My sad experiences with the Lightning w/Skyguard

Im glad i bought dual walkers for my sundy. now I have a different purpose once the aircraft are gone

The problem with the skyguard is you'll never be able to stop an aircraft, except maybe the Valkyrie, dropping it's payload before you can deter it. Be it troops, missiles or tank busters, they'll always get them off before you can deter them, and then they'll just fly off and repair to do it again, and again, and again.

To make Tomcat on par with the HA launcher in a way that won't receive major criticism (there will always be whiners) is to make the max certification for reload speed a full second reduction instead of the current 0.3s reduction for a ton of certs, since the newer secondaries like coyote all get a 1s reduction at max. To make it on par with the other secondaries without major function changes, the devs can increase the clip size from 1 missile to 2, or raise the speed of missiles. If data suggest that they overpowers the Tomcat too much, we can always bring back parts of its old function like fire-and-forget or bigger lock-on cone to see the difference.

At the end of the day, it's data what the devs rely on for game changes. Data suggests over-performance (too many people using it, or k-d ratio)? Then nerf! Under-performance? Then buff! Not meeting sales goal? More camos and gold guns! Unfortunately, we can only bring an issue onto the table and wait for devs to check data and decide, but many things have been fixed even though the result can't satisfy everyone. There will always be whiners in the way, but players can always play some other games, and SOE will always be better off serving the better customers than the cheap ones (not just frugal ones). Let the whiners enjoy their own circus and feel important through arguing and trolling, neither the devs nor the majority of players have time for time.

That movie of yours regarding Joker and Batman kinda missed two things.

1. If that was an ESF from planetside 2, Joker would have just exploded the second he looked toward the ESF.
2. After he gets shot with Jokers gun (AP lightening), If it was an ESF pilot he would have just popped his freebie 25% repair and escaped.

I think the sky guard is well balanced and fun to use. With proper play you can hit ground vehicles as well. I do carry c4 with me when I play vanguard or lighting. It's a good situational weapon. I don't use stealth however I do know that sometimes I feel like I'm targeted hard by aircraft. So its deterrence. I play it when I'm bored or see alot of air. I'll spawn flak max when I'm being pushed into the spawn room or near a spawn area and I see alot of aggressive air. I also use the hawk missed launcher as a deterrence. I do notice that even going aa heavy I've noticed good pilots target me. Only aa max seems to dodge alot of ground fire and air fire. Anyways sky guard are great in platoons to offset a ton of sundys and tanks. It's a good addition to the armored vehicles and it doesn't need a nerf or a buff.

Righto you may not have noticed this, but you're arguing that based on your perceived lack of success that there is something fundamentally wrong outside of your own ability.... now... in your experience, when people assert this, how often is it true?

For a more practical example - you say you specialize in fixed emplacements, i would hope this means you're at least somewhat successful in using them. If someone were to start saying in /yell how poor a weapon the fixed emplacements were and how they kept dying over and over without success, or that their targets always seemed to flank them, c4 or outgun them... what would your response be, what would you think?

What would a more productive usage of those people's time be?

And the real question is: why do you think your situation is any different than theirs?


Basically, ask for help.

If you were not there shooting at the aircraft, they would be able to do whatever they need to do - and then hang around and do it some more. Would you rather see a dozen libs and ESFs hovering above your fellow ground forces, taking fire from above non-stop? Or would you prefer to thin the swarm and give your ground forces breathing space?

Once air units start taking AA fire, they have to make a decision:

• Stay, tough it out, and possibly die.
• Stay for a bit, tough it out, then have to run off to repair for 30+ seconds.
• Run off to repair sooner.

Every second that you keep a hostile air vehicle doing evasion instead of shooting your ground forces is a good thing.

You're simply just doing it wrong, that's all

combined arms, more like hope the aircraft don't decide you need to die because there ain't much you can do about it.

Some hints from someone with over 2000 account wide kills and over twice that in destroyed vehicles with a skyguard.

- Get thermals on skyguard. IMO zoom does nothing but screw up your depth perception and your leading (for the same reason I only use x1 and sometimes x2 reflex on small arms, and I can reliably hit moving infantry up to 70m without much problems). You're constantly looking around anyways and a quick thermal sweep every few seconds lets you see C4 fairies long before they become a threat. And once you know where he is wait for him to get closer, then blast him. Skyguards are absolutely deadly to infantry on short ranges.

- Get rival and top armor. When under fire keep moving in short irregular bursts in random directions while you keep firing at them. Remember that they have to hit you or at least hit really close to you, while your flak has a huge explosion and hits as long as you fire into their general direction.
I can handle 2 ESF at the same time without much problems that way, and 3v1 it comes down to if they're a veteran group or just pubs.
-- Get stealth if you're often close to the frontlines. It lets you ambush aircraft who are currently distracted by a juicy target. If you do that then don't fire at random aircraft near render distance. Learn trigger discipline.

- If a lib comes for you drive towards it at a slight angle. That reduces the time it can hit you with the frontal gun and drastically reduces the window of opportunity the belly gunner has to tag you with his dalton. Never. Never. Never drive straight away (no matter if your front or rear armor faces it) from a lib that comes directly for you.

- With gals it depends completely on their pilot and gunners, but as a general rule you can't 1v1 gals purely in terms of vehicles. The bad pilots (which most are) will run away from you or strafe you. The better ones will circle you and leave killing you to their Bulldog gunner, who will kill you looooong before you get the gal down if he has even a trace of competence. The exceptional pilots will simply squish you like a bug and no dodging of you will get you out of their enourmous wingspan.

- Best possible thing to do is to syncronize with another skyguard and learn to focus your fire. Skyguards are stacking incredibly well. 2 good skyguards can deal with most air squads you'll find on servers, and 3 competent skyguards can create a safe zone that nothing short of a full and well coordinated air-squad can match.

Thats why you jump out and spray them with your carbine. Nothing's better than killing a scythe with a CQC carbine.

So, I spent just over 2 hours in my skyguard today on TR. I made over 160 certs with a standard loadout of Rival Chassis, Nanite Auto Repair, and Fire Suppression. I downed quite a few reavers and did extremely well overall, even killing multiple infantry and a few vehicles, only dying once or twice in the entire period. I survived close proximity C4, rocket launchers, multiple enemy nose guns hitting at the same time, multiple rocket pods hitting, liberator tank busters to the rear, and also dalton rounds. It was insanely fun. I hate to say it, but you may need to work on your skills a bit.

Get your MAX.
I love to go toe to toe with any scythe/skeeter.
Throw up some Bursters and they will soon go somewhere else, or respawn.
Gals I have seen are not a threat.
I rarely see any libs.
Primetime Emerald VS too.

I would suggest and even implore any NC who has been disgusted with the HA Launchers and get in a MAX.
Frankly when I see the launchers, I see wasted manpower.
Forget everything else and get a MAX!
Get MAXed!! and get back in the Fight!!
lol.

I do alright in my Dual Burster+Extended Mag MAX. Really, though, how you gib air from the ground is get about 5 guys together with A2G RLs and all focus fire. Sky will be clear in moments.

Alright, I'm game. If I get behind your lightning with an anti tank loadout, I want to be able to blow you up in one run. If you let my aircraft get in behind you while you were watching the sky in your anti air tank, I want my anti tank aircraft to be able to punish you nearly instantly for your incompetence.

This will never happen because non-dedicated AA users aren't interested in being balanced against air, they just see 'AA' and think that that should mean near instant death for aircraft.

A dedicated G2A loadout should be as good as a dedicated A2G loadout. But there isnt any G2A loadout that could match a liberator buying a 100 cert tankbuster. You cant blame the people on the ground that they want to have something that can stand it´s ground against something like the tankbuster.

A skyguard can definitely stand it's ground against a tankbuster. Well, stand it's ground isn't the best way to put it, but if a 1/3 liberator wants to risk throwing himself into TB range, then a skyguard actually has a pretty decent chance of killing it. The tankbuster is only 100 certs, as you say. Why not see it for yourself?

Can be expensive to cert out correctly, but I'd suggest you try MAX + dual bursters + extended mags + flak armour + charge.

You can't cover the same ground but you are mobile and can use cover more effectively. Flak armour gives you survivabilty against C4 (one brick) and you'll stand your ground against rocket pods (pray they don't have a banshee). Charge can get you to cover if you're ambushed. Extended mags are essential to finish the job or convince libs to move along. Hot swap to nanite repair if support is lacking.

Oh, and a few point blank burster rounds + a punch in the face is a winner against Rambo.

I´m probably one of the worst pilots in planetside (crashing into the ground on an open field in indar without any enemies nearby isnt impossible if i´m the pilot), so if i could or could not do the same with a Tankbuster isnt really a measurement of balance.

But while using a skyguard i´m pretty often at the recieving end. 1vs1 it is close to impossible to beat a decent Tankbuster lib.
Best case: He didnt hit and got away to repair.
Worst case: You blow up in a few seconds.

Killing the liberator is out of the question most of the time. You need at least 1 reload even if every flak round is a direct hit inside max damage range. 2 or even 3 reloads are more realistic if you consider missed hits from CoF, hits from >100m away and composite armour/fire suppression. The liberator probably wont wait 30seconds+ until you dealt enough damage.

The tankbuster can one clip a prowler from the rear with fully certed mag size. The lighting is made of paper if a lib gets close enough, it's about the same TTK as the banshee that everyone is crying about right now. So we are already severely punished if air gets close to us so why not make it a two way street instead of a one way?