Flak does too much damage to ESFs

Dude, seriously? You talk like there are multiple ESFs, scared of one Burster / Skyguard. If that's the case, then that Burster / Skyguard is doing a terrific job; deterring AIR as you said!

The fact that current AA solutions are good at denying A2G ESFs does not mean A2G is dead, just that AA does the job it is intended to. Just play as a squad, have a few AP tanks hunt that guy down or simply attack that flak at 2 or 3 ESFs simultaneously/with the support of a lib and you should get rif of it quite easily if it's the only AA source in the neighborhood. If there are other AA sources, the ennemy is organized to counter AA and thus you should not be allowed to do A2G without punishment.

Plus I don't get how A2A gets owned by FLAK. You A2A guys should be either at high altitude or over your mates to defend them -> flak should not be a threat to you.

I'm a dedicated A2G ESF pilot (I suck so much at A2A, even though I work hard). I almost never die to flak. Lock-ons are much more of a threat to me than Flak. Plus, FYI, fire sup is very effective at giving you more time to flee from Flak (I run it most of the time).

wtf did I just read, OP?

I think I'm quite average player when it comes to AA. I very rarely actually kill anyone with half a brain. If 2x ESF decide to decimate my Lightning, they will before I can bring both of them down. If a Lib with tank burster wants to kill my lightning, all he has to do is fly at me from behind an obstacle and spit one clip of godliness at my rear.

This thread is a joke...right?

Right now it takes a coordinated effort between 5 or 6 players to effectively "run off" the Enemy's "Air Farce"...and they'll be right back after ducking behind a rock to repair...

Farming at it's Best!

The groundpounders are all purposely omitting one huge fact that they all realize and understand very well.
You pull one AV max against two tanks (or even one if you're not smart) and you're absolutely dead. You sit in one AV turret against two (or even one if the tanker is smart) tanks and you're dead before you know it.

Whereas, you sit in one AA turret and nothing short of 3 or 4 ESFs can even begin to return fire. Same as with one dual burster MAX.

If you're in a tank, the terrain will more often then not protect you from the stationary AV turrets and you'll have the chance to run away. If you're in an ESF, even if you're 900m away from the stationary AA turret, it can still plink away your health when you're concentrating on something different altogether - because there is NO cover. And if you try to fly low, you're a huge target to tanks, coordinated small arms fire, lock-on missiles etc.

So in short - yes, flak IS overpowered.

Raising flight ceiling would allow A2A ESF the opportunity to position themselves for a quick kill on a A2G ESF. There will never be a reasonable way to allow AA to differentiate between A2G and A2A ESF. All that can be done in my opinion is provide a better environment for pilots to operate in. A2A ESF will always be at risk if they drop altitude for the kill as they should be since that A2G ESF may be relying on friendly AA for protection. But when pilots are being continuously tagged by AA even while at flight ceiling this creates a very difficult prospect for A2A ESF to perform their role in well.

Another factor that needs to be addressed is the render issue that has been plaguing air for so long. It is simply beyond frustrating to take AA fire from invisible turrets or sky guards. Other then nerf flak as the op suggested I feel they need to fix the current system and bring these AA sources back to 800 meter engagements and fix their broken render issues. The flight ceiling increase would help in many ways but many pilots would still find it infuriating to take fire when they dip into render range by that unseen enemy below.

I don't think i've been killed by flak in a long time, unless I went stupid and tried to engage an AA turret or skyguard in my ESF.
It doesn't do well if you aren't flying in straight lines, and are at the altitudes you should be at. If you're hugging the ground, flak will wreck you, and it should. If you're up high, flak has to lead you, and if you turn often, you're never where the flak is leading to. It also helps to put a personal waypoint in addition to the squad/platoon ones at a nearby resupply location to retreat to for repairs, and to repair often.
Just tips and such to help you fight it. keep flying!

What kind of argument is that? You're assuming 3 skyguards focus fire together on ths same target but all esf fly on their own. Under the skyguard there is always a lightning: 2 or more esf with rocket pods will make it explode in 3 seconds.

lol OP is one of those guys who flys 10 feet off the ground and hovers every 10 seconds to spam rockets. Fly high, you get so much more time and room to react to flak. Flying high is pretty much a hard counter to all ground based AA. It's virtually impossible to kill a pilot at or near the flight ceiling with ground based AA before they can move to safety, but also hilariously easy to kill the people who get right in your face with an ESF.

Skyguards meant to be defense against aircrafts in your hex, not aircrafts in any adjacent hexes that sometimes cant even see the skyguard/tracers from flak. And that's the problem with the skyguard: it's range.

This is a troll thread, right?

First, my OTHER tank is a Skyguard. From my point of view, there are two kinds of pilots: Pilots who understand the limitations of the Skyguard and Dead people.

All a skyguard can do is act a deterrent against medium skilled pilots. I don't get kills unless a pilot is greedy or careless.

And let me be clear, the ONLY deterrent is the threat of death. If a skyguard has no ability to kill, it has no ability to deter. It's THAT simple.

A skyguard only has ONE job, therefore it should be good at that job.

If a skyguard is throwing a wet blanket on your ESF Swarm-O-Death party, then I suggest you do what everybody else does: send a tank or suicide bomber after it.

yeah, because tanks can move with 6 degrees of freedom and jet away just like an ESF. what does this have to do with AA balance again? one ESF can take out a turret or an AA max, I see it all the time, pilots like to pull that silly trick were they hover right over it so it cant even shoot back.

also you cant really compare an ESF to a tank in the first place, the tank doesn't have the freedom to just jet away when it feels like it might die, its slow and its gonna get killed, so it TANKS the shots and almost dies in the process of fighting that one AV max or AV turret if its being manned by a competent player. (maybe not always the turret, like you said SOE likes to place perfect tank cover near them so its not an accurate comparison)

you want to compare air to tanks, you are gonna have to pick at lest the lib, it can tank an AA turret and laugh all the way home. the ESF is not an air tank, it is an air harasser.

-not-too-related proposals of mine

raise thermal range significantly , back to pre nerf days-
raise flight ceiling- this is OVERDUE,


Now, for a related proposal - what if they buffed the flak armor upgrade ? No one is talking about that, yet that does exist in the game.... /buffs not nerfs to solve problems

You can't possibly be serious.

people forget you dont need to finish firing all your rockets to get out of dodge. its how I get most of my solo skygaurd kills.

Too bad this forum is almost covered by "groundpeasant" who jealous with those who can fly. We are pilots who spending AT LEAST 10 hours training just to be able to not crash an ESFs while shooting ground unit shouldn't be able to join a 25 - 48 fight or so, and a single BR1 noob in that AA turret on the Crown should be able to gib all of us, that's how the game work ? Okay, might as well deal with it. ( I can feel the haters coming... )

you dont know how to fly if a single AA turret is gibbing you all. you should spend more hours training. seriously people arent jealous that you can fly, we are annoyed that you think it should grant you super powers.

Yea, the fact that "don't die" from a flak is easy, but ESFs won't be able to join a 25 - 48 fight or above, that's the problem, especially with the nose gun nerf already make it damn hard to fight ground target without lolpod. You can try to fly, then come back and tell me your experience after fighting in a battle with 2 of those AA turret.