Ask me anything / Training

[Drakkolich]

Regarding mine mechanics: is mine damage directional, or does it come from every direction? for example, could I charge into a seismic mine with directional shields forward and take no damage?

 

Yep mines that do shield damage only hit the arc that is facing them. As crazy pointed how however Siesmic mine deals all it's damage to hull and completely ignores shields.

 

In case of seismics, no, cause they ignore shields

 

Edit: I'd like to add: For me as a scout pilot, those mines are the nemesis. They not only ignore sields, but they also do damage when you destroy them and considering your dialogue with Nyghtrunner, it is nearly impossible for me to chase a Rampart and not run into one of those little beasts^^

 

After their 3 second arming period all mines will indeed explode when destroyed.

 

If you are currently at your maximum mine capacity and you place a new mine down, your oldest mine detonates AND DEALS DAMAGE. (We call this a manual detonation and you can use it to snipe kills that are outside your mines proximity range but in their damage radius)

 

Example: You have a Siesmic mine out and you place a new one, your old Siesmic mine detonates and if anything is in it's damage radius, it takes damage as if they had triggered it.

 

Mines have larger damage radius' then activation radius' so when destroying mines keep in mind their maximum damage radius' so you don't just blow it up in your face.

 

Mine Maximum Activation/Damage radius':

 

Siesmic Mine: 2000/3500m

Seeker Mine: 4500m/Not applicable

Concussion Mine: 2000/2500m

Interdiction Mine: 2000/2500m

Ion Mine: 2000/2500m

 

Note: If you see a Bomber with 2 Interdiction mines out then their radius' are 1500/2000m, if you see a Bomber with 3 Concussion or Ion mines out then their radius' are 1500/2000m and if you get slowed when you get hit by Siesmic mine for 3 seconds then their radius' are 1500/3000m

[nyghtrunner]

Nope. Must be my skill level, but a scout who follows me around a node at 3-4k I find very hard to shake or evade.

Weird... It might just be the way that person plays, if it's a specific person. Personally, I don't really agree with the style, but I'm also nothing if not greedy in GSF. I take a lot of risks.

 

I just don't like to try to follow from a distance because it helps your LOS a bit, and if I miss the mine as you deploy, I'm going to go right into it as it activates (Honestly, there is nothing in the game that annoys me more than missing a mine on the first shot, and drifting close enough to get hit by the explosion on the 2nd shot, and a situation where I'm following at 3-4k is a situation that's tailor made for that to happen). I mean, I like getting right on top of offending bombers because of the damage window being small and because the shots are so much stronger when from up close. But another thing I see as a benefit is, once I've killed your mines the first time and closed, if I miss the mine as you deploy, I can get the heck out of dodge before it activates, then swing around, and take the mine out from distance.

 

Anyway, if that's the case, something that might help out a bit that I don't think Drak mentioned directly (other than the bouncing off the walls part)... Try going from top to bottom, in and out of the fins, between/around the slats, and circling back around as you deploy. And cut corners close as much as you can. That should help your ability to LOS a BLC scout that's following at that distance quite a bit, and if you think in advance about it, you should be able to force him to follow you right into your mines, or to break off and try another angle. I honestly do think that if they're trying to take you out from that distance, you should be able to use the terrain to your advantage, and cut off a lot of his possible angles.

 

In many ways, this is very similar to what I was talking about here with regards to using the terrain to help you break missile locks, rather than using Disto or your Engine ability. It's the same concept, but you're wanting to LOS the Scout's Primaries, rather than use the terrain to break a missile lock.

 

The whole bomber scout interaction is an interesting dance, but in general, and especially if you're set up, it should almost always be a dance that's slanted in your favor as the bomber.

 

Anyway, I hope this helps. If I have the time, I will try to make a video for you this weekend in a throwaway game where I can sort of show you maneuvering around a satellite, throw it on YouTube, and link to it here for you. I can try to talk about it all day long, but I think it would be far more beneficial to try to show you exactly what it is I'm talking about. From there, if you have more questions, there can at least be a point of reference.

 

Cheers!

[Greezt]

Thanks! Drakkolich's streams help too, he's often a rampart there.

[nyghtrunner]

Thanks! Drakkolich's streams help too, he's often a rampart there.

Yeah. And he's definitely one of the best. Hell, even I learn things sometimes from watching his stream.

[Drakkolich]

Thanks! Drakkolich's streams help too, he's often a rampart there.

 

I did some solo queueing on yesterday's stream. When I play solo I've been told I do really good commentary on what I'm thinking and why I'm doing things. Maybe check out the Rampart games from yesterday you can find them on this link at time stamps : 27:15 and 1:02:00.

 

In the second one I play Rampart I'm against Nyghtrunner I do fine when 1v1 vs him but I often get interdicted by other Bombers or Ioned by Gunships and I get into big trouble when that happens. Keep in mind I'm playing Charged plating and he's playing Burst/Pods the absolute worst match for me possible, it was a lot of fun trying to survive his assaults.

[nyghtrunner]

I did some solo queueing on yesterday's stream. When I play solo I've been told I do really good commentary on what I'm thinking and why I'm doing things. Maybe check out the Rampart games from yesterday you can find them on this link at time stamps : 27:15 and 1:02:00.

 

In the second one I play Rampart I'm against Nyghtrunner I do fine when 1v1 vs him but I often get interdicted by other Bombers or Ioned by Gunships and I get into big trouble when that happens. Keep in mind I'm playing Charged plating and he's playing Burst/Pods the absolute worst match for me possible, it was a lot of fun trying to survive his assaults.

That game was fun. I seriously didn't want to say anything, because I was having a very good game, and didn't want to jinx it (I think I even did get blown up as soon as I responded that I was kind of wrecking your team at that moment)! But being in chat with you while in opposition was kind of interesting, even if I remember it being kinda quiet (I may not go back and watch it, because I totally hate hearing my own voice!).

 

And honestly, I don't remember too many 1v1 interactions, outside of maybe the first one, in which I totally flew right into the side of the sat at B while chasing you! I'm convinced I'd have had you had that not happened! But we all know I'm sometimes my own worst enemy.

 

But usually, I got to you when you were looking elsewhere, just getting on the node, and I just happened to have a really nice line on you as I was coming in. And I'm not going to lie.

 

I will say that it does illustrate my style, though. I think on every single one of the kills I had on you, I was right up next to you, which is exactly how I want to approach a bomber. You had just gotten to the node a couple of times, and weren't "set", so I went to you as quickly as I could, ignoring your teammates around the nodes, because I didn't think I could afford to give you the time to set up.

 

EDIT - I watched the two matches we had together. Not sure why I sound like I'm on echo when mumble came back up and I hopped back in. Also, it looked like a couple of times, you hadn't eaten a mine, but were snagged by the interdiction drone. That thing did serious work for our team in that game.

Edited October 9, 2015 by nyghtrunner

[Greezt]

Just watched your latest stream. Thanks for flying a pike again:D

 

I have three questions:

I noticed you kept power to shields most of the time when fighting. Why?

 

Now general questions: do mines deal damage based on LoS? For example, does a mine placed beneath a node damage someone over the node within the damage radius?

 

If I took a shot with power to shields, and then switched to power to blasters, are my shields considered full, or does the damage taken move on to the new max shields? For example, if my 100% shields are 2000, with power to shields I have 2200. If I took 400 damage and then swapped power to blasters, would I have 1800 shields or 1400? (hope I was clear).

 

Thanks

[Drakkolich]

Just watched your latest stream. Thanks for flying a pike again:D

 

I have three questions:

I noticed you kept power to shields most of the time when fighting. Why?

 

I actually went and rewatched the videos because this question struck me as very odd, that isn't something I normally do. In the first two games of the stream (The ones I flew pike in that I assume you are referring too) I only used power to shields to help hold satellites or when I was very low on shields.

 

Directional shields actually have some really regenerating play you can do with them which is why learning when to use power to shields with them is very important. Each of your shield arcs regenerates independently, meaning if you take damage in the front your rear shields are still regenerating.

So what you can do is cycle your directionals 3 times from middle to front to back and return to middle again and it will even out the damage you took to both sides. Meaning now your rear shields are no longer at max and are regenerating, if you take more damage in the front, when you find a quick lull like flying past each other and doing a 180 quickly cycle the shields again. Half of the damage you took in the first volley will have been regenerated by your rear shields and the new cycle again redistributes the damage for you again making your rear shields no longer at maximum and they start regenerating again.

 

In power to shields you gain +20% more shield maximum and +50% shield regeneration rate. (keep in mind when in power to weapons or engines you lose 10% shield max and 25% shield regeneration)

This means that even while fighting you can swap to power to shields and gain +30% shields on your rear shields even while taking damage up front so that when you cycle you get an extra 15% poured into your front shields. It also means that while you're doing these cycles your rear shields are regenerating at double the rate they would be in power to engines or weapons.

 

While trying to hold a node it's more important to stay alive then kill the other guy when you're defending. So when I'm defending a node I generally will use Power to shields to maximize my survival. Still though in the video you clearly see that right before I fire my laser shots I swap to power to weapons anyways for the extra damage.

 

The only times I don't are when I'm super low on shields and trying to get as much regeneration out of my rear arc as possible.

 

That was a really complicated explanation of why I was in power to shields in those games. Directionals have some really crazy tricks you can do with them like explained above, it's really hard to put them into text. If I didn't explain myself well this would be a great topic to discuss, so feel free to ask questions.

 

 

Now general questions: do mines deal damage based on LoS? For example, does a mine placed beneath a node damage someone over the node within the damage radius?

 

When Bombers were released mines used to only trigger in LoS but would deal damage through everything, including satellites. However it was later patched that mines damage also obeyed LoS.

 

Great question!

 

If I took a shot with power to shields, and then switched to power to blasters, are my shields considered full, or does the damage taken move on to the new max shields? For example, if my 100% shields are 2000, with power to shields I have 2200. If I took 400 damage and then swapped power to blasters, would I have 1800 shields or 1400? (hope I was clear).

 

If you go from power to shields to power to blasters you lose maximum shield capacity but not current shields capacity.

 

Your example is really perfect it's just that your numbers are a bit off. Power to shields gives +20% max and power to weapons takes away 10% max. In your example when you swapped to power to weapons you would have 1800 shields remaining.

 

If you had 2000 shields at 100% you would have 2400 in power to shields. If you took 400 damage you would drop to 2000, if you then swapped to power to weapons you would drop down to 1800 shields because 1800 would become your new maximum shields capacity.

 

So in short Current/Max

Power to shields: Shields 2400/2400

Take 400 damage: Shields 2000/2400

Power to weapons: Shields 1800/1800

 

 

Really great question!

 

Thanks

 

You're very welcome, I'm glad you enjoyed the Pike games. I especially enjoyed making fun of Verain dying while he was flying his. I had a lot of fun messing with Krixarc in the second game, sadly he later told me that his distortion missile break wasn't functioning in that game, which makes sense since I launch a proton at one point and say "ah he still had his disto" however he still takes damage.

 

Even sadder was that he later swapped to republic side and tried to sabotage our team by suiciding 26 times in a Team death match. (screenshot) It forced us to spawn camp a bunch of new players to win the game, it was really awful.

Edited October 13, 2015 by Drakkolich

[Ramalina]

Just watched your latest stream. Thanks for flying a pike again:D

 

I have three questions:

I noticed you kept power to shields most of the time when fighting. Why?

 

Now general questions: do mines deal damage based on LoS? For example, does a mine placed beneath a node damage someone over the node within the damage radius?

 

If I took a shot with power to shields, and then switched to power to blasters, are my shields considered full, or does the damage taken move on to the new max shields? For example, if my 100% shields are 2000, with power to shields I have 2200. If I took 400 damage and then swapped power to blasters, would I have 1800 shields or 1400? (hope I was clear).

 

Thanks

 

The answer to your first question is in Drako's Missiles-only experiment thread. There's a pretty full explanation of how he's been flying Pikes recently. The short version is that with most damage coming from missiles and engine regen from other sources there's not a penalty to using power to shields.

 

 

Mines do respect LOS at present. They did not when first released. The change has made bombers quite a bit weaker on satellites than they used to be.

 

 

If your base shields are 2000 at 100% they are 2400 with power to shields at 100% and 1800 with power to blasters or engines at 100%. The modifiers to base shields are +20%/0%/-10% depending on power allocation.

 

To answer your question, the damage is preserved. If it weren't then you'd gain up to 600 shield strength every time you cycled from shields to another power pool and back. It would blow QCS, Shield Projector, and Regeneration Reactor out of the water. It'd be something like 18,000 or more shield regen per minute.

 

I believe the manner in which the damage is preserved is by proportion of total shields when shifting power away from shields. I haven't tested specifically, but I can't recall ever going from low shields to no shields by shifting power from shields to engines or blasters, which is what you'd expect in some cases if it were preserved as 400 damage rather than as 400/max_shield_value*100%.

 

If I'm not currently suffering from coffee deficiency then that would work out to having 1500 shields after switching in your scenario.

[Greezt]

I actually went and rewatched the videos because this question struck me as very odd, that isn't something I normally do. In the first two games of the stream (The ones I flew pike in that I assume you are referring too) I only used power to shields to help hold satellites or when I was very low on shields.

 

Those were the games I meant. I used to only cycle directionals with power to blasters... Guess now I'll have to rethink that. Is power to shields useful in situations where you can't LoS?

 

Thanks guys

 

EDIT: another question: I have a tendency to switch my directionals forward at the start of battles, for convenience. That would probably affect the rear shield's charging ability (since it reduces its' max capacity). So would it be better to keep the shields centered, and cycle them when hit?

Edited October 13, 2015 by Greezt
Another question

[Verain]

If I took a shot with power to shields, and then switched to power to blasters, are my shields considered full, or does the damage taken move on to the new max shields?

 

You only lose shields if the shield health count is more than your ship can maintain.

 

Lets say you are on a type 1 strike.

 

Strikes have a base shield value of 1800.

All numbers derive from base shield values. Shields regenerate at 5% per second when regeneration is on, so the base shield regen value is 90.

Lets pretend you have the crewmember who increases shields by 10% and shield regen by 15%.

Now your shield value per arc is 1800+180 = 1980, and your regen is 103.5.

Now lets assume you are running directions that have another 10% boost to shields. This is 10% of base, so now your max shielding is 1980+180 = 2160.

Now lets assume you are running large reactor, which is a 20% boost.

Now your max shielding is 2160+360= 2520.

This is calculated as:

1800 (100% base) +

180 (crewmember 10% bonus) +

180 (directional 10% bonus) +

360 (large reactor 20% bonus)

 

So now you have 2520 shields on each arc, and you regenerate 103.5 on each arc.

 

But this is in F4, where you are like, never at.

 

What happens when you are in F2? Or other Fs besides F4?

 

F2:

Shield regeneration increased by 50%

Blaster and engine regeneration decreased by 25%

Max shield amount increased by 20%

Max Speed Reduced by 10%

Weapon Damage Reduced by 5%

 

F3 has these effects:

Shield and Blaster regeneration decreased by 25%

Engine regeneration increased by 50%

Max shield amount decreased by 10%

Max Speed Increased by 20%

Weapon Damage Reduced by 5%

 

F1 has these effects:

Shield and Engine regeneration decreased by 25%

Blaster regeneration increased by 50%

Max shield amount decreased by 10%

Max Speed reduced by 10%

Weapon Damage Increased by 10%

 

So in F2:

20% of 1800 is 360.

50% of 90 is 45

2520+360= 2880 max shields

103.5 + 45 = 148.5 per second.

 

F3 or F1:

Your max shields on each arc are now 2520 - 180 = 2340.

Your shield regeneration is now 103.5 - 22.5 = 81

 

This means, as you switch from F2 to F3:

If your shield value is from 2341 to 2880, it drops down to 2340. This is a swing of up to 30% of base (540 shielding). This assumes your shields are balanced- we haven't seen any sign of shield power being lost or gained when switching with the 2 button on directionals, so if your shields are front or back, assume a similar but greater switch happens.

 

Your shield regen (which with this build is 0 per second until that arc hasn't been shot for 3 seconds) goes from 148.5 to 81.

 

So if you are chilling at a satellite in F3, you have 2340 on each arc. If you switch to F2, you'll begin building 148.5 per second until, after 3.6+ seconds (not sure the tick rate), you are at full 2880. If you switch back to F3, you immediately drop back to 2340 on each arc.

 

Lets say you get in a fight and are at 1700 shielding. Switching to F2 doesn't do anything. Switching to F3 doesn't do anything. Your current total gets no immediate effects. You have to wait without being struck for regeneration, and you have either less regeneration (quick charge shields) or no regeneration (all other shields) when under fire. But this does mean if you are not taking damage very often, that F2 can help.

 

 

In general, F2 require careful usage. It's a big part of bomber play, because a lot of that time you don't want to move fast (and don't want to be in F3) and aren't shooting at anyone (and so having a 5% penalty on the blasters you aren't using that moment doesn't matter), but as a target that MUST die for your enemies to cap, you are likely being targeted from various sides, and will be a swap target if available- so F2 can be great there. If you are chasing another bomber around a sat, it's reasonable to be switching between F1 and F2- F1 when you are actually taking shots, F2 at the other times, because you'll often have a lot of shield arc you'd like to get returned to you. It can even be worthwhile to actually chill in F2 for awhile here, because the extra shield arc might be worth the reduced damage- your blasters may be adequate in F2.

 

 

The power management in this game is really compelling.

 

 

I have a tendency to switch my directionals forward at the start of battles, for convenience. That would probably affect the rear shield's charging ability (since it reduces its' max capacity). So would it be better to keep the shields centered, and cycle them when hit?

 

My opinion: No, it's fine.

We didn't get a giant breakdown on directionals, but the general opinion is that the directionals fully conserve shielding, but may or may not conserve regeneration. We don't know how the F2 bonus or F1/F3 penalty works within that. We don't have a way to measure exactly what's going on with directionals. If you are in F2 mode with shields front, you won't have much of a rear shield arc. If you are asking "will my rear shield regen be wasted", I don't personally think so- I think that regen is also shifted to the front, based on the tooltip. We don't know this for a fact, though.

 

 

I especially enjoyed making fun of Verain dying while he was flying his.

 

YES THAT WAS SO FUNNnnnnn

 

I definitely am a bit salty on stream about that. You'll be watching and Drako will be doing his thing, and you'll see me get blown up and I'll be like "man, I am done dying to battlescouts!". Drako was doing cool stuff like diving gunships with clever directional play, I was busy remembering why it's so frustrating to play a strike fighter

 

I can't recall ever going from low shields to no shields by shifting power from shields to engines or blasters

 

Correct, this definitely doesn't happen.

The behaviors you could posit are:

1- The shielding above max shielding is lost. Other shielding is preserved. <- This is true

2- The shielding assumes a neutral point at F4. Extra shielding is gained instantly in F2, and lost in F1/F3.

If (2) was true, you'd be able to "hide shields"- if you got low and pressed F1, your shields would go away. When you pressed F2, those extra shields would pop back instantly. We don't see this.

3- The shielding just subtracts a max amount when switching into F3 or F1 from F2, and maybe some lesser amount from F4, but doesn't give you stuff instantly when going into F2 or F4. In this case, you'd be able to jam F1/F2 and see your shields drop to zero. We don't see this.

[nyghtrunner]

Hey Greezt,

 

I ended up making that video over the weekend for you. I'm totally not used to talking about things while I'm playing, and got distracted by the map or the talking or whatever a time or two. But hopefully it helps. If you want to check it out, you can find it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9bV8ZNlOe8

 

One thing I will note also that I didn't do in looking back at the video... If you're under attack on a node in a bomber, and it's to the point that you can't really be offensive, you should absolutely be hitting F2 to power to shields. I tried a couple of takes of the video, but the one listed above was probably the overall best of them, and without trying another take was the one I decided to upload. If you'd like, I can upload another one of them for you. It goes over a lot of the same stuff, but there's a bit more defensive flying in it.

 

EDIT - Uploaded the other one as well, just in case you wanted to watch it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5J2P4MV-vA

[Greezt]

My opinion: No, it's fine.

We didn't get a giant breakdown on directionals, but the general opinion is that the directionals fully conserve shielding, but may or may not conserve regeneration. We don't know how the F2 bonus or F1/F3 penalty works within that. We don't have a way to measure exactly what's going on with directionals. If you are in F2 mode with shields front, you won't have much of a rear shield arc. If you are asking "will my rear shield regen be wasted", I don't personally think so- I think that regen is also shifted to the front, based on the tooltip. We don't know this for a fact, though.

 

But wouldn't moving shields to front potentially waste spare shield? I mean, if the rear arc is barely regenerating shield, I have nearly no reserve shields to cycle forward when I need, and nearly no regeneration (since the front are can't regenerate directly after being shot, and the rear arc is regenerating at a much slower rate).

 

Hey Greezt,

 

I ended up making that video over the weekend for you. I'm totally not used to talking about things while I'm playing, and got distracted by the map or the talking or whatever a time or two. But hopefully it helps. If you want to check it out, you can find it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9bV8ZNlOe8

 

Great explanation, I'd give you a "thumbs up" if I could find it

I've been flying around the top before, but I've never noticed the gap on the node...

Also, now I know that mines only deal damage based on LoS placing mines on the outer ring sorta makes sense, but doesn't it also leave them vulnerable to gunships and bombers?

As for my username, it literally came from banging the keyboard after some 20 previous names were taken...

[nyghtrunner]

Great explanation, I'd give you a "thumbs up" if I could find it

I've been flying around the top before, but I've never noticed the gap on the node...

Also, now I know that mines only deal damage based on LoS placing mines on the outer ring sorta makes sense, but doesn't it also leave them vulnerable to gunships and bombers?

As for my username, it literally came from banging the keyboard after some 20 previous names were taken...

Thanks! It was a bit of a new experience for me, so wasn't sure how it would end up.

 

The placement around that ring like that will open them up a bit to enemy Gunships (Ion Rail in particular), but I'm almost positive that Ion Rail's AoE doesn't respect LOS at all (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, Verain or Drako), and as such, no matter where you put them, an enemy GS can simply snipe them so long as they have SOMETHING to shoot at. Even a turret. Often what you want to do there is just not really deploy more mines until they close to force you off the node, at which point, you have access to both of them as soon as they come in and engage.

 

If you're worried about incoming bombers, you can still use LOS tricks to keep them on "your" side so that they have to come around the sat to get at them, even though they're in "your side" of that upper ring.

 

Also, don't take that placement as gospel. I noted it only because in the abstract, the AoE blast covers the greatest area from that outer ring above the slats. If you drop them in that inner, upper ring topside and bring a scout back around to it, don't hesitate because it's not "optimal". The entire point of the mines is to do damage, it's just nice to maximize the AoE where you can. The spot I pointed out is "optimal", but you really just want them to hit things when they explode. Notice that if I was under pressure, I didn't bother trying to go for that optimal placement. Or when I was trying to drop mines on Tenubrae in the Denon game. If I have a moment to breath, I like to deploy on that outer ring as a set up move, but I don't think it's by any means the only viable placement.

 

And definitely, try to use the topside of the satellite, especially against enemy fighters, because the added terrain is unbelievably useful. I may think about it slightly differently than most, but I come from it with the mind of a scout pilot who loves to lead people on merry chases to places I think are beneficial to me, so I'm 100% comfortable (especially with CP) doing the bobbing and weaving up topside around the fins. Honestly, that defensive flying in the bomber is probably where I have the most fun in a bomber.

[phalczen]

3- The shielding just subtracts a max amount when switching into F3 or F1 from F2, and maybe some lesser amount from F4, but doesn't give you stuff instantly when going into F2 or F4. In this case, you'd be able to jam F1/F2 and see your shields drop to zero. We don't see this.

 

Remember, what was it, semicolon key, in XWing? Instant transfer of weapon pool to shields. SWG Jump to Lightspeed also had a astromech command that would do it, Capacitor to Shield Shunt, though it had a cooldown and some pilot classes didn't have the ability at baseline, they had to buy chips with the program stored on them that had been programmed by players of the appropriate faction. It was exceedingly handy because capacitors in SWG (not the same as here) or the weapon power pool in Xwing regenerated more quickly than shields or engines.

There are two engine components that do something similar, but one is only for bombers who lack a missile break anyway (engine to shield shunt, Shield Power Converter) and the other doesn't get much use precisely because it means you lose a missile break. Although I think the type 2+3 strikes can equip Shield Power Converter, its not like they can afford to lose a missile break either.

It would be nice to have that feature in a way that didn't gimp you out of a missile break.

Edited October 13, 2015 by phalczen

[Drakkolich]

Alright so it looks like Verain and I disagree on how directionals regeneration functions when you change the facings.

 

I'm going to try to test this, this week sometime and get some video evidence to see how it works. Because ya it would change how I play.

 

 

As for putting shields full forward as you're going into a fight, that is the right way to do it. Once you do your pass and have taken damage then you cycle to balanced power to let those rear shields regenerate half the damage you just took for you. Once you're about to fight if he's infront again pop all your shields back forward or leave them in balanced. It's really a call of how much damage you think you're going to take, in a burst battle which is most of GSF you would want full forward, but if you think you can get away with not taking any hull damage then leave them in balanced until your rear shields are back to full.

 

The whole idea here is to be able to regenerate shields while in combat which you aren't supposed to be able to do. Directionals last upgrade lessons the regeneration rate delay by 3 seconds already, so all this swapping is really only getting you 3 seconds of extra regen once they stop shooting at you. The real beauty of it is when people keep shooting you every like 3-4 seconds, that would normally just stop your regeneration entirely but with the cycling you use your rear shields to do that regenerating for you.

 

 

 

@Nyghtrunner Loved the video I'm glad you got to see how hard it is to talk and fly though.

 

I'd like to mention while Nyght was using the sides of the satellite to put his mines on you can also use the very bottom and tops as to AoE all around the satellite. I tend to use these placements more because I try to push my enemies to my teammates.

 

For those of you that watch my stream or videos I'm sure you've heard Mikaboshi/Verain while on Gunship call "Sniping Hell side" or "Sniping Heaven side". Once they have told me where they are positioned I put all my mines on the opposite side to push the enemies into their line of sight. If they are sniping on a side of a satellite you can try to put mines on the other side like Nyght showed in the video to push them into your teammates line of sight.

 

 

These team maneuvers/strategies are why I play GSF and why I really dislike solo queue ing. I love the coordinated play of playing with a team, it get's even better when facing another team doing the same kinds of things.

[nyghtrunner]

I'd like to mention while Nyght was using the sides of the satellite to put his mines on you can also use the very bottom and tops as to AoE all around the satellite. I tend to use these placements more because I try to push my enemies to my teammates.

Absolutely this as well. I never really thought about it with mines, but I do it with the Interdiction drone a lot because it's hard to see/snipe. Just seems to stay alive there a lot, and has good view of the sat for the weapon (interdiction part doesn't matter, but the blaster does).

[RickDagles]

Glad to see some interest in directional shields. IMO they are easily the best choice on the Condor/Jugoran because you can dogfight without worrying about cooldowns. Which is very important when carrying a game. Directional shields are also quite good on a Sting/Flashfire Quad/Pod/Retro build made solely for domination (but it's horrible in TDM).

[Drakkolich]

Directional shields are also quite good on a Sting/Flashfire Quad/Pod/Retro build made solely for domination (but it's horrible in TDM).

 

Alright I'll bite.

 

I have a few of questions for you. ^^

 

1: Why do you think Directional shields are better then Distortion on a Sting/Flashfire in Domination? What situations do you think they help more in?

 

2: How did you come to the conclusion that they are strictly worse in Team Deathmatch then in Domination?

 

3: When you play with Directional shields on your Sting/Flashfire what does the rest of build look like? I'm especially interested in the armor minor and crew defensive passives.

 

4: Is it better on certain Domination maps more then others? I would think Retro would be awful on Denon Exosphere as lacking a travel ability on that map seems so annoying.

 

 

I understand you said "quite good" and not like the best thing ever, I just keep trying to think of situations where Directional shields would be better in Domination and I keep coming up empty. I figure I must be missing something, really looking forward to your answers!

[nyghtrunner]

4: Is it better on certain Domination maps more then others? I would think Retro would be awful on Denon Exosphere as lacking a travel ability on that map seems so annoying.

I can't at all answer the rest (since I have almost no experience with directionals, having hated them the first times I tried them), but I will say that using them isn't that bad on Denon provided you have:

1. Regen Thrusters and the +20% engine pool from Retro T3
   
2. Booster Recharge
   
3. Both 1 and 2
   

With any of those, sure, there's no point where you can hit the 3 button to vault across the map, but you can hold spacebar pretty much indefinitely, especially with the 3rd option.

Edited October 14, 2015 by nyghtrunner

[One-Seven-One]

What advice can you give to someone that really doesn't want to play the big 3 (Flashfire/Sting, Mangler/Quarrel, Razorwire/Rampart), but still wants to be competitive?

[Bolo_Yeung]

Warcarrier / Legion. ? I suppose it can be added to "3" as well. Good for team support with repair drones, area denial via rail sentries or extremely pissing enemies by interdiction sentries.

 

T1 Scout with lasers + pods + tt - people often underestimate it but it can shred enemies pretty well. With s2e component it have great mobility, capable of getting enemy GS from behind.

 

T1 scout with EMP (engine) + sab probe + LLC/ LC Sab probe REALLY ticks people,.. (just be sure to use right T5 upgrade)

 

T3 GS with EMP+interdiction missile. Maybe not an optimal ship but still fun and makes bombers life on sat much heavier

T3 GS with interdiction+clusters. Basically a T2 strike with BLC and thrusters. Pretty funny build.

 

T2 strike with CP+EMP+cluster+heavies. Nice for bomber infested sat. Not much use outside.

 

 

All depends on your playstyle though... just check what is most enjoyable for you.

Edited October 14, 2015 by Bolo_Yeung

[Mintas]

The Clarion is great in certain instances.

[btbarrett]

The T1 scout is perfectly viable as well, though admittedly inferior to the T2.

[nyghtrunner]

What advice can you give to someone that really doesn't want to play the big 3 (Flashfire/Sting, Mangler/Quarrel, Razorwire/Rampart), but still wants to be competitive?

The T3 Gunship or the T1 Scout are probably your best "general" options outside of those 3.

 

Sans those, the Legion/Warcarrier (T2 Bomber) can be effective in pretty much any match.