F-5E is over-tiered

Machinery of War Discussion Aircraft
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I know I am going to get backlash for this, but I believe the F-5E is very over-tiered. At its Br (11.0), most enemies have radar guided missiles as well as all aspect infrared missiles. Also, the plane is very slow, meaning most people just don’t fight you.

The F-5E is a plane that is meant for dogfighting. I can admit it is good at dogfighting, but at its Br, dogfighting someone is basically a death sentence. with SARH misiles flying around everywhere, you basically have to either constantly be defensive, or fly low and hope you can multi-path them.

Now, let’s talk about the missiles. To put it honest, the missiles on the F-5e suck. The AIM-9J has very little range, and normally you have to be about 1.7 km behind the enemy for the missile to actually hit. Also, it is only rear aspect, while many missiles at the same Br are all aspect. On top of that, you only get 2 of these missiles, meaning a lot of the times you can’t get any kills with them.

If we compare the F-5E to other planes, we can see how over-tiered it is. For example, the MiG-21bis, which is also at 11.0 has a much higher top speed, as well as a much better thrust to weight. Also, the MiG carries 6 all aspect R-60m missiles which on top of being all aspect, pull 30g’s instead of the 20 that the AIM-9J pulls. the only advantage that the F-5E has over this MiG-21 is energy retention, which is somewhat cancelled out by the MiG-21’s insane thrust to weight.

In conclusion, the F-5E is a plane meant for dogfighting, at a Br that is ruled by SARH missiles. The low top speed of the jet makes it hard to engage people, and the missiles are very poor on their platform. The plane could me moved down, but ideally, gaijin would decompress the game, and raise the Br cap to 15.0+.

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Nah, F-5E need to remain 11.0, but other planes with decent SARH, like MiG-23ML or F-4S, could move up along with top rank jets like F-15E, EFT.

Current 14.0 celling needs to be 15.0 for better detailed balancing in BR.

Everything is compressed as hell since 7.0 till 14.0

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11.0 is very much not ruled by SARH missiles.

No. It’s one of the best 11.0s, and moving one of the best dogfighters in the game with 2 decent missiles down is a terrible idea. Dogfighting is still a very common aspect at 11.0 (and higher), and it won’t ever go away.

What do you think of the F-104Gs BR, or the J-7E? The F-104G is definitely worse than the F-5E, and the J-7E is a dogfighter in a BR “ruled by SARH”.

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I agree, the Br ceiling needs to be moved up to at least 15.0. The fact that Vietnam era jets can fight flarel-ess planes, and planes like the F-4E can face F-16s, and F-18s needs to be dealt with. The issue with the F-5E however is the fact that even though it is a great dogfighter, every fighter at the Br can outrun you. To make things worse, the second you do commit to a dogfight you get lots of AIM-7’s and R-24’s coming your way.

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For it to move down to even 10.7 it would need a lot of nerfs. Its already easily one of the strongest 11.0s in the game

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*One of the strongest dogfighters at 11.0. However most planes just don’t have to engage with you because they are faster.

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Imagine a Jaguar trying to futilely run away from F-5E in a new 10.7BR

While the forum is stormed by F-5C main’s request that buff us down to 10.3BR…

If F-5E really needs to get buff, decompression, which will make it face fewer SARH shooters, will be the only option, I think.

Sending F-5E directly down will cause nothing but double trouble.

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Such as?

They are either fast but cant turn like the F-104s
comprable airframes like the Mig-21
or subsonic like the Harriers, A-10 and Su-25s

There is only a few SARH slingers at 11.0 and all of them can be defeated by hiding in ground clutter. As for IR missiles, the F-5 can defend easier than anything else in the game at the moment due to its bugged heat signature.

In a downtier, almost no 10.0-11.0 aircraft can truly go toe to toe with the F-5E. Lowering it in BR would force aircraft also down. Such as the subsonic flareless aircraft at 9.7 that are already screwed when fighting the F-5C spam.

As it is, the F-5s need a number of nerfs their FM is overperforming and they basically are cold as hell

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I agree, I made the suggestion to move it down because of the SARH shooters, but the best solution would be to decompress the Br’s so that it doesn’t have to face them.

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That’s not exactly true. No one except the odd F-104 is staying beyond the F-5s max speed for the whole match, and the F-5E isn’t exactly slow either. Anyone caught going below mach 1 is easy prey for an F-5.

There’s also only a <150kmh difference between the F-5Es top speed, and a Mig-21Bis’ top speed.

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Honestly. I dont think anything would change. As it stands, the F-5s are way too strong to face in an uptier and need ot move up as well. A decompression moving the SARH up, would likely move the F-5s up by the same amount.

Though no aircraft in the game can actually take on that which is 1.0 above it. If the F-5E could fight 12.0 aircraft, it would be at 12.0 not 11.0

Just as much as you may struggle against an F-4 or the like, there is something at 10.0 that struggles against the F-5E just as much

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The F-104 and MiG-21 will both boom and zoom you, because those planes are not good dogfighters. There are not many SARH slingers at 11.0, but most of your games are uptiers to 11.7 or 12.0. At 11.7 and 12.0 there are LOTS of SARH slingers. SARH missiles are easily defeated by hitting the deck, but most dogfights occur at higher altitudes. As I said earlier, lowering it is not ideal, but it is the only option if gaijin doesn’t want to decompress the game

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As it stands, the F-5s dominate the 10.0-11.0 bracket. it literally cannot move down, as it stands ,though could all do with going up in BR or as I said, being brought down to IRL performance

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Yes, I can do well in the F-5E, but it relies on other people making mistakes. when people are caught going under mach 1, they are easy prey, but most planes are faster than you. The F-5E’s top speed at sea level is around mach 1.03-1.05. Most planes such as the F-4, J-7, MiG-21, and MiG-23 can easily top that.

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Yes, it dominates the 10.0-11.0 bracket, because every single fighter in the game will dominate in a downtier. However, most matches I play in the F-5E are 11.7 matches. MiG-23s will easily dominate an F-5E and the same goes with 11.3 jets like the J-7E. Even the J-7D at 10.7 and MiG-21SMT at 10.3 can boom and zoom you.

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F-5E is not overtiered, other aircraft are just undertiered.

The 12.3 F-16 and F-18 must go up again, and the others too, so that the 11.x region can be decompressed.

The F-5E is more of a victim of compression really. Can’t put it up or it might not do it, can’t put it down or it will ruin everything below.

But sadly we all know Gaijins stance on decompression: It doesn’t exist and efforts to decompress were switfly rewinded (MiG-21bis going back down, F-16 going down, Sabres and MiG-15 going down, etc.)
So for now the 11.0 BR is fitting for the F-5E

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Yeah I realised the mistake I made in my post. I’m mostly complaining about compression. Especially as a new player, I am not as experienced and don’t know how to counter some of the planes I face.

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maybe not 11.0, but just 1 br step above it, planes like the first fighter viggen and f4e exist with lots of dogfighting radar missiles. The ja37c is especially egregious with a mprf pd radar with skyflashes/7e2s, while also going more than 200 kph above the f5es top speed in a straight line. what is an f-5e supposed to do to say a viggen?

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Make it fight it. The F-5E has a very good RWR, and much better flight performance than the viggen, so all it needs to do is stay aware and wait for the viggen to get slow (which isn’t uncommon).

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Funny cause I actually love to kill viggens. You are correct in saying 11.3 and up has lots of SARH missiles, but the viggen can’t turn. If you can catch them under mach 1 they are free kills. Also, if they do launch the SARH missiles at you, you can notch or multipath. I am more complaining about the MiG-23s that have better flight performance AND SARH missiles. Also the planes like the MiG-21bis and ironically the F-5EFCU that have good all-aspect missiles.