Burster Max vs. ESF

For me anti air is too powerful. It's very hard to kill anything with an ESF and getting xp from repairing my plane is not my idea of a fun time. Maybe if they fix the total loss of framerate in an airplane that would help.

I spent 200 certs on thermal imaging for my rockets. Problem is, i can never hope to get close enough to something to use it since the range is about 100 meters.

Good burster MAXes let their targets get close and hover before they open up, and even then many pilots can get away (as they should). Two burster MAXes doing this will gib any ESF that gets close, hovering or no. But more often the case is that they're not working together and at least one opens up as soon as the ESF is in render range.

If people played bursters well, they might be overpowered. As it is air--ground balance feels fine.

If you're getting shredded by flak with composite 3, you're doing something wrong. Try pylon turning (circle strafing) rather than hovering in place if that's what you're doing -- because the latter is just asking to eat rockets and tank shells anyway. And if you're in some kind of vthrust maneuver and start taking fire you can simply hit shift and whirl your way out of there, level your engines and "gee tee eff oh" (thanks censoring). But watch out for trees .

ESFs are squishy and not that small. Their main defense is their speed!

Nanite auto repair is worth looking into. Reduction in lock time or flak damage are nice, but I've found it much nicer not to spend all my playtime herping around on an air pad when I want to fly.

I would expect to be able to get away with some of my health left. Right now Air-to-ground is useless because AA is too powerful. Before they buffed AA, air-to-ground was unstoppable.....Can we find a happy medium instead of one completely crushing the other?

My burster MAX has extended mags in both arms and I lead moving targets very well, yet most good ESF pilots can get away or behind terrain in time if it's just me shooting and they really want to live. Fly in a straight line or hover and die. It's balanced.

Learn, adapt, sneak up on me and try to roflpod me...

It takes 7 seconds for a dual Burster to kill an ESF. Seven seconds of sustained damage if every round hits.

Some people really should consider playing something else because this game isn't for them.

I dread to think how some of you would have coped with Quake and UT.

Dual bursters are tuned to put the hurt on max rank composite armor. Any ESF with less than max rank comp. armor encountering a burster should be an immediate bugout.

Do a recon pass on the margin of the area you want to operate in and troll for bursters. they are less effective and more easily avoided at range. Any derp-bursters will open up at max rendering distance and broadcast their presence.

At the point you encounter a burster you need to make them your new focus. bug-out repair and then approach cautiously so you can get a fix on their approximate location. Always remember that you're advantage as an ESF is that you can repair yourself. A Burster relies on a teammate. whittle them down or force them back into their spawn to get farmed by prowlers

Once you have them located bug out rep-up and approach out of sight from a different angle unload a pod salvo rinse and repeat. If the burster has engineer support prioritize them first since they are squishy and easy points.

remember when farming infantry never use the same approach more than twice back to back. Alternate your angles of attack.

when permitted loiter safely out of sight but close enough to hear and see a burster engaging another air target. pop up out of cover and pound glorious rockets of retribution into their unwitting slack jawed face.

EDIT:

Last but not least , if there is a nest of burster max's at a base just avoid it. It ain't worth getting your plane shot down and don't give the bursters anything to shoot at.

It's a super boring time to be sitting in a burster max under an empty sky meanwhile just hit your afterburner and fly to the next exciting lucrative infantry cert farm on the horizon.

I would like to know what I'm doing wrong. This is basically a situation. Reagent Rock Garrison - I'm flying in from the southeast, I see a tank on the slope firing on the tower, so I want to shoot it from behind, flyover come back from under the bridge and line up the target with my sights, start hovering for the release of 16 rockets and I start getting blasted like 3 rockets into my volley. Immediately, as fast as I can react,I try to fly away. Even with flak armor 3 and level 2 racer frame, I'm not able to get away with afterburners. The death screen shows a max with two bursters each with 40-50% damage in about 2-3 seconds. This happened just the other day.

umm, no it doesn't because it doesn't take 7 seconds to get away from an AA max

ESF vs AA maxes ir pretty much balanced atm. That said, I wouldn't mind if ESF were made less susceptible to G2A at the cost of reducing their A2G capabilities, making them focus more one A2A and leaving the majority of the A2G for the liberator.
As is stands, anything that isn't covered by friendly AA can easily and quickly be taken out by a esf due to their insane mobility and great firepower. I feel it forces the game a bit too much into the extremes where AA is absolutely necessary but the range of AA is pretty insane, to make up for the mobility of aircraft.

No I did, and the fact of the mater is any stock ESF can get to safety faster than a single duel burster can kill it. That you do not is on you, not the bursters, or the armor, or whatnot.

yea
its called survival.
I take out tanks in one pass without hovering.
Fly to their rear and unload.
As for infantry, think WW2 planes. They strafe targets.
It will keep you alive.
It will also make some kills harder.
But to nerf flak so one can hover..... no way.

I think the real issue here is how easy it is to acquire and replace AA. I would think that in a real military situation if you disable the enemies AA they're not going to get replacements for a while, at least not during that particular battle. This rarely happens in Planetside, if it does it's in the smaller scale skirmishes. Planetside has... nanites, which I imagine to be like one of those 800 number TV ads. Bad day defending your base? Aircraft keeping you down? Use nanites to instantly generate the Anti Aircraft machines you need NOW! It's just too easy to replace losses on the field.

Of course this isn't just an AA problem, this a general issue with every vehicle in the game. This game doesn't reward tactically defeating your enemies because the enemy can recover so quickly. It's about which side can throw the most crap at the other and overwhelm them. It's the reason why mindless zerg is so effective.

No they can't. Even enemy ESFs get instantly shot down when they attack our bases. It's not just me.

it already takes more nearly direct hits with rocket pods to kill an Infantry than it takes to kill a tank.

Pods have gotten nerfed so much its actually SAFER to be outside a tank than inside of it.

ESF's are there to make you pull anti-air , consume resources, and make you look skyward as you get run over by an MBT

Probably just need to work a bit on getting your cross-hairs and rockets on target faster in flight. If you're doing it right, you don't need to "start hovering." I'm a terrible pilot but all the good ones I see are always on the move.

OKAY, you all still don't get what I am saying...
I'M NOT SAYING NERF AA DAMAGE SO I CAN HOVER I AM SAYING IF I DO HOVER, I WANT TO ABLE TO ESCAPE BEFORE DEATH. If not, and I should just strafe in the hopes of getting lucky and being effective, then revert the changes made to rocket pods.

simply hovering, should not be a death sentence, they could increase the acceleration from hover mode and I'd be happy.

If you looked up 'instantly' in the dictionary, it's unlikely to suggest that it means 7 seconds.

If they're getting instantly shot down, it's by using co-operative teamwork. What you seem to be asking for is a teamwork nerf.

No. You don't get to call for a nerf to others so you can have an easier time. It's war freaking war man.

*edit* ok ok I'm mean. I know what you are saying. But seriously... practice more in the VR first, huh?

If you are hovering in an ESF with active AA close by, you sir deserve to be shot out of the sky.

This I could work on. It may be viable if I could see that far out. Even with render distance turn all the way it would be difficult.