Even if their missiles might be bad, they can literally outmaneuver everything, have an extremely small profile, and are ridiculously fast. No matter what plane you are flying, it is just zero fun to fight an F-5 because they can effortlessly dodge 30G missiles or just flare them off like it’s nothing, even all-aspect ones like AIM-9Ls.
Why are these aircraft so low when BR balance is supposed to matter? You honestly don’t need any skill to get a ton of kills with this plane, and as soon as someone who actually knows what they’re doing plays the F-5… well, yeah.
Personally, I feel like most of them should be moved up significantly higher, but whatever—I’m really just here to vent and get this off my chest. Anyone else agree with me on this?
Realistic FMs. They are overperforming by quite a bit, around 3°/s too much STR currently for example
Heat Signature fixes. They are ice cold aircraft (on AB they are colder than an F-117) which means they flare everything stupidly easy
Damage model improvements, not necessarily an F-5 issue, but their airframes are naturally very tanky with the current rubbish damage models.
They also need to finally decide whether they will continue to cherry pick CM addition on aircraft or make them accurate (I/e remove flares from the F-5C)
After that. I would say its a compression issue rahter than inherrently a BR issue. Though I wouldnt say no to them all getting a 0.3 BR increase in the short-term
I think this one is pretty obvious, since some jets would have to be lowered to unreasonable BRs if they didn’t have countermeasures. Take the F-15A, it does not have any countermeasures until MSIP/MSIP 2 programme, so the one in game is basically ahistorical. But if it didn’t have countermeasures, it can’t stay at 12.7.
It’s not restricted to countermeasures either, Gaijin has been on record about keeping or adding certain features to vehicles to match the BR they want a vehicle to be in (ex: F-2A ADTW restricted to 7Ms to keep it 13.0).
Gaijin does have a track record of not balancing out older vehicles, this is one of them. We have Kurnass 2k at same br with netz using the same loadout, Kfir C.7 same br as MiG-21 2k with hmd python 3s, etc.
Trouble is every nerf just relegates another vic to the pile of dust.
I missed playing all the jets that used to be good. F104 when it turned. Mirage 2k, kfir without its wobbly ass aim
Swift when its missikes worked and loads more were before my time.
But i have witnessed the death of enough vics to know its a RIP if they mess with the f5s FM
I think the c one at least is 100% fine where it’s at. Being limited to such a bad missile at that rating means even someone unaware of you might accidentally move out of the way
The most controversial one is probably the a one with the high g missiles at 10.7, maybe it just deserves to be 11.0 and be a little subpar there.
The others i don’t think are that problematic being limited by the low missile quantity. People just have to be aware of them and not engage with them for long. Not saying that they aren’t great for their rating
They NEED to fix the fantasy damage immunity that happens sometimes though. I still have a clip saved of a f5c tanking 4 aim9b in quick succession from a friend of mine
F-5s are excessively miserable to play, in my opinion. They have terrible acceleration, lacking speed, and don’t retain energy as well as people say it does. I don’t know wherever you got the “ridiculously fast” or “effortlessly dodge 30G missiles” from, because both of those are false. Even on later variants, just by turning every once in a while, you’re going to be constantly stuck at 800 km/h TAS unless you overheat your engine on burner. Even at your fastest, you will barely pass 1.0 Mach on the deck. The maneuverability is correspondingly mediocre as you are constantly stuck in a low-energy state. It feels like playing a MiG-21F-13 or J-7II, only with better energy retention.
Only for F-5As and at lower speeds. NF-5A and F-5Es regain speed quite quick above 600kmh IAS
No jet at its entire br bracket other than the F-16A retains energy as well as it does. Most planes do not hold 500-700kmh IAS with such a tight turning circle. Delta wings have better AoA and stall fighting power but no sustained energy.
Not a big issue since your plane is made to dogfight people and making them drop speed, rather than to intercept other players.
Don’t stall fight migs. Keep up your speed and your engine and your airframe will keep you flying, while other planes would be on a timer.