[Video] ESF - Fighting liberators

Hi all!

A few fights against Liberators that might help you out as an ESF pilot.
This is even more scary now that the third seat gunner is more useful.
Since I wanted to share this ASAP I have two fights from pre patch but
I hope it will be interesting anyway, more is coming

Thanks for the vid!

libs are bad at a2a, if you loose you messed up or they got lucky, end of story

Lol no. Libs never were bad at A2A, now theyt are just better

I'm with matt on this one and anyone who says otherwise is either acting like an elitist jerk thinking they are the **** because they can fight them or are biased lib pilots.

I can stand toe to toe with most libs but when I do it's ridiculous watching them peg like 3 esfs that were helping me out of the sky and eventually just run from me.
You shoulden't need to have 100+ hours in an ESF to fight a lib.
They need one weakness, they are supposed to be bombers so that weakness should be air.
ESF's.

However at the moment the fight is heavily slanted in favor of the lib.

The fight is heavily slanted in favor of the lib ONLY if the ESFs don't know what they're doing. If you're not in Hover mode fighting a Lib, you're doing it wrong. The strongest position to duel a Lib is facing its pilot, at or above its altitude, shooting it in the face while you are in Hover Mode, managing an extended Reverse Maneuver. Prevent TB death by rolling out of its horizontal axis and RM burning to the left or right of the pilot's view. It is much harder to hit an ESF with the TB when it is moving briskly right or left of your aim, due to the lower precision of yaw keyboard control.

As shown by Matti, as the primary ESF engaging the Liberator, you should be in RM the entire time, staying just out of the TB danger zone and staying level or above the nose of the Liberator, to minimize the chance of a Dalton round or Walker fire hitting you.

Despite the new changes to the tail gun's firing arc, it still can't aim straight forward, so unless you can just sit on it's back and unload (an experienced pilot won't let you do this long, and it will rapidly change to a head-to-head fight), this is how it's done.


I think ESF vs Lib is still pretty well balanced... one ESF vs one Lib, the ESF has to be very good to win, and it takes awhile, but he's fighting 2-3 people in a more expensive vehicle. Two or three ESF vs a Lib, the ESFs win handily as long as they're not stupid, as it should be, since they're the natural counter to Liberators. There's no problem here.

I've been killed by one lib since update, we traded (they died right after) and that only happened because fire suppresion failed to work

l2p

For 9 out of the 10 Liberators you encounter, you really don't, and you should know that. The other 10% (hell, less than that) have invested just as much, if not more, time than you have to engage air with any amount of confidence.

Uuhhhhh, what's TB?

When I play with Scythe/Mosquito against Liberator(s) I rarely die. Even if there is 2 of them trying to destroy me but ofc it requires me to keep on moving or otherwise the another will TankBuster me.

Just what some people have already said, staying in hover mode and putting yourself in risk to get hit by Dalton/TB is actually the best tactic. People have to understand that its extremely hard to shoot an ESF which is in hover mode and evades constantly.
It doesnt mean if one Liberator can kill newbies/medicore pilots that it would be good at A2A. ESF is actually the kind of counter to Liberator I'd like every counter to be. It takes skill and time to destroy a Liberator with ESF but Liberator still has a chance to fight back, even when its very slim. But a good ESF pilot will win most of time (maybe not against Hyena Missiles tho) and the Liberator has only two choices, fight back with slim chance or fly to friendly zone and survive. Two good ESF pilots is close to guaranteed death for Liberator crew.

Anyway, Reaver seems to get daltoned more often than Scythe/Mosquito. Maybe those extra pixels it has really make the difference.

Hyena missiles are useless against good pilots, the missiles are too slow and got to large a spread to be effective, unless the ESF is hugging the lib - and at that range the Dalton+shredder will take care of business.

The only thing that changed with the patch is that now you got the shredder/walker 3/3 libs, where you as the lib can put enough lead down range to scare off those hover rambos that try and fight you solo at 300-400 meters.

Ofc if you go full ****** and go vector/spur + shredder/walker you properly will be able to engage any solo ESF and shoot him down.

As everyone knows, its, by far, the easiest ESF to dalton.

Why shouldn't you need 100+ hours in a ESF to fight a lib with just as much time spent flying (and there is no way a lib won a 4v1 without at lest 100h of experience).

If ESFs were truly air-superiority fighters I could see your point, but they're not! Then can perform A2G duty comparable to libs.

Libs are flying MBTs. ESFs are flying lightnings. It's strange though how few lightning drivers we see on these forums complaining about losing to 1/2 MBTs (which heavily favor the MBT btw) compared to how few lib pilots complain losing a 2/3 lib to a 1/1 ESF (which happen quite often, I would know )

Sorry Matti, but i dont think you're the best Liberator killer.

Personally i would recommend that you try to stay above the liberator than hover below it.
A good lib pilot will not let you get above it that easily, so its best to "dis-engage and re-engage" since they probably will not be running away anywhere.

If i get the first sight on a hovering liberator, then i usually start off by emptying as many rocketpods i could land on that liberator. It really freaks the lib pilot out.

I cant totally match your terms as a pilot (i do have tons of hours in my Reaver)
But i can totally kill a liberator with a stock scythe or mossie or reaver. (preferably reaver)

Only the best of the liberator pilots with the best liberator gunners stand a chance against a 'decent ESF'

Just saying that i never play the liberator (since i'm totally terrible at it) and i can tell you its a lot harder to play than an ESF.

A good 3 man liberator deserves to be able to kill a 1 man ESF, its just logic.
But ESFs are good enough to kill liberators if the pilot is good and he knows what he is doing.

I honestly do not remember the last time i was killed by a liberator.
If i know it is one of the good lib pilots on my server who are usually from the outfits of: VG/NNG/N
I know that i wont be able to take them down easily, so i ask my outfit for some air assistance, and there they are all cleared.

And how many times do you encounter good Liberator crews at full health by yourself?

quite a few, I'll keep track tonight, though normally libs are outnumbered by esf's and flak, but I was more outnumbered and got 3v1'd a ton by libs. I assume this will go away in a week.

I don't know but on ceres it seems 1/4 of the libs around are simply amazing crews..
I can engage with 2/3 other Reavers and it is sometimes astonishing how quickly they get daltoned out of the sky.

I have not been beat once by a lib on its own since the patch my self but as I said I have experience and I still do not believe that the dalton should one shot.
buff the tail gun if anything, sure noobs would still die to it but at least they have time to learn and adapt.
Anyone thinking this one shot garbage is okey is deluded.
Was in a dalton my self for all of 5 minis the other day as the gunner quit and i was lazing in the tail gun to see how good hyenas were and the one ESF that tried to engage us got blown up in my first shot.
I don't know the drop very well of that thing but I am a sniper on the ground so I thought it must be similar.. in either case its not too hard and it still one shots.
ESF should be air superiority, nerf pods further I don't care any ground pounders should fly lib and anyone wanting A2A should fly ESF.

Stop making so much sense!

This video wasn't really a balance video but I unerstand that it's easy to start discussing,
I really odn't mind I might add. But it is easier to defend your self as a lib crew now after
the update, I think we can all agree on that one =)

I think a Liberator "crew" of 3 people should personally be able to kill a singular ESF.

Low altitude, fly above them forcing them to flip over on their back. If they want to use the belly gun, they run the risk of hitting the ground. Higher altitudes, engage at 200m. If they have a shredder either get farther away or get in real close and stay above them. A great deal of pilots will overextend if you fly directly in front of their nose gun. Most will use the TB so they will try but likely just struggle to hit you, mean time you just continue to shoot them with your nose gun. I am no expert but fighting libs just takes an adjustment in flight style.