Yes, this is the problem with all G2A atm. As long as they dont get "greedy" (as you say), they'll just return to a safe pad and fix up. At least that's the case with me + friends. All night. We die to ESF that follows us. And, thats it. Maxes/turrets/SG (and sunderer MG etc) kill us 1 in 50 times. G2A harass you. Nothing more than harassing you. There's no real danger, unless you're being greedy or reckless. This was the case before these patches, and thats the case after these patches. Its free squad repair XP, if nothing else. A2A is lethal, G2A is a nuisance. It was before, and it still is. Yes, its MORE of a nuisance atm, than it was before. Meaning they'll make our lib escape quicker, and for a longer time - but its still no killer. No killer at all. Just twice this weekend did burstermax get kill on us. Skyguard didnt get a single kill.
I honestly think MAX gameplay would be a lot better in this game if mismatched weapons weren't even possible. None of the MAX weapons are powerful enough in singles for whatever flexibility you get out of having them mismatched to justify such a huge loss in lethality toward a given target type. I really wish they just had dual bursters, dual AI, and dual AV available out of the gate, with unlocks being a variety of alternative dual weapons in each of those categories (some weapon rebalancing may be in order first if this were to happen, granted, as all NC having access to scatmaxes might be a problem). The MAX doesn't even really operate the way it's supposed to until you've put money or a ton of certs into it, and I think that's a shame.
Whenever "armor" gets called on Mattherson in our ops, you'll almost always find me pulling a Skyguard. I'm getting good enough that any low-flying, loitering, not-paying-attention ESF is in for a world of hurt (90% damage or outright kill) if they get within 250m or so. That means I can truly deter any ESF that enters my bubble if I see them and Libs need to stay at 500m range or I'll start tickling them. Put 3-4 Skyguards (or base turrets or AA MAX units) together and Libs run a 50-50 chance of not making it back out of our zone of control. Organized outfits will regularly have a squad pull burster MAX and HAs with lock-on AA launchers. Very few unorganized non-outfit zergs will pull AA. You'll see maybe 1 Skyguard for every 20-30 tanks and maybe a solo burster MAX wandering around looking confused. I expect that to change come Jan 30th once we start getting XP for doing damage to vehicles. It's a shame, because being one of the handful of AA guarding an armor column can result in some great fun when the ESFs start swarming around and making attack runs. Or acting as a trapdoor spider, sitting behind a hill 200-400m behind the front lines, with your ESFs and Libs instructed to bug out towards your location when chased by enemy ESFs. You'll see a badly damaged friendly Lib pop over the hill and get to light up the ESF with all four barrels of the Skyguard. Odds are much higher of a kill because they'll likely be already damaged and too focused / committed on killing your Lib pilot to notice that I've started hitting them.
The problem with AA wasn't how effective it was, but rather how unrewarding it was. You could earn an hours worth of AA experience in a couple of minutes as infantry.
Oh, yeah, to be clear, I don't think AA is potent enough. I was just putting it out there that I try to be one of the few dedicated AA people out there (somebody has to, right?). It's not nearly as effectual as I think it should be, but when I'm one of the only guys standing on the towers making the legion rocket podders and hovering liberators hightail it, occasionally nabbing a few foolish pilots trying to tail our wounded air all the way to our warpgate, there's some satisfaction in that, at least. But seriously... I need certs.
+1 like and I love your burster (and team) dedication. You said it better than I ever will. I never take out any of those (even tho I have them certed). For A2A I only bring lock-on Reaver to protect my m8s libs. Later this month, hopefully that dedication will result in some XP and certs, since you'll get XP per damage done. Lets see how it works out. With friends online Im 90% in a lib, but still Id like them to lower the armor of that beast. Its just too good.
Playing AA is simply a very boring and unrewarding experience. I only do it purely out of spite for "I have no skill whatsoever so I have to use rocket pods" players.
1.Hop onto same server on enemies side. 2.Fly over area with seemingly no AA on your side 3.Discover just how wrong you were 4.???? 5.Profit
As a genuine deterrent, AA is working now (that is my experience on Miller anyway). Most medium to large battles see a lot of ESF's to start with until people start spawning AA MAXes. Then over a period of 5-10 minutes there gradually gets less and less air. I think a few more ESF's are getting destroyed now. But most fliers seem to have learned to go elsewhere now once the enemy starts rolling AA. Prior to the last change, they just kept right on coming back and for ground based AA it was like banging your head against a brick wall. AA seems to be working as intended now. I'm not saying it's rewarding, because it's not. It's as dull as ditchwater and it makes me want to ALT + F4 still. But at least you can see you make a difference now. It's just a shame that there isn't a way to add a bit of fun into it.