Is the F14B worth getting or is it a novelty?

Game Discussion General Discussion
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#1

Hey there.

I just got my Mig 29 and F-16 recently and am loving both. However, I always see a bunch of F14’s. Once I expend my radar missiles in the Mig-29, it becomes quite hard to kill them due to their insane amount of flares. However, most of the time I end up winning due to them either just getting completely energy trapped or because the F14 plays it wrong.

However, I do not know if this is them playing the plane wrong or it is not a great plane. Once I finish getting my Mig 29 and F-16 spaded, I’m thinking about going for it. So, is it worth it? Or is it just a novelty and not as good as something like the Mig or F16?

#2

I would say F-14B is better than F-16 and fits the meta since it has more missiles and ton of
countermeasures.
It is also more fun to play, you can pull come G’s and easly snap someone beacuse its very responsive and if you are bored you can just climb and shoot AIM 54C not very effective but can be fun

#3

It’s not the best thing ever.

Maybe I’m bad at top tier jets but the combination of having bad top speed, bad low-speed acceleration, and mediocre rate capability vs the other 12.0s in the game - well, it doesn’t feel like a very meta vehicle to me. Yes you can pull for shots, but by doing so you bleed speed that you’re not getting back. You lose the ratefight to the F-16 and the mig29, you don’t pull more aoa than the mig29 either, and if you try to pop combat flaps to help the instantaneous turnrate you will usually blow your own wings off, so all in all the flight model is nothing special.

The fact that the aim7F is now completely outperformed by the R-27ER does not help; the fact that trying to launch phoenixes from high altitude will just get you killed is just another nail in the coffin. Oh, and it doesn’t get HMD for its pulse doppler or for its IR missiles, so even getting aim-9Ls doesn’t make it meta after the introduction of Python 3s to the game.

The F-14B is just… okay. If you own the MiG-29 already, you don’t need the F-14B.

It’s a novelty experience that is not worth the days I spent grinding it.

#4

I dont disagree that the r27ER is very good, but remember the F14B can carry 6 (or was it 8?) sparrows, while the mig29 can only carry 2 ER’s

#5

yeah i love the R27’s but the fact you only get 2 of them then have to use R60’s makes me sort of hate Mig 29. Aim 7M’s still rock as well on my F16.

#6

Yes, but the only thing that will stop a good launch of a 27ER is another missile getting to the target first.

Sparrows take so much time to reach the target that they can either notch out, or get to ground level before the missile reaches the position. So 4 Aim-7M = 2 R-27ER, and there’s diminishing returns - you’re not likely to fire 6 sparrows in 1 game, and early-game kills matter more, which is what the R-27ER is good at. + F-14B radar is easy to notch, sure you can switch into SRC mode but chaff exists.

Also, the MiG-29 gets HMD PD, which lets it hug the deck while firing missiles at people above it. The F-16 cannot do this, because if you want to fire a missile at a guy at 1500 meters, you have to pitch up to get the lock, and then you compress so hard that by the time you get back down to the deck an R27ER is already in your face and you die.

Tack on the poor flight performance of the F-14B (compared to the MiG-29 and F-16) and you end up with a plane that’s more of a novelty than a toptier metagamer. No HMD PD / IR, doesn’t have the best IR missiles or SARH, and the Phoenixes are more of a gimmick. It excels at nothing.

#7

Currently, the f14b is cut off as a radar, both speed and maneuverability, so I do not recommend it at this time.Although there is one advantage of the f14b (it can be used for a head-on collision with the top missiles at the moment and the same phoenixes without descending and turning away from the target (this could be done before the missile swing was updated, and now it is even easier), but I will not say how exactly

#8

Since stating which vehicle is “good” will vary wildly from player to player, I’ll say that the F-14B is a lot like the F-16’s in the sense that there’s a mixed bag of strong traits and very weak traits the aircraft has.

Pros:

Large missile playload, if you subscribe to the idea that # of missiles is important, then it’s a big plus.

Large number of countermeasures if you take the flare pods with the 9L sacreficing the extra Aim 7Ls, on paper you’re effectively never going to die to IR even if you take mixed countermeasures.

It’s got solid flight performance all round, maybe not as good as a mig 29 in a sustained dogfight, but still better than most stuff you’ll be seeing.

Lots of radar modes and a very long search distance, I personally don’t see the use in this, but you have it.

Cons:

You’re heavy, and therefore don’t have the greatest acceleration in the world, so try to keep your speed.

The radar can be painful because it only has look-down in front aspect, so don’t be expecting to lock things from the side or rear in about 90% of cases, sometimes causes Sparrows to lose lock in mostly front aspect if the enemy is at your alt or below.

The wings will sometimes decide to spontaneously break, doesn’t happen often, but sometimes at even sub mach speeds in a straight line, the wings will fall off, likely a bug in the code, but still a problem.

Bugs, this vehicle has a ton of tech, so it’s much more susceptible to systems working incorrectly than any of the other top jets, bugs, or if a system has had cumulative nerfs, it might behave weirdly. If you want to play a lot of this jet at top tier, just accept that something will not be functioning properly at any given time.

#9

I see alot of people playing the F-14B wrong. It’s got a high skill ceiling but played right has much higher kill potential than the MiG-29 or F-16 since it is a heavy fighter.

IMO with 3 phoenixs you can typically pick up one or two kills by going straight off the runway and launching 3 at TWS tracked targets once you reach 30 miles to the target. Keep them locked while in a shallow dive and then break lock and dive to the ground in notch at 15 miles while flaring. Your phoenixes will connect with any premium bomber players and you’ll dodge any return fire.

From here just stay above Mach 1.2 on the deck which is really easy in the F-14 and shoot targets of opportunity.

If it comes down to a dog fight you have a ton of cannon Ammo and amazing turn rate with landing flaps and fully swept out wings