How Does One Counter Hover Duelers?

i just pop a skyguard, and they either leave or die, but that's just me. ESF swarms are a steady stream of certs for me in my skyguard.

It's an MMO with thousands of players, join an outfit and make some friends It is what the game is all about in my opinion.

This works to
As you can see he almost never use hover mode and just charges straight at the enemy, works great if you know how to fly

Afterburners. Ram them

Please tell me this is a troll post. Are you serious? You play an mmofps and you dont think aiming should be an integral part of any aspect of the game?

Why are you playing an FPS if you don't want to aim?

Go play WoW, you can tab target all day long there.

Seriously though. WHY PLAY AN FPS IF YOU DON'T LIKE HAVING TO AIM?

Scythe has the smallest frontal hitbox. Any good scythe pilot will beat an equally skilled pilot in either of the other ESFs in a hover duel. If you are getting anything but the paper thin frontal profile in a dogfight against a scythe then he is not a good pilot.

We cant balance things based on good reaver pilots vs bad scythe pilots.

G2A missile locks. One person can make a BR100 run for cover; two working together will insta-fire/kill an ESF, no matter what his BR is. All for low cert outlay and no resources spent (which is handy if you're being warpgated).

If they're really that close to your warpgate, you can use the teleporter/jump pads to get in position fast, with cover. Thin out their numbers that way, then try getting back in the air.

Your likely not going to win a hover duel with that amount of skill gap against Predators who've been doing that since day 1.

There are other options though. Best thing I've found lately is Maxed racer/AB/Nose gun of choice/Stealth/radar. Lay in wait super low while spotting for troops on the ground and get the jump on 90 percent of these guys. Burn the hell off at light speed if unsuccessful. Most cant catch you. Not a regular ESF guy myself, but I am finding this very fun lately. You can more less choose your engagement, but its a one trick pony and not designed for the prolonged fight.

- Fight dirty
- bait them into friendly AA
- do not lone wolf, stick to friendly skies
- fly with friends
- use terrain
- practice when you can
- be unpredictable
- if you can't escape and you know you are going to die, ram. Yes RAM THEM!
- Fight on your terms and your terms alone
- if you are being baited, don't chase unless they are on fire
Also don't listen to the "LRN 2 FLI N00B" 1337ist mentality (this attitude is one of the worst aspects of the Planetside community) . Don't go for the big game right away, go for some easier pickings first. Also maybe try watching some youtube videos on it, I know STLyoungblood does alot of flying and he is good at explaining things.
For a setup, I use:
Saron
Racer
Coyotes
Autorepair
fire suppression

I am running Hailstorm Turbo Laser, Lolpods, NAR, Engagement Radar, and Dogfighting Airframe.

light PPA - yup i did it and i am going to make it work with my hit and run tactics!
fully ranked fuel pods
rank 1 racer frame
vehicle stealth (rank 2 i think)
rank 1 fire suppression

so far this build is keeping me alive WAAAAAY longer than the default, even with only 4.5 hours of experience. i have been effectively flying through areas where i am outnumbered 5 to 1. now i just need to learn how to aim and NOT slam into hill sides as much.

Don't conflate skill with aim, especially in the air.

Scythes Op just pick at them from far away, use pubbies as bait if there outside the warp gate and jump them. Cant aim or to scared then fly with a group if you see a large group of esfs leave the warpgate go right into the middle of them AND STAY HIGH, and if your Group gets engaged by them AB away and wiggle that *** if there shooting at you they will most likely break off and kill that group you were with go to place where you wish to farm and enjoy.

Keep flying. The more you practice the better you will get. Soon you will find people who are newer than you and you will start to win.

Go practice with a friend on PTS. Thats the fastest way to learn how to aim.

Turn your sensitivity down. If you find yourself see-sawing when trying to aim, your sensitivity is too high. Bind pitch keys so that you can pitch at full speed without having to always use the mouse, this will allow you to run a lower sensitivity which will help you a lot.

Don't forget the analog throttle button. You MUST bind that and use it. Analog throttle returns your speed to 0 when you let off the afterburner which prevents you from shooting forward when you blip the ab, and allows you to do those neat vertical boosts that let you avoid enemy fire.

You might want to learn to do the reverse in a skeeter or a reaver because you can see the thrusters move into the vertical position where-as with the scythe you can not see the thrusters. Once you master reversing with the other planes its easy to do in the scythe.

Go to the vr and practice reversing and flying through the little hole in the cliff and under the bridge. Once you can fly through those with ab going you should be ok in a dogfight.

Do this! The tears they cause even from the best are so worth it. Funny thing is, they're not OP at all even... they work, but you'll still need your nose gun too.

Keep practicing - flying requires a ton of experience, and you'll get better with more hours you put into your ESF.

When hunting nerds, don't fight them at their own game.

Here's 3 simple ways to kill an 'ace' pilot.

1. Play with friends. Use A2A missiles for extra good measures.
2. Coordinate with friendly ground anti air. If you get him over friendly AA, he's toast. You just have to stay alive.
3. Try to gank him by oneclipping him; or ram him if the oneclip doesn't work.

Some pilots have spent an absolutely obscene amount of time on hover fighting, so don't bother with that unless you're willing to do the same

As a fellow waterson vanu, i feel your pain. The following seems to work for me when going against PREY no-lifers:

Use missles, any kind will work. Most of them will complain about it.
Tell them to go play another game or another continent. Politely or otherwise (it has worked for me <_<)
Make an NC alt, then oneclip them from behind, c4 or ram them when they least expect it (not reccomended lol).
Make an NC alt and kill them using friendly AA (not reccomended lol).
Learn the Vulture style: Wait around for fellow scythes to engage, and KS them as they die. (reccomended lol)

In fact, you might just want to make that NC alt just to log the flight hours you need to get really good, because they never leave indar.
They are always in a team, they always use TS/Ventrilo, so they will always have an edge over you.

I use racer frame + lockon missiles with extended range, and just wait around until other people dive in and acquire lockons as they are fighting each other. Usually I will wait to fire until they are smoking or burning for added insult. This way i've logged +30 hours of flight with runs that can go past 30 minutes vs the 3 or 4 minutes I used to last when I played "the honorable way" ( AB + normal gun + hover maneuver).

Tomcats ruin the air game. If you use them, you are an *******.

Your grief brings me joy.

Personally the a2a users who use tomcats/coyotes to piss of "aces" make me sad. As I see it, the problem wasn't that the lockon user won (they sacraficed extra speed/versalitily, to get lockons, which I understand) but thatI learn nothing and have very little fun in lockon fights. Either I run away succesfully, or I try to get into hover mode, which results in getting locked faster, so I don't actually have the fun of even trying to duel them. That's frustrating, and seriously degrades my in game experience.

Coyotes are objectively OP, to out-dps them with a rotary, you need around 40% accuracy, and that's assuming you're firing continuously. Coyotes also take a lot less time to fire off, as their user doesn't need to spend as much time aiming them.