I am excited to hear that Strikes might actually get an improvement. That is such good news and long overdue! If the idea is to give a simple boost to strike effectiveness, then IMO, it would be best to improve the two areas where it tends to fall down relative to other classes: survivability and damage output. It particularly suffers in terms of engine power/speed/turning (manoeuvring) but not so much in durability (having highest base shields and 2nd highest base hull). Since so many feel that evasion is a 'counter' to strikes, perhaps giving it a significant increase in accuracy plus slight in base damage with all of its weapons would be helpful too. However, at the end of the day, strikes with shiny new buffs would still be without a 'role'. The problem with giving it a role is that all of them are taken already. Gunships are long-range fire support, scouts are the dogfighters and bombers are area denial/objective holders. The clarion/imperium has somewhat of a role at least - it can heal/buff allies with its special slot. So what could be done for the remaining strikes? Perhaps giving them means to be hunter-killers? By that I mean abilities that enhance their effectiveness versus specific enemy ships. For example, being able to 'kill' evasion would make a strike effective against both scouts and gunships (or at least DF ones). Or being able to 'kill' armour would make a strike good at dealing with turrets and bombers. Yes I know, heavy laser already does this, so perhaps these could be area effects that buff allies as well?

I'd love to make it out to one of these events some day, but unfortunately, its too early in the day. I got kids, and they won't let me alone for this kind of thing (not to mention wife Aggro!). I realize you have to accommodate different timezones which makes it tricky, but maybe in the future you can schedule a later event and I'll actually be around to participate -Sevaerian

Timing seems good for me so I'm pretty certain I can be there for most of it. I only have an imp-side toon, however... -Sevaerian

To help you find a group, and to answer any GSF questions you might have, join the custom chat channel: /cjoin gsf (if you haven't already). If any eclipse squadron pilots are on, many are willing to group if you ask (imperial side) and pubs have a number of helpful pilots as well.

I wasn't in the match, but theoretically, this build does have enough shields to take 1 cluster hit without worry provided your shields are in good shape and any other missile has too slow a lock-on to effectively peel you, so I'm not sure this build is MORE susceptible to getting peeled than any other scout. And I've already admitted the weakness it has against quads + pods. I'm not sure why you think its a 'weak' build though. I mean it only has 1 hard counter (3+ gunships) and its easy to outrun/avoid quad/pod scouts. Its speed and firepower allow it to take on anything else in a TDM environment in favorable terms. Its also much stronger than most scouts at killing bombers (only quads+pods has similar effectiveness vs bombers). So yeah. It seems pretty good for most TDM matches and if there are lots of gunships, just fly something else...

Why? You just turn around far away. You're faster so you can choose range when to turn to face or run away. I find turning around 12km or so allows me to get most scouts in sights (even boosting @ me) around 7km - enough time to fire pods, pop cooldowns, even hit 1 or 2x with lasers before they get less than 4km and then I run away and repeat, so BLC never gets good shots....

But getting into turning dogfight vs T2 scout is bad in any other ship, so while yes that's technically a disadvantage, its easy to avoid and engage at a favorable time thanks to higher speed/stamina. Also can control engagement range easily too. Its only a disadvantage when the faster ship plays poorly, or so it seems to me...

That's not entirely true - you can face anyone down that does not have the ability to put out good damage beyond 5000m. So Quads + Pods is dangerous to you, but any other scout build is easy pickings if you pop TT + Wingman and start hitting with pods at max distance and with lasers @ 5750m. Even if they manage to avoid you, you boost by them and can turn and do it again before your cooldowns run out. And if they turn to flee, well that puts them exactly where you want them, playing to the strengths of the build. I'm not saying it hard counters scouts per se, just that its ability to kill scouts depends on range (unlike most other scout builds).

Hey Shayd I've been running your 'Lancer Build' a lot lately. I've gotten pretty good at it. 20+ kills is not uncommon for me now. However, its true that it does not deal well against gunship heavy enemy teams. In fact, I find it better to switch to a T2 scout if there are 4+ gunships. Even 3 good gunships counters the lancer pretty well. 2 or less and I find it does okay though. So all in all, I think that's pretty good. I think everyone would agree that Strikes are not in a good place and something to help them, particularly against gunships would be nice... My 2 cents - Sevaerian

Thanks for the replies I've created a toon on Shadowlands (name: Shyyren) and was surprised at the high pub population. Mostly wargames. Good matches though, so I don't regret it. Got to fly with/against some good pilots, mostly pub but still there were hardly any lopsided matches all night. Its funny though how slow and painful leveling up to 10 (for the daily/weekly) is when all you're interested in is flying I'll probably join another server in a bit. Leaning towards Pot5 based on comments so far. Its nice to fly against new people, although I suspect quite a few fly multi-server as well

So I have toons on The Ebon Hawk, Harbinger and Bastion. Looking for another server with some good competition and relatively frequent 'pops'. I will be making a Republic toon, since I currently have more Imperial GSF toons, and since I like the idea of being an underdog, I would prefer a server where the Republic is either close to equal or generally behind in player-skill/dominance compared to Imperial counterparts. With all that in mind, I would love to hear opinions/feelings about the following servers and whether they would be a good choice to start doing pub-side GSF on: Shadowlands Jedi Covenant Prophecy of the Five Jung Ma Thanks in advance for any input and advice on the above!

Huh. I actually find EMP missile the best option for bloodmark/spearpoint. It does what it says on the tin: disables mines/drones/turrets for a bit, allowing you to take them out for the most part. Yes if there are two bombers with their mines/drones spread out you won't be able to get them all, but I think that's an unrealistic expectation. Trying to take out entrenched bombers on a node while in a scout is almost an excersice in futility, but if you have some allies helping you, the EMP missile at least makes the job go from impossible to maybe do-able if you are cautious, patient and persistent...

I agree with everything Drako said. However, if you find yourself pugging and you realize an all gunship team is impossible (because you or your teammates either do not have them or do not want to play them or whatever), then what you can try is a blackbolt/novadive built for speed and long range attack. It won't win you the game, and you will still probably die a bit, but at least you will have the satisfaction of taking out more enemies than can take out you. What you need: (regular) lasers (shield dam T5), rocket pods (dot T5), targeting telemetry (crit T5), shield engine converter, power dive (speed T3), evasion hull, range capacitors, regen thrusters and dampening sensors. Either concentrated fire or wingman make good co-pilot abilities. Next you absolutely have to hunt down power-ups before you engage. Ideally DO and engine boost before making an attack run. Then you find an approach either to the side, above or below the main focus of the enemy gunships. Target priority is railgun drones first, then any missile drones/mines in your chosen attack run path. Kill these at your maximum range before you are spotted, then pop your offensive cooldowns and take out any enemies who happen to be somewhat lined up in front of you, then boost away, using LOS to avoid gunship retaliation. Rinse and repeat (don't forget to hunt down the power ups before hand). If someone tries to peel you (like a scout or strike) boost away and use your superior speed to outdistance them (fall off their radar). Unless its just 1 enemy and they chase you out of gunship range, then you should be able to kill them easily Its unlikely this strategy will win you the match (unless your opponents are really terrible, I guess), but at least you can cause some frustration on their side and maybe score more kills than your own deaths...

Well one thing that should help players get groups is the GSF chat channel (I don't know whether you left before it was added or not, and I don't know how much use it gets on your server), but hey, its something and I have noticed people getting grouped for GSF play through it on Ebon Hawk...

What do strikes need in order to compete? Better damage and better manouevring. Give them flat out buffs to damage with either primary/secondary weapons (like +10% or whatever bonus works) and a boost to engine speed/turning (like +5% bump up from their current amount, or whatever number works). I really think its that simple, and playtesting will determine what 'right' percentage for these buffs should be, but I imagine my guesses aren't too far off...