The earliest MiG-21F-13 has been a bit of an underdog for quite a while now but the recent changes completely trashed its viability.
The “turn rate” nerf that affected the Fishbed flight model in reality just affected their energy retention, which is notoriously already abysmal on these platforms. I tried taking out the F-13 again after the decompression, thinking the MM for it would be much better but it feels borderline unplayable. These seemingly tiny changes affected it dramatically.
-Turning is no longer an option unless you want to instantly go from Mach 1 to 500 km/h
-Accelerates like a prop so any energy you lose you need to spend an eternity regaining (I swear it wasn’t this bad just a couple of months ago but I could be imagining things)
-60 rounds which consistently result in “Hit” despite being 30mm HEF-I
-Has to face the F8U spam along with all the other undodgable missile flingers
-Struggles to go past Mach 1 unless you climb to contrail altitude
-Can’t go lower in BR because then it’d stomp early jets
All the while the F-104 is still at the same BR.
Has anyone else that has flown it recently felt such a change? It was the aircraft I had the most consistent performance with, even in the old full uptiers fighting F-5Cs. Now I feel like a free kill for literally anyone - can’t outrun missiles, can’t outdogfight anything, any chance to shoot at someone either costs me half my ammo or results in a “Hit”.