They told me J-7E was good. They lied. It’s my first tier 7 plane and yeah it has an okay flight model, but why does it matter if nobody wants to rate fight? In an event where I do get on someones 6, they just speed away. And even if I do eventually get into a dogfight, I drop so much speed that I end up getting swarmed by the rest of the team and unable to run away.
And don’t get me started on the gun. 850 shots/min with a velocity of 795 m/s. The enemy planes go straight through my bursts.
Defyn said it’s one of his favorites and he can’t be wrong, so clearly I’m doing something incorrectly. How do you guys find the J-7E? What is your playstyle and do you find success with it? I’m asking for any advice because I don’t know how to approach this vehicle.
It’s great at 1v1s, but has terrible match presence, due to the lack of any all-aspect missiles or a powerful cannon.
The main strategy I have used for years is:
Take off, head in the direction of the allied bases on the right (since that is where the enemy team will be)
Accelerate to Mach 1, then climb at a 30 degree angle until you are around 5.5 kilometres; keep afterburner on for maximum speed. Be sure not to go into contrails altitudes.
Wait until you are above and slightly passed over the main mass of enemies.
Conduct a massive orbital strike on the enemies. Deploy airbrakes, perform a split-S, fire off as many missiles as possible at aircraft within ~4.5km.
This is one of the most powerful things you can do in Air RB, still works to this day, despite the 2023 nerf to missiles drag or the addition of contrails.
Generally, during the mid game, you try to third-party enemies, save your team mates, etc. Keep your speed and don’t try to do sustained dogfights in the middle of the map. Conserve your PL-5Bs as necessary. You become very powerful in the endgame, this is where you can fully utilize the powerful FM.
Climb to 5km and drop PL-5Bs on zombers. Once there’s only real players left your goal in dogfighting should be to get people very slow and at a low angle in front of you. That presents the best shot opportunities.
I tried replicating your playstyle today and it kinda worked. On average, this got me 2 - 3 kills a match which is certainly an improvement.
The main thing that kept me from trying this tactic before were SARH missiles. Maybe I got lucky, but I didn’t meet that many MIG-23’s this time. Do radar missiles bother you at all? Would notching be just enough to stay completely safe?
One thing i’ve noticed is that this works worse on mountain maps where the contrails appear much closer to the ground. What do you do in this situation?
Getting targeted by a SARH carrier can have a variety of outcomes. If you notch and chaff after a few seconds, many players will lose interest in you and go for other targets. (Make sure to bring some chaff)
If you get targeted while at attack position, tough luck. In this case you won’t be able to do the strategy anymore. However, notching while flying back to your team is possible. Many times this will result in a good intercept solution for your teammates.
In other cases, if a plane is really committed to intercepting you, you can also lead them to the edge of the map, and duel them there.
In Afghanistan and similar maps, I usually go on the main path with my team, on the way to the left enemy bases. You can’t really orbital strike anyone, but you can still make passes through the main furball (if one happens) or target isolated enemies chasing you teammates.
A majority of the time, your targets will be aware of you. This can pose a problem as the gun is of limited power, despite being excellent in some aspects, and PL-5Bs can be easily flared, like most IR missiles. That’s the main drawback of the J-7E, limited match presence and power over the enemy.
Solution: If you can reach within 1 kilometre of the enemy plane, firing PL-5Bs is still a good idea. If the enemy flares too late, due to rise time, the flares won’t get hot enough until it is too late. This is the best option for getting kills on enemies that are aware of your presence.
The J-7E is pretty good, but Im a mig man. Go with what the first guy replied to you with the oriental charactors for a name…
Let me say one thing about DEFYN. While he is an incredible pilot, and I wish I had his defensive skills, but everybody flies differently and there have been a few times I researched a plane he really liked and I couldnt do anything with it…but he has his own style and he is pretty superb in anything really…but Ive been playing since BETA and I know everyone flies differently. Probably when you know you are getting really super good, you or anyone can unbend their mind and adopt to a planes strengths and get away from a “pat” type of style…I am guilty of that. So, just because DEFYN is superb, he isnt the final word on any plane.
Most planes in the mig21 frame, you have to keep your energy up and make wide sweeps vertically or horizontally then get the hell out of dodge. Once you start turning a lot its death, you already see it bleeds energy quickly as a delta wing. Circle the field keeping the enemy to your side, or below you and use its AoA in a couple of turns or one once you spot a victim.
Dude I used to hate Mig 21 Lazur M…then once I broke my mind of my previous playstyle and started using its strengths, and Im good with mig 21 cannon now, it is one of my killers. First 40 flights or so I prob died 35 times, now, it is a plane I will use if I good silver bonus going because I know Im going to do well in it.
If you were to look at a lot of my planes on Player Card, that is my issue mate…I want to make my style of flying fit every plane, instead of finally getting through my head that every plane is different.
Flying styles are unique to everyone, as you know watching these pilots on YouTube…Thats why you see so many childish arguments on the Forum about which plane is best and so on…because everybody has a different approach.
Keep your speed up in that thing, think about a trash 104, but a mig 21 frame has that kind of speed and handles well in quick short turns. Use your airbrake briefly in an encounter and try to get them to slip in front of you, as you know in a straight line you have a lot of thrust as long as you dont start trying to treat it like a Zero or a Sabre for instance.
Dude I have the Ace tag now, that was my goal when I first started WT…after I got that I am not stat driven…dont care what a troll will say, when I get a new plane I will fly it 20-40 times in different scenarios to see what it can and cant do, then I will start being serious in it, until then I dont sit and look at my K/D ratio, Im over that now, because once I know what it can do, then the airkills will come.
Good Luck Mate.
Youre exactly right about the furball, any mig21 frame has to make passes through it and not stay in it. I happen to really like mig21 frames,…three of my killers are Lazer M, Bison, and mig 21 SMT.