I get why this thing sits at 8.3 since it has Sidewinders, but in a full uptier (which feels like 90% of the time) it’s just horrendous. The airframe is so slow I can’t chase anyone down. In equal or low tier matches I can sorta hold my own, but at 9.3 I’m just constantly outpaced. I can fly defensively and dodge a jet all day long, but because I can’t outrun them or retain the energy to actually gain an advantage, they just loop right back behind me in seconds. It’s an endless defensive cycle until I eventually get swarmed.
even when you think about it, its a cold war jet but in reality its a ww2 concept plane. the design started in 1944 just taking the piston-engine sea fury and adapting it to fit an early jet engine. it still has a ww2 straight-wing design, which is exactly why it bleeds so much speed and just cant compete with the transonic and supersonic swept-wing fighters were constantly forced against at 9.3.
from what i can tell the general consensus from the community is that were basically just paying a missile tax. its only sitting at 8.3 because of the aim-9bs, which most players agree are pretty much useless against anyone actually paying attention at that tier anyway. they obviously recognize that the airframe is outdated, which is why the tech tree version without the missiles gets to sit lower at 8.0. for a premium vehicle that i actually had to pay physical money for, I am utterly astounded by how many times i get paired with jets that just destroy me by sheer stats. it just needs a straight BR drop.
P.s. I’m by no means an amazing fighter, I’m still getting better, so yes some of it is a skill issue, but even i can recognize when the plane just doesn’t sit where it needs to.
" oh, look, a SAAB, must be nice to be able to intercept that"
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could be worse. Venom is a slight evolution of the vampire (longer wing and ghost), a 1943 aircraft yet it can see a mig 21. It gets no missiles at all.
Early british jets even when in other trees get really shafted, most could be a full BR lower and still not be meta
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yeah honestly looking into that, why? why would ever require a BR that high? i genuinely cannot see a reason for it to be that high.
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Me in my R2Y and whatever poor Vampires are on my team casually crusing to the battle at 500 kph (there are either no enemies or teammates left and we get eaten alive)
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Meanwhile . . .
(and yeah, I won that talisman[I think . . lol])
oh sorry . . I play AB, that is an AB BR . . . . my bad
I’ll show myself out now . . . ☻
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these planes were the old top tier and they have kept those BRs as everything around them slowly became better out of powercreep, similar to the phantoms at 12.0 now who were also an old top tier.
what we see at 7.3-7.7 is really what your capability peers are for the sea hawk and such, would be better to lose the 9B and move the exported sea hawks down.
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the vampire was awful to spade but good lord the venom was pathetic, youre facing supersonics every game. I ended up just base bombing to spade it and be done.
that’s the thing, i can see that. i first made this account in 2015 and (sadly) this is my first experience with jets, and good grief. like just based off of everything, this should be in the same BR as the Ho 229 V3. even though this is a “cold war” plane, it’s genuinely a WW2 airframe. in no way can it even compete with the things in its BR. the only time i can stand my own is if i artificially deflate my BR down to 7.7 in AA. even then, prop planes can get the turn on me lol.
Edit: Changed AB to AA
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Its not just compression for once, British early jets across the board are notably overtiered for their capability. Sea hawk, Meteor, Vampire, Attacker, all are completely outmatched even in full downtiers for some.
Decompression will help a lot, but that wont fix being too high amongst it
i fear that. even in my seahawk. all i can do is boom and zoom.
my first jet was the vampire, as its one of my favourite planes ever built. I never actually got to a battle before it was over.
the sea hawk was honestly a worse experience as its a less pretty plane to look at while being shot down
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It all started with the Sabers and Mig15s going down…
As if the BR wasn’t already compressed to hell and back. Increase the BR of problematic aircraft like the F-104? No thanks.
7.0 to 9.3 is the most compressed BR range ever and they will do nothing to fix it. They will probably make it worse though, since all decompression efforts were reverted within a year…
This places the poor Sea Hawk smack middle in compression hell.
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even worse if you bring any bombs or rockets, you’re so slow you’re a sitting duck.
the vampire really is pretty.
hot take, p-61 beautiful. chefs kiss
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but why wouldn’t they though? i don’t know if I’m missing anything, but between the high RP costs of the planes and the compression that BR range really is the biggest gatekeeper to air.
unless its simply to promote sales of premiums past that BR range.