Hey all so I’ve just started like a weeek ago, and after trying out all sorts of ships I’ve settled on the gunship interceptor and lrf, though I mainly use the interceptor and lrf, but my discussion is about the lrf. Why is there so much hate on it? When I first looked at it, I was deterred by the forums to get the first lrf available Fed side , but as a guy who likes snipey stuff I got it anyways and loved it. Now I have the hydra (acid hydra too but I haven’t upgraded yet) and I’m massacring people. Engineer frig, guard frig, and other lrf’s I hit with my heavy blaster (that gun is awesome) and the small ships I hit with my mines. They run straight at em. On top of that enemy lrf’s are Aces, they’re like fodder. One time I even saw a team captain try to snipe my team in the open and I popped of 3 scope shots of my own and the game soon was over ;D I run resistances mainly which is really working since I saw no use in projectile accelerators or damage boosters, so I run the shield and health resistances and shield repair, along with the crew things too. Also run two thermal resistances (to avoid that plasma arc) as is I can actually fight and win going into the fray and not just hanging back or running in with suicidal intents.
The reason other people don’t like LRF is partially because you stated it yourself - enemy captain sits in open trying to snipe people with it and doesn’t know how to use cover.
The “aces” you speak of will sit at spawn trying to snipe people from 8km+ and won’t help with capturing beacons. Personally I find they are the frigate equivalent of covert ops interceptor and gunship fighter.
If you continue to use LRF all the way to the end, here is a challenge for you: ;p
everybody is forced to at least try a few LRFs… there are way too many of them in the shiptree, most of them are only “i am coming thru” ships, and only a few get regular usage.
LRFs played well (not just by sniping, but also by “knowing when to move with the team supporting with primary weapon or do some objectives” or “at least knowing when not to take it”) are no problem.
However, they do not add to your fleets “body”.
It is easy to see after a while, that losing or winning matches sometimes directly correlates with how many LRFs your team takes. because actually, LRF in a game below 6v6 is mostly unviable, and even in larger battles, there should be one or two maximum, not 3-5, while nobody takes engi.
It’s a different story in T2. There you might not feel it yet, since most ships are paper, but later… sad story is, that while many people feel like they are owning the team with a LRF, it is not always the case. I believe you, if you say, you have a hand for it. but very often you see a LRF player on top of the list, even if the game actually was lost because he wasn’t in something more confrontational, and just watched the slaughter getting some killsteals. With a good team, the LRF however can turn the tides.
The hate isn’t about LRF itself, since it’s a ship which obviously fullfills a role of supporting with nice killshots, it is about the mentality that there are so many people thinking “it’s a good idea”, that it becomes a bad idea. There are myriads of people who start the game with the LRF, and get bored in it, but are scared to use other ships. Imho the ship tree should have been reflecting this, having less LRFs you have to synergize, and more like a “sidestep” in every faction. I still think, LRF should be the last role you go deeper into, since it benefits most of knowing every other ship role. If you know what other roles do, you can be a very evil sniper who is fierce, knowing exactly what you are about to do and waiting to kill you while at it, and there are quite a few players who are known to be exceptional LRF players, but most of them are as deadly in other ships as they are in a LRF.
Most of the hate on lrfs comes from the fact that most people who use them don’t know how to properly fit them, fly them, or both.
Too many pilots will take an lrf thinking it will be easy, as they can sit back away from combat and snipe (like in COD or something), when in reality, it is much harder than they think, making pilots rage that they have a useless teammate who is sitting the back not helping.
If you have learned how to properly use LRFs and do quite well with them, props to you, you are in a small portion of pilots who can.
HF and GL with LRF man! They r awesome :012j:
The reason other people don’t like LRF is partially because you stated it yourself - enemy captain sits in open trying to snipe people with it and doesn’t know how to use cover.
The “aces” you speak of will sit at spawn trying to snipe people from 8km+ and won’t help with capturing beacons. Personally I find they are the frigate equivalent of covert ops interceptor and gunship fighter.
If you continue to use LRF all the way to the end, here is a challenge for you: ;p
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What’s da challenge? May I try to do it?
c’mon man snipin LRF is usefull coz dead enemy can’t cap b@cons! :006j:
HF and GL with LRF man! They r awesome :012j:
What’s da challenge? May I try to do it?
c’mon man snipin LRF is usefull coz dead enemy can’t cap b@cons! :006j:
True indeed lol. Mines are awesome too, though someone said mines are being (re?)-released to all frigates, is that true? :<
I have more lrfs in list 
I still need to practice disintegrator aim more as it tends to rely on clicking while cross-hair is right in the circle. For those small ships anyway, hitting Frigates are easier.
YOu can actually sniper quite well with lrfs, and do tremendous damage. I think an LRF who is on top of ladder in a beacon capture game has contibuted enough, after all all these dead ships dont capture. you need good aim with an empire lrf to hit interceptors. Still it is possible, yet u have to hit em at the right time and have low mouse sensitivity. It is easier with the positron cannon, just put highened projectile speed and range onto it, and u can snipe away. it is quite effective, although to a lesser extend in beacon capture games. If u do that also take mines or emc torpedos in case u are attacked.