Flying not worth it

Reavers, mosquitos, and scythes just not worth it. Well, atleast the reaver since I have not much experience with the others.

The learning curve for flying is pretty decent, and since there is a resource requirement and a wait time, it can take a long time before you can fly decently.

When I finally got good at flying, I threw in a few certs for extra ammo, some zoom, hover stability, flares, and stealth.

I feel like a fool however, because it was completely not worth it. Atleast not my rockets. I feel like A2A combat is nice though. Trying to shoot anything on the ground is a death sentence though. I have to hit a few rockets directly on an infantry just to kill them. Ive fired on large groups, unloading all my rockets, and gotten plenty of hit marks but no kills.

I also have experienced this the other way. My favorite thing to do is play peek-a-boo with mosquitos, running around, in and out of a building while rockets are being shot at me. The lack of splash makes it rare for me to lose more than shields, If I actually see the plane.

Then we have the issue of damage to tanks. Unless you get a lone tank its going to be hard to get a kill. An AA turret on it, and you get no kill still.
The only vehicles I have a chance of hurting are lightnings.
Plus, as air I feel like I should be taking out targets that are safer. A sunderer parked behind a rock, or a tank in the back of the pack. Repairing is so ridiculously overpowered in this game though, so its kind of impossible to take out a sunderer on your own, or a tank on your own when theres others shooting at you. So what...im going to use my ability to fly, to shoot at the front lines? Like everything else?

I feel ESF's have no point at all. There is too much AA in the game to actually get anything done in a battle where you need to unload multiple clips into a vehicle to get a kill. Its a bit of nice harassment, but its usually harassment at the cost of your ESF...

Im just ranting because I wasted certs.

^ TL;DR version, since it wasn't explicitly pointed out.

I use a mosquito and just bought lolpods a while back
I dont expect to get my 1000certs back anytime soon
(i killed a few stuff in my mossie today so im getting there slowly)
Ground battle is much more certs
PS: JUNE WE ARE GETTING ESF UPDATE
YAAAY

For me, flying ESF is the only thing left that doesn't feel like a never ending meaningless grind that is infantry and tank combat. In ESF combat, there are a whole bunch of really good pilots, and until I can beat all of them in 1 on 1, this game isn't done. And the best pilots are very hard to beat.

So there's like a big challenge that I work toward, a goal, a reason to keep playing

You wasted certs I wasted money x3. Pods are still great for tanking out tanks they just require more hits.

Here is the issue, there are a lot of bad pilots that treat ESFs like they are flying tanks. Which was fine when PS2 first came out because very few people had enough certs to care about concentrating on AA.

Unless you are a very good pilot, ESFs are not to be used to attack well fortified bases with a lot of infantry and AA.

They are used to fight other aircraft, pick off small squads of vehicles moving alone, or softening up groups of infantry that contain little to no AA defense.

Perhaps you should find a wingman to fly with. Two or three ESFs working together can accomplish much more than a lone ESF, especially when attacking those damage absorbing targets you speak of. It won't solve all of your issues, but it will ease a lot of the difficulty you have in taking high value targets down.

The game is designed to encourage teamwork you know ...

Well, obviously. But the problem is AA is literally everywhere now.

Dicta Boelcke is all I can say. The war for Auraxis has progressed in much the same way as WW 1 in terms to air combat. No longer can lone fighters make a difference as during the Fokker scourge, it is now similar to the heyday of Jagdgeschwader 1: The Flying Circus.

I suggest finding a group and flying with them. I've found fighter wings to be stupidly effective compared to lone sky-knights.

I play AA a lot. You are correct, AA is everywhere, many people still remember AirSide-2. Giving your opponents a clear run in the air is a recipe for disaster, and now pilots are having a really tough time.

I remember a time when I was the only one daring to use AA, now a lot of people have it. Times have changed.

Have you ever heard of the LOLmax? SOE has been steering this game to the individual player for quite some time.

Since the Max unit is my third most played class, with either dual falcons/ravens or dual bursters I would say yes, I've heard of them. I would also say that killing an ESF with a single dual burster Max is almost impossible if the esf is paying attention. ESFs have enough time upon being shot at to turn around and jet away before a single dual burster Max can take it down. Taking into account it usually takes two dual burster maxes, or a dual burster with some lock on missile launchers to support it, along with the engineers to repair and supply ammo, and the medics to revive them, I'd say that maxes are one of the most teamplay oriented units in the game.

In fact, I would say the nerfing of rocketpods and ESFs in general would be encouraging teamplay, since rocketpods were the most powerful and maneuverable weapon any single lone wolf player could wield before them, AA, and tank armor got patched.

I disagree. The light PPA is beast against infantry especially maxes. I can easily get 6-10 killstreak before getting shot down. If that doesnt work use hit and run tactics. I dont mean stop and fire I mean line your shot up while still moving forward and kill infantry than circle back around for more kills. Tanks are another matter. My way of tackling them is to find the weak spot. Fly around into a position where I can get crits on him and go for it.

I have gotten shot down plenty of time just 2 min after spawning my scythe but that is expected sometimes. Could the MAX AA get nerfed a little? Probably but it isnt hopless if you fly smart and cautious.

Whether or not the max can actually kill an esf makes no difference at all. The esf does not kill the max. It is denied the battle because of the max. Its a constant game of cat and mouse as you well know.

The buff for the tanks should have never been. That was a huge mistake on SOE's part. And infantry paid the price. So what happend? MAX's now have the power to take armor out. The max once again steals the role of the esf now. With air and armor and infantry. Its complete BS


No max's are easy street. Everyone knows it. Sure if you are facing 3 or 4 esf by yourself then a engy and medic certainly help get the job done. But a lone esf has absolutely no chance. Two esf have no chance unless you have a complete idiot playing the max.

I have been a pilot of liberators since the day 1 of planetside 2. I can confirm in a 100% that the playerbase that used to fly is going downhill very fast. What i can say? i have found that the playerbase thinks that the only flying unit is the ESF not giving a single chance to the other gunships. I gave up already of what was left of this game after the buffs to the AA maxes, not worth trying. It's a total fallacy being hit at 1000 meters airbone by invisible maxes. And since everybody likes to play the zerg, then play the zerg. I'll just watch and play forumside.

No lone wolf ESF should have a chance against multiple infantry that are working together. In the game of cat and mouse you speak of, the cat can only chase one mouse at a time. The only ESF pilots that complain are the ones that refuse to adapt to the changes in the game, the lone wolves that refuse to co-operate with their peers in battle. Of course groups of burster maxes can deny single ESFs battle. They cannot however, deny an entire group of ESFs working together.

The buffs for tanks were well needed. But this thread isn't about tanks, only ESFs and AA, so I will skip the explanation. As well, Maxes always had the ability to take armor out. I've had plenty of use for my dual Falcons before the Ravens were released. Maxes can;t flank armor with the ease that ESFs can. In fact they are even worse at flanking armor than HAs. In addition to that, Maxes are much easier to kill than an ESF from a tank's perspective. I fail to see how ESFs' role has been stolen just because they are a little less effective at it than they used to be, especially when they are still the #1 tank predator even after the changes.

What is this, Groundhog Day?!

i was gonna suggest using the nosecannon ... but if you have trouble reliably killing people with the rocket pods its probably not gonna work out for you ..

Except you're wrong, utterly wrong. MAXs especially have been used to dominate with dual bursters, and no matter who you ask, 9 out of 10 will agree it's utterly ridiculous how highly accurate they are at hitting a target down to a quarter health in a few seconds 1000 meters away. Combined with the fact that they can be resupplied, revived and fixed entirely by infantry, hide within the always camped out spawn shields, easily spammed from a weapon console, and are small targets, then its no wonder why MAXs are overpowered, more-so with the upgrades both the VS and TR have now.

And that's just the MAX. Factor in the anti-air variants added to nearly every vehicle, the skyguard, lock on and wire guided rocket launchers, and flak cannons, air is increasingly losing any real chance save for extremely talented or lucky pilots. This is purely to blame from the sheer amount of nerfing and additions, and the blatant ignoring of the yells to stop nerfing. It didn't take a genius to see the problems these new items and changes would make, but it was done anyway.

Solely to make a quick buck off of it when the items were sold.