New AA Guns Make Gals Boarderline Unapprochable

You think that 1000m/s walker rounds don't change its effectiveness at all ranges? Seriously? In theory DPS doesn't change. In reality, because it's far easier to hit, it does.

Yesterday, gunners were able to put shots on my Lib at FAR greater distances and with way more consistency that ever before. We couldn't even get close. Not even remotely so. And we weren't even trying to engage the Gal... we were trying to go after ground targets. We were getting hit from 400+m out. If we pushed closer, the pilot rolled and we got 2 guns on us. A Drake and Walker... that's game over if you continue your approach (again, we weren't after the Gal, it just shot at anything entering the area).

I'm not arguing that a single ESF or Lib should always be able to take down a Gal. But as it stands, you can't get in spitting distance of a Gal unless you want to die. As soon as you move to dogfight, bomb, or engage anything in the area, it's guns have the ability to tear you up if you aren't totally evasive.

Even if it doesn't kill you, its ability to be a serious threat from great distances is a problem.

So nothing changed.
My gun crews regularly engage out of position libs out to six hundred meters. Get the drop on a competent combat gal or you will be torn up on approach. If you don't want to be, disengage and come back from another angle. Alternately, get better at dogfighting galaxies.

The biggest change in my anti liberator arms is that my drakes are less accurate.

I'm curious to see how you guys fair with shredder. ESF can still move and dodge with their speed and agility if they need to get away. Libs on the other hand... we're fat and juicy targets for these guns.

Keeping distance while moving and shooting is your strength in your pilot/gunner team. These gun changes are a direct counter that playstyle.

While I can understand why you're frustrated and would be inclined to say that perhaps 850m/s would be a more appropriate speed for the Walker, this past month or so has been a blast fighting the surge of Battle-Gal popularity. It's been remarkably refreshing for my crew, if anything. That being said, the Bulldog farming way quite out of hand.

Thanks for the tips .

I'll work on how to engage a Gal with my Lib. I just hope I don't run into too many that can effectively engage me at 600m.

How so?

Always was and always will be WHAAAAAAAAAAAALE. Computer's out of the shop today, time to play.

So what situation are you looking to counter?

Or just hunting tips?

I've been on both sides of the coin, so I have a good bit of perspective and experience.

While not always the case, typically when faced with a group of 3+ manned Gals it is (assuming we hold the card of surprise) a matter of diving and burning one and kiting pursuers (easiest way to kill mediocre ESFs and Libs as well) out of LOS of their usually still oblivious allies and winning a DPS race while using range, speed, and terrain to our advantage. If we do not have the advantage of surprise we just poke at one or two until they stray from the pack and commence feasting. Results vary sometimes as we cannot always predict other aspect of surrounding forces, but we are usually successfull.

Gals were plentiful after the squad spawns became a thing... and even more so after the bulldog got its buff. And because they were all AtG variants, they were easy pickings for Libs.

And, yes, AtA guns needed a bit of a buff (especially Drake). But from what I understood, these guns are supposed to be deterrent guns... meant to protect the Gal. In the current fashion, they aren't. They are air superiority guns.

Just like you needed an entire squad to scare a Bulldog Gal away, you're gonna need an entire wing to scare off a AtA Gal.

With the massive health pool, multiple gunners to spot, cover all angles and shoot accurately while on the move, AND the ability to spawn squads, the Gal shouldn't have the ability to an AtA denial-fortress.

As for engaging them, I'll see you out there and we'll see how things change. The DPS pendulum is moved towards the Gal now. Surprise them and they're toast... but that's true of almost anything and Libs. Engage them otherwise... and we'll see what happens. My prediction is that we're gonna find more zones significantly more dangerous to fly in due to alert AtA Gals. We'll see.

So...am I supposed to care that Mr. Proskill WG Camping Reverse Flyer can't knock fully loaded Galaxies out of the sky left and right?

I dunno. If it comes down to a 4-man Galaxy vs 4 ESFs, I'm still gonna lay my money on the ESFs.

Support Lockdown for Lightnings, make all your problems go A(a)way. 1 second reloads for AP, more dakka on Skyguards, and chances are this will probably make every Gal pilot within a 600m proceed to nope their way out of there.

Sure it doesn't solve the fact that the Walker buff was misguided and will probably get it overnerfed but hey, a shell per second is nice.

You obviously haven't been running into true combat whales very often. Nothing's really changed in our dps balance except whale drakes are less accurate. Hitting libs at long distance was never really an issue unless they were actively dodging.

As always, if your lib makes a quick, clean engagement at long or short ranges, you're likely to win. The more the whale can drag it out, the more likely it is to win.

Only change for me is I might mount a tail walker now, on occasion.


On the ESF note, whales were always terrifying up close. It's up to them to maintain distance. Current record for my crew is taking five of eight esfs at once (zaps) before going down. In more extended engagements where reinforcements keep filtering in, record is higher.

There's a reason alot of air groups use whales as anchor units.

nope.
when I saw a gal approaching a fight, in 9 of 10 cases, it sucessfully dropped its squad into said battle.

I always thought gals were supposed to be troop transports, not air superiority fighters...

Think again. They never were taxi's, or I wouldn't have put tens of thousands of certs into mine. Nor do I appreciate people telling me or trying to make me a glorified bail-wagon.

wtf? for what does it have 12 seats then if not for transportation?
face it, you were just abusing broken game mechanics.
50% HP reduction would be an acceptable nerf for now IMO.

Call it an airborne assault vehicle. Think Hind of you really need a comparative.

What's broken is your perception of what the game should be. There's a goram reason my whale has teeth.

Sometimes it's easier to think of the air game and its vehicles as spacecraft. You have your strikecraft, destroyers, and cruisers. They all have their strengths and weaknesses accompanied by varying levels of firepower and utility, each having their place in combat. The Galaxy has always been a part of this, nothing has changed there, it's just popular right now.

Most of these complaints are reminiscent of when Liberators were wholey popular and people didn't like their ability to participate in A2A engagements. Once their popularity settles and people are more familiar with combating the vehicle, players will soon realize it was less and issue of changes something recieved and moreso the frequency and numbers they encountered. Case in point; when Liberators recieved nerfs that in no way effected their ability to combat air and their numbers drastically dropped (cya farmers) the 'why can Liberators kill my ESF' threads all but ceased to pop up.

no, I call it like this:



thread is about gals hunting esf's by the way...
and that's wrong!

good way to put it.