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 F5-E 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, F5-Es 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 F5-Es 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.