad misconception. Strikes can in fact hold their own with any other class and as has been stated can be built out to be multi-purpose or designed for more specific duties. There are very few scout pilots that I can't handle in any of my strikes 1 v 1. The Starguard and the Pike are both very formidable offensive platforms.

 

The Clarion I really prefer as a close support ship. I like to follow my teammates and continuously buff shields and repair as they come off cooldown. I try and not get engaged in my own dogfights but instead I try to really focus on being a wingman and focusing on my teammates targets or acting as a decoy. In dogfight heavy matches having a Clarion gives a distinct advantage to your team assuming you have one or two other good dogfighters.

[dailus]

I've been finding the Clarion to be quite a good ship once you start upgrading it. I'm in the top 4 for my team flying a Star Guard more often than not and I've slowly been making my way back up the scoreboard ladder in the Clarion.

 

The main thing I see with the Clarion is that you can't fly it the way you would a Star Guard or Pike. If you've ever played old X-Wing or Rogue Squadron games I think it's basically the different approach to flying an X-Wing versus a B-Wing. Both are really good at what they do but require different techniques to fly well.

 

My impression is that a Clarion, with all of its defensive tools, can be set to basically be a heavy fighter bomber so its builds aren't just limited to being a pure support ship. Whatever you may lack in dog fighting ability you can make up for in being able to take a lot of punishment. You have two of the best blasters available to strikers (Quads and LLC, my preference being for Quads) and your offensive missile options (thermites and protons) aren't too shabby either so you're far from defenseless.

 

Personally what I've been using is:

Quads (I'll be taking the crit chance, rather than power efficiency, for extra damage and might take the T5 hull damage to help counter damage reduction from armor)

Thermites (on impact cause shield bleedthrough and reduce DR, both which help compensate for your quads/LLC not having the shield/armor penetration of HLC, stack nicely with the bypass co-pilot ability, and has the support function of making an enemy more vulnerable to fire from your allies)

Power Dive (takes some getting used to but I think it's worth it since it has the shortest CD of your missile break options)

Repair Probes (plan to take T4 Improved Repair and T5 ammo resupply)

Shield Projector (helps the team, functions similar to quick charge shields although I might switch it for Directional)

Range Sensor (if you're in a group your base comm range should be enough and dampening isn't likely to help much in that case; because you have lower mobility than other strikes having a little extra advanced warning of inbound enemy fighters is helpful, especially if you get caught on your own)

Large Reactor

Light weight armor (You can get 19% evasion which further helps compensate for your lower mobility although reinforced armor might be equally viable)

Damage capacitor (buffs the damage of quads without draining extra power)

 

Overall I've found that build to have good survival, pack a real punch offensively, and still have some group support utility. The main drawback with repair probes is that you have no means of assessing allied hull strength so, unless they're smoking, you can't tell whether they need a heal or not (but hopefully the devs will eventually add some target friendly option).

 

My build is mostly the same although I opted for reinforced armor and koiogun turn and I completely agree with your assessment.