Welp.. Skyguards are useless now...

Honestly though, they were pretty pathetic before the recent buffs to the Liberators.. but now it seems like their even more so.

Takes 2-4 full clips to bring down 1 Liberator now.. 4 full clips if they pop their auto-repair ability. Yet i can still have one fly threw my AA fire, shoot at me with his nose gun WHILE soaking up ALL 70 rounds from the first clip, then fly over me and finish off what little hp i have with his tail-gun/bomber gun.. while im trying to reload the 2rd clip.

Skyguards cant even scare off Libs anymore unless you shoot at them at Maximum range and the pilot gets spooked cause he cant zero in were your at. But if their anywere within Q range of you?.. nope. They just soak up all your shots, turn, fly THREW even more of your shots.. then simply obliterate you.

Love the contant buffs to vehicles without also buffing the weapon designed to counter them...

Soooooo, the single person g2a unit loses to the three person a2g unit and you think that's wrong? Yes you are an air counter in a skyguard, guess what? They are a ground vehicle counter, manned my more players.

What do all those libs have in common? There's at least two people working together there. Go grab a skyguard buddy and melt aircraft.

If a single skyguard was capable of deterring a single liberator in 90% of cases, then two would be enough to lock down a decent section of airspace. Three would make it a very solid no fly zone for any density of aircraft below a full on (24-48).

Since AA scales extremely well, a single AA unit should not be sufficient to kill a single aircraft unless they are playing poorly. The game has already seen this and the developers nerfed AA to about the state it is now.


recent buffs that have affected lib survivability against AA:
-Composite armor: how many libs actually use this?

So in other words, nothing has changed in terms of flak damage vs. libs

Tailgun angle? If you're getting nailed with bulldogs... I'm, just not going to finish this...

Libs were buffed don't lie and i did not really fly them before bur my mate came to the game more recently so i let him dalton farm to boost him.

I have composite armour and i personally think its better than regen now.
We never had trouble with singular esfs which is where regen would shine, other libs on the other hand were a threat and composite helps you here.

We were both noobs to libs but we destroyed 3 skyguards 1v1 in our 40 min session.
Being an esf pilot i found the damage they did to me amusing.
It felt good to get revenge as skyguards have ruined many of my good a2a fights but at the same time it was clearly unbalanced.
I see more libs than esf these days.. Maybe skyguard should be warry of a lib but then libs only fear other libs.
If esf feared the ground limited to hit and run a2g and libs fear esf, ground fear libs.

Rock paper scissors.
More or less.
Screw resource cost and vehicle seats.
It does not entitle you to anything over the other.
Libs have it better off with resources infact, my buddies rotate who spawns dampening resource cost and removing respawn timer penalty.
So dont cry here about more seats or 100 more resources cost, you have it easy libs.

A lib really needs 2 people to be effective, get 2 skyguards together and see how easy it is to take down a lib. This is a team game, work in a unit of 4-6 skyguards focus fire you'll need a whole platoon of air to take you out.

So you're complaining that you can't 1v2 or 1v3 someone and win? And in a skyguard of all things, a weapon that requires a fraction of the skill that's required to successfully operate a lib.

I swear, I don't get this whole "but I pointed at them and pressed mouse 1, why didn't win?" attitude.

So what you're saying is that 3 people in Skyguards will easily kill 3 people in a Liberator?

That... is pretty balanced.

I rarely pull my skygaurd anymore. Stopped pulling it after the Fire suppression buff. ESFs get away most of the time, and now libs just sit around and laugh at you. Skygaurds need another buff..You are almost better off just grabbing a tank and parking it on a hill to shoot at libs, oh wait...Libs are rather ridiculous at the moment.

What I hate is that a lib gets to be effective against everything in the game with one loadout while pulling my Skyguard means I'm free certs to just about everything on the ground even infantry thanks to the cof.

I don't see what is so hard about: tank shells, unload tank buster (wish the skyguard only cost 100 certs), and NAR behind a cliff for a bit. Libs have every advantage over a dedicated AA vehicle. Speed, TTK, and being able to fly and not have to deal with PS2 driving physics.



I spent the better part of an hour yesterday trying to determine if the leaves blowing in the wind actually originated from the bushes in northern Indar while protecting my squad's sundy as I knew if I got out of the vehicle a Lib would be by to ruin our smaller skirmish over the territory.

From what I've seen is 3 people in Skyguards will slightly annoy the Lib, which will then break off to repair and then start making passes taking out all 3 Skyguards unless the fight is in part of the map devoid of cliffs to hide their approach.

AA is supposed to be a deterrent according to someone who has little idea of how to balance anything in this game. So yeah I stopped pulling mine after spending an hour on one with other two people on theirs and watching libs farm the crap out of bases,leave and auto repair just to come back within 2-3mins and repeat the process. But I guess I was deterring them from farming even more. It was super fun to spend half an hour doing literally nothing and gaining no kills and an insulting amount of XP but I'm sure somewhere some guy was pissed that his daily 50/0 KD was reduced to 40/0...that'll show them!
And don't get me started on the G2A launchers...You can't deter someone if they are not afraid that you'll kill them.

'
You can downplay it all you want, but flying a lib takes more skill than parking a tank and pointing at the air.

1 v 3 and you expect to win? Pull some more sky guards

Well I'm sorry to say this, but that is just bad. I can work with two skyguards and easily kill all but the best Liberator crews. I doubt you are working together, focus firing a single target down. Fire at the same time and you win.

1 Skyguard is very annoying for a Lib, if it is covered by other forces. 2 Skyguards are very serious threat and can actually kill a Lib. Just as well, keep in mind that there are always some lock ons, HMGs and/or AA MAXes present

When people are "parking the tank" and pointing it at the air it is no wonder they die to a lib.

It's a 2vs1 or even 3vs1, is balanced.
So what, a galaxy with 5 guys should kill a lib? A 3/3 Sunderer should destroy a 1/2 AP tank? Then what happes when a single ESF (Tomcats ahoy) takes down a Lib? Is unbalanced?
If a vehicle that is only good at fighting air is destroyed by air, but damage can't be buffed, then give the lighting the option of a powerful top armor at the very least. And as has been suggested many times, buff the damage at close range.

It always took at least one reload to kill a liberator, nothing really changed. If you've ever flown in a lib you'd see how dangerous a skyguard is to the liberator. The skyguard is the greatest threat to a liberator in the game, yet, one-on-one a liberator can beat a skyguard, and they always have.
OP, you gotta drop the myth that the skyguard is an easy weapon that requires no skill. You can't just aim up and win. This is not a problem, this is a good thing. There are many effective strategies lightnings can use to beat libs, and the challenge is part of the appeal of the skyguard. Remember that you may have an AA weapon, but your still just one player trying to take on at least 2-3 players.
Stealth- Gives you the element of surprise quite often, can be used to maneuver to obscure areas and take down wounded libs.
Cover- Lightnings can use vertical cover to prevent libs from inflicting lethal damage, and grant them breathing room. With proper cover a lone lightning can prevent air from countering them.
Strafing- Most lightnings stay still, and make the liberators job easier. Your life expectancy goes up dramatically if you move while you shoot. It isn't easy for a gunner to hit a mobile skyguard while the lib is maneuvering and taking a pounding. Skyguard rounds deal damage even if they aren't direct hits.
Teamwork- Flyboys typically aren't soloists. Even a lone lib normally has other players in their crew. If 2 lightnings or more team up they can effectively pick everything out of the sky, and prevent the flyboys from teaming up against them.
Skill/certs- Why is it that its acceptable for a br100 to beat you on the ground, but when hes in the air its suddenly unfair? He has many hours of experience over you, and better upgrades. Skill matters. Things that may work against an average player wont against Mr. Infamous BR100 liberator pilot. You may need to bring in more firepower then normal to take these players down. Don't fret. They'd whoop your but on the ground just as easily.

Yes to all of those. And I don't think an ESF taking out a lib is balanced.

Are we really going to tackle all of the game's balance issues in this thread? How about we just talk about a Lib vs a Skyguard?

So every 12-24 fight needs at least 3 dedicated AA vehicles which will lose out to just about every single other vehicle on the ground and is quite weak against infantry thanks to the cof and no secondary ai option. I'll give you 3 Skyguards can work, but the map has to be flat enough for that Lib to have no chance to gain cover (North Indar and Esamir Ice Lakes). Any cliffs nearby instantly put the fight in favor of the Lib's ability to close the distance which is game over. One other thing I find odd is how the Lib has almost no engine noise to warn of it's presence nearby. ESFs and Gals are very easy to determine general distance and direction when no line of sight is possible, but with Libs it's just silence until the tank buster opens up.

Might want to take your own advice. It's not like the Skyguard has to watch out for every class except infiltrators in case of insta kill c4, other lightnings / MBTs, Battle Sundies, AV Mana Turrets, and to a lesser extent now harassers. Granted these all can be threats to the Lib as well, but it's not like it's hard to disengage from ground targets. Seems to me that the only things Libs really have to fear is other Libs / great ESF pilots.

Yeah, we can throw all kinds of variables and what-ifs out there. That's why I'm talking specifically about a 1v1(or 1v2 or 1v3, depending on the lib crew) scenario. I'm definitely not interested in who can come up with the best hypothetical situation.