Why so few Lightnings w/Skyguard ?

I have been building my certs in anticipation of equipping my lightning w/skyguard. I have noticed few with that turret.Is it that **** ? or am I just not aware of their presence ?
I want to have one of my specs with a strong anti air capability and was choosing that over Lancer.
I play Vanu.

The Skyguard's great at anti-air, and even half-decent against ground vehicles.

Now, since you play not-TR, I do feel I have to warn you that any Lightning is pretty much free xp for a Vulcan Harasser right now.

I have used both the Glancer and Skyguard for AA duty. Personally, I prefer the Glancer, since it has a lot more feedback (i.e. you know how much you missed by and you can quickly learn to compensate). And it also has 0 initial CoF for precise aim.

But with the Skyguard, you've got a massive initial CoF, which feels horrible to use. Plus the tracers aren't very bright, so it's hard to learn how to use it effectively.

Definitely learn how to master the Glancer in my opinion. Much more skill based and rewarding.

The sky-guard is awesome and I pull mine at every opportunity, You won't be noticed that much because you need to hang back behind your anti vehicle forces to survive long enough to be useful but useful you will be as nothing deals with ESF's like a sky-guard especially if it's paired up with any other AA.
I recommend Auto Repair and Fire suppression and then either speed or manoeuvrability frames/chassis.

Try to avoid a open field Despite how appealing seeing aircraft clearly from all directions is, you want a nice firm wall behind you if you can and preferably a natural funnel that forces retaliating aircraft to only attack from certain angles. Also try to refrain from firing on distant targets unless you think you can provoke them to come after you as you wont stand a chance of killing them before they get away. Wait untill the ESF is right on top of you then let rip and shred that sucker who thought you were just another easy target.

If you get in to a fight with another lightning use your manoeuvrability to your advantage and get behind them while feeding a constant stream of fire, that and never let any thing see your rear armour even if that means parking and swivelling your chassis to always face your attacker.

Edit: Liberators are a different kettle of fish, unless you have backup you won't be able to survive long enough to kill a Liberator that's gunning for you, If you can get a garage though you can easily peekaboo any lib to death if their dumb enough to stick around.

The only reason skyguards are rare is because its a dedicated AA machine, and it does that job VERY well. Everyone likes to complain about air, but if you truly think about it, how often is air SO much of an issue, that you will buy a skyguard, and dedicate your time to ONLY fighting air, and doing little of anything else.

Team players buy skyguards. everyone else cant be bothered by them. I personally LOVE the skyguard. its VERY effective at its job.

And with Max fire suppression and auto repair you can put a run for your money against certain harassers. For ground vehicles just treat it as a slightly inaccurate version of the basilisk with a much bigger clip.

Skygaurd could use a velocity buff, and the ability to refit vehicles.

If anything, Skyguard needs a coaxial gun. Hit or select-fire toggle and you activate the coaxial Basilisk or Kobalt.

I've been using skyguard for the past week, it makes a big difference keeping ESFs and Libs away from your friendlies. It's great for a support role. We definetly need less skyguards than regular tanks, though.

I disagree with this because i'd rather keep the sky clean at all times, as if warning the distant lol-podder to: "don't even think about it".

I've actually been noticing too many skyguards lately. Seems like every time I pull one and go to help my team almost all the lightning are sky guards.

Yhea I suppose, It's more the fact that tickling ESF's for me tends to have them go to flight ceiling and converge on me from all sides were I can't kill them but they can damage me with their nose cannons. It's safer to wait for you to be in guaranteed kill range before opening up so they can't retaliate.

The Sky Guard is the best Anti-Air but it's still vulnerable to it.

That's because the Harasser usurped pretty much all of the Lightning's roles.

Skyguards are rare because you get to use them for like a few minutes then all the aircraft fly away. So nobody bothers pulling it and waste those resources. Conversely, if you pull an AA max you can always switch to a different role using a terminal.

Actually I prefer a skyguard to a MAX because you can jump out and play as a infantry for a few min's and then climb back in when you need to defend the sky's again. With a MAX you are locked in to that class until you die and it cost more resources. Plus it's very valuable infantry resource's.

Agreed.

One of the problem with the Skyguard is that if there is no Air around the only thing you can do to pass time it start driving figure eights.

Given that it is mediocre, at best, against Air a Basilisk or Kobalt secondary would open up some options.

It's the best AA available to all factions, and it can deal with exposed infantry very nicely. If it did more damage to harassers or any non hardened vehicles then it would have a niche for the ground as well.

It is actually surprisingly effective against harassers, you are correct. I figured that out by being on the receiving end of that deal.

I have no idea how much damage it does to other lightings/sundys, but i certainly woulndt compare it to a basilisk. WAYY to inaccurate IMO

The Skyguard may not be an AP tank, but it does pretty well against armor and infantry if you don't have any air to shoot. That sustained DPS is pretty nice, and I've seen some skyguards use it pretty effectively. Like others have said, it's still generally more effective to pull harassers anytime you'd want to pull a lightning, and they can wreck lightnings pretty badly.

If the Ranger were better, you could remove the "pretty much" from that statement.

It is still bad. It may be the best AA, but it is still terrible at AA.