I can’t fathom enjoying this plane at all. I have been consistently being matched with the WORST of the WORST teammates. No amount of positioning or replay-winding knowledge I can get will remedy the fact that 11.0+ is cooked beyond belief.
There isn’t a single match I can remember having a fun time in this thing at all. It’s always “My team is 10.7-11.3 against like five 11.7-12.0’s” or “What happened to the 13 MiG-23ML’s or F4S’??” Anything above this br is pure pain. I don’t know if this is Gaijin’s plan of gentrifying top tier to make it so that even RESERVE BR has some actual functioning brains.
I’m sorry for this rant, but I genuinely despise anything above 11.0’s. I wonder how do people even remotely enjoy playing above certain brackets at this point.
The F-5E very much is made for air RB, and its missile loadout is the only thing that’s weak about it. It’s not fast, but it has very good energy retention and overall great flight performance.
This is true, and you can blame Gaijin for allowing people to pay their way to the top. It isn’t right that 8.0-9.7 has a higher average skill level than 11.3-13.0.
Valid rant.
Skill ends up coming back around 13.3+, mostly because there aren’t any premiums there (yet). Unfortunately that BR range has other issues.
making that statement, i want you to make sure you looked all around.
The flight performance of the F-5E isnt the greatest, its mediocre at that rank. Most planes ourtun it, many planes can have maneuver fights with it. Its not that it flies bad, its that it’s flight performance isnt enough to play at the BRs where rocket performance usually counts more than flight performance.
That being said, the F-5E has good enough performance for ground rb. It’s a good attacker and a fighter at a same time, the rocket layout works a bit better without markers and the AGM-65B (that F-5C lacks for example) makes it a good plane for GRB. So, comparing its pros and cons for air and ground game mods, i assume that this plane is more than capable of carrying the Attacker role, but underperforms as a fighter. Meaing it`s just made for ground game mode.
You cant say the same for kfir Canard for example (i recently bought it and i struggle alot with it). It has better flight performance but still having only 2 bad rockets for 11.0 makes it too hard to play as a fighter. But then, it lacks the armanment t be a bomber or an attacker. So its just bad overall - its not made for ground as it lacks anti-ground armanment, so i assumed it would be a great fighter. But it also underperforms as air.
I’m sorry for this random ass post out of nowhere, but I’m passionate about winning because I tended to clutch and carry most of my props and jets (that are mostly gunfighters etc.) So It’s disheartening to see most of my teams go KAPOOF, I look around and see “how do they die so fast?” then it’s them trying to BVR with SARH’s against like 3-5 people; awful positioning; questionable dogfighting tactics/maneuvers; crashing trying to land of all things.
I seriously think if they barred people from buying top tier jets without a rank 5 or a rank 3 on that TT, it’ll cut down some of the less-than-less-average players.
It’s also MORE disheartening seeing people who just bomb on premiums then leave, who the fuck does that?
I admit, I bought the MiG-23ML on a sale, but for 3 days straight I watched extensive videos about it, radar mechanics, notching mechanics, missile kinematics, general plane matchups, etc. (This was during pre-compression era where F14’s could fight early Phantoms etc.) So what gives now? These events and sales give the worst of the worst wallet warriors a chance to be worse on br’s where you can’t afford to not look around for 1 second else you get shoved an IR.
If you check records of your team, it seems to be there is no learning curve at all. Because even players with hundreds of battles in their plane have the same stupid behaviour.
And what is this thing about squadrons nowadays? Looks like they do nothing except farming squad points for vehicles.
My theory is, as this “grinding” thing appeared they all threw away their brain.
Real. But then take a look towards the F5E SCU (or, by extension, F5T)
Python 3, same baller flight performance. The F5T even has a HMD. Slap stealth belts on, use the EEGS and absolutely monster on anything. Only issue is being 11.3 it can face the F18/F16, but thats what the suprise python 3 is for.
I dont have the SCU, but i have an FCU. And having 4 GOOD rockets at single BR step from 2 dogs*t ones is basically an idiocracy, FCU is a great for any purpose - both as attacker and as fighter, specially because it has some flares and 4 good rockets, 2 pythons and 2 9p4. Even i as a weak pilot do some kills with it.
Problem with it is that it’s using the completely wrong weaponry: This upgrade version should have all-aspect AIM-9P-4 and even 9P-5, but is restricted to the 9P-3 which (in the game at least) is only rear-aspect.
Swiss Tigers should have the AN/APQ-159 and the Sidewinder versions I mentioned, NOT a PD radar it never had in the Swiss AF, but with weapons that were phased out way before the upgrade.
…and this is even worse with the Mirage IIIS, which also should have 9P-4/5’s, but only got 9E’s. Still a complete mystery for me why they explicitly modelled the upgraded KAWEST 85 variant, but gave it weapons that were phased out already a decade before the upgrade…
Honestly it’s the better choice due to not having US premium players on your side most of the time, and ngl I still choose the F-5E over the J7E due to the fact it’s still at 11.0
Just use the F-8E. The F-5s are all mid-subpar, yet ppl complain they’re overpowered cause they’re American and there’s a lot of em.
The F-8E has better engine, better turning at most speeds, really strong radar missiles, EEGS, and Colt Mk.12 (I consider that better but it’s fully subjective). All this and somehow it’s at 10.7.
Buddy the only reason you can think that is because it’s obscured by the lack of missiles which requires people to actually aim and hit a bit to be successful. The average player in those brs flies an attacker and only bombs, or a g91r4 and fires all four missiles at an aware and dodging target from 2km away. It’s a miracle when half of the enemy team in a 1v6 situation doesn’t kill themselves on landing or by trying to strafe ground units.
And trust me on this, i have played this BR range more than any other for thousands of games in the last year or two. Average skill level is abysmal wherever you go on the BR bracket.
The only thing the F8E actually does a tiny bit better is accelerate in a straight line, but at sea level it is speed limited to below even F5E levels. TWR is broadly similar as well.
