A question that will haunt this game until Gaijin release their collection methodology and decision process. From experience I can say that the F-5E had to work hard to gain position especially when it had no frontal offensive capabilities other than guns. If I was matching up against an F-16a, seeing as it was a plane it could face before the br drop, I wouldn’t gain position at all.
This goes back to my point of learning how to play the game or more accurately, learn the plane you are flying. The M2K suffers from the same issue however it reigned supreme over the Tomcat which had superior rating ability - fighting a F-5 in the horizontal is just suicide unless you can out rate it or out turn it.
Just don’t hold S in a delta and be amazed at what you can fight.
The issue isn’t the plane, it’s BR compression. With the engine nerfs, the MiG-21Bis should be downtiered to 10.7 as well. When it was first released, the extra stages of AB allowed it to practically hover whereas now it’s a bit more realistic? for lack of a better word.
In F-5E I had no real issues at 11.0 before some of the 11.7, 12.0 and 12.3 aircraft got added.
F-5E slaps F-4. Sure MiG-21 can ruin your day but is harder to handle and now suffers at 11.0 for some time now itself.
At 10.7 F-5 is decently placed.
lol Just lol. F-5E, a transonic jet at sea level… somehow slaps a 49J carrying mach 1.15 sea level jet… lol.
Don’t turnfight F-5Es, ENERGY FIGHT them.
They’re quite literally just a jet version of a Spitfire LF Mk9, not even A6M5 levels of hilarious.
Energy Fight requires certain level of knowledge in this game and many players doesnt know how to do that, thats why delta or planes with instant turn capabilites are much more popular then most energy fighters, F-16 is exception in this case.
Thats why most F4 Phantom players loses against F5E players.
Don’t quite get the first part.
F-5 is more of a 109 than a Spitfire.
F-4F at 11.0 is/was cannon fodder.
I played the US and Taiwanese tech tree F-5s when they were 11.0 and did well in them. The US one I had back when F-16 etc. were not in game yet and it was completely fine.
Here’s the deal tho, did you do better in F-5E than you did Mig-21SMT, Mig-21MF, Mirage 3C, and Mirage 3E?
Cause I do rather equal in all listed which shows a consistency in what is presumably balanced vehicles.
What do I do better in? Saab-35XS for some reason despite it having low fuel, no RWR, and limited flares.
And F-104S & Tornado IDS when they were 10.7, which were my top performing jets outside my ideal playstyle [Sea Vixen] out of any other jets and their BR changes were well deserved.
Granted, I fly jets with afterburners the “same”, with first priority being energy fight, and turnfights left to the things with more thrust/airframe performance over the enemy.
F-5E is good, it’s not F-104S & F-4E good tho.
F-5Es were my meals when they were introduced, and still are. & I never played them cause I knew they were over-BR’d, and only that BR because people turnfight them like people do Venoms or A6M5s.
That would not work for me since I played jets at that Br at different times always with a different situation at that Br.
When you say you are taking a look at what you are better in do you mean stats?
That can be very misleading. You should always judge the aircrafts performance be it 1 on 1 or in the average air match compared to other aircraft.
F-5 was absolute godmode when it was newly introduced. The flight model was crazy.
F-16 is the F-5 of current top tier so to speak. Sure in F-5 it was not possible to chase down every single enemy aircraft but as long as they came after you and your flying was up to the task you were able to beat practically any aircraft that wasnt a Draken.