Yes it did, however the thread isnt named “F5C used to be bad” , its “F5C is no longer good”.
Well meta is a subjective term.
If you alter your tactic even a little bit instead of bombing / mindlessly rushing the enemy team, both can be very dominant.
With the F5E i have been the sole reason my team won on multiple occasions.
Partially true, individual performance is somewhat irrelevant in the grander view of things , however:
I mentioned my performance with the F-5E because it deviates drastically from my usual stats. (Also it was the most fun i had in months)
While it is true that the first 5-10 matches were horrible , because i tried to play like i normally do.
Instead of rushing i cut the afterburner and i went slow , i found it better to hit the enemy from the side when the main fight is over, since they dont expect it.
5C and 5E have similar engine temps , aka really cold , and that makes it easy to flare incoming missiles.
You shouldnt stick around for a fight you wont win.
Play to your planes strengths. Pulling a reversal on unsuspecting fishbeds is really easy.
Only plane that consistently gave me trouble was the J-7E.
True, the 9J of the F5E(Swiss) is better than the 9E , but at least in my case, AIM-9J was the last upgrade i got.
Most people will see and flare your missiles, so i started using them simply to scare the enemy.
At least 90% of my kills in the F5E come from guns , the last 10% came from AAMs or the occasional AGM-65B shot.
I doubt the F5C is horrible to the extent of being unplayable , maybe a change in tactics wouldn’t hurt.