The problem is simple. The Rafale F4 is the only 14.7/15.0 aircraft in game right now. Most nations don’t have 14.3s yet (like for example Sweden still doesn’t have the Gripen NG/E) and those that do have an aircraft that should be able to compete are being artificially nerfed, like the Typhoon.
It’s easy to win a one horse race.
Give all nation Rafale F4 equivalents and it’s win rate will drop instantly. The first step should be giving everyone ESA radar and then HOBS
In the meantime they should just do what they do to everything else. Use loadout as a balancing tool.
I think we need something right now. Besides adding new aircraft, wouldn’t it be nice to include France in the mix match list? Currently, the USSR and the US are experiencing a mix match system
Could also just give the MICA EM the same placeholder seeker everything else has, remove it’s ahistorical sustainer and limit it to 6. If you look at the M2Ks at 14.0, they are doing extremely well as well. So it’s clearly the MICA EMs being too OP
Win rate is team skill, so the teams have highly skilled players facing less skilled players.
The KDR in relation to the better teams indicate skilled individual players.
The Rafale is an 8 missile carrier that has good AMRAAMs, it’s not alone as so does every tech tree.
The fear it causes, the players are playing into. The myth causes some of the performance, psychological warfare.
Like when people were falsely claiming T-80BVM was OP despite it never being OP. Psychological warfare + a lot of skilled players.
Jagdpanzer IV being actually OP, but players don’t care so it stays under the radar.
Usually the most popular things are not OP things, though sometimes they are.
MICAs just work insanely well in the current meta, because of their deadliness in the inevitable furball. The Rafale just combines that with the best radar and an amazing FM for maximum effectiveness.
Its not a coincidence that the top 3 Planes per K/D are all the MICA slingers
Gaijin should either Buff BVR in some capacity where the MICA is worse than the other Fox3s or give other nations Missiles that are comparable in closer range to make the furball more even
The answer is really simple; it is the most handheld plane in the game. It is even more handheld than the MiG-23 MLD was when it was facing purely F-4 Phantoms and the like.
I have next to no experience in ARH top tier meta, and I am currently playing one handed with a HOTAS and first person view.
I am able to win 80 percent of my games with no strategy involved. I am inexplicably better at Air RB in the Rafale with just one hand and a HOTAS than guys who have multiple thousands of games in the same busted plane for 9 months.
If you think it’s broken in Air RB…just imagine how it is in Air SB. Me and two other people were able to make it so nobody wanted to play against us just by going to different lobbies with the Rafale. It got to a point where I could watch one guy quit my game and he would join another game on my friends side explicitly for the purpose of not having to fight the plane.
Now that it’s finally getting buffed again, myself and a few other people are probably going to make it a point to use it as much as possible in top tier sim as soon as the new patch drops so that more people learn to avoid it.
i agree that French players are more skilled in average than US or USSR - simply because people willing to play and grind France are faced with difficult aircrafts to play with since rank 1:
MS-405/6 aren’t the best aircrafts - requires to learn awareness of Bf-109A/B/E’s fighting at such BR’s
D.520’s and VG.33 aren’t the fastest aircrafts, so they also gives some hints on how to play differently
VB.10’s are horrendeous to play with - requires to learn energy fighting
MB.157 have only 120 rounds of 20mm - requires to learn aiming
US lend leased break in Mid-tiers
then goes Jets:
MD.450’s - Slow jets for 7.7 - learn to play defensive and reversal.
MD452’s - Low Nose authority for 8.0/8.3 - requires to aim from longer ranges with guns
F-8E(FN) - NO Flares/chaffs, no Mach2 - requires to fight with caution, and knowing how to break missiles kinetically
Mirage F.1’s - not the best turn fighter, and harsh missiles (outside of Magic-2’s) - requires to plan your actions to get a lot of kills.
Mirage 4000 - Horrendeous to play with at 13.0, when you face constant uptier against Fox-3’s
So yes, French Mains, getting to High tiers are rewarded by skill-learning and good stuff to play with.
it’s normal that French Mains are, in average, better than their counterparts.
Rafale F.3R was added by Gaijin, but it’s still largely nerfed, when considering the potential add-ons it can recieves - MICA-IR / SCALP / METEORS / AM.39
That’s also why i thought that Gaijin made a mistake, by not adding Rafale M F.1 and Rafale C F.2.2 in the first place.
The Rafale F.3R will continue to recieve more and more stuff, until the Rafale F.4 enters the game with MICA NG IR and MICA NG EM.
