ESF update is this month...

of course the reaver is, it belongs to the NC we are meant to be the best.

Um no, the Scythe has more kills with all weapons, across the board. That's what I was pointing out to the previous poster that said the Scythe was the worst ESF of the three and only good for ramming. http://ps2-stats.com/weapon/vehicle/

I don't know why anybody is arguing over ESFs. They're all viable in their own way and preform close enough to one another. ESF update should make piloting more rewarding for everybody.

Maybe not awful roll rate, but awful roll acceleration. People have done tests and posted them on the forums. The Reaver accelerates into a turn slower than the other 2 ESFs. It will take longer to inititiate a turn in the Reaver. This is a fact.

I'm so sorry to do this to you because you seem like a decent guy but I can't believe you're quoting hard stats to support the idea that the Scythe is not the worst aircraft. It is, those stats don't reflect A2A kills or fights. Those same stats indicate that the Vanguard is by far the weakest tank and the Prowler is almost twice as effective. We all know this isn't true and that the Vanguard is in fact the only viable MBT right now.

I've no doubt that Scythe pilots get more kills than Reaver pilots, because most Scythe pilots lol pod (myself included) and in dogfights they are so outmatched its not even funny.

The dogfighting is won on reverse power thrust, which is won on vertical thrust and breaking power as well as short burst DPS at close range, all of which the Reaver tops. Every single decent Reaver pilot on Miller will admit that the Scythe is incredibly easy to beat. Not only because of the bullet velocity difference, DPS, RPT being slower in a Scythe but also due to the hitbox.

The Scythe is a flying disc so get above or below it (exactly what the RPT does) or catch it trying to out turn you and you have a hitbox double the size of a Mossie. Then add in the spread on Reaver and Mossie nose guns compared to the Scythe and NC and TR pilots don't need to worry about accuracy because the spread actually works for them. This fact is supported by the new A2A guns which have SPREAD. A pin point accurate nose gun for A2A is good at long range sniping of stationary targets but no good for dogfighting.

Sorry but the Scythe has so many faults for dogfighting its a wonder I still fly it and so many others.

You forgot to point out that the Mossy is better at dog fights as well because it's faster and it turns just as hard as a Scythe but with half the hitbox.

If you get on the tail of a decent Reaver pilot, they will just break and do a reverse maneuver. If a Reaver gets on your tail, you're probably dead. If you get on the tail of a decent Mossy pilot, they will just turn as hard as they can and/or speed off until they get over some Striker Denial or run into another Mossy. If a Mossy gets on your tail, you're probably dead.

The Scythe only gets the most kills because only decent to godly pilots pull them. There are very few low end crappy pilots that pull a Scythe, which improves the statistical distribution significantly. So it's not that it's a better plane, but rather that it has a lot less crappy pilots that use it.

Combine that with Scythes avoiding dogfighting and doing ground pounding 90% of the time (or more) and you'll end up with Scythe statistics that look like they're "the best".

i find that mosquito's rotary is pretty damn good with its high rate of fire. more shots hit when you're firing them, mosquito's bullet stream is pretty good despite its lower damage.

What a fallacy this post is (Yoda™). If a reaver or a mossie come behind you in a scythe you are dead, but if a scythe comes behind them, they just turn around and kill you. Wow

First of all, i don't buy the "only skillerz pull them so they have good stas" crp. That was said for each and every vehicle that had good stats at some point in time.

Second, my racer 3 scythe breaks faster then my hover 3 reaver. I didn't test it, it's just my feeling but that should be valid seeing how most of the arguments on this subject seem to be subjective. I barely notice a difference it takes to come to a complete stop and go into reverse all factors combined. Everyone faps about reavers v-thrust when it only shines if you are completely still doing the dogfight dance. Any sort of movement and it goes from best to worst.

Or the "if you come above or bellow them it's a big target" poster above you said. Yeah well, if i come above or bellow someone means i outmaneuvered them and they are likely toast. And really only the mossie has an advantage there. A good pilot will be turned towards you most of the time, place where scythes have substantial advantage. Not to mention reavers are gimped against people that use headphones.

The biggest reaver advantage is the gun due to the nature of dogfights, favoring alpha damage. And that's getting fixed. Only bad thing about the scythe is the slow bullet velocity. That's getting fixed as well. All 3 have pro's and con's, do good in one scenario and not so good in other. I would definitely say they are the most balanced empire specific group in the game.

Posted in the suggest road map link found on the first page:

Get rid of the hover ability. This will increase A2A fights, stop the infantry harassment, balance out the differences between infantry and air without killing infantry weapons like.

Currently there is very little defense an infantry person has available against a hovering, rocket podding, ESF. This goes across all factions and races here. As it sits an ESF typically comes into a base full of infantry, fires off first volley of rocket pods, reloads, sends out flares, fires off second volley of rocket pods, takes a bit of damage then flies off to repair, rinse and repeat the process. If the pilot sees that there is no vehicles out, the pilot will sit there and continue rocket podding away till he/she takes damage at which point will simply fly off and repair. The ESF's have to many defensible options against infantry and very little options for infantry to defend themselves at the moment of attack. They have their speed, agility, flares, and ability to repair quickly and out of danger.

Once that flares goes off it renders the HA completely useless and a sitting duck just as the rest of the classes outside of a MAX. Further more there is nothing anyone can do unless you are in a MAX suite already and that suit is setup with busters at that moment.

As an infantry I would have suggested to simply get rid of flares but that really would not help the infantry abuse situation and it would hurt the ESF in aerial battles. That is not something I would like to see.

Frank C

I'm quoting starts to show that the Scythe is more useful than just ramming things as a previous poster claimed. Every single weapon in its arsenal averages more kills per hour than the Reaver and Mossie, including A2A missile. As for which ESF is best or worse, that's a discussion I'm not interested getting into. It boils down to what your personal preference is.

https://players.planetside2.com/#!/5428013610479439185
not on an anti-reaver crusade.
it's nothing as glorious as that

i'm merely stating facts and numbers and you can make whatever you want of those numbers.

Example:
DPS of vortek is higher
DPM of vortek is higher
Vortek can fire for longer before reloading
Vortek can miss 22% of shots from a mag and still gib an esf, while the Hailstorm can only miss 12% and the M18 5%. >300% more lenient compared to the M18. ~100% more lenient compared to the hailstorm.
Same velocity as M18, but slightly larger spread.
Higher proj. velocity than hailstorm.

So idk, is the vortek better? No clue.