Wow, a lot of good responses so far. it's great to see I'm not the only one who enjoys the Blackbolt/Novadive scout. It also tells me that I am not that far off from being half decent. I almost always end up with twice as many assists as kills. <-- (based on what I've read with hit and run tactics of softening up enemies you can't blast through.)

I think my biggest area of improvement then is going to be trying to recognize when it is time to break off and stop trying to dogfight unless I am keeping them from capping then work on evasion and leave the killing to my teammates. One of my last matches I was one-shot by a Gunship then hunted it down, burned it up and went back to doing what I was doing. They got me again later on while I was working on capping a node but I'd had my revenge.

Great! So then that leads me to ask what my fellow Blackbolt/Novadives are running for setups and being sucessful. (I'm going to hold off on revealing what I run for the moment)

My main ship is a Blackbolt, built for speed (Booster Recharge) and using Light Laser Cannon and Rocket Pods. .

If you want speed you need to get Barrel Roll and upgrade it 2 levels. That gives you more mobility than Booster Recharge and allows you to slot Targeting Telemetry instead, which is a huge damage upgrade.

If you want speed you need to get Barrel Roll and upgrade it 2 levels. That gives you more mobility than Booster Recharge and allows you to slot Targeting Telemetry instead, which is a huge damage upgrade.

True, though any of the four Engine abilities gives you the same boost to ship speed when fully upgraded. And while it is right that Barrel Roll allows quick travelling by itself, I consider it a cheese mechanics (like Gunship's Ion tap) and would not be surprised to see it nerfed/adjusted in the future. The Engine abilities were indended as missile lock breakers, not as means for faster travel.

True, though any of the four Engine abilities gives you the same boost to ship speed when fully upgraded. And while it is right that Barrel Roll allows quick travelling by itself, I consider it a cheese mechanics (like Gunship's Ion tap) and would not be surprised to see it nerfed/adjusted in the future. The Engine abilities were indended as missile lock breakers, not as means for faster travel.

That is not what he meant.

Activating Barrel Roll launches you several thousand meters forward, faster and cheaper than afterburners. No other evasion ability can be used as a travel skill.

That is not what he meant.

 

Activating Barrel Roll launches you several thousand meters forward, faster and cheaper than afterburners. No other evasion ability can be used as a travel skill.

Exactly. You get more mobility and higher DPS. Can't beat it.

That is not what he meant.

 

Activating Barrel Roll launches you several thousand meters forward, faster and cheaper than afterburners. No other evasion ability can be used as a travel skill.

No, that's exactly what I meant when writing "Barrel Roll allows quick travelling by itself", sorry if I was too ambiguous. That's also precisely why I consider it cheesy - as I said, in my opinion the engine abilities are meant as missile lock breakers, not as a mean which "launches you several thousand meters forward, faster and cheaper than afterburners".

No, that's exactly what I meant when writing "Barrel Roll allows quick travelling by itself", sorry if I was too ambiguous. That's also precisely why I consider it cheesy - as I said, in my opinion the engine abilities are meant as missile lock breakers, not as a mean which "launches you several thousand meters forward, faster and cheaper than afterburners".

They haven't fixed it yet. Until they do, taking anything else is seriously gimping mobility.

True, though any of the four Engine abilities gives you the same boost to ship speed when fully upgraded. And while it is right that Barrel Roll allows quick travelling by itself, I consider it a cheese mechanics (like Gunship's Ion tap) and would not be surprised to see it nerfed/adjusted in the future. The Engine abilities were indended as missile lock breakers, not as means for faster travel.

The funny thing is that cheese mechanics often make a deeper, more fun game! People using abilities etc in unorthodox ways that were possibly not even intended makes for a less streamlined experience, and one where player creativity is rewarded. Of course this is not always the case and some things do end up needing to be fixed but you get my point.

Scout System: Both Scouts get Targeting Telemetry, which is good. Both get Booster Recharge, which is also good. The Blackbolt gets Sensor Beacon which is ... meh.

I mostly agree with your thoughts, but I really really love sensor beacon. There is vagueness is the tool-tip of what the communication sensor ranges are, but the debuffs (which I assume have a smaller radius) hit a wide area and are great for debuffing multiple enemies around a satellite.

Additionally, I also find in dog fights that involve multiple ships fighting each other, it distracts the enemy's tab targeting. Sometimes, you can get a good attack run on someone doing an attack run on your probe, a small target with your name they confuse as you in the distance in the heat of battle.

That being said, I would like a larger sensor communication range from sensor probes. It often seems like it doesn't display incoming ships to a satellite soon enough. Sensor range should definitely be more than blaster range.

I mostly agree with your thoughts, but I really really love sensor beacon. There is vagueness is the tool-tip of what the communication sensor ranges are, but the debuffs (which I assume have a smaller radius) hit a wide area and are great for debuffing multiple enemies around a satellite.

Sure, but -10% evasion really isn't as huge as any of the other options. If it also buffed your allies, or if the debuff were stronger, I'd like it a lot more.