After Ninth Wave, top tier air honestly feels worse than ever. Anything above 13.3 is just… not enjoyable.
Most matches turn into the same thing: everyone climbs to like 10km, flies in a straight line, and starts spamming missiles. That’s it. You barely get actual fights anymore. And the weird part is this is happening in jets that are supposed to be insanely maneuverable, but none of that matters because everything is decided before you even get close.
I know I’m not the only one feeling this either. A lot of games just feel decided by who launches first or who gets a better radar lock early on.
Some of the main problems:
BVR missile spam is basically the whole gameplay loop now
Dogfights almost never happen, or they end instantly
Uptiers feel really bad — some planes just can’t compete at all
BR compression at top tier makes things even worse
Counterplay feels inconsistent (sometimes flares/chaff work, sometimes they just don’t)
Teams just blob together and throw missiles instead of actually fighting
Maps don’t really help, they just encourage this playstyle
I’m not saying remove missiles or anything, but right now it feels like maneuvering skill barely matters compared to just having better missiles/radar.
At the very least:
Reduce BR spread at top tier (±0.7 would help a lot)
Decompress 13.0+ so aircraft aren’t forced into bad matchups
Give us more reliable ways to counter missiles
Maybe adjust maps/objectives so it’s not just “climb and launch” every game
Right now top tier feels more like a missile simulator than an air combat game. It’d be nice if there was a bit more actual fighting again.
