Liberator: Air Superiority Tank

phungus · 2012-12-23, 08:14 AM

Other then bugs my ESF doesn't die much (I've even gotten good at avoiding friendly air collisions). I have a racer 3 mosquito with A2A missiles for the cheese, and a hover 1 sythe with rocket pods. I recently switched to using the nose gun exclusively as it seems to be just as effective at taking out enemy air as the gun designed for it, since most pilots in this game are aweful. I used to play alot of free allegiance as well, never was great at that game (inter 13 was my rank when the game pretty much died) but the dogfighting in that game has made me pretty much an ace in this one, only about 1 in 20 pilots I run into out there kill me. And honestly my sythe's rocket pods are usually better then the A2A missiles for dogfighting, except when overwhelmed by multiple enemies. I have racer on my mosquito because I often go to the continent where we are being dominated and try to find enemy air zergs and pick off aircraft, racer allows me to escape once I take down 1 or two enemy ESFs and the swarm descends (this is very fun to do, I recommend it for anyone who is feeling like playing as a lone wolf, but finds themselves being bored of rocket pod farming or rolling around capping empty bases).

My mosquito has started dying to liberators though, quite frequently. It's been insta gigged 3 times now while I was dogfighting by the tank buster cannon. I wasn't hover spamming, just trying to clear the fighter escort before taking on the lib for obvious reasons. I've also lost a couple to the Dalton (first time was my mistake, the other times I've been impressed with the pilot's and gunner's ability as I was trying to flank the thing and get to it's side and above an the pilot just flipped his belly at me and fired, and I was trying to take evasive action), and libs have another trick to turn into you and force a ram, meaning you must break off and come at them again, giving them more time to escape.

I decided to try the tankbuster and just bought it, and I haven't quite got it down, as it seems to have narly drop, but it was effective, and allowed me to destroy 2 fighters, one that had one of my squad mate's tails and was going in for the kill, allowing me to save him. I haven't quite gotten down the whole Dalton roll, but a couple of friends I have been on teamspeak with have succeded a couple of times taking out ESFs with it, and I think with practice we will get very, very good at it. My mentality in a liberator is now such that I hunt ESFs, and don't fear them, unless mobbed by no fewer then three (pretty much the same as when I'm in an ESF).

I'll still use my mosquito and sythe as that's more enjoyable, but when rolling with my outfit I'm pretty sure I can be just as effective at clearing enemy air with the lib as my ESF, plus I'll have the added ability to pound the ground with the most lethal effectiveness in the game. Any other players who pilot libs and ESFs starting to feel the same way?

ShadetheDruid · 2012-12-23, 08:22 AM

I've only been flying for about two days now, and it's possible that everyone i've fought so far has been terrible (considering i'm terrible at the minute as well, that's unlikely), but I haven't had much trouble with Libs while flying a Scythe.

I always try to take Libs from the top so their guns can't get me (obviously a decent Lib pilot will be able to counter that), unless there's only one person in it, in which case there's not much the pilot can do but run. I've had a couple try the brake-and-pull-up trick, but i've managed to avoid them so far by flailing the mouse around and panicking.

Maybe the server you're on just has a high population of really good Lib pilots?

phungus · 2012-12-23, 08:31 AM

Originally Posted by ShadetheDruid

I've only been flying for about two days now, and it's possible that everyone i've fought so far has been terrible (considering i'm terrible at the minute as well, that's unlikely), but I haven't had much trouble with Libs while flying a Scythe.

90% of the time I engage a lib with my sythe it dies, since my sythe has rocket pods. It's a little less with my mosquito since A2A are worthless against libs and so more escape to airspace I wol't go into (I don't like losing my mosquito). I'm not talking about all the crappy pilots out there (the vast majority of people who fly in this game are terrible), I'm talking about lib pilots who are equally skilled to myself and better.

Nolerhn · 2012-12-23, 12:57 PM

Originally Posted by ShadetheDruid

I've only been flying for about two days now, and it's possible that everyone i've fought so far has been terrible (considering i'm terrible at the minute as well, that's unlikely), but I haven't had much trouble with Libs while flying a Scythe.

I always try to take Libs from the top so their guns can't get me (obviously a decent Lib pilot will be able to counter that), unless there's only one person in it, in which case there's not much the pilot can do but run. I've had a couple try the brake-and-pull-up trick, but i've managed to avoid them so far by flailing the mouse around and panicking.

Maybe the server you're on just has a high population of really good Lib pilots?

Heh, I've had the opposite problem. I decided to try flying a mossie for the sole purpose of being a tank buster (I equipped the banshee and hellfire rockets) to help TR push past tank columns. I paid careful attention to the battle lines so I wouldn't over extend myself, and with the rendering distance of vehicles I even tried to snipe tanks with my rockets while being at extreme distances, but I could never seem to stay alive for more than a minute or two once I got into a hostile area.

I'm sure it's my own skills, I never really flown in a game much so I don't have experience from previous games to carry over. I would like to get better at flying a mossie though, I don't want to do it for 'easy' kills that some people like flying for, but rather to help the team out by taking out armored targets.

phungus · 2012-12-23, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by ShadetheDruid

I'm sure it's my own skills, I never really flown in a game much so I don't have experience from previous games to carry over. I would like to get better though at flying a mossie though, I don't want to do it for 'easy' kills that some people like flying for, but rather to help the team out by taking out armored targets.

No time to start like the present. And you are correct, the ESF is very fragile, but very fun once you get used to it. You need to learn how to dogfight competently though before you can start trying to support your team with rocket pods. Right now you probably just look like tempting prey to enemy ESFs. It'll be hard, put I promise you most of the people out there are terrible, so you'll find plenty of enemy ESFs to tangle with that wol't just roflstomp you, and you'll eventually find yourself winning some of the fights.

Also you need to think of your mossie as being precious. It take damage, and it's not a seemingly inept pilot to practice fighting with, you flee. First thing I do before I start is put my personal waypoint on the Warp Gate, you must be able to turn tail and run as fast as possible and you need to flee in the right direction.

Hope that helps.

Nolerhn · 2012-12-23, 01:32 PM

Originally Posted by phungus

No time to start like the present. And you are correct, the ESF is very fragile, but very fun once you get used to it. You need to learn how to dogfight competently though before you can start trying to support your team with rocket pods. Right now you probably just look like tempting prey to enemy ESFs. It'll be hard, put I promise you most of the people out there are terrible, so you'll find plenty of enemy ESFs to tangle with that wol't just roflstomp you, and you'll eventually find yourself winning some of the fights.

Also you need to think of your mossie as being precious. It take damage, and it's not a seemingly inept pilot to practice fighting with, you flee. First thing I do before I start is put my personal waypoint on the Warp Gate, you must be able to turn tail and run as fast as possible and you need to flee in the right direction.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the tips. Especially about the putting my waypoint at the warpgate. I had been using it to identify the general area where some enemy tanks were, and when I did get attacked by enemy ESFs I would try to run because I had the banshee for my cannon. Problem was, turning tail that fast I personally got disoriented so easily and couldn't figure out where exactly my WG was.

I had thought about doing that, though what went through my head was that I wish I could have multiple waypoints, one where I knew there was tanks and one at the warpgate. It just didn't occur to me to simply put the one you can have at the WG lol.