I'm still trying to figure this one out, myself. I don't fly ESFs, but even I understand the effective range of bursters was far too effective. This will simply put more emphasis on the Skyguard for longer range area denial, but at least the Skyguard renders from far enough away to be effectively shot at.
I am a rather dedicated AA user. I would contend that you perhaps don't have a very nuanced or complete picture of what most battle situations are like, either for AA or Air. Aircraft's biggest benefit and biggest drawback both come from the medium in which they operate: up in the sky. They have great mobility and speed, but also are the most exposed units in the game. That means for any given 1000 meters square (1000 meter on a side box), there might be 2 ESFs or a Liberator / Galaxy, most times. In that same area there could be dozens of AA MAXes, G2A launchers, and tanks able to aim up high enough to reach out and touch someone. You are almost guaranteed, as air, to be seen before you see your attacker. Most AA users either don't seem to pay attention to fighters at a distance, and don't seem to prioritize targets correctly. For instance I'll see 90% of AA shooting at a 1/12 Galaxy. However good users of burster MAXes decimated Air and made it largely infeasible to fly unless you had a lot of air, and even then it was largely a battle of attrition for the fighters who were going to lose, because all it would take is a few AA MAXes at a satellite base to tear apart an air zerg from an unknown direction. I've been killed a few times from rocketpods, but usually I had to be really overwhelmed or the pilot supremely good at sneaking up. And almost every time I died, my assailant died immediately thereafter because the number of rockets he had to hit me with made him have to stay around far too long. Is this nerf going to suck for AA MAXes? Of course. Will quality of life return to pilots and give the skyguard more of a reason to exist? That I think is the true question. Does your quarry have a fun time, too? If the answer is yes, then perhaps the change was for the best for you. And don't bother asking for refunds on your certs. It just makes you look silly. When they allow recerts to happen, maybe then you can reinvest in playstyles that suit you better or perhaps realize that the line between complete noob and god-like player is often just a tiny bit of knowledge, and that knowledge is obtained by being more perceptive and honest with yourself.
Thats funny, because that is exactly what I saw ESFs doing today: Strafing infantry while largely ignoring Bursters. So a ESF is a very versatile craft, it can be repaired by its pilot, it can go head to head with an AA MAX and it is now cheaper than the MAX a 250 resources. The AA MAX on the other hand is only useful against AIR, is more expensive than an ESF, requires Engineers support, and is apparently left out of the whole rock-paper-scissors game since it doesn't trumps anything. I get why they had to adjust it, but as usual SOE ends up overdoing things. The reduction in effective range should have been balanced by a increase in damage or ROF. That would have made it a viable defence against strafing, while allowing pilots to have fun in the air.
A Scythe, Mosq or Reaver upgraded with 1000cert weapons will kill a group of infantry well before a "guarding" AA-Max kills it ... Congratulations, you just completely removed the use of the AA-Max because they can't do their job correctly.... namely protection against airunits. Get 2 Max's ?... Well then get 2 Airunits with 1000certs upgraded weapons, lets see how long the 2 Max's lasts then...
MAXes still work fine.... FFS you just can't kill ESF's far enough away that they can't affect you or infantry around you.... so you can't as effectively kill them now. GOOD. Skyguard fills that role FAR more appropriately
It takes more than one barrage of pods to kill a MAX if all of them hit if I recall correctly... and if you have an engi and actually move around, you'll never lose unless you're hopelessly outnumbered. ALso, to unload the pods takes about what, 3 seconds? Add to that the time it takes to aim (1 second or so) and the time it takes to get away (a lot more), you have more than enough time for your 5 second ttk on an aircraft with extended mags. You should really never die to pods in a burster MAX.
The Skyguard doesnt fill this role at all, because it is far to inaccurate. ESFs are effectively having a much easier time getting closer, unloading their rocketpods and then flying away. As there is less on the ground to actually punish them. And to this day i still do not understand that a vehicle as omni-purpose as the ESF should be so hard to take down. A dedicated AA (meaning, useless for anything else) cannot bring down an ESF before it does its bombing run, and manages to outrange the Bursters to land safely for some repair. Rince and repeat. Why is it that the game balance dictates that several dedicated AA are to focusfire the same ESF to bring it down at all, let alone before it does damage. And now, to boot, these dedicated AA are each more expensive then a single ESF aswell. It would make sense that highly specialized units with a high cost are good at their job. But as it stands, its the cheaper vehicle that can effectively engage everything thats having the last laugh. And i still cannot understand why pilots think its entirely reasonable to expect their unit to move into the midst of the enemy force, do damage and get out alive and intact.
Except MAXes are NEVER locked into their specialization... go to terminal, swap to AV or AI depending on needs, profit. MAXes are extremely versatile, tough, and can even be revived. They specialize in 1 thing at a time, but any terminal opens up full potential. And skyguards are plenty strong enough now, I just ran one last night. Finally. After months of sitting on the shelf because Burster was superior in every way except for individual mobility (but of course Sundy/Harasser and driver buddy solved that problem)
There is a substantial difference here. Aircraft are generally visible if flying above 30 meters. Infantry, while not as quick, is also more agile, has better ability to use cover, and is much less costly (unless it is a MAX). Also, in all fairness, with the hitpoint buff from the armor upgrade almost all infantry seem to have at high levels, a headshot rarely seems to kill anymore, and no sniper can put out the sustained rates of fire that a burster can do. On top of that, rarely will you have two snipers firing at the same infantry unless they are a coordinated pair. The likelihood that more than one burster are firing at the same aircraft is very very high.
This seems either extreme, hyperbolized, or your experiences are vastly different than mine. Maybe the bursters aren't in the right place now, I don't know. I haven't had a chance to use them since GU11. What I *DO* know is this: One time I saw an NC air mass over one of our VS biolabs. They were dominating the area so the aircraft were just floating around, picking off anything that stuck their nose out. Occasionally some TR would come around to dogfight, but that was it. I tried to do some AA to break out from AT the biolab, but it was pretty useless. Too many infantry + aircraft made me have no chance. So I spawned at a nearby satellite with a dual burster ZOE MAX. I got up on top of the roof of the spawn room like a big disco light of doom and started to clear the skies. It went from like 10 fighters, 3 liberators, and a galaxy to completely clear skies in the course of 10 minutes. I didn't kill them all, but I killed about 5 of the fighters and at least 1 liberator. The rest fled the area because they couldn't figure out where the shots were coming from, because no one really thought that they would be pegged from some 400 meters + away at a satellite no one cared about. A few fighters even flew directly over me and I shot them down before they could respond. A good burster MAX player was absolutely lethal to average skilled aircraft for a nearly 1000 meter bubble in all directions. That was just one MAX. A couple could wreck air. A small squad could make it impossible to fly with all but the best of pilots and great tactics.
I haven't tried it in GU11 yet (not a lot of time to play and when I have, I've been ground pounding), but I doubt they were just ignoring them. And if they were, maybe it was the AA that just wasn't very good? Like the Saron HRB gunners I've seen recently that didn't realize that the more you fire the worst the COF gets. Take a few shots and you get better results. Something I wish that the Skyguard did so I could take long range sniper shots at infantry, tanks, and aircraft. From what I read, you can do some short bursts and get pretty good accuracy at range.
Being versatile as a MAX means two things a) Investing a lot of certs into other specialisations and b) having a terminal nearby where switching to a diffirent specialisation is possible. In the meantime the ESF has a load out of one-size-fits-all. Doesnt need to specialize at all, and carries the weapons on-board to attack and effectively kill, everything. So if a MAX is what you call versatile, then i think we need to come up with a new superseding word for the ESFs. And please dont involve stuff like being able to get revived. Because for every upside there are several drawbacks. For instance, my MAX can get run over and instantly killed by *any* vehicle, just like an infantry. Also, my MAX is stuck in his suit. So where another driver/pilot can exit his vehicle and repair it himself, I need the help of others to do such a thing. And i cannot return the favor in any way.
I just had a duel with a Scythe, and before i had emptied 4 mags into him (reloading both my Busters) he had done 2 driveby's with pods and nuked me to death... even when i dodged his first attack somewhat... THIS **** NEEDS TO BE FIXED... you ruined the AA-MAX. A enemy fighter is NOT suppose to be able to run toe-to-toe with a DEDICATED ANTI-AIR PLATFORM AND KILL IT !.
I killed x6 ESFs with Bursters today. All were <BR25, all were hovering at short range, all were complete terribads. Experienced pilots have absolutely nothing to fear unless Burster MAXes assemble in colossal numbers, which given how unrewarding and expensive they now are isn't likely to happen often at all.
What this did for burster MAXs was essentially made it so they can't sit at a tower and supress air at the NEXT facility. Now you just miss most your shots and it's pointless to shoot at air hundreds of meters away. Still very effective at those guys strafing and hovering around a facility. YOu can land a bunch of rounds even under sustained fire. You c an still get a kill. I'm OK with the changes and I use my AA MAX fairly often.
There are too many personal anecdotes (with bad storytelling) in this thread. I will express discouragement that Bursters have placed on par with luck-based weaponry beyond a certain point, for whatever excellence that occurs beyond that limitation one can not longer laud as one's own efforts, but let us let the dust settle and sort out the numbers later rather than egotistically casting ourselves as either the prodigical warrior or the fool.
Reverse the nerf of the Bursters !!. I've had several times where Mosquitoes or Scythe's running bombruns with pods just killing my Max outright while my 2Bursters does little else but tickle them... they nuke a MAX and go on back for repairs. A Reaver / Mosq / Scythe is NOT suppose to be able to go 1v1 against an ANTI-AIR Dual burster MAX and live to tell about it unless they are FAR AWAY.. Any of those 3 mentioned aircrafts should be DISMANTLED by a Dual burster Max in optimal range !!. As it is now... a DUAL BURSTER max can't even kill any of them WITHOUT A RELOAD or hitting every shot. And good luck with that considering the accuracy-nerf.
