[Vehicle] Valkyrie Tactics

I'm looking for as many suggestions about Valkyries as I can get and looking for pointers on my current vehicle composition.

Composition
Currently I am using: Vehicle Stealth 3, Squad Logistics, Evasive Airframe 3
I have also just switched from the basic M20 Wyvern to the Hellion G20.

Purpose
Rapid insertion of fire team elements and basic support from the air by fire power and logistics.

I've gotten pretty good at flying the Valkyrie and I prefer its size to the Galaxy. Touch and goes are easy to preform as while however most people don't consider using the Valkyrie as a spawn point unless it's the only thing available (Any reason to this?) What would be the community's recommendation for building a solid use for the Valkyrie while maintaining its versatility.

I assume you are using it with more than 1 passenger? Because if you not, you may as well just use a TB/Dalton lib. The only reasons to use a Val are for a squad spawn, transport, or if you are gonna load it with ENGs and HAs.

other than loading it up with friendlies and C4 Im not sure what else a valk is good at (if anything)
the fact that I've killed a fair share of valks with my flash is also disturbing
from what I've gathered (doing a couple google searches) your set up is pretty much what everyone else is using
except the hellions most stick with the default
max out the stealth is all I can say

use it like drop pod

If you are TR you could have an engi and heavies with strikers in the back....


You sometimes die a lot, but other times it's rather hilarious.

P/S Good luck getting more than two TR in one place willing to use the striker.

Striker is great fun in a Valk

The whole 10 minutes of gameplay I've had in one anyways

I've spent as much time in WG asking if any Valks would like a striker in back as I have actually in one. And a couple runs were pathetically short (not included in my 10 minutes of fun)

Valkyries just don't have a whole lotta use. You can use them in place of a Gal quite well actually, but like you said, good luck getting your squad to spawn on it. Damned if I know why but I've given up trying, despite the fact I can drop them in far more controlled locations. Nope. I'll say "Hey everyone, I've got a Spawn Valk in transport for respawning"

<1 min later someone spawns a gal, parks at flight ceil, and goes to take a dump while people just use that instead.... and I spend the next 5-10 minutes bobbing and weaving around the fight without anyone ever spawning on me.

The best Valkyrie tactic is to spawn a Galaxy, a Liberator or an ESF.

The only viable tactic of the Valkyrie:
Install squad logistics, use it as an one-way-taxi, and jump early at the first sign of any trouble (ie. taking damage).

Sounds like a bunch of lousy dropship pilots in here.

Max stealth, guns are secondary to your concern, if youre doing it right, you probably wont need them.
Evasion Airframe is nice and all, but Hover 3 is the way to actually go.
You should run two setups, one with Squad Spawn, one with Scout Radar, and use according to squad needs.

What I typically do is run a Scout Valk, and maintain awareness for squadmates. Hovering behind (not above) buildings, ducking in and out of areas, and coordinating troops and informing them of incoming enemies and their positions makes the Valk great for combat controllers.

When I pull my Spawn Valk, I inform the squad of my intentions and ensure that if they spawn in, they drop out, which is why I'd rather not even have a gun. A galaxy might be handy for sitting like a duck in the air, but it cant fly into the tank bays of bio, amp, or tech plants, nor can it hide in alley ways to spawn troops.

The plane is not going to do well for combat. However, it can farm infantry if you have Air Superiority, and a low position with plenty of firesupport like anything else in this game. I run the missile for ground hovering point defense, and the vulcan for harassing runs. Neither is overly impressive in these roles, and you should never go out of your way to directly attack anything.

Stealth is important here because you dont want seen visibility (close ground navigation), or seen on radar (stealth), You want to fly as close as to the ground as you can 90% of the time, and only take to the air if absolutely necessary.

You can get a squad dead on an objective and with practice, stay on point for spawning or radar assist reliably. Its not a cert farmer, but youre actually helping out if your squadmates make use of you.

If no one makes use of you, just put radar on and run over infantry. Nothing else to do.

I use the same loadout but I use the default wyvern with zoom for close in anti-infantry support. Like the kobalts on a battle sundy, one isn't going to do much to the enemy but two or more and you have enough bullets flying to kill a decent number of people.

Because the gun is front mounted, it's good for sweeping and clearing a drop location along with a few other valkyries right before dropping the troops.

I know people are still stuck in the "galaxy mindset" where you dump your infantry into the middle of enemy infantry and hope for the best but if you're dropping a couple of squads into a hot LZ, the 5-15 seconds you have when you arrive but haven't dropped yet can be used to kill or suppress a lot of infantry with 4 valkyries so that the guys on the ground have a chance to get their bearings and set themselves up in firing positions.

It's a far better alternative than being in an infantry dump at a base that is hotly contested and immediately being shot at from every direction.

Teamwork OP...

Use #1: Cheap transport if you need it.

Use #2: Platform for bailing and killing people with C4 or Tank Mines.

Use #3: The ultimate air pad cleaning tool. My record is 12 kills in 1 second.

Use #4: Portable spawn beacon if you feel like it.

Incorrect Use #1: Anything related to combat because SOE is afraid of making the rumble seats or guns useful.

Land on a cliff and spam VLGs. Works very well in canyons behind howling pass

I have seen people do pretty well using the Hellion to kill tanks, Liberators and even the occasional Galaxy.

ESF's will ruin a valks day however.

One fun tactic is to lure an ESF to chase your valk, then quickly land it and your 4 heavies with lock-ons jump out and kill the ESF.

The Phoenix is pretty fun, but requires the heavies using them to know how to Phoenix properly from a valk- it takes practice and an understanding of how the projectile works to avoid blowing up the Valk. (generally the trick is to only fire when the valk is banking away from the direction you are firing the rocket).

Annihilators have some success but require good communication so the pilot knows when to level off to let you get a lock.

The Wyvern, Hellion & VLG are the only really useable weapons on the Valk- the Pelters and CAS are just really awful.


Tactics I would like to try in future-

1# Minelayer Valk. Engineers spawn into the valk, valk flies over road, engineers drop mines from above where the enemy are going to be driving.
2#... actually forgot.

Have to complete this one. Done by either ramming an air pad or hovering 2 second on top of an air pad with 2 guys (or more) dropping AI mines on the head of the ennemies.

I'm a fairly decent valk pilot, and fly it every chance I get, I am just never on these days. I fly how you are supposed to, low and with the terrain.

I think Esamir is the best continent for valk pilots (good ones) you can fly through the channels and hide in a lot of the holes. It sounds cheesy but it's effective to think like a great white shark. You stay low and in cover, and surge up after prey that passes over head.

ESF is more effective in literally every way for combat though.

Per nanite expense (which are pointless anyways)

and DEFINITELY per player.

Thanks for all the input so far guys, and I have to say flying in Indar (canyons) and Hossin is a blast. Flying low and fast definitely works best, if there is one thing I need most though is mic so I can communicate effectively with passengers to let them know when to drop.

I don't deny this, But you don't get hate tells as a valk pilot.

Storytime!

PS1 had "towers" around bases. You'd capture the tower and run to the base if there were no AMS's left. Taking the tower with a bunch of infantry in there was kind of a pain so frequently battles would devolve into "run from the base to the tower" or "run from the tower to the base" because the AMS's were dead but lots of infantry was still present. In those situations, I could successfully get people to load up Deliverers (ground based Valkyries) and just shuttle them to the nearest capture point.

PS2 doesn't really have that. Base to base is too far to run so once the AMS's are dead, the fight is over. Shuttling people from an AMS makes no sense and shuttling people from a base makes no sense when it's better to just bring Sunderers.


Consequently, the Valkyrie has no real use in PS2. "Short distance troop transport" is not a role anyone has practical use for.


Probably the most fun and practical thing I've seen is loading up engineers, flying them to hard-to-reach areas and setting up lines of AV MANA turrets. That's pretty effective. It's a shame there's no AA MANA turret or an ability to transport a MAX, though, because invariably what happens is an ESF kills your ride. And probably all of your engineers. (Although if you're Vanu, this might still work. Just bring all heavies with Lancers and they can gang up on tanks and still have a solid chance against ESFs.)

I had tons of fun a few months ago with a C4 fairy squad in a Valk.