Vulpes Dolosus
Molon Labe.
General Tso's Alliance
2974
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Posted - 2015.02.11 20:14:00 -
[1] - Quote
Due to a few threads putting down the standard dropships, I've recently started flying them around battles, mainly for joyriding since I wan't in squads/my squad didn't utilize me. This thread is mainly to encourage its use by both pilots and infantry, as well as highlight some issues I've found with them.
My fits:
Myron: Dual Booster
Imo, this is the best Myron gunship fit you can get, and personally my favorite ship to fly. Hardeners are not used because they obstruct the gunner's view far too much, and since you need them on when fighting AV, impairing the gunner isn't the best idea. Even without hardener though, it's tank is massive, though it requires precise timing of the boosters. All the mods will recharge in about 30s with skills as well, getting it back in action very fast.
Grimsnes
This thing is a tank. Not really much more to say than that.
Missiles are the best turret for dropships, ADS and DS alike. Blasters require you to get much too close to the ground and rails still have hit detection issue (plus run out of ammo quickly). Missiles are more accurate and reliable (though there are times where they fire off in a random direction), do tons of damage even with splash, and are viable AV weapons as well. The only real down side is the tendency to kill oneself when firing straight forward or back, or when the dropship turns suddenly while firing.
You may have noticed that there is only one turret on each fit. The reason for this is because the extra turret cuts too much into the fitting for defenses and it is generally impractical to field two gunners at the same time. With two gunners, the pilot has to position the dropship in a way where both gunners can fire at the same time (or else what's the point right?). This means the pilot must either be a ways away and facing forward/backward, or the pilot must be directly over the enemies so the gunners can look down. The first is impractical because it leaves little room for you gunners to turn and engage different targets as well as runs the risk of them hitting the sides of your dropship, while the second puts you at much more risk against AV.
Tactics:
The best way of flying I've found is hovering off to the side of where the enemy is with your turret facing inward, being about 100-150m away from enemy. This puts you out of small arms distance as well as the cusp of AV range if you need to make an escape. You should not be totally perpendicular to where the gunner is facing, but try to angle yourself so that you gunner has plenty of space to move, but you can see what he is shooting at as well as the surrounding area. This is important to recognize hazards and threats before they start firing as well as being able to accommodate the gunner if his target is running away. You may move in closer to take on single targets or when you know you're (mostly) safe from AV.
I would love to go into squad tactics, but frankly I've never had the opportunity to test out some of my ideas. The main focus should be on communication between the passengers and pilot. Tactics include hot dropping, emergency evacuation, fire support, and others.
Issues:
Teamwork- Not many people want to jump into a random dropship, and I can hardly blame them. Most people aren't pilots, and even fewer are good pilots. Likewise a lot of infantry are bad gunners. In squads, people never call for pickups or support; most people just view dropships as niche toys or glorified taxies for getting on roofs and then discarded. This can only be changed by pilots showing and others recognizing that the DSs can be used in a valuable way. It's also bad that there is no communication available to pilots from other members of the team. Gunning aside with its complexities, it is impossible to call for a pickup aside from shooting at the dropship (which most ignore, sadly), and it is even more impossible to say exactly where you want to go or what you want to do. Players need to start to recognize the benefits of having a dedicated pilot in their squad and CCP needs to develop some way for better team communication (vehicle chats, proxy chat, new UI for pinpointing where you want to go, etc).
mCRUs- I really want mCRUs to be a staple of dropship flight. Having a quick, tanky spawn point available anywhere on the field in seconds could be a tremendous benefit to any team (especially when it can fire back). However, they have a few issues, the biggest is fitting. I would like to see the introduction of a vehicle "equipment" slot, separate from highs, lows, and turrets and only for support vehicles (LLAV, DS, LDS currently possible) that would hold team-support modules such as mCRUs, remote repairers, scanners, and other possible additions.
General Bug Fixes- There are several bugs that really annoy a pilot. Collision damage for shield is still too high. Invisible swarms and rendering coming from a distance. Activating a booster while taking damage cancels its effects (including both hp boosted and regen startup). mCRUs are (to my knowledge) unable to be spawned while your clone is active (needs to clone-death before able to see it). And probably some others I'm forgetting.
Conclusion:
Overall, DSs are fun to fly. They feel rather laid-back than ground fighting, though it's still exciting to take on AV or a bunch of infantry. The somewhat recent buffs have made them much more viable than people give them credit for, though I'm disappointed that most players don't take advantage of dropships when they're available.
Thanks for reading this absurdly long post, feedback is appreciated.
Dust is there! I was real!
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