Many people cry about the gunship, this guide will not discuss whether or not gunships are OP, but will instead be a simple guide on how to play them effectively.

NOTE: THIS GUIDE IS WRITTEN FROM REPUBLIC STAND-POINT, AND HAS NO INFORMATION ABOUT IMPERIAL CREW MEMBERS OR IMPERIAL SHIPS

Gunships have exactly one role in the Domination game mode, and that is area denial. Your job as a gunship pilot is to pick a stretch of area, and make it incredibly difficult and deadly for enemy ships to get across it. Usually this area will have an objective inside it. Secondary to this is to assist any allied scouts or strike fighters in their dog fights.

Firstly, we will go over all the components available to us, and throw out the useless ones. Build suggestions and TL;DR will be towards the ending.

As a Gunship, you will be using your secondary weapons for most of the match, and will only switch to your primary when under close attack by an enemy (more on this later).

Your secondary weapons of choice should always be the SLUG RAILGUN and the ION RAILGUN

SLUG RAILGUN

This weapon bypasses a large portion of shields and does a very high amount of damage. At later upgrades, it is possible to one shot an ill-equipped enemy with a critical. This weapon is typically used as a finisher and to destroy enemy objective turrets.

ION RAILGUN

This gun is what you will come to love, and what will be most useful to your team, however it only achieves this when you have upgraded it significantly. If you are focusing on the Gunship, every last scrap of requisition you get should go towards this weapon (more on upgrades and requisition later). A fully upgraded version of the Ion Railgun will not only completely eliminate their shields, it will also drain large amounts of blaster and engine power, and slow them by 40% for 6 seconds. Best of all, all of this will bounce to up to 3 enemies near the target struck, meaning you can severely gimp a squadron of enemies with a single shot.

PLASMA RAILGUN

While the Plasma Railgun is a great concept, it simply does not have the versatility or usefulness that the other two do. It can't bypass shields like the Slug can, and it has no chain effects or slows like the Ion does. The dot can be moderately useful for fleeing scouts, but in nearly all cases you would be better off with the Slug, as the Ion is crucial and cannot be replaced.

LIGHT LASER CANNON

This is the primary weapon that you start off with, and to be honest, its forgettable. While it has a good sustained DPS, it has poor burst compared to your other choice. It has some use in DPSing down stationary targets, but in nearly every situation, you would be better off sniping those stationary targets with your railguns.

BURST LASER CANNON

Your primary weapon of choice. As the name implies, it has superior burst capabilities than the light laser cannon, making it excellent for punishing over-confident scouts and strike fighters who come within 'knife' range. Assuming you landed at least one hit on an approaching enemy, it is possible to out-damage them using this weapon. The VAST majority of dogfighters will not be expecting you to stand and fight, and very few people realize the damage this weapon can put out. Note that this does not make you good in close range combat, you should be using this as a deterrent and emergency defense, and not relying on it as a main source of damage. You are simply too slow to use this effectively in normal combat. If you don't blow up the approaching enemy in their first pass, turn and run to allies, as you will not be able to turn fast enough to get them back in your sights.

Gunships currently have three (3) shields and four (4) engines available to them. Of the shields, all three are useful in differing situations.

The FEEDBACK SHIELD is what everyone starts with, and is a good baseline, though its active ability is nearly useless. Still, it has no significant downsides and requires very little changes to core gameplay to use.

The DISTORTION SHIELD is a shield that we share with scouts. By itself, it makes you fragile as hell, but its active is undoubtedly the best of all the shields. This shield is perfect for when there are scouts who love to rush straight at you and try to burst you down, as you can use the evasion active to avoid nearly all their blaster damage while shooting back at them. However, the active only lasts for 3 seconds, and it has a big cooldown, so knowing when to pop it is key. Try to hit it right when they get within 4000 meters for your primary weapon, and when they are moving directly at you at a dead slow. Note that evasion itself does nothing against missiles, but you can upgrade this shield to cause lock-on missiles to drop their lock when you use the active.

The FORTRESS SHIELD is one of my personal favorites. Its excellent for shooting other Gunships, and for facing down strike fighters. It is less useful against scouts, especially flashfires, as scouts possess a higher amount of burst than strike fighters do, and rely more on blaster fire, thus evasion is better against them. This shield can also be upgraded to last quite a long time, and increase your blaster regeneration, meaning no waiting between shots while this is active. It makes you immobile, but you're a Gunship, being immobile is what we do.

The BARREL ROLL is one of the most versatile engines in our arsenal. It gives us lock-on break, a HUGE amount of speed, faster than even a scout boosting, and an extra 30% evasion against blasters. The evasion usually doesn't matter, as you move so fast and in such a pattern that almost no one can maintain fire on you during a barrel roll. Instead of boosting towards an objective, barrel roll towards it! Barrel roll actually gives us higher speeds than boosting, and consumes less engine power. Best of all, it can be upgraded to consume a tiny amount of engine power (15), and increase our ships passive speed, shoring up our weak movement. Sidenote, a good trick to do is right click to go into zoom mode while barrel rolling, doing this will immediately stop your ship. A+ Engine all around.

The ROTATIONAL THRUSTERS are only useful while using either the distortion shield, or the fortress shield. They are excellent for gunning down cocky scouts and strike fighters who flank you, and it can be upgraded to give an extra 45%(!) blaster pool regeneration, letting you spam your weapons to your hearts content. However, it has the severe downside of lacking a lock-on break, and leaves you reliant on your boosters for speed boosts which are mediocre at best. ONLY use with Fortress or Distortion shields.

The INTERDICTION DRIVE is a strange engine in practice. It would seem odd for a Gunship, a slow railgun platform, to have something so obviously scout-based, and it is strange. It does slow enemies nearby, but the speed boost is not NEARLY as much as a barrel roll would get you, and it lacks any lock-on break. A scout can still chase you down even while slowed from this engine. While its a good concept, it fails in practice. Skip.

The WEAPON POWER CONVERTER is useless, period. It has no speed boost, no lock-on break, no maneuverability, and the extra 20% power to the blaster pool is pointless, as we already have a large enough blaster pool and blaster regeneration to fire at a steady rate, using other components. Pass.

Minor components should always be as follows:

DEFLECTION ARMOR if using Fortress or Feedback Shields

LIGHTWEIGHT ARMOR if using Distortion Shield

REGENERATION EXTENDER as your magazine

LARGE REACTOR if using Fortress Shield

REGENERATION REACTOR for Feedback or Distortion Shields

And last but not least:

DAMPENING SENSORS

Dampening Sensors are easily the most important minor component, and should be your first priority in upgrading, after your Ion Railgun. As it consumes less requisition to upgrade, you can choose to upgrade sensors first, if you so desire.

Rather than making this any longer than it already is by listing every crew member, I will simply tell you what you are looking for.

You want to play to your strengths depending on what build you are using. If you're using Distortion field and relying on evasion, extra passive evasion will help, as would a Hydrospanner as you have a weaker shield. Fortress shield users should look for extra shield power. In ALL cases you should look for extra blaster power REGEN (not pool), and ACCURACY.

Note that abilities affecting secondary weapon reload times, cooldown times, and ammo capacities are meaningless for Gunships as our railguns have no ammo constriction, and no cooldown for use.

Active abilities will nearly always be something that affects you, as the range on most active abilities is within 4000 meters, which is way too close for comfort for us. Hydro Spanner is a very popular pick.

Also note that you should ALWAYS have a crew member with 'Silent Running' in your tactical crew slot. These include Akaavi Spar, Lieutenant Iresso, and Treek, for Republic. I do not know Empire equivalents, sorry. This increases your sensor dampening range, which is always a plus.

Efficient Fire and other passives that specifically say 'blasters' usually do not count towards Railguns. As Railguns use the blaster pool however, anything that boosts that, or blaster pool regeneration, affects them.

These are builds that I use all the time, and are here for example purposes.

PRIMARY WEAPON: Burst Laser Cannon

SECONDARY WEAPONS: Ion Railgun, Slug Railgun

SHIELD: Feedback Shield

ENGINE: Barrel Roll

ARMOR: Deflection Armor

MAGAZINE: Regeneration Extender

REACTOR: Regeneration Reactor

SENSORS: Dampening Sensors

OFFENSIVE CREW: Qyzen Fess (+2 Firing Arc, +6% Accuracy)

TACTICAL CREW: Lieutenant Iresso (+2500m Sensor Focus Range, +4000m Sensor Dampening)

DEFENSIVE CREW: Doc (+10% Shield Power Pool, +15% Shield Power Pool Regen)

ENGINEERING CREW: T7-01 (+10% Blaster Pool, -13% Blaster Use Cost)

CO-PILOT: T7-01, For Hydro Spanner active

This is a good, baseline, low-cost build for starter Gunship pilots, especially if your character is a Consular. I use both Knight and Consular companions for their great passives, and while T7 has a useless second passive (Blaster Cost Reduction), Hydro Spanner is just too good to ignore. This build provides a medium balance between mobility, stealth, firepower, and defense.

'Turret' Specialized Build:

PRIMARY WEAPON: Burst Laser Cannon

SECONDARY WEAPONS: Ion Railgun, Slug Railgun

SHIELD: Fortress Shield

ENGINE: Rotational Thrusters

ARMOR: Deflection Armor

MAGAZINE: Regeneration Extendor

REACTOR: Large Reactor

SENSORS: Dampening Sensors

OFFENSIVE CREW: Qyzen Fess (+2 Firing Arc, +6% Accuracy)

TACTICAL CREW: Lieutenant Iresso (+2500 Sensor Focus Range, +4000 Sensor Dampening) OR Treek

DEFENSIVE CREW: Nadia Grell (+10% Shield Power Pool, +6% Evasion)

ENGINEERING CREW: Risha (+10% Engine Power Pool, +10% Blaster Power Pool)

CO-PILOT SEAT: Nadia Grell, for Bypass

This build focuses on being tough as nails using your shield. It is excellent against strike fighters, and good against scouts, but nearly worthless against other Gunships, as their Ion Railguns will quickly strip your shields no matter how strong they are. It focuses on sitting in one spot with Fortress active, and if any cocky dogfighters get the idea to rush you, using Rotational Thrusters (if necessary) to bring them in sights, hit Bypass (from Nadia), and blast the hell out of them while weathering their shots using your incredibly strong shields. Its one big weakness is that certain missiles can go right through shields, but given missile lock-on times, its quite possible to destroy the enemy ship before they can shoot enough missiles to destroy you.

Another variant of the above, but evasion based:

PRIMARY WEAPON: Burst Laser Cannon

SECONDARY WEAPONS: Ion Railgun, Slug Railgun

SHIELD: Distortion Shield

ENGINE: Rotational Thrusters

ARMOR: Lightweight Amor

MAGAZINE: Regeneration Extender

REACTOR: Regeneration Reactor

SENSORS: Dampening Sensor

OFFENSIVE CREW: Qyzen Fess (+2 Firing Arc, +6% Accuracy)

TACTICAL CREW: Lieutenant Iresso OR Treek (+4000 Sensor Dampening)

DEFENSIVE CREW: Tanno Vik (10% Shield Power Pool, +6% Evasion)

ENGINEERING CREW: T7-01 (+10% Blaster Power Pool, -13% Blaster Cost)

CO-PILOT SEAT: Tanno Vik (For Running Interference (+15% evasion for 20 seconds))

This build is similar to the shield-based 'turret' build, but relies on evasion instead, making it superior when facing scouts, who primarily rely on their heavy blaster damage. Its big weakness is missiles, as missiles will totally bypass evasion. You can use the upgraded Distortion Shields active to break missile lock, but its only one break.

You may notice that I use Qyzen Fess and Lieutenant Iresso in all three builds. There simply are no better crew members for Gunships than these two. Treek is just as useful as Iresso, but she's a cartel market unlock, so if you can't get her, no big deal.

User Suggested Build:

PRIMARY WEAPON: Burst Laser Cannon

SECONDARY WEAPONS: Ion Railgun, Slug Railgun

SHIELD: Distortion Shield

ENGINE: Barrel Roll

ARMOR: Lightweight Amor

MAGAZINE: Regeneration Extender

REACTOR: Regeneration Reactor

SENSORS: Dampening Sensor

OFFENSIVE CREW: Qyzen Fess (+2 Firing Arc, +6% Accuracy)

TACTICAL CREW: Lieutenant Iresso OR Treek (+4000 Sensor Dampening)

DEFENSIVE CREW: Nadia Grell (+10% Shield Power Pool, +6% Evasion)

ENGINEERING CREW: C2-N2 (+10% Engine Power Pool, -13% Cost of Movement Abilities)

CO-PILOT SEAT: Nadia Grell, for Bypass (+35% Shield Piercing on all weapons)

This build was suggested by users, and gives superior escape and burst capabilities. Its easily possible to one shot enemies using Bypass, if you get a crit, while the combination of Distortion Shield and Barrel Roll, when properly upgraded, will make you nearly impossible to catch. A popular side activity is to gather up 6 or 7 scouts and keep them busy chasing you around instead of attacking or defending objectives. When you tire of them, go back to your teams capital ship and the turrets will get rid of them.

Managing your power is key to playing a great Gunship, and thankfully its quite simple.

F1 = Power to Blasters

F2 = Power to Shields

F3 = Power to Engines

F4 = Balanced Power (Default)

Power does exactly what you'd think it does. It makes that area of your ship perform better. When sniping, you should always have power going to blasters, as it increases your blaster pool, and regen, and damage of regular blasters (not railguns). When being rushed by dogfighters, you should put power to shields for extra durability. Power to engines is generally used to get to objectives as fast as possible, as it increases both your engine pool and regen, as well as top speed. You can also use it to quickly regenerate enough power for a barrel roll to escape. Switching power has no cooldown, so slam those function keys. Don't ignore them!

I will endeavor to keep this up to date.

Version History:

1.0 - Guide Posted!

1.1 - Added a user suggested build.

I personally don't believe GS are OP and I'm a striker pilot who really never uses GS. They might need a little bit shaved of here or there, but I believe there is so much imbalance between the Scout and the striker that needs to be solved first then we can see where the GS is at.

After all the GS is a support craft and the attack craft need to be balanced first before the support craft can be balanced.

Probably true, but I'd rather not this thread get turned into a 'is gunship OP' thread, there are plenty of them.

Then I suggest you don't name your thread "sniping in space"

Then I suggest you don't name your thread "sniping in space"

No need to be so passive-aggressive.

Probably true, but I'd rather not this thread get turned into a 'is gunship OP' thread, there are plenty of them.

Well you might want to reword a few things then, this came to mind immediately :

"A fully upgraded version of the Ion Railgun will not only completely eliminate their shields, it will also drain large amounts of blaster and engine power, and slow them by 40% for 6 seconds. Best of all, all of this will bounce to up to 3 enemies near the target struck, meaning you can severely gimp a squadron of enemies with a single shot."

Sounds like some GS are OP propaganda to me, regardless if they actually are or not.

Actually the whole post is ripe with "passive aggressive" statements on the superiority of your GS (ex: over-confident Scouts)

Upon further review; this whole sub-forum is mostly just some form of epeen polishing that even the regular PvP forums couldn't touch.

You guys aren't actual 'Aces'; please get over yourselves.

You don't have to qualify every post here with some asinine tidbit that proves you aren't some self-destructing noob, who can defy any gear deficit based on ace skills alone.

And the general feel that all of you aces are essentially salivating over the prospects of fresh meat being thrown into your cages (being the eventual launch of preferred and f2p) really doesn't project as being helpful to the longevity of your mini game.

How about a little less polishing and a little more community.

Several points:

1. The energy regen lockout is mandatory; 40% slow is nothing compared to completely draining a target's energy pool and making it impossible for them to regen it.

2. Evasion builds are categorically superior in the current meta, and I think they will continue to be so until either ion or evasion is nerfed. The distortion field is crucial to winning gunship duels (HAHA at suggesting fortress shield) because it is the only way to break yourself out of the ion cannon's chain-stun. But beyond that, it is just plain superior in every situation. Six seconds of almost complete immunity to damage is worth far more than some extra shield energy.

2a. Therefore also lightweight armor is the only legitimate choice, and Nadia is mandatory in the Defensive/Copilot slot.

2b. The fact that railguns are mandatory in the current meta (as well as a number of other common weapons having armor piercing) makes deflection builds even more of a trap. Don't do it.

3. No, you don't want the interdiction drive or the rotational thrusters. You want barrel roll, and only barrel roll. If you don't have barrel roll you are playing your ship wrong. Barrel roll is 1) the best ability to escape enemies, 2) the best ability to escape ENEMY GUNSHIPS, 3) the only ability to escape missile locks, 4) the best general ability for getting around the map quickly. Barrel roll is straight up better than THRUSTERS at getting you around the map quickly, and you should be using on cooldown whenever you need to get anywhere.

3a. Barrel roll is perfect for getting the hell out of dodge when a scout is bearing down on you but you want to get off one last shot. As long as you hit it before you die, you are pretty much in the clear.

This may all sound very harsh and prescriptivist, but the fact is that with the current balance there really is only one correct way to build and fly a gunship.

Well you might want to reword a few things then, this came to mind immediately :

 

Sounds like some GS are OP propaganda to me, regardless if they actually are or not.

Actually the whole post is ripe with "passive aggressive" statements on the superiority of your GS (ex: over-confident Scouts)

 

Upon further review; this whole sub-forum is mostly just some form of epeen polishing that even the regular PvP forums couldn't touch.

You guys aren't actual 'Aces'; please get over yourselves.

You don't have to qualify every post here with some asinine tidbit that proves you aren't some self-destructing noob, who can defy any gear deficit based on ace skills alone.

 

And the general feel that all of you aces are essentially salivating over the prospects of fresh meat being thrown into your cages (being the eventual launch of preferred and f2p) really doesn't project as being helpful to the longevity of your mini game.

 

How about a little less polishing and a little more community.

Whoa, calm down there, friend. I think you're misreading a lot of the competitiveness as something else. People are having a lot of fun with GSF, which is cool to see. I think that's what you're seeing, just people having fun and enjoying the game mode and its inherent competitiveness. I feel as though there is plenty of community on this forum so far. There have been rather civil discussions about the advantages and disadvantages of ship types, what could use a nerf or a buff, and even people posting tips like OP has. Sure, the civil discussion is occasionally interrupted by angry or disappointed ranting, but that happens.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it does feel like there's a vibrant community so far. To me, anyways.

Several points:

 

1. The energy regen lockout is mandatory; 40% slow is nothing compared to completely draining a target's energy pool and making it impossible for them to regen it.

The Ion railguns energy drain, while good, does not completely drain energy pools, and while stopping their regeneration is nice, placing a 40% slow on them is superior because it makes them far more vulnerable to subsequent railgun shots, and allies. I've tested both and consistently performed better with the slow.

 

2. Evasion builds are categorically superior in the current meta, and I think they will continue to be so until either ion or evasion is nerfed. The distortion field is crucial to winning gunship duels (HAHA at suggesting fortress shield) because it is the only way to break yourself out of the ion cannon's chain-stun. But beyond that, it is just plain superior in every situation. Six seconds of almost complete immunity to damage is worth far more than some extra shield energy.

 

As I said previously, Evasion is the way to go against enemy gunships and scouts, which are the current meta. Fortress builds perform better on strike fighters as they use missiles for a larger portion of their damage output, but strike fighters are (in my opinion) under powered at this time, so you don't see many of them.

 

2a. Therefore also lightweight armor is the only legitimate choice, and Nadia is mandatory in the Defensive/Copilot slot.

 

Nadias Bypass ability is not as good on Gunships as it is on Scouts, as we already have the ability to strip the enemy of nearly all their shields, and we are going to be firing that Ion in all cases for the useful debuffs it applies. She is still a great crew member, and I don't begrudge any who use her, but she isn't the only option.

 

2b. The fact that railguns are mandatory in the current meta (as well as a number of other common weapons having armor piercing) makes deflection builds even more of a trap. Don't do it.

 

There are no deflection builds in existence, every defensive set-up uses either Evasion or Shields. But if any deflection shields come into existence later, then this is good advice.

 

3. No, you don't want the interdiction drive or the rotational thrusters. You want barrel roll, and only barrel roll. If you don't have barrel roll you are playing your ship wrong. Barrel roll is 1) the best ability to escape enemies, 2) the best ability to escape ENEMY GUNSHIPS, 3) the only ability to escape missile locks, 4) the best general ability for getting around the map quickly. Barrel roll is straight up better than THRUSTERS at getting you around the map quickly, and you should be using on cooldown whenever you need to get anywhere.

 

Engine choice is the biggest modifier of playstyle. It is a very good engine, but you shouldn't immediately write off other builds simply because they don't use it. An evasion defense build using thrusters has a missile lock breaker, and is capable of facing down an approaching scout, making the need to escape less important. Getting around the map is great, but if you have the ability to defend a spot without dying, there there is little other movement required, as our extreme range lets us sit between two points and move only a small distance to switch between them.

 

3a. Barrel roll is perfect for getting the hell out of dodge when a scout is bearing down on you but you want to get off one last shot. As long as you hit it before you die, you are pretty much in the clear.

 

Like I said earlier, Barrel Roll is a wonderful escape, but Scouts CAN pursue you through it. I've had scouts chase me all around the map until I finally led them into turrets where they were quickly blown up.

 

This may all sound very harsh and prescriptivist, but the fact is that with the current balance there really is only one correct way to build and fly a gunship.

Creativity in builds is the hallmark of changing metagames. Trying new stuff is fun. If it works, great! This is stuff that has all worked for me, since GSF started. If you don't like how Rotational Thrusters plays, thats fine! But I sometimes like to turn and fight the scout that rushes me, instead of having to run all the time, and Thrusters helps me do that.

Whoa, calm down there, friend. I think you're misreading a lot of the competitiveness as something else. ...

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it does feel like there's a vibrant community so far. To me, anyways.

I don't want to hijack the OP's guide.

But every thread here is begging for a "Don't get cocky kid" reply.

If the 20-30 of you here enjoy the circle polishing then, so be it. (just don't claim it's something else, like a community)

Then I suggest you don't name your thread "sniping in space"

No, that's a good name for the thread. The idea that you have to be perfectly motionless to aim a railgun is based on the FPS sniper, not any lore, sci fi, or kit. The part you are missing is [GUIDE]- it tells you how to play the game we have. I'm soooooo sorry that not every thread can be nerfherding whiners nonstop. It's ok. Go to any of the other gunship QQ threads and just ****** tears all over them, k?

Sounds like some GS are OP propaganda to me, regardless if they actually are or not.

Nope. That's just projection. What he's saying is true- the ion railgun really does exactly those things, in exactly that measure, exactly as he said. All he said was facts.

Several points:

 

1. The energy regen lockout is mandatory; 40% slow is nothing compared to completely draining a target's energy pool and making it impossible for them to regen it.

Agreed. I will point out that I don't even have upgraded railguns, I just slug the living yoda out of everything.

2. Evasion builds are categorically superior in the current meta

Not relevant to the choice of shields on a gunship though, but correct. One of the sillier things is that an offtarget enemy becomes +miss on the same (linear) hit table, so if you have 20% miss from your positioning and 80% miss from something else like the shield, you have 100% miss, not the 84% miss you were probably expecting. The fact that all of them stack additively is just too damned good: if you have a shield that makes people miss you 50%, and then a talent that makes them miss you 10%, that talent is double strength when you are under the shield. It takes the chance of being hit from 50 to 40%, not 100 to 90 (ex).

to winning gunship duels (HAHA at suggesting fortress shield)

Does winning a gunship duel get you substantially more req, or guarantee a win? I agree it's contributory, but at this point I just am happy to nail anyone with a slug, especially a slug under bypass, because that hull ain't coming back. While it's psychologically pleasing to win a duel, it may not actually be helpful to your team, especially if in your loss you took from them something that will make them less likely to be able to exert board presence. Do you see any 10% hull enemies dashing themselves into rocks? Because once the enemies around them are dead, they should do exactly that, by the rules of the game we have been given. Maybe that will change- I agree it shouldn't be encouraged- but right now people are playing the game we sort of think we've been given, not the one we have.

2a. Therefore also lightweight armor is the only legitimate choice, and Nadia is mandatory in the Defensive/Copilot slot.

Again, if you are in any situation but caring about winning a possibly meaningless 1v1 encounter, you might consider the others. However- I overall agree. Lightweight stacks additively, and Nadia's active (there's actually two characters on imp and rep that make it, but Nadia both speaks English and doesn't have a useless passive like +ammo capacity) is FAR too good for ANY one- or, alternatively, the others are too weak. I can't see anything but Bypass or Hydro Spanner for really anyone right now, and Hydro Spanner is niche and kind of too weak. I don't understand why everything has the same cooldown and most things have 20 second duration. You'd expect a 20 second cooldown move, and a 90 second cooldown move, and a 30 second weak duration and a 6 second strong duration.

2b. The fact that railguns are mandatory in the current meta (as well as a number of other common weapons having armor piercing) makes deflection builds even more of a trap. Don't do it.

If railguns stop being mandatory in any meta, then BW has failed. Remember of a 12-game, you would "expect" 4 gunships, 4 scouts, and 4 strike fighters. It's rare that I see three gunships on my side (and I'm picking one), and that means that they are underplayed, despite their great power. Meanwhile, strike fighters are mostly noobs, and a good one is a treat to play next to or rough to play against. Likely strike fighters need buffs. Basically, buff anything until the bads come here to make a QQ thread about it. Until people say "the missile lock wins against me nerf nerf nerf", it's not good enough!

3. No, you don't want the interdiction drive or the rotational thrusters. You want barrel roll, and only barrel roll. If you don't have barrel roll you are playing your ship wrong.

I agree. OP stretches too far to hand use to the other abilities. The interdiction drive's intended use- hanging out near a barrier, and using it to help you escape if focused- doesn't line up with how small the maps are. Barrel roll may not be too strong, it may be a function of an objective based map. But it really is mandatory for a gunship.

This may all sound very harsh and prescriptivist, but the fact is that with the current balance there really is only one correct way to build and fly a gunship.

I disagree, and I also think OP is correct for at least trying to read the dev intention on these abilities. But I do agree that most of the choices are kind of set in stone more than he says.

So, on to my thoughts:

We currently have only two maps. Each map has exactly on objective which is gunship hostile (C on the space map, B on the blue map, C much more than B), and you should probably talk tactics more than just "deny space".

One of the best things I can do as a gunship is railgun the heck out of a satellite. First, this forces at least one scout to disengage to hunt me down. If the enemy team isn't that clever, I will 100% solo the node. Enemies away from a satellite is a perfect opportunity for allies to grab it- it should take less than 10 seconds for an ally to shift it to neutral and deny the enemy their ticking victory points, though most players are clueless about objectives and are just rampaging balls of ego who will follow you back to your spawn to try to get a kill and get owneyfaced by turrets.

If I'm not railgunning a satellite, I'm trying to assist dogfights. A solid slug blast on a dogfight will render an enemy weak enough that he will likely blow cooldowns, or can kill him. With bypass, a slug is very strong indeed, and with a crit can just delete the enemy. A dogfight is basically an enemy and an ally orbiting each other, so if you can eliminate the bandit by a kill or by scaring him, your ally can get back to destroying enemies, capturing objectives, and otherwise contributing. Even a MISSED railgun shot can accomplish this.

When shooting, railguns are almost lightspeed (unlike the laser cannons, somehow), and as such you should not lead your opponent. You should maintain a calm demeanor and ensure that you are practiced with your mouse and have a smooth tracking surface, just as you would with any FPS. If your opponent is boosting or using maneuvers, position yourself where you think he's going, and have the charged shot ready. Don't feel bad about not shooting, or right clicking to leave the shot view completely. If you are using bypass or the 6 second crit ability, be ready to use it right as you are about to shoot- don't prepress it as you are charging. Remember you can charge versus an obscured enemy and leave the cursor over where he will be.

I'm also of the opinion that being either very high or very low is important. While the game is three space, the maps really aren't- every objective is at the exact same Y axis value and the exact same X axis value, varying only on the Z. The spawn and enemy spawn vary only on the X instead of the Z. Anything off of this two dimensional plus sign is only for strategic value- an opponent transiting from A to C will by necessity cross B or go near it unless he has a different plan in mind explicitly. Being very high or low can give you an unexpected vantage, especially versus enemy gunships.

If you get your first hit off with bypass, your enemy will be nearly dead. If your intention is to finish him, immediately begin charging again,and let loose before even a half charge- you should have enough to finish him with that, as bypass will still be active.

Gunships are intended to be like a third of the current meta. Most games don't have enough gunships. They are likely overtuned right now, but this isn't the thread to discuss balance fixes. Post your gunship tips!

who ever thought putting a sniper into space fight game is an idiot beyond believe

you want to be a stationary turret and dont want to engange in fights

go somewhere else, eve online or something

Great guide

Though I'll be using my plasma gun, too damn fun to have a scout LOS me and be like 'Phew... that was cl...' and die

One of the best things I can do as a gunship is railgun the heck out of a satellite. First, this forces at least one scout to disengage to hunt me down. If the enemy team isn't that clever, I will 100% solo the node.

if you prefer to Play this game in turret.exploit.mode you fail, you destroy your own and the fun of others

this is wanted in the design of the game, cause it is pay to win / grind to win

so only playing with high skill will not help you advance further,

only grinding the game ... for those People the gunships are there

most People Play them, they Need the least skill and awarness while countering them effectively

without losing Points or time Need the most skill and awarness

so the gunships are in the game to up the challange for the normal, gameplay oriented Gamers,

and to give the uncapable and lazy People a place and something to do in this game

The Ion railguns energy drain, while good, does not completely drain energy pools, and while stopping their regeneration is nice, placing a 40% slow on them is superior because it makes them far more vulnerable to subsequent railgun shots, and allies. I've tested both and consistently performed better with the slow.

The drain from several shots in succession does completely drain energy pools (especially since most people will have used a portion already) and most importantly the full drain effect is applied even for an uncharged shot. It's trivial to disable someone.

As I said previously, Evasion is the way to go against enemy gunships and scouts, which are the current meta. Fortress builds perform better on strike fighters as they use missiles for a larger portion of their damage output, but strike fighters are (in my opinion) under powered at this time, so you don't see many of them.

Missiles are irrelevant with barrel roll.

Nadias Bypass ability is not as good on Gunships as it is on Scouts, as we already have the ability to strip the enemy of nearly all their shields, and we are going to be firing that Ion in all cases for the useful debuffs it applies. She is still a great crew member, and I don't begrudge any who use her, but she isn't the only option.

Bypass lets you oneshot scouts. Dead scout >> debuffed scout. The only other competitive companion ability anyway is the repair.

Engine choice is the biggest modifier of playstyle. It is a very good engine, but you shouldn't immediately write off other builds simply because they don't use it.

Yes, I should, because barrel roll is so overwhelmingly good and is also the only one that is effective against gunships.

An evasion defense build using thrusters has a missile lock breaker, and is capable of facing down an approaching scout, making the need to escape less important.

This missile lock break on distortion field is a trap. The 6s duration is required because that is the only possible way to escape ion lockdown, and more generally because 3s of near-immunity to blasters and railguns >> breaking a missile lock.

Getting around the map is great, but if you have the ability to defend a spot without dying, there there is little other movement required, as our extreme range lets us sit between two points and move only a small distance to switch between them.

That sort of passive play is impossible against all but the stupidest opponents. People will home in on you if you just sit in one place the whole match. Mobility is crucial for escape, pursuit, and also reinforcement of faraway nodes.

Like I said earlier, Barrel Roll is a wonderful escape, but Scouts CAN pursue you through it. I've had scouts chase me all around the map until I finally led them into turrets where they were quickly blown up.

Yes, which proves just how good it is. It gives you scout-level mobility on a gunship, plus it breaks missile locks and gives you the mobility front-loaded.

Creativity in builds is the hallmark of changing metagames.

GSF doesn't have and won't have an evolving metagame with the current rules.

Nope. That's just projection. What he's saying is true- the ion railgun really does exactly those things, in exactly that measure, exactly as he said. All he said was facts.

So are you conceding that GS Ion cannons are OP and explained in a few sentences, or do you just not understand what propaganda means?

This is not a bacon is delicious thread; bacon has the most dynamic flavor ever, really unmatched by vanilla breakfast meats no matter the situation. Upgrading bacon to thick cut and/or smoked maple can really enhance its already dominant flavor mechanics. Over-confident sausages dare not challenge the bacon's flavor burst capabilities.

Learn to bacon or get smoked.

Not relevant to the choice of shields on a gunship though, but correct.

FALSE. Distortion shield provides a 15% base evasion. This is huge on its own, and doubly so because of the additive nature of evasion (as you noted subsequently). The dominance of evasion forces you into distortion field.

Does winning a gunship duel get you substantially more req, or guarantee a win?

Winning a gunship duel means 1) you get to go back to helping your team 2) the other guy DOESN'T get to go back to helping your team. As a gunship, one of your greatest vulnerabilities is another gunship getting the drop on you and ionlocking you.

Again, if you are in any situation but caring about winning a possibly meaningless 1v1 encounter, you might consider the others.

If you are set up to always lose the 1v1 encounter you aren't going to be doing anything else useful for your team either, because I'm going to kill you. Then I will go back to shooting your allies until you respawn, at which point I'll kill you again.

I make it a point to hunt down enemy gunships, because either the pilots are bad and they are incredibly easy kills (slow fat and juicy) or they are good and need to die before they cripple my team.

If railguns stop being mandatory in any meta, then BW has failed.

I meant to say 'slug railguns', sorry. Slug railguns being mandatory means that armor piercing is ubiquitous and armor is devalued.

who ever thought putting a sniper into space fight game is an idiot beyond believe

This is a guide about gunships, not a thread to cry about gunships like a bawling baby.

Plenty of threads for that:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=708568

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=708751

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=708616

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=708432

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=708060

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=706955

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=708895

This is a gunship guide thread. How to play gunship. Do you want to QQ about gunships? Go there. You are useless here.

Oh, we forgot to list- come to a complete halt in a turret. The turret's collision AI is only present for enemies, for some reason (likely oversight). The turret will shield you from an initial hit, giving you warning and time to run away. Note that this isn't a really smart thing to do anyway, as it's rare you'll be defending from a sat and enemies can easily come from other directions with a giant LOSatellite betwixt you and them, but it CAN be useful.

you want to be a stationary turret and dont want to engange in fights

go somewhere else, eve online or something

Dude, 1/3rd of the classes in this game are gunship. Do you really think there shouldn't be a thread about how to be a good one?

Missiles are irrelevant with barrel roll.

I dunno, I normally can land missiles here and there. I do agree that barrel roll and distortion combine to make a lot of effort required to land one though.

This missile lock break on distortion field is a trap. The 6s duration is required because that is the only possible way to escape ion lockdown, and more generally because 3s of near-immunity to blasters and railguns >> breaking a missile lock.

I don't think "escaping ion lockdown" is a huge deal. If you are near a rock or sat, you'll escape the lockdown via 2 seconds of travel time. If your biggest fear is being whittled down by an opposing gunship over 15 seconds while no one helps you, by all means go for it. But if your goal is to capture three sats, I think you can make other choices. Dying doesn't help the other team THAT much.

GSF doesn't have and won't have an evolving metagame with the current rules.

They are doubling the number of ships in a month or two, and adding at least one whole new class of ships. Fair to say the metagame will evolve even without ability adjustments which I'm also sure will happen.

Ok well since we're giving the whole store away may as well get it right.

Most of the info being passed around is correct, except:

- 6 sec regen debuff is better than the slow 100% of the time, every time. If you take the slow smarter people like me will murder you endlessly. The best gunship killer is another gunship.

- Lightweight armor (evasion) and distort field (evasion, second missle break). Fortress Shield blows, all that other stuff blows even more.

- Bypass if you are rep (Nadia), Hydrospanner if you are imp (Blizz). The repair is more useful tbh, many times that beautiful charged up bypass shot gets evaded anyway. Being hard as hell to kill by extending your health pool via repair and flying smart will make your opposition waste too many resources on you or realize attempting to kill you is futile and leave you alone (win win). I have both imp and rep gunships fully upgraded.

- 20% crit on slug is better than flat damage but they work out to exact same dps. The difference is with 10% more damage it always still takes two shots, with the crit, every fifth shot it only takes one.

Here is the build Imp side:

PRIMARY WEAPON: Burst Laser Cannon (shield bypass, hull damage)

SECONDARY WEAPONS: Ion Railgun (aoe, regen debuff), Slug Railgun (accuracy, 20% crit)

SHIELD: Distortion Shield (missle break)

ENGINE: Barrel Roll (engine speed)

ARMOR: Lightweight Amor

MAGAZINE: Regeneration Extender

REACTOR: Large Reactor

SENSORS: Dampening Sensor

OFFENSIVE CREW: Jaesa Willisaam (Firing Arc/Accuracy) ((but since she is bugged just pick someone with accuracy for now))

TACTICAL CREW: Malavin Quinn (Sensor Dampening/Focused Target Range)

DEFENSIVE CREW: Aszhara Zavros (Evasion/Damage Reduction)

ENGINEERING CREW: Blizz (Engine Pool/Boost cost)

COPILOT ABILITY: Blizz (Hydrospanner)

Learn to joust, I regularly fight and win 1v4s against average level scouts and strikes. I rarely go back to the cap ship anymore. Punish them for interrupting your firing enough times and they will start avoiding you, this is a great feeling. Nobody likes spending five minutes chasing a gunship who pretty much acts like you are nothing more than a small annoyance, then finishing with a score of 0 kills.

Learn to quickly hit barrel roll/distort at a moments notice if a scout tries to sneak up and pop cds on you, or be like me and have some situational awareness so this never happens. Often times I will tab target the silly person thinking I don't see them behind me and keep firing ahead without the enemy selected. I wait for the scout to waste all their cds then barrel roll away (as Blizz laughs).

Learn to stagger barrel roll/distort along with some well timed boosts to make it near impossible to land a missle on you. Many times I will be kiting two, three opponents who are trying to kill me AND be able to still continue firing in between jousts, still getting kills, still shutting enemies in the main sat fight down, still shutting down the enemy gunships from firing on my team.

Aim for the weak/stupid non evasion guy next to the people that seem impossible to hit. Ion AoE is auto hit on all secondary targets and ignores line of sight. Turrets are great targets for this too.

You are the teams executioner. Your goal is to kill and shutdown as many enemies as you can, by making them chase you, sending them back to respawn and/or draining their engine/blasters. One of your top priorities should be neutralizing enemy gunships. Always cull the weak.

^ this guy gets it

especially:

The best gunship killer is another gunship.

and

One of your top priorities should be neutralizing enemy gunships. Always cull the weak.

They are still a waste of time, might be raking up kills somewhere now and then, but honestly they have no real use as they got the concept when they made them all wrong, would be better if they actually would move around having players manning turrets inside of it, of course they would be more heavy and be able to sustain alot more damage that way, but patroling an area or offering somewhat mobile support would be better.

The point of sitting still in space is just not starwarsy at all unless it is some huge Capital ship or frigate or whichever doing it.

Just my 2 cents to it all... just feel like when having 4 GS on my side.. thinking.... what the hell are they doing? they are not capping anything... they pretend to offer some kind of cover fire... and now we are losing because they have the have the control over the satelite.

They are useless even with one that has a deadeye in them.

This is a guide about gunships, not a thread to cry about gunships like a bawling baby.

since you didnt got my Point ... you need no skill for gunships, you need no guide ^^

a general discussion about the usefuelness of the components is nice though

Just my 2 cents to it all...

No one wants your two cents; go away.