I tried blasters at the start of 1.7 to see if they improved in line with incubus skills and they simply don't work. The range is abysmal and trying to sustain damage on one target long enough while piloting essentially a flying hovercraft (i.e innately difficult to counter manoeuvre and drifts into walls) makes it unusable. The reticule doesn't favour targeting either.

Rails are decent but vs infantry its simply too inaccurate. Its more viable than blasters but you'll end up wasting a lot of time and ammo on one enemy. Missiles are far more viable vs infantry. All you have to compensate for is travel time for the missile and you 2 shot most mid suits.

Camera angle is pretty good now, they listened to our feedback and offers a fair balance for visibility.

Fitting / dogfighting wise the incubus is probably better simply due to its survivability. If your smart you can stay in a fight with 2/3 AV trying to take you down and still come out on top. Its only real downside is the knockback is more severe and will throw your aim off dramatically (stay away from walls too, you liable to get knocked into them)
In general don't even bother in a dogfight with another ADS. The shields regen so fast you won't do enough damage fast enough unless the other guy is really stupid.

Best way to avoid redline rails is simply to have a good team with other tanks on the field. Never fly without some support on the ground. If you do get railed I find the best way to avoid is to go with the direction your knocked (far easier than trying to correct it, you'll usually end up motionless too long and be an easier target) and then either get behind cover of a building (though suitable buildings are too few and far between) or afterburn and gain altitude fast, but stay erratic.

Just my thoughts and hope it helps

I thought Pythons had more knockback as their lighter?

Personally I find the opposite true. I think the shields absorb some of the kick but I only tried pythons a couple of times.

Shield still have kik even if its against the laws of physics

I like to fly them, mostly for goofing off and doing rolls n' **** in a empty match.
All this time and I thought that pilots couldn't fire...
I never really fit one for actual battling, just to gain access to rooftops and other vantage points.
So, is that a feature absent from the MLT Pythons but included on ADSs? I know I've been killed by a Missile Turret on a drop ship with the Pilot getting the credit in the Kill feed, but I just assumed it was a gunner and they don't get their name on the feed. (But, now that I think about it I think I remember getting credited for a Blaster kill in somebody else's LAV...)

Assault dropships are an additional class of dropships.
They handle like crazy cheetahs instead of drunken cows and have a front-turret slot for the pilot.

Also, non-mlt dropships have different handling because they don't auto-level. That means that you can pull crazier maneuvers by tilting sideways.

Edit:
Here is an example. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m46Di8y4ns

The problem with blasters and rails isn't that they are inaccurate, it's that they are too accurate. The rail is fine being as accurate as it is and it's damage + ROF on an incubus makes it good for AV, however the blaster also has pinpoint accuracy and it is a huge problem. The root of said problem is in the fact that the dropship is an unstable shooting platform, so shooting with a perfectly precise weapon is terrible. Sort of like trying to make a 100m shot while balancing on a ball, in order for it to work you have to take a lot of time to stabilize yourself (which makes you a giant target for AV) and a blaster's short range means they will probably walk away before you can do something meaningful.

My opinion: Leave the rail as is but make the blaster deal a cone like effect similar to the HMG.

Got alot of questions about dropships because I like them and I want to make them work even better!

Does anyone actually use an assault dropship with a blaster or railgun turret on the front? Or in general a blaster or rail turret on the sides of any dropship (provided you have gunners that are actually effective and can provide you feedback)? I've only seen it done effectively like once before and that was a while back but it seems like there's very few out there.

If you're completely against these turrets, why? Is it because of the camera angle or are the blasters and railguns just crap for dropships?

What kind of fits do you guys use? What are the other turrets good for or do they hold any advantage over missile turrets whatsoever?

What kind of dropships or skills are good for raining death upon infantry? vehicles? other dropships? Is there even a way to kill other dropships besides ramming them or catching them when they're on the ground? I've seen very few dogfights taking place since 1.7 hit.

What kind of dropships/fits are good for tanking tons of damage so you don't get shot down immediately by redline railgun tanks? Ones that are good for evading shots?

What's a good way to practice with my aim in those things?

I'm not limiting to only assault dropships, I do use standard dropships and have people who like to use the gunner's seat and I'm fine with this.

It seems like for now everyone is just saying play it safe and go for missiles. Buuuut now I gotta know what dropship to put it on, I like the idea of having more rate of fire and ammo with the python but it also seems pretty squishy, I normally use a gorgon right now so I know how to fly a brick and while it would be awkward to start using assaults I could probably go either way.

So between the speed, defense, firepower, and gtfo-ability, what's the best to use with missiles? Or I guess the question would be, which is better with each aspect?

I cannot respond yet... but i just maxed out my python and finally speccing into incubus with rails/blasters. I will answer you when I have.

But for now, considering that I have barely lvl 3 rail and no lvl into incubus, the rails are really good for derpship dogfights. Have yet to cause enough damage to tanks.

Blasters are fun but miss most of the time... yet to spec into blasters.... cant comment. I love them because you have to be deadly precise... and if I can master the blaster... my rails and missiles will be deadlier.