I finally made it to Rank 5. I’ve flown out the F2H-2, F-80A-5 and the F-86A-5. I’ve got a few questions…
BR for BR, which Sabre is best between the F-86A-5 and F-86F-25?
Is going to the F-86F-2 worth it for the cannons? Or based on the match maker?
If you had to pick a Rank 5 jet, would you go with the F-80C-10 or one the Sabres?
I haven’t flown the F-80C-10 yet, not sure if it’s worth flying or just buying to keep progressing. I like the Sabre in a general sense - though I’m new to jets and not very good with it (my biggest failing being that I cannot lead the guns worth a damn… otherwise, I fly it like a prop… sort of a weird Bearcat).
Overall, the jury is still out for me on how I like early jets compared to props. The game play definitely feels similar in some respects… and the missiles aren’t over whelming (yet)… but the performance also feels less balanced, particularly in up tiers (and up tiers are frequent at 7.0, 7.3 and 8.0).
A5 have leading edge slats which mean it can turn better but a double edge is if u burn all your speed it gonna take a while to regain it. It is at 8.0 which mean less chance of facing supersonics and the one u do encounter usually have somethings u can exploits
F25 got better engine, better pitch and less high speed lock up due to the all moving tails and no leading edge slats. It is at 8.3 which mean ur gonna face stuff like Mig 19, F104, F106 or god forbid CL13s ( Sabre but better in every other way).
tldr: pick your poison really but the A5 got the better mm tho 8.3 and 8.7 are popular br with lotta prem so uptier are manageable.
No, if u only started jet, the low ammo count and easy jamming certainly doesn’t help. It flown similarly to the F25 but with better guns so if u enjoy flying that u would enjoy this too. It was lowered from 9.0 to 8.7 so the mm is kinda good until u got full uptier.
F80C is a pretty good transitional jet so i recommend playing it first then the F86, they have similar play style but the F80C is more forgiving at 7.7.
Not really, the F86s are still pretty beginner friendly along side the F2H (tho the F9Fs isn’t exactly good) just play whatever u like and get used to thing since rank 5 US is pretty decent overall.
The most frustrating part of playing the F-86A-5 is the lack of acceleration and poor performance at high speed… those two things really work against one another, and amplify the challenges of flying the plane against higher BR aircraft. The match maker at 8.0 has been brutal for me… most every match is an up tier, many of them full 9.0 up tiers.
I am going to transition to the F25 just to see if it meaningfully impacts the match maker… or at least the competitiveness of the air frame at 8.7/9.0 (and 9.3 as well, I suppose). I suppose I can decide which experience is less unpleasant… since I can count on up tiers no matter which I fly.
ETA: my experience has been feast or famine. I’ve had plenty of 3/4 kills games (that could have been 5-6 kills games if I could actually get the guns to work)… and I’ve had plenty of games with no frags at all… or just one. It’s frustrating when the only thing you can do is bait for your teammates… but that’s the U.S. TT flavor I guess ;-).
80c is definitely worth it, and now as they NAB-ed the infinite wep we can say it’s even more op
For sabres, due to the mig-sabre compression they all work quite well. Would like A5 more than F25/30/35 for the 8.0 BR.
Cannons aren’t better than 50cals thanks to the updates throughout the years. Yes they were an upgrade to kill rates, but just look at the 50cal performance now. And there are news about another inflammability buff.
Personally, I hated playing the F2 Sabre. Those 20mms burn through the low ammo count, jam very easily and are more like shotguns than distance weaponry.
Back then it was around 15-20K SL to repair too, which didn’t help my impression of it.
Sabre A5 is pretty dogwater. Folks have already covered why.
Sabre F25 is mostly an upgrade, but imho is still underwhelming.
Sabre F40 is the best iteration in the game imho.
Sabre F2 is trash, but I’m biased.
Sabre are meant to be played more like a BnZ jet, u have to fly away from the battle and pick on single target or ppls who are engaging in a fight. Sure u could go head on and dogfight but that usually gonna end with u being at low energy and someone gonna 3rd party.
Keep your speed (900-1k KPH range) and abuse your roll rate against migs. A fun trick u can use is if u want to turn faster, use your air brake but dont do this too many times.
The F2 guns are actually split (num 1 for 2 guns, num 2 for the other) so if ur aim is good ( although the gun is quite easy to aim) u can actually double your firing time.
Honestly i kinda hate the F40 just for the fact that it is 9.0 when the CL13 mk6 is at the same br but better than u in every other way, should be 8.7 ngl.
That only applies for people that will keybind their guns like that - I don’t believe most people do such a thing due to the loss of fire density on frankly speaking very lackluster cannons. I’ll take the .50s over those garbage 20s any day of the week, and that’s something I rarely say.
Also, that’s due to our lovely feature called BR compression. Though to be completely frank there shouldn’t be Korean Era and early Nam’ Era subsonics placed in the BR range of supersonics period.
To be clear on my issues with the .50 cals… it’s my ability to aim them. I have blown a LOT of passes/opportunities because I couldn’t get the guns to hit. Jets seem pretty fragile… I’ve had plenty of frags where just a little bit of damage was enough to put them into the ground.
I am OK with the .50s for now because the ammo count should mean that I get more trigger time. Yes, the F2H-2 was impressive when it hit… but the ammo count and my aim are not a good combo at the moment and that would go double for the F-86F-2 I believe.
F-25 is the clear choice, it’s so much nicer for air RB since you can comfortably hold high speeds and maneuver. The a5 can win a close in fight easier but it will bleed a lot of energy and have a lot of trouble getting it back doing so.
Just as an expansion on MM and up tier performance… just played 2-3 matches each in the P-80A-5, F2H-2, F-86A-5 - 4 full up tier, 1 down tier. It’s just rough out there! It’d be less rough if I could hit a shot once in a while! ;-)
Having played the Sabre for a bit… it’s just painful going back to the F-80A-5 and the F2H-2. I will still give the F-80C-10 a try… but it’s lower on my list than the Sabre right now because I expect it’ll fly much like it’s little sister.
Don’t sleep on the F-84B and G, they’re incredibly good. The F-84F is also a great support plane, despite the opponents you could face. Use it like a P-47.
I enjoyed spading the f2, which i did in the current meta. Almost every game was an uptier with all aspect slingers but ended up doing really good with it