I am not someone who plays ARB frequently nor finds it enjoyable. I am personally grinding those trees for the sake of CAS in GRB.
One thing I have noticed playing BR 11 premium is how unbalanced the F-5E is in everything it does.
Has the agility to quickly maneuver and get out of any head on collision while engaging killing jets.
Has the speed to outrun all missiles and bleed energy while still keep their enemy at bay then quickly turning and defeating their foes.
Has the maneuverability to out dog fight any downtier I’ve seen and easily get the upperhand even in a 2v1 I know cause I’ve seen it myself.
Large caliber flares pop one and it doesn’t matter how close you are your missile will miss even with the best lock a large chaff or flare and you’re in a dog fight.
When looking at stats it’s very unbalanced where noobs die quickly using it or the entire game is decided by 2 squad up / or not, F-5Es in a single match.
It needs to be moved up to 11.7 until gagin either artificially nerfs the jet or decides to finally decompress BRs. Overall, having a 1 on 1 with a phantom or regular fighter this thing is just downright over bearing in a equal to downtier BR. It can even quickly escape you and gain distance no problem. Apart from the unbalance of strike aircraft over overbearing amount of F-5E s it’s obvious to me people either are passing by to the next jet or too many veterans are abusing it’s BR and capacities. Overall, it needs to be moved to 11.7 until there is some solution for it.
The F-5s FM is overperforming and just needs nerfing
Actually, they are standard size, same as found on a lot of other aircraft (AN/ALE-40)
The issue is that heat sigs arent modeled, and its a wierd hacky method based upon thrust. The issue, is that you have edge-cases, F-5s are ice cold (on full reheat, they are colder than an F-117) and then you have the opposite side of the coin like the Harriers which are super novas and can barely flare anything. Same flares, different outcomes.
To fix this, it needs a total ovehaul of IR signatures or a case by case basis bodge fixing session. But its a well known thing to call the F-5s “Cold fusion powered”
They are slightly cancerous pain in the butt aircraft to fight, but they aren’t 11.7 worthy, especially when you look at the F-5s with superior weapons already at 11.3/11.7, or even at 11.0.
What they need is an overhaul, nerf the FM, fix the IR signature and something you didnt mention which drives me nuts too, overhaul their damage model. They are wierdly and annoyingly tanky aircraft
Nerf or no nerf, Gajin will not move quickly on a rework just like the BMPT/72. They are more proned to moving it up to BR and then working it there if they choose to. Overall, the quickest path I’ve seen to fixing this even if it’s going to kill the F5-E is moving it to 11.7 until they figure out how to nerf it or decompress the BRs. But it is the most dreadful thing to fight at BR 11 and I can’t imagine fighting it at BR 10. There is also a lot of bragging from teammates on how good it is which brings it too my attention when it’s on my team or enemy team and keeps getting top player score of 4 kills plus determining who wins the game.
true plus the basic F-5E on US and China tree only got up to AIM-9P’s not even all aspect 9P-4, in comparison MiG-21bis at the same BR gets 8 R-60M (I know it’s still no match to AIM-9L but all aspect IR nonetheless) since the latest update. The better Thai ones had at 11.3 with AIM-9P-4 (FCU), Python 3 and AIM-9L (SCU) and all of them are all aspect, not to forget they have HMD on SCU ones (and FCU ones can carry 4 as opposed to other F-5E with only 2, still wondering why SCU can’t carry additional 2 Pythons). If the F-5E’s to be moved up, at max they got to 11.3 for basics and 11.7 for Thai ones
i disagree, F-5s should remain a respected threat. nerfing their FM could very well mean they start getting trashed by agile eagle phantoms, which can already harass F-5s in dogfights in certain situations
If you let an F5E get near you it’s over, but that’s the challenge. Do not let that happen.
If they get bumped up they’ll get dog walked by anyone with a halfway decent radar and a quarter of a brain stem.
However I completely understand the pain without screaming skill issue. Because it’s not always skill.
If you get stuck in a one on one with an F5, any F5, it’s going to turn around in its own skin and bite you. Hard. Only the T2 can seriously mess up an F5 and going head to head with one means you’ve denied your own escape route.
These aren’t fast jets, but they will make you pay for the slightest bit of lost energy on your end. F5s and T2s along with Yak3s are almost always a group project. Just get them slow, how you do that is case by case. They suffer in the sense that USA F5s don’t get SARH until the F20 and that thing is dead.
While I’d agree that F-5Es can kinda overperform at their BRs, I think the easiest solution is to actually tweak the heat signature of the plane. As it was mentioned, the thing is cold af (literally) even with afterburner on – AIM-9Ps can barely lock properly even from rear aspect – therefore one of the better solutions is turn up the heat to make it more vulnerable to A2A missiles.
They can obviously tweak the FM, but there is a great chance they will butcher it like crazy and leave it as-is (good for those who genuinely hate F-5Es, or F-5s in general, but terrible for common air enthusiasts).
What should not happen in any case is moving the thing up in BR. I ain’t pro player, but having played all Thai F-5Es, I didn’t enjoy in the slightest having to deal with more advanced SARH missiles + PD radars of 12.x, the most ridiculous of which are at 12.7.
Decompression? Sure, but I think the first thing to do is change the stats of the plane itself and from there on change its BR, and BR of everything else at that range
well said actually. the F-5 is insanely forgiving when spoofing IR missiles. fixing that alone should significantly improve the counterability of the F-5
played the F-5T a few days ago, Su-25 magically appeared behind me and shot an R-73. dropped one flare on full afterburner from about 600 meters away and the missile spun out trying to hit the flare.
locking the F-5s from all aspect is also a nightmare, i can’t snipe these little buggers out of the sky with 9Ls / Python 3s due to how horrendously low the heatsig is and you might aswell not even try to shoot an R-60M at them from anywhere but the rear
From an uptier perspective they are not as big of a threat from at BR 11 or less they can pretty much dictate a gun fight no problem without missiles. The SARHs I’ve seen at BR 11 or less are very situational unlike the BR 12 phantoms. Overall, grinding another tree from an equal BR or less to the F-5E it’s definitely too strong and from a BR 12 perspective it’s not useful. I would like to see some nerf and maybe heat signatures is the solution but the games I’ve been tracking this aircraft is always top three or all of top three.
You might get the occasional good J7 pilot but most times the F-5E determine who wins from the games I’ve been playing at BR 11 for about 30 games now or more on Japan. The R60s you can dodge and the phantom at BR 11 gets only rear aspect so getting a F-5E requires preemptively planning your attack and hoping you get the drop on them.
Most missiles at BR 11 or less you can dodge easily. Most only have rear aspect missiles at best minus some strike aircraft getting powerful all aspects. The missile vs F-5E isn’t the issue I’m seeing as the determining factor why it’s so strong at and in a downtier for BR 11. The aircraft is simply too strong at BR 11 and too weak at BR 12. Gajin tends to not give nerfs to vehicles and instead just move them up and letting them die since balancing can be difficult. Looking at the F-5E if they could balance it at BR 11 no problem but they are more likely moving it up in BR and letting it die. Though not ideal playing multiple matches at BR 11 the F-5E is a pain taking air dominance too easily at the air craft in BR 11 or less.