I’ve been struggling a lot like you as I also purchased this plane and I wanted to improve with it.
I’ve been reading throughout the whole post and let me tell you, keep on playing on only missiles in order to improve and once you get that down you can multitask and also destroy bases.
What I’ve been doing in the matches in terms of positioning is going to left or right once you spawn, it depends on the position of the ally team. Once you are far (not much, about 7 km) rejoin them into the 2nd or 3rd row of attack. By doing this, I usually notch any incoming missiles from any f-14 that is coming towards me, this is because you usually encounter one or two on the enemy team each match.
Once you are with your team and found a head-on target you need to try giving the missile a little bit of upwards inclination, you can do this by turning around your aircraft or when launching your missile try to climb up a little. This can get you pretty easy and reliable kills.
I hope you find this useful and if I said any incorrect information, please, feel free to correct me, as I also want to improve on top tier aircraft fights.
Note: I know I’m a low level but this is what I found that is working for me, feel free to give any comments or tips.
I’ve been doing this for a bit, but this tends to not work for me in uptiers, because if I face a higher tier jet, im not getting out of that head-on alive, even if I fire first (most of the times the sparrow just zooms past the enemy), or go for guns, the phantom is not getting away from that enemy missile, from my experience atleast. (there are crazy amounts of hornets for some reason even though i thought theres only 4 possible downtiered players?).
Currently I’ve been climbing even if it was an uptier or not, aslong if there was an F14 or 2 on my team, with the idea that the F14’s will keep enemies off the heights and they would be under me, and it has worked for the few games I’ve done it.
It’s been working better than the flying to the side for me as of right now, I’ve actually just played a game where I hit all 5 of my missiles, but 3 of them were just a “Hit”, and only 2 were kills doing this, in a downtier tho, on uptiers I can manage to snag a kill sometimes.
So a few things here; one- you are firing at a target lower than you and near the ground, so odds are he’s going to multipath your missile away. At that point, it’s not even worth firing a radar missile and probably better to wait for guns.
Two; he fired a radar missile from below you and in front, so he had both a clear picture and a strong radar lock of you. Wit nothing to interfere with the radar lock, even chaff sometimes won’t help, and you are stuck having to try and evade the missile which is difficult to do at this BR.
My honest advice in a situation like this is to get real low and stay real low. You can always pop up for potshots, but it also saves you from getting radar missiles from people below you.
Other than that though, glad to see you taking some of my advice, and glad to hear it’s working out for you. Hopefully you get through the US Air tree relatively quick.
Thanks on spotting my mistakes, I’ve been alternating between going high and staying low in uptiers and it has been working. I’ve just been having moments like this. (I was lowkey annoyed so next time I saw a lone F-18 I decided to fire 3 sparrows at him, I was RTB’ing obviously.)
I’m pretty sure I’ve found my way of playing this plane, and the only way to get better from now on is just playing the game.
I’d like to say thanks to those who went out of their way to help and goodluck.
Unfortunately stuff like this just happens. It’s the way of the game. Other than that glad to hear you’re doing better and having a good time. If you ever need a squad mate or are bored gimme a quick shout in game. Good luck on the grind!
I’m thinking of getting the M1 KVT and AV8 NA packs with the sales, anyone got advice for them? Is the phantom a better plane to purchase than the AV8?
Do NOT get the M1 KVT! Especially NOT right now with 10.7 BR being overrun by BMPT’s. And even before the BMPT’s, the M1 KVT has a very lackluster round for its BR. Not worth it imo. You will HATE life trying to kill the BMPT’s with the KVT’s dart. Ie, you will NEVER kill them and just be food for them.
I hate to say it, but I would suggest the Clickbait or the Wolfpack (though neither of them are on sale now.)
3rd option would be the RDF/LT, I don’t have it, but I would 100% recommend that over the M1 KVT.
I have both the AV-8B and the F-4S, I like them both. However, I mostly play Arcade so you should get someone else’s advice about the AV-8B if you play Realistic. The F-4S will work fine in Arcade or Realistic.
Buy clickbait or rdflt if you are going to buy av8. M1 kvt isnt going to do much at that br. Also phantom will be better option if you just need arb grind plane while av8 can offer you some cas gameplay.
I do not consider 371 mm of pen acceptable at 10.7 BR lol. Even the Wolfpack has 521 mm 😂 and the Wolfpack is 10.3 in GRB, and only 9.7 in GAB. If you do OK/well in the M1’s at 10.7 BR I am honestly impressed. But I basically refuse to use them anymore, and I would not want to suggest them to a new/grinding player. Especially if their crew skills/reloading skills are low.
I am quite surprised to see both of you guys support the M774 round lol. And again, I am quite impressed if you guys can do well with it. I cannot/do not do well with it 😂
For me, about the minimum armor pen amount that I start to do OK/well with would be something like the DM23 with the Leopard 2 (PzBtl 123). 407mm armor pen, yeah “close” to the M774, but I can at least pen most of the shots that I make, whereas with the M774 it’s just deflect/nonpen over and over for me. Even in Arcade where I can shoot exactly where I want to shoot, most of my shots do absolutely nothing.
If it’s just a “skill issue” with me, that’s fine and I have no problem with that lol. I have just tried many times to use that round+tanks and I do horridly every time 💀 Oh and I actually prefer to just use HEATFS rounds over “low” armor pen darts like the M774 🤣 Like with my Japanese Type 16 FPS, I take a handful of darts in but almost never use them. I just use the HEATFS rounds and stay away from the front line and lob them in.
I wouldn’t get the KVT right now, as learning how to play it with the BMP-Ts is nothing short of God Awful right now. I enjoy the M1 Abrams, it’s not a terrible tank- I’d argue a bit on the stronger side for 10.7- but it has some pretty large drawbacks that are only grossly amplified by the BMP-T and BMP-T72s.
Instead I’d argue go for the XM-1, as it being a lower BR will help you learn to play top tier while also giving you a good experience of APFSDS, thermals, LRFs, and the like.
For planes, I would not get the AV-8B(NA). It’s a mediocre plane that can’t do much in ARB. If you are looking for CAS, get the A-10A early. If you are looking for a dogfighter, get the F-4S or the F-5C. But I don’t think the AV-8B(NA) is the way to go unfortunately.
That’s just my take though, I’m sure someone has the complete opposite opinion of mine
It’s a great tank, but it is not currently on sale unfortunately. However Gaijin might bring it back as a GE premium, or for a special date sometime this year.
eh, I find M1 doing more for me than Leo 2s these days, and new player will struggle regardless of the vehicle.
True, to get most out of M1s reload you need expert crew and fully trained loader.
But its not like this issue doesnt affect any other non-autoloading premium as well.
Wolfpack has quite a few limitations that make it borderline unusable for me (shouldve known before getting it lol). Namely the gun depression on way too lightly armored chassis.
but seeing as Booker gets M900 on top of 5 sec aced reload and is actually on normal platform…
Just do double check that you know/use it! Both M1118’s have hydropneumatic suspension now 😄 Front/Back tilt; Up/Down. Doesn’t make the gun depression “good”, but it definitely helps. Also, the straight up/down sometimes helps hide behind hills, OR peak up even further over.
I love the Wolfpack, ground out the majority of the US ground tree with it. And that was even before the hydro suspension addition.
And another thing I assume you do know, but best to utilize its crewless turret. I survived sooo many shots by just peaking up over hills instead of pushing forward.
Gen 3+3 Thermals. Use commander sight, turn on thermals, hide behind hills. Scout and snipe. I love it. (I didn’t remember, it’s actually the only US ground vehicle with Gen 3+3 thermals, both the M1128’s.)
Indeed, I am also grinding the USA TT with it and it is a fantastic platform to play on, I recommend just playing slow and not rushing into the capture point, even tho it is a light tank.
Also, thanks @SilentTracker for pointing out that you can peak behind hills, I’ll be trying that out.
