Empire Gunships

Ships
21

Well, finally had fitting cash. Gave it a try. Here’s the first battle’s results with the Prometheus (R8):

post-241500-0-52878000-1379526799.jpg

 

(+ Fear Me medal)

I must say i am fairly impressed with it’s tanking abilities. However it is SLOW AS A MOUNTAIN. It can tank very well on both hull or diffusion shield with proper fittings. Even slightly mixed up. The fire power exceeds that of the Katana S as well. Low speed and low availability of hull repairs are it’s major drawbacks. Proper positioning and staying low will reward you. Don’t fit any speed mods, it won’t help much if at all, not even the active command bonus one.

 

I must test shield tanking capabilities for both Katanas now and compare.

 

For some situations, the grind is worth it. But it’s your choice. If you like hull tanking over the others, go for it. If you prefer shield or energy tanking, maybe better go Jeri.

 

EDIT: gonna say it again: it’s speed is AWFUL

22

“Speed is awful” is a common complaint about Imperial ANYTHING. That the Empire even has pretty good interceptors should really be something to ponder.

 

Skipped out on the Phobos due to getting the Prometheus X before 0.8.0 hit, but reading this thread finally makes me want to take a look at it, despite Jasan’s warnings.

23

Skipped out on the Phobos due to getting the Prometheus X before 0.8.0 hit, but reading this thread finally makes me want to take a look at it, despite Jasan’s warnings.

It’s fun to fly. It really is. But it forces you to have a completely different playstyle due to the low hp (even on the Katana) and slot availability.

24

Be a sentry gun, not a ship and you’re ok :stuck_out_tongue:

25

Be a sentry gun, not a ship and you’re ok :stuck_out_tongue:

^ Pretty much this.

26

I’ve got the Phobos up to 8/9 synergy. Over 100k of 133k to make it elite.  I’ve tried everything including coming to the forums, seeing what everyone says about Empire Gunships, and doing it.  My conclusion is: 

 

Empire gunships are the most useless things in Star Conflict.  No other ship holds me and the team I’m on back as bad as taking one of those into battle. That is pve and pvp. These are things that fly around, struggle to get anywhere, and struggle to flee.  By the time a Phobos gets somewhere, everything’s already done, or every ally I was with was wiped out, and I have to hit “Engine Overdrive” to flee and get destroyed or close to it in the process. With an Empire gunship, the only way to avoid always having to flee is to not try to do anything to begin with. Or even better: don’t even take it in to battle in the first place.

 

I fly an Empire gunship, and I’m in the bottom of the team’s efficiency result list. I’ve come to expect to have a team loss every time too while flying it. It sure feels like it drags me down so bad, it’s like being on a team that automatically lost every player (such as me) who is using one. I fly anything else, things work out much better every time.

 

When it comes to completing contracts, that is done with other ships. Getting contracts done with the Phobos is way too rare.

 

I wanted to be able to get Empire implants beyond rank 9. I used Empire interceptors up to the Swarm and abandoned it.  I don’t see anything I want to use in Empire ships except the Engineer. I already went up to rank 11 with Federation engineers. 

27

If you feel like spending the money, get the premium.  You’ll change your mind.  Empire recon could be worth it, but I haven’t traveled that line yet, but will.  Microwarp for speed, Empire for tanking.  Command is still up for debate, although Empire’s damage boost is probably worth a lot if you get engineers available.

 

But due to the synergy effects of premiums, I don’t recommend them unless you don’t plan to advance to T4.

28

Empire Recon are tasty in T2 and T3, especially the Deimon (T3 Premium) but the Swarm isn’t bad.

Long Range and Gunships… No. They let you down. They let their team down. Gunships aren’t so bad in T1 and T2 but otherwise they are poor ships.

Empire ECM… Can’t say because I don’t really like ECM.

Commands are not too bad. In fact, the Pirate T2 Empire Command is/was the best in its tier!

Engineers are were Empire shine. Their Engi’s are the best in the game hands down.

So… Aside from Recons, Empire is a faction you choose for its secondary ships. The rest can rot.

29

anyone else think the castor is the best empire gunship?  back in shadowbane we had a thing with barbarians that we would stack their defensive abilities, and their rage would more than fill the offensive abilities creating a very hard to kill barbarian that had no problems smacking down anything dumb enough to get close.  The castor is like that.  3 hull slots, 2 engine slots, 2 capacitor slots and kinetic resists/cooldown bonuses in synergy. sure it only has one cpu slot but with the right setup you are a very, very tough gun turret that has a very, very fun time killing things that go for your resident engineer or control points.  Although I’ll admit everybody seems to be afraid of gunships and for good reason, so a good way to go about it i find, is to have a very high strafe speed and just sit behind/around asteroids like some kind of cop looking for speeders. in this case a friendly recon that knows his stuff is an amazing friend.

plus, the prometheus fire is very similar and tier 4, so you can level up your gear and transfer it over.

30

anyone else think the castor is the best empire gunship?

 

I have liked using Castor in pve. I haven’t taken it into pvp yet.  It’s a durable damage dealer.

31

I’ve got the Phobos up to 8/9 synergy. Over 100k of 133k to make it elite.  I’ve tried everything including coming to the forums, seeing what everyone says about Empire Gunships, and doing it.  My conclusion is: 

 

Empire gunships are the most useless things in Star Conflict.  No other ship holds me and the team I’m on back as bad as taking one of those into battle. That is pve and pvp. These are things that fly around, struggle to get anywhere, and struggle to flee.  By the time a Phobos gets somewhere, everything’s already done, or every ally I was with was wiped out, and I have to hit “Engine Overdrive” to flee and get destroyed or close to it in the process. With an Empire gunship, the only way to avoid always having to flee is to not try to do anything to begin with. Or even better: don’t even take it in to battle in the first place.

 

I fly an Empire gunship, and I’m in the bottom of the team’s efficiency result list. I’ve come to expect to have a team loss every time too while flying it. It sure feels like it drags me down so bad, it’s like being on a team that automatically lost every player (such as me) who is using one. I fly anything else, things work out much better every time.

 

When it comes to completing contracts, that is done with other ships. Getting contracts done with the Phobos is way too rare.

 

I wanted to be able to get Empire implants beyond rank 9. I used Empire interceptors up to the Swarm and abandoned it.  I don’t see anything I want to use in Empire ships except the Engineer. I already went up to rank 11 with Federation engineers. 

You are not a gunship pilot. Period.

 

I have great efficiency and quite some “maniac” medals while flying empire gunships, from the Hercules to the Phobos.

 

The gunship armor is its firepower. You can nail almost any target, even guards, with overdrive and aiming overcharge. You have to play it like a hit and run, like the glass cannon you are. Stay in back (you have the range to do so) pick your targets, zoom in with overdrive, kill your target, find other targets and kill them also. Use combat reboot as a last resort button (if a tackler gets you, or you got webbed with low health, and once your overdrive is over, or if you see the battle is not going as it should, stop firing, kick engine overcharge and GTFO there.

 

The difference between fed and empire gunships, is that you trade speed for survivability with empire. It is perfect to get two more seconds on that dying ship, or to kill another gunship while in overdrive (I have also quite a good amount of “torero” medals) I still have to try the fed line, but I’m with the empire at this moment.

32

You are not a gunship pilot. Period.

 

I have great efficiency and quite some “maniac” medals while flying empire gunships, from the Hercules to the Phobos.

 

The gunship armor is its firepower. You can nail almost any target, even guards, with overdrive and aiming overcharge. You have to play it like a hit and run, like the glass cannon you are. Stay in back (you have the range to do so) pick your targets, zoom in with overdrive, kill your target, find other targets and kill them also. Use combat reboot as a last resort button (if a tackler gets you, or you got webbed with low health, and once your overdrive is over, or if you see the battle is not going as it should, stop firing, kick engine overcharge and GTFO there.

 

The difference between fed and empire gunships, is that you trade speed for survivability with empire. It is perfect to get two more seconds on that dying ship, or to kill another gunship while in overdrive (I have also quite a good amount of “torero” medals) I still have to try the fed line, but I’m with the empire at this moment.

 

I have had many good rounds with gunships. I can fly gunship just fine.  I don’t have my ego or identity attached to being a “gunship pilot”, so the attempted insult is inapplicable.  After the gunship experience of tier 1 and 2 went reasonably well, my expectations were just too high for it. The downside or weakness of flying a xxxx becomes more glaring in tier 3. I don’t control how fast everyone else is moving. I don’t choose that all the action is 3000 meters away, and by the time I get there it’s 3000 meters elswhere.  Accepting what it is and what it can & can’t do was heavier (and frustrating) with a T3 Phobos than it had been with previous gunships.  Flying a recon up to rank 9, the Swarm, compounded the frustration due to knowing and experiencing how well those get around.

33

 Accepting what it is and what it can & can’t do was heavier (and frustrating) with a T3 Phobos than it had been with previous gunships.  Flying a recon up to rank 9, the Swarm, compounded the frustration due to knowing and experiencing how well those get around.

That is the reason you are not a gunship pilot. No offence was intended, it is just that some people are more attached to different roles, and gunship is not yours. For what you want, you are a ceptor pilot. You need something fast, and being always in the middle of the furball.

 

The phobos is a superb gunship. It has a lot of firepower, and even nice tank. Is not fast, but neither is slow. Your speed is just average, so you need positioning. Also, my phobos build has 4200 m range with lazors, so I don’t really need to be in the middle of the furball. I just sit down close to the furball and focus fire on any fighter or frigate who is in there. Empire gunships are not brawlers.

34

That is the reason you are not a gunship pilot. No offence was intended, it is just that some people are more attached to different roles, and gunship is not yours. For what you want, you are a ceptor pilot. You need something fast, and being always in the middle of the furball.

 

The phobos is a superb gunship. It has a lot of firepower, and even nice tank. Is not fast, but neither is slow. Your speed is just average, so you need positioning. Also, my phobos build has 4200 m range with lazors, so I don’t really need to be in the middle of the furball. I just sit down close to the furball and focus fire on any fighter or frigate who is in there. Empire gunships are not brawlers.

 

I still don’t see how using a tier 3 Phobos, which takes a long time to get anywhere makes someone not a gunship pilot.  I know the range of the weapons I had on it. I used mk III raliguns mostly.  I did a day or 3 of gauss cannon and singularity too.  I’ve been talking about first-hand experience that it was a bunch of being en route, unproductive flying.  It was aggressive as hell on most maps in t1 and t2.  In t3, its aggressiveness didn’t stay.  I could fire the guns into empty space which would have been more than doing nothing.  In pve where distance is drastically less, none of this is an issue. Phobos was fine in pve.

35

I still don’t see how using a tier 3 Phobos, which takes a long time to get anywhere makes someone not a gunship pilot.  I know the range of the weapons I had on it. I used mk III raliguns mostly.  I did a day or 3 of gauss cannon and singularity too.  I’ve been talking about first-hand experience that it was a bunch of being en route, unproductive flying.  It was aggressive as hell on most maps in t1 and t2.  In t3, its aggressiveness didn’t stay.  I could fire the guns into empty space which would have been more than doing nothing.  In pve where distance is drastically less, none of this is an issue. Phobos was fine in pve.

I don’t have those problems. The core of the team will be fighters and frigates, and you can pace with them. If you want to be there ASAP, just use engine overcharge. With 15 secs and being aft stable, it is easy to reach the melee.

36

That is the reason you are not a gunship pilot.

bitch-please-i-got-this.jpg

 

Accepting what it is and what it can & can’t do was heavier (and frustrating) with a T3 Phobos than it had been with previous gunships.

The Phobos is THE BEST T3 Gunship in this game. It forces you to think thrice before throwing yourself into the enemy field. It’s NOT a front-line ship, your job is sitting right behind the front-line, intercepting enemy ships heading to your Frigates. Your secondary job is to sit behind rocks, facing Beacons, shooting ships there, preventing them from capturing the Beacons. Alternatively, accompany Guards around, protect them and shoot in the direction they shoot.

 

That is it. If you can’t fly like that on the Phobos, then that’s your problem. That is this ship’s job.

37

Be a sentry gun, not a ship and you’re ok :stuck_out_tongue:

 

I find it ironic that I’m applying this principle to the Argonaut as well. Meh, I may need to spend more time flying these bricks.

38

 

 

The Phobos is THE BEST T3 Gunship in this game. It forces you to think thrice before throwing yourself into the enemy field. It’s NOT a front-line ship, your job is sitting right behind the front-line, intercepting enemy ships heading to your Frigates. Your secondary job is to sit behind rocks, facing Beacons, shooting ships there, preventing them from capturing the Beacons. Alternatively, accompany Guards around, protect them and shoot in the direction they shoot.

 

That is it. If you can’t fly like that on the Phobos, then that’s your problem. That is this ship’s job.

 

Everything you wrote is depicting Gunship as a defense fighter, and you said “sit” twice: “sit behind the front-line” and “sit behind rocks”.  Sitting in anything except a Lrf or guard (after it gets to where it belongs) is speaking less of it than I was willing to.  Rather than call you “not a gunship pilot” since you believe it is defense-only, I’ll say you’re probably a fraction of a gunship pilot. Sure it can do defensive duties.  Just about anything can default to a defense player, but gunship is an offense player.  It doesn’t have to be, but it is.  It is the assault rifle carrier, soldier, damage dealer of Star Conflict.

39

Everything you wrote is depicting Gunship as a defense fighter, and you said “sit” twice: “sit behind the front-line” and “sit behind rocks”.  Sitting in anything except a Lrf or guard (after it gets to where it belongs) is speaking less of it than I was willing to.  Rather than call you “not a gunship pilot” since you believe it is defense-only, I’ll say you’re probably a fraction of a gunship pilot. Sure it can do defensive duties.  Just about anything can default to a defense player, but gunship is an offense player.  It doesn’t have to be, but it is.  It is the assault rifle carrier, soldier, damage dealer of Star Conflict.

No, that one is the CovOps. The gunship is the MG dude in the squad. It lay heavy suppressing fire from afar to the team while they brawl.

 

Of course you can use a SAW as a heavy assault rifle and charge into the melee, and sometimes you MUST. But your main role is to add suppressing fire, keep the enemies with their heads down, and kill the ones stupid enough to show out of cover.

40

Everything you wrote is depicting Gunship as a defense fighter, and you said “sit” twice: “sit behind the front-line” and “sit behind rocks”.  Sitting in anything except a Lrf or guard (after it gets to where it belongs) is speaking less of it than I was willing to.  Rather than call you “not a gunship pilot” since you believe it is defense-only, I’ll say you’re probably a fraction of a gunship pilot. Sure it can do defensive duties.  Just about anything can default to a defense player, but gunship is an offense player.  It doesn’t have to be, but it is.  It is the assault rifle carrier, soldier, damage dealer of Star Conflict.

That’s the job of the PHOBOS. If you grab a Wolf-M, your obvious place IS in the front lines. Same for the King Kastor and the Argonaut, they’re offensive Gunships.

 

The fact that you’re playing a Gunship doesn’t mean you’re zipping around on the front lines, shooting everything in the face, only to get shot in return, no. The fact of the matter is that you didn’t know how to play with the Phobos with your usual tactics and made zero efforts to figure anything out. You want our advise, instead of babbling on the forums? Try it the way I mentioned. You will love the Phobos and want nothing else in T3.