I've finally decided to embrace the absurd killing power of the Liberator. I've been certing into stealth, racer, and afterburner, as these are the hardest things for me to deal with. I unlocked the Tank Buster, Shredder, and Bulldog. What should I be unlocking to get the most out of my Liberator? I'm planning on picking up random gunners as well as outfit mates. My goal is maximum amount of vehicle and infantry kills with the ability to evade air. Any advice is appreciated.
Stealth won't help you much. It may prolong your stealth presence for 2 or 3 seconds. You are better off in my opinion with composite armor as you can take two AP lightning or MAG rounds without catching on fire. Also it takes one extra Dalton round to kill a lib. This with the shredder is considered a noob friendly lodout. Good luck circling around large battles and finding easy targets. Be careful with Air. Once they figure out that you are an easy target a single ESF will be shooting you down by plinking your lib from a distance. Also lightnings usually don't render past 300m.
Thanks! I'll look into composite armor. I picked stealth because I, as a primary tanker, used to ragequit all the time because a stealth lib would roll over a hill behind me and destroy me with the TB before I could react.
It was not stealth. It was a good aim with the point blank low flying approach that killed your tank. In order to that you have to fly really low and connect all of your tb shots. It's not easy to do which you will find out. You can pick off stranded or lone wolf targets this way. Flying like this will get you instagibed in large battles as you will get shot by everyone. They will hear you comming.
^Don't listen to the above, Stealth is invaluable to a quality Liberator pilot. That being said, there are some situations that call for Composite over Stealth. In an area with high aircraft density, you will be more likely to encounter attentive AA, for which stealth won't help you all that much. Otherwise, Stealth is extremely useful for strafing large vehicle columns. People are a lot more minimap aware then you might expect. Another good advantage of Stealth is the increased lock-on time, as well as nigh-immunity to Coyotes/Strikers. I have found it to be extremely noticeable when combating armor. Bulldog is decent when used with alternative AI but it got nerfed to crap a while ago(Like all our other AI guns). Only use when paired with the Zephyr/Duster, only get the Zephyr/Duster when you have certs to spare. Even a Zephyr/Bulldog Lib isn't as effective as a simple Fury Battlebus/AI Harasser, I promise you that. AI Liberators are only somewhat effective against complete idiots but as soon as they get slightly tired of you, prepare to eat rockets, flak, lock-on's, Basilisks, and all other manner of AA weapons. Do not underestimate the Shredder. Especially with the introduction of the Deploy Shield, I hardly run anything else. Shredder has the highest AV DPS in the game apart from the TB, which means you can take out armor, even Sunderers, before the Flak has a a chance to notice you. There are 3 zones you have to consider as a Liberator pilot. I call them the; Danger Zone, the Neutral Zone and the Safe Zone. Danger zone is any armor column and extends out approx 400 meters from it. This is the range you are likely to be hit with lock-ons, tank shells, Flak and Basilisks. I would keep out of this zone at all costs. When strafing a tank, try to keep your entry inside 4 seconds, your attack run inside 3 seconds, and get out within another 5, otherwise you are asking for a tank shell to your belly. Neutral Zone is the space between fights. It extends out 600 meters from the Danger Zone, and is oft ripe with marauding ESF's, enemy Liberators, and the ever-present plink of Flak. While not lethal to roam, I wouldn't get comfortable here. Stay only long enough to plan an attack run on some particularly delectable piece of armor, then ****. Safe Zone is any base inside 500 meters or more of allied territory. While I classify it as safe, this is only in regards to enemy AA or other ground-based damage. When inside the Safe Zone, be diligent about watching for other aircraft. Aircraft, particularly ESF's, will chase you wherever you go. If and when you meet an ESF who can kick your dalton, just turn tail and hope you can out-tank it till you reach WG/Allied ESF's/Flak. Another good strategy is to keep mental note of the various sources of allied Flak, allied ESF mobs and always know where your WG is. These are your safest areas to flee when facing imminent death.
i just switched from dalton to zep i can t hit dick with the dalton lately but have already got some nice kills with the zep libing feels very situational to me, lots of runs are unfulfilling then youll get that right spot right time moment
Enjoy a life of cheesiness, scrubbery, sin and tons of hate tells! That being said, if you plan any serious teamwork with your pals, you need a good belly gun. Dalton is for shooting down air and armor, and the Zepher is for farming clueless infantry and has some lee-way for anti-armor duty too. Duster is for killing massive infantry zergs ONLY, and is pretty bad at anything else. The Shredder is very good if you can maintain clear view of the target, but I personally prefer the Zepher or the Dalton because you can just pop a shot or a few and bam. Tankbuster is the only viable pilot gun. Don't even bother with the Vektor or Spur. Tail guns, both the Walker and the Bulldog are good and you can't go wrong with either. Considering the massive AA power of the Dalton, the Bulldog is the best choice. Everything else I find to be a risky purchase. For the ability, either flares, fire suppression or afterburner. Afterburner is good for everything really, especially for flak while flares are infinitely better against lock-ons. Fire suppression is for both. Kind of suprised because you play on Connery, I mean, Don Alfago and his lock-on squad, kind of scary to go into air without proper counters against those guys. You made a good choice with the Racer. The others I find to be meh, they're just like pissing into the wind, make it a little better but nothing really noticeable or life-saving. Certed just a few levels into Composite armor. It's good if you get shot by tanks a lot and other shenanigans, but stealth is just the best. Stealth is good, not too viable but not bad. For being a giant floating whale in the sky, you won't be really stealthy but the minimap invisibility is invaluable. It increases lock-on time significantly and makes coyotes useless against you so it's versatile. Hope it helped!
Like I said stealth will prolong his lib presence for a 2 or 3 seconds and strafing above large vehicle columns without any A2G is all ready rare and he would be an easy target for other enemy libs. You are not realy effective at taking out armor from flying high. You take out your targets fast and fastest way is a one two combo punch with TB and belly gun. This is where composite armor helps and helps noobs fly this way. Hovering is also a no no. You will be one cliped by TB. If you want to avoid enemy air you need to be quick in taking out your ground targets.
Also, any experienced lib pilots on Connery who play weeknights willing to take me out flying sometime?
Connery, but I play VS. Make an alt and I'd be happy to show you the ropes! I advocate for the 1-2 punch as well, but Stealth gives you a greater opportunity to approach. As I said, people are more minimap aware then we like to pretend, and more often then not if you are killed by Flak, it was by a concentration that was to such a degree that Composite wouldn't have saved you in the first place.
I find the Drake to be my personal favorite tailgun. It being just a Basilisk on crack, it's pretty nice for the DPS increase against armor, as well as packing a considerable punch against other aircraft.
composite resistance to tank shells was reverted in the last big lib nerf. only resistance to dalton shells remains. it will take 3 to catch fire. this was left in because it was actually a nerf to dalton libs. nanites will help you shrug off spawn lock ons, and render range flak; and you will more often have full health when beginning A2A engagement. composite will help you tank flak, and net more certs and implant drops from repairs. both are good. all 3 frames are good, again a tradeoff for what you want. precision is excellent for tankbuster, but is as slow as the stock lib (top end and acceleration.) High-G has fast pitch turning and gains/maintains altitude easily, this is the most new pilot friendly and the best all-around option. Racer handles just like the stock lib, which means difficulty turning, difficulty with the tankbuster, and difficulty maintaining/gaining altitude. it actually works with a boom and zoom momentum-fighting style, but you will hit a lot of rocks and trees for what amounts to a very marginal speed gain that you are not likely good enough to make use of. dalton/walker is good for 2/3 if you have a good gunner and are in communication. shredder/drake is good if you have 3/3 and both gunners have trigger discipline and are in communication; randoms will suck with it. if you are flying randos, do comp zepher bulldog if 3/3 and stay with pop and don't fly A2A, just tank Air for your friendly gankers. turn your sound effects up, and learn the sound of everything. you won't be seeing **** from the cockpit of a lib, either 1st or 3rd person. learn to rely on where your gunner is pointed, and communicate communicate communicate.
The amount of relevant advice in here is so low. There's some here and there mixed up with terrible advice. If you want help, I can help you or give you quick info, but I don't feel like typing it unless I know you'll read it and take it for what it is. So if you want me to hop on connery a bit, you can always hit me up, I might try a whisper if I ever get on there. Otherwise, I'd suggest going over to reddit/r/planetside because most of the advices here are very very bad. Some are good, don't get me wrong, but most of it is bad. Any pilot over there will most likely coroborate what I just said. Good luck to you.
Pros run NAR, afterburner, high G Comp armor if your gonna fly in the arc of tank shells like a real champ; or try to farm where theres copious amounts of flak for some reason(Comp armor is only beneficial if your playing foolishly imo). Stealth if you want to be able to sneak up on the hearing impaired who are driving tanks. Jokes aside, I dont like it on a lib, but some people work it. Weapon wise, basically unlock everything, probably zephyr before dalton if you intend on farming infantry, shredder is pretty beastly when its certed out for both anti air and anti armor, Dalton after zephyr simply because its a lot harder to use than the shredder for the average gunner. #1 most important thing for a liberator pilot: Find a gunner you know, who is reasonably consistant, aware, and communicative. Random gunners will frustrate you to no end.
My lib gots Dalton, Tankbuster (which I'm not skilled enough to use) , and walker (which i use only because i use dalton on long ranges, but i consider a change coz noo one wants to man it), composite armor, racer and ab 0. duster - total crap after the HE radius nerf 1. Dalton Imo worse than zephyr because you need a skiled gunner and be skilled yourself to effectively use it. There are 2 ways of using it: a) sniping (that's why I use walker to do more damage) sniping is good if you want to put down a well defended armor, somewhere in the middle of the enemy zerg. Unless they have more engineers on the target, you can safely snipe it from above the clouds under one condition: air superiority first. Honestly I had only one successful run with it but it was a VERY successful run, never had the opportunity to do it again (either enemy air prevents me from holding position or the gunner just sucks) I was cnsidering vector with max sights to have complete damage but eventually I decided to save certs for something more common b) kamikadze run with dalton - you get above the enemy target, bang bang bang, and run away before they notice - this is the way most likely to success. even better if you KNOW WHERE THE TARGETTS ARE before the first run. There's no second attemmpt 2. zepher - all around infantry / light armor/ damaged heavy armor doom for average skilled gunners/pilots. You don't bother about enemy AA HA or max as yu can successfully whack them. the only thing you care is well, nothing, just spam it and watch your certs grow. gotta be fast though, dont stay too long above targets, and good luck with enemy air 3. walker - good with sniper dalton, otherwise sucks. don't think it'll help you in A2A. it wont help. A tip in general. don't buy anything for tail unless yu know people who won't bail out after launch only because they decide not to be tail gunners. it's somewhat common (or maybe it happens to me only) that people just hate gunning a tail gun in liberator at all. this is very bad as it might make a lib live 1/3 longer. and actually the tail gun is also part a belly gun. people just don't understand. 4. racer - the only useful util 5. afterburner - if you ever plan to survive a single puny ESF BR 1 chasing you, get it 6. composite armor - allows you to stay longer in battle, though I wonder if I shoud take extinguisher max out instead and avoid landing As you see there are 2 paths - melee lib or sniper lib, if you go sniper then max out the sights and dalton/shredder is good (we had the good stats befre the sights were refunded and i never maxed them out again - since then i don't like my dalton anymore). If you go melee, then get zepher and some NV, bulldog and pray, as lib is probably the most enjoyable A2A target Sniper lib is suprisingly the harder path to follow as you need a skilled gunner and be a sitting duck hidden in clouds to be sucessful. After a few hours of piloting a lib I learned that the most important part is the belly. soactually you don't aim with nose but instead must imagine where your belly gunner can aim. it's VERY IMPORTANT. you have to give him chance to land a few shots. always face your belly to the target. even if turning, make it that the belly is aimed toward the target.. like a kite attached to its owner. turn smoothly or not at all. skilled lib pilots tend to initiate an attack with a tankbuster, though i don't belong to skilled lib pilots. Most lib crash because their pilots can't understand that when they maneuver much their gunner gets dizzy and just cant aim even something as big as a vanguard because the belly gun has reached the extreme angle and rotates along the lib.
My personal loadouts and reasonings: Defense: High-G Airframe: I always run HG. Main reason being dive attacks. You can drop on something at full speed and recover so quickly while also giving your belly a clear shot.Maxed AB: Meta build. Plus it was so expensive I can't just not use it now Composite armor/Stealth: I run Comp when I'm running with inexperienced gunners, or a Shredder for the extra staying power.Stealth is used when I have my usual gunners/good randoms, and can afford to rely on their ability to kill less than my ability to evade. Weapons: TB: Simply because the Vektor and Spur are terrible.Dalton/Shredder: I use the Dalton when I have a good gunner team, and the shredder when I could use a bit more freedom, or feel like engaging from rangeDrake/Bulldog: I use the Drake or Walker as my primary tail depending on gunner preference. The Bulldog is for use against infantry heavy areas, or when I'm going Gal hunting. You'd be amazed how deadly a TB/Dalton/BD combo is when coordinated properly, but it lessens your A2A strength against ESFs. Libs are large enough to be hit by BD, so you're really only losing against pilots who know how to handle libs to begin with, which you're not likely to win against anyway.
