No, there’s no need to limit or nerf gunships. Here’s the thing: gunships still require skill to use well. I’ve played plenty of matches with three or more gunships on the other team, and I’ve smoked them all in my scout. Coordinated effort can also bring down flocks of gunships, though it’s a bit harder to achieve.

Make no mistake, I’m not saying that countering a bunch of gunships is easy. It takes a lot of spacial awareness, the ability to LoS well, and the ability to kill a ship quickly. However, three or four skilled gunships is not much worse than three or four skilled drone bombers, or remote-slicing strikes, or any ship, really.

No.

And because it's forcing me to post more than five characters: no, you should learn how to deal with them.

Best ship for killing gunships is Starguard/Rycer with HLC and quads. Learn to use the "piledriver" technique of rapidly switching blaster weapons to increase burst damage, works best against stationary targets. A few gunships might use feedback shield, use missiles against those guys until their buff goes away. If you can sneak to the side or behind them, they might be so tunneled on their target that they don't react fast enough to escape.

No.

 

And because it's forcing me to post more than five characters: no, you should learn how to deal with them.

You make it sound a bit over kill, when you say it that way don't you think? I'm just saying there should be a limit of gunships just like there is a limit of healers in warzones per team, no need to get flustered over it.

I mean lets be honest, it only takes a few shots to take out another ship with a gunner, and you don't think that is an issue that needs to be looked at? Give me a break.

No, there’s no need to limit or nerf gunships. Here’s the thing: gunships still require skill to use well. I’ve played plenty of matches with three or more gunships on the other team, and I’ve smoked them all in my scout. Coordinated effort can also bring down flocks of gunships, though it’s a bit harder to achieve.

 

Make no mistake, I’m not saying that countering a bunch of gunships is easy. It takes a lot of spacial awareness, the ability to LoS well, and the ability to kill a ship quickly. However, three or four skilled gunships is not much worse than three or four skilled drone bombers, or remote-slicing strikes, or any ship, really.

They really don't require much skill to use, anyone can use them and take out multiple opponents, it almost feels like cheating your way to victory.

You make it sound a bit over kill, when you say it that way don't you think? I'm just saying there should be a limit of gunships just like there is a limit of healers in warzones per team, no need to get flustered over it.

 

I mean lets be honest, it only takes a few shots to take out another ship with a gunner, and you don't think that is an issue that needs to be looked at? Give me a break.

No, I don't think it's an issue that needs to be looked at, and as far as I know most players with any actual experience agree with me on this point. Gunships are in a fair to decent place at the moment.

Strikes of any flavor are by far the strongest ships in the meta, and even that is fairly balanced. (Specific components need some minor tweaks, but that's not really the point of this thread so I won't get into that for the millionth time.) If you are struggling to kill a gunship in a strike, that's a you problem.

Here are some tips!

STOP FLYING IN A STRAIGHT LINE IN THE OPEN

No, really. Stop flying in a straight line. Watch your angle of approach and try to catch a gunship that is looking at someone else. If facing multiple, start with the one farthest back. A gunship that is looking at you isn't looking at your team, and if you get the one in back there's less likely to be anyone covering them.

NO, REALLY. STOP FLYING IN A STRAIGHT LINE IN THE OPEN

You may have to disengage. The same very important rule applies. Don't fly in a straight line toward or away from the gunship. Use cover to your advantage. Pay attention to the terrain.

IF YOU DECIDE TO ENGAGE 4v1 OR WHATEVER, YOU PROBABLY SHOULD LOSE

ANY matchup you decide to jump into with bad odds is likely to end with you dying. If you're outnumbered, pick a new tactic so that you aren't outnumbered anymore. Make sure you stay near your team. Be willing to change up what you're doing or communicate. If you are the only green ship in a cluster of red ships, you are probably going to see the respawn screen soon.

ASK FOR ADVICE AND PAY ATTENTION TO THE ADVICE YOU GET

Someone mentioned a build you should try. It's still on the first page, so I shouldn't need to link it, but let's save you some time:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=944782

Give that build a shot. Speaking as someone who plays all ship types, it's especially strong vs gunships, but it eats anything if you're even halfway decent with it.

PAY ATTENTION TO WHO IS GETTING KILLS ON THE OTHER TEAM

If you know who the most dangerous player is, you know who you most need to pressure. It's very rare that you will encounter more than one unless they're grouped up, but if they're grouped up then you have another problem. They could beat you in anything.

LEARN WHERE DAMAGE OVERCHARGE SPAWNS

So, you've identified the problem gunship? Good. If you know where the red powerup will be, your chances of killing them are even better. There are maps in this forum that should be able to help you with this.

They really don't require much skill to use, anyone can use them and take out multiple opponents, it almost feels like cheating your way to victory.

I mean no offense when I say this, but this reads to me like the complaint of someone who doesn't have a firm grasp on the game mechanics yet. Certainly the complaint of someone who either doesn't play a gunship at all, or someone who never tries one against halfway competent players.

That, or matchmaker is just unreasonably friendly and you never get matched up against anyone who is a threat to you. If that was the case, though, I think your complaint would be something different.

Pay attention to the scoreboard at the end of a game. Most players just simply can't aim. Playing a gunship requires not only aim, but an understanding of cooldowns and terrain, because you need to know where you're going ahead of time. Most players don't do that well, either, to the point that I can usually pick out some of the forum or discord regulars just from their playstyle. Someone who knows what they're doing stands out.

You make it sound a bit over kill, when you say it that way don't you think? I'm just saying there should be a limit of gunships just like there is a limit of healers in warzones per team, no need to get flustered over it.

 

I mean lets be honest, it only takes a few shots to take out another ship with a gunner, and you don't think that is an issue that needs to be looked at? Give me a break.

TLDR version: Geezers that have seen serious gameplay imbalance in past versions of GSF aren't worried about it because they don't make gunship stacks like they used to.

It only takes a few Proton Torpedoes to kill another ship. It only takes a few Burst Laser cannon crits to kill a ship. Killing things fast is core aspect of gameplay in GSF, and most of the ships are capable of doing it in one way or another.

There are ships that can sort of stack in terms of team composition. Gunships, type 2 strikes, bombers in domination games. What they have in common is that there is a variant of play that can be highly effective without requiring a lot of player skill. For gunships it's point and shoot, for type 2 strikes it's torpedo/missile spam, and for bombers it's pooping out a huge swarm of mines/drones while tucked tightly in cover.

The more players that are doing the same play strategy for any of these ships, the harder it is for a low to moderate skill player to counter them.

They can be countered though. In fact, once you get to the moderately high to very high skill levels, stacking ship types becomes a problem for a team, because a well balanced team composition isn't stuck with the whole team sharing the particular weaknesses of a single ship type. This has been tested extensively, and there's no question that if you stack a single ship type, you are handicapping your team.

Can facing a stacked team be annoying? Sure, especially if you're the only person on your team that has any clue how to deal with that situation, but it's not a game balance issue. The annoying stacking is not an optimal strategy, which is what you want from balance.

Gunships and battlescouts were heavily nerfed in the patch that gave us the current GSF balance. Bombers were moderately nerfed, and strikes were massively buffed. Overall balance for ships as a result is pretty good, and team stacking (gunship stacking, bomber stacking, and to a lesser extent if you could find enough skilled pilots battlescout stacking) is no longer an optimal strategy.

Facing a team that's of a skill level where they're actually going for gunship stacking, you can be fairly sure that the pilots are at a level where if you get in a scout or a strike, and you know what you're doing, you can wreak merry havoc on them. Wreaking merry havoc is also useful, because it distracts the gunships from plinking your cover ignoring, straight line flying, target fixated teammates.

Get yourself a strike with proton torpedo, hydrospanner, and HLCs, or an evasion build Targeting Telemetry & Rocket Pods scout, and go to town on the gunships. Or get a gunship of your own and be a skilled gunship pilot. Stationary targets are ideal for railguns. Bombers are really the only ship class that doesn't have a good answer to stacked gunships (unless they're really low skill in which case a bomber with power dive might be semi-viable).

A case of "I don't know how to beat this strategy," or of, "My team doesn't know how to beat this strategy," isn't a balance issue if there are strategies that work to beat the strategy in question. For gunship teams the basic strategy is to pay attention to whether you are inside a gunship's range, and to be evasive so that you can close distance to them (or escape) if you are. The maps are filled with space junk that gunships can't shoot through for a reason.

Overall the stackable ships are probably good for GSF. It means that a beginner can very quickly learn to make a meaningful contribution to their team, but at the same time stacking ships is sort of a crutch for a team, and if they play a team that doesn't need a crutch, they're going to lose. There's room and reason for motivation to progress beyond ship stacking.

just like there is a limit of healers in warzones per team

I'm not sure that's how the matchmaker for the ground works. I thought it required a certain # of tanks and healers before it made a match. Assuming you want something similar in GSF:

1. I have concerns about messing with the matchmaking of GSF when the tier 4/5 component deselect bug and the missing companion passives in the hangar still haven't been fixed.

2. Even if the matchmaker could look at components equipped on a ship, and designated certain pilots in the queue as potential healers, and enforced a certain # of "healer" pilots on each team, it still wouldn't guarantee that those pilots would choose to fly a healer ship.

3. I think most pilots have multiple ships on their bars so they can be prepared for any match scenario. That may include up to 3 potential "healer" craft. This means that there are many potential "healing" pilots that may be excluded from matches because your suggested arbitrary limit has been reached. Being kept out of matches is not fun.

4. No, I don't think that the game should restrict what ship you fly during the match either. Pilots need to be able to adapt to situations. They need to be able to switch starfighters to respond to the enemy's strategy. Enforcing a certain number of "healer" pilots actually doesn't do anything to help a team defeat gunships.

No, there should not be anything in matchmaker or especially within a match that restricts any ship class or ship "role."

Lets be honest they are a bit OP'd, either that or nerf them.

I know where you are coming from, a single gunship might be balanced, but 5 of them can completely control a map. Gunships just stack great. Some other ships probably stack well as well, but it rarely happens (and it also should be addressed so it doesn't happen at all), while Lost Shipyards TDM matches end up being gunship chess half the time. And I don't mean premades, it just organically happens, and the matches turn into a boring slog for everyone involved.

But I don't think limiting the number of gunships in a match is a feasible idea, considering you have a selection of 5 potential ships and cam switch mid battle. I think it would be better to address the reason gunships stack so well. Treat the cause, not the symptom.

In general, I don't think the long range, high accuracy, high damage, slow firing archetype ("sniper") is healthy for competitive games, and this applies both to GSF and regular first-person shooters. It encourages a gameplay where devastating surprise shots leave very little room for counter play, and thus don't feel fun or engaging for the target. I'm sure the sniper itself can enjoy the thrill of the hunt, but that enjoyment is completely one sided, and can lead to a very boring experience if the other side won't engage, which is often the only counter play, but means giving up a big chunk of the map, which isn't always an option.

Now, when talking gunships, I'm mostly talking about the Quarrel/Mangler, which is the pinnacle of gunshipness. Other flavors are rarely seen and that probably says a lot about them. You most likely won't find much support in this forum, probably with the excuse that Gunships used to be even more overpowered back in the day, and that the current meta is so much more balanced (which is true), but for some reason that prevents further balance. I fear the reason might be that the people posting there are the same ones consistently getting 30+ kills with a gunship, and they are not looking forward to getting that taken from them. Some of the aces here can pull that off flying other ships, usually battlescouts and Star Guard/Rycer, and at least one of them (though I don't think he posts here) could do it flying an MSE-6-series repair droid. But mostly, aces fly gunships as their default ship, and that should also tell you much.

Gunships are both easy and hard to play. They have a low skill floor and a high skill ceiling, meaning they are easy to do well with at low skill levels, but are hard to fly perfectly. On the offensive, gunships are very easy to fly. You can contribute decently as a brand-new pilot flying a stock Comet Breaker/Dustmaker, safely shooting at enemies from afar and dealing decent damage. This is because railguns are relatively easy to use, they deal a ton of damage, have over twice the range of the closest beam (Only other weapon in the same ballpark is a torpedo fired from a Comet breaker/Dustmaker, and even then it's only ~90% the range) and most importantly, they don't require you to lead your target. This has two effects, as a gunship, you are significantly less affected by the effects of an enemy flying erratically to avoid fire, and you don't need to target your enemy to shoot at them, since you don't need the lead indicator. This gives you a good tactical advantage by denying your target the knowledge that a hard-hitting attack is about to hit them. The fact that you can see targets trough solid objects also means you can, with some practice, time your shots so they hit the target as soon as they leave cover. In general, railguns are easy to use weapons with a big effect. Slug Railgun deals great damage, but Ion Railgun is the real kicker. Depending on what you are shooting at, you can, with a single shot, drain 50-100% of their shields, 50-60% of their weapon power and 50-60% of their engine power, put their power regen on cooldown, then either slow their movement speed by 40% for 8 seconds or power regen speed by 65% for 6 seconds. On top of that, it also hits enemies near your target for half damage. Hit a fresh ship and he'll most likely not be above 70% engine power, so now he's at or near zero, with barely any chance to dive for cover and probably not enough weapon power to kill you if he's even in range for that. That's an impressive set of effects for a low skill shot. He's effectively now a sitting duck, with very little chance to fight back and easy prey to the slug railgun spam that will follow.

Defensively is where the gunships are hard to master. They are not gifted with great shields, much speed or engine power, so an unskilled pilot has a very good chance to die when attacked. The Quarrel/Mangler in particular has a great set of components that help with this, with a passive 23% evasion and an active ability to bump it to 50%. Evasion is a high risk, high reward defensive stat, which can have a great effect if you are lucky, or no effect if you are unlucky. Slower weapons like railguns and heavy lasers suffer more against streaks of good luck, while faster weapons are more likely to at least land some shots, but enough might miss to make a difference. Deflection Field also gives you a second missile break, which can buy you a few precious seconds. Barrel Roll is pretty much your only option for an engine ability, and despite it usually not being a terribly good choice for other ships, its disadvantages tend to work for you. It's easy to use and moves you away from danger. As someone with extreme range, this is usually to your advantage. It allows you to retreat towards your team, which helps if they follow, or you can turn around and try to finish them off as they approach. You can play it safe at range while still being able to keep pressure on the enemy team while your cooldowns recharge. If the enemy follows and you are forced into a close-range chase, you are still able to pull some extra tricks. Burst Lasers are a very good close-range weapon and despite them not having the punch they would on a battlescout, they can still deal some serious and sometimes unexpected damage. Your ability to instantly stop your ship's movement can also be used to great effect during close range chases, causing your pursuer to overshoot and giving you a clear shot. None of these techniques are easy to master, and most of the time you will die before you have much chance to practice them, so this is where the rookies fail and the aces shine.

Offensively, there's still room for an ace to outshine a rookie, of course. Better and faster accuracy, knowledge of Damage Overcharge locations, constant movement and positioning, map awareness and good use of cover and strafing, which allows an ace to leave cover just for a fraction of as second to shoot a fully charged shot, then hide back into cover, preventing enemy fire. These techniques also require quite a bit of skill, and make a considerable difference from what a rookie could accomplish, so it's not like playing a gunship will make you auto win. But in general, gunships are very powerful ships in good hands, more than other ships.

Personally, I feel gunships, or rather railguns, could use a few nerfs. Biggest offender is the Ion Railgun's engine power drain. That part should just be removed (Same applies to Remote Slicing, but that's another can of worms). This would remove the truly crippling part of the attack. Additionally, railguns should require you to lead your target. This adds some counter play to railguns, giving an evasive pilot a chance to defend against railgun fire. This would also help reduce the effect of stacking multiple railguns with just a bunch of average pilots to create a no man's land no one dares to cross because if you even show your nose you get a railgun to the face. Aces will be less affected by this because they already know how to aim.

To summarize, the problem with gunship stacking is that each gunship can cover a huge area. You know how an 18" pizza has more pizza than two 12" pizzas, well, a 15 km range weapon can cover a much bigger area than a 7 km heavy laser... and this being tridimensional space only accentuates this. Multiple gunships can cover a huge chunk of the map, with interlocking fields of fire, covering each other against anyone that approaches and giving them the ability to, without coordination, but reacting to the same set of circumstances, land two shots close to each other on an approaching enemy. This creates the aforementioned no man's land no one dares to approach because it means instant death, meaning the only smart thing to do is to just not play, or swap to a gunship and try to fight fire with fire. Neither option is terribly fun for either party and it's a situation game design should avoid. How many gunships is too many? Unless there's an ace in there, I feel two gunships on the enemy team are ok and not a problem, three gunships start to become noticeable, four to five are just too many and you will be under almost constant railgun fire. Most I’ve seen in a match was eight gunships on the enemy team, out of twelve. Didn't feel that different from five, to be honest, so there's probably diminishing returns.

Lets be honest they are a bit OP'd, either that or nerf them.

If I were to make a change, it would be to remove the ability to stop a ship and play as a turret, stop people stacking up surrounded by mines, etc. To be fair it isn't as common as it used to be, but its always bugged me, takes a lot of the skill out of playing.

They really don't require much skill to use, anyone can use them and take out multiple opponents, it almost feels like cheating your way to victory.

go fly a gunship

in a match against veterans

the only reason you 'feel' they are OP, is because none of you new people take the time to figure things out

In every match, number one priority is kill gunships, then gill bombers.

Many times, they are on the same plane, as far as priority. mostly in DOM's

But, you new pilots, tend to let the gunship sit there and take pot shots all day

Most of the gunships pilots you see today are new, so they arent very defensive oriented. Which means, easy kill.

I feel so bad sometimes when i kill them, i whisper them and tell them please, use missile break. And dont use it to go into the open space, where you surely will die.

Keep in mind, its different circumstances if there is a voiced premade.

In that case, your best option is to get a group together as well, on voice.

But, the only thing I see needs nerfed or taken away is slicing, haha

If i woke up tomorrow and it was missing form the game, i would not shed a tear.

But as far as limiting gunships in a match, or any ship, defeats the purpose of self determination.

You fly what you want, not what the game wants you to.

Which is the way it should be.

Start watching videos on youtube, research different builds, make sure they are post 5.5. Or you will have old information.

Oh, I should mention, that if "no skill" is required to fly a gunship, how is it they are "OP", and that you all wont take the time to fly it?

I mean, if you want to win, shouldnt everyone fly gunships?

I'm sure you posted this expect everyone to agree with you. But the bottom line is this comes down to knowledge and understanding of the game and skill. I used to be like you. I was a Strike devotee who hated Gunships, and like you I also thought they were "easy mode." I was wrong! If you could fly a Gunship to any noteworthy standard you would not have made this post. Gunships are not easy. Sure, sitting still and shooting is fairly easy, about as easy as locking a Proton torpedo. But sitting still and shooting doesn't make you a good Gunship pilot any more than spamming Protons makes you a good Strike pilot. The real art to Gunships is being situationally aware enough to MOVE before someone gets a shot at you , and actually being able to fight back rather than sit there like most of these idiot gunship pilots and let yourself get destroyed by an attacking strike. A Gunship devotee will feel that Strikes should be limited to a certain number per match when he can't get any rail gun shots off because he is constantly under pressure. And both points of view are wrong here. The gunship pilot being swarmed by Strikes is wrong to think Strikes should be limited, and vice versa for the Strike pilot facing GS wall. This is why you have 5 slots on your ship bar rather than being limited to one ship for an entire match. Here's the big reveal: if the enemy is fielding a GS wall and you don't have the team to break them up, then get in a GS yourself! Stop feeding them and get in the right ship for the situation. Its no different from the Gunship devotee who refuses to get into a Strike when he can't do anything in his GS because of constant pressure. I accepted this truth and its why I forced myself to learn how to fly GS and Scout instead of only flying Strikes. Then I discovered another hidden truth: to know your enemy is to beat them. Fly GS and you will better learn how to deal with them. The meta is really well balanced aside from a few components that could do with a tweak, No ship or class needs a major nerf or buff.

To finish up, since this was offered to me and I like to pay things forward. if you want some direct coaching to learn how to deal with Gunships I am willing to train you. BUT, it comes with the condition that step one of that training will be you getting in a Gunship and learning to fly it. I guarantee your opinion of them will change once you are ganked by a team of strikes / Scouts when you're on a team that doesn't enable you to sit still and spam rail gun shots.

 

I mean lets be honest, it only takes a few shots to take out another ship with a gunner, and you don't think that is an issue that needs to be looked at? Give me a break.

GS certainly doesn't feel like some immortal ruler of the space to any Strike Fighter pilot really. GS does have some tools fit for truly ruining the day of a Strike Fighter. Strike Fighter has plenty of tools to return the service and then some.GSF is fairly well balanced that way.

Covering the essentials and managing some base-level performance in a GS is pretty easy. Meanwhile, flying one real well and being truly impactful in a tough match against a squadron's worth of comptetent strike fighters is quite another story.

All that said, I recon GS does somehow benefit from the sorry state of the battlescout: when it comes to some very basic rock paper scissors -tier of stuff, I recon battle scout prolly should be some sort of a nemesis of a GS. In practise, they really aren't and more importantly, almost nobody even flies a battlescout anymore. Each of the tree strikes can totally ruin the day of a good GS pilot though, so its not like there is some gaping hole here to fill in that regard.

Beyond that..what others been saying really. Did you end up in a match where you are the only great player of your team, facing 4 great players flying for the enemy? Its a one sided match where it usually truly doesn't matter what those four fly really.

All that said, I recon GS does somehow benefit from the sorry state of the battlescout: when it comes to some very basic rock paper scissors -tier of stuff, I recon battle scout prolly should be some sort of a nemesis of a GS. In practise, they really aren't and more importantly, almost nobody even flies a battlescout anymore. Each of the tree strikes can totally ruin the day of a good GS pilot though, so its not like there is some gaping hole here to fill in that regard.

This comment hurt my soul. In a 1v1 situation Battle Scout *IS* the ultimate nemesis to a Gunship. A gunship cannot beat a Battle scout in a fair fight with equal skill. IF that skilled Scout pilot is aware of the GS looking at him, that GS is never going to land a shot on the Scout. You can either fly directly toward the GS and activate all your evasion, watch him miss and blow him out of the sky, or the less RNG reliant approach, move in behind him and out turn him. Watch him try to turn to face you or run away, both of which will result in his timely death. Scouts actually do a better job of killing Gunships than Strikes do. The thing that skews the perspective here is that most GS suck and so a typically average Strike pilot can dominate most GS. But the truth is that a skilled GS pilot can evade and counter most Strikes quite easily. Take my beloved Piledriver build for example. That build has no arc, so the GS pilot need only move himself close to the Strike, with heavy lasers and quads the Strike cannot hit the GS at close range. The Strike has to boost away and turn back to acquire an angle on the GS, which affords the GS plenty of time to position himself behind a rock and force the Strike to come at him at close range again, with an ion railgun shot primed and ready as that Strike comes around the corner. If the Strike is smart he wont fall for this and you end up in a stand off until the teams either peel the Strike or focus down the GS. But suffice to say unless that Strike has RFL / LLC, Clusters / EMP (close range weapons with wide arc) and a good ability to use them, he has no hope of taking out a skilled GS pilot in a dog-fight. Scouts with equal skill to that GS will absolutely wreck it. The only chance the GS has is a team that will focus down the Scout before he does his thing. And *this* is the reason people don't see the battle scout as a threat anymore. It's a ship with a very high skill ceiling and so very very few people can fly it to even 50% of it's potential. So the assumption is that it's a bad ship that has been nerfed into oblivion. But you are deeply wrong. Its a hard ship to fly when being pressured by competent people stacking debuffs on you, or if there are GS /bomber walls that the glass cannon Scout cannot survive entry into. But with the average state of most matches I have little problem choosing to fly Battle Scout in TDM these days. It's hard to say exactly where that point is that I switch from Scout to Strike, but it does exist. And it usually comes down to how many people are focusing you, the level of their skill, and the nature of the weapons / debuffs they are using. But more often than not if I am finding it too heavy for my Scout, GS is the ship I switch to, rather than Strike. A strike doesn't have much better survival chances against a well formed competent GS / bomber ball than a Scout does.

I find that vs gunships, if 1v1 I can take them out the majority of the time whether in a scout or strike, I mostly stick to the strike these days as its just that bit easier to fly.

There are a few pilots though who keep damage overcharge up and know the good hiding places where you cant sneak up on them, I find them much more difficult to kill 1v1.

When the other side has a stack or wall of gunships/bombers though, I find it makes no difference what I am flying, in those scenarios the skill level required for the GS/Bombers to be deadly is drastically lowered to the point I cant get near them in either ship type.

Something I have noticed since I returned to the game last year though, is that since strikes have become more predominant, there are some scout pilots who seem to focus on taking them out, and can do so with a pretty impressive success rate. They tend to stop and turret torpedoes until targeted, but unlike the bombers and GS's, can actually out fly many of the ships which attack them.

I think it is in part as some don't realise they are scouts until its too late, and it is obviously experienced pilots. I have spent a few matches harassing them rather than focusing on gunships which is my normal role, and while I may be able to keep them busy for a time, actually killing them is bloody difficult in 1v1, for me at least. It makes for an interesting match though!

words.

Sorry about your soul.

There are very few battlescouts flying nowadays. -> Gunships don't have that many battlescouts to worry about in a typical match. Good Sting pilot who punctures enemy lines, finds the GS and gives a chase while staying alive through it all is a rare sight now. We can talk about theoretical fair fights and equal skill sets and some isolated 1 vs 1 duels all day long - in practice interaction between battlescout and GS just doesn't happen that often now. People don't often fly the former anymore. During DMs in particular, average pilot in a battlescout has muuch harder time making it through a typical match with a decent KDR than an average pilot in a GS does.

Sorry about your soul.

 

There are very few battlescouts flying nowadays. -> Gunships don't have that many battlescouts to worry about in a typical match. Good Sting pilot who punctures enemy lines, finds the GS and gives a chase while staying alive through it all is a rare sight now. We can talk about theoretical fair fights and equal skill sets and some isolated 1 vs 1 duels all day long - in practice interaction between battlescout and GS just doesn't happen that often now. People don't often fly the former anymore. During DMs in particular, average pilot in a battlescout has muuch harder time making it through a typical match with a decent KDR than an average pilot in a GS does.

I won't disagree with any of that. Strike is easier in many situations because the Scout is just so squishy and easily peeled. My only point was, if you aren't being peeled and debuffed too much, I'd much rather go GS hunting in the Scout.