well, OP, you died cause you didnt use your single advantage. Mobility. if you stay where you are and try and find the AV guy, your dumb. you call out over comms that there is swarm launcher, as you bug the hell out. once your infantry find the guy you come in, and kill it.

and yes, proto suits do die to militia weapons if they dont move. seriously, im not sure the cycle time on a CRB-7 swarm off the top of my head, but i bet a Militia AR or SMG can dump its entire magazine in the time it took the first to swarms to lock on and hit you, and that will kill the crap outta even a super tanked logi/heavy if he is not moving.

Assault DS base price. 700,000
3 turrets, 700,000

starting price: 1.5 mill. Yeah lets throw the cheapest modules on that, seems a smart way to more easily waste the heavy part of the cost.
Yeah, I totally wrote that price tag or had any choice in the matter.

I think you nailed it. There's no reason to fly at all for that price. Which is why this game could use some actual balance in regard to dropships, they are clearly ignored.

that is true, i am not going to even attempt to say the Dropship is in a good place role wise right now. just that AV is at a decent balance with them. if you slap the burners and move swarms will not likely kill you. now proto triple complex damaged modded forge gun wielding heavy, yes, he will layout the smacking, but he has also invested largely into dedicated AV, he should be able to seriously hurt the weakest of vehicles. again, if the pilot is moving, and the forge gunner can hit him, that is damn good shot.

just for emphasis, i agree the role and WP mechanic of DS's needs to be looked at.

Yeah gotta agree with you there, it's just how you can be one-two'd in before you can do anything which is incredibly frustrating.

I am a dedicated Forge Gunner, I run Ishukone Assualt and DAU-2 Assualt. When I see a Dropship I usually dont sweat it cause it either takes 1 or 2 shots to destroy, UNLESS its an expensive dropship. High tier and even standard Dropships.with good modules give me a run, I need at least 3 to 4 shots for these ships. After the first shot hits they can usually get away if the map allows them. What im trying to say is that Dropships need ALOT of buffs, to shield/armor and to acceleration and the miltia/standard could use an SP and Isk price reduction. You guys need to ask for that. But the way your all talking CCP will nerf the Forge Gun and not only do we not need anymore nerfs, the Forge Gun especially does not need nerfs.

I am a dedicated Forge Gunner, I run Ishukone Assualt and DAU-2 Assualt. When I see a Dropship I usually dont sweat it cause it either takes 1 or 2 shots to destroy, UNLESS its an expensive dropship. High tier and even standard Dropships.with good modules give me a run, I need at least 3 to 4 shots for these ships. After the first shot hits they can usually get away if the map allows them. What im trying to say is that Dropships need ALOT of buffs, to shield/armor and to acceleration and the miltia/standard could use an SP and Isk price reduction. You guys need to ask for that. But the way your all talking CCP will nerf the Forge Gun and not only do we not need anymore nerfs, the Forge Gun especially does not need nerfs.

I am a dedicated Forge Gunner, I run Ishukone Assualt and DAU-2 Assualt. When I see a Dropship I usually dont sweat it cause it either takes 1 or 2 shots to destroy, UNLESS its an expensive dropship. High tier and even standard Dropships.with good modules give me a run, I need at least 3 to 4 shots for these ships. After the first shot hits they can usually get away if the map allows them. What im trying to say is that Dropships need ALOT of buffs, to shield/armor and to acceleration and the miltia/standard could use an SP and Isk price reduction. You guys need to ask for that. But the way your all talking CCP will nerf the Forge Gun and not only do we not need anymore nerfs, the Forge Gun especially does not need nerfs.

We aren't needed, so we aren't wanted, and therefore we get the crap end of the stick.

We might as well fly kites for all the good we can do and all the rewards we can reap for it.

I love flying, but I toss a DU and a hive down before running off to call in my ship so I can get some WPs. I can make the middle of the leaderboard often by that action.

As it stands DUST is a non-tactical, non-strategic lobby shooter where most players lone-wolf it. I was initially sold on the game based on the promise of real team play, but there is jack all need for it in its current incarnation. I went into piloting with the assumption that pilots would offer corporations a strategic advantage, and I wanted to be the best.

For all the lore, there is really only two roles that matter in this game. Free Beers called when he said if you aren't Assault or Logi-killer you I'll be useless in PC. It's the guy with the gun and his sidekick medic that matter, the rest is window dressing.

You can mess around with WP rewards, but that won't matter one scintilla until you alter the basic game play to require real tactics and strategy beyond "get there first" and "shoot first with the biggest gun".

Frankly I find that simple minded repetitive play boring. I can't see how it would keep anyone occupied this long.

I was against AFKers, but the irony is that is exactly how effective I am while flying. I may as well "fly" the MCC as my dropship for all the good it does my team.

Is a derpship supposed to provide overhead protection or just deploy a squad then bug out?

To me a DROPship, drops off troops and leaves, not tries to tank overhead. IMHO

EXACTLY! Dropships are transportation vehicles first and foremost. You fly in, pick up soldiers, drop off at point whatever, then fly away to repeat the process.


Dropships are NOT sky tanks. The turrets are to cover the troops getting dropped off! Not to wage war on ground pawns.

You're about to get a fourth kill when suddenly, an enemy trooper with a CBR7 Swarm Launcher takes out 1/4 of your shield. You get the hint, they don't want you there. You pan your ship left and right, desperately in search of the swarmer. Bang. Shields at 50%.

You make the wise decision to abandon your squad mates and gain some altitude. You evade the pestering swarm launchers fourth volley and get out of his range.

You've had enough time repping your shields off-grid, you want to get back into the fight. You decide to head back into the battlefield with around 75% shields.

How can a 6,585 ISK Swarm Launcher that only takes less than a million SP pin down a 1.2 million ISK ship worth over a 3million SP that easily? Or the fast firing forge gun that does 1.5k damage (base) with a 3.5 second charge time? That's barely any time for the pilot to accelerate away and try rep their shields.

Not to mention that the infantry have the advantage of being 1) smaller targets, 2) able to use most cover to their advatange 3) are very hard to see from most distance, including their tags only showing up from a pitiful few yards.

Im an experienced forge gunner, have been since the E3 build. and dropships just arent fun to shoot anymore. There is no challenge, no adrenaline rush when trying to take 1 out. I took out a logi dropship with 2 shots yesterday, i actually felt bad for the pilot. I dont fly them, i just kill them and i can say they are too easy to kill.

i suggest lowering the damage of forge and rail done to dropships in the air. ccp could come up with some bullshit that the thin air reduces the shots damage the higher dropships fly.

I'm not sure how easy it is to aim a forge, but any pilot worth his wings is going to remain mobile in order to be a difficult target for dumbfire weapons in the first place.

One thing worth mentioning is that an afterburner can drop that "6-7 seconds" down to "1-3 seconds". This is, of course, infeasible for shield dropship pilots as they would have to sacrifice an extender, and thus a very large portion of their survivability, but for those of us that went armor it's a life saver. Doubly so, in fact, thanks to the top-speed and momentum penalties that come with plating.