How to have a fair chance dogfighting

I fly with a reaver, has maxed out afterburners and hover. Has flares. I'm really good with reverse thrust maneuvers and I have my aim dialed in with a joystick in my left hand and a mouse in my right for fine tuning. I've tried the maxed out vortex, maxed out stock nose gun. I use ascend and descend and afterburners, reverse thrust, hover fight or non-hover fight techniques...still, the scythe rolls up, hits me with less then a millisecond of fire, after I've unloaded an entire magazine on him point blank range and he's smoking (or sometimes receives no damage). Literally I feel/hear one or two bullet hits, DONE. What can I do from here on out to actually compete and have fun? I come to this game for fun because it interests me so much and I have put mucho time into it, but I'm missing something because I'm walking away furious and raging every time, not having released any stress or enjoyed myself, and going back to work unbelievably angry. Running out of stuff to break, hands are bloody. Any suggestions (beyond "oh stop playing the game if you get so mad," crap)?

Yes: 1- stop using a controller joysticks. That's for peasants, and there's multiple if not billions of reasons it's not as good.
2- Learn to do the maneuvers correctly.
3- Learn to aim (because you're not doing the right thing if your unloading a magazine and barely scratching)
4- Fly some more, and learn. It will come with experience, there's no real way to make it any shorter. (oh, and use the vortek rotary!)
5- Play on Emerald where the good pilots (and players) are.

Honestly, your biggest problem seem to be your aiming. You're not hitting your target. WATCH THE TRACERS. Good luck

Try coyotes.

This

Top lel, there are awesome pilots on every server emerald isnt anything outstanding.

We hold THE best pilot in the game (Airguitar) and the best air outfit in the game (Prey) and every other best pilot out there. No seriously, there's a reason why in equal fights, we're completely dominating air on ServerSmashes.

We are the powerhouse! Come give it a try

reaver.
joystick.

end of discussion

I have no interest in the air, its just the statement that picked my attention.
By the way, I still dont think there is really anything outstanding. Your server has rguitar, so what exactly? Cobalt has Matti, Woodman had Moushn and Sato. Briggs have Aw0rthyA, there are best pilots on every server. Dont even start me with ceres.
The number of air outfits and their quality, well, that might be a thing.
But honestly, saying that all of the above is the reason you dominate air in serversmashes is just silly. So far server smashes havent proved anything other than its laggy piece of crap. Also no server smashes were hosted in EU, therefore this argument isnt valid at all.


Saying that the emerald is the best server just means you havent played elsewhere thoroughly.
(Which is exactly the how many people decide something is OP, but have never used it outside of VR)

You cannot measure up to my biased mind-set. I will never change decision no matter what, because I have faith that my belief is true, therefore it must be true.

On the side, rguitar is a monster, worst than mattiace. I just went to look at the stats for the hell of it. Mattiace has 12 days played in a scythe on his br100 cobalt, and another 11 days in a reaver on miller NC.
rguitar has 65 days in his reaver (LIKE WTF? THIS IS MORE THAN I PLAYED OVERALL!)

Although they are both extremely good pilots, until you've seen the flying guitar camping your warpgate, you can't understand :/

Okkay, rrright. It doesnt really matter how long the person played what, but anyway I'l just show you how biased you are.
Rguitar - 64 days
Matti - 54 days combined
Sato - 60 days combined
Discostoff - 68 days
There are others with less gaping figures, but still, I believe there is same amount of skilled and experienced pilots on every server, its just you who make up the difference.
But no no no, everybody else is wrong! Emerald masterrace! We'r ze best
If I would certainly to choose which server is hardest for air game, it would be Cobalt, due to amount of air hate.



PS: In reality, every server is the same, except for outfit tags.

nooooooooooo Emerald iz bezt!
But yeah, you're looking only at his main account. I shiver only thinking of all rguitar's alts. Anyways, flying guitar wins, this is my belief, and i ask you to respect it because it is my constitutional right, obviously.

Emrald is bezt! We win Server Smash all time all day ery day

LOL

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA

I've been flying reaver for a decent amount of time and while i'm not a super ace, I feel like I'm above average. I've had -many- of the same struggles you have. After playing awhile I've come to the following conclusions about the reaver

1. For average and maybe above average players, you're at a disadvantage in a reaver. You just are. You're hitbox is bigger and while you have a higher bullet dmg, it's usually not enough to make up for your hitbox. It's an unfair fight, the deck is stacked against you. It's a bummer.
2. If you're a really good pilot, I think you can overcome the bigger hitbox by making sure you hit all your shots. I know it can be very difficult to do this when facing a scythe but I've done it a few times. You just have to have really good aim.
3. One semi advantage I think the reaver has is in surprise dive bombings. If you land most of your shots, and have a few upgraded magazine capacities, you can kill an enemy ESF in **1 magazine**... which is pretty awesome. To do this you fly around with rotary, stealth, extended after burners, and racer chassis. Fly around high and look for ESF's down low. Then, you just dive close and unload on them.

-Teneth

^not the guy above.

1- The reaver is AMAZING. 0 disadvantage. It's a freaking powerhouse of damage that's unequal'd
2- Nothing to overcome, it's amazing.
3- That build is the basic not-to-do. 1- Auto repair: Mandatory unless you're doing a2g, then it becomes debatable.
2- Racer chassis? no, except for a2g (where it once again becomes dabatable with the option to outrun lock-ons). You need hover stability. Every ESF can 1 clip, but yes, the vortek does that at an insane speed.

LOL hover frame on reaver...

Very valid point.

That's a safer way to fly a reaver and works better with its strengths. Hover/dodge fight is better suited for the other ESFs. I guess it's better to learn flying in a scythe or mossy and then attempt on dodge fight with a reaver. Also, NC is always outpopulated in air making it even harder to fly for beginners.

NC's vehicles are bulky and bad at maneuvering but powerful. It works with a tank but doesn't work with an ESF where mobility and hitbox are the key two aspects.

If you are annoyed with the reaver (and there is a long, long, long way for you to go before it stops being annoying) then change to a different faction (both VS and TR are good choices). If you don't want to change faction because of time/money invested than drop flying altogether and get yourself a heavy tank.

at a time everybody was thinking the red baron was the best pilot and even he was shot down by a average pilot

hmmm.... seems like OP is doing narrow sighted rush routines.

and flares on a nose gun duel?

Take 2:

Try racer rather than Hover. That works very well on a Reaver.

Max out fire surpression instead of flares because you get 25% more health in a fight. Also maxed out vehicle stealth is amazing. Sneaking up on clueless ground pounder or a2a- pilots is just a big advantage.