So I tried out the Skyguard

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Xiphos, Jan 1, 2013.

  1. Drsexxytime

    The Skyguard was the biggest waste of SC I ever spent in the game. At first it wasn't too bad but now most ESFs are certed a bit into flak and this along with accuracy issues makes the Skyguard a gigantic waste. I mean when you're pounding a Liberator with one it makes for a pretty show, but that's about it. Damage needs to be upped. It "should" equal to maybe 3 burster max canons. Not 3 Maxes, but 3 of their guns. Base defense turrets also need their damage upped.
  2. Goden

    Smedley himself said that AA is a deterrent to aircraft and will not be a lethal weapon.

    As much as I agree with you it isn't going to happen.
    • Up x 2
  3. Pockets

    No needed role in the game should ever be unrewarding. Its the only direct combat role that cannot earn enough certs doing its job to kit itself out. The only thing that has it worse are gal pilots that I can think of.

    Personally I won't spend certs on things that can't earn them in some way.

    Outfits will pull AA, but outfits are not the majority of players. They won't be for a very long time. The common players, the ones that are part of the zerg, they need an incentive to buy and pull these things out or they never will. And most of them don't come here so telling everyone they need to suck up the progress loss for the duration won't work. It needs to an ingame fix.
  4. Vilmond

    IT IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO SHOOT A SKYGUARD WHILE MOVING REMOTELY ACCURATELY!

    1, Recoil exists and is pretty intense both with vertical climb and abit of side to side sway.
    2, Due to the view and HAVING to stay in first person and needing to constantly adjust your aiming and leading/compensate for recoil (which is only increased by moving) its near impossible to actively drive.

    I have tried the move and shoot with lightnings it can work decently with HE vs infantry and using the mini map to drive, due to how the gun shoots and mostly you just need acouple good shots to get the job done. This means the mobility is a real asset.
    Though with the skyguard you need to dump multiple entire magazines into things to see results, you need nearly peerless accuracy to see results, these facts combined with the more difficult nature of properly aiming/leading with the skyguard make being mobile and shooting with the skyguard pointless.

    Further in most situations "moving" against an ESF or Lib is pointless. That lib gunner doesn't care where you move they will just pound away with there gun regardless. ESF's might be shaken alittle but in general you are better off trying to park against a wall/tree/cliff so that your rear armor is hidden so they have to use afew more rockets to try taking you down. Granted that usually kills shooting "behind" you giving your turret instead of a nice 360 view probably closer to a 200-280 or so view depending.

    Seriously don't suggest bullcrap if you have NO CLUE what the hell you are talking about.
  5. Spookydodger

    Granted no role should be unrewarding. And that is certainly the case from an XP reward. I guess the reason I mostly play AA is because I like to support the effort and I find my reward at this point in shooting things.

    Once damaging vehicles rewards XP (or some other form of deterrence incentive) then I'll be happier still and there will be more AA.

    So I never said it shouldn't be an ingame fix, I just don't feel the need to restate my "damage rewards XP" mantra every post I reply to. EDIT: There, changed my signature to include it so now every post I state will, by default, affirm that I believe AA needs rewards for deterrence.
  6. Spookydodger

    You don't try to fire on the move (most times). Smart Skyguard players realize that Fighters need to line up shots and Liberator shots at range need time to travel. Move 20 meters, fire half a clip. Move 10 meters back, fire half a clip. Make sure to reload while moving.

    Alternately, high-tail it to another cubby hole if the situation allows. Firing from a completely new angle can reap some rewards.
  7. biterwylie

    You seem to either be the most awesome god AA player or a Flyboy trying to protect his OP killing machines.
  8. Spookydodger

    I suck at flying fighters from lack of practice or some inherent disconnect with how the Scythe operates. I fly a liberator when my friends get on but most are working stiffs so that happens much more rarely than I would like.

    So I just put a lot of time into doing AA because I am a martyr that likes taking up the mantle of hard to use weapons and being good at them.

    For the reward (or lack there of), Skyguard is a piece of dung in most cases. The ramp up in skill needed to be good is disproportionate to the reward in certs. XP reward for damage will change that.

    I know you probably meant that post as sarcasm tilted to the latter, but I am neither. I'm just a guy who runs AA a lot and learned from his mistakes.
  9. Nogrim313

    skygaurd hits like a bus, but that said its arc and projectile speed need some serious loving if they are ever going to be useful

    reduce the damage by 75% remove the bullet drop and double the speed would prob sit quite well with me (as a galaxy pilot and a skyguard driver)


    in terms of balance these things should be your liberator counters able to hit them when they are at high altitudes but right now that is a big waste of time considering how much you need to lead the target (same issue with the walkers AA guns imo) but if the speed gets a big boost the damage needs to come down a little bit, because when it does hit me when im not in a lib its pretty nasty without a lot of visual feedback compared to a burster max or phalanx
  10. Aquilae

    As a pilot, the skyguard is absolutely zero threat unless I'm being really really dumb. If i drop into a low hover, i may get smacked around a bit by a skyguard before zipping away. otherwise, i have nothing whatsoever to fear from one. I have killed skyguards that were trying to kill me with my A2A NOSEGUN.

    the skyguard is worthless. all the posts defending it amount to "just bob and weave and aim with perfect accuracy and outthink your opponent and get really lucky and you can maybe kill an ESF every 10 minutes!". the amount of effort and skill required to get anything out of the gun, combined with the fact that you completely sacrifice your ability to fight anything on the ground, is not in any way a fair tradeoff for it's performance. trying defend it is ludicrous. it's like if there was a carbine that had a magazine size of 5 and people were jumping in "omg it's fine you just have to play smart and hit with every bullet and make sure at least one is a headshot!"

    the most annoying part is that skyguard aught to be the very BEST AA in the game, given all its drawbacks.
    • Up x 5
  11. NCf00

    Been spending the past 3 days in a Liberator, and whilst I can say that very few things actually kill us, Skyguards and Air Phalanx are the most damaging to us.

    The only thing that actually kills us are either our pilot, or an enemy Mosquito/Scythe.

    Everything else - Sunderer 20mm; Prowler Vulcan; Bursters; Skyguard; Walkers; G2A Missiles; A2A Missiles - all painfully hit us, but it is incredibly rare that they score a kill. Ever.
    • Up x 1
  12. Drsexxytime

    I'm all for them leaving Air like it is, but they have to give us effective tools on their level. Skyguard needs a huge buff, like I said, should be as effective as 1.5, maybe two maxes. Considering how strong other ground vehicles and air vehicles are at their roles the Skyguard falls way short in this measuring stick. Also, they need to buff up infantry weapons as well, the two lock on launchers each faction has needs a buff in missile speeds and/or damage, this way infantry becomes slightly more effective and counter effective to air enough so people don't just spam more vehicles.
    • Up x 1
  13. ent|ty

    Putting AA on a tank is ********. Tanks should be taking out other tanks, not sitting in the hills AA'ing.

    OR... create a dedicated semi-mobile vehicle that must deploy and be stationary, then be able to AA.
  14. Wobberjockey

    skyguards are always going to be second class AA as long as the render distance continues to draw them 10x further away than buster max's
    • Up x 1
  15. Ronaldspiers

    Dude you might as well go skydiving with a concrete parachute. It will have a better outcome than using a skyguard in this game.
    • Up x 1
  16. Weylin

    Without rocket pods and the way too flexible "point and shoot" bombardier position, it would be far more balanced.

    A stock mosquito imo is balanaced, and pods throw that balance out the window.
    A stock liberator is ok, because the weapon doesn't have splash damage.
    The Zephyr and Dalton need to be constrained more so as to be used as inertial bombs.
  17. Sowahka

    I'd say AA balance in general is good, but Skygaurd definitely needs a buff, probably one of the most useless things ever. In beta they worked amazingly well, they felt a little too good for such a mobile AA piece, but now it seems to be the opposite. With that said though, I know I've seen then put some serious hurt onto some aircraft, but often times whenever I'm watching them fire at aircraft they seem to be drastically miscalculating bullet drop, the shots would all be dropping MUCH lower than where the aircraft actually was.
  18. Sowahka

    I don't think anyone is arguing that the AA role shouldn't be rewarded, but saying that it should get tons and tons of kills? If you could do that with one Skygaurd you'd completely invalidate aircraft being in the game, do it with two in a large fight and you'll never see aircraft again. If you wanted to solo kill a moving ESF before it could escape you'd have to have a TTK of something similar to three seconds or less. Now think about doing that against ground vehicles, in any normal situation you're never going to solo kill a MBT like that unless you're behind it with C4 or landmines.

    You can solo kill an MBT in an ideal situation, such as when they're stationary with their backside pointed in your face, but that's rare and against a good driver it's almost never going to happen. You can also solo kill an ESF, like when they're moving slowly, hovering, or landed, but that's also something that won't happen too often against good pilots. In any normal situation you need a team to take out any vehicle other than a flash, arguing that you should be able to 1v1 anything is just a bit silly, and balancing for 1v1 conflicts I think will just end up ruining the game. Don't want to get podded by an ESF? Don't sit around on your own, if you have even a tiny tiny squad in your base any ESF will be spotted long before it can even hope to hit you with the pods, if you have even one out of 20 people shooting at the ESF it'll be forced to leave before it can even get a bead on you. I don't think they should balance the game so that ESFs should be shot out of the sky instantly because Mr. Lone Wolf doesn't want to stick around allies and doesn't watch his minimap.
  19. Klinkin

    Apparently you've never heard of a flakpanzer. Admittedly, the original PlanetSide didn't have any AA tanks, but it also had a Skyguard: a fast, light, two-man AA buggy with flak cannons and a chaingun for anti-infantry. The Lightning is the closest thing to an assault buggy frame PlanetSide 2 has right now. As to why we need mobile AA, if you haven't noticed, LIberators and even ESFs can rip armor columns to shreds. Those armor columns need mobile AA to bring along with them, especially because air-superiority ESFs are so counterintuitive to fly (call me a noob if you want, but I want my old PlanetSide 1 flight controls back).
  20. Zyzyx

    I LIke many of SpookyDodger's comments, but not this recommendation:
    "Maybe an accuracy buff, but I would rather see an accuracy option. Like if I fire my skyguard when it is roughly in line with my body, that my accuracy is increased."

    I've posted in this thread before. I am a successful SG driver. I kill ESFs often and Libs once in a while. I even kill infantry. I have many hours in the SG, and I don't die often. Usually when I die, it's because there are multiple air attackers or one or two ground attackers. I treat the SG as the "social Lightning," requiring a crowd to be effective.

    BUT, I move my turret more than my tank. I am constantly moving, and the chances that I am at 0% on the body meter is close to zero, unless I am moving a distance. I back without looking, I turn without looking, and I pivot a lot. I do the "shoot and scoot" (or if you prefer military parlance, I fire and displace) all the time. I'm almost never in one place for very long. If accuracy is improved based on where my turret is pointing, I would lose an essential feature of my technique. Indeed, it's the better drivers who can hit without lining up the body of the tank. (And yes, I have poured all those hundreds of certs into the Rival chassis for more turning ability -- without much to show for it, since the certs are maybe an 8% increase in turning rate, not enough to matter. It was better in Beta, where I got more hill climbing power, though I like the combination suite of features promised by the Rival chassis.)

    As I've said, my first option for a buff would be a bullet velocity increase. The slow-rising tracers are not useful, and the leads required with these velocities are what makes the wep system hard to learn.

    As a second increase, I would like distance increased. I hate Daltons, because even as a good SG driver, they cannot be attacked, even in the crucifixion position. And they cannot be defended against, because you don't know to move until the first tiny "tik" "tik" ticks are hitting, and you can't accelerate fast enough once they get the range. If you can't nerf them, at least let me hit them more than a few times each stick of ammo.
    • Up x 1