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StealthNerf

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  1. You would need to be able to see friendly ship HP during the match for healing scores to be meaningful. Right now it's just hit repair probes on cooldown and hope a damaged ship flies near you. You can't see who is hurt unless you have voice. Therefore you can't really do healing tactically. Something else I'd like to see is an indication of when I rearm someone. I have no idea if my ammo refill is even doing anything, though I assume it is...
  2. Yeah my experience as a new player was the same. Think I've been flying my Clarion for 2 weeks now. This past weekend I got 12 kills 1 death in a TDM and got that 12 kill achievement for the first time. And the match went 50-43, so it wasn't a complete spanking.
  3. More gunships really need to learn to move the moment they come under fire. If I see a gunship I usually fly straight towards them and start firing quads, because most of the time, they won't win, and they'll die. In my experience a gunship cannot take down a Clarion head on, even with a 10K range lead.
  4. I enjoy proton torpedoes because they're easy to use. The sequence is like: 1. Spot someone at half hp 2. Lock on 3. Kill People talk about missile breaks round the forums but this is easier to achieve than it seems... In fact after just a few hours of practice it's so easy I'm at a loss to how anyone can go without scoring several kills per match in their first week. Well they're not using protons obviously. Also it gives you an appreciation of just what repair probes do for people. A healed ship is not a vulnerable ship. Thermites arguably have a higher skill cap and therefore can get better results, but they need the extra step of follow up. You need to be focused on doing this follow up and can't just fire and forget. Thermites, I imagine, become better after you've upgraded your Quads to do a bit of damage and have learned how to hit more consistently. After two weeks I'm ~starting~ to get the hang of Quads a bit more, but it'll probably be another few weeks before I start leveling Thermites. By then I should be a good deal better with blasters and more able to follow up on the thermite hits.
  5. Yeah visually, all ships seem exactly the same in combat. Bombers are really small to what you'd expect.
  6. Sorry, but my experience as a new player is different. It took me under a week to start getting positive kill:death scores in the stock fighter. And I am not an old hand reminiscing on the beta when everyone else was new. I only started exactly two weeks ago. This is not a game where you have no chance as a new player. It is all on you. If you're being killed but gunships that often, you're doing something to make yourself an easy target. Like not using terrain, or being too isolated.
  7. Thanks heaps for the detailed reply. The advice from veteran players is really helping. I have ,actually, switched back to quads. Just kinda frustrated sometimes with the 4K range on lights. Yeah, this is what I discovered by chance...
  8. Yeah the initial purchase cost of components is pretty painful. Especially when many seem balanced around having the level 1 upgrade that you also need to shell out for to get the right feel of the component. You don't want to run direction shields without the level 1 upgrade that stops switches eating your shield, torpedoes without the reduced lock on time, repair probes without the 30 second cooldown reduction etc.
  9. Yeah, looks like I misread you initially and thought you were saying take passives over Wingman. Sorry aboui that.
  10. Updated this according to feedback... * Smoothed out the upgrade path to include level 3 minor components * Added Verain's directional shielding tips * Swapped recommendations for defensive crew and armor to just pure hull HP and shielding following Armonddd's feedback * Created an Imp to see what kind of crew options they have However, I still like my crew recommendation for engineering (efficient maneuvers and power to engines) and tactical (ignoring passive choice in favor of getting the right active) because: 1. If you get the PvE class story ship you should have both of these options unlocked, limiting req spend (just not worth it to spend 1,250 fleet on tactical passives) 2. I really like power to engines in place of efficient fire, mostly because when new most of your kills really will come from torpedo locks, so it doesn't really matter if you run dry on blasters, and it's easy to find yourself out of position. Overall I really like how this ship is coming together as I build it up. Less than two weeks playing GSF and only a week in the Clarion, and starting to get scores like this: http://i.imgur.com/IWkLqsQ.jpg (name erased since I'm stealthy). The ship performs well and brings some great utility.
  11. That's actually really helpful. Was never too sure where to put them.
  12. I guess I just don't understand the point of any of the tactical passives - with other ships spotting enemies for you, they all seem bad, so I choose tactical for the active skill. You make a good point about response tuning, though. I may switch armor to HP and defensive to Doc.
  13. So I just tried the light laser cannon for the first time. Where have you been these past one and a half weeks. Maybe it's that I play at 300ms latency, but am definitely finding it easier to hit with light lasers than quads and get more kills. So not sure that I'd update the original post. I like lights better, but many people seem to prefer quads. Had a few games today that illustrated just how useful this build can be though. In particular there was one where everyone on our team was a newbie, against a team of vets. The Combat Clarion got 4 out of the team's 5 kills in the match. Just the combination of toughness, being hard to catch, and protons make the Clarion able to hold its own even if your spawn is getting overrun and even when flown with less experience. Is why I recommend at least trying the Clarion to any new player.
  14. I must have just assumed since I started with C2 due to being at level 20 when I started GSF. Of course I'm fully open to corrections and criticism since I don't know that much myself and any input will probably help me too. My experience with heavy lasers / clusters on a star guard in my first week is that so many things escaped me. While I don't have a complete understanding, I have the feeling that clusters require some dogfighting experience to soften the target up before or after, and also benefit hugely more from their tier 5 upgrade for the 30% damage. At low levels they're like throwing tennis balls at people. You might knock someone down but they might just laugh at you. So for me, clusters are a bit of a trap component. As a newbie I found them attractive ("Yay I can lock many missiles!") but soon realized I wasn't killing anything with those locks and switched to Protons and started racking up the kills and assists. Also I didn't like Barrel Roll as an engine maneuver because it didn't allow me to break dogfights. The game that led me to retire my Pike was when a scout was on my tail the entire match and I could do nothing at all. I can evade such situations on my Clarion, but the Pike was dead in the water since it flies so predictably. I don't doubt that the bomber or gunship are decent newbie ships too but they're boring and look awful. I don't want those things in my hanger.
  15. This thread builds on a few posts in Stasie's detailed guide, where Verain suggested it might belong in its own thread due to its subject - what to do when you just start that's the easiest way to get the experience you need to get good. Right now, you can't hit much with blasters, and you don't want to waste req into dead ends. So this discusses how to do well in Galactic Starfighter in a week or less by using the Clarion (Republic) or Imperium (its Imperial counterpart). Although not part of the top "meta", these ships are, imo, one of the best ship types for a rookie to fly. They're surprisingly tough, yet still capable of landing killing shots. You can fly one of these and focus on learning how to fly and shoot, instead of being killed over and over. This was evidenced for myself when, in my first week, I could reliably earn a positive kill:death ratio in my Clarion, whereas such a thing was just harder in my Star Guard or Pike (and I had no intention of flying a bomber or gunship). The Star Guard got me into dog fights I did not win, and the Pike was way too squishy. To top it off, despite not being top meta ships, Clarion's still have a defined role as a group support ships, so still very much welcome in a team. You won't be "wasting" points in a Clarion, even if it's not a bomber or Flashfire. Disclaimer: I am only in my second week of play right now. So don't take this as gospel, but it did work extremely well for me. I am not topping scoreboards, but I am consistently getting more kills than deaths, contributing utility, and usually in the top half of the scoreboard assuming a reasonably balanced match. Basically feeling like I am doing enough to be worthwhile given my experience level. 1. Get good enough crew (2,500 req) After buying your ship, the next port of call is the crew. In order of importance: 1. Offensive crew with Pinpointing and Improved Kill Zone. The first makes blasters easier to hit with and the second makes torpedo locks easier to acquire. Both are important. 2. Defensive crew with Power to Shields and Quick Charge. Imperial starter crew comes with this. Alternatively, you can consider Power to Shields and Response Tuning. Your defensive crew choice needs to be matched to your armor choice. 3. Tactical crew with Wingman or Running Interference. These are at different ends of the spectrum. Wingman helps you hit things with blasters, Running Interference helps you dodge blasters. Imperials starter tactical crew comes with Wingman, Republic starter comes with Running Interference. Since you're choosing your tactical crew for the active skill, they will be your co-pilot. Tactical crew passives don't do a whole lot so don't worry about them for now. 4. Engineering crew with Power to Engines and Efficient Maneuvers. All your agility will come from your engine active ability, so you want lots of engine power for this. If you have a PvE class story ship, you should have unlocked a crew member with these passives. Looking at these crew, you should be able to put together a decent crew for 2,500 fleet req at most. While I'm sure you will be able to fine-tune your crew later, you also need points for buying ship components. 2. Upgrade Power Dive (3,500 req) Your first two upgrades should be in Power Dive, getting it down to almost no engine power consumption and a 10 second cooldown. This gives you excellent speed, a 10 second missile lock break, and ability to escape a dogfight. Power Dive works by sending you flying downwards at a 90 degree angle at high speed, and flips you upside down in the process. If you use this mindlessly, you'll probably impact on a nearby asteroid. But you can use it better by angling your nose upwards first, then power diving, so you end up parallel to your original heading, or at least only marginally downward. This serves two purposes. One, you gain a lot of speed, even taking into account the time lost by angling upwards. This can be used to fast travel to satellites, or to escape swarms of angry ships. Starting domination maps, a good tactic is to hit power to engines (F3) as you hyperspace in, orient yourself towards an objective, face upwards and power dive, afterburner as soon as you come out of power dive, and as soon as power dive is off cooldown use it again in a similar manner. You should find yourself quick on the objective and able to contest it (i.e. fly around the satellite with all power to shields hoping not to get hit). If you're feeling really gung ho, you can even power dive towards an enemy gunship, should they be isolated (do not power dive into the whole enemy team). You may be in a rookie ship with the inability to hit much if anything with blasters, but gunships may not expect such sudden movement towards them and you will be really annoying at worst, and get a kill at best. It's like having an angry shopping trolley you thought was flying the other way suddenly coming straight at you. The second purpose of Power Dive--and perhaps more important, is you make it very hard to hit you. The first angle upwards reduces a chaser's distance to you, and then the dash downwards gets you out of their sights, possibly confusing them and making them overshoot. With a 10 second power dive you can become ridiculously annoying to chase, contributing to your survivability if you can convince your attacker that you won't be an easy kill. 3. Ambush and don't get into a turning fight Now that you have Power Dive, you can start to explore the playstyle of this ship more - which is as a patient ambusher. You can go fast in sudden and surprising ways, but you still have the overall maneuverability of a school bus. This means you need to use your range and unconventional movement style to ambush people, and if you ever get into a turning fight, escape it with Power Dive as soon as possible so you can get back to torpedo range (5K - 10K). Be patient. Unless you're deliberately rushing an objective or trying to evade an attacker, don't rush in. Just cruise along, minding your own business until someone strays into your sights. If you think about how a shark hunts, you have a pretty good idea how you should fly. Your torpedoes have a long range, and you can escape with haste if needed, so you don't need to be flying particularly fast when not under threat. Holding back is the best way to learn the situational awareness needed to be a good pilot, and the best way to avoid bumbling into traps. 4. Upgrade Proton Torpedoes (3,500 req) At first, all your kills will come from Proton Torpedoes. Sure, you may land the odd lucky shot with blasters, but at this stage, Proton Torpedoes are your best bet due to their good hitting power. The first two upgrades reduce lock on time of torpedoes and give you +10% crit chance. These two upgrades make your torpedoes quite dangerous against wounded ships. You can expect your torpedoes to finish off most things that aren't a bomber that have 60% or less hull. The proper way to use them at this stage is as you're cruising around, look for people within 5K - 15K range with damaged hulls. If you can get a torpedo off, you'll probably land a kill. If, after a bit of trying, you don't manage to get a lock, be careful of being suckered into a turning fight. Just break it off and go back to cruising. Remember patience. With practice you should get better at attacking from ambush positions that give the best chances of success. Torpedoes can also put pressure on satellites. The Clarion's toughness means that often your best action is to be the annoying ship weaving in and out of the satellite. But if there are others holding the fort, you can try backing off to about 5km directly above or below the node, and going for a torpedo lock. Often ships go very slow around the satellite and are loathe to risk missile breaks in such close quarters. 5. Quad lasers to level 2 (5,500 req) Occasionally, and with practice, you might start hitting stuff with blasters. Quads are pretty good if you get the opportunity to fire them, and you'll get better at this as you go along. Although this is pretty late to buy quads (you can take them earlier if you want) the mainstay of this ship really does come from its toughness and torpedoes, so quads are an add-on once you get used to hitting things with lasers. There are a lot of tricks you can do, such as maintain the correct range to shoot at (4K), slow down your ship to reduce your turning rate, reduce your mouse sensitivity to avoid mouse jitter, and blow your Wingman buff. But these all come with practice. For now, having the first two upgrades in Quads definitely helps. You might want to give light lasers a go alternatively. Quads are easier to use, but lights I find better for DPS and close quarters fights, but it's a playstyle thing. Both are much better than Rapid Fire Lasers. You should definitely give light lasers a go after buying some other upgrades and before you take quads higher than level 2, to see if you like them. 6. Directional Shields to level 2 (5,000 req) The Clarion, like all Strike Fighters, has good shields, and Directional Shields are the best shields you can get. These give the best average shield strength with the least drawbacks, and taking them to level 2 gives your shields a nice boost. You don't have to fiddle with the directional controls too much, though with practice you will notice particular situations that benefit one direction over another. Verain's tips: 7. Buy Repair Probes and reduce the cooldown (3,000 req) With your main agility and offensive weapon in play, you can start taking a look at group support and toughness. The big reason to fly a Clarion long term is the Repair Probes. For now, you can use them to repair the nicks and scratches you get as you cruise around looking for targets. Later, you can use them to resupply Scout rocket pods. Short term, just get them on your bar and reduce their cooldown to 60 seconds. 8. Armor and Reactor to level 2 (5,000 req) The next biggest upgrades are personal toughness. For an investment of 5,000 req you can upgrade your reinforced armor and large reactor to level 2. Both these components come with the ship and give you a bigger HP pool for shrugging off hits. You should only go with the Reinforced Armor option if you chose a defensive crew with Power to Shields and Quick Charge Shields (Starter Imperial crew or Republic Doc). If you chose a crew with response Tuning ,you are running an evasion build, and so should pick Lightweight Armor for an extra 1,000 requisition. 9. Capacitor to level 2 (2,500 - 3,500 req) While we're upgrading our blasters, may as well put points in the capacitor. All the capacitor options are OK, though which one I prefer comes down to weapon choice. Range is great for quads, though I like the default Damage Capacitor for light laser cannons. The cheapest and most flexible option (since you both start with it and it works well with all laser types) is damage. 10. Torpedoes to rank 4 (15,000 req) We've finally got the ship a bit spaceworthy and can start thinking about easing off the small upgrades and invest the big bucks to improve our Killing Power. Rank 4 Proton Torpedoes with the 4 degrees fire arc are really great since they have a huger lock on radius. You'll get much less frustrated at things flying out of your fire arc. Alternatively you can try the torpedo speed increase, though you'll find locks harder to acquire, especially before buying increased turn speed. 11. Power Dive to rank 3 (10,000 req) Rank 3 power dive lets you take +10% turn rate, which is great for both easier torpedo locking and easier blaster tracking. You still don't want to get into a turning fight, but for 10,000 req you will be a slightly more agile shopping trolley and land a few more torpedoes per match as a result. You already have great straight line speed with Power Dive's active use, so you don't really need even more, so can safely ignore the +10% speed option. 12. Capacitor, Reactor and Armor to rank 3 (7,500 req) This investment of 7,500 req to master your three minor components is handy now to give you a bit of a boost to both damage and toughness. 13. Repair Probes to rank 5 (lots of req) You now have a ship that performs pretty good, so can think about what you can do other than power diving and flinging torpedoes. A straight-up investment in ammo supplying Repair Probes lets you be a force multiplier, rearming other classes who run out of ammo a lot. I.e. scouts, who can never have enough rockets. 14. Mop up (even more req) Your ship is fully functional now, so you can look at upgrades that make life a bit easier. More torpedo range here, experiment between quads and light lasers there. But by now you should be getting positive kill death ratios in most matches and be contributing to the team.
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