Serimos Haeraven
Deep Space Republic
543
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Posted - 2013.12.26 19:32:00 -
[1] - Quote
This guide is useful to all dropship pilots alike, but is best taken into consideration for pilots who wish to team up with others to help dominate the battlefield and change the tide of war for their team. I have been a "pure" dropship pilot (not specing into anything except dropships and their complex modules) since chromosome, and have been there for all of the nerfs and buffs many vets have been through. However, in 1.7, the vehicle changes to Assault Dropships have warranted a new, extreme importance for pilots to squad up and work together, since dropships are much more effective now in many other ways than they used to be. There is no TL:DR version because all of this information is equally important for aspiring pilots, and I'll start with my first point of advice (and most crucial):
1. Find a squad with mature dropship pilots who all have mics, and the best way to do this quick is to join the following channels: 1st Airborne, 514th Wing, and Condor Squad. These channels are filled with the best and most well-known pilots who all want to help other pilots hone their skills.
2. Equip the best fittings possible for your dropship, and be sure to test out your fittings to try to find which would be the best for you as a pilot. I can testify that many different pilots have many different play styles, and as long as they manage to "master" them, they all work out beautifully when used in sync. If fitting for a Python I would personally suggest speccing into complex shield extenders, and afterburners as well which allows for great speed and defense. Also, the best turret for all-around use is the XT-Missile turret, which can 1-2 shot infantry, and 3-4 shot proto forge gunners, as well as destroying enemy uplinks and ammo hives, but we'll get to this a little down the road.
3. Learn to call out "priority" targets that appear on the battlefield, and when I say priority, I mean in relation to your other pilots in the air.
a) A railgun tank holds top priority in call-outs as they are the most deadly and versatile weapon against dropships, so the first thing to do when you spot a railgun tank is to call out its location and ask that all other pilots take this as priority #1, once all pilots surround the tank it often only takes a few seconds to destroy the tank because many railgun tanks sacrifice their defense for a better railgun and dmg mods.
b) The second priority target would be forge guns and swarm launchers, and if you're hit with one don't freak out and abandon all hope, instead, simply activate either your hardeners, reppers, or afterburner and try to make confusing or fast maneuvers that the forge gunner or swarmer would be unlikely to predict. Once the forge gunner misses, you should be able to locate where the giant blue ball of light originated from, and then call out his location to your other pilots so they can swarm the target as well. As far as swarm launchers are concerned, all it takes is for your pilots to know they are out there, and they will eventually be spotted by another pilot that sees them being launched from the ground.
c) The third priority target is uplinks and ammo hives, these don't pose a threat to you personally as a pilot, but they matter on a monumental scale to the troops on the ground, and having eyes in the sky as well as a missile launcher provides the ultimate opportunity to help the team as a whole. Your radar can be a great indication as to where these uplinks are, as they will appear when you are around 20-30 feet away from them, so keep a close eye out for them when hovering in cities, and be sure to check the crevices of buildings or on high-ground areas, because these are the "hot spots" where they are likely to be placed. Once discovered, be sure to call out their location unless you feel you can take them out on your own accord. All it takes is 1 well-placed missile to the uplink or ammo hive to effectively destroy it and hinder the enemies progress.
4. Fly in formation or in close proximity to at least one other pilot in your squad, when flying as a team, forge gunners are spotted much faster since one pilot (who wasn't the one who was hit) will be able to see where the shot came from, and you can take care of the situation much faster than normal. These formations are especially crucial to objective points that your team is attempting to capture on the ground, being that once you spot an objective that needs support, call-out the objective to your squad so all dropships can swarm the area and provide complete ground protection from the air. All pilots should be hovering at low altitude over the objective and trying to help/assist all ground troops that need firepower or suppression of enemies, or just being covered while they are trying to hack the CRU or objective.
5. Destroy any enemy turrets in the area (especially railgun turrets) they can now do devestating damage to even proto modulated dropships, and shoot at a very fast rate, so it's important that when an enemy turret is spotted, do your best to take it out immediately. The best angle to take is to hover around 20-40 feet above the turret and rail missile downward, so you remain out of the turrets height limit. (When using an XT-Missile Launcher if you manage to land every hit you can destroy a full hp turret in 1 full clip (8 rounds). This will not only benefit your team on the ground (infantry and tanks) but dropships as well.
6.When faced with a redline railgun tank, don't do anything drastic. observe the tank's probable field of vision and either fly above it (in some maps the height ceiling isn't high enough to avoid being hit) or prefferably fly below it or behind large buildings which are sometimes produced in the center of the city maps. But if you can't use buildings for cover, try to locate a rearby mountain range you can fly behind and wait, once you make the railgun tanker bored, he will often go out onto the field.
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