TL;DR: This post is pretty much praising Thermite Torpedoes and the basic scout. You can either go try it out after reading previous sentence, or laugh at my naivity and ****, or continue reading.

 

OK guys so while most of you were crying here, I actually played the game and found an easy as pie counter against bombers. I'm sure someone found it before but they probably didn't quite share.

 

The bomber counter is your friggin Blackbolt or NovaDive, yeah that "puny" scout ship you got at the beginning.

 

Get into your NovaDive or Blackbolt, and look into secondary weapons section. There you will see, Thermite Torpedoes. Now you laugh. But seriously, get your balls and buy the Thermites. Now you are half set. You also want pretty much any laser.

Later on, it is straightforward as anything else: Shoot a bomber until his shields are down (teammates might help, and they indeed do, more often than not). Prepare a lock-on during that. Once shields are down, boom, release the Thermite. That's at least 1500 hull damage that guy just got. He now went to change his underwear, so finishing him with 2 more laser bolts will be a breeze.

 

Optional additional gear to improve your odds even more:

Engine power converter. You laugh again, don't you. Actually, that is the strongest shield for the stock scout. Since mines and turrets don't give a damn about your evasion, you might want to be able to tank a hit or two while shooting the bomber.

EMP. You can launch this thing if your target bomber is camping in the middle of his own mine/drone field, he will be sitting duck after that. Also good for clearing areas for your teammates, or dealing with whatever the bomber tries to throw at you in panic while you chew him up. Lastly, makes it possible to deal with these annoying bombers who camp under the satellite, being close to invulnerable.

Targetting telemetry You can take TT for a) more damage against that bomber, or b) giving you some more firepower if you'd choose to fight other stuff.

Concentrated fire is probably the best co-pilot ability for this purpose. You dont want Bypass because you need to shred the bomber off his shields, not shoot through them. CF makes you do that faster.

Damage to shields upgrade on lasers. Self-explanatory. If you have lasers mastered, pick this one because your bomber hull breaker is called Thermite Torpedo.

 

This here is my NovaDive build. Nova is my main ship so I have her equipped for universal combat.

 

If you also fly a Nova or Blackbolt, you have probably noticed that Rocket Pods have been hit by nerfhammer in 2.6 patch. Since they are literally half of what they were, you might also want to try out Thermites. If not for use, try them for lulz, like I did. Boy I was surprised when I found that they actually work quite well!

 

Needless to say, it is still hard to deal with the most annoying type of bombers - those who camp in a place where they can only be shot from one direction. Like these satellite humps. Hopefully once mines and drones accept LoS, these will be less annoying.

 

Now you might be asking, why don't we just shoot them with Protorps? Well, because Protorps deal "only" 1k damage, and they penetrate shields. Unless you will be quietly following the bomber while your Protorps cool down to shoot him again (and possibly once more), you are kinda wasting the Protorps, because as you know, these suckers can go behind the corner and fix themselves up.

 

Bottom line, of course that stuff above is not ultimate win thing. But I believe that it is one of the rocks that can shatter bomber scissors. At least in my hands it can.

I also have a question to throw here... What's that debuff Thermites apply? Is it just armor reduction, or actual damage increase against those who have the debuff?

How dare you actually play the game and enjoy it. Forums are for crying!

 

But seriously, good job on just playing the game. Many people are not capable of enjoying themselves.

Range of thermite torpedoes allow novadive to take out satellite turrets while staying out of range of mines tucked under satellite as well;)

As a fellow blackbolt pilot I can tell you why that may seem like a good build but is not. You're assuming that you're going to get through the bombers shields. I assure you that you are not. A bomber isn't built around taking damage to his hull, his hull is actually just as brittle as that of a gunship. Its his shields that can exceed 4k per arc. If you could stay in gun range of a bomber long enough to drop those, you shouldn't need the thermite torps to take him out.

 

Moreover, picking up the engine power converter is a bad idea because your shields will still be far weaker than those of a strike fighter and you will have no way to defend yourself in a dog fight.

 

Also, the taking the EMP system is a major nerf to any match that doesn't have bombers. It has exactly 0 utility outside of frying drones, its range isn't large enough to cover the average drone field, and it doesn't affect satellite turrets (and lets face it, bombers are really only a pain if they are camping a satellite).

 

So what you end up with is a spec that is very specialized and still relatively ineffective. I suppose if you fly something else as your main you could have a specialized blackbolt just for Domnation mode vs bombers but as a general purpose fighter that is not a good build.

 

I would suggest building an ion gun gunship for those matches though as it is far more effective at dealing with drone fields and bombers.

A bomber isn't built around taking damage to his hull, his hull is actually just as brittle as that of a gunship.

 

A bomber has 1k more health than a gunship and the highest health pool of all ships.

Edited February 17, 2014 by Sindariel

The other day in domination I was guarding a satellite in my bomber. A scout inched its way into 10km and just sat there slowly killing turrets with thermite (what with its reload time he wasn't even effectively clearing them out). I just let him be since there was no way he'd actually accomplish anything if he tried to attack into my drones and mines...

A bomber has 1k more health than a gunship and the highest health pool of all ships.

 

huh, my bad then. I've always noticed though that its their shield that is the real problem for me. If I can get through that I can chew through their hull pretty easily, but I usually can't get enough uptime on them to get through the shield, especially with all the ways they have of regening/fortifying it.

Bombers are a huge mistake and should be removed until they fix them, the fotm exploit crowd is on to them now and most matches are now all bombers and gunships and a race to see who can get their bombers to the sats first so they can sit on them and win. Edited February 18, 2014 by Mallorik

Bombers are fine, l2p. The OP did!

 

 

I would not actually recommend the thermites against all bombers though. A fleet support bomber, flying with his team? Yes, a thermite is ideal. But a common bomber humps a sat, and rocket pods will do well (and you likely want the armor damage talent just because they have so much more armor than shields).

 

You can't close with the minelayers well as a scout, as most take an anti-scout build. Gunships have to peel those guys out.

Bombers are fine, l2p. The OP did!.

 

Sorry I don't want to learn to play against a domination map with 3 or 4 noobs on each sat slowly circling it dropping off mines and turrets when ever their cd is up. I'll just stop playing it like everyone else is doing.

...

 

I can assure you, I do chew through bomber shields, usually just as the lock on of Thermite finishes.

 

I am not posting an idea I had while being bored, I actually play this build as my main ship and my performance is awesome.

 

The build with EMP is indeed just a build for secretary ship to counter bombers only, but what you see in the link is my actual build that kills everything.

Yes, it includes the engine power converter. I dunno, if you joust with fighters, it might fail, but I assume no one flying basic scout jousts anything. And the converter does easily tank a few shots, while providing enough power to boost far far away. You won't know until you try.

 

Before 2.6, Pods were the best, hands down. But since they were nerfed hard, trying new possibilities doesn't hurt half as much.

Not to mention that Thermites got buffed.

 

I didn't mention fighting anything but bombers, because most of you have your ways of doing so, everyone's just crying about bombers.

I will just say that that build can get 15ish kills in every regular fight, even without bombers. Because Thermites work against fighter, scouts and gunships, too.

Also, the taking the EMP system is a major nerf to any match that doesn't have bombers. It has exactly 0 utility outside of frying drones, its range isn't large enough to cover the average drone field, and it doesn't affect satellite turrets (and lets face it, bombers are really only a pain if they are camping a satellite).

Zero utility outside of frying drones? Excuse me?

 

Mastered EMP disables ship systems (occasionally useful), cancels and temporarily prevents missle locks (generally useful), and disables engine abilities (incredibly useful). Using it to fry drones is one of its weakest applications.

...

 

Also true. But it has rather long cooldown which makes effective use quite difficult.

It is however incredibly amazing to disable that scout in the right moment, so he HAS to eat the Thermite, and die.

 

One can't be afraid of trying new things. You will discover lots of fun and well working stuff.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Slivovidze

Also true. But it has rather long cooldown which makes effective use quite difficult

Eh, 45 seconds is pretty par for the course for a system ability cooldown.

Also, the taking the EMP system is a major nerf to any match that doesn't have bombers. It has exactly 0 utility outside of frying drones, its range isn't large enough to cover the average drone field, and it doesn't affect satellite turrets (and lets face it, bombers are really only a pain if they are camping a satellite).

 

Not true. It might damage mines, but it also disables systems abilities, reduces accuracy by 10-20%, reduces sensors, and at max level, also disables shield or engine abilities. It is quite useful for ambushing gunships. I find myself using it almost exclusively now.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Vid-szhite

Sorry I don't want to learn to play against a domination map with 3 or 4 noobs on each sat slowly circling it dropping off mines and turrets when ever their cd is up. I'll just stop playing it like everyone else is doing.

 

But you're happy to play a domination map with 3 or 4 scouts on each sat slowly circling it?

Not true. It might damage mines, but it also disables systems abilities, reduces accuracy by 10-20%, reduces sensors, and at max level, also disables shield or engine abilities. It is quite useful for ambushing gunships. I find myself using it almost exclusively now.

 

Yes. OMG **** this ability so much. There is ONE GUY on my server who uses it on his scout and it is really freaking hard to escape him. I am going to have to completely relearn gunship evasive flying because of him

 

(not really that mad, after the number of scouts I've led on merry chases across the map I deserve it)

Yes. OMG **** this ability so much. There is ONE GUY on my server who uses it on his scout and it is really freaking hard to escape him. I am going to have to completely relearn gunship evasive flying because of him

 

(not really that mad, after the number of scouts I've led on merry chases across the map I deserve it)

 

And Tsuk calls it garbage...

And who is this guy? I want to shake his hand.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Zoom_VI

The name escapes me at the moment but I will recognize him the moment I have another match against him.

But you're happy to play a domination map with 3 or 4 scouts on each sat slowly circling it?

 

I don't really like any sat humpers but atleast any other role has to actually rely on their skill to hump a satellite. But its really not about skill, it becomes a problem when theres multiple bombers humping one sat.

 

I think its great that they came out with a role that people who cant fly can play, but if they don't fix this problem they wont have anyone to play against very soon.

Sorry I don't want to learn to play against a domination map with 3 or 4 noobs on each sat slowly circling it dropping off mines and turrets when ever their cd is up. I'll just stop playing it like everyone else is doing.

 

Exactly this. When i join a dominion match and see 3 or more bombers on any side, i immediately quit.

 

Most dominion matches these days are decided in the first 2 minutes. Whoever has the most bombers and gets them to the satellites first, wins. The rest of the match is just skirmishing around.

It's no fun to participate in such a match, no matter if you're on the winning or loosing team and i'm really sick of it.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Sindariel

I don't really like any sat humpers but atleast any other role has to actually rely on their skill to hump a satellite. But its really not about skill, it becomes a problem when theres multiple bombers humping one sat.

How much skill does it take to slowly circle a sat? Why is it a more skillful maneuver for a scout than a bomber?

Not going to lie, ended up going 18/15/1 in my bomber last night in a Domination game on Lost Shipyards. They got a bomber to C before I could get there so I ended up fighting him for a minute or so while fending off a couple of scouts.

 

Some well timed Siesmic mines made short work of them.

 

Then came the real fun. As they respawned and sent more people to C, instead of waiting under the sat with my mines there, I would put them in choke points throughout the area around the node. The small area that you're forced to come through when heading straight from the Pub capitol ships?

 

Interdiction mine.

 

That area directly above the sat where the light beacon shines from?

 

Seismic mine.

 

They wanted to loop around and come from behind?

 

Oh look, another Interdiction mine...

 

Whenever they had sent more than 2 ships to come deal with me I was able to spot them on radar thanks to a sensor beacon that a scout had been kind enough to drop before heading to B and A.

 

Bombers and Gunships coming for me?

 

Duck under the sat and strafe so I can shoot between the indicator panels with my blasters while they have a much harder time hitting me through the same small gap.

 

Pesky Gunship?

 

I had the entire area full of girders and beams to work with to maneuver around in to avoid them. When they realized they wouldn't get a clean shot they would move in and I was able to take them down with blasters.

 

After about seven minutes in one of their bombers was finally able to kill me.

 

He died at the same time I did. So, I just ambled my slow self back into C and remined the choke points, and awaited for my prey with full hull.

 

Let's just say they were less than pleased and sent half the team to kill me.

Firstly, I think there is a difference between good bomber pilots and bad ones in terms of how easy they are to take out. A skilled bomber pilot will vary their orbit pattern so as not to be taken out easily by a proton from one side. They also come off the satellite for laying mines and drones to put them in better places, and occasionally use their lasers. They defend a node with all the tools at their disposal, and are much harder to take out (imo) than the average bomber pilot.

 

Secondly, I commend the OP for coming up with a viable anti-bomber build. I'm going to have to look at adding thermites to my Novadive build, as I've been using it as my primary anti-bomber ship.

 

I've noticed a lot of anti-bomber strategies developing over time as people get used to them. Heck, two nights ago I was flying my drone carrier defending B on Kuat with a mine layer and we got wiped by a pair of very talented gunships. They bombed the node with two ion blasts each spaced out far enough that they took out not only our existing defenses, but also the new ones we popped as soon as the old ones died, and, of course, leaving us with no engine, shield or weapon power. They boosted in and finished us off with BLCs before we could recharge or rebuild defenses.

 

People are adapting, and the game will evolve.

How much skill does it take to slowly circle a sat? Why is it a more skillful maneuver for a scout than a bomber?

 

A scout dies in seconds when you manage to get close to him or he gets hit by a railgun. It needs very skillful maneuverability for a scout to evade enemy attacks while circling. For a scout, it's also very difficult or nearly impossible to fight back and get rid of you.

 

A bomber with his insane shield and hull capacity can just circle around for ages, take a lot of hits before he finally dies and he just needs to drop his mines and drones on your face to get rid of you and even your whole squad.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Sindariel