what follows turned into a horrible wall of text. sorry. but i'm not really in a mood to edit it, so either read through it and take breaks when you need to, or don't. but i promise i sortof know what i'm talking about.
Frames
most people use High G frame or at least start there. Racer and Precision are also both great and perfectly viable, but speaking strictly in terms of metagame High G puts you on an even field with the greatest number of other Libs. the most important effect of High G is the ability to regain altitude lost while maneuvering. secondly, it allows for some increased top speed and some additional turning speed through pitch turning. Precision trades much improved turning for speed and altitude gain, while Racer trades speed for turning and altitude. High G is the middle of the road solution and most forgiving to a general playstyle. the others require picking and choosing certain types of fights as part of your playstyle. simple examples would be that Precision really shines in close quarters, while Racer shines at slamming you into trees.
Defense
defensive loadout is really a playstyle choice these days. if you like landing to repair, composite is very strong. just be really fond of landing to repair, or good at mid air repair i suppose. because very often you will take small amounts of damage from random sources prior to a serious engagement. for this reason composite libs are much more likely to begin fights against other Libs or ESFs at less than 100% health. which does make a difference. the trade off is what it says on the tin: increased resistance to tank shells and dalton rounds, and flak sources. this can be great. but if you're doing it right, tank shells aren't really a major threat in the first place, and that extra dalton round or two are usually made up for in tankbuster or tail weapon rounds, or a non issue because it doesn't protect against shredder, esf weapons, or lock ons. stealth, i guess you can use it for the lols. some people play it and i am certain it can be played well. it is just the third choice, generally speaking. people will make situational claims for it, and that's perfectly valid. but you can't take more damage with it, and you can't stay at full health with it. and those are more often the situations you wish you had covered.
Utility
utility is also largely a playstyle choice and is determined by it's synergy with your other choices. i know that's not a straight answer. afterburner gives a clear advantage in mobility, which means top speed in some maneuvers, overcoming poor acceleration or velocity loss in other maneuvers, and rapid change of direction - including up (overcomes altitude problems in Racer and Precision frames.) Fire Supression gives clear advantage to longevity, and works really well with an engineer/composite playstyle. it is really good. but i feel like it fits better with a farm and repair style, than a more general run and gun style. i hope that makes sense. sometimes you are just flying over a fight to get kills or suppress a spawnroom, and you have plenty of safe area right behind friendly tanks/AA to land and repair. composite/FS could be awesome there. in fact it is probably the only way to really participate in heavy 48+ fights. so this is the choice you make, depending how you are going to use your Lib and where your certs are coming from. ejection seat is pretty much bullshit, and flares are too unless they just rework the whole flare system. people may have situational uses for these, and that's fine, but mostly they're going to be either fooling themselves, or wrong because they are terrible at the game.
Weapons
now for weapons, the walker is a fine weapon. however no one really respects it if it's used on it's own as you run away. they will laugh, chase you down, and kill you. the way to use the walker is for increasing overall DPS by focus firing alongside a shredder. this is probably the scariest air to air combo available today, but it distinctly lacks in AV(ground) and AI potential. still, the shredder alone is fantastic at both, so that can be just fine. it really comes down to what your tailgunner is better at, or more comfortable with. if you're going to run dalton, run bulldog alongside it. bulldog 2 shots ESFs and murders infantry. it works very well alongside a dalton. you can use a zephyr if you want to, but again you have to make that playstyle choice that just says "i'm going to farm infantry and i don't care because this lib isn't going to defend itself at all." i mean that's what i hear when a zephyr lib shoots at us. i say "oh zephyr." and lovehearts laughs a little, and we kill it with absolute impunity. i mean maybe sometimes its a precision lib with a good tankbuster pilot, but that is not so often the case as it is just being someone who didn't want to keep their lib. i think that covers it except to say that the other noseguns, and the duster, and hyenas, are complete bullshit. don't even joke. the drake isn't AWFUL really, but i wouldn't use it. it's just too average for it's own good.
Personal Choices/Commentary
all of the above having been said, i run Racer/AB/Nanites with TB/Dalton/Bulldog. i hope that i've fairly represented other styles. it isn't my intent to denigrate other valid choices, as the lib meta, and air meta in general is very rich at this stage in the game. oh, also we run thermals on everything. but generally speaking your weapon choices are going to be based on your team's preferences more than anything. and that said, the best advice anyone could give you is to get a steady team and get into a good third party voice where you don't need to push to talk. and usually, get in your own channel away from the screaming of the ground peasants, with only your gunners and other pilots who don't make a lot of noise. you're going to be relying on your ears for situational awareness very often.
i think that covers it mostly. if you have more specific questions you can PM me and i'll try to answer.
Last edited by Obstruction; 2014-04-25 at 09:03 PM.
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2014-04-25, 07:47 AM
I've seen a lot of shredder libs recently which seem to be very good at taking out other libs, have you guys found this to be the best anti-lib loadout??
Hybrid Mode
