So, I’ve been playing my Herc 2 for a while, planning on going down the Empire line for a bit, and I’m curious; what’s the precise purpose of gunships? Is it to melt frigs and then wait for recharge? Is it to turn groups into mush?
And then after that, what would be the best weapons to fit for that goal? Obv. ones that don’t overheat would be preferable, but which out of those?
No, weapons that don’t overheat are actually bad for a gunship. There’s only two - the RF plasma, which doesn’t benefit much from the overdrive, because it has about 280 RPM itself, and the hard cap is 300; And the RF railguns, which is a space shotgun, that isn’t very good for a gunship either. And overdrive slows down the overheating rate and speeds up the cooldown rate of your guns.
The best gun for a gunship is probably the assault plasma. You get both EM and Kinetic damage, and a 200 RPM - which rises to 300 on overdrive.
Really? I seem to be overheating my assault plasma faster on overdrive than off right now, which is why I brought that up.
But yeah, the question about what sorta targets I should be looking for, and how to engage them, are still open.
Gunships are glass cannons
your game is centered around your special ability Overdrive and Gunship module Aiming Overcharge
Engine Overcharge gunship module to get you either into battle or out of one
Using Engine Overcharge + Overdrive my T3 Fed Gunship flies faster than an interceptor useful when trying to capture objectives
As LunaDesu already mentioned, you’d want a ~200 rounds/min weapon to maximize your DPS when Overdrive is activated.
What To Target = Whatever everyone else is shooting at
It’s a glass cannon so you won’t survive long flying solo, atleast not at T3
I do best going in second letting Engineers and Interceptors leading the charge
When 2 or more enemies are out of shields, activate Overdrive and burn everything
Ah, that might be my problem; I tend to get 7 locks on my poor ship very quickly in that. Funny thing is, I can escape it sometimes too.
And then look back and see that my team has done nothing while 2/3 to 3/4 of the enemy team has been gunning for me. T_T
Next to Engineer frigates, gunship fighters are 2nd on the ‘Next one to get locked on’ list because:
they have low HP
they can kill allied frigates
Ah, a fellow Imperial learning the joys of the Hercules! Hang on, I had an informative video here somewhere…
Gunships and you: The Terror of the Skies!
Greetings, citizen! If you are listening to this then you have been selected for the honour of piloting one of the Imperial Legion’s formidable gunships! By now your instructors should have given you a taste of flying the venerable Hercules training ships, and soon you shall see action in the name of the Emperor. Before then you no doubt have many questions, and this audio log shall seek to answer some of them.
As all pilots know there are three types of Fighter; the “Tackler” anti-interceptor, the “Command” Fighter, and the Gunship. Why, you ask, does the Empire favour the latter more than any other?
The answer is quite simple: The gunship is the ultimate symbol of power! Thanks to the Legion’s revolutionary Overdrive matrix, a Gunship can produce firepower comparable to Frigates and other much larger craft, and can be further augmented with sophisticated engine-overdrives and advanced critical-system targeters to ensure maximum damage. Combined with a respectful compliment of missiles and rockets, an Imperial pilot can reliably engage and destroy almost any ship of comparable tonnage in a Gunship!
Now there are those, even within the Empire, that claim the Gunship has design flaws; namely, it lacks the shield strength and hull armour to withstand heavy punishment. Worry not, pilots, for the Empire is aware of these concerns and has provided solutions!
First and foremost, the Legion believes that no pilot should operate alone. A squadron of Imperial Gunships, working in unison, can quickly clear an objective of all opposition with minimal losses. If your fellow Fighter pilots are somehow lacking, you can look to the Legion’s crack naval marksmen, the Long Range Frigates, whose Disintegrators can annihilate smaller ships in a single shot and irreparably cripple even the most heavily-armoured Federation or Jericho Guard Frigates in a few short bursts. Work with these ships and focus your fire, and victory will surely be yours!
Let us not forget, however, that the Legion does not support the Empire alone. The Hercules Arrow is the first of many examples of Warden alternative thinking; a Command Fighter built with superior defensive abilities and, more importantly, the means to strengthen the ships it supports. Fly your Gunships alongside these brave Wardens, and your odds of victory increase ever more. Last, but by no means least, are the courageous souls of the Warden Engineering Corps. Though fewer in number than the iconic Long Range Frigate, Imperial Engineering Frigates can be found wherever the fighting is thickest, and their ability to restore your damaged hull and shields are invaluable in prolonged fights.
Remember, pilot, the Empire does not believe in heroes. Entrust the Wardens and their Command Fighters and Engineering Frigates with your defense, and look to your brother Legion Gunships and Long Range Frigates to aid you in the destruction of your targets. If ever your objective is unclear, you can rely upon the Reconnaissance Interceptors to guide you to your mark, and the enigmatic Electronic Counter-Measure Squadrons to strike where the enemy least expects it. Worry not about these pilots, however; as a Gunship pilot, your place is in the thick of the fight! Do your duty, and know that they will do theirs, and victory shall forever be yours!
A final word, brave pilots: from time to time you may find yourself flying alongside mercenaries who operate ships that are different from those of the Empire. In the event of this happening, we offer these simple guidelines. Guard Frigates, though slow and lacking in firepower, have considerable defensive capability. They can protect you from enemy missiles, slow potential targets and emit pulses of devastating thermal energy. These ships, though inferior to Imperial Frigates, can nevertheless be valuable allies when defending objectives. We remind you that Imperial guidelines always recommend falling back to the safety of an Engineering Frigate; ideally a Warden craft, though a Federation built Mercenary will do in a pinch.
That is all we have to say for you today, pilots! Remember: the Emperor is watching, so make him proud!
Lol, nice propaganda
I honestly hear a bunch of different things regarding gunships; my corp recommends hovering at the edges with stab’d rails, I used to jump into the fray with assault plasma, some people run with hail guns…
Is there no “best” way to do it? Or failing that, are there definitely WRONG ways to do it?
How to gunships in a nutshell (note: doesn’t work until they bring back the FF on nukes again in T3 and up).
Gearing: there are two realistic choices: Stabilized railguns for medium to long range high speed sniping and rapid fire railguns for medium to close range high DPS option. Other choices may work but generally suffer from problems that range from overheating too fast under overdrive to having too much spread under overdrive.
Carry ion missiles. They shut down all modules on enemy ship they hit, which means killing self heals, resist increases, engineer’s healing modules and guard frigate’s suppression modules.
Have emergency barrier. It’s a life saver and lets you switch your invulnerability mod after it runs out to extend time of invulnerability to three seconds total at mk3.
Have electronic guidance modules. Under overdrive, even stabilized railguns suffer from too much spread. Rapid fire railguns NEED 2 electronic guidance modules as well as aiming coprocessor in CPU clot to have accuracy you need to be effective. Goal is to have tight enough grouping to have your fully charged rapid fire railgun’s shot to be able to fully hit an interceptor’s hull at around 1km out. This will give you a nasty initiating shot against any light ship while ensuring that shooting on full auto under overdrive will keep grouping tight enough to hit with every shot reliably.
For stabilized rails, you should prefer to have enough spread reduction to have your reticule return to zero spread without wait time without overdrive. This ensures your ability to pop light ships very efficiently.
Step 1. Let someone else charge into the meat grinder. You’re an assassin, not a tank. Do not draw attention until enemy is overwise engaged.
Step 2. Engage at odd angle where victim won’t spot you right away. Stay in range of your engineer’s heals.
Step 3. Overdrive + aiming overchage + unload. With rapid fire railguns you can keep on unloading until it runs out or too many pick you as their target. With stabilized railguns you can keep your distance while unloading without needing to go into the fray.
Step 4. When focused too hard for heals either run away with overdrive/engine overcharge. You can buy a few extra seconds on target with invulnerability module.
All in all, gunships are of questionable value in frigate heavy world unless you have decent teamplay, engineering frigate to keep you alive and teammates to follow your targeting calls and absorb incoming fire for you when needed. But in hands of a good pilot, it can be a good assassin capable of quickly dispatching enemies when needed.
See, THAT’S what I was looking for. But what combats all the frigs then, seeing as it’s Frigate Conflict even in T2?
Alas, frigates tend to be slow and thus not always the best option when you need to zip around from beacon to beacon. And correct me if I’m wrong, but some maps are excellent places for using warp gates to earn Thud medals.
Yeah, some maps are stupidly open and it’s really hard to find cover, but others you can’t even draw a straight line to the beacon
See, THAT’S what I was looking for. But what combats all the frigs then, seeing as it’s Frigate Conflict even in T2?
1 on 1 against a frig?
against an Engineer-Command squad?
1 on 1 against a frig?
- any ship, mainly depends on individual flight - fight skills
against an Engineer-Command squad?
- team work
True, but they can also put out tremendous DPS relative to how tanky they are, and they can do it accurately with the accelerator cores. What then?
Yeah, some maps are stupidly open and it’s really hard to find cover, but others you can’t even draw a straight line to the beacon
Ooooooooh yeaaaaaah.
Alas, frigates tend to be slow and thus not always the best option when you need to zip around from beacon to beacon. And correct me if I’m wrong, but some maps are excellent places for using warp gates to earn Thud medals.
I know that, what I’m asking is what classes are best at countering frigates?
True, but they can also put out tremendous DPS relative to how tanky they are, and they can do it accurately with the accelerator cores. What then?
I know that, what I’m asking is what classes are best at countering frigates?
1 on 1 against a frig?
against an Engineer-Command squad?
if you cannot approach a frigate from any distance in a 1 v 1 using any ship, you’re doing it wrong
depending on weapon-module-ship class combo there are different ways of finishing the job
admittedly frig v frig can often be hilariously tedious it’s not worth it unless the bugger is openly sniping and my rails were properly done up for ranged combat then I sometimes give it a go
as for classes, I can tell u what not to use …
recon
some tacklers
most engineers if against non engineers
I would close on a frig, but I’m using a stab’d rail gunship most of the time, and closing on the frig typically results in me being focused. Which is a rather quick death at rank 4.
R4 Gunship vs Frigates - Everything Mk. I nothing fancy
I know that, what I’m asking is what classes are best at countering frigates?
In the current iteration of the game, the only way to truly counter frigate balls (where multiple frigates cover each other) is another frigate ball. Everything else will be smashed with their superior firepower while they live through enemy fire through their superior survivability before enemy can make a dent in their numbers. There’s a reason why game is currently nicknamed “frigate conflict”.
1v1 a command fighter with a proper energy spec will demolish any frigate at T3 as you can just eat frontal damage and grind it down slowly, unless frigate has heavy guns in which case you can just strafe around it. At T2, command fighters are much weaker due to the lack of necessary modules and implants, but you could generally kill most frigates 1v1 with a gunship using rapid fire rails in close quarters combat by strafing around it with overdrive and slamming ion missiles into it when it activates fast self heal. It’s all about staying out of the firing arc of enemy frigate’s guns while avoiding minefields and pulsars.
In the current iteration of the game, the only way to truly counter frigate balls (where multiple frigates cover each other) is another frigate ball. Everything else will be smashed with their superior firepower while they live through enemy fire through their superior survivability before enemy can make a dent in their numbers. There’s a reason why game is currently nicknamed “frigate conflict”.
1v1 a command fighter with a proper energy spec will demolish any frigate at T3 as you can just eat frontal damage and grind it down slowly, unless frigate has heavy guns in which case you can just strafe around it. At T2, command fighters are much weaker due to the lack of necessary modules and implants, but you could generally kill most frigates 1v1 with a gunship using rapid fire rails in close quarters combat by strafing around it with overdrive and slamming ion missiles into it when it activates fast self heal. It’s all about staying out of the firing arc of enemy frigate’s guns while avoiding minefields and pulsars.
I was having a discussion with a friend of mine about how he handles swarms of ships, specifically around beacons. He flies Jericho interceptors, and he likes to fly straight towards contested beacons, activate his cocoon to save himself, and ‘persuade’ the enemies to flee. I’m not sure how well that works against frigate balls, considering the rather frightening damage output. Besides, I doubt most frigate can get out of range in time (Fed engineers who aren’t that close might have a chance) so they probably would focus fire.