Why do aircraft get to be anti-everything?

Vehicles and infantry have to specialize, while Liberators & ESF get to be effective vs Infantry, Armor, and Aircraft all at the same time. Heck, even the most powerful ground to air unit, who can only fight aircraft, still gets soloed by Liberators. It's like playing rock, paper, scissors, machinegun.

ESF's get damaged by anything in the game, it's not hard getting them down.
Libs just need around 3 AA guys and it will scatter in thousand pieces

Glorious air master race, that's why.

ESFs don't really get to be anti-everything; a couple of the noseguns can kinda do double duty as A2A/A2G weapons, but you still have to choose between pods/tanks/coyotes

now, liberators...

Where do "Vehicles and infantry have to specialize"?
They can be anti-everything too, you know? Not just aircraft, everything in this game can be anti-everything if played right!

An ESF set up to be anti-everything will lose to any vehicle set up for just AA (especially other ESF), luck and skill aside. The same goes for tanks.

libs are, esf's aren't

esf's were specifically nerfed because they were too versatile

No, no they don't.

Please tell me how an AP/AP MBT can haz some weaponry effective at AI and AA at the same time. Now compare that with (for example) a Reaver with Airhammer and rocketpods or Liberator with Tankbuster/Dalton/Bulldog.

Everything in this game is versatile in its ability to kill. I mean have you ever looked at what a HA can actually carry, talk about good at killing everything man.

Do tell me how a Lightning and Harasser don't have to specialize? Or how an MBT is competitive at AV if it uses AI weapons, or how an MBT is competitive at AI if it uses AV weapons? Or how any of these are reliable against air when they use AI/AV loadouts? At best, you're improvising by using weapons outside of their intended role for significantly less effective results.

Compare this to Tankbuster + Shredder/Dalton + Bulldog Liberators. Tankbuster? Obliterates tanks; is extremely strong against Liberators and Galaxies. Shredder/Dalton? Literally made to kill everything in the game. Bulldog? Anti-vehicle, anti-infantry, even effective against aircraft if the person is skilled.

Because TB+Dalton/Shredder+bulldor is combined arms that relies of teamwork.

ESFs are quite fine ATM: they still can be dangerous in high numbers but are very squishy.

I see that a lot but most good gunners/pilots I know are able to hop into Liberators with any other good pilot/gunner and still perform at a high level like they've been working together for months. In TIW, I've often seen "Pulling Lib at warpgate, who wants to gun?" and still seeing them (or us) wreck air, infantry, and ground alike with random compositions.

(I'm not saying there is no teamwork involved or gunner/pilot chemistry doesn't matter when it comes to Liberators, but I am saying that it doesn't take a significant amount of coordination to be baseline effective since, regardless of whether you're with your long-time friend or some random guy, your roles are exactly the same. A gunner shoots, a pilot flies. If I'm shooting, it doesn't matter who is flying as long as they are good and know how to give angles.)

Now do it on a server that isn't empty.

How about primetime Waterson on Indar when there is a queue? The exact same way it is on every single server?

...

ESFs haven't been "anti-everything" since after the major rocketpods nerf (when I was not even a player yet) and others nerfs that kind of further nerfed ESFs in multirole, like armor nosegun stronger resistance and infantry stronger resistance to noseguns too, among others.

Plus, ESFs are fragile. Whenever you are ground pounding on a ESF you gotta watch out, you can literally be vaporized in half a second by well positioned lock-om rockets, flak or OHK'd by a single shell of any sort (lightning heat, ap, MBT heat, ap and the cursed AA dalton)

Now Liberators...

Lets say they are not supposed to be that strong against Air, which SHOULD be their major weakness but are NOT because Liberators are pretty much strong against everything.

Please note I'm not advocating against Lib's abilities, I am saying they should not be strong at ANY situation, they should have one MAJOR weakness, and those should be ESFs by far. Currently, Libs hunt ESFs.

Don't even come with your "3 man vehicle rule", that is not a free pass to be skygod, otherwise 12 crew galaxies would own the game.

How many good ESFs you fought in a Lib?

How many good ESFs you shot down in a Lib?

Probably a ton I'm sure. Daltons kill more ESFs than anything else..that considering its an ANTI TANK shell.

Fought? A few, but I'm not a Liberator pilot, those were sporadic occurrences and I was not specifically fighting ESFs. I pilot ESFs only.

Please answer our friend over there and tell us how many good ESF pilots you already show down offensively, because I don't usually get shot down by Libs because I usually avoid pushing my chances too much, but even running away from Libs has not been an easy job and I'm often put down to less than half health with a Lib ON MY TAIL, and dodging. Hell, that considering I'm on a mossie, fastest ESF in the game.

2 Libs versus 2 ESFs with an awesome wingmate yesterday? How did it end? I bailed out and my friend ran away, pretty much crippled and almost on fire. This is ridiculous, we are both better than average tier pilots and 2 ridiculous slow whales with abnormal Anti-Air fire power drove us away. You guys need to pick something, or you are strong versus air or you are strong versus ground, you can't be both. Clearly the skies are ESF territory and Libs should fill the grounder role better than any aircraft, but not, AT ALL, be air superiority weapons.

Your toy needs some air fixing, everybody knows that. It shouldn't be an ESF predator, it should be an ESF prey as much as it preys on MBTs.