Is the NC Reaver the worst ESF?

Yes it is.

It certainly has a few problems - particularly the nose gun placement and auto-aim issue, but I would personally not trade my reaver for any other ESF. It has a huge learning curve, but it's very deadly in the hands of a good pilot.

In my personal experience, scythes are worrysome but a mossie is "free XP" ever since Naterian started flying a reaver primarily Not sure if this tells much about the mossie itself, or the mossie pilots on Mattherson .


(a few scythe dogfights toward the end)

Reaver is the worse of the ESF, yes no doubt but it's not so bad that it's unplayable. I would say its about 10-15% worse than the best ESF which is the Mossy. If ur up for a challenge play Reaver. I think in the original design the Reaver is suppose to be a A2G specialist but all air dmg has been nerfed so much it just doesn't fulfill that role anymore, so it's just a mediocre ESF. Give the reaver boost to dmg vehicles and it can reclaim its role as A2G..

Probably needs some agility improvements, though that could throw out existing pilots. Maybe streamline the airframe to make it less of a target.

Created a NC character on the test server with the AH and I lol @ people crying about it. Yeah its not the most forgiving, but sneak up on aircraft and they are dead in 1.8 seconds. Too much QQ about the reaver.

The reaver just needs its weight brought down to be similar to the mozzie, there is no logical reason for it to be so heavy unless the thrusters were more powerful which they aren't.

Vertical thrusters are far more powerful than any other ESF. That is in fact the reaver's ace up the sleeve.

1) Reaver has the hardest time killing targets fast since its rotary has it's aim offset. Both Mossy and especially Scythe is easier to hit with.
2) Reaver has the biggest chassi and hitbox and is thus easiest to hit AND spot (a Mossy/Scythe can offen dart in and out of a heavily contested area while a Reaver doing the same will get shot to bits due to being more visible). In comparison; the Scythe is a frisbee and very hard to hit from the front or back, the Mossy is a pencil.
3) Reaver is the least agile and has the hardest time maneuvering quickly, this is everything in dogfights. If you're gonna kill an equally skilled Mossy/Scythe-pilot you'll have to work 10x harder and probably still lose.

This means most of the time that other empires will have airsuperiority over NC since we have a harder time winning dogfights. In extension this means armor and infantry will get camped and "lolpodded" by Mossies/Scythes alot more often.

Would be nice with a balance between the ESFs but I'm not holding my breath since nothing has been done in months but a Rotary nerf which ****** the Reaver over even more.

In essence: of all the ESFs the Reaver is the hardest to learn and survive in while the other two are more beginner friendly and extremely good when you get good with them.

It's useless and they aren't that much more powerful if you actually compare them.
The only thing it's useful for is flying backwards which is a great party trick but useful 0.1% of the time.

I've used the reaver extensively so that argument is out the window.

Even when you watch the videos of skilled pilots, they have trouble hitting things with their guns due to the enormous offset.

The reaver is definitely the worst, but with sufficient skill it can perform its role.

Of course the same pilot in a scythe will decimate you .... or even a mossie.

Only against newb pilots. And newb libs. If you suddenly have to engage in a hover/thruster fight you have basically already lost. And you have to keep distance to good libs. The gun offset is maddening in a hoverfight too. On top of that you have a bit bigger hitbox from the front. The other 2 are pretty narrow from the front, scythe is flat-> easy for the convergence to slip above/below it.

Reaver can do alright and in a turning fight i don't really feel much inferior as in "autolose", it's still a disadvantage though, but i practiced enough to win most of those turning fights. Hover is a different level that i still have to "master". One reason why many people are put off to fly that thing - They heard it utterly socks. It doesn't, just a bit^^ It's not like you have a choice as NC though =P Get destroyed by lolpodds or learn to fly.

The only problem with the Reaver is the gun that sometimes jinx back and forth between spots.

Other then that it performs just as well as any other ESF with just the bare minimum differences in stats which from looking at them is nothing to shout about, in some of the stats the difference is not even a full percent.

I wouldn't trade my flying brick for anything

It depends. If you like killing things up to twice as fast as the other ESF's, then fly the Reaver.

If you like to hover in the open for twice as long to kill things, fly the Scythe / Mossie.

learning how to fly is painful and only alleviated by crunching under-equipped lowbie flyers from other factions.

I disagree that its the worst ESF, the extra damage on their rotary cannon should not be underestimated, and their huge afterburners, obviously it all comes down to skill, I think the reason the reaver is off putting to a lot of people its because its big and bulky, easy to hit, but the damage trade of is well worth it imo,

I think the scythe is the worst ESF.

• 100 m/s (16%) velocity disadvantage on rotary
• Can't tell by look whether thrusters are vertical
• Worst speed (no cruise or AB advantage)

All these things keep me from enjoying/playing the Scythe, whereas I like the Reaver and love the Mossie.

Sure the Scythe flies well, handles with super cool inertia-less UFO drive unlike the brickish tumbling that is the Reaver. It's got a great profile from the front (but one that turns quickly bad at any angle and just as bad as the Reaver when at a 90 degree angle to aggressor) and it's probably the easiest ESF to pick up.... which explains why there are so darn many of them.

But it's pretty handicapped as a dogfighter. And I like dogfights!

It's a pig, and when I first started flying it I hated it.

Now I love the damn thing, and actually do pretty good A2A with it.

Now if only AA from the ground wasn't everywhere, all the time.

really?

• 100 m/s disadvantage isnt really important, since most A2A dogfights happen at close-mid range. No drop makes it easier to pick off infantry at a distant. It takes 41/40 hailstorm rounds to kill ESF and no auto-converange issues.
• scythe cruise speed is 225kph. 10 kph more than reaver
• Experience scythe pilots will know when the v-thrust is engaged, sound and the sudden lost of speed.