What's your favorite non-top-tier ship?

Cobra is much better where it is now. It's meant to be a jack-of-all-trades, not specializing in one role. It's not as good at beams as the krait, but still damn potent, plus a pretty quick second beam ala krait, and is only slightly worse dps-wise once it's down to heat dissipation.

Its machine guns are just plain nasty. Arguably as good if not better than the FH-200/250 due to it being far easier to hit with, where FH-2xx usually miss one half of their fire against fighters. That plus a much longer fire duration until overheat.... yeah. It can mess up the slower bombers something fierce, too.

Krait's still my favorite, but stingray and cobra are right after it. Sometimes fly the A80 for lols, but it's not really viable at the moment.

ZigZagJoe wrote:Cobra is much better where it is now. It's meant to be a jack-of-all-trades, not specializing in one role. It's not as good at beams as the krait, but still damn potent, plus a pretty quick second beam ala krait, and is only slightly worse dps-wise once it's down to heat dissipation.

Its machine guns are just plain nasty. Arguably as good if not better than the FH-200/250 due to it being far easier to hit with, where FH-2xx usually miss one half of their fire against fighters. That plus a much longer fire duration until overheat.... yeah. It can mess up the slower bombers something fierce, too.

Krait's still my favorite, but stingray and cobra are right after it. Sometimes fly the A80 for lols, but it's not really viable at the moment.

Agreed.

Xron wrote:

ZigZagJoe wrote:Cobra is much better where it is now. It's meant to be a jack-of-all-trades, not specializing in one role. It's not as good at beams as the krait, but still damn potent, plus a pretty quick second beam ala krait, and is only slightly worse dps-wise once it's down to heat dissipation.

Its machine guns are just plain nasty. Arguably as good if not better than the FH-200/250 due to it being far easier to hit with, where FH-2xx usually miss one half of their fire against fighters. That plus a much longer fire duration until overheat.... yeah. It can mess up the slower bombers something fierce, too.

Krait's still my favorite, but stingray and cobra are right after it. Sometimes fly the A80 for lols, but it's not really viable at the moment.

Agreed.

Hurray for less Cobra hate!

Loki wrote:

Xron wrote:

ZigZagJoe wrote:Cobra is much better where it is now. It's meant to be a jack-of-all-trades, not specializing in one role. It's not as good at beams as the krait, but still damn potent, plus a pretty quick second beam ala krait, and is only slightly worse dps-wise once it's down to heat dissipation.

Its machine guns are just plain nasty. Arguably as good if not better than the FH-200/250 due to it being far easier to hit with, where FH-2xx usually miss one half of their fire against fighters. That plus a much longer fire duration until overheat.... yeah. It can mess up the slower bombers something fierce, too.

Krait's still my favorite, but stingray and cobra are right after it. Sometimes fly the A80 for lols, but it's not really viable at the moment.

Agreed.

Hurray for less Cobra hate!

I always liked it, I don't hate ships that are underpowered, I hate the ones that are overpowered.

I used to love the Piranha, but the Hammerhead is my new joy. Yes it turns like a brick, and gets shredded by X-99s when they are on the free to play rotation, but those twin cannons shred everything in their path. Head to head it has little to fear. Yes, sometimes an A80 will ram me into oblivion, and once I mistook a Nighthawk for a Merlin (big mistake), but everyone else is quickly reduced to smoke and ash.

ive had nothing to say here because my best ships were the top tier... but things change...

finding the timberwolf better than the panther in all but one situation - dealing damage to turrets. the guns are easy to aim and take out light fighters (even merlins are fun to chase)... the shields are weaker but tbh if you're being shot that much in a panther you can't even outrun your attackers as easily... also find it one of a kind for pulling defenders away from a carrier...

and for raw destructive power there is the nighthawk, for when flying in a 250 becomes too repetitive. the dedication it takes to fly a nighthawk well pays off with other ships too, particularly when it comes to aiming machine gun fire (the dps rates poo poo pants if you can aim 90% or more of a stream of bullets at one target). but that aside the beams + fast rocket combo more than makes up for its near total lack of mobility. for its speed the nighthawk maneuvers well enough to take on heavy ships, from using it i cant help but wonder if this is where it shines best. it never stops being funny, watching as people begin to realize they aren't safe once they enter your beam range - then the panic (and sometimes rage) ensues, they charge you at an angle thinking they're safe if they just don't fly right at you, and the hilarity that follows as you zap them into dust anyway before they could approach close enough for an attack of their own.

just about the only things to fear in a nighthawk is turrets (large hp tank vs low dps), bombers (ditto; not really fear, just takes a while) and the A80 (requires 2 dual beam hits otherwise takes too long, reinforcements & such). everything else i have found the nighthawk is more than capable of even dogfighting and coming out on top - merlins, kingfishers, swordfish, all light ships ( *pop* ), damn near everything. it has its limits too, it can't run and is easily overwhelmed up close. leave one alone at own risk lol... aiming beams to their full range is surprisingly reliable with practice, and i still can't believe how many don't think to evade until they're 1300-1400m away...

I've been having way more fun with the Hammerhead than I should...

I find the only thing I fear is medium fighters in the nighthawk, tough enough to not be instant killied and still fast enought to be hard to hit.

Loki wrote:I've been having way more fun with the Hammerhead than I should...

I second that sentiment. The Hammerhead is indeed fun. If it could either turn faster or boost faster it'd be mega-fun.

the-anger wrote:
and for raw destructive power there is the nighthawk, for when flying in a 250 becomes too repetitive. the dedication it takes to fly a nighthawk well pays off with other ships too, particularly when it comes to aiming machine gun fire (the dps rates poo poo pants if you can aim 90% or more of a stream of bullets at one target). but that aside the beams + fast rocket combo more than makes up for its near total lack of mobility. for its speed the nighthawk maneuvers well enough to take on heavy ships, from using it i cant help but wonder if this is where it shines best. it never stops being funny, watching as people begin to realize they aren't safe once they enter your beam range - then the panic (and sometimes rage) ensues, they charge you at an angle thinking they're safe if they just don't fly right at you, and the hilarity that follows as you zap them into dust anyway before they could approach close enough for an attack of their own.

just about the only things to fear in a nighthawk is turrets (large hp tank vs low dps), bombers (ditto; not really fear, just takes a while) and the A80 (requires 2 dual beam hits otherwise takes too long, reinforcements & such). everything else i have found the nighthawk is more than capable of even dogfighting and coming out on top - merlins, kingfishers, swordfish, all light ships ( *pop* ), damn near everything. it has its limits too, it can't run and is easily overwhelmed up close. leave one alone at own risk lol... aiming beams to their full range is surprisingly reliable with practice, and i still can't believe how many don't think to evade until they're 1300-1400m away...

The Nighthawk is indeed a really good ship and –the most important– it makes more fun to fly than any other ship (imo). Even if I try out other ships I always return to the FM25 because I got bored by playing the other ships. It also seems, that the FM25 gets more popular from week to week. About a month ago I've rarely seen any other, but meanwhile there are mostly one or two other Nighthawks in the matches I play.
But imo it still needs some small buffs, either in speed, boost or turning rate. It's slower than even most of the heavy fighters, so you rarely can escape if it's necessary. Thats why I especially fear the A80. With all other ships it depends on the pilot. A Merlin flown by (for example) Crazy Gremlin is really hard. Flown by some less experienced players its it's just a target you probably have to hit twice

longshot wrote: If it could either turn faster or boost faster it'd be mega-fun.

I agree completely. I love the hammerhead, but it flies like a lead brick. I call it my lead sled.


As for me I still say the Mamba is still the most fun to fly and it really makes me work for every kill. Just a little better acceleration for less drift and maybe a bigger heat sink and it would be almost too good.

I'm quite attached to my Mamba. I have all level 5 upgrades except for missile fuel, and she turns like a beaut. I've lost count of how many times I've been in a turning duel with an A80, I use a burn turn, and my nose slides into the perfect lead-off.
My only problem is that when I get a missile locked on me, it's tough to avoid (Though that might be just because I've already emptied my boost... lol. Seriously, I only have boost at launch and MAYBE a minute after. Past that, I'm running on empty...)

Hey Nightwing, do you tap the boost rather than keeping it held down? Btw I highly recommend looking at the vids posted on the videos threads, some excellent flying by ace pilots there, great for picking up tips & tricks.

longshot wrote:Hey Nightwing, do you tap the boost rather than keeping it held down? Btw I highly recommend looking at the vids posted on the videos threads, some excellent flying by ace pilots there, great for picking up tips & tricks.

I recently checked out a few videos on YouTube, and I HAVE been having an easier time in my Mamba.
For example, I've figured out how to boost clear across the maps while keeping a nearly-full boost tank.
I recently played a Broken Moon CTF, and I went AROUND the moon, grabbed the flag, and went back through the middle between the core and the outer shell.
I'm able to do two or three forward-grab-retreat-capture cycles in about two minutes...