Currently i am playing in either Tier 1 or Tier 2, depending on which ships i play with.
I have tried all the Command Fighters and Guard Frigates of Tier 1 - but they have been the biggest dissapointment imaginable:
Their damage output is very low compared to others of the same type (fighter/frigate)
Their speed tends to be below those of the same type (fighter/frigate)
Their abilities (modules) are boring and seem rather weak - on my Tackler (cloaking) i do much more damage and survive for much longer than on my Command
Their durability is nowhere near strong enough to compensate for the previously mentioned drawbacks
It seems that interceptors and LRF can easily kill these slower-than-average fighters/frigates, and there is nothing that i can do about it
So do Command Fighters and Guard Frigates actually have any purpose in Tier 1 and Tier 2?
Comparing capabilities of Roles in T1-T2 one by one, i would put Guards and Commands into a bottom of a food chain:
Gunship>Tackler>Command
Engineer>LRF Empire>Guard Jericho
Federation Guard isn’t to bad while flying in a squad, but inability to properly tank it still makes it melt under CovOps
P.S. T1 and T2 are “nooby introductory” tiers, there is hardly any balance, and those are the last places where devs look at for balance, it is a free for all team deathmatch place, it is a Pew pew pew pew tiers, so dont be to surprise with huge shifts in balance towards pure DPS classes over there, it gets much better in T3+
Machete shield pops when hit by singu or ion emitter quick, but its durable to railguns and plasmaguns. Anyway its rather emergency seconds. Command is not gunship - stay behind, auras always on unless you moving and harass people with rails/gauss.
First due to the lack of tool to make a guard Viable.
Secondly cause of the massive nerf against Frigball, long time ago.
Thirdly, Guards are more “Stuff” Dependent than other ships, Since all your jobs are based on your ship Modifiers and Modules.
Only 2 Guards can be fun to play in T1/T2 (3 including the Premium one)
Consider this phase as the “Learning Phase of How To Press “F” with a Guard”. (Especially the T1 with Beam Cannon, +25% DPS if the phase shield is correctly used will surprise a lot of ennemies :D)
Guards in Tier 1 are just awful. They used to be passable in Tier 2, but I suspect this is no-longer the case due to nerfs.
As for Commands, in my opinion the Command holds its own quite nicely. The Hercules Arrow is still a fun ship to fly in my opinion (provided you don’t get matched against too many R6 players), and the Machete Type S is a solid choice for any T2 pilot.
One thing to remember about T1 is that the Dev team absolutely gutted it when they redesigned the weapon systems. It is bare bones to the point of being off-putting and you don’t get a feel for what your class of choice really handles like until you move up to Tier 2. Even then, some classes don’t shine until Tier 3.
However, I would leave you with a simple maxim that you should carry throughout your Star Conflict career; everything works in a good team. Providing you know what you are doing and your allies back you up properly, you can succeed in any ship you choose to fly.
