DISCLAIMER: I am by no means a good war thunder player, most of this is opinion and people much better than me may have different opinions, proceed with caution.
Hello and welcome to a guide written by an idiot for idiots. I will try to impart as much decent advice as I can, enjoy!
The first and biggest thing is CLIMBING!!! The amount of people who I see not climbing is absurd, this plane will not perform if you do not climb. The optimal altitude is about 5000 meters, just below contrail altitude and out of the spotting system for the lawnmowers. “But sideways, the radar missiles will get you”. No they won’t, the radar missiles at this tier are few and far between, most of them are also mowing the lawn on the deck and their radar won’t even pick you up, it’s all good. If your little 4 sector RWR is holding steady on one sector drop one or two pieces of chaff. Almost all radar missiles you will see are pulse, meaning chaff gets them every time. There is really no reason to dip below 1000 meters in this thing, it may be a MiG-21 and be good at dogfighting but that’s a recipe for disaster by 3rd party. You are a very fast jet, you will often be the first into battle, I normally reach 1.4 Mach in this thing. The key is not to dive on the first target, your whole team will focus them and you are unlikely to get the kill and now you’ve lost your positioning. Don’t target flareless planes UNLESS you are alone, they get focused at the beginning of the match and your team is likely to steal that kill as well. Wait until there is a large furball and dive on that, they’ll have no idea. Go for the most clueless looking ones first (usually not TT planes, mostly premiums) and send your cruise missile PL-5Bs their way. Always try to help your teammates who are being chased first.
Alrighty, you know not to be an idiot and to climb, what’s next? NOT BOMBING, DO NOT BOMB IN YOUR J-7D!!! It is woefully ineffective and you are a detriment to your team, stick to the missiles. I take 25 minutes of fuel (85%) and have yet to run out mid match. I prefer 52 flares and 20 chaff because they deploy 2 at once, you don’t need a lot of chaff but those flares will save you. Now for what you’ve all been waiting for… the missiles! I prefer 2 PL-5Bs and 2 PL-7s, a lot of players take 3 PL-5s or 4, I like the added dogfight capabilities the PL-7s have but it’s mostly just personal preference. The PL-5Bs have some crazy launch ranges, only launch if you are gaining on the target though, when diving on people I go for a 3.5km launch if I’m gaining fast and a 3km launch if I’m gaining slowly, they’ll never see it. It is 1 tap flared VERY easily though so be warned. The PL-7s are for anything in between gun range and PL-5B range, that’s why I take them for that extra 1.5km to 0.4km capability. When the stat card says 35Gs, they MEAN it. These things have some crazy pull and you don’t need to lead them nearly as much as the PL-5Bs, try to whenever possible though.
It’s honestly a pretty good grinder, I find myself having quite a bit of fun with it and it does well at taking in RP. It is also a fantastic choice for grinding events with.
That’s really all I have to say, feel free to ask any questions if they come up!