Gunships in Domination

[NikovUmSar]

Greetings everyone! As probably anyone of you who are reading this, I'm GSF pilot. You could see me on DM, SF and SS servers as Remusqui and a bunch of other toons - since it's the first time I'm on this forum, some introduction was required.

 

One of my today's matches made me think about roles and efficient ways to play GS in DOMs. Vid of the match you can find here - https://youtu.be/oVZqyrAM8zY. In the middle of this you can see that 4/8 players were running gunships, which didn't actually make me feel good. I hope to start some discussion here, make everyone share their opinions and thoughts, and I hope that eventually this will make someone a better GSF player.

 

So here are my two cents. It isn't hard to notice that gunships (except for T3Gs which are 50% battlescouts) usually are way less effective in DOMs and their role here is supplemental. GS can't cover the whole area around the satellite, so they require someone else to lure enemies from their safe spots - in other words, to play gunship effectively you need an action, a big fight around the node where everyone is busy enough and don't have time to reach you. And suddenly it turns out that to win a DOM on GS you need a team that basically can win without you.

 

Also it's often hard to rely on your team if you are playing solo, and that's when you should realise you can't play support-gunship because there's no-one to support. If you feel that you are the strongest player in your team, my advise would be take something else than gunship. There is always time for experiments, of course, if you want to test yourself and play it intentionally, go ahead. Who I'm trying to reach here is a player who thinks gunship is essential in DOM match. After that match I mentioned I have thoughts there are too many of players of this type.

 

Oh, and as you've probably realised, I have a YouTube channel, where I post every match I participate in. It would make my very happy if someone will find something useful for themselves in there.

[Ttoilleekul]

Hi Remus. Good to see you here! You're already more than aware of my opinion on this, but I'll put it here for everyone else.

 

Gunships can be good in DOM, but exclusively in the right situation. For the record here we are talking about the T1G. T2G is pants, and the T3G is a Scout hybrid as you say, and can be more effective in Domination. Though realistically only a handful of players can use its Scout characteristics.

 

So, anyway, If the enemy team goes Bomber spam (multiple bombers on one node) and no one else on my team is capable of assisting in clearing those bombers out, then I will go to T1G Gunship. Ion spread is super helpful here. You're probably going to lose this game, but its still the right ship in this situation. The 2nd appropriate situation is if you already have 1-2 strong node clearers on your team, and to be clear here, I mean people who can stay within 5m of a node while still clearing it of enemies. In other words, 1-2 Scout Aces. In that situation its perfectly reasonable to play a GS to support them. I tried this a while back when Invis and myself landed on the same team for a LS DOM. He used T2S, obviously, and typically so would I. As it turned out we were the only two good players on a very very very bad team. I chose GS to support him. We both went over 100k damage. I had 20 something kills and he had 31 kills. We won. For sure, GS worked here. But, I'm confident me playing T2S also would have worked there. So, although it wouldn't be wrong, I still don't typically choose a GS in that situation, because if I have 1-2 Strong node clearers on my team already, adding in me clearing nodes also equals a win. This covers the solo situations where a GS is a good choice.

 

One GS works extremely well in group play. Premades. Because one GS can cover two nodes quickly.

 

Unless you are very adept at getting your Gunship on the right node at the pivotal moment, and actually being able to use it on-node, rather than being dead weight when you get there, then you really should not be playing GS in a Domination match. But the thing is, if you are good enough to do this, you've likely not chosen a GS in the first place. Probably the most common reason I see them being used, is to lure a Scout Ace off node, so that he can't hold / cap / win the node, and then run back to the capital ship when the Scout Ace gets close. Rinse and repeat. Sigh. What can I say about this? Yeah, it arguably has a place in the game. You are serving a role. But you're also cheesing the objective with literally no skill whatsoever. Anyone who runs back to the capital ship in a GS is a bad player, period. These people have a lot to work on, and will never progress as pilots as long as they rely on this tactic. In the event that you take a GS to clear out a bomber spam, but are still being pushed back to the Cap ship (not running - there is a difference) then its time to give up on that game, you aren't going to win it. Change to a Strike or Scout and get as many kills as you can.

 

So they do have their place, but 9/10 (if not more) Gunships in Domination play badly, and would be better served to play a different ship. I feel like the principal reason most people who take Gunships use one, is the easy kill factor. Regardless of whether its TDM or DOM, and they put zero thought or effort into the defensive / counter flying aspect of using GS, let alone actually playing objectives. I mean, most people don't even play objectives in the right ship!

Edited August 16, 2021 by Ttoilleekul