What are the heavy bombers for? Most of the time while one is busy getting the bombsight on target you are just watching smaller aircraft knocking out the targets so that the heavies are more or less just there as targets for fighters. I guess one doesn´t need to bother anymore loading up with bombs as with a heavy you can only decorate the landscape with them.
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At this point, I just consider heavy bombers a relic of past gameplay.
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That is the feeling I have the Pe8 is a waste of time, after watching all targets disappear before getting even one target lined up, I leave the game, as I refuse to fly the thing only as a fighter target.
While they are Relatively Useless as it stands, Gaijin could improve them drastically by just changing there brs, spawn point, or even how they affect the mission.
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Well in games like IL2 Sturmovik they where usefull and could have game influence, but with War Thunder anything beyond a medium is a waste of time. Unless one enjoys playing target.
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Not much these days unfortunately with only a few being effective at their BR or in certain modes example ASB or in certain cases NF with high level bombing against shipping but for ARB 90% of them are worthless nowadays (not sure about AAB might be more fun there), Meanwhile in GF they’re essentially a fun way to say screw everything at that on capture point.
If ARB could finally get an EC mode after all these years of asking you would likely see more use in heavy bombers then the current poxy nature of the forcibly turned TDM that’s ARB post 2018 (25 mins really screw over such bombers along with the changes to bombing bases & airfields).
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I use to really enjoy flying the Lancaster, but they’ve been so massively handicapped and the gamemodes changed to be so anti-bomber that I really dont know anymore. Its a real shame.
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Heavy bombers are still effective in GRB. Most players who fly either never seem to see it because they are so intent on enacting revenge bombing on their foe that killed them, or they chase them from behind until they die from the gunners or airfield AAA.
Pe-8 is only for loopings and wiping teams in RGB ^^
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Heavy bombers not really have a place in ARB… they are useful(ish) in other modes in their intended purpose. Some are funny to use as “fighters” instead and can be very effective… T/B18, SB2C, B7, Ki67, D4Y, 288, and even some of the heavies because they are fast like 264.
But, to just use to fly to a bomb target which anyway doesn’t do anything to tickets and your game impact will be zero? Nah man, take something else instead unless you just wanna be bait
i mean i use PB4Y was a Very Cumbersome and Large Fighter
This is just a very obvious fact why Air RB has severe game play problems - not only for bombers…
Base kills by Wyverns/Su-6/8/P-47s and many other planes were always an issue - but in the last 2 years the spam of XP-50s and airspawn fighters in general made it almost impossible to get unmolested to a base - except matches with heavy clouds and if the bombers stay below contrail alt…
Seeing now hordes of Wyverns farming “real” bomber players and the flood of (Chinese?) bot bombers en route to bases made even fast dive attacks a suicide run.
As others wrote: Usually you have zero ticket AND zero game impact in a heavy 4 engine bomber in Air RB. So u are actually a burden and not an asset for your team.
Guys like Hitman or komaZz able to kill 5+ fighters with their bomber gunners are extremely rare and seeing a heavy bomber completing a 2nd run is even rarer.
So as long you don’t have outstanding gunner skills or you fly a fighter disguised as bomber you are just food as a bomber pilot - real shatter update made it even worse.
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Not so sure about that,… but today, they needs to be played differently.
Heavy bombers at start of the game shall side climb, up to 8km-10km
With the fight moving on, and attackers killing light bases, you’re only on waiting,…
But at one point in fight, those bases spawn in again, and there you have your own impact, by bombing those.
I agree on one thing though:
ARB players are eager not to see any of those bombers, in the name of “action”
But a bomber at that altitude of 8-10km can be deadly to ennemy fighters that are already fighting
Mhm - with a climb rate of 3-6m/second on average this looks like a mission impossible for most bombers. Have in mind that the strategic bomber spawn is usually at 4.500 meters above ground.
I defended some time ago a Halifax at 9km - whilst i was at 11 km and we survived 2 vs all and won by tickets.
It was a 3 base map (Britain) and they weren’t able to kill tanks to equalize our ticket advantage. All other players played hide and seek 15 minutes low in the clouds and later they could not find the bomber - and contrails were not implemented. And i asked him to climb like hell and stayed near him as i saw nothing in these clouds. And I stalled blind hunt orders with own orders to buy time.
Now with contrails it is always impossible to survive as there is no place to hide. Exception are the pacific maps with contrails much higher (so 7 km+ instead of 5.4 km) but on the maps currently in rotation only one (Gualdalcanal) has bases and most pilots are not able to kill ships, pillboxes or tanks from high alt…
We talk about a reduction of 180 to 280 tickets (on 7.600 ticket maps) for killing a respawning base - i mean thats about 2-4 ground targets like tanks or pillboxes - the time investment for such a low impact is seeing the high risk of getting shot down imho most of the time not worth your time…
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Agree with your sentiment. I don’t fly them purely for that reason they don’t fit into the meta when attackers/interceptors with air spawns can wipe the map clean before you even approach.
I’d like to see more class control. By that I mean ground attack craft/bombers etc get a bonus damage to the ground targets. Fighters get little damage to ground targets. Kind of enforce the class ruleset. Might encourage more teamplay in Air battles.
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Most of the actual fighting takes place at 4000m or less, and bomber in space you can just ignore… he’s not going to do anything except flying circles and you can just go clean up tickets and watch YT video. Not sure why even bother trying to chase a bomber that high… high chance you will not be fast enough to dodge his gunners if he has any resemblance of aim if you even get there at all and not dying of boredom climbing for 10 minutes
There are people who like to ruin other people’s day by doing things that others almost can’t do anything about.
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Never said it would be an awesome gameplay,… but currently is the most lucrative way to play bombers.
I’d really like to see a bomber dedicated gamemode - either PvE or PvP where the mission is more designed as a long range bomb raid with several bombers and only a few fighters. Something like Air Assault mode but in reverse.
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