The Problem:

2.7 hit everyone hard for mobility - all engine abilities had their cooldowns increased and their cost increased at the same time. Scouts are still king of mobility, and in this sense even more powerful than before albeit with a caviot. We are more susceptible to running out of engine power / abilities, missiles have gone from nuisance to threat, and ion rails are a death sentence. Overall our suitability is down, and a playstyle change is required IMO.

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The Result of 2.7:

• 
   
  
• Missiles are harder to avoid (your missile breaks take longer to regen, in some cases twice as long)
   
   
  
• Mobility and speed have been reduced across the board (the more agile classes feeling it less)
   
   
  
• Barrel Roll is not "as" viable as a travel power (I use it still at the beginning of a match but otherwise saved for missiles)
   
   
  
• Engine power is more valuable, as a scout get caught without this and your mince meat (unless your close enough to LOS something)
   
   
  
• Mobility and speed is more important now than ever before. It went from a cool benefit to a major factor with the release of 2.7.
   
  

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Old Build and Why it No Longer Works:

When the patch first went live I was using this:

Playing with this build was very dangerous in the new meta, before I relied heavily on Barrel Roll as a offensive / defensive tool to close or run, as well as a missile break. With the changes using it as a travel power is dangerous, IMO it must be saved for missiles except in extreme cases. Frequently my engine power was completely drained after short engagements. Ion rail became particularly devastating as well, since the cost of using Barrel Roll was increased.

The result of all this was me running out of engine power or abilities and catching a missile in the teeth, much too frequently for my liking.

Luckily I had a backup plan, which after a couple more rounds has showed a lot of promise:

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New Build, New Tactics

New Build - Nickname: Cat-Herder

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Whats Changed

• 
   
  
• Ditched most turning for speed (I waffle a bit on the engine ability: speed or turn, depending on how I want it to fly)
   
   
  
• Ditched blaster overcharge for booster overcharge
   
   
  
• Swapped bypass for concentrated fire (yes someone still used bypass hehe)
   
  

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Why, and How Does it Compare?

Result: (Here is a post 2.7 match from 4/10/2014 with the new build)

http://i1295.photobucket.com/albums/b625/Flankenstein/Screenshot_2014-04-10_12_22_54_492975_zps591e9f00.jpg

A ship that trades some of its damage for a lot of mobility. I find that in the post 2.7 world the old scout that specs for pure damage is going to be a 1 hit wonder due to power and ability constraints. Concentrated fire still yields a respectable damage boost and is a decent replacement for blaster overcharge (well not really but it works)

This build feels very "scout" to me, whereas my old build felt like a slug (unable to effectively chase or evade)

Stacking regen on the engine power makes it passively replenish quickly, and even faster with engine power selected. The actual booster ability is wonderful as well, allows you to basically refill most if not all of your engine power on demand.

The way I like to play scout is the "close" game 0-1000, this allows me to dogfight in close but still have the engine power to run or LOS if I have to. This build is a node taker, an interceptor, and a harasser. Losing some of the damage does suck, especially against gunships and strikes (who blaster overcharge melted before) - But the mobility gained is very useful offensively, putting you in the position to do the damage or to slink away when need be.

Ive tried working blaster overcharge back in but im honestly addicted now to the mobility of this little thing, give it a try (especially if you like to play close as well)

This is essentially the build I've been running since early access, though your version has some components that don't synergize with the rest quite as well as they could..

Barrel roll should be retro thrusters. You don't need barrel roll with booster recharge. You just don't. Outside of its mobility powers, barrel roll is actually pretty bad. Being forced to choose between eating a missile and resetting the fight is awful, especially in domination where leaving the node can mean the other guys cap it. The question you're going to ask is "but how do you chase people with barrel roll?" Simple -- just boost after them. T5 booster recharge gives a lot of engine power. I chase gunships with boost alone, and there's no problem -- and while I haven't played a match since the patch landed, I'm pretty sure that's just going to get even easier now.

Retro with clusters is great because the lock-on time is so short that you can launch the missiles in the middle of a joust after retroing, and this combo boosts clusters to second best "normal" secondary weapon in the game (after rocket pods, which have superior burst power but can't do much in an actual dogfight). Retros also let you slip behind the guy chasing you, and likewise if the guy you're chasing tries to retro you can just retro yourself and keep him in your sights. It's really an underutilized ability that I think will become more popular post-patch.

Retros have the turning upgrade because you don't often need more speed but you always need more turning power around a satellite or asteroid, or when your target is within 2 km (which should be most of the time).

Turbo reactor should be large reactor, because you pop too easily otherwise. Turbo and regen reactors are just flat out mathematically inferior to large reactors unless you somehow survive for something like 20 seconds (in ideal circumstances, which never happen). They're good on other ships, but only because those other ships have synergy in the form of directional and/or quick-charge shields. T2 scouts don't use those, so they should always use large.

Regen thrusters should be turning thrusters for the same reason you should drop barrel roll.

Damage capacitor isn't a bad choice, but I've been toying with range capacitor since the devs confirmed that damage is a linear dropoff with range. It's a slight damage loss (I think you end up gaining 9% damage instead of 10%), but the increased range is handy for when people start to run and gives you more breathing room when dealing with bombers. Further, range capacitor is the only way for scouts to deal with seeker mines.

Pub side companions are Qyzen (copilot), Nadia, filler, and Yuun. This trades Spare Ammo for Improved Kill Zone, which I generally find to be superior. Engineering crew can be pretty much whoever, as long as it's not someone with Silent Running (because you'll almost never be more than 15 km away from your target, so dampening should never come into play).

Since I had to give up blaster overcharge I am low on damage, hence I feel like I need it for the cap and also in the crew ability. As for the turning I dont really miss it much, but this is interchangeable IMO, I took the speed since the theory behind this build is speed at the sacrifice of weapons.

I could definitely go retro, especially since now I rarely use barrel roll as a travel power, im generally saving it for a missile break. In that same vein of though I might try power dive (wait does the t2 even get that?)

Clusters I get since my playstyle is close and nothing else can give me that short bursty window that I need to get shots off.

All in all my deaths remain similar <5 but my kills are suffering a bit. Havent had a 20+ round in any of the 10 matches I played today. If I walk away with a win and 10+ kills <5 deaths im still happy. Definitely feeling the lack of damage, but booster overcharge IMO is a must now if you want to live longer than a few minutes.

Since I had to give up blaster overcharge I am low on damage, hence I feel like I need it for the cap and also in the crew ability. As for the turning I dont really miss it much, but this is interchangeable IMO, I took the speed since the theory behind this build is speed at the sacrifice of weapons.

Range capacitor increases range by 10%. Since damage scales linearly, at the same range (say, 1800 meters), you get about +9% damage. I'll take +9% damage +400m range over +10% damage any day.

I've landed hundreds of kills because I was able to out-turn my opponent around a satellite or asteroid, or because I was able to line up a shot with less of a tracking penalty, or because I was able to make tighter turns to follow his path (meaning I got closer, meaning I did more damage). Turning rate is extremely valuable.

Don't sacrifice your weapons for speed -- you already have nearly unmatched speed thanks to booster recharge. Take both speed and weapons.

I could definitely go retro, especially since now I rarely use barrel roll as a travel power, im generally saving it for a missile break. In that same vein of though I might try power dive (wait does the t2 even get that?)

T2 gets power dive, but you can't kill things with power dive. You can definitely kill things with retro thrusters.

Firstly, I don't fly T2 scout but a T1, so apologies if you'd get offended by me giving my solutions in your T2 thread.

Now, to the point.

As T1 scout I am basically mostly gunship hunter, which made the impact of BR nerf maybe even bigger than on you T2 guys. However, my solution:

Power Dive.

+ cheap missile breaker on fast CD

+ doesn't "reset" the fight half as much as BR did

+ the component looks beautiful (can't advertise thing with more cons than pros, can I now?)

- no mobility

- really really tricky and requires to be very careful about your surroundings

- doesn't end the fight if one needs to escape

Speed on everything. - T3 Power Dive upgrade and Speed thrusters.

+ mobility

- no dogfighting, mostly single-pass sweeps, because of very limited turning rates, the speed makes tight maneuvers even worse

Engine Power Converter. You guys don't have this option which disqualifies my "solution" to inspire your solutions though.

+ booster at will

+ good capacity for combat

- very slow regen

Otherwise, as I was used to. Light lasers, Targetting Telemetry, Rocket Pods, CF.

Now, your best offense with your new build is the bare power of BLC which you can't empower with your systems, only with CF, and your Clusters. Looking on my thingies, I have a feeling that I actually have more firepower than you. TT with CF are insane critical hitters when activated together, not to mention when pods are spammed alongside lasers. Maybe RFL with its higher RoF would abuse that even more, and in ranges similar to BLC.

Of course, your mobility would probably be higher because the shield, even though good, isn't as good boost refill as the engine recharge, and that's before mentioning BR. You are still better dogfighter, but you also sacrificed your turn rate, so the difference will not be as huge as it used to be. And in sweeps on unsuspecting enemy, my build would probably be better because it can spray enemy with full power from around 4k, without warning beeping of missile lock.

Also, you now have two 20s CD lock breakers, don't you? It would definitely be debatable if it is better than my single 10s one. (which is a horrible move in all other ways though, so you would probably win that debate )

If I would want to mention how I'd tweak your build, I would keep turn rate at least on the engine T3 upgrade, if not on both engine and thrusters. From my experience the Engine Recharge is so powerful that I just didn't need other speed or regen thingies. If you'd miss regen, put Regen thrusters back on. With BR it is unlikely that you would need speed. But you are a T2 scout which is a dogfighter, THE dogfighter! If you put all your turn rate away, you will get outmaneuvered by damn fighters, and will even have trouble shooting down a maneuvering bomber. I know I do.

Barrel roll should be retro thrusters. You don't need barrel roll with booster recharge. You just don't. Outside of its mobility powers, barrel roll is actually pretty bad. Being forced to choose between eating a missile and resetting the fight is awful, especially in domination where leaving the node can mean the other guys cap it. The question you're going to ask is "but how do you chase people with barrel roll?" Simple -- just boost after them. T5 booster recharge gives a lot of engine power. I chase gunships with boost alone, and there's no problem -- and while I haven't played a match since the patch landed, I'm pretty sure that's just going to get even easier now.

Oh but railguns are totally overpowered. Right. Even though taking a single component on a scout (a component which is pretty good in general) means that you are capable of 100% shutting down any gunship in the game even if that gunship is flown perfectly.

Range capacitor increases range by 10%. Since damage scales linearly, at the same range (say, 1800 meters), you get about +9% damage. I'll take +9% damage +400m range over +10% damage any day.

Wrong. The boost is a lot less than 9% damage, because it doesn't scale linearly to 0 - it scales linearly to the next range damage about.

For example, consider LLC at 2000m (ignore talents for simplicity). It does 975 dps at 500m and 770dps at 3000m. At 2000m this works out to 852dps.

Buff range by 10% and those threshholds become 550m and 3300m. Now at 2000m you do 867dps, an increase of 1.75%.

The true dps buff is slighty more than 1.75%, because accuracy is also buffed, but that increase is also small: 1.455 percentage points.

Its very difficult to offend me, even if your trying to (which your not, it was a well though out concise post)

at any rate this is day 1 of the new patch so i think it could take some work to make it 100%, I just know that I was playing extremely competitive matches today and this build shined, especially in pursuing and evading. As far as range cap I have taught myself to engage at <3000 meters "most" of the time so I would rarely if ever get the full benefit of range caps.

Also when I refer to weapons over speed I mainly mean blaster overcharge, you dont really have to sacrifice anything else. Ill put the turning back on to see if it helps with the dogfights, but atm I am honestly not missing the 10% turn that I had before. Had a lot of dogfights today and didnt feel slugish in the turns.

As far as lieutenant pierce that was intentional, wanted to try out pinpointing. Ammo maybe could be swapped out if you play with the t3 scout/strike as they are GREAT at refilling ammo (might have to try that to get something else)

All in all though really enjoying the speed of this build, previously had only been able to enjoy this on the T1 scout (since blaster OC was such a good option, but now I cant really afford it)

Well, you equipped your T2 scout for speed chasing. I won't be telling you that it is wrong because that's exactly what I did to my T2 scout in the few games I played with it, but tbh, you would have more success with speed and chasing if you'd put a Nova in your loadout for these purposes, while keeping your (a bit tweaked) Flashfire a dogfighter.

I will also not deny your success, but maaayyybeeee, you could have more success with two specialized ships. What you created is a pretty much speed/damage hybrid, which I sure approve of because I love hybrids (one doesn't need to swap ships for different scenarios), but I am not sure if hybrids have bright future in GSF.

I could call my lil Nova a bit hybrid, too, as she carries TT and CF for insane spike, and everything else for mobility. And the experience says, that in a fight where two good teams fight, I do well, survive, kill people, evade who can't be killed, usually top 3, often top 1. But once there are two awesome coordinating teams, my little hybrid firepower is not enough to actually score enough kills to satisfy me, and what's even worse, it comes for sacrifice of mobility which makes it insanely hard for me to survive coordinated attacks.

If I had everything in mobility (Speed engine, Regen thrusters, Engine recharge, Quick-charge shield), I would probably have easier time survivng, could probably shoot around more potshots, score some kills. (or as I call them, 'finishers')

If I had everything in damage (a fighting-equipped Flashfire instead of Nova), I would maybe die in the heat of battle a couple more times, but I would definitely score a lot more kills.

Bottom line, I sure encourage you to experiment and learn your stuff well, don't let anyone discourage you from what you are doing, because even though there will be lots of criticism, you sure can wield your ship the best, learn to abuse its strengths (and weaknesses too), and be an ace in a not your everyday Flashfire.

As far as range cap I have taught myself to engage at <3000 meters "most" of the time so I would rarely if ever get the full benefit of range caps.

As far as I understand it, with range capacitor at 3000 meters you do the same damage you would do without range capacitor at 2700 meters.

As far as lieutenant pierce that was intentional, wanted to try out pinpointing. Ammo maybe could be swapped out if you play with the t3 scout/strike as they are GREAT at refilling ammo (might have to try that to get something else)

Can't really do that impside, only pubside. Imps only get two guys with pinpointing and concentrated fire, and the other has rapid reload.

(since blaster OC was such a good option, but now I cant really afford it)

I disagree. >_>

As far as I understand it, with range capacitor at 3000 meters you do the same damage you would do without range capacitor at 2700 meters.

Not quite. 2727 meters.

Not quite. 2727 meters.

Pretty sure 2700. Game shows no other evidence that distance exists in anything other than 100 meters.

And, I mean, I simplified my math for a not-mathy thread. Eff me, right?

Pretty sure 2700. Game shows no other evidence that distance exists in anything other than 100 meters.

... are you joking?

And, I mean, I simplified my math for a not-mathy thread. Eff me, right?

Given that you used to think that you were getting +9% damage from range capacitor when in fact the boost is only about +1.5%, you might want to do less simplification.

Pretty sure 2700. Game shows no other evidence that distance exists in anything other than 100 meters.

 

And, I mean, I simplified my math for a not-mathy thread. Eff me, right?

I'm pretty sure that the game tracks ranges more definitively than units of 100m, but only displays your target's range in units of 100m. And I think that it rounds down, though I could be wrong. (meaning if you are actually at 581m, the game tells you that you are at 500m)

How dare you! We could call it the neutered battle scout heh (thanks btw)

I understand what some people are saying as well about doubling sometimes tripling up on the speed / recharge / engine stuff at the expense of other things. My first couple rounds were so bad (in my old build) that I didn't want to have to worry about engine power at all anymore (even pre 2.7 I was running on empty most of the time)

The 20% engine regen bump has been a life saver, when I get into a dogfight I am getting back a respectable amount of power (not even trying) - and if I ever get low I can hit booster recharge and switch to engine power and watch an empty bar rapidly fill. The 20% refill on use has been great for Ion Railgun hits as well, allowing me time to escape.

This flies a little different than the old scout, in which I typically turned into my attackers and used offense as a defense. This ship is still a dogfighter, not a pure one mind you but one nonetheless. If I lose the upper hand directly engaging an opponent, or multiple attackers come after me now I turn tail and LOS, some pilots will get bored and leave you alone while others will charge in after you. The trick with this ship is to let people over-commit themselves until you are ready to engage (when your cooldowns are up or when they have run out of engine power and you can get the kill easily)

Even with the big cooldown Barrel roll is still my first choice, the utility of having it as a travel power for emergencies IMO simply cant be replaced by anything but maybe powerdive (shorter missiles break). While defending I will try to LOS and use distortion field to break any locks, if I have to use BR (which is rare) then I will pick something I can LOS with on my way back to the node. If they follow great, they will be off the node as well. If they dont oh well, they get 2 seconds of cap and you come tearing around for a fresh pass.

As to the cap thing, less than 3000 was an understatement for how I fly, I prefer to be at or around 1000k. 3k is where I sometimes start to engage, most of my damage is being done at 1-2k or less though. Range cap would probably be very minor for me compared to a flat 10% damage (if I had quads though I would definitely switch) Willing to try anything tho.

(Edit: added screen from a good game today, to illustrate what the build is capable of)http://i1295.photobucket.com/albums/b625/Flankenstein/Screenshot_2014-04-10_12_22_54_492975_zps591e9f00.jpg

So I'm going to go ahead and just reply to the OP, and skip the back and forth that happened in the interim...

For me, I've been playing a T2 Scout since prerelease for subs. It was the first ship I bought, and the first one I mastered, and is still my favorite to play. If you fly on Jedi Covenant, chances are you've run into me, where I fly as Graendahl (among a few other unnamed alts). I don't usually post much on the forums, but it sounds like you're having some of the same problems that popped up for me when 2.6 hit, but a different variation, so I figured I'd offer my 2¢.

Way back when, my logic was, "Survivability/turning/speed > all", and my build went heavy on Turning Thrusters, and the increased turning rate with Retro Thrusters, and relying heavily on Booster Recharge to keep my booster power. But when 2.6 hit, the JC meta quickly morphed into a heavy gunship/bomber meta, and I found myself lacking the teeth to actually kill bombers or Gunships (since the gunships would always have time to start the long chase with their BR, and eventually I'd have to break off when they found a friendly minefield or friendly dogfighter, after which it was a coin flip to see if I could even successfully disengage...).

It had me really down for a while, so I started looking for a new build. The major idea was that I wanted to keep my mobility, but was willing to lose maneuverability in exchange for better damage output. Copilot Bypass wasn't cutting it anymore.

I'm going to differ on component choice with Armonddd, but I think a lot of GSF is really finding a build that suits your play style, and roll with that. There are some things that are just better on a scout (Light Armor/BLCs), but there's still plenty of room to customize to your style.

My current build:

Systems: Targeting Telemetry - I prefer this over Blaster Overcharge because of power management. Tier 5 TT (25% surge, if put in ground game terms) is a REALLY big deal if you get close to someone.

Shield: Quick Charge Shield - The biggest draw for Disto Shield has always been the extra missile lock break. Otherwise, I see it's value, but I don't like the RNG aspect of it. Quick Charge seems more reliable to me, and in general, I don't usually need the extra lock break. On top of that, the T3 upgrade lets you Regen 60% of normal while being damaged. Math might not support me here, but "feel" does, for what it's worth.

Engine: Retro Thrusters - I've never been a fan of BR on the T2. The distance closer was rarely relevant, and when used as a missile break, it's totally defensive. Retro can be flipped to be either a missile break, OR another Offensive maneuver. I love flexibility, and this Engine has that in spades. If you have good spatial awareness, the offensive power of Retro is really unmatched by any other engine maneuver.

Weapons: BLCs and Clusters. Not much to be said here. I can see case arguments for Quads + Rockets (either/or/both), but I think the BLC + Double Cluster is the most versatile/lethal combo.

Reactor: Large Reactor - I waffle here between Large and Regeneration Reactor. The Regeneration, along with the passive from the T3 Shield (regen 60% while taking damage) seems very good, because you bypass all the "wait before recharge" math. On the other hand, you get more back on use of Quick Charge with Large.

Armor: - I don't like RNG, but... With all the "ignore armor" effects, Deflection seems a poor choice, and the Reinforced boost is weak on a scout, so the Stats math wins out here.

Capacitor: Damage - I used to like Frequency, but without 2V's Efficient Fire, I think Damage wins for me here. Although I'd never really considered the + to damage from the Ranged, increasing the higher damage range as well... Good point, Armonddd, and I'll have to play around with that.

Thrusters: Regeneration Thrusters - Speed is still life. I'm now without my trusty Booster Charge, but I need to keep my boosters up as much as possible. Haven't tried Power, but have no complaints with Regen. I know I lose the maneuverability, and that's always been a concern, but... I kind of think that the times where the turning really tips the scales in my favor are... minimal. It's not the way I fly anymore. Actual turning battles are rare (because Gunships), and if I get in one, and it looks like I'm losing, I'm happy to be the first to break away, and let you follow me to more favorable terrain. If my target is sat humping... it's really rare that you actually NEED more turning radius to stay on the target. Careful use of boosters and your general acceleration seems to more than compensate for the loss in turning. I was REALLY worried with this change because of initial thoughts and perception. What I found, however, is that the bonus in turning is too much of an edge case where it's a real benefit. The game's changed.

Crew:

Copilot: Blizz - Yes, Hydro-spanner is generally weak, but being able to regen your hull even a bit by yourself has actually over-performed for me. It might be psychological, but I "feel" free to fly a bit more naturally if I can repair my flaming hull. If I'm red, flaming, and have next to no hull, I'm overly sensitive to bypass effects killing me in a shot. So long as I'm not a flaming red mess, I am perfectly happy to fly right back into a melee. So knock it on the math if you want, but it works for me.

Offensive: Jaesa - I don't care about extra ammo anymore. I think far too many people think Cluster Missiles are the primary weapon on a T2 scout. But the more I fly, the less I like them outside of a dogfight. They let the enemy know you're there. The relatively light damage isn't worth giving up surprise. As such, sure, I'll run out of them on occasion, but... Who cares? Give me the wider arc and the accuracy, and since I'm rolling with Blizz for Spanner, not having Concentrated Fire isn't a drawback.

NOTE* - If you'll notice, I'm taking a page out of the playbook of the GS. They're not nice enough to let you know they're about to rail you with an indicator, you just get hit. I feel it's only fair to return the favor.

Defensive: Ashara - Because passives. A little reduction can be nice, even though I don't stack it. The evasion is what I'm after. Haven't really considered much trying to get an evasion + shields companion here. Might be better?

Tactical: Salana Rok - People knock it, but Comm sensors seem to be a solid choice. I'm never going to be a real "ghost", so dampening is largely irrelevant. Regular range is ok, I guess, but... If I can see what my allies can see at greater range, it gives me a better view of how the battle as a whole is unfolding, and where I need to go to be the most effective. I think most options are largely irrelevant for the T2 scout, but I do like the comm boost.

Engineering: Blizz - Upping booster pool while reducing the cost of use is a win for me with this build. Losing Booster Charge really hurts, and I based almost the entire build around mitigating that loss. Since I like Hydro-Spanner, it's a bonus that Blizz is the only one that has both Power to Engines and Efficient Maneuvers.

The long and short is this:

I now have the offensive firepower to vaporize most opponents very quickly (Even bombers will usually fall with a single bar of blaster power using Clusters to finish). My change in play style (using Clusters largely as finishers) has also gotten me several kills against people who have no idea I'm there. Either sneaking, or if I'm defending allies... You're not "silent", but you're not broadcasting your position either, and that can net you a couple more shots If they're focused on something else.

So far it's been a very successful build. I don't have a ton of screens from post 2.7, but here's one I uploaded from Wednesday night (the 2nd day of 2.7). I had another one last night in a losing effort against a partial premade (or at least several players I know of, and often play at similar times) where I got 21 kills : 5 deaths, but failed to take that screenshot. The above screen was definitely against an underpowered team but I think this build is quite viable and lethal. Even with them being underpowered... I beat them on my own (obviously team, blah blah, couldn't have done it if it were ACTUALLY 8v1 applies, but outscoring an entire team is still a feat).

The most surprising thing to me is how much booster power I have/how long I can go at full speed. Outside of a wayward Ion Rail, I VERY rarely miss Booster Recharge. Even if I run out, with the regen stacking, I'm at least at 1/4 bar quite quickly, which is enough to run to the next cover point if I'm being chased.

Great post above from Graendahl, certainly one of the top pilots on my server. Perhaps moderately less so when not entirely sober.

I kid, I kid.

But seriously, I appreciate the thought and effort that obviously went into the post, and the OP's as well. I fly mostly GS these days...what can I say, the tears and rage induced by the ion lolgun bring me joy (I simply never tire of this, and I know, I'm a bad person). But I've dabbled in everything, and well-thought-out builds like these make me want to hop in the T2 again. I've got a ton of req banked on a couple of them, I'm going to try the build above and see what I can do with it.

Perhaps moderately less so when not entirely sober.

I'll never live that down, will I?

I have tried a lot of what people have suggested now, ended up putting the turning back in on the engine ability, not willing to sacrifice the booster for turning as of yet though. Still haven't tried the "large" reactor yet, ill have to switch in and give it a go today.

Spruced up the OP as well, now it actually looks like a proper build.

Note: In the time spent playing this build my favorite thing to do now is to "poke the beehive" boosting into enemy territory early, attempting to get a kill or harass before running away. People will follow you until their engine power runs out, once they slow down I break and fire on them, usually resulting in a kill. Certainly wasnt able to use running as offense before with blaster OC hehe.

Note: In the time spent playing this build my favorite thing to do now is to "poke the beehive" boosting into enemy territory early, attempting to get a kill or harass before running away. People will follow you until their engine power runs out, once they slow down I break and fire on them, usually resulting in a kill. Certainly wasnt able to use running as offense before with blaster OC hehe.

This also is one of my favorite things to do. Although for me, a lot of the fun is seeing how many I can get on my tail and then seeing how long I can run.