Mossie by a wide margin. I find that extra 30kph cruise speed and lack of G2A launcher called strikers, allowed me do high risk lolpod killstreaks in enemy territory no other aircraft would make it out alive. Mossie - 344spm flytime:58hrs Scythe - 262spm flytime:54hrs Reaver - 245spm flytime:94hrs
I have flown in all of them, and I really do best with the mossie. The Reaver is my ESF but I have to say hands down I like the mossie more. The scythe is fun to fly around in and doing tricks.
Mozzy. Not because it's the "best" ESF, they all have their ups and downs, but simply because you won't be flying against Strikers. Any ESF pilot not having to face Strikers is gonna survive twice as long. But my favorite to fly always has and always will be the Scythe. No other empire has the Light PPA.
Striker spam makes mosquito the easiest to fly. Add in the smallest hitbox and fastest speed and it's no contest.
don't talk about A2G. For A2G purposes, the presence of the striker is too great an effect to compare SPM directly, as y3ivan has proven. This thread is about the relative performances of the ESF, so please try to remove confounding variables. purely a2a (rotary + AB tanks) player here. the ESF comparison is a rather interesting one. In the upper bracket encounters, where the most skilled pilots go against each other, the scythe, (somewhat surprisingly), can top it out. This is due to the fact that the scythe is extremely flat, coupled with the fact that all upper tier fights involve something similar to a permanent "reverse manoeuvre", which allows both pilots to keep on target, dodge incoming fire, while presenting the smallest target to the opponent. This happens at rather wide separations, so the proj. velocity advantage for the Hailstorm can actually help rather significantly. In the middle to lower bracket encounters (low skill vs low skill), as well as "unfair" encounters (skilled vs unskilled), the mosquito tops it out. In the first scenario, both pilots simply try to get into the turns of each other to obtain a firing solution, all performed while in forward flight. The advantage of extended burst length and damage per magazine here takes full effect, allowing the most to come out of each pass.Also, the very, very minor extra cruise speed helps close in faster so you spend less time during the initial chase, which helps you stay within your AO and venture less into dangerous territory. In the second scenario, the mosquito obviously tops it out because chances are, the skilled pilot only needs 1 pass to completely destroy the other plane, instead of (usually, due to missed shots) requiring a reload. Also, the very, very minor extra cruise speed helps close in faster so you spend less time during the chase, which helps you stay within your AO and venture less into dangerous territory.
thats my point, OP is just asking which performs better than the other which is evaluated by SPM. Strikers influence both A2A and A2G roles due to the range of infantry based lockon and damage. On top of that, its psychological effect on pilots flying nearby TR presence.
[citation needed] Correct. But this doesn't mean that the non-TR ESFs inherently perform better, this is simply the effect of a confounding variable. Basic high-school statistics concept much? If you just want agreement that the striker is OP, yes, it is broken, but if you are asking about which ESF performs better, then no, you have to eliminate the effects of confounding variables from the comparison. This is the reason why the scientific method's experimentation step always involves a control. The control setup is to better allow post-experimentation analysis and reduction of errors that include the effects of confounding variables. The ESF is a system that operates in an environment. The ESF system comprises of it's handling characteristics as well as its weapons performance. The environment comprises of AA, terrain, things it can crash into, etc.
