Disagree re: hydrospanner. A low-end estimate for the value of hydrospanner is +260 base HP, which is pretty significant.

In my experience, hydrospanner only really does work when you can disengage... and even then, that 260 heal isn't much given the amount of time you spend out of the fight, especially in domination where deaths are devalued.

Don't get me wrong, dying is bad, always. But I feel like the superior way to prevent dying is either killing things harder (concentrated fire/bypass) or RNG defense (running interwhatsit).

If RI prevents one shot from landing, it's likely outperformed hydrospanner. If it dodges two, it's certainly done better. And, of course, you don't have to disengage to get the full effect.

If CF gives you a crit that lands a kill early, you've likely prevented them from firing a shot at you. Depending on your weapon and various other circumstances, you might have prevented more.

Death is the best interrupt, CC, damage prevention, and counter-cap in the game, and therefore the best defense is a good offense.

COMMUNITY RESOURCES

 

Every server seems to have a small but active community for Galactic Starfighter. Are you entering games alone when you really want to be grouping up? Use the following information to get groups, find guilds, ask questions or communicate with fellow Galactic Starfighter players on your server! Sith Empire characters, guilds and channels are colored in red, Galactic Republic characters, guilds and channels are in blue. You can type the command "/cjoin nameofchannel" to join the listed chat channels for each server and "/who nameofguild" to see who is online in a particular guild. I think it goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that finding a guild or group of friends to play with (and against) makes it infinitely more fun and interesting!

 

**Note: Veterans, if you would like to help out, please feel free to volunteer your in-game name and what server you play on so I can add it below! The same applies to guilds looking to add on starfighter pilots. I compiled this information from older threads on the forum so it's all easy to find!

 

 

THE BASTION

 

Guilds: Swift and Absolute, Red Mist Fighter Wing, Flying Circus Fighter Wing, Gentlemen Gankers

Channels: ImpGSF, PubGSF

Helpful Players: Anastasie, Drakolich, Bandaid-imp, Bettynight, Phytia, Drakolích (alt+161 for the í), Band-aid, Nightsock

 

 

BEGEREN COLONY

 

Guilds: Warbird Squadron (link)

Channels: GSF, GSF

Helpful Players: J'mpok, Grree, Xixxaia, Whitelightr, Gabirel, Harden

 

 

THE EBON HAWK

 

Guilds: Eclipse Squadron (link), Vindicta, The Grey Remnants (link), The Thirteenth Legion

Channels: GSF, GSF

Helpful Players: Shayd, Cynfor, Qunai, Ar’mond, Nemarus, Steelwind, Mae’thon

 

 

THE HARBINGER

 

Guilds: Flyboys and Assassins (link)

Channels: GSF, Flyboys

Helpful Players: Anastasie, Drakolich, Drexxon, Mirque, Arstane, Lendul, Exhalted, Ben-sindu, Streven-mar, Okiobe

 

 

JEDI COVENANT

 

Guilds:

Channels: GSF, GSF

Helpful Players: Jazmean, Jazrella, Zarchoomi

 

 

JUNG MA

 

Guilds:

Channels: GSF, GSF

Helpful Players: Crinnrath, Zhe-luong, Crinnet

 

 

PROPHECY OF THE FIVE

 

Guilds: Death Squadron, Black Squadron

Channels: Pilot, Pilot

Helpful Players: Mae'thon, Scrab, Animal-mutha, Arstane, Scráb (alt+0225 for the á)

 

 

THE SHADOWLANDS

 

Guilds:

Channels: GSF, Space Cantina

Helpful Players: Na'kanlee, Yantia, Mintas, Mintismal, Mintgasm, Izrith

 

 

THE PROGENITOR (EU)

 

Guilds:

Channels: GSF, Aces

Helpful Players: Sunrage, Alastra

 

 

THE RED ECLIPSE (EU)

 

Guilds:

Channels: GSF, GSF

Helpful Players: Danyel-ss, Quickblast, Quickblow, Dany’el

 

 

TOMB OF FREEDON NADD (EU)

 

Guilds: space pvp best pvp, starfighter

Channels: GSF, GSF

Helpful Players: Scrab, Vanilly, Scrabrep, Vanily

 

 

:: TWITCH STREAMS

 

 

• http://www.twitch.tv/swtor (Official)
  
• http://www.twitch.tv/drakolich (Drakolich from The Bastion)
  
• http://www.twitch.tv/hiddenpalm (Hiddenpalm from The Bastion)
  
• http://www.twitch.tv/swtorplayer95 (Nixxx'd from Prophecy of the Five)
  
• http://www.twitch.tv/vanilly_ (Vanilly from Tomb of Freedon Nadd)
  

 

 

:: USEFUL LINKS

 

 

• Dulfy's Starfighter Calculator - Great for experimenting with components, crew and other options
  
• Dulfy's New Player Guide for GSF - Great for new players looking to set foot into Galactic Starfighter
  
• Dulfy's GSF Customizations - For those who want to look pretty
  
• 42Gaming - Podcasts involving GSF players, some build guides and other useful information
  
• SWTOR Reddit - See upcoming changes and additional community commentary
  
• Mikla's Tips - For those newer to Galactic Starfighter
  
• Nemarus's Tips - For those newer to Galactic Starfighter
  
• Ramalina - On the importance of teamwork
  
• Silvershadow on the GSF HUD - A visual guide for those seeking to learn more about the heads-up display.
  
• Sensor Focus - How it works, straight from senior game designer Jason Attard
  

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 

Thank you to the players and pilots from both factions on The Bastion for offering your opinions, challenges and discussions. Thank you to the pilots/players of Red Mist Fighter Wing and Flying Circus Fighter Wing. Thank you to constructive posters in the Galactic Starfighter forums. There are too many names to list them all since the community really is a bit bigger than most think. I feel our community on The Bastion is extraordinary and for the most part, very friendly. Special shout-out to friends and fellow pilots Verain/Purple, Drakolich and Sanic. I consider Drakolich a large contributor to this guide for all the discussions and team-based gameplay we have done together. Thank you Animal-mutha for putting together the initial "New Pilot Helper List" list here. Thank you Ramalina for your large contribution to this guide, the crew segment.

Add Burning Squadron to the guild list on Jung'Ma please. Also Reprisal

In my experience, hydrospanner only really does work when you can disengage... and even then, that 260 heal isn't much given the amount of time you spend out of the fight, especially in domination where deaths are devalued.

From the perspective of a gunship, I usually have to disengage regardless when pressured, and I'm fairly good at it. A big worry for me is accumulating hull damage that leaves me vulnerable to shield piercing (esp. slug). Hydrospanner is great at mitigating that.

That said, I'm now playing around with Wingman on my GS and beating myself up over not trying it sooner. It is soooo good at negating tracking penalties and passive evasion.

Add Burning Squadron to the guild list on Jung'Ma please. Also Reprisal

Will do! Are these Empire or Republic guilds and do you happen to have links to the websites? If not, no biggie.

Also, Board: You block PMs, so I can't reply to the one you sent me. The answer is yes, but I am not a part of SuckaFish any more.

From the perspective of a gunship, I usually have to disengage regardless when pressured, and I'm fairly good at it. A big worry for me is accumulating hull damage that leaves me vulnerable to shield piercing (esp. slug). Hydrospanner is great at mitigating that.

 

That said, I'm now playing around with Wingman on my GS and beating myself up over not trying it sooner. It is soooo good at negating tracking penalties and passive evasion.

I can definitely see it working on a gunship, yeah. What's the range on Servo Jammer? That could potentially be helpful (for newer gunships, at least).

I can definitely see it working on a gunship, yeah. What's the range on Servo Jammer? That could potentially be helpful (for newer gunships, at least).

5k like all the others.

5k like all the others.

Well that's boring.

I can definitely see it working on a gunship, yeah. What's the range on Servo Jammer? That could potentially be helpful (for newer gunships, at least).

Servo Jammer is a maneuvering debuff, not an evasion one. Personally I find it harder to (manually) hit targets with a large angular velocity (i.e. flying fast, in a straight line, laterally) than those with frequent course changes, so I don't think it'd be very helpful even at 15km.

Servo Jammer is a maneuvering debuff, not an evasion one. Personally I find it harder to (manually) hit targets with a large angular velocity (i.e. flying fast, in a straight line, laterally) than those with frequent course changes, so I don't think it'd be very helpful even at 15km.

Interesting. I have the opposite problem, which is why I thought of Servo Jammer.

Interesting. I have the opposite problem, which is why I thought of Servo Jammer.

Servo Jammer could actually be incredibly useful if it weren't so limited in range. I could see it working very well on a Pike/Quell so that the tougher missile locks just become that much easier to land. I've tried Wingman and love it when I'm on a gunship, it's actually pretty nice when firing on scouts in head-to-heads on strike fighters as well. Lockdown might be worth a try (again) next patch but has the same extremely limited range that most other copilot abilities suffer from.

Personally I find it harder to (manually) hit targets with a large angular velocity (i.e. flying fast, in a straight line, laterally) than those with frequent course changes, so I don't think it'd be very helpful even at 15km.

Totally agree here (in the context of gunship railgun). It's far more difficult to compensate for lag and tracking when someone is doing this.

I dont know if this was said later in the article but i think it belongs in the general section(tips for success) (i didnt see it there)

If you find yourself being very inaccurate, part of that has to do with mouse shake which can come from being nervous. If you're below 30% accuracy with quads or anything slower than that try lowering your mouse sensitivity. It'll make a big difference and you can amp up your sensitivity as you get better.

Reference, i average 50%+ accuracy with quads on a scout and 65%+ with bursts

If you're below 30% accuracy with quads or anything slower than that try lowering your mouse sensitivity. It'll make a big difference and you can amp up your sensitivity as you get better.

Added this, thanks for the tip. I'm working on some additional (mostly fun/amusement) builds for patch.

Hey OP. I found this video guide on Reddit the other day. It was posted by DudesterRadman. Here's the link thought this would be a good addition to the guide.

Hey OP. I found this video guide on Reddit the other day. It was posted by DudesterRadman. Here's the link thought this would be a good addition to the guide.

 

Thanks so much for this link! I added it to a two-link section at the beginning for newer players. You are all helping expand this rather quickly, thank you again!

Servo Jammer could actually be incredibly useful if it weren't so limited in range.

I cautiously agree. I'll also say it's annoying to get this copilot on Republic, as the passives attached to it are rather poor (Risha has the two 10% boosts, and Oro has evasion and shield recharge, Oro being the better choice by far but that's still rather limiting, and Risha is just a terrible crew member, as is Andronikus).

The thing is that the intended use- nail someone at close range and then win a dogfight- seems to happen rather infrequently, and with greater range it would be a lot better as you could use it for more than just that.

Lockdown might be worth a try (again) next patch but has the same extremely limited range that most other copilot abilities suffer from.

I think all the copilot abilities should be 20k, and 10k would be a bare minimum. 5k is pretty much melee range, and only a few of them are actually powerful enough to warrant that.

I think lockdown will be admirable next patch for sure. Doctor Lokin and C2N2 are the go-to guys here, but OMG C2N2 is annoyface. It'll still be pretty niche- you'll use the ability to land a missile and that's about it, and only under certain circumstances.

Lockdown will definitely be useful after the patch. Currently its hard to run out of engine power with the right build and power management barring ion rails.

I feel like people have grossly underestimated the engine nerfs, though I really wish some of these copilot abilities were buffed. In general, this game (minigame? whatever) could use a larger variety of solid options when it comes to component and crew selections. Many of the veterans avoid using certain components or abilities because frankly they just suck. That's a good portion of why I didn't bother adding a components section to this guide (though I may decide to work on one). Some players I've talked to still feel like sticking to what they've got working. Try that after experiencing the 20 second barrel roll cooldown of doom. I'd also recommend trying out the various maneuvers you've avoided thus far, you may be surprised!

just wondering here but in your guide (and on Dulfy's) the repair probe CD for the Type 3 striker is 30 seconds after upgrading. But on live it seems to be 60 seconds (90 w/out the upgrade). Did they increase the CD between the PTS and going live or are things bugged?

ya they increased the CD.

just wondering here but in your guide (and on Dulfy's) the repair probe CD for the Type 3 striker is 30 seconds after upgrading. But on live it seems to be 60 seconds (90 w/out the upgrade). Did they increase the CD between the PTS and going live or are things bugged?

It did get nerfed prior to release. It doesn't change the build for my guide (I edited the cooldown) but it was a good move, having it up constantly seems ridiculous.

It did get nerfed prior to release. It doesn't change the build for my guide (I edited the cooldown) but it was a good move, having it up constantly seems ridiculous.

hey stasie you thinking about putting panic's scout build into this

hey stasie you thinking about putting panic's scout build into this

Who's Panic? Get me a link and I don't mind adding a link to it.

Who's Panic? Get me a link and I don't mind adding a link to it.

I think i spelled name wrong... oh well we will see later

Edit: I meant Pincer lol I am dumb mixed up pincer and sanic for some reason.