Best ESF Dogfighters

Strobe light should just be a secondary. Imagine flying over enemy infantry, and instead of strafing them...

One strobe to rule them all, one strobe to find them
One strobe to flash them all and in the darkness blind them

I was more going for the Seizure effect.

You better believe I'm going for even less stealth. Now if only we could get a Stuka siren we would be set.

I didn't realize that my enemies couldn't hear me blaring thunderstruck through prox when I gunned them down until post 2,000 kills.....


P.S. I'll give you 15 bucks for an amp and PA on my vehicles SOE.

Hey lads, I've been playing a lot of TR recently under the alias CommanderIX, and its been great fun running with this air squad which includes pilots like, SmiliesTR, pntballa18 , eRage, Mercid, NaturalCauses, Sach. I've been gunning for these pretty great lib pilots on the TR side, and I have a lot more fun doing so with them than I did as an NC, mainly because the NC dont have such dedicated, knowledgeable, skilled, and organized people who squad together on a daily basis. I've been running with other great gunners, like SashaGrey, and EvilRikku.

As for the list, Puresalad, you need to make some major updates to that thing, for example I would highly Recommend SmiliesTR to be put on that list as a top pilot, if not as noteable other, he clears the air with grace. Last night I was gunning in a lib, and we were in a squad over The Ascent, and it was just him and our lib vs about 8-9 scythes, two of which broke off and followed us around until i sniped them with the dalton, but the rest, all 7-8 were wrecked by Smilies in minutes, it was very impressive.

Not to mention, people like Nechrid, and Nerhesi kind of dont play anymore so they shouldnt really be up there...

I once killed 13 mosquito's in 8 minutes with 1 scythe. This is more impressive than anything a mosquito could ever do. Mosquito pilots don't get out numbered, or have to deal with lockons, nearly as bad as other factions.

Hader! I still owe you a fight or two for that! I spent the last couple of days getting used too the game after my short leave, and I feel ready now

Anyone can be outnumbered, it just comes down to how deep of a hole you can dig. I willingly dive into piles of reavers and scythes for free certs from hover-pilots. The joy of racer/fuel tanks is that you can dig yourself out of the hole.

Due to the vehicle stats I now know I have more time with an M18 than with a Hailstorm. It also shows how many more pilots regularly bail now v. a few months ago.

Nope List is pretty accurate. Smilies is a great pilot that doesn't fit in a dogfighting role, as I said before he is more of a assassin. As for the list, no one is really helping me update it anymore.......it's accurate but outdated a bit. Nechrid was on the other day, MissFrenzy Gattz and Nerhesi have no been on lately.

I feel this thread is done as far as the list is considering. The discussion continues and the community is still there which make the game interesting. The list however I believe is over. Jaeger mind set is getting turned into Waterson lol.

i fear all air to air engagements are turning into lockonside 2 and im really not enjoying it.

its really hard not to want to fight fire with fire, but theres got to be some honor somewhere out there in the skies.

Been having that same discussion with my guys. The truth of the matter is, I equipped Lock ons the other day and couldn't play the game like that. I actually think my lock ons are broken, 7 shots 1 target all hits zero damage. Regardless I find the air game degrading right now, or the pilot community is getting better at grouping up.

Just imagine being on NC or VS Crazy, those strikers are annoying lol.

Fk the striker. Can't say that I pretty much left VS because of that, but looking back I'm certainly glad I don't have to deal with those anymore

Ya just flying on the TR side for a hour or so is like a breathe of fresh air. I hate the mosquito but it's nice not listening to that beeping sound constantly.

Most good VS pilots quit. The few remaining likely have TR mosquito alts, and although someone might want to argue with you numbers can not lie.

For example, check smilies tr/vanu characters, which one is better? My TR mosquito newb is at around roughly double my scythe SPM because he is allowed to do whatever he wants, no enemy air can think about engaging me because by the time my AB's are gone, if they chased me, they went over 50 lockons.

My TR alt has double the score/hr because I barely used my TR alt until the vehicle kill rewards were changed, unlike my VS toon where I was maxing at 15k score/hr for a few months due to planes giving out 75xp per kill. With the upped population bonuses, VS pilots have an incentive to fly scythes again.

From a purely kill/hr, vehicle kill/hr, accuracy, or KDR basis, I'm still better in a scythe. Without a time machine to go fly a mossy when people didn't bail immediately when they got near critical ( [SENT], lookin' at you ), it isn't easy to compare the two characters.

I'm pretty beastly at dogfighting in a mossy/reaver. I just try to avoid situations where I need to start doing crazy stuff.

Haha, of course you're ready during the time I am starting to have a bad streak I don't know how I can fit in more video clips now though. But I can try. Won't help having yet another reaver clip in there though, I only have the one against nevesnet i plan to use, and another against jaxom for scythes, but that one against jaxom was one where he ran out of ammo before me. I don't if that's fair to include either

I think the vehicle xp change is a major factor in your Score per min, but I still think the Mosquito community doesn't have that constant reminder that theres infantry down there with lock ons as much as the rest of us. Yeah you run into them but atleast you know it's only 1 hit coming and you can plan for that.

I know my playstyle is considerably different when going near TR areas and even so against the VS out of trained reactions when seeing that lock display. Might not be a TR around but the fact it could be a striker instead of normal lock ons......still brings up the concern.

I'm not saying Striker is OP/UP/Game Breaker, but it is a serious game changer for the NC and VS, and it does kill the fun factor or overall enjoyment of being in a vehicle.


I'm not saying your bad at dogfighting I'm just stating that fact that if someone spots you, your likely popping in to assassinate someone quickly and leave, or your waiting to assassinate someone. You don't seem to be one of those guys that takes fire and turns around looking for a equal terms dogfight. Which there is nothing wrong with, but then again I edit the list, I don't choose what to edit.

As a general comment now; I am still kinda just not understanding the extreme hate of lockon a2a missiles. The ground ones, understandable. **** those things. I can't speak for the Striker, but what is the worst part of it? the 5 missiles wouldn't bother me too much flying against that, unless they did not have very scaled damage compared to a single lock on annihilator or something. So is that the problem with them? Damage? Exacerbated by it being 5 missiles at once?

Now in regards to a2a missiles...I'll agree to an extent in saying that I think their behavior is just wrong. These don't feel like a a2a missile should. Their turning radius seems to be extremely tight when you would least expect it to pull off some crazy turn, the ability to freelook lock I think is unrealistic and just stupid, and the missile speed seems to fluctuate between slower than you would like and faster than AA max fire at random. Well, I exxagerate a bit. Point is, these missiles I just don't think feel like they do what a good missile should do. I would like to see them be faster overall, but have a smaller turning radius, and maybe even a slight damage boost. It needs to behave in such a way that you really have to try to get that lock on if you are chasing someone at high speeds, and not only that but, if you don't fire it at the right angle, it has a good chance to just miss anyways.

Coming from a long background of playing flight sim games and flight arcade games (Ace Combat especially), I have a very different opinion than most on missiles in general it seems. Ace Combat may have been an extreme arcade game with fewer realistic aspects to it, but it had plenty of good dogfighting principles even so. Guns were hard as hell to use, even for the most skilled with them. The main missile you had required some skill though, sure getting that lock on was fairly easy, but the missile had the worst turning radius and if it overshot a target even by a smidge then it would lose lock and miss. You had to know when to fire it so it would hit. I probably would spend 10 or more seconds maintaining a lock before actually ever firing that missile. Good pilots would evade your lock constantly, so even after regaining lock you weren't likely to ever get a good shot with it. There was plenty of skill involved in that small part of the game and it didn't involve guns at all.

Everyone here is always hating on them and saying they are skilless weapons only noob pilots use. Given the way current a2a missiles act, there is a little truth to that I guess. That, and guns in this game are much more viable considering the overall top speeds we see on aircraft. They are kinda **** compared to modern fighters. But even so, I think it's still the worst mindset to take towards them. Brushing something off as skilless and not using them yourself because of that is not a way to becoming a better pilot. With the current state of a2a though, flying guns + afterburners has some inherent advantages though. But if I went and used a2a missiles right now, I guarantee you I would be using them a lot better than most noob pilots or than I ever have before. The advantage of going guns only for such a long time is you get much better aim, much better at being glued to someone's tail. Throw a missile into the mix now using your ability to get and maintain that lock in a heated area. You now have that enemy panicking for a missile (if they flare, well then you just made them use their one trump card), and can easily close in for the guns kill. I could go on and on about this.

Main point is, yes a2a is a bit wonky now. I would like to see missiles changed a bit to reflect more realistic missile properties. But even so, if you guys stop looking at them as the bane of everything a2a, that anyone who uses them is a scrub, and actually learn how to use them right, then you will become a better pilot.

People hate A2A because they remember how ******** they were a few months ago. Nothing like watching a missile orbit your ESF two or three times before slamming into you.

Our hate (justified or not), is the same reason why ground guys still want ESFs and Libs nerfed, they remember how powerful they used to be (and in some cases still are) and to some extent resent the pilots who use them.

That said, I borrowed a buddy's ESF with A2As last night and couldn't hit anything. I even went zero for three on a landed liberator. Guess I didn't sacrifice enough goats to the gaming gods or something.

a2a lockons are noob weapons. I'm not just saying that because they don't require as much skill to aim, but at top skill levels they simply underperform mainguns and even photons in dogfights.

They are further reduced in effectiveness against nc/vs seeing as most of us don't fly without flares. (Although a mossie pilot can bait flares out and watch as the scythe/reaver get lolstrikerd 500 times from the ground)