Is it now accepted by the majority of the community that the reaver is hands down most powerful ESF?

My honest opinion is that the reaver is the best dogfighter. It's not the best at everything though. The scythe I think holds a slight edge in ground-strikes (vs. vehicles anyway - the photonpods are a bit weaker than the others in splash) because it has less momentum making it good at flying close to ground,although that lack of momentum is a downside in some cases too. Also nice brake-power which is overall useful in many situations.The mossie makes a very good strike-craft that can use its speed (but more importantly its very fast acceleration) to get out of danger like sudden flak and lockons and can limp out where a reaver would get caught by a few more shots. I don't think any of them feels obviously "gimped" or "totally OP". The differences are fairly small-ish details for the most part.

The biggest difference is in the fairly significant advantage in DPS and DPM (damage pr. magazine) of the vortek I would say. Comparing it to the other two it is just better, which seems a bit weird. Other than that the best v-thrust and the most stock afterburner fuel in the game both add specifically to the dogfighting capability as those two things are the things that will keep you alive in a high-end dogfight. Now, whether or not you think that all ESFs ought to be equal specifically in dog-fighting or if there should be a fair bit of asymmetrical balance is a different question.

That said, the experience level/skill of the pilot outshines everything else, so i rarely feel I ever get killed by a reaver only because he had the superior hardware. If that ever happens it's in the ability to one-clip other ESFs in sneak attacks. You can miss a fair amount of bullets and still do that with the vortek while you have to land a lot more of them in the other two, usually resulting in at least one reload. In a pure duel between two equally skilled high-end pilots I would be putting my money on the reaver each time though - but as said, dog-fighting is only one of the many things you do in an ESF.

If they do indeed end up normalizing rotary damage then I still think the reaver will have an edge in the dog-fighting department, just a lesser one. It will still have the best V-thrust and more afterburner fuel and that's what you want for doing this, but I think the advantage would be small enough that it wouldn't matter for the gameplay as a whole. As said, dog-fighting is just one role out of many and the reaver dosn't excel at them all, especially if you end up discarding the majority of the current difference in rotary power.

Not sure if I support a straight up "normalization" if that just means making them all more identical. Would be more interresting I guess to have small advantages and disadvantages for each rotary. I think asymmetrical balance is more fun than perfect mirror balance. Right now it is a little hard to justify the vortek being best in all categories though I have to admit.

Finally I think it is worth keeping in mind that we will "soon" have an ESF update with new weapons ect. Currently what we think of as typical ESF useage patterns might change. I read somewhere that they datamined cliet data on the test server and found references to "bombs" for the ESFs. If something like that ever becomes a reality that sort of thing might suddenly make the mossie more desireable for example for that sort of in-and-out-quickly role. Who knows, I'm not going to speculate too much - but depending on how long it will be until that update we might want to see how that changes things before we suggest any too-drastic changes. Better slow and steady multiple-pass adjustments than SOE-style buffs and nerfs.

Just my 2 cents. I don't expect everyone else to agree with my opinions but I try to keep as factual and objective as I can.

-Stigma

No. I don't think it's the best.

I am a pilot since beta and my aim got quite decent, I'd say good, with time. I tried all ESF. Changed from Mosquito to Scythe, was surprised how quickly I was able to shoot down the enemy. But gosh this velocity. Took me time to adjust my leading habit accordingly.
Then tried reaver and with proper aim that baby is a beast. People say NC should have hardest hitting weapons, but NC faction trait downside is supposed to be recoil for one, but there's no recoil on vehicle guns so I dont see why they should hit harder.

I was disappointed by M18 Rotary dps, satisfied with the Hailstorm Turbo Laser DPS (fix velocity please ) and was feeling bad because having used the Vortek Rotary I say it is hands down the most efficient nose gun with no tradeoffs.

Heres an example of such a tradeoff. Keep the Vortek Rotary DPS the same but give it the velocity of the Hailstorm.

Or nerf the Vortek to Hailstorm DPS and buff the M18 Rotary to Hailstorm DPS.
I don't have hard feelings for reavers (so I dont call for a hard nerf hammer!). If they beat me I don't blame their nose guns. But for the sake of balancing I suggest MINOR tweaks and adjustments to nose gun's damage outputs.

I personally prefer the Scythe because of the looks and my playstyle. But Reaver would be my choice #2. It's incredibly powerful.

I didn't say we needed something better because we are outnumbered I simply said that the reaver and scythe pilots tend to be better because the bad ones usually just give up because flying against the tr is a pain because they naturally have the best ground to air defense. bad mosquito pilots are still super numerous because they just fly with the zerg and hide behind the zergfest of strikers and other mosquitos and they just sit there and lolpod spawn rooms. yes the reaver has better vertical thrust but that alone doesn't counter the mosquitos perks. I think the reaver nose gun could be toned down a bit, such as a 5 maximum ammo reduction or something, but overall the mosquitos rotary needs to be the least powerful of all of them because of all its properties.

the mosquitos least powerful rotary is what keeps it in line with the scythe and the reaver. the reaver cant be that OP since most of the good reaver pilots on waterson have rerolled TR anyway so that has to tell you something

Thrust power still makes your ESF the best in A2A battles.

The NC actually possess the maneuverability when it comes to Hover Dogfights.....
The Scythe's only advantage is it's hitbox.

Fun Fact: When pointing the nose down for a ground attack, the scythe falls the fastest out of the three ESFs.

oh an other reaver nerf? good..an other NC nerf? better!
Planeside? **** you. You just lost a potential payer for your game.

considering maneuverability means nothing when actually dog fighting.........................................right...

That is kind of irrelevant. I have tried this on my Reaver and they ALL fall fast, measuring the time it takes to fall is absurd.
The scythe has a larger view and a better ability to roll and turn on the spot so i find it most manauverable. The reaver has the best thrusters and mossie has speed and small frame

Are you guys hitting things that aren't moving lol?? Vortex Rotary damage has ALWAYS been high...its when the ESF's actually move that the glaring weaknesses of the reaver shine through.

I literally die of laughter when I see Nerf Reaver threads.

Most experienced pilots engage in dogfights, that involve a lot of hovering. Which involves using the reverse maneuver, which the Reaver is the best at.

The Reaver is pretty much for a skilled pilot. Someone who can land their shots and perform maneuvers.
The Scythe's larger view doesn't really matter much considering most pilots go into 3rd person to reacquire their target, and most pilots don't even use turn in a dogfight much(unless their are a beginner). They use pitch. Also, all of the ESFs roll quick enough to make the Scythe's advantage negligible.

TL;DR(it was still short) - The Reaver is the best ESF for skilled/experienced pilots.

Although I would kind of leave ESFs as they are now. Except they should decrease the fall rate for all of them.

and the Prowler is best tank at killing infantry. We shouldnt make all the things the same
The little bit of faction independance must be kept

it maybe high but you get more armor tham the otheer ESF. so quit crying GOD!!!

lol don't get me wrong here. I am not whining. Only laughing at the people complaining that the Reaver is the most OP ESF.

all ESFs have exactly the same armor and exactly the same resistances.

Still waiting for someone to point out the "majority"

The "wwaaagh Reaver nosegun convergence got fixed" crying reminds me of when the twitch suppresson ceased to favour high RoF weapons and suddenly NC was "OP, Higby conspiracy" since they didn't get suppression lock everytime someone sneezed in their direction.

TR & VS: Learn to play without your handicap advantage.

The real question is, does anyone actually prefer the Scythe (for dogfighting) over the other two?

I have yet to meet one person who does.

Vertical thrust is really only important in a hover duel. It gives you faster "dodge" (when you fire you rafterburners in hover mode and shoot up, and using accend/decent buttons like your ADAD keys when infantry strafe dodging - that's what matters in v-thrust). The reavers faster dodging advantage is pretty much offset by it's larger hit box. In a duel a sythe is just as good as a reaver. Anyone complaining about the mossy's weakness though isn't taking into account the other positive traits of the mosquito.