How Does One Counter Hover Duelers?

The only way to break hover duels is to use either Coyotes or Tomcats.

If running Coyotes, your best best is with the Rotary since you have to be charging at the opponent for them to hit, which is why this synergises well with the short range, burst DPS given by rotaries.

If using Tomcats, the only way for the enemy to truly 'beat' them is to get up close in hopes of breaking lock - this usually means you force them to charge you which is also why I would recommend using the rotaries.

I don't see how you can lose to a scythe.. they are huge..
Even in a hover fight you would be slightly above or below it, so your shooting at a Frisbee.
Shooting at mossies is like shooting at a pencil.. they are tiny no matter what angle your hitting them from.
Reavers have the best reverse maneuver thrust, but they are a flying brick of a hitbox.
I don't understand your concern about breaks. I use analog throttle to enter hover, and that kills the engine instantly on all 3..

For me, scythes are the easiest to hit, fallowed by reavers, and mossies being the hardest.
So that is why I say Mossie>Reaver>Scythe. If I can't hit it, then it will kill me..

In hover fights, scythes are definitely the best. They are thin, and they can land shots easily because their nose guns velocities are great.

Serious attempts at flying usually end in tragedy. Whenever I see a PREY type around, there's usually another 3-4 around + maybe a lib, and they're all in voice comms. I can sometimes cheese a kill with the new A2A missles, but I have trouble even staying close enough to use them.

Another frustrating thing with reavers, is that they do ridiculous damage in close quarters, so all they have to do is get the drop on you and you're done. I can hear mossies and scythes miles away on my headphones, but I swear I hear the reaver shotgun thingie before I even hear the engines. Wonder why that is :*(

LOL just now I saw a lone reaver, non PREY, and get jumped by *six* reavers, with a few PREY types in the mix. SIX of them and I still get hit by A2A missles. Nice. Ah well, flying sucks. I pretty much just use it to get to point A with scout radar to help my squad.

The same thing happens to me whenever I leave the WG.

Nope, I don't know how many 1v1s you've been doing, but even if you were below a scythe, unless it was pants on head ******** it would be facing directly at you = smallest hit box at all times. The scythes are the best at 1v1 hoverduels (unless you're rguitar rushing), that fact really isn't in dispute. Smallest head on hit box (and as I've said, unless the scythe is stupid, then it'll have it's smallest profile at all times), fastest bullet speed. The reaver has contrasting strengths and so must be used differently in 1v1s, but especially with scythe vs mossy, the scythe should always win with two equally skilled people. Think of the mossy as a scythe... but worse. Bigger hitbox, lower burst DPS, slower bullet velocity. It has a slightly higher sustained DPS due to its mag size, but that's pretty much negligible compared to all its other disadvantages. Keep in mind that the higher cruise speed means absolutely nothing in hover duels.


As to OP. If you purely want to win, get some buddies (3-4) and some A2am (AKA winmissiles), engage from distance and they should already be dead by the time they close the gap/or try to run away. Alternatively, (I don't know how many pilots you know from your server) get some of the good pilots together have a sweet air battle. You have no hope going alone against ace pilots flying in a group.

In a hover fight, it doesnt matter if you are above or below a scythe.
As long as the Scythe is looking straight back at you, its frisbee will not be exposed.

In hover fights frontal hitbox matters more, and the Mossie has a easier to hit frontal hitbox.

I generally fly a Reaver, and its fairly regular to see a that was chasing me, flys past in front of me (when i press my brakes), giving me a good 3-4 seconds to land easy hits on it.
And its not only that, if the mossie flies past me, that means that he can not see, which gives me another advantage of re-locating my self, giving me the element of surprise.

Although this never seems to happen if a scythe is chasing me down.

The scythe has better brakes to avoid these situations more.

Verviedi - the PREY/QRY guys are part of DA. They've run a couple of little sessions for us to attend as some of us DA (especially myself) suck in the air.

If you'd like to come along to the next one, PM me. I am sure I could get one more person involved if it would be of benefit to you?

Mind if I add you, Kanya? I've more or less made peace with the fact that I will never be an Ace, but I always enjoy going to school.

What is DA?
Will I need A mic?

The best weapon in the air is situational awareness. The second best weapon is Coyotes.

yeah shooting bad pilots in any esf is easy. Any competent pilots won't let you get above/below then in an esf

also mossies have a massive frontal hitbox, it's really not very hard to hit

Scythes are probably the best in 1v1 hover-duels on even terms all around.

On the flip side they could be the worst at team fights since it's so easy to land shots if someone else gets above/below them and their lower DPS nosegun doesn't favor close range brawling which is what group fights turn into. So, you get a strange situation where the Scythe is the best at 1v1 hover duels and the Reaver is probably the best a coordinated group fights(Vortek ouch) and the mossie just kinda chills in the middle of both spectrums.

I feel the same way about QRY. It doesn't matter what fight I go to, if I am in the air too long they eventually come along and curb stomp me (even in TR vs VS fights on the other side of the continent). The difficulty with these really good air outfits is that they dominate the battlefield so hard they "cycle" through frontlines too fast. It really seems like they can approach a fight and stomp all the enemy air down before AA gets pulled to respond. Once they have wiped the air from all the NC fronts, they move onto harassing TR/VS fronts. You can't escape them. I respect their skills, but I wish the game mechanics / continent setup didn't let them dominate such a large portion of the games airspace so frequently.

I really need this...lol.

Yep add me in game - i'm Kanya on Mattherson. It'll be after we play MCY in the finals this weekend however.

DA - DasAnfall (links are on my sigs)

If you hgave a mic, great. if not, earphones as you'll be listening more than talking anyway and you can always type a tell to me and I can relay it to the QRY guys

Its not an open invite per se - but if you both wanna drop in, add me in game and hit me up. As Ive just said in post above DA is getting ready for the final scrims against MCY this weekend so wont be until thats done and dusted.

Then you need to bring 8 or 10 friends.

8 or 10 friends? You seem to vastly overstate my social skills.