Introduction of LBX-2's and a retooling of dedicated AA

[General_Armchair]

At the end of the day, ground based AA assets are extremely lackluster at KILLING aircraft.

Yes, in fact. That is why it is necessary to have some pilots of your own that will chase down and kill the damaged enemy ASF.

If ground based assets aren't supposed to kill off planes, and planes work so damn well in the ground attack role, then why even have the ground assets? (Capping bases?  I see vtols and aerospace landing to cap a base all the time.)  Why not just just fire up Danger Zone and fly all day if the planes aren't supposed to fear death from things that walk and crawl?

Why aren't we just playing Ace Combat?

[AlfalphaCat]

I've recently switched entirely from the Huit prime to RAC partisan; the greater maneuverability adds to its survivability and response time.

Harr E has always been great for early game Vtrolls, it still is.

This man speaks the truth.  Parti B is the best AA in game.  Huit Prime is crap.  It's really just that the Partisan is faster and can get itself in better positions, Huit prime just can't react to a changing battlefield, and the Partisan can more than protect itself from ground assets. 

Though, 6xLBX/2 on a Partisan would be boss.

EDIT:  Oh yeah, I wish folks would stop using the D and E variants of the Partisan for AA, they are lackluster, although the Ltgauss one is the better of the two.

[Arghy]

RAC2 harasser is pretty hilarious--used it tonight on sandblasted and it was surprisingly effective. I'd sand off armor at 800m while passive and laugh as they tried to catch me and aeros soon regretted attacking me when i turned my guns on them while spinning in crazy circles though i dident kill a single one the entire match. The huit prime would be the king of AA if mounted a pair of LBX2's and 10's. It would be great at destroying aeros as the LBX10's would start the damage and LBX2's would finish it and in the ground role you'd make even assaults pause with your 700m LBX10's.

The RAC2 surprised me in its damage but it has to be coupled with a good turret and a fast chassis or its useless. I could see clans getting the hephetus/epona with LBX's and ATMs for clan dedicated AA while IS uses LG/RAC's with LBX's for backup on its AA vehicles.

The Epona apparently can fit 2x LRM20's and 2x ERMBL's so i can easily see it fitting 1x ATM12, 1x LBX10, 2x ERMBL which would make it a very credible AA vehicle coupled with its speed. The Drillson or comparable IS vehicle could easily mount 1x LBX10, 2x RAC2/2x LBX2, 1x LG.

I'm horrible with tonnage and weapon loadouts from scratch but each side could mount weapons that we know from experience work as AA and mount backup weapons if they chase the aeros from the skys. Its clear the entire way that credible AA weapons are viewed needs to change--unless aero armor is nerfed to hell you need to gear AA vehicles for burst damage with long ranged rapid fire weapons to finish the job. An aero needs only seconds of danger to accomplish a ground attack and AA needs to step up and be there to make those few seconds costly and dangerous--its a joke how terrain is a greater danger to aeros then the dedicated AA vehicles are during a ground attack mission.

[xInVicTuSx]

EDIT:  Oh yeah, I wish folks would stop using the D and E variants of the Partisan for AA, they are lackluster, although the Ltgauss one is the better of the two.

Not so... the E is trash yes, but the D is excellent for high altitude ballooners because you can use the UAC2s as a laser guider for the Lgauss, if the UAC2s are hitting, the Lgauss you fire will pretty much hit.

The combination racks up serious hurt due to the high efficiency of the Lgauss, far more efficient than trying to line up guess shots with Mgun tracers, though the Mguns are nice back up too.

[Cherno]

Which AA Hawkmoth is this? I tried the RAC one and the bullets fly so slow that it's nearly impossible to hit an Aero at any range

Sorry to say, but it is your fail. It works fine against aero. If you were on Huntress yesterday, using RACmoth on Warzone, than you were trying to shoot me down with it.

Yes indeed it is my fail, but I still think having to lead so much because of the slow bullets severly restricts the efficency of the RAC5 Hawkmoth, especially because you lose so much speed when not aiming down. And 500m range... I don't know. Any good tips on how to fight (not defend!) vs. an ASF (I think you piloted a Sulla Prime?) ?

[ELH_Vivicector]

Nope, I was in Sulla A. If it was your HW B, then I reded you, but was not able to kill due to ground fire.

especially because you loose so much speed when not aiming down

Just in case... Are you using shift to vector the thrust? Without it the experience will be... pathetic. Shift + W and your speed is 200 while looking forward.

[Cherno]

I read somewhere about that shift+w function but couldn't seem to make it work. Good to at least know what it does :]

[(TLL) Heretic]

EDIT:  Oh yeah, I wish folks would stop using the D and E variants of the Partisan for AA, they are lackluster, although the Ltgauss one is the better of the two.

Not so... the E is trash yes, but the D is excellent for high altitude ballooners because you can use the UAC2s as a laser guider for the Lgauss, if the UAC2s are hitting, the Lgauss you fire will pretty much hit.

The combination racks up serious hurt due to the high efficiency of the Lgauss, far more efficient than trying to line up guess shots with Mgun tracers, though the Mguns are nice back up too.

This.

But TBH, I'd rather drop the Mguns completely and go with 2LtGauss, 2UAC2 and a ~55K pricetag (or even 4MGuns and I'll walk the LtGauss rounds in)...would do the AA work much better.

We don't really need any more starter rank AA, the Prime has that covered (and starting AA is not really required in the latest build), a dual LtGauss Partisan would be an excellent step up the AA ladder.

As for the Huit Prime? meh...drop the UAC2 popguns completely and just given me a 6UAC5 boat with 6tons of spare ammo and enough DHS to move at 50kph without melting...I'll give you a lot of dead ASF...and 'mechs....and tanks...and BA   

Dakka Dakka Dakka 

[NSallaNuto]

Another config that could work would be 2xLBX10 + 4xMG, probably it would have enough space for LAMS and/or GECM too. It would be effective vs dive bombers (but not a one shotter) and also be useful on the battlefield vs ground assets.

That would be an AA unit that would not bore the pilot to death before actually shooting down something.

[«اك§» Trooper_Thorn]

Keeping the tank moving is a poor idea because of the minefield of small rocks, stumps,  and invisible obstacles that litter the maps....the small rocks that mechs ignore outright but will spin a tank 1080 if it runs into one at 10 kmph.

Hiding near your base isn't wisdom, its a major shortcoming of the glacier speed of the huit.  The people that need AA coverage are on the front line, and you need to be up there with them to defend them.  Near the base is the last place you need AA coverage because of the presence of repair bays and occasionally AA turrets.  (AA turrets pilots hate, because it isn't affected by that latency issues of a small object moving very high speeds)

Even if you stay evasive at your blister 50 kmph, you're easy pickings for a Tbolt sulla.  The good ones will just nail you with the tbolts at range, the less tallented will wait for a long range narc hit and then tbolt you.

At the end of the day, ground based AA assets are extremely lackluster at KILLING aircraft.  That plane can RTB and repair/rearm several times (hell Die/respawn several times) in the time it takes for an AA tank to move from his spawn to the action.  If the plane isn't take from green to dead in his one pass, then all those rounds of ammo you threw at him were for naught because he'll be green again once he re-arms for another sortie.

If you really want planes dead, you have a handful of GOOD options (you know they're effective because the pilots hate them).

1:  Sparrow-hawk surface-to-air missile.
2:  AA Hawkmoth  (less hate with this one, but a handful of pilots dislike that a helicopter is good at killing their glorious planes)
3:  Winstick shiva

For everyone else, you have to hope that the plane gets careless and flies into the barrel of an LBX20.

You know opionions are like assholes every has one. However, what I wrote I use and I am extremely effective with them. I rack up enough points to not only up my vehicles quickly but also supply my team mates with plenty of cash when they need it and I consistantly rank at Star Colonel and above with zero losses of vehicles. Yes some score higher than I do but it is a function of them doing kamakazi rushes and dieing spectacularly. They may get Khan but they usually have 15kills and 20 deaths where I have perhaps 9 or 10 kills and zero losses. I consider it greater skill to make your kills without dieing and ending the game unscathed but that is just me.