The air game is always under some serious debate, whether it be A2A, A2G or G2A. I've always wanted to be a pilot ever since I watched Top Gun so I was very excited to get into Planetside 2's air game. The only problem is... I'm a bumbling idiot in an ESF. I've looked at various tutorials on how to pull off maneuvers like the reverse maneuver, which for people I see doing it it looks like second nature to them. I've tweaked my controls to give myself a bit of an advantage, I've practiced (and crashed (because I keep accidentally flying out)) tons of times inside the warpgate on how to fly the damn things. Then when I actually have a handle of the damn thing and try to go out, I see one lone mosquito and think hur hur hur it's my time to shine. I aim and HOLY HELL it's like none of my shots hit them, yet they turn back on me and lay into me like I'm the brick and they're a builder with some cemented bullets. Sooooooooo I guess this is more of a question for ESF pilots, but what would you consider I need to do to survive more than 5 minutes in the air? I want to support my faction (NC) with my Reaver but I just don't have the skills that these ESF pilots who have been doing it for yonks. Has anybody got aaaaaany suggestions on how to improve my air game personally, and also give tips to others that probably suffer the same fate as me? I'd really appreciate it. Oh, and... Dangerrr zoooooneee
Fly with friends, so you can learn to lead your nosegun while the enemy pilots are focused on them. Or do practice dogfights with someone on the PTS. Those help a lot.
I ended up making three 'alt' characters on three different servers. Sat around/ground pounded on whatever continent gave the most air resources. Once all three alts had maxed out on air resources, I took to the air! I got blown up a few minutes later and switched characters. Repeat. Alternate option: Beg Wasp (or join the outfit) to help ya! Tertiary option: Shoot me a friend invite and whenever we both have some free time, we can find a quiet spot on Esamir or Amerish and duel. Don't worry, I'm pretty godawful as well. P.S. Don't underestimate the power of hover frame on a Reaver. Gets me every time.
It takes lots of time training and fighting alongside good pilots in a squad. Having 1-2 people watching your back makes a world of difference. Overall, it takes a lot of flight time before you're any good. I have ~130 hours on live and another ~30 on PTS and still don't consider myself a very good pilot.
Yup, the days of flying solo are long gone. At the very least have a wingman and supporting air squad of the 3 varying types of aircraft (yes, even the galaxy with a few gunners and air drop infantry spec ops carrying C4 and what not) or don't bother at all because is a fast paced, learn to lead your shots in a milli-second, paper/rock/scissors game up there and the victor controls the fate of open to the sky battles on the ground ... unless someone is smart enough to set up a no fly zone squad which acts a Forward Operating Air Resupply & Repair ... that will end up being destroyed when it ends up too close to the front line combat of infantry and ground vehicles. And round and round it goes, when it stops, nobody knows ... until one of the more skillful air squads is ambushing you in the connecting regions surrounding your warpgate. Then you're just screwed and gotta hope get organized enough as a faction (yeah, good luck with that) to break out using overwhelming numbers to "human shield" your few good pilots and ground AA forces.
The other question I had which I forgot to mention was, I don't have a ton of certs available so I don't know the optimal kit for what I'd be best going into. Would PTS be my best bet? I'm worried that I'd just be flying around with nobody to fight (I don't go on PTS an awful lot). Thanks for all the advice though, I think everybody is right in saying I need to get into a squad of pilots to properly stand a chance because going 1v1 against an experienced pilot is probably a death sentence. Appreciate the offer as well bPostal I may take you up on that sometime
I feel your pain. I've gotten to the point where I can usually 1v1 someone pretty well, but moreso use positioning to get the drop on people and pound em to dust when I can. That said though, there's a lot of situations where you either have air superiority so you won't be doing much, or the enemy pulls a squadron and suddenly it's 4v1. I have to say the things that helped the most was binding pitch to a easily reachable key, and getting hover kit 1. I'm still a long way from being anywhere near an ace. I can heckle libs but in the time I spend dodging the belly gun they either get back into friendly territory, have a friend that jumps me or I start getting flak and G2A lockons and gotta bail. I want tested the A2A lockon, seems ok. Might try coyote or even breakers.
For general ESF set-up I would recommend certing flares, hover, nanite repair(or flak armor if you prefer A2G), and using whatever rotary your empire offers. Cert your choice of rocket pods or afterburner fuel. Rocket pods give A2G versatility while afterburner fuel gives you more juice for dogfights and getting around.
Best thing you can do is join an Outfit and group up with the pilots in that outfit. If you start upgrading your Liberator and offer to pull it for more experienced pilots to fly it while you gun, is a good method for learning what they do. I would also suggest starting out in an A2A variant of the ESF, then when your teammates pull Air craft, you can get above and behind them. From this position you will be able to view how they and the enemy fly. Also A2A lock-ons do not necessarily require you to need to fly so much as rotate in position and track your target. Just try not to collide with your teammates and when possible try to assist them and focus fire on the same target. As for flying, one fun thing to do is max out afterburner and practice flying above the ground and through canyons and avoiding the ground as best as possible. Good Luck...
YES!!! Binding pitch-up, pitch-down, and analog throttle to keys are some of the most important things you can do! I have them bound to my mouse buttons. Analog throttle instantly kills your engines allowing you to turn and maneuver on a dime. Being able to pitch up and pitch down at max speeds with a key binding really helps you throw your momentum around when doing reverse maneuvers. That's all reverse maneuvers are. Building momentum and tossing it around as you turn your ESF. These key bindings make it much easier!
