Thanks for the help, guys. i will certainly be checking out some of those videos. as for the problems, why don't we all put them together, statistics and experiences, and show them to SOE in some fashion? it could be, at least, worth a shot.
If it needs a 'change' (read: buff), why do many of the best pilots in the game, regardless of starting faction, end up as NC, flying the Reaver?
I never said It needed a buff or a nerf. I also didn't notice/know that all good pilots go to the NC. Have you ever flown in a Reaver?
It not that the reaver sucks so much, when really all the good pilots went TR and VS. When you do not have good air support you get killed quickly Thats why alot of junior reaver pilots dont do good. Also the nc has the worst air defense in the game. This allows TR and VS pilots to do more in NC airspace.
Reaver isn't noticeably worse than the other ESFs. ESF balance is very good. Reaver - the biggest hitbox (what most whine about when they say Reaver is 2/10 and Scythe and Mossie are 10/10) + Vortek has shortest TTK + best vertical thrusters (very useful when dogfighting) Mosquito + fastest (not useful when dogfighting though) + small hitbox Scythe + fast reload and bullet speed (easier to aim) + small hitbox from in front (what you mostly see when fighting a decent pilot) - big hitbox from top/bottom (what you see a lot when fighting a bad pilot) I'd go check youtube. It's filled with guides made by very good Reaver pilots. Try to find a fresh video (a lot of changes to the ESFs along the road). My tips would be to master the reverse maneuver and the use of vertical thrust in general. As important is to learn how to aim against evasive targets. I'd go with hover frame to further increase your advantage with the Reaver's strong vertical thrust. It also gives you better air brakes, which let's you do the reverse thrust maneuver faster. If you're purely dogfighting, use the extra fuel tanks. Alternatively, you should consider getting racer airframe instead of hover. It doesn't help you much in the actual dogfight but you'll be able to give chase to escaping ESF's a lot easier and it 'stacks' with afterburner. There has been talk about unlocks for the extra fuel tanks, which would possibly be an indirect buff to racer airframe. edit: As you stated, there is strength in numbers. If you fly solo, never over extend and never fight more than 1 enemy ESF at one time. If you got a decent wingman you'll be dropping enemies left and right. Good luck and have fun. =)
Reavers are good at fighting main downsides of the Reaver are: 1) loud (enemy harder to sneak up on) 2) big (easier to hit) 3) fewer shots (poor accuracy % hurts you more because each miss represents more damage loss than other ESF)
@ 3) I'm quite sure all ESF's have to use pretty much the same % of their magazine to down an enemy ESF. (Someone confirm this) Reaver does more damage per bullet so you actually have to hit the enemy fewer times than the other ESF's. That is of course balanced by giving the other 2 ESF's more bullets per magazine, which they still have to hit the same % of to kill an ESF.
This isn't the case. In terms of % of bullets left in the magazine after downing an ESF it goes: Mosquito > Scythe > Reaver. The Reaver has more damage per bullet, but balanced out by a lower ROF. Less bullets to kill, but it takes longer to get those bullets out.
Roger. Makes sense. So this would be somewhat accurate when comparing the strengths of ESF anti-air noseguns. Scythe: - best accuracy (no bullet drop and fastest bullet speed) - fastest reload Mosquito: - has most bullets per magazine (requires smaller % of them to hit to kill an ESF compared to the other 2 ESF's) Reaver: - shortest TTK ?
The Vortek fires @ 750 rpm The Rotary fires @ 1000 rpm 33% advantage Rotary The Vortek does 500 damage The Rotary does 315 damage 58.7% advantage Vortek The Vortek fires 25 rounds in 1.92 seconds The Rotary fires 50 rounds in 2.94 The Rotary would need to fire @ 1500 RPM to have a similar TTK.
The M18 Rotary needs 40 to kill, not 50. Your TTK needs adjusting. Also your 58.7% advantage to Reaver is ridiculous and unfounded. If you calculate the actual damage output per second including reloads, it's really only about a 10% difference.
Not so much anymore... anything the Reaver used to have going for it in performance is now gone, squeezed from it like a lemon slowly since Beta and now it's the worst fighter. I don't know if you've noticed, but many pilots are leaving NC and flying for other factions, myself included, for the first time in ever. I always used to enjoy flying the Reaver moreso than the other two, but now with the Rotary rebalance, there is literally nothing for the Reaver left. The other two are equal or superior in every aspect of performance.
On the contrary, the ESF balance was "very good" before the Vortek nerf. The Reaver has many downsides that are unbalanced relative to the other fighters, especially for new and learning pilots, but the increased damage output helped to give the Reaver a slightly higher effective health which did a GREAT job of leveling the playing field. Now that the Reaver is bigger, slower, equal health, and equal damage output, the downsides just aren't balanced out by anything. If this gimped Vortek is what the new Reaver will be balanced on, then it needs to have more armor than the rest like it did in Beta, and maybe faster AB too like it did then also. I wouldn't complain if the cruise speed had to be lowered a bit to compensate, just having more armor and faster AB than the others would be a good thing for the Reaver right now. This is a lie. If you calculate the actual dropoff damage, the Mossie has the least. M18 - 270/315 = .857 = 85.7% damage after falloff Hailstorm - 300/360 = .833 = 83.3% damage after falloff Vortek - 425/500 = .85 = 85% damage after falloff In order for this to be a "trait" for the Reaver, the other two would need to be closer to 60% damage after falloff, but they're all pretty balanced with the Reaver in the middle... how is this a trait?
The Vanguard used to suck, now it doesn't. The Reaver used to suck, then it was awesome, then it sucked, then it was ok, now it sucks again. Vanguard is next on the list for sucking again. Lets make some threads to nerf the Vanguard to speed up the process, I hate waiting on a nerf.
