I have been playing top tier for a while and decided to get back to low tier jets. I was doing fine at 8.0 and even got 3kps on one plane. But when I got to 8.3 it just started to go downhill. The improvement between the 8.0 and the 8.3 planes are minimal but the matchmker is just so much worse. 70% of my matches are uptiers where I am hopeless even with very good plane like the mig15bis. I started the russin grind for the mig17 which is 8.7. If 8.3 is this bad I cant imagine how horrid 8.7 gets. Is it worthy buying he mig 17 ?
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i At 7.3, the matchmaker is basically a 75–25 split between props and early jets, so if you’re not playing Germany or France, you’ll often end up fighting their Sea Hawk Mk.50/100. It’s a strong jet for the BR, but it only has AIM‑9B (Fox‑2) missiles. If you’re paying attention, they’re easy to dodge — but if you’re flying a bomber and not watching your six, good luck.
Bombers also have to deal with two extremely effective bomber hunters:
- S.O.4050 Vautour IIN (Late) — the French “bomber killer,” very fast and armed with Fox‑2 radar‑guided missiles.
- Javelin F.(A.W.) Mk.9 — the British counterpart, also excellent at deleting bombers with radar missiles.
At 7.3–8.3, you’ll constantly see the Swedish premium SAAB‑105OE, and honestly, you can’t blame players — it’s a very strong strike aircraft. It carries two AIM‑9Bs, has great acceleration, and does its job extremely well. There are two tech‑tree versions:
- SAAB‑105A (7.0) — similar performance, also has two AIM‑9Bs.
- SAAB‑105G (8.3) — worse than the premium OE because it carries fewer bombs and rockets, but still has the same missiles.
The U.S. also brings a strong option at 8.3: the F‑9F‑8 Cougar. It carries four AIM‑9Bs, and overall it’s a solid jet. In a pure turn fight against a MiG‑15, the Cougar can actually win — but only if you keep the fight tight and deny the MiG its energy advantage. The key is simple: never let any of these missile‑carrying jets get behind you. Stay close, stay unpredictable, and force gunfights.
At 8.3, roughly half the nations have jets with air‑to‑air missiles, and half don’t. The Soviets are one of the unlucky ones — they don’t get missiles until 9.3, which makes the mid‑tier grind rough.
Once you hit 8.7, things get even worse. You start seeing between 9.0-9.7 Mach‑2 jets but mostly 9.3 -9.7 with the radar part tbh but with radar and rear‑aspect missiles. It’s not as brutal as it was two years ago, when you had to deal with all‑aspect missiles from the A‑10 and Su‑25, but it still sucks if you don’t know how to dodge or notch properly.
So yeah — you’re going to struggle a bit at these BRs. But in close‑quarters gunfights, especially 1v2 or 1v3, you can outperform most nations if you play smart, stay low, and force enemies into your strengths.
Over all u are goin to have a interesting time grinding man
My main concern is that 8.7 puts me into 9.7 territory which has the hunter and the harrier with the sraams. After the buffs to the sraam it can go like 2km and has 45g pull so I dont think there is any counterplay against that
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7.0 - 10.3 is a total balancing mess. I tried to do the same, play some 8.7-9.3 stuff, I gave up
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Yeah mig15 bis has been going terribly so far. MUCH MUCH worse than the mig15. When I play in br the mig15 bis is fine but most of the time I fight nothing but supersonics
Enemy had lightnings and f104s and most of my team just couldnt do anything
Are you trolling or joking?
The BR change when all Migs and Sabres went down in BR was the biggest mistake GJN ever made. The Mig-15bis never was in a better spot than now. Even if it gets 100% full uptiers, recognize you never have to face 9.7 anymore.
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10 games 7 full uptiers and counting. Also my first 2 matches with the mig17 have both been uptiers
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Yeah I wanted to spade all my french planes but those BRs are such a pain to play I just gave up for anything above 7.7 and below 10.0
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Most of the 8.7 planes are good, or generally strong if youre good. There are a few exceptions of course.
The 15bis is under br.
The mig 17 is good/great at 8.7. Typically, i can avg 3.3 kills with it.
The 8.7 match maker is good for (most) 8.7 planes right now. 9.7 isnt a big deal, as there usually arent many harriers, T2s etc.
I am a F2 sabre main, this is a session from last night. ~15 games.
If youre playing fighters, the F2, 17, and 13A are the strongest 8.7s for now.
imo 8.3 > 9.3 is an easier range. You can generally keep up with far more planes.
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My problem is with the mig17 more than anything else. The bis can keep up with 9.3 planes but the mig17 gets sucked into 9.7 undodgable missile brs which is an issue. Now with the sraam buff when a harrier looks at me funny am dead.
Also duh ofc you are doing well
Well, gameplay there is to not let them behind you.
Unfortunately sometimes you explode and thats it. Forced into position where die is only thing that can happen.
well yeah. My point is even at 8.7 with up tier games you can still do good.
Its been a bit since ive played the 17. Mobile view unfortunately removes a lot of info lol
You’ll get there. Dont beat urself up over a 0 kill game.
Espeically if youre in a stock jet.
Ill try
maybe try some low pressure joke jets like the skyhawk, there’s zero pressure to perform and if I die to an f2 or a mig 15, I don’t beat myself up over it, there’s just very little chances for me to beat those even with a good starting position.
This game isn’t worth stressing yourself over.
When I get mad I just hop in the gripen e to get some kills. I got like a 20 kd session in it somehow lmao. But it feels bad when I see everyone talk about how good a plane is only for me to suck in it
Even then, the Mig-15bis is one your best planes regarding to success when I checked your stats. So what?
Mig-17 was 9.0 1 1/2 year ago, with the same bad matchmaker.
Agreed it is
yea it is
tbh they just need to do decompressions at 11.0 and below but i think we all know they wont because there more focus on making money and adding more top tier jets in stead of fixing lower BR brackets witch is dumb as fuck and they u wonder why a lot of new people be quitting tbh they need to fix this damn game and put quality over prophet for at least 2 months to make it easer to play and grind but they wont