There's been a lot of QQ over bombers lately so I figured why don't more experienced players chime in about how they deal with bombers to help the less experienced pilots out there. I think there's a lot of pilots out there that simply don't know how to handle bombers or they're simply not equipped to take on bombers. I'm not an expert on bombers myself, I have a mastered Rampart 4 but I usually only play it 3-4 times a week but I thought I'd share some of my observations from playing GSF since it's introduction.

"Know Thy Enemy"

Before you go hunting bombers, you should know what they're capable of. Bombers are basically designed for 3 things 1) "Sat-Humping", basically a take-and-hold approach during domination matches where bombers focus on gaining & defending possession of satellites 2) Area-Denial, during team death match bombers often pick a choke-point with restricted access to maximize their effectiveness much like a spider does with it's web. Look for these "webs" amongst tight-knit asteroids, mesas or shipyards 3) squadron support, often times bombers will build a "nest" with repair probes & hyperspace beacons interlaced with mines &/or drones for protection. Gunships can also be found lurking in these nests for added protection

"It's a Trap!!"

Too often I see players all too willing to enter the afore-mentioned bomber "webs" only to be blown apart. Or they race ignorantly too closely to a bomber nest swarming with enemies, this too is a death-sentence. Taking these actions plays to the bomber's strengths. They want you to fly into their webs & nests, it makes them cackle with delight. Don't feed your opponents' kill count so senselessly.

"Harass! Harass!! Harass!!!"

Bombers always have some place they wanna be and it isn't out in the open. Once they get to their ideal location on a map, they dig in like ticks! You have to intercept them, catch them in the open and deny them their defensive location. The worst thing a squadron can do is ignore bombers and gunships, this gives them the time to set up and wreak havoc on you!! Always know where gunships & bombers are or where they're going and be a pain in their butt the whole time or else they'll be a pain in yours!

"OMG!! Tier1 ships make great bomber hunters??!!"

That's right, the star guard, novadive and quarrel along with their imp counter-parts all have great anti-bomber equipment!! The star guard/Rycer has ion cannons which strip away a bomber's shields leaving it vulnerable. The novadive/black bolt has EMP pulse & gunships were made to give bomber pilots tantrums. So really, there's just no excuse why players can't counter bombers when all the tools are handed to you right off the bat.

"How to remove Sat-Humpers"

Most sat-Humpers interlace their satellite with a web/nest then find a little nook to camp or simply fly amongst the power panels. Here's what I do - if I'm in a novadive I hit my distortion field as I scream toward the satellite then as I get closer I pop EMP pulse to destroy the web/nest. The reason I use distortion field first is it raises my evasion, will help me evade any unforeseen lock-ons and give me that extra second or 2 I may need due to mis-timing my EMP. It's on a quick CD so no worries there. You can also go "kamikaze" and hit your barrel roll then EMP. I generally do this from below so I can hit the bomber with rocket pods. The star guard can also come up from underneath spamming ion cannons & cluster missiles. But by far, the easiest way to clear sat-Humpers is with gunships. With gunships you can stay well out of range and target the mines/drones/probes or defence pods. With upgraded ion rail gun your hits arc to other nearby targets to quickly strip shields and destroy peripherals. Park your gunship well below the satellite and target those pesky sat- humping bombers directly, hit them with the ion rail gun to strip their shields then nail 'em with your slug rail gun for max carnage!!

These tactics I use aren't perfect but they're effective. What are your techniques? Happy hunting!!

-J'exx (republic privateer) 55 gunslinger The Ebon Hawk

I've found the Type 3 strike to be an ideal heavy fighter for bomber killing. It has thermites (which weaken any DR a bomber may have stacked and gives you and your allies primary weapons temporary HLC capabilities) plus it has repair probes to repair any damage it takes during an attack run. You can also use proton torpedoes if that's more to your liking

Set up and launch the thermite well outside of the range of mines. By the time it hits you're in blaster range and you either set up for another attack run to finish them or (if the situation allows) get on their tail to blast them away. Offensive co-pilot CDs like bypass can really help make your attack more deadly. The catch is that you need to fly in a straight line for a long time which leaves you very, very vulnerable to enemy fighters if your wingmen don't give you proper cover (think of a WWII torpedo bomber's reliance on escort fighters).

The thing I notice most is that when a bomber has a fighter escort often times the problems occur when scouts become hell bent on attacking the bomber instead of the escorts. This results in the strikers who are making attack runs getting decimated by the escorts, often before they can do appreciable damage to the bomber. Once the strikers go down the scouts quickly follow as they lack the hull/shields to tank damage from the bomber (which is now free to attack them) while they also try to deal with the escorts. In contrast I've found the most successful teams are those where scouts act as interceptors (technically doing what they're class role is supposed to be) and engage enemy fighters to allow the strikers, with their heavy ordinance, to attack the bomber with relatively little interference.

It seems that a lot of pilots have the mentality of "attack the biggest threat" rather than "perform class role so others can perform theirs." This applies to strikers that go after escort fighters instead of bombers as much as scouts going after bombers instead of escort fighters. But I've noticed that scouts often get it into their heads that just because they can, technically, kill the bomber means they should try to kill the bomber

I think it's legit for a scout to pop everything to get damage on a bomber off the node. Not if he has a ton of escort, but in general, all that damage is worth having on the bomber.

But in general? No, you're correct, the scout shouldn't be doing that job. The problem is, once the bomber is on the node, it's hard for ANYONE to.

But again, with interdiction no longer piercing shields and mine explosions respecting LOS, boy bombers will be in a much weaker place.

The key are the sat bumpers, otherwise just keep your distance. Distance does not work as well when the bomber has cover from the satellite. So since your asking experienced players let's assume some commonent upgrades.

I'll start with how I as such a bomber gets killed, there are really only 2 sure ways other then overwhelming numbers.

- if a sat is being contested I.e. even numbers fight a BLC scout can quickly ruin my day.

- otherwise I really only get killed by shield ignore weapons mainly seismic mines.

Now how do I kill bombers well short answer is I mostly don't, rather I create a situation for my team to kill the bomber.

-Step 1 kill the turrets as fast as possible, I run HLC on three of my ships all with armor bypass. The most effective of them is the Ryder as the bomber and GS are so much slower. My Quell is also well built and I use combination LLC and CM to kill turrets often taking the first turret with proton torpedoes. Regardles I must kill all three turrets in the first pass which is actually fairly easy to do.

Step 2 take as many mines with me.

The strategy is a bit crude however it punches a huge hole in the door for my squad mates.

The main problem with clearing bombers is that between the heavily armored bomber itself, the mines/drones, the defense turrets, and any buddies they have around, it takes so long to successfully attack a bomber-defended satellite that extra defenders can get there from across the map before you can finish.

Basically, you have to hope you can bring 2+ to wipe out a single bomber or else it takes too long. And if they have any buddies of their own around already then it becomes really, really hard unless thgere is a massive skill/experience gap.

my way:

With a friend thats in scout, fighter - i get my gunship T1, i swap to ion railgun as i approach he will duck out of line of sight. i ion his mines, the turrets etc eventually either he gets annoyed and comes at me = dead bomber or he has no shields and slight damage, etc and my friend gets in close making him move around and i finish him.

2nd way quicker - just get T1 Gs zap all his mines, drones etc, then 3 hits and 3 turrets gone with slug railgun then friend and i get in finish him off.

3rd way - as a scout or fighter i dash in quick and hard take turrets out get out sometimes provokes gunships to moving more and then i njust hit n run them till they dead attacking from sides and front mainly.

the really hard core bombers usually i skip the try to provoke approach as they not stupid and just get in quick with a mate and kill everything quick.

As a bomber I have learned to never be out in the open. Ever. If I see a ship coming at me from below, I hop to the top of the satellite. I am constantly tabbing to see who's close, who's locked on to me, and who's incoming. That's how I survive. If a scout comes after me, I weave in and out of the satellite structure while placing mines, and calling for help. I also upgraded my armor first, so I can take quite a bit of damage.

I don't normally attack bombers in my scout, I save that for my fighter with lock on and more range.

My official recommendation? Dual gunships. Gunships wreck bombers and their emplacements farily quickly and with 2 of them you can deny them hiding places to LOS either ship. Admittedly I'm not the most experienced pilot out there, but the anti bomber stuff on the nova is extremely underwhelming. as it involves you being within shooting distance for a bomber, who probably has burst lasers and will kill you in 2 or 3 shots, and I at least am incapable of killing them before the emp wears off and seeker mines are suddenly incoming.

I'm really hoping for a bomber nerf. You can't chase/dogfight with them because you'll eat a mine and die, you can't snipe them without support because they'll hide around a corner and can eat 3 full shots before going down. If I don't know something, please let me know, because it's not just "i don't know how to handle this, it's OP," I do know how to handle it and it's still a bit much in my opinion.

My actual suggestion? Give the mines a 1 or 2 sec activation time so bombers can be effectively chased down and killed without virtually garunteeing you eat the concussion mines and die along the way.

My official recommendation? Dual gunships. Gunships wreck bombers and their emplacements farily quickly and with 2 of them you can deny them hiding places to LOS either ship. Admittedly I'm not the most experienced pilot out there, but the anti bomber stuff on the nova is extremely underwhelming. as it involves you being within shooting distance for a bomber, who probably has burst lasers and will kill you in 2 or 3 shots, and I at least am incapable of killing them before the emp wears off and seeker mines are suddenly incoming.

 

I'm really hoping for a bomber nerf. You can't chase/dogfight with them because you'll eat a mine and die, you can't snipe them without support because they'll hide around a corner and can eat 3 full shots before going down. If I don't know something, please let me know, because it's not just "i don't know how to handle this, it's OP," I do know how to handle it and it's still a bit much in my opinion.

 

My actual suggestion? Give the mines a 1 or 2 sec activation time so bombers can be effectively chased down and killed without virtually garunteeing you eat the concussion mines and die along the way.

Bomber = HLC... not BLC... and mines already have a 1 sec activation time after the bomber actually pooped them...

My mistake, doesn't stop them killing pretty much whoever in extrtemely short order if given a chance, it's too much damage to just tank.

Then perhaps it should be longer, , because as is It's effectively suicide to attempt to chase them. I have to use repeated gurrilla strikes that give them plenty of time to cal for help or flip around and bring thier lasers to bear.

Protorp/Thermite... HLC Strike

Close range Charged Plating Strike

Thermite Scout

Three counters....

Burst scout with their CD up

BLC scout against a Charged Plating bomber

Minelayer

Three situationnal counters.....

And the ultimate counter : SKILLZZZZZ

themite torpedos, unless they changed it, thermite and proton torpedos both havve 4 second lock on times. I cannot possibly express how bad that is against anyone/thing who isn't completely stationary and sitting out in the open (the opposite of what bombers want to do, btw) and as i just said, none of my scouts no metter the setup, can consistently take a bomber. Even should i be good enough to stay within 1000 meters at all times, which i'm not, between the 2 seperate shield boosts (shield overcharge/charged plating and engine power converter) I'm still not killing them before they cancircle back to their other bombs and force me out, blaster overcharge or not.

Skill can counter anything, that has no bearing what so ever on it's relative power and wehter or not it is to high.

I've taken down bombers in NovaDive. Rarely.

The bomber was way distracted and I fired up all the bonus at once and fired nonstop.

One on one? No chance. NovaDive doesn't have the range to evade bombers. All it needs to do is fly towards the scout and drop mines. Game over.

After a solid 30 seconds of shooting on the bomber, its hull is still at 80%. And with healer bots and railgun bots it's a really disgusting feeling.

EMP? I don't think I will sacrifice my other more offensive tactics just for defense against bombers.

Here is the game plan: Just go to a node where there are no bombers. If there are bombers on each node, Try to kill scouts or clueless GS on the outskirts. Do not chase them when they go back to the node. It is a trap.

Just hover around and go to where most forces are concentrated to reduce the chance of instadeath.

I've taken down bombers in NovaDive. Rarely.

The bomber was way distracted and I fired up all the bonus at once and fired nonstop.

One on one? No chance. NovaDive doesn't have the range to evade bombers. All it needs to do is fly towards the scout and drop mines. Game over.

After a solid 30 seconds of shooting on the bomber, its hull is still at 80%. And with healer bots and railgun bots it's a really disgusting feeling.

EMP? I don't think I will sacrifice my other more offensive tactics just for defense against bombers.

 

Here is the game plan: Just go to a node where there are no bombers. If there are bombers on each node, Try to kill scouts or clueless GS on the outskirts. Do not chase them when they go back to the node. It is a trap.

Just hover around and go to where most forces are concentrated to reduce the chance of instadeath.

respectfully, I must disagree with this ^^

Novadives are excellent at killing bombers. proper power management is crucial of course and the right load out as well. also, Nova's are all about range... and speed. use these dev given strengths to your advantage.

all things being equal... a fully tiered Nova against a fully tiered Bomber and the Nova scout will come out on top more often than not.

diving headlong into a bombers blasters (or any ship for that matter) is not a good tactic. rather, dive in with blasters and rocket pods for just a second or two then peel off and come around for another attack.

bombers rely on shields and a bit of armor. use emp burst w/the disable shield ability, spec your blasters for armor or shield penetration and the rocket pods do the rest.

also, if a Nova gets behind a bomber there is no way (not easy at least) it can shake it. the trick (really not so tricky) is to set power to shields to slow down (hold the 'S' key like your life depends on it too) and to increase the chance you'll be able to survive that mine you know is coming towards your face.

when the bomber drops that mine you know is coming, boost away at a near right angle then snap turn and drop some more damage on it. (might be able to kill the mine or drone as well if your quick) and the same thing goes if circling a sat.

do these simple tactics work each and every time? of course not. and if a sat has 2 (or more) bombers and a dozen mines around it find another target cause that's just too much for any single ship.

(now and then I've tried boosting over and past a sat that's loaded with mines and drones, pop emp at just the right moment and watched as most of them explode and the rest are disabled allowing others to take advantage of that opening).

I really wish more Nova pilots would consider using emp as a weapon. 2 Novas, one spec'ed for disable engine the other spec'ed for shields and I think they could really take control of a heavily defended sat, bombers mines and all.

lastly, try to intercept bombers while they're out in the open. they are most vulnerable then.

just my 2 cents and change, good hunting

On my Star Guard I use 2 strategies:

If I see them going for the node I switch to Ion and melt their shields and then poke to death with HLCs and Concussions or if they are already on node I fly under the node go to full stop and fire up with HLCs at which point they either go above the node and are a prime target for any GS or allies ships or die.