What meta air nation to grind?

The Academy - Players helping Players
,
1

Hey guys,

I’m wondering: what’s the most meta air nation to grind right now?

For context, I’m a ground main who became interested in top ARB during the April Fools event.

In ARB, I’m a US main (grinded to 13.7), but I recently started grinding France as well. I’m using the premium F-4S and Mirage F1C respectively.

Not really a fan of the Mirage (I think it’s a bit underwhelming for its BR/uptiers), but the Phantom has been a lot of fun for me. Having such a good radar and a shit ton of great Sparrows is a blast. Love this missile bus.

But I’m focused on my end goal. From what I’ve heard, the Rafale isn’t meta anymore (Iron Dome and all that). All while the best US plane is GE of all things (sitting at 14.3).

So, my question is, what’s the most meta plane I can grind for right now?

I don’t particularly care which nation in particular I have to grind (I love the process). I just want the strongest meta plane I can use to oppress people with the least amount of effort.

Thanks a lot!

2

At the moment, the meta is probably the SU-30SM2 (soviets)

But that is subject to change with the introduction of addition suspected on the horizon:

  • ECM
  • IIR Missiles
  • Next-Gen Fox-3

With that, aircraft like the Typhoon will probably switch back to being the meta

1 Like
3

American vehicles are a bit weak in top tier, not saying they’re underperforming, but just a bit underwhelming against others in top tier. Russia is probably the best tech tree to grind. Sucks MIG23ML didn’t get a discount…

4

Hm, that’s interesting. The main thing I keep seeing people talk about is the addition of 5th-gen planes, but they’ll probably add all of this before that happens.

Though I’m not really sure about the timeline. From what I’ve read, the Rafale was a meta monster for almost a year. Makes me wonder whether they’ll shake things up sooner this time.

Looks like I’ll have to return to my roots, lol (Soviets were actually my first ground nation)

5

Yeah, but they stated they want to add “more modern technology” before they add 5th gen and these are what people suspect that means.

Yeah, it was because it was one of the only ones with AESA. Though MICA EM is still OP as hell and the Rafale is overperforming a lot.

1 Like
6

That’s sad, but I’d probably buy the Su-30 for grinding anyway.

I wasn’t terribly impressed by Mig23’s performance, neither when I played it during the event nor when facing it in the F-4S or Mirage.

7

Well cant argue a Su-30 purchase, only other jet was the su-25k on discount but still not viable

8

Take my opinion with a grain of salt, but this is what I tell all my friends.

America: I don’t care for the props, I hate boom and zoom, and it is very monotonous. Early jets are good, unfortunately the uptiers are dreadful. Then Rank 6 and Rank 7 are back to relying on boom and zoom and missile spam. Rank 8 and 9 have amazing aircraft, unfortunately American mains are just dreadful so yeah. Beyond the BVRing F-15s (which can still fight if you have two braincells), the F-16s are amazing (especially since Gaini3ng nerfs the Grippens, Euros, and Rafale), and the F-18s are more renowned for 1v1 dogfights than actual Pub 16v16.

Russia is one of those nations that has one or two great planes while the rest of the Rank is trash, but still get called OP. Honestly, just grind out the MiG line, and use the leftover RP to grind the Sukhoi line until you get the Su-27. The rest of the tree is trash besides WWII Yak props.

Germany: has great props, but then becomes America and Russia copy paste, plus they have the weakest Eurofighter, which is hilarious since their tanks are OP for no reason.

Britain: Britain is amazing until Rank 6, then you’re depressed until you get the Grippen and Eurofighter.

Japan: amazing props, sucks from Rank 5-7, only gets good again at Rank 8.

China: copy paste Russia and America until Rank 7, where they become weaker Russian vehicles. But, you get a saving grace in the Mirage and J-10.

Italy: weaker Germany. Just Germany but worse variants of each vehicle. Even the Hungarian Grippen sucks because they get 120As.

France: basically just a weaker Britain, which is basically how their tanks are too. Rafale was great until the forums whined about it instead of realising how easy it is to beat them.

Sweden: pretty good props, decent early jets, sucks from 8.0-13.0 where your only good jet is the MiG 21bis. Basically only grind to the MiG 21 and only use that until you either get the F-18 or Grippen. Gaijin needs to buff the Grippen.

Israel: France and Britain copy paste until Rank 8, where you get the American copy-paste. Weirdly enough, the A-4 for Israel is probably the most fun you will have in the early Cold War era jets.

9

I’d say USA got the best pick of meta planes in every single rank, besides top tier. You can absolutely dunk on people with planes up to 12.7.

Meanwhile USSR has tons of lackluster options until top tier. The Su-33 and both Su-30SM variants are crazy good.

So it’s more of a choice of which matchmaker you think is the best. I personally prefer USA due to lower tier matches.