The Skyguard Is Not a Viable Deterrent

"I'm bad at Planetside 2 beause I don't want to drop a hundred dollars on a gaming headset for a Free To Play game."

Something that can reliably hit large targets but nimble and smaller ones can dodge it's way through.

"Clumsier" flak hitting harder, useful against bigger aircrafts than ESFs?

And maybe another one that fills the air to get nimble and fast aircraft, but is mostly useless against bigger threats.

You get to choose which specialization you want and define your role on the battlefield.

And in the end, there shall be only one. Resource that is.

I think the best possible fix would be a multirole AA/AI weapon that has a maximum evvective range of 70-100 meters (so as not to make an entire hex unflyable) that requires aim but deals quite a bit of damage if you're on target. Something like a gatling gun would work, basically a a super-ranger but with steep damage dropoff after 80 or so meters.

I bought my Sennheiser HD 590 headphones 9 years ago and they are still working without problems. The price was 180 euros but thats nothing until you want new shiny headphones every year. Good heaphones arent just for gaming.

About the topic.
Skyguard is already very powerful and Liberator is taking super huge risk if he engages a Skyguard which isnt sitting still and waiting to get Tankbusted. To be able to fly with Liberator requires air dominance, a single good ESF pilot will make 3/3 Lib crew's life very hard. In top of that there is Skyguards, G2A missiles and other Liberators and to be able to destroy a Skyguard is close to impossible until its 1-12 vs 1-12 battle.

Skyguard is also super effective against Sunderer.

I suggested this in beta. When the Skyguard gets mounted it should automatically add a 25~50% resistance to all air ordinance, and a 25~50% damage bonus from incoming tank fire. Infantry based AV should stay the same.

To me "deterrent" means there is a threat present with enough force that I must leave or be destroyed. Pretty sure the idea of a deterrent should not allow for a Liberator to herp-derp forward charge a Skyguard and win.

Liberators have the option to flee a Skyguard, a tank rarely has that luxury against air.

How about $22.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W018R1367
Reviews are here (this is old model): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826186008
The new model just has a slightly different logo now, specs are the same.

Base response is really awesome for such a low cost set, and the mic is totally acceptable quality.
Dubstep/Trap slams with these things.

Playing this without a decent set of headphones is handicapping yourself A LOT.
No one sneaks up on me.. I can kill infiltrators blind with my HSNV scope with these headphones.. for $22..

Why would it require the lightning to take more damage from ground sources? You do realize how flimsy the lightning is in the first place? You can kill it before it even has the chance to return fire let alone run if you are using a 2/2 MBT. The poor skyguard should not need another negative just to be more resilient to air, isn't the vulnerability to everything else because of the weapon itself enough? If you want to mount it to a AV or AI loadout then you go without auto-repair or stealth, something I sure as hell wouldn't do.

Not everything needs a negative, look at composite armor on the lib for example.

Something horribly OP and unwanted by both the people that use Libs, and those they fight against.

Great example, did you have any others?

hehe I know, my position on that should be well known by now Still, lightnings are already the flimsy tank, they don't need further resistance debuffs. Especially not with the amount of long range AV available.

Agreed, I don't think they need any buffs either. Skyguards are fine. Hell, I play a Ranger Harasser and find the durability of that satisfactory against everything but the Shredder.

Have you qq'ers ever even flown a lib before?

Yeah, that's right.
It actually takes SKILL.
A single skyguard can make an area a no-fly zone, however any skilled lib crew will try to outflank/outsmart it.
A skilled skyguard should never be killed by the TB...

It isn't the durability of the harasser though, it is damage mitigation through mobility. This is much much harder in the lightning despite the high top speed and low profile because the driver is also the gunner. You either have to fire blind in 3rd person to avoid the little bumps or see what you are shooting at with the screen bouncing all over the place and both scenarios you are going at high speeds in a vehicle with the propensity to flip and you cannot see where you are going. Add to that the low traction and slow turning speed and it you are more likely to kill yourself then you are to actually hit the target. All the lib has to do it fly low behind cover, lel tankbuster and then tell the gunner to finish it off if the gunner was previously asleep and the pilot couldn't aim TB to save his life (although honestly his life was never in danger in this situation).

Buffing skyguard would be dangerous because it is already plenty powerful against ESF but it needs to be able to absolutely shred liberators at close ranges. A TB run needs to actually be a high-risk high-reward maneuver again, not something every lib does whenever a skyguard is bothering him. If you want to fly then get tanks to move in and take out the skyguards, you know, combined arms. If the ground needs to rely on constant AA cover then the air should need to rely on ground forces to take out their threats. This also gives pubbies a reason to protect skyguards/ hunt them down and gives tanks a role (albeit a terrible one that is purely supportive to air).

I am perfectly fine with skyguards being a dedicated deterrent but there needs to be a range at which it goes from to politely asking the liberator to go away and giving them plenty of time to do so, to aggressively telling them to **** off back to their warpgate before they get their feet planted back into the dust until they can pull another one. Bad piloting needs to be punished.

The range you are looking for is 300m.

Two Skyguards against 1 Lib at <300m is in favor of the Skyguards.

I hate to say it, but if you find that isn't the case, get more friends, or L2P. This is a general comment on this whole hilarious thread, nothing personal at the quoted post.

No worries but with the terrain on 2/3 continents there are plentiful ways to sneak up on a skyguard and it isn't hard when their engine is that quiet. There shouldn't be a need to pull 2-3 skyguards to combat 2-3 other people in a single vehicle who are actually having fun. 2-3 skyguards are fighting over scraps and are bored as hell. Either make AA more engaging or fix the lib. Nobody but people who fly the thing want to deal with it anymore and it comes to the point where it is hurting the game as a whole. One lib is a pain but more than one, especially if coordinated is totally bs.

Just nerf lib amour, if you buff the skygaurd esfs are useless. The reason libs are OP is that they are fast,(because there an aircraft) very durable (2nd or 3rd highest hp I think(that's based of of how it seems and the use of C4.)), and last have the highest Dps weapons in the game tank buster is Very powerful. In my opinion they should have good A to G damage. About the amour of a lightning a little more probably, less maneuverability and a little more speed. But that may need a little adjustments.

the real answer is to make the skyguard a WeaponClassType=VehicleSecondary and maybe lower the ammo per clip by 10%. that way you could have skyguard harassers, double skyguard sunderers, and MBTs with skyguard secondary.

i feel like the skyguard is in a good place as far as damage goes, and it scales really well. you just don't get enough of them at every fight that needs them, and pulling a whole lightning to get just 1 is asking a lot. lower the costs too, it's been out since release. simply increasing ease of access would be enough to turn it into a "hard counter" at more fights.

then you could come up with a much better niche weapon for the lightning. maybe even the typical bad ES type of weapons, you know the ones. the charge beam, the shotgun, and the can't hit things.

Give skyguards increased resistance against Liberator weapons until it feels balanced. This isn't a complicated operation SOE.

When you equip the skyguard turret on a Lightening - buff its resistance to LIB weapons by 15%-40% or so.

Clever reflexion.
I think the key is to give the skyguard it's full mobility in engagement too. Just like the liberator has it when he is attacking.
And for a start I suggest we can give the skyguard "turret stabilisation" (for keeping mobile during fire. No more third person view in which you cannot see the sky because the camera is under the chassis :/ ) and damage degradation over range (high close/low at long range)?
What if we give the skyguard a second little camera view directed to the front, for permanently keeping an eye where it goes (be carefull of performance degradations).

It is already balanced.. 2 skygaurds is a no fly zone for most libs..
Stop expecting a skygaurd to solo a lib.. lightnings don't solo MBT unless the MBT driver is incompetent..