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1: NC

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[Rex_Nex]

this pumpkin alert thing makes me want to punch pillows shaped like ESF drivers, they absolutely ruin the experience on everything except hossin. there is no way to beat the amount of ground (and pumpkins) they cover, and unless you're running an AA harasser, they will destroy everyone on the ground who's looking for pumpkins without any repercussion. Its less like a pumpkin hunt and more like a timed game of how many pumpkins you can find in the few minutes it takes that BR25 scythe to nosegun your poor harasser down (and then find 20 himself)

with that said air pilots ruin everything that isnt a 48+ fight so i guess its not too surprising

[beorn080]

this pumpkin alert thing makes me want to punch pillows shaped like ESF drivers, they absolutely ruin the experience on everything except hossin. there is no way to beat the amount of ground (and pumpkins) they cover, and unless you're running an AA harasser, they will destroy everyone on the ground who's looking for pumpkins without any repercussion. Its less like a pumpkin hunt and more like a timed game of how many pumpkins you can find in the few minutes it takes that BR25 scythe to nosegun your poor harasser down (and then find 20 himself)

with that said air pilots ruin everything that isnt a 48+ fight so i guess its not too surprising

They don't, but only if you can convince a second random person to pick up a AA launcher and fire with you, instead of acting like a ninja with an infiltrator. IIRC, it only takes 2 shots to down an ESF, the problem is merely one of convincing people to stop using their light assaults and infils for a few moments to shoot down a skygod.

[Knight of Fools]

I highly, highly recommend using a flash with cloaking if you're going to be pumpkin hunting. The basilisk is powerful enough to scare them off, if not outright destroy them if you catch them repairing on the ground.

[TolyK]

Granted, the Fury kills grounded ESFs faster. 

[DJ]

Grab a burster MAX and enemy air will soon be avoiding the area. Then you just switch to AI or AV.

[Rex_Nex]

I ended up running a skyguard for the last 30 minutes of the alert. Didn't touch anyone who didn't fire first, but many a mossy picked a fight and died soon after realizing that might not be an AV lightning. Didnt end up dying, because the only thing around were other Harassers (who'd rather farm pumpkins than gamble on a lightning) and Flashes.

I think I'll run flash next time, yeah. I cant stand how weird the Harasser handles anyway, the thing loses traction every time it loses forward momentum. Low speed turns are more like low speed drifts, lol.

[beorn080]

Last night I was playing on Indar, and there were SO MANY cloaked flashes just running through the sunderer spawn point it was almost impossible to spawn at some of them. Enemy flashes, mind, not allied. People are really liking the new flash I guess.

[DJ]

Yeah, they're kinda annoying. Which makes me a hipster I guess

[Ozyton]

They don't, but only if you can convince a second random person to pick up a AA launcher and fire with you, instead of acting like a ninja with an infiltrator. IIRC, it only takes 2 shots to down an ESF, the problem is merely one of convincing people to stop using their light assaults and infils for a few moments to shoot down a skygod.

And then they have flares. Sure, they'll be gone for a bit, but with stealth + flares they can stick around long enough to do some damage then run away. Then god forbid there be more than one thing in the air or you're screwed.

Speaking of lockons, has anyone else been having trouble with the ground lockons? One would imagine they would fire up slightly then to the target (or be top-attack/direct attack selectable like the FGM-148 Javelin. There's already a button to switch between burst and auto on rifles so lockons should have a direct/top-down switch.) so that they wouldn't constantly be suiciding into the ground or a slight incline. Now the thing that confuses me is that there have been a few occasions where the missile will actually fire upwards slightly then to the target, avoiding hills, but I don't know how to make it do that every time I fire. Air lockons are still annoying, if the ESF is flying perpendicular close by then the missile will shoot 45 degrees to the left/right instead of out and then tracking it. While this is useful sometimes in that it makes it more likely to hit the target, it also make it more likely to hit, say, a friendly who is standing nearby. Yeah, I've actually teamkilled people by doing that...

[beorn080]

They don't, but only if you can convince a second random person to pick up a AA launcher and fire with you, instead of acting like a ninja with an infiltrator. IIRC, it only takes 2 shots to down an ESF, the problem is merely one of convincing people to stop using their light assaults and infils for a few moments to shoot down a skygod.

And then they have flares. Sure, they'll be gone for a bit, but with stealth + flares they can stick around long enough to do some damage then run away. Then god forbid there be more than one thing in the air or you're screwed.

This is why I am heavily considering the Lancer as my next major cert purchase. Hit scan means no flare worries, and at least I'd be able to chase em away.

[TolyK]

It's not actually hitscan, you still have to lead the target, but if you're good at that it's pretty easy.

[DJ]

Lock ons are just for scaring them away, bursters kill. Just last night I had a streak of like 3 libbies and a dozen mozzies with them. Somebody parked a sundie on the mountain above the Bastion, and me and like 3-4 other guys massacred air from it until the sundie despawned and I ran out of ammo.

[Rex_Nex]

Its silly how much better a Burster MAX's firepower is than the Skyguard's. The much, much better CoF and better velocity without the wonky aiming that all vehicles have is just so much better. Plus you barely need to leave spawn on most bases and can just swap back to AV or AI afterwords.

I used to think MAXs were shit, but then I just stopped using AI MAX (because lets be honest a single AI MAX without as much as an engineer friend is pretty much a waste of nanites) and have been swapping between defensive AV and multipurpose AA MAX and having a lot of success. It felt nice to clear out four Scythes that were camping one of the spawns, then swap to falcons and work together with a heavy to clear out another three maggies. And then lose the base anyway. But hey.

[DJ]

TBF, Skyguard is cheaper, and has a lot better mobility so you can quickly change ambush positions and catch the enemy air unaware.

[Rex_Nex]

True that, but I don't think it's cheap enough that it's really fair that the weapon is so much worse, especially considering the skyguard is stuck with an AA weapon the moment you pull it. The skyguard isnt bad, and yeah the mobility allows it to do stuff that a burstermax can't, but usually when you pull AA you do it to defend a certain hex or to protect an offensive zerg and thus mobility isn't exactly important. Sitting a burster above spawn or on a hill above the sundy will likely be enough to scare anyway any air that attempts anything. Plus skyguards tend to die a lot quicker, which means that 350 resource investment is usually more of a gamble than the 450 of an AA MAX.

I like the skyguard, but its firepower is just a bit on the weak side for how vulnerable it is. I don't like that, say, a single pilot lib (one of the vehicles the lightning is crippling itself to fight) can clip it out in just a few seconds. Dedicated A2G is ridiculous amounts more powerful than dedicated G2A, so being able to hide from that in a MAX (and not be entirely dedicated to AA) is really valuable.

But, yeah, you're right. Those still are advantages of the skyguard.