Hello, As I fly my liberator, I find it very hard to stick around in areas for more than 4 seconds when only a single flakmax or flak gun fires at me. I take too much damage to sustain the flak shots and it forces me to run away. Usually, I'm pursued by something and subsequently killed, most often tankbusters. How do I not get killed in my liberator when I start taking damage continuously from up to 300m away?
Reason: Because it's not nearly as OP as Forumside makes it seem. Advice: Learn to choose your battles, stay at range until you know an area is relatively safe. Cert Racer and Afterburners and consider Composite armor as well. All three of those combined will let you flee from many more battles than not having them.
You have to stay out of big battles. Liberator usefulness goes down as the size of the battle goes up. While ground vehicles and infantry stays the same. They way you get kills as a liberator is by attacking small defenseless enemy groups or a lonely vehicles. Forumside were so used to liberators being useless that they went ape sh*t crazy when liberators were made more durable against its non-intended counters. Suddenly the ground units had to start seeing them as a potentional threat.
The reason for this is because you're probably going in alone and getting way too close to where the battle is. I'm obsessed with AA, whenever there's one or two aircraft in the air I'll dive straight into a burster MAX or skyguard and if I can't get either of those, I bought an annihilator with SC. Unfortunately, it's very easy for ESFs and liberators(even galaxies, to a lesser extent) to fly out of my effective range. I almost never get kills just because pilots have a habit of hovering far enough away from the battle-zone that my AA either can't lock on or has a ten-ish percent hit rate. To sum up, you're probably dying quickly because you're a noob. Never fear, though, you'll get the hang of it and before long you'll be annoying the crap out of AA enthusiasts like myself.
Couple potential reasons: 1.) You're picking the wrong battles. 2.) You don't have it certed enough/your gunner isn't good enough. 3.) You're just not using it properly. Liberators are farming machines that generate massive score/hour... if they're used properly. You can fight around most battles as a Liberator. You need to indentify where the AA is coming from, and consider how you're going to use cover and timing in order to hit and run. If that isn't a style that works for you, then you can stick to smaller battles.
I went into an area with one skyguard and had to jet outta there. There was literally nobody else around. Am I just a bad pilot?
No, just inexperienced. Any pilot worth his salt would do the same as you. Even the best pilots don't try to attack head on a Skyguard who got the first shot. Now, what a good pilot is fly away, and start making high passes until he knows where the Skyguard is. Then, he goes in low, and takes it out with a 1-2 Punch.
Pretty much this. In PS2 I just eat up Libs with my heavy or vehicle, even my Vanguard as the terrain works to point my barrel at obscene angles. Sometimes I'll even coordinate my friends to all lockon and fire at the same time and really ruin a Lib's day. And that's usually when we feel like derping around. Usually just ignore them unless the point is open.
And try to fly at low altitude and flank your ennemy. Use the training center too, with the vehicules over there you can know how bullets are necessary to destroy a lightning or mbt, so you can know if you need run . And when you have a gunner use your mic because you cant have a good work without communication.
You can't just barrel into an area and start farming infantry. First you have to make sure that the sky is clear of enemy air. For this it is probably best just to follow a large friendly air force around rather than go in on your own. Then you have to get your toes wet and do a scout just to see what the AA is like and where it is. Then you make a judgement call on if there is too much flak you just go somewhere else or if not you focus fire that first or do runs where you can tank it and rep. It's not rocket science really but if you skip these steps you are not going to farm like you should be. If you are always running from one skyguard as a lib you are making bad calls. You will win a dps race easily if just spot it and attack it properly.
Well I got a single level in comp armor and I'm noticing considerable survival boosts when I fly. Should I continue with the composite armor? I'll try and pick my fights when I get on later today.
I would max Comp armor and get either Thermal or a high level of zoom for your Shredder gunner. Most Libs also run with either Walkers or Bulldogs on the back. Tank Buster (TB) is basically the only primary you are ever going to need to use since it works well against just about everything. Also, a lone Skyguard cannot kill you in one clip. If they are alone, just come in close and use a combination of TB and Shredder to knock them out of action.
