Would you ever cert tomcat A2A Pods?

careful the forum warriors will hear you an demand virgin sacrifices in hopes of getting it nerfed.... Those .....players shall we call them, would demand a blade of grass be nerfed if they found a reason, or could make one up.

Lock-on speed.

As a weapon they are sub-par but as a tool they are very useful. Because there is no way to tell what’s locking you, most pilots will immediately hit the deck when you get a lock – and that really makes them easy to shoot down or force into the ground with your other weapon. If you do hit it’ll give you an early advantage, which can sometimes make up for a skill or cert gap elsewhere. Alternatively, it’s just great for frightening Libs away even if it’s pretty slow at killing them.

Plus it really pissed the leet pilots off, and I love doing that. Seriously. F’ you guys. All’s fair in love and war (plus, the pilots who are actually good can evade the lock easily anyway).

Lockon speed is the best cert for A2A, but I wouldn't recommend running them unless you're in a pack of ESFs. Not because they're shameful or whatever, but because they aren't effective.

If you engage a better pilot one on one, he'll flare your missile, turn around and kill you. You won't get a second lock off in a dogfight, and if you're good enough to do that you're good enough to perform better with the Rotary.

They work OK for lobbing after people in air zergs, but honestly just wait for the ESF update coming... within the next month? Some real A2A weapons for dogfighting were promised. Missiles will reign supreme against Gals and Libs (which they already sort of do, the TTK of rotary + A2Am on a Lib is like ~4 seconds).

Luckily we don't have that kind of unlock system... a2a missiles and noseguns are different weapons with different usage that cater to different fighting styles and roles on the battlefield. It's like: until you kill 10 MAXes with the default launcher you can't unlock the g2g launcher. what.
You sacrifice the extra mobility of fuel pods or the a2g capability of lolpods for better damage against libs and gals and a nice finisher against wounded esfs. Missiles alone won't win any dogfight against a competent pilot, because by the time you get 3 lock ons he would've killed you 4 times with his rotary, that's probably why stopping using those helped your dogfighting.

Most of the hate and crutch-accusations come from the past where a2a missiles had a lock-on cone so big that you just had to look in the general direction of the enemy to lock onto him and had faster lock-on times. Now just bank to the side and afterburn away, they will mostly lose the lock and have to start again, against a rotary you'd be already dead or on flames.


Also, higby said somewhere (don't quote me on this) that the actual a2a missiles will be made less maneuverable and probably harder-hitting to confirm their anti-lib and anti-gal roles while making their anti-esf capability more limited. And they will add new types of skill-based weapons for anti-esf.

I'm just saying i think A2A's seem quite powerful at first, but i think that many pilots hit a skill-wall when they come up against someone who is practiced with the nose-cannon.

If you don't learn to aim with the nose gun first, you will have a much harder time increasing your skill as a pilot in PS2.

That's all i'm saying...

I'm not saying we need some sort of artificial leveling frame-work. I do however i think that it would help new pilots to get better, the same way that single player RTS campaigns introduce you to all the new units slowly, throughout the campaign. I'm definitely not saying that A2A's are an upgrade.

This is exactly what i said in my post, btw.

He's right. If you can't break a blockade of enemy ESFs, tanks, Libs, enemy infantry, MAX units and anti-air all hovering around a spawnroom and instagibbing anything that dares to set a toe outside of the spawn-shield, by dive-bombing and going in guns blazing then you shouldn't be flying an ESF at all.

That said, A2AMs are a support weapon, good for when there's a lot of enemy air and you have backup, also good for taking down panicked fleeing pilots on their last leg before they jump out of their ESF and logout before they hit the ground.

I come from a time, where lockon missiles were cool

I started with a2a. But they aren't worth it by any means. Easy to shake off, or lose. A single level of flares is enough to avoid most.

They only really help in forcing an opponent to flee so you can stay behind them. Or for thejinking like a maniac pilots who you can't hit. Then again you wont hold a lock close up. The rotaries have a faster ttk.

The only kills I find I get with a2a are when I can drop a missile and a clip of the rotary into someone st thr same time.
Is pointless dogfighting as well with all the flak you have to run from. Or you can lead too.

Any kill with missiles is easily avoided by planting your noise into the ground.
So is lolpods for me

That's what libs and gals need, more esf spam that can equal the g2a spam. A perfect crap sandwich.

lol there's a little bit of difference between a real world plane doing 8-900 miles an hour, an a esf doing 280kph. Not to mention the tomcat uses phoenix among other things.... Can you imagine the screaming on forums if SOE gave us missiles that could blow you away at 80miles range .. the maps would nee dot be made bout 10x the size .

A d*** you need to compensate for by grinderMaxing all day long?

@Topic Haven't put many Certs into my ESF yet, but after playing around in the VR for a while, lock-on timer seemed like the better choice. But I guess it comes down to real combat situations to be able to tell.
And yeah, better wait for the ESF update.

hes right tho .. most of the top level pilots use their nose guns almost exclusively ..

Good pilots don't care if you use A2A and probably prefer you use it. It's got a counter measure, it's got a warning, and they can use those limitations against you. Those crying about it think that flying under a bridge makes them an ace.

no ...

Nah, I like my self-respect.

You're calling me wrong for saying A2A pods aren't vital for dogfighting for most pilots, just because A2A pods are the only way a Scythe PPA can dogfight with them (even though I've seen the best pilots use the PPA for dogfighting for lols, and win without A2AM)?

A Scythe, using a CAS setup, reliant on A2A missiles to dogfight? No ******* ****.

However, for the majority of pilots who'd stick with the other two primaries, A2A most certainly aren't a vital secondary.

You can fly under bridges and trees all you want, using the easiest aircraft to do it in, but if you think A2A fighting doesn't impact the ground war then you're as thick as a Reaver.


Hell, you're using a Scythe CAS setup as an example in a thread about Tomcat A2A pods, which are Reaver/Mosquito only, in a thread made by an NC, thus likely for advice on a Reaver setup. If he was running CAS then he'd either be running an AH (which would probably be a bad choice due to its ****** range and AI work), or he'd be running the other primaries (which are fine for dogfighting). And if he was running AH, A2AM might be a nice compliment to its lack of A2A range, but it'd benefit more in its CAS role if it was running pods or even AB, to allow it to maximise use of the AH.

Uh... I play LA nearly 80% of the time on all three of my characters.

I've tried to use them and I think they are pretty damn overrated. Kinda crappy weapon to depend on if you ask me, maybe not if somebody is running from you.

I have been killed by them recently in my Lib and that kinda sux cause they can just sit back at range and hit you. Its more than rare though.

I.. never!

Dont even have it unlocked but im fighting the urge to get aurax on it...

during the cert grant thing, I fully certed up my TR's skeeter.

full rocketpod certs, full rotary certs, full a2a certs, full airframe, flares, etc

and I NEVER use the a2a pods. dunno why I did it. I could have sunk those certs into my prowler instead

also you should all be glad ESF a2a isn't as broken as starfire/sparrow/wasp spam in ps1