M14 Banshee WTF??

I never understood why people think that a Burster MAX is a hard counter that should win every fight against air. Do these same people grab an AV MAX and then stand right in front of vehicles trying to face-tank the main cannon? You still need to move and use cover to take your target down if they're shooting back at you.

@Runegrace

Because the Burster has a bonus for damage at close range. Air Farmers are basically just interrupting the ground game, so there is no reason for the burster to not simply melt them if they choose a close range confrontation.

The opposite is that ESFs simply ruin the ground game, and the only counter is to have to get a team of Bursters up who are vulnerable to ground troops in the extreme. So your argument seems to be that ESFs need to be un-killable troll machines for cert farming.

What should the ratio be? 4 Burster maxes drawn to counter 1 ESF? 6 Burster maxes? Plus Engineers and medics if you want the Bursters to live.

All air does in PS2 is mess with other air and occasionally farm infantry. In some ways I think Planetside 2 would be better without air vehicles. That is all air does...if there are targets in the air, air will fight air. If there are no targets, then air will just farm the ground.

It's pretty annoying and not very helpful.

I honestly can't see you arrived at that conclusion from this: You still need to move and use cover to take your target down if they're shooting back at you.

People need to stop declaring that an AA max should beat an AI ESF. It shouldn't. Why? Because maxes can get rez'd. And on top of that, they are often surrounded by engineers and other infantry who are also shooting at the ESF. 1 heavy with a G2A launcher, or a few people shooting their guns an ESF can easily help the flak max take out the ESF too. And then there are the spawn room warrior maxes that will never die behind their magic shield, but will deny the airspace.

More of the same argument, boiling down to expectations that it should take a full squad to down an ESF hovering at close range.

Do you fly? If the base has a decent pop, there will be more than 1 person shooting at an ESF. It is pretty realistic to think that more than just the flak max will be shooting the air. If the pop is low, then I guess the max will have to be clever and use cover available to deny the airspace without dying.

But I'd be perfectly fine with flak maxes beating out a banshee if they were to remove the ability to revive a max. In fact, I would prefer that. Maxes get the benefits from both vehicles and infantry, so they have it pretty good right now. I don't feel bad because they lose to AI weapons.

I don't know if isn't a hard counter really - farming certs/air is so darn easy with a Burster MAX. I know I ruined your ESF yesterday with one too. Have no idea why people think AA is bad, its so profitable to play AA. Some days like yesterday, I wasn't even intending to pull my MAX, but then someone made me mad, so I exacted revenge. Sadly I didn't get the guy who originally killed me, but some days, that happens too...

... Holy crap.
Then again... and this is coming from Vanu. I don't think I can say it's Op... when he's shooting hell onto a group of enemies that's not paying attention. I am paranoid of the sky as an infantry :/ To many missile storms.

If they're alone, there is no revive. For those to happen, it has to be at least 1v2, but usually the numbers are much higher before medics are nearby since the first logical support class would be engineer.

Ok, don't stand in the open. Problem solved.

I've been flying my Mosquito with Hornet (A2G: good vs. tanks, ok vs. infantry) and Needler (A2A with great range) recently. I've been very effective at:
1) helping spot EVERY VEHICLE ON THE MAP (exposing key enemy Sunderers, exposing surprise enemy flanking attempts, exposing surprise grouped armored pushes before they begin pressing ally positions, exposing advancing Gal drop attempts etc.
2) taking out AV Base Turrets for ally approach to bases; and softening and disrupting base defenders before ground forces hit a base
3) taking out or driving back extended enemy tank lines
4) softening up enemy Sunderers or helping finish them off
5) helping maintain the lock down on enemy bases, watching for infantry that slips the ally net, finding and exposing fallback Sunderers that may setup, or finding and disrupting enemy ground units that try to setup pressure from alternate fronts
6) helping keeping air clear of enemy ESFs and Libs, by driving them off or destroying them (Needler very good at long range driving off of Air units), thereby depriving the enemy of all the above functions

I also will pull and run Banshee with Scout Radar in battles that need the AI and Radar. Though I have gotten bored of the Banshee and prefer the fun of the A2A/A2G broader game of the Hornet/Needler combo (even if the XP and stat boosting is less).

Most actual aggressive A2A killing by ESFs is done by Gank Squads and Top Pilots, often hunting nowhere near their allies' frontline positions. That leaves a lot of ESFs (such as myself) to focus on G2A. And any side with Air Superiority in a battle can quickly push major advantages in spotting, countering flanking, knocking out AV Base Turrets, etc.

It's not my fault most people don't understand battlefield tactics. But don't think that ESFs can't have a major impact in the providing bit advantages on the battlefield.

Same sort of response as to use air mobility and leave when faced with a supported burster MAX rather than hovering and trying to sneak up on a group of infantry.

I don't follow what you mean. Could you explain that to me?

Was going to post a giant response, but everything you do can be done by ground forces. You do not benefit anyone.

If anything, anyone who flies is selfish. You don't take points, the ground forces do. And like I said, you're either fighting other aircraft or farming the ground. Not much of a benefit to the bigger picture since ground forces take the points, not you. Either way, no reason to get mad since air vehicles are going nowhere. But it's definitely a playstyle for the selfish, no doubt about that.

Here, it comes to this: if you had the chance to switch your loadout on the fly (lol) and you had the choice of engaging air targets which benefit everyone on your side, but run the risk of being blown up versus getting a juicy farm going on against hapless infantry, I'll bet you will farm the infantry.

... and why aren't Pounders being gloriously ZOE'd? They're broken as ****. They're slightly worse at AV than the other two starting AV MAX weapons, sure, but against all targets, they're almost twice as deadly as the Comet / Falcon, and they're literally equally competitive against AI MAX weapons. Since they can actually blow the **** out of infantry and MAX units alike (unlike every other AV / AI MAX weapon in the game), this literally makes the TR AV MAX weapon the single deadliest anti-infantry MAX weapon in the entire freaking game. And they start with it.

Eh? The LPPA isn't that far behind.

Personally I get 115 KPH with LPPA and 123 with Banshee (and my fun alt has 132 with the Airhammer even.)

They all feel about the same against light armor. (And they're all junk against heavy.)

You information is incorrect.

No unit in the game can scout or Q-Spot Vehicles as well as an ESF. Not even close. Scout Radar from ESFs is amazing in some battles. All the items I listed are first rate strategic advantages, that may or may not play in different battles.

I cannot help if you cannot understand that, or if you are perhaps in denial.

I take points all the time. I fly over to a base, hop out, and take the point.

Didn't we just cover I take points?

Didn't you read my post?:
"I have gotten bored of the Banshee and prefer the fun of the A2A/A2G broader game of the Hornet/Needler combo (even if the XP and stat boosting is less)."

I don't think I can really debate the issue with you. You don't really read my posts and you don't seem to understand the tactical advantages available from different units. The Server Smash uses ESFs, why would they do that if it were just some useless unit?
http://ps2alerts.com/serversmash/match/ss/7
http://ps2alerts.com/serversmash/match/ss/5
http://ps2alerts.com/serversmash/match/ss/4
http://ps2alerts.com/serversmash/match/ss/3
http://ps2alerts.com/serversmash/match/ss/2
http://ps2alerts.com/serversmash/match/ss/1

I read your post, I just don't believe you. And I never said ESF is useless, I said they're just not helpful. The playstyle doesn't really instill cooperative value, just gregarious lolpodding and ez pewpew farming while hovering around spawn points. "Wow, I'm so glad we have this air cover." said no one ever, because pilots are more keen to farm ghostcaps

Either way, air is just annoying and not fun. If I could shoot at my own ESF without weapons lock I would. Get on the ground like everyone else and do your part.

Airhammer can kill AA MAX with just a 4 shots and way quicker than a banshee, when with banshee you sometimes need a second mag to finish him up. Why wont you cry that AH is OP instead?

But anyway, banshee may be a little OP, but not much. Every ES AI nosegun is effective in some manner. And you have to remember, that when you're taking AI nosegun, you're can be killed by any average pilot with AA noseguns. So you can stay alive in air fight only if you're 1) can run away from enemy, b) are really good with AH, which is still kinda decent weapon even for air duels. So usially you are stuck with AB tanks, farming only enemy infantry, and supporting your ground forces with scout radar, if you want to take it up.

Answer me this question, why is the air hammer ALLOWED to two-shot maxes (tried it myself, go ahead) with a clip of 9 shots; Why is the Light PPA ALLOWED to kill multiple maxes with killing one taking less that a quarter of a fully upgraded 70 shot clip? hmMh? When a Banshee needs to take a full magazine to kill one? This witch hunt has gone beyond ridiculous.

As for AA Maxes, yes I think they have some indirect problems facing them, one specially being AI ESFs able to field afterburner pods for dodging flak to a more significant degree mixed with a combination of Nanite repair and Fire suppression gives the poor guys on the ground unfair disadvantages. And people say A2A Tomcats are annoying.