I’m very new to top tier, and I know from reading that the Gripen is out of the meta due to lack of BVR. However I’m still going to play it to at least finish the tech tree grind for the future possibility of added weaponry or Gripen E variants. I’m still enjoying forcing dogfights and it seems to me that people don’t expect the RB 74(M) missiles that I throw at them and they seem super reliable no matter what angle they get thrown at.
My question is: Is it worth it to even bring RB71 anymore, I cant tell if they are just unreliable or I am using them wrong (throwing them out at 5-8km in head-on or side engagements)? When everyone is already flying on the deck for fear of Fox 3s should I just bring a full loadout of RB 74(M) with BOLs for the huge load of countermeasures?
I personally recommend full RB74(M) loadout on Gripen A. The dogfight sparrows are good at 11.3, but not at 13.0 when everyone has longer range radar missiles and more importantly expects them. At 13.0 everyone is adept at multipathing to avoid radar missiles. Better to go with good ir missiles and flank people without your radar.
While the gripen A is indeed not in the meta atm, don’t let people fool you into thinking it’s some useless air sled. You can still have fun with it and do very well.
I’d say either 6x 9M or 4/2 loadouts are fine. It generally depends on your playstyle and how you approach fights. I would primarily suggest to try to make the 4/2 setup work as it has the most flexibility but if you find you don’t care for RB71s you can still swap them.
The RB71 should work fine so long as the enemy doesn’t notch you, multipath you, or “sparrow roll” your missile. That sounds like a lot of ways to avoid it but most players don’t know how to notch properly and most people also don’t know what sparrow rolls are. Basically, just don’t fire them at people hugging the ground, and try to fire them in head on aspect.
Also, fire them at slightly shorter ranges. These are just AIM-7E2s and they don’t have good range compared to other radar missiles at the BR. If you are slightly above sea level, fire them at like 5km range. If you are at altitude, you can try 5-8km, but further than 8-10km is asking for the missile to run out of energy.
Also also, an alternative is to use a 5/1 loadout if that’s possible.
The RB71s are Skyflash DFs which are an average performing (not the best but also not the worst) SARH missile at 12.0. But really top out at being good on the JA37C at 11.3 (or FGR2/FG1 at 11.3 in SB)
By the time of the Gripen A at 13.0. They are a weak missile. Far far weaker than the Aim-7M/P and especially R-27ERs that you’ll be facing and thats just the SARH. ARH missile like Aim-120A/B are a league above them.
You might, and I do stress this “might” want just 1 or 2 for the really rare occasion where an SARH is just better than an Aim-9M. (like say if the target is pre-flaring but not notching and not flying low) But 95% of the time, you want to leverage your FM performance and be using Aim-9Ms in WVR and even when you do use that Skyflash, you wont be winning any BVR battles except against the worst of players in a full downtier and you’ll be using them at WVR ranges.
Should also be noted I have a theory the Skyflash DFs are bugged when guided via PD, but I havent gathered enough data to actually prove or disprove that yet and its not an SARH missile I really use much these days. But I am not the only one that has observed… wierdness with them when guided via PD
You should be able to bring Skyflash + BOL. So if you cant for whatever reason, then yes, that is even more reason to just bring Aim-9M + BOL. You’ll need every single one of those CMs to keep going. Even if BOL is in an incredibly nerfed state at the moment.
Gripen A is stuck between a rock and a hard place as the best WVR fighter at 13.0 and destroys in downtiers, but lacks BVR for the 13.0-14.0 bracket which is dominated by a BVR meta.
So it cannot go down, but needs to.
Gripen C is okay, underperforming and has a long list of needed buffs, but okay and has average BVR performance. But Yes, Gripen E is long overdue
Just checked and there is no option to use RB71 with BOL, I’ll just stick with the RB74. I’ve been playing some matches with running one RB71 and 5 RB 74(M), and every Skyflash I throw just gets lost or eats dirt. Seems better to just throw missiles that don’t warn people that they’re coming with RWR. Thanks for the tips.