Mosquito Needler is overpowered

No, equally skilled pilots facing off in reaver vs scythe scythe will win 99.9% of the time.

1. This depends on what you call a "fair fight".
2. Also, as far as I know, 98,84% of all encounters in "real gameplay" are NO fair fights.

The Scythe might have some little advantages over the Mossy when fighting frontal, however there are so many other sides on a Scythe you can shoot at... and on all other sides, the Scythe is seasier to hit than the Mossy. Also the Scythe is slower, can't escape , and can't follow escaping enemies that well.
In an unfair fight, which is far more realistic to have, the Scythe will have the larger disadvatages compared to the Mossy.

Reaver hover thrust is still very bad compared to Mosquito and Scythe. They instantly hover up and start shooting from upside.
It is clear that Reaver isn't on par with the other two.

So...I'm a bit confused. ESFs haven't been touched in forever. Was there some stealth patch I didn't hear about, or is this thread the result of PS4 players coming into the PC forums? Let's straighten some things out.

Exactly, except opposite. Reaver has the best vertical thrust performance of the ESFs. A stock ESF can ascend at the following top speeds when using vertical thrust:


Reaver - 115 kph
Scythe - 90 kph
Mossie - 82 kph

Notice how the ESF that's the easiest to hit is also the easiest to dodge with? Fun note: take a stock Reaver, turn it upside down, then use your vertical thrust down to stop the fall. You will reach 0 kph, hovering perfectly in the air. This is the only ESF in the game that can do this. Have to not be running Hover, though. Strangely, you will fall faster while upside down when using the Hover frame.

1. Two ESFs meet head-on with no outside interference. In the air it's actually a lot more common than other realms, and the results of any sort of dogfighting competition tend to put the Scythe as #1 in this situation.
2. Also, using statistics based on your 'feels' is rather bad form.

The Scythe has HUGE advantages from the front. It has the slimmest profile, but also has the highest velocity noseguns meaning you need to lead less than other factions. The Scythe is easier to hit from the top or bottom, but this means that the Scythe isn't turned to engage you. Keeping your front to the enemy isn't possible in a large air clash but...how often do you see these? From my experience, "fair fights' (1v1) situations arise far more often.

Here's a secret: no ESF can escape another ESF. When you pitch, you bleed speed. The Mossie's top speed advantage only applies when moving in a straight line, otherwise pitching up and down to dodge snares EVERY ESF. If an ESF has Racer/AB, then they might pull away from you but they have to travel in a straight line which is an incredibly easy shot. Unless you have a good amount of lead before trying to escape, it's impossible to avoid giving your pursuer the opportunity to kill you. Unless you have somewhere nearby to run to (warpgate, friendly AA) it's almost always a bad choice to run.

Scythe is certainly super-slow. I normally run Racer because of it. But this mostly affects survival against ground-based AA, not A2A. The ground usually sees your largest profile, and the slow overall speed means it takes more time to fly out of the range of flak and lockons.

In an unfair fight, the side on the wrong end has the most disadvantages, no matter the faction. If your server has more enemies in the air, don't race into that unfair fight. Peck at a distance and try to pull off from the group, or lead with Tomcats (no 'honor' when you're being swarmed). If it's crazily against you, get some friends in Skyguards and bait enemies over them. A lone ESF is tantalizing, and each Skyguard only needs about 5 seconds to kill an ESF. Two or three needs about 2 seconds per enemy, clears a squad in no time. Bring disadvantage to your enemies.



Oh, didn't really address the nosegun thing. Mossy has long been considered to be an alright frame with lackluster guns. Banshee used to be a highlight with about 20% better kill metrics, but then they reduced the explosive payload to about 1/5th making it worse than the rotary for AI. Vortek Rotary is a beast, with a +20 average BR than other guns for good reason. All high-capacity ES guns are terrible for ESF dogfights. The turbolaser can be certed to have like a 1s reload, which is funny. Otherwise, there's not much that stands out unless you want to compare stats that basically fall within a standard deviation of each other.

Buff NC M20, Nerf Needler and saron. Reaver is the least used ESF thanks to unbalanced ESFs.

This is not true, in real gameplay, scythe has better flanking abilities. It instantly swaps it's position and attacks from upside.
Those stats you wrote are false. With equal skilled pilots, Reaver has zero chance.

I've looked at the data, and against the Sauron, the needler is slightly worse dps, in return for a larger magazine. The key for both reavers and scythes is to dodge more, especially during reloading. Every time I try to out dps them, even though I theoretically have a slight advantage, I get rekt. Try to get them standing still, and shoot them from slightly above them or to the side. The Sauron has better velocity and better dps, so as long as you're facing them and you don't make yourself an easy target, they aren't that scary.

Those stats are taken from the actual game, test for yourself in VR. Or feel free to tell us what you 'feel' they are instead if you're not impressed by facts.

Reaver is a vicious craft in the right hands. Go ahead and fly on another faction if you think you'd do better with another ESF, maybe the Reaver just doesn't jive with you.

Tell gamemasters to faction transfer me ^^ It's not possible. I won't spend 1 year and level again.
I played with scythe against reavers and it was like I'm playing in godmode. It melts reavers quickly.
NC is the worst faction, and loses on all servers. I regret leveling up a NC character, game developers forgot about our faction.