Gaijin seems hell-bent on making the zeroes some of the most overtiered planes in the game, like the hot garbage A6M6c being 5.0, the A6M5 Ko sitting at 5.3.
“How do we fix this?” Is what you may be asking yourself.
I know it may be unpopular, but here’s my solution.
Currently, all zeroes are actually overperforming in terms of flight characteristics, being able to roll and pitch far better than they actually were able to at higher speeds.
Testing from captured examples, and in the field found that it was basically impossible to maneuver at high speed with it, and later in the war it became part of allied tactics to exploit these weaknesses.
If this is fixed, I definitely could see the zeroes going down in BR by approx. 1.3-0.7.
But what do I know? I’m just some random ramblin’ fool on the internet.
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I see the problem more with the players who go into the turnfight with a Zero over and over again. I have to admit that I exploit this mercilessly in GRB and take my 3.7 Chinese Premium Zero up to 5.7 and have a lot of fun with it.
It gets really hairy as soon as you meet a pilot who knows what he’s doing. And that’s not often the case.
11 Likes
That’s what the zero should be doing, however things get a bit worse ('specially with the A6M5) if you’re both on equal energy or the zero is slightly higher than you. If it gets on your ass you basically have nothing you can do because it doesn’t really compress in dives as much as it should. Combo that with the annoying tendency for the average a6m5 ko pilot to chase you to the ends of the earth, even though he can’t catch you in a straight line. it’s enough to basically leave you in a position where you usually can’t engage any other targets.
And the only strat that has any chance of working with no teammates around is slowly extending away in the straight, then forcing a headon. I’ve sometimes had to repeat this like, 2-3 times in my mustang, and by the time I’ve taken him out, my team’s basically gone lmao.
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Some vehicles and aircraft often fail due to a lack of team play. I enjoy those moments when two or three players randomly find each other and have a good sense of what the other will do.
As a Zero enjoyer, I will miss my little plane flying literal circles around an enemy but I’m down for historical weaknesses and the chance for it to finally get lowered in BR some.
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If the flight models for japan were not so arcadey and silly and people did not choose to turn fight a zero, the br’s would be like they were, which i enjoyed.
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Zeroes will keep going up as long as people decide to turnfight every plane they see (US in particular).
So won’t be stopping soon.
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Just stop turn fighting them, that’s literally it. People are the problem, not the plane… a Zero is about as fast as an Me 264 heavy bomber… skill issue.
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The late zeroes like the a6m5 a6m6c and the other heavy Zeroes are all severely overtiered because specifically US players refuse to stop turnfighting them in planes absolutely cannot win a turnfight, the amount of times ive had A P-51D or P-47 attempt to turnfighti my A6M5 genuinely makes me believe i have to be fighting bots sometimes
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Except I’m not trying to do that. I’m trying to get speed/stay out of their guns, and the zero’s goofy ahistorical arcade FM makes that a very hard thing to do.
Its pretty easy to kill a zero in a deflection shot they’re usually so incredibly slow that despite turning a whole 180° away from you they’re still in your gunsight
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A6M6 might as well be a free kill. Lead em up in the vertical with enough energy on your end and if they follow, they’re dead.
Make every US main stop turn fighting it
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Yes, but that’s what the Zero should be good at. Punishing inexperienced pilots who stick a fight with it for too long. What I’m suggesting is just an extra option for counterplay.
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A Zero has Zero speed, it’s basically a stationary target that can only shoot at you if you let it.
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The A6M6c is certainly over tiered. It had a lot of extra armour weight but no power increase and consequently loses energy a lot faster in tight manoeuvres than other variants.
It still makes a decent bomber killer, and a secondary ground attacker, but for fighter v fighter it’s lacking. It’s premium status however means it will likely always be the last to have it’s BR changed even if it desperately needs it.
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That would be true, with the exception of the A6M5 and A6M5 Ko. Because if they happen to have the energy advantage, and you’ve just finished climbing back up to alt, you’re done. Diving away ain’t an option, especially with the -Ko and it’s 470MPH rip speed.
I doubt you’ve played it much in ARB, though. Just judging by your stats in the thing.
I see “zero” problem here 😉
Spoiler
I’m going to go sit in the shame corner for that one…😞
4 Likes
I have 300 battles in it, seems fine.
And if another plane has energy advantage you generally lose, that goes for a lot of planes, and it’s not like the Zero is fast climber either.
You’d think so, but this wouldn’t change much.
According to the guys at Planes of Fame, which do have an A6M5 that was restored with the help of Jiro Horikoshi himself, the Zero only starts being limited in turn past ~280mph.
280mph is right about 450kph, and any Zero isn’t gonna be at that speed for very long with their weak 1100hp engines.
Sure, it’ll be worse in a dive than it is now, but all he has to do is pull back up, let you throw away your altitude, and re-commit a bit later. Or go after someone else now that you’re not a threat anymore.
I’d still like to see this change, but personally from all the times I fly the Zeros out, I rarely get a turnfight at 450kph+ that is so close that this nerf would actually make a big change in how I play them.
2 Likes
