The Skyguard needs further buffs.

Remember the old Skyguard? The one where you could pull an entire squad of them, and still get wrecked by a single Lib?

Yea.... No.



Now, back to the present day Skyguard. Better, by far better, but it still is lacking in a lot of areas. Looking at the Wiki stats, the Burster Arm is about 50% of a Skyguard. But, remember, you can wield 2 of them at the same time! Now your dealing the same damage as the Skyguard, all while using a much more mobile, stealthy, revivable weapons platform that can in an instant swap to powerful AV/AI. The Lightning is stuck with it, and it can only really fight air. Low direct damage, bad accuracy Vs. small moving targets.


I propose several buffs, that mostly involve damage(Aka Entirely).

First, it's RoF needs increased to 580 over its current 480(A 100 increase)
Second, increase its indirect damage(Flak splash) to 80-90ish(20-30ish)
Third, increase its direct damage(Non-Air targets) to 280 as well(Optional)

These buffs, though rather severe, are well deserved. The Skyguard gives up any AT and AI to solely perform AA, and a Dual Burster will outperform it. MAX units are cheaper, harder to spot, can be revived, can duck into buildings for cover, and do more damage. The Skyguard should be the supreme AA in PS2, not Dual Bursters.

Ayy

IT's easy to kill infantry with the skyguard, and even killing vehicles isn't that hard with it either

I don't think you've ever been on the receiving end of a skyguard in an ESF, because I assure you they melt you a whole lot faster than 2 bursters ever do at the same range.

I have been, and it doesn't. Look at the stats. Burster arms deal 56, while having a RoF of 220. Dual gives it basically a RoF of 440 and a damage of 112. The Skyguard far outperforms it in its AA roll, and the MAX is far more versatile.

Yeah the Skyguard rips ESF's a new one once they're in optimal range. It's a lot better than it used to be that's for sure. If it was going to be buffed all I would really like to see would be maybe a 30-50rpm weapon buff and reduce its "recoil" to zero. It's easy as hell to counter as it is and little more than an annoyance, that light screen jitter drives me mental

Dual arms doesn't double the damage and increase RoF. It only increases RoF. That means that some of the extra damage can be lost to misses, too. (Don't forget to compare accuracy when talking about these things.)

Also, as a sometimes ESF pilot and sometimes AA MAX, bursters are pretty vicious right now. IMO the best way to make Skyguard king would be a small burster nerf. Much as I hate being crushed by air, it's usually because we don't have any AA, not because the AA isn't good enough. A Skyguard or AA MAX currently clears out most things unless there's armour too, in which case you have a separate problem.

Oh yea, herp derp. It's to late for me to be posting lest I look like I fool... Again...

But regardless, the MAX is a lot more versital and survivable for the package you get. Normally I'm an advocate to the No-more-nerfs foundation, but the Bursters are a little OP. In-Game they are described as "Air Deterrents"

I dont think it needs a thing right now, the buffs it recieved were exactly what it needed, namely the bigger magazine. It can hit from afar and like the red fella above me stated, it will melt an unwary ESF in seconds.

Bursters are easily avoidable now with the nerfs. Hell, I dont even really worry about them in a Lib anymore unless I am carelessly getting too low. I can tank bursters from high way better than I can a Skyguard.

A Skyguard who knows what he is doing (and you will know in about 5/10th of a second) on the other hand, will make me turn and run very quickly.

I wouldn't mind a slightly tighter COF and slightly better splash damage to infantry, but I get a good number of infantry kills with my skyguard as is. I tell ya, it's great shooting that LA who just dropped some C4 on you out of the sky! The nice thing is few infantry run with flack armor, so it'll eat them up. Anyways, I think a little buffing would be good, but I wouldn't go as far as the OP asked...that'd just make the skyguard the new FotM godmode vehicle.

I would buff the velocity first.

I eat libs in my skyguard, maybe you're doing it wrong.

Doesnt need more damage, just needs a better CoF and higher projectile velocity.

LOL

Man, there is no terror for a pilot like seeing more than one skyguard.

The 'poor' CoF is to keep the weapon as an AA only weapon so that if you shoot at infantry, 3/4th's of the shots would miss. Technically you don't actually have to hit a target to cause damage to aircraft with a skyguard, and you if you lead your target just right you can and will land every single shot onto the aircraft you are shooting at. I've done so fairly often, its quite easy really just shoot ahead of the direction on where the aircraft is going, it does get a tad difficult since the aircraft can move quite fast. However if done enough you will get use to it and find it to be a pretty powerful gun.

If there are some distance and ESF pilots constantly changes direction and make curvers it is very hard to make any signifcant damage to ESF. Bullets travel time is too long and ESF is not there anymore even if trajectory WAS correct time you shoot.

Heck - even I - poor pilot - can evade Skyguard with some distance. If I fly straight I am dead very soon. Lock-ons are problems - not skyguard.

ESF is most vulnerable when targeting or shooting someone. It must fly straight then.

The CoF is poor.

It is larger than a shotgun.

skyguard is fine now learn 2 skyguard

Yes they are hard to hit when they are dancing around with each other up there, but those are really not much threat to the ground forces the way I see it. I wont bother actively trying to shoot them when they are doing that but will keep one eye on em. Maybe try to help the friendly pilot fighting, but its usually not much help.

Best time to catch them is when they are lining up to pod or engage a ground target. Let them get good and close cause you look just like a regular lightning. Even better, let them line up to pod YOU and give them a surprise they cant escape from.

I always look for lightnings closely when I am in the air if I can.

Only thing I would like for the Skyguard is to kill the recoil it gets.

Why does a MAX suit, which is just a man in an exoskeleton, feel no recoil at all from dual bursters. Meanwhile the Skyguard, a light tank that is firmly squared on the ground with 4 treads all touching evenly to distribute weight, kicks like a mule from firing its turret.

Because the NS guys didn't hear about hyrdraulic barrel stabilizers?

I would prefer if they slightly reduced its RoF but gave it a massive bullet speed increase and a tighter CoF.