So higby want's Air to stay overpowered

New flash. Real life is boring, unbalanced and not meant for fun. Infantry IMO should be the counter to everything. The main focus of PS2 should be infantry, not tank and air zergs.

AA guns that don't flat out kill air are fine on vehicles that can also do other things. Specialized units that just tickle air are an absolute design fail though.

The game is going "to lose" if it keeps nerfing things that a "group" of people can't do what another "group" of people can , stop crying and find a solution like anyone with common sense does , the game has already been dummed down alot compared to ps1 to cater for the less skilled player market , jeeez imagine what these forums would be like if the game was hard O-M-F-G

People who don't have the common sense to over come a problem just just hit the nerf button until they get their own way , so people like us who have common sense will suffer

I'm not spending another cent on this game until this catastrophic balance issue is addressed.

As more and more players see the lethality of flying and take to the skies - the more my patience for putting up with it diminishes. I can't see myself playing this game come next year. Or sooner, even.

SOE has made their stance fairly clear, I would say. They don't give a **** about balance.

The problem about AA right now is that if its only meant to be a "deterrent", then how the heck is AA going to get certs?

Truth be told, playing AA is very unrewarding. Getting certs right now is very important, who in their right mind would **** himself by investing into AA? It makes no sense.

Its a design flaw IMO. I dont care about the balance, I think its mostly fine. However if you play AA right now you are only shooting yourself in the foot.

Well if you see 30 pilots in the air above your base on connery at night and on TR. It might just be TRG Air squad supporting our 60+ guys on the ground. We would like to apologize for any feelings being hurt.

Planetside 2 is a combined arms game, not an infantry game. SOE even stated this multiple times. Armor, infantry, air. This is the combat triangle that exists in the game. No one single factor should dominate.

All I know is that the only BR 40's + I have seen are pilots so far. I have never seen a ground pounder over BR 25 or so. Maybe pilots just play more. Yea that must be it.

The power of AA is pretty good, it's just availability isn't where it should be at. Why do people fail to kill using AA? They're usually the only one shooting it, and in many cases it is with single bursters. Pilots are certing into composite armor so it's making things a bit worse. Once more people unlock dual bursters with extended mags and G2A missiles it will get better.

AA is fine, I cannot fly over a populated base and survive because not only do I have ground AA but enemy aircraft chase you too.

The only difference is when you're fighting in a small fight the aircraft can dominate because there isn't enough AA.

So people have to spend copious amounts of certs and then work as a team to stop the ESF which costs no certs and can solo pretty much anything in the game?

Goodbye balance, we hardly knew ye.

"AA Is fine because I'm a bad pilot"

Maybe SOE should consider making some tweaks to the reward system where the xp from killing is related to the weapon used. Rocket pods instead of having the normal killing xp, could get less and same may apply to other weapons-equipment, etc.

Problem is ... who is certing into these ? There are dozens of other things that would be a better investment.

Why would someone invest his hard earned points, to perform an extremely situational role that is not even rewarding?

Would be nice if the maxes burster range got a huge reduction and a spread increase along with a slight damage increase making it a small but strong point covering weapon that will kill/deter the enemy.

Whilst the Skyguard could have alot less spread more range and less damage making it a bigger area denial tool which could also get the stragglers running from the maxes.

A number of skyguards will still be able to wreak havoc at a long range but the maxes will be there to cover a set location such as a sunderer or a small outpost. The skyguard should be able to cover a huge area such as a region not just the camp in the region.

The type of person who sees "rewarding" as padding his K/D or xp won't.

The type of person who sees "rewarding" as making a real difference in the battle and helping decide the outcome will.

The extended mags for the Burster are 500 certs per arm. That's crazy pricing and a huge part of the problem.

The cert cost and SC pricing for the AA MAX is a huge rip-off.

More people might use it if the pricing wasn't so eye poppingly unrealistic.

Again, the dedicated AA platforms SHOULD be more of a threat to Air.

I actually spent Station Cash on the Skyguard, but haven't even rolled it out yet due to how ineffective Anti-Air Turrets seem to be.
The other day, it took three of us WITH Mosquito support to secure the air outside of the TR's Amerish Warpgate.
That is ********, a single Reaver shouldn't be tanking sustained fire from two AA Phalanxes only to fly away and repair.

If you are a Pilot who thinks it's "Unfair" to be shot down over enemy territory, well then I've got news for you:
LEARN TO MONITOR THE BATTLESCAPE!
Every other unit in the game can't putz around behind enemy lines and expect not to be nuked on sight, let alone completely unmolested, and nether should your solo flying pwnmobile.

I don't know how many times I've looked up to see an ESF flying overhead whose Faction only controls a hex on the other side of the map...
You should not be able to fly to an enemy Warpgate because all the static air defenses are ****!

I maintain that the correct way to balance AA is thus:

Base defenses should kick air's ***. Bases are fairly spread out, and being completely stationary means it's something that pilots can consciously avoid. This puts pressure on ground forces to take out those turrets to allow air support.

While vehicular and MAX AA should probably 1:1 cancel out one airplane of equal skill, and be more powerful than handheld AA, no portable AA should be more powerful than air, they should harass and discourage, not fully stop, air. You don't want air to be useless and a hard and fast way to do that is to make it impossible to predict where you can fly without being shot down.

There should be a ceiling above which no ground based AA is effective, to allow breathing room for pilots. At the same time, being above this ceiling should also preclude being effective against ground. Meaning pilots have to expose themselves to engage ground.

All in all this will allow pilots to predictably avoid anti-air if they want to, enable superior ground forces to scare away air, and bases to be safe havens unless engaged by combined arms. All the while forcing a fair engagement if air wants to do damage.
Being well prepared, knowing the enemy weak points and having ground support will then enable pilots to kick miles of ***, while not being over powered.

This. It's a shame how many people blindly rage on the forums "omgwtfESFovurpowderednurff!!!11" The real problem is that AA certs are too expensive, thus, there's not enough AA in the game yet. Personally, I have a blast on my AA mosquito, but oh wait, that's air too so it doesn't count as "proper" AA according to the vocal minority.