Merlin or Viper?

Since the crazy sale, I've bought fully upgraded A-80 and B-10X to deal with the widespread of better ships.
At the same time I realize that I am nearly hopeless to fight against V-66 and X-99 with skilled pilot in my dearest Piranha in 1v1 situation, though I still can pick some easy kills when the vipers and merlins are injured or distracted.
Now I have the budget to buy one of them, which one I should choose?

Depends what kind of pilot you are I guess. Your two ships there are both of the slow lumbering variety, not capable of keeping up with nimble fighters.

If you have the fast twitch reflexes & would like to make flag runs in CTF, the Viper's the thing, otherwise if you think more like a heavy flyer then the Merlin would be the best choice.

As an armchair flight analyst, I would say that the Merlin is a better sweeper and the Viper is a better hunter. The margin in favor of the Viper in that respect isn't particularly wide though. The 308m/s ABs are nice for getting in, getting around, and then getting away.

I find the only draw-back on the viper is that it has a hard time taking down bombers solo.

It's got good enough fire power to take down most fighters, but bombers are trouble. The problem is that it takes more time than the viper has shields.

You can't kill a bomber on one, or even two passes, so you usually end up on the bomber's six. Unfortunately, bombers are pretty slow, and the viper is far to light to be going that speed.

I found the Viper wasn't what I hoped it'd be. It's more 'floaty' than I'd like and is a little light on firepower after you've flown a Piranha.

Merlin is a like a shield-buffed, slightly slower, Cobra. It has very tight handling, decent speed, and enough firepower to get the job done. The only thing I'd change is to replace tracking missiles with dual-beam cannon...*crosses fingers for custom ships*

If you need more convincing on the Merlin, check out the recent vid by Abstractness; 69 kills in a Carrier Assault match.

Loki wrote:I found the Viper wasn't what I hoped it'd be. It's more 'floaty' than I'd like and is a little light on firepower after you've flown a Piranha.

Merlin is a like a shield-buffed, slightly slower, Cobra. It has very tight handling, decent speed, and enough firepower to get the job done. The only thing I'd change is to replace tracking missiles with dual-beam cannon...*crosses fingers for custom ships*

If you need more convincing on the Merlin, check out the recent vid by Abstractness; 69 kills in a Carrier Assault match.

Yeah, the tracking missile on the Merlin blows. I would take a single rocket over it since rockets are at least awesome for turrets and surprises. Dual rockets or a beam cannon would be a dream.

For you electric code... I would suggest the Merlin. Your type of play I think would be better suited to that. Myself I like the speed of a Viper, its nice, but you're essentially strapped to a paper bag with afterburners.

Thanks you all for your suggestions. After a game with Deviant Saint in F-3 yesterday, I understand that I would be nothing in a light fighter. Therefore I would try Merlin first.

Sometimes the best armor is not getting shot

electriccode wrote:Thanks you all for your suggestions. After a game with Deviant Saint in F-3 yesterday, I understand that I would be nothing in a light fighter. Therefore I would try Merlin first.

Deviant Saint is probably the best viper pilot.

I would say they both have a very strong purpose, and are both formidable ships.

For my part I prefer the fire power of the Merlin, but the speed of the Viper makes up for a lot.

If you are interested in a Viper get a sidewinder and upgrade it. If you can do well with the then the Viper will just be better as the only differences are more armor and a tracking missile. If you need to rely on those two improvements you are better off with the Merlin.