I'm bored, so let's have some hypothetical fun.

 

Let's say that for one month, everyone had to fly one ship/build only. What would you choose and why?

 

Further details:

1. You don't know what others will pick for their one ship/build (so write your own reply before reading others').

2. You cannot change your build once the month begins.

3. You'll get a mix of all stages and modes (Domination and Deathmatch).

4. You have to solo queue.

5. Your goal is to get the highest win/loss ratio.

Edited March 3, 2015 by Nemarus

My choice would be:

 

Jurgoran

BLC with armor piercing

Cluster Missiles (double volley)

Slug Railgun

Feedback Shield

Power Dive

Wingman

Range Capacitor

Turbo Reactor

Turning Thrusters

Regeneration Magazine

 

My strategy is to hedge my bets against the unknown of what others will fly. A Jurgoran is, in my view, the best multi-role fighter in the game. It does not have a hard counter, but it is well equipped to take and defend satellites in Domination, and it will score a strong kill//assist:death ratio in Deathmatch.

 

Feedback Shield makes me a troublesome target for Scouts, and Power Dive gives me both mobility and slippery defense.

 

I'll generally stay out of railgun duels with other Gunships (especially Quarrels), and will instead use Power Dive to charge them, hopefully using my superior short-range capabilities to force them to flee with Barrel Roll (in which case I slug them in the back).

 

I'll have the most trouble with Bombers on nodes, but at the very least I can harass them from range or close (and suffer mine attrition) in order to maul them with BLC and Clusters. Once on a node, Feedback Shield + Turbo Reactor will make it difficult to peel me off without another Bomber.

Is this actually a question, or are you trying to generate data for some balance critique?

 

The actual answer: I'd find what my teammates were choosing, and pick something that complements it. My choice would assuredly be type 1 bomber, type 2 bomber, or type 1 gunship, as someone else would be the battle scout and everything else is niche. My answer would change if I was solo queue.

Jumurgensurgen is a good pick. I've been playing a lot more of that recently, in part because of discussions with some other pilots. I feel it's finally at the point where it's strengths are pretty well understood, and it is very consistent at escaping many situations. It is definitely frustrating to lose gunship duels, but it's much better at dealing with "scout who wants a stool sample".

 

And that guy is like, everywhere.

Burst laser /cluster missile / targeting telem / distrotion field / barrel roll / lightweight armor / large reactor / regeneration thrusters / range capacitor Sting/Flashfire.

 

This is always my go to ship, it's almost always the first ship I master everytime I start on a new server. It's really good in deathmatch and decent in domination.

Is this actually a question, or are you trying to generate data for some balance critique?

 

The actual answer: I'd find what my teammates were choosing, and pick something that complements it. My choice would assuredly be type 1 bomber, type 2 bomber, or type 1 gunship, as someone else would be the battle scout and everything else is niche. My answer would change if I was solo queue.

 

Dude, I am so done with discussing balance--remember, I believe that the game we have is the game we're going to have until we all switch to Battlefront or go our separate ways.

 

This is a purely for-fun thread. And as I said in the instructions, you have to solo queue.

 

This scenario skews the balance meta anyway. Since you are forced to fly one ship only, you can't react to what your opponents fly ... and what you pick needs to be viable in securing both Domination and Deathmatch wins. So "generalist" builds are actually a teensy bit more compelling in this scenario than they are in real GSF. Hence my picking of Jurgoran.

I'm bored, so let's have some hypothetical fun.

 

Let's say that for one month, everyone had to fly one ship/build only. What would you choose and why?

 

Further details:

1. You don't know what others will pick for their one ship/build (so write your own reply before reading others').

2. You cannot change your build once the month begins.

3. You'll get a mix of all stages and modes (Domination and Deathmatch).

4. You have to solo queue.

5. Your goal is to get the highest win/loss ratio.

 

Largely given the bolded, I guess I'd go T1 GS, standard ion/slug/disto/BR build. It may not be the most versatile ship (I think Drako's probably right that T2 scout is a better general choice - and no, I didn't read that prior to making my selection). But T1 GS is what I'm best at. So if I want to maximize my chances to win, that's what I'll take.

 

Would get boring pretty fast, though.

Solo queue probably Type 1 Gunship. Type 3 Gunship close behind.

 

I have a LOT of experience fleeing from scouts in death match in the Type 1 Gunship, so the times I'm just forced to zip around on domination won't be alien to me. Meanwhile, the ion rail is a huge boon versus most ships, and since I should have allied scouts in some matches I will have peels much of the time.

 

Type 3 Gunship is similar, but the skill level required to make me run for a long time is much higher, so a lot less scouts qualify.

 

 

It would be pretty tough between those two.

Edited March 3, 2015 by Verain

If I wanted to win matches? T1 gunship. If I wanted to stay alive? T3 gunship or pdive/barrel/booster (pick 1) battlescout.

 

Solo queuing exclusively means the range flexibility of railguns is really good, and anything that requires ammo is not so hot.

 

In general, T3 gunship is really good, but it loses way too much damage and utility for the survivability it brings to the table. The advantages of Ion rail for domination and for support in TDM is really decisive in my eyes. I can stay alive a long time, but when I am alive I am doing less damage and can't clear nodes as well, and while it's great for my KDR, it's just not good for my team.

The advantages of Ion rail for domination and for support in TDM is really decisive in my eyes.

That's why I'd pick my standard T1 GS build for this, too. BLC w/armor pierce, Feedback shield.

 

Solo queuing means you don't know the strength of your team, and if you have a mediocre-to-bad team, ion rail can even the odds in either game mode. The only map I'd wish I had a different ship on is Kuat Mesas domination... but it would still be viable there. Just not ideal.

 

When I solo queue and end up on inexperienced teams, the number one thing that such teams have trouble with is bombers. I feel I'd always want to have ion rail available for that circumstance.

 

It'd also make a T1 bomber a pretty good choice for your 'ship for a month' but I don't enjoy flying bombers all that much, so T1 GS it is.

 

- Despon

I am trying to be teamplayer, so T3 scout with RFL, EMP missile, Tensor, repair drone, power dive, reinforced armor, speed capacitor, comnunication sensors and turbo reactor. While pretty bad in TDM (though giving repairs can be a lifesaver sometimes), in domination it can give pretty good headstart (or counter enemy's headstart).

Jurgoran, what else^^.

That's why I'd pick my standard T1 GS build for this, too. BLC w/armor pierce, Feedback shield.

 

Solo queuing means you don't know the strength of your team, and if you have a mediocre-to-bad team, ion rail can even the odds in either game mode. The only map I'd wish I had a different ship on is Kuat Mesas domination... but it would still be viable there. Just not ideal.

 

When I solo queue and end up on inexperienced teams, the number one thing that such teams have trouble with is bombers. I feel I'd always want to have ion rail available for that circumstance.

 

It'd also make a T1 bomber a pretty good choice for your 'ship for a month' but I don't enjoy flying bombers all that much, so T1 GS it is.

 

- Despon

 

Agreed, except I hate feedback shield. It's good for 1v1 sometimes, but it'll get you eaten up under focus compared to dfield.

CP Imperium with Repair Probes, Quads, Ion Missile, engine to shield, etc. etc. etc.

 

Why? Because my enemies are all "Ion missile? Lolwhut?" when they're hit by hit and are rolling on the floor laughing so hard at the futility of my attack that they don't notice my quad lasers chewing through their unprotected hull.

 

Or at least that's what I tell myself.

 

In all seriousness, I really use this build because I enjoy flying it. It may be underpowered and weak but meh, I have fun with it, and that's what's important to me.

Edited March 3, 2015 by Caernos

I'd pick the Condor. Because it's able to dogfight, you can kill pesky scouts rather than running away. And that saves more time to get damage overcharges and shoot slugs. Edited March 4, 2015 by RickDagles

I also would run the T3 GS if I had only a single ship, built as BLC/Slug/Interdiction Missile/DF/Power Dive. Large Reactor and Turning Thrusters, Regeneration magazine and either Range or Damage capacitator (I'm inclined towards Damage on a GS).

 

The T1 Gunship and T2 Scout are really more powerful overall, but the T3 GS is more resilient under the kind of pressure you can solo queue into than the T1 (even if it generally does less damage and doesn't increase the effectiveness of a well-oiled team as much) and I just don't enjoy flying the T2 Scout enough to put up with only it for an entire month. I really would want to say I'd take a T1 Strike or a T3 Bomber, but there would be too many frustrating matches with those.

Sting

Burst Laser Cannon (T4 Ignore Armor, T5 Increased Shield Damage)

Cluster Missile (T4 Increased Range, T5 Double Volley)

Targeting Telemetry (T4 Target Prediction, T5 Precision Targeting)

Retro Thruster (T3 Increased Turning Rate)

Distortion Field (T3 Disable Enemy Missile Lock)

Large reactor

Lightweight Armor

Regeneration Thrusters

 

Reasoning:

- the ship and build I use most often

- provides much more versatility than a Mangler which I'm most effective on

- the best dogfighting build and still a good gunship hunter

- with ion railgun support, the fastest at cleaning out tick bombers

Flashifre

Burst Laser Cannon

Rocket Pods

Targeting Telemetry

Retro Thruster

Distortion Field

Large reactor

Lightweight Armor

Regeneration Thrusters

Range Capacitor

 

With RI as a co-pilot ability

 

I know that its a sub-optimal build, but is very efective and still retains some kiling power when the pods go out.

Blackbolt speed scout, with booster recharger can single-handedly win domination matches and be a total pest in other games.

Mangler.

 

I'm bad with Strikes and scouts, so they aren't even options to me. and bombers are no fun

 

I am also REALLY good at not dying, only .....what 3-4 scout pilots on my server ever take me down regularly....and they are on my team more often then not so I usually walk out of a day full of GSF with a grand total of 1 death, if that.

Probably a standard HLC/Ion/Conc/QCS T1 strike build, just because GSF without Ion cannons and HLCs doesn't seem quite right.

 

If it ran for more than one month, ie. switch ships once a month, I could see doing a T3 strike, T3 scout, or minelayer every other month. The good support ships would be disproportionately powerful in close games because there would be so few of them available in that sort of meta.

Right now I only regularly fly 4 ships, so this isn't too much of a restriction for me

 

I prefer support for teammates, so that leaves either the Spearpoint or Clarion... With a slight preference to defensive capability, I'd go with the Clarion to play for the team:

 

Quad Lasers

Thermite Torpedoes - single target debuff, and to destroy defensive turrets in 1 shot

Repair Probes

Shield Projector

Power Dive

Reinforced Armor

Damage Capacitor

Large Reactor

Range Sensors

Running Interface (co-pilot)

 

Corso Riggs

Tanno Vik

Elara Dorne

Yuun

 

I don't care if this isn't 'ideal' in the eyes of others; this general loadout and playstyle has served me well enough so far. Even though the Flashfire is the ship I've scored the most damage with in a match, the Clarion is the one I've earned the most medals in a single match (15 in Domination), including 'savior'. Much more gratifying to know I helped solidify our team's position by activating all 3 defensive buffs at critical times to as many allies as possible.

Full support is really interesting, but shield projector is hard to get the benefit out of. Remember that for a heal to be effective:

 

1- It has to hit an ally...

2- ...who is not at full (shield) health...

3- ...who then takes damage to the arc that you healed...

4- ....in the window of time that it would have not have regenerated on its own....

5- ....and in a way that would have resulted in hull damage had you not healed that arc....

6- ....and the avoided hull damage has to matter.

 

It's a LOT of conditionals. Example: Assume a target has taken a burst laser canon shot and is mostly low on shields. You guess correctly that this is the case, and you press shield projector. The shield projector heals him for two ticks, but the next BLC crits and he dies anyway. In this example, you healed his shield, and it did not matter.

Example: The bomber with overcharged shield loses a lot of the arc. Your shield projector heals him for some, and he takes a concussion mine to the shield. It doesn't break his shield arc, but it wouldn't have anyway. In this example, your shield projector healed a shield that took damage, but it wasn't effective healing.

Example: Same as above, but the shield arc WOULD have broken if not for the shield projector. You saved him 400 points of hull damage. He finishes the game alive and at 40% hull. In this example, it didn't matter- you did heal his hull, but not by a lot, and he would have lived regardless.

 

It's SO HARD to get an effective shield projection.

Think of it as Not-Very-Quick Charge for tanks, since that's really its primary job. Without an allied health UI element all healing in GSF is a crapshoot, and the Devs were certainly aware of that.

 

It's a decent self heal, mostly because the T3s are tough enough that they often survive long enough to get most or all of the HOT ticks. Recovering 40-48% of your shield power 3 times a minute with power allocated to something else isn't too shabby. As a bonus that's regeneration that can't be interrupted by taking fire. Nice on a ship that's not great at running away.

 

Any healing to allies is really a bonus, just like the accuracy from Wingman and the evasion from Running Interference. As long as it reduces the time and/or energy allocation needed to get back to full shields then Shield Projector has done its 'heal allies' job. It's not a very impressive job, but it does sometimes make a noticeable difference on sat fights in domination.

Edited March 10, 2015 by Ramalina

Shield Projector is situational for group use, that's for sure. Just as the other CDs that require allies to be within a certain distance to even get the benefit. For fights on Domination that depend on the capture or maintenance of a satellite, more allies seem to clump together than usual, and that's where I've seen greater impact of defensive buffs used in combination, especially where line of sight is most distracted for the opposition.

 

The thing is, there are only 2 alternatives for that component slot: Charged Plating and Directional Shields. I tend to lean toward Shield Projector more so for personal use, as it offers higher shield regeneration rate, 48% heal on shields per use, on a 20 second CD. If there is an ally or more nearby, that's just a bonus every time I use it. This happens often anyway, as a byproduct of not straggling, and sticking with team members.

 

Granted, the overall effectiveness of a 'support' class is conjecture and based on limited experience on my part, but in a scenario where everyone would stick to one ship for a month, I'd rather go with something different from the majority. When that hypothetical situation is up, it's back to the Flashfire .