230 replies to this topic

[Reitousair]

Well, seems like this thread is very dead and is effectively outdated as the last guide was posted pre-2.0.5, which changed a LOT of things, guess I'll try and hijack it a bit with post-2.0.5 stuff.

 

Going to do a slight reformat, however.

 

Name of plane:

 

Recommended (minimum) skill level: 

Availability/How to Obtain:

 

Tech tree plane(s) that flies/fights similarly:

 

Equipment slots:

Consumable slots:

 

Pros:

 

Cons:

 

Opinion/Overall review: 

[DISCLAIMER] Keep in mind that I'm referring to my experiences, your mileage can very well vary, especially on harder to fly planes with niche playstyles.

I'm going to restrict this list to tier 6+ planes (though I might have a couple <tier 6 planes) due to me not flying many premiums below tier 6.

I will also only go over premiums I own and have flown for more than ten battles.

 

Equipment and consumables have enough choices that various people use that I will leave that to preference, though hopefully my descriptions in tandem with knowing what slots are available will give you an idea of what you want to put on.

 

Also, I'm gonna make separate posts for each nation for the sake of edit-ability if I come back to this project because having each nation in one post will be a pain to edit.

Edited by Reitousair, 03 March 2020 - 01:59 AM.

[Reitousair]

U.S. Aircraft

Coming Soon: Tier IX: XF-85 Goblin

 

Recommended Skill Level:

Availability: 

 

Similar tech tree plane(s):

 

Equipment Slots:
Consumable Slots:

 

Pros:

 

 

Cons:

 

 

Opinion:

 

 

 

Tier VIII: XF15C (mislabeled in game files as F-15C)

 

 

Recommend Skill Level: High

Availability: Rarely sold in premium shop, drops from Harpy Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): F2G, P-51H, Me-209 A

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, guns

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Large boost pool for a light fighter (15s)

Tier 10 level HP at tier 8 (500HP)

Great controllability

Strong rudder

Good altitude

Good climbrate

Excellent at climbing

Fairly high dive speed

Good cruise acceleration

Long burst length on guns

 

Cons:

Low boost speed

High turn time for a fighter

Somewhat inconsistent hit registration on guns

Large for a fighter, especially easy to hit in head-ons

Large tail, slightly obstructs camera view

Somewhat prone to pilot and engine crits

 

Opinion: A mediocre plane that can be made truly excellent through the power of equipment. Being slow, large, and not particularly maneuverable makes the XF15C a tricky plane to fly against a lot of competitors, however the large boost pool, and large health pool, allow it to fight for quite a while, trading health for damage and coming out on top. These characteristics also allow it to intercept bombers in a pinch or wear down ground attackers, though the tendency to suffer pilot and engine crits can be limiting. However, despite all of this, the XF15C has two major aces up its sleeve... wherever a sleeve is on a plane; excellent ability to climb and great controllability. If you have a good grip of manual controls the XF15C is highly responsive to input and the great climb of the XF15C means that planes can't try to bait you higher to slow you down, nor can they escape to altitude. This also means it is deceptively agile and can simply climb away from just about any aircraft with less than 2200m altitude.

However, this plane has the potential to be made great through the power of equipment and specialization. The XF15C can become VERY fast while improving maneuverability to have a terrifyingly good energy fighter that can dogfight with most planes that have >10s turn time and can go to any altitude at any time. During some dueling practice against a friend of mine, the XF15C was able to reach 3.5km's while cruising, boost-climbing makes it nigh-impossible for anything to get away climbing at >45 degrees or so. All of this while having a huge healthpool allowing you to take a lot of punishment and survive many, many fights. Overall one of my favorite tier 8 planes thanks to its responsiveness to what I want it to do and ability to survive long, drawn-out battles.

 

Tier VIII: XFY-1 Pogo

Recommended Skill Level: Medium

Availability: At the time of writing, exclusive to the Holiday Maneuvers 2021 event.

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): P-51H (loose,) Spitfire XIV (loose)

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, guns
Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airfame, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Large boost pool for a light fighter (12s)

Large healthpool for a tier 8 light fighter (400 HP)

Long burst length

Good gun accuracy

Guns are mounted in vertical pairs (this leads to your shot profile being a square instead of a single line like other wing-mounted guns, therefore tighter grouping)

High cruise acceleration

High boost acceleration

Decent dive acceleration

Extremely high dive speed (950 km/h)

Good climbrate

Very high roll rate

Very strong airbrakes

Good altitude

 

Cons:

Plane is mostly fuselage, tail(s) is (are) mounted above/below fuselage instead of in front or behind it (highly prone to taking full DPS as control surfaces are less likely to absorb damage.)

Unusual shape, can lead to problems with knowing bank angle

Gunpods are mounted somewhat far from each other

Cripplingly low cruise and boost speed (some of the lowest among all fighter types)

High minimum optimal speed

Low maximum optimal speed

Above two cons mean XFY-1 has one of the narrowest optimal speed bands in tier 8

 

Opinion: A decent tier 8 plane that is ever so close to being an absolute monster but is restrained by a single, extremely heavy chain. What is that chain for this plane? Its speed. Its speed is to put it in a single word, bad. XFY-1 is in fact so slow that the J7W1 while carrying bombs is capable of achieving higher top speeds than it. BUT! Unlike most other aircraft that have bad speed, XFY-1 has fantastic acceleration that lets it comfortably cruise well above its maximum optimal speed which means its poor cruise speed really isn't much of a problem. Unfortunately the boost speed is cripplingly bad and despite the XFY-1's incredible acceleration it is restrained by its low boost speed. Its ability to climb is truly a marvel and I personally have jokingly said "what do you mean 'Moon Climb?' we're going to Mars with this climb rate." Some of the more clever amongst you may have realized a way to get around faster which would be to climb to high altitudes using the XFY-1's "Mars Climb™" and then abuse the extremely high dive speed. Unfortunately even with polished skin the dive acceleration simply isn't enough to overcome the fact that the XFY-1 has such low boost speed. It's not bad dive acceleration, mind, in fact it's actually above average but "above average" isn't enough to compensate for "crippling."

However, when this crippling flaw isn't quite as important (such as defending sectors or playing on some of the smaller maps it can see) the XFY-1 a very strong plane. The raw acceleration on top of its climbing and diving capabilities mean altitude is largely a suggestion to the XFY-1. Do not try escaping from this thing in the vertical it will catch you. While the base maneuverability isn't anything to write home about the XFY-1's extraordinary ability to dump speed on demand makes it quite formidable at the start of a dogfight quickly gaining the advantage on everything short of the most maneuverable of aircraft. However it's worth noting that the high minimum optimal speed means the XFY-1 will quickly lose said advantage and end up being at a disadvantage without enough speed to get away. Another problem to consider is that due to the guns being so far apart close-range engagements will lead to the guns splicing when within 200m or so. It should be noted the XFY-1's high accuracy and shot profile (as mentioned earlier it's a square instead of a line) means it's surprisingly capable at sniping people beyond its maximum optimal range. When playing I was scoring hits beyond 800m with relative consistency. This unique behavior leads to the XFY-1 being a plane that is quite apt at taking long head-ons (committing at >1km) and shredding aircraft trying to run away; but is quite poor at taking short head-ons (committing at <700m) and might suffer in close-range dogfights.

Note: head-ons in general are dangerous for the XFY-1 due to most of the hitbox being composed of fuselage meaning it will be eating an above-average amount of damage and will often suffer heavily in rams.

Overall I must applaud Persha for releasing a new premium that feels quite balanced, while it's unfortunate that they went with the "we're going to give it one crippling flaw to compensate for everything else" route it prevents this plane from being like other premiums added in 2021 which are basically do-everything few/no real counterplay aircraft that also have a tendency to be easier to use than their same-tier counterparts. The XFY-1 is a plane that has a niche it fulfills very well (mainly being a generalist defender with a particular aptitude at pursuing aircraft) without being completely forced into it either (ultimately the speed is still barely enough to get around the map and flip some sectors.) However with the prevalence of premium powercreep (especially at tier 8) being a properly balanced aircraft is probably not going to cut it in terms of trying to carry games should this thing run into other tier 8 premiums. If you have a flightmate who knows what they're doing then the XFY-1 can be free to do what it wants and either force people to stay far away or come very close should they want to deal with it (or, you know, just go head-on and score a pilot crit on it gg ez clap.)

 

As a slight extra, more personal note this plane was hellish to do the F2P grind for. Nearly 500 battles in the span of a week and I was sticking around throughout them all. According to some sources only a couple people got the XFY-1 completely F2P before me but they went full PP farming mode (tier 10 bomber, score 8k PP and then instantly bail on the battle.) It's been a journey having to play low-tier aircraft to grind out daily missions, seeing how the NA playerbase changes for tedious grind events like Holiday Maneuvers, and exploring the depths of my (in)sanity. My apologies if WG decides to extend the tedium of events like this because people who have little to nothing going on in their lives at the time (finished exams 2 days before 2.1.11 released) do incredibly dumb and unhealthy things like grind out 500 full battles in 1 week.

 

 

Tier VIII: P-80A Shooting Star

Recommend Skill Level: Medium

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop, drops from Steel Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): P-51H

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine, engine

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Copy/pastes almost everything from P-51H

Strong boost

High dive speed

High controllability

Very high roll rate

Good climb rate

Nose-mounted .50 cals, M3 (1945) model which is better than MG-53HB

Good altitude

 

Cons:

Somewhat short burst length for .50 cals

Long gun cooldown

Somewhat fragile

Lower altitude than P-51H

High minimum optimal speed

Somewhat prone to critical damage

Somewhat low cruise speed for a fast high-alt fighter

 

Opinion: An excellent tier 8 plane, akin to the Vampire being a tier 8 Attacker, the JL-1A-37 being a tier 8 MiG-9 and the Ho-229 being what the Ta-183 always wanted to be at tier 8, this plane is an FJ-1 at tier 8. It's everything you know and love (and possibly hate) from the Mustangs but improves upon the Mustang playstyle with nose-mounted guns and considerably more powerful boost. While the P-51H can already shred things, the P-80A makes the .50 cals a proper buzzsaw which with your very high roll rate in tandem with high controllability allows you to easily stay on target. However the really high minimum optimal speed and somewhat bad heat cycles on the .50 cals (bad range is just a given) can really put a damper on just outright dominating. Stay high, stay fast, but don't be afraid to take some risks with this aircraft as once you get a handle on it, nothing will dodge your .50 cal buzzsaw.

 

Tier VIII: XP-58 Chain Lightning

 

Recommended Skill Level: Medium

Availability: Available in U.S. tech tree and premium shop 

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): P-38F/J, XF5U

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, gun

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, engine, engine, ammo, turret ammo

 

Pros: 

Extremely high firepower

Very high durability

P-38 flight model

Same gunner system as A-26B

Large boost pool (30s)

Great low-speed characteristics

 

Cons:

Fairly slow

VERY low roll rate

Short gun range

Somewhat weak boost

Mediocre climb rate (partially nullified by low-speed characteristics though)

 

Opinion: A very strong tier 8 plane, it's a right pain to fight a good player in one as they will either outslow you, or outspeed you long enough and use their healthpool to inflict a lot of crits with their gunner. There's no real way to climb away from one because it's like the Memecake (pre-nerf XF5U) where it just... goes, for a very long time before stalling out (in fact I've been able to climb from 1km to 4.5km's without stalling before.) The agility of a P-38 paired with the monstrous healthpool and devastating firepower is a terrifyingly good combination. Being able to trade shots with everything you see and rip off over 30% of somebodies health in a single blow makes is extremely powerful since it means you can play very confidently and even get away with making mistakes, especially so when you have a twin .50 cal gunner. XP-58 is a very forgiving plane against most of tier 8 thanks to this but don't get too comfortable since it's also huge which means while you may have a fairly easy time landing shots on other people, it's extremely easy for other people to land shots on you. This can present problems when dealing with some aircraft as their DPS is enough to kill you well before your gunners can do much about them and you won't be able to shake them due to the XP-58's lacking speed. Overall I would say this does a surprisingly good job at being babies first tier 8. It's a plane that's forgiving yet requires discipline, a plane that's powerful yet can be punished, and a plane that's comfortable yet has some rough edges. Makes for a solid learning opportunity and a decent comfort plane once people become competent with it and just want to mindlessly slaughter the enemy team.

 

 

Tier VIII: P-82B Twin Mustang

Recommended Skill Level: Medium-High

Availability: Rarely sold in premium shop, drops from Steel Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane: P-47N (loose), XF5U (loose)

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ordnance

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, ammo, ordnance

 

Pros:

High cruise speed (600KPH without ordnance, 576 with full load)

Very high cruise (off-boost) acceleration

Good climb rate

Good controllability

Great at low-speed maneuvers, does not lose much controllability when below minimum optimal speed

FOURTEEN .50 caliber machine guns, the ultimate DPS hose in the game

3rd highest DPS of any tier 8 HF (728 DPS)

All guns are mounted in the center of the plane

Twin-fuselage, hard to hit in head-ons

Large ordnance load

High configurability, many equipment builds function well on the P-82B

 

Cons:

Very low boost speed (750KPH with no load, 720KPH with full load)

Below-average dive acceleration

Below-average altitude (2000m)

Somewhat fragile

Low gun range

Bad bombs/rockets: same bombs as the XP-44 and marginally upgraded rockets over the F4F, ordnance load is narrowly better than the P-47N

 

Opinion: A decent plane with the ability to become one of the strongest in its tier. While the cruise speed is high the awful boost speed rivals that of the J7W1 and you don't have much altitude either. However thanks to retaining the Mustangs ability to climb, reaching people in space isn't much of a problem. The agility is great and lets you dogfight other HF's with relative ease. The guns while having bad range, 14 of them add up to the 3rd highest DPS of any tier 8 HF which in tandem with the awkward hitboxes of a twin fuselage plane make it devastatingly strong in head-ons, capable of winning almost any match-up--provided the opponent is a player, bots don't care about your weird hitboxes and will just kill you anyways.

Now, when you start equipping this plane you can change it from a decent plane into an insanely strong plane. Excellent cruise acceleration means you can hold any cruise speed easily, even if your cruise speed is in excess of your boost speed. Ordnance weighs down the plane a lot, so pylons discarding 80% of the penalty lets you really feel the benefits of speed equipment and --thanks to the high cruise acceleration the P-82B-- means you can hold speeds in excess of 800KPH with little-to-no boost. Alternatively you can kit it out for maneuverability and become capable of dogfighting light fighters, in fact with practice, skill, and luck, you can dogfight with fighters that have 10s turn times, possibly even lower but I haven't played around too much with this. As yet another alternative you can make the P-82B a capable fighter-bomber with faster ordnance reloads letting the P-82B be perfectly capable of dogfighting/escaping most enemies while still being able to assault mining plants.

It's genuinely surprising to me how night and day this plane is with/without equipment, and just how many different ways you can build it while still being a highly effective plane. The high cruise speed and even higher cruise acceleration with the amazing guns and large ordnance load make the P-82B, so it would be in your best interest to learn how to use them if you want to fly this plane. I've really fallen for this plane and see it becoming one of my most played aircraft in the future.

 

 

Tier VIII: F-82E Twin Mustang

 

Recommended Skill Level: Medium

Availability: Rarely sold in premium shop, drops from Gyrfalcon Trophies

 

Similar tech tree plane: P-51H (somewhat loose), XP-72 (loose)

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ordnance

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, ammo, ordnance

 

Pros:

Extremely high cruise speed (620KPH clean, 600KPH fully loaded)

Very high cruise acceleration

Decent dive acceleration

Good climb rate

Very good controllability

Tied for best maneuverability of any HF in the game (12.3s)

Great at low speed maneuvers, doesn't suffer much controllability loss below minimum optimal speed

Extremely accurate guns with great autoaim

Extremely long burst length (as in, better than most .50 cal-equipped planes in the game)

All guns are center-mounted

Center-mounted rockets

Decent ordnance load

Twin-fuselage, hard to hit in head-ons

 

Cons:

Very low boost speed (740KPH clean, 715KPH fully loaded)

Below-average boost acceleration

Below-average altitude (2000m)

Somewhat fragile

Below-average gun range (600m)

Awkward ordnance load (unable to reach a lot of damage breakpoints for optimal multirole-ing

 

Opinion: A decent plane with the ability to become a strong one. Sound familiar? That's because it is, this plane takes a lot of cues from its USAAF counterpart, the P-82B. However despite this it's unique in its own right thanks to the tweaked stats and armament. I feel like there's a certain meme about copying homework that would be relevant here. The cruise acceleration and cruise speed is fantastic making the F-82E surprisingly fast despite the horrific boost speed. It suffers from the same altitude issues of the P-82B but the F-82E has a superior climb rate to further alleviate such issues. Curiously the F-82E is better at cruise-climbing while the P-82B is better at boost-climbing due to their differences in respective accelerations (at least it feels like this is the case, I have yet to do extremely thorough tests.)

     The agility of the F-82E is truly fantastic for an HF allowing you to easily dominate any HF in a dogfight and even start picking fights against LF's and MRF's; P-82B flight model with even better turn time and controllability. This makes it the most maneuverable HF in the entire game to my understanding, however it doesn't have the tightest turning circle, 434KPH minimum optimal speed is a touch higher than P-82B minimum optimal speed which presents a bit of a problem for low-speed dogfighting.

     In terms of firepower, the F-82E is great. 576 DPS and 660m range might seem lacking for an HF but in tandem with high accuracy and autoaim, the F-82E is EXTREMELY lethal as it's always able to use all of that DPS. The P-82B has a lead wall, the F-82E has a homing beam, very different gun setups that require you to play differently. Where P-82B just simply chainsaws through enemies in a flash after adjusting your fire a bit, F-82E uses its superior agility to ensure that its homing beam melts targets. The ordnance of the F-82E isn't bad but is very... awkward, to say the least, only 5 rockets while using XP-44 bombs leads to many missed damage breakpoints and in general greatly hampers the ability of the F-82E to flip heavier sectors.

     Like the P-82B, the F-82E has a drastic improvement when specialized and fully kitted out. Honestly you should just read my P-82B review since most of this section is just copy-paste with a couple of changed numbers however the configurability is more limited here due to the awkward ordnance. Something to note is that full turn build on the F-82E is quite hilarious seeing as how you can bring the turn time down to 10.7s when you have Aerodynamics Expert. This makes you more maneuverable than the P-51H however bear in mind your roll rate isn't all that hot compared to it so don't go too crazy trying to turnfight people. With some effort the P-82B could dogfight Vampires, with turn build F-82E you can dogfight specialized Vampires (sort of, the inability to chainsaw them makes you more prone to getting stuck into a low-speed fight.) Overall equipment isn't a total day/night change, probably closer to a cloudy day/moonlit night change.

     Overall this is an easier to use but ultimately weaker P-82B. The extremely easy to use guns and fantastic agility allow you to pick fights with many aircraft while the excellent cruise characteristics allow you to move at very consistent speeds and outlast would-be pursuers. However it's ultimately slower with less ability to kill air and ground targets than its USAAF counterpart. I haven't fully fallen for this plane, but I greatly enjoy it. After all, it's more of a good thing with just enough changed to make it a new experience.

 

I really should look into more precise language, me thinks, I've actually had to format the opinion here because there's just so much I want to talk about in regards to this thing.

Fun bit of trivia: this review initially used the F-82E image from the World of Warplanes website which is identical to the P-82B, but after tinkering with some files I managed to extract the icon from the game.

 

 

Tier VIII: B-29C Superfortress (mislabeled in game files as B-29B)

 

Recommended Skill Level: Medium-High

Availability: Rarely sold in premium shop, drops from Harpy Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane: B-32

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, turret, ordnance

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, engine, engine, turret, ordnance (NOTE: At the time of writing, only cockpit and a single engine consumable are available in stock configuration)

 

Pros: 

The strongest """""defensive""""" armament suite in the entire game (can achieve >50% more turret DPS than Su-10)

360 degree turret firing arcs

Tied for largest HP pool in the entire game (2500 HP)

Decent boost speed

Decent cruise acceleration

Great altitude (2600m)

Large bombload (same as B-32, heaviest in the game at the time of writing)

 

Cons:

Bad maneuverability

Extremely long engine repair time (~60s)

Prone to engine crits

Cripplingly bad cruise speed

Subpar boost acceleration

Terrible bomb accuracy (tied with B-32 for worst in the game)

Subpar bombs (using tier 5/6 bombs that do 4300 damage instead of tier 7/8 bombs that do 5200 damage)

 

Opinion: A very awkward yet very powerful plane that is almost fundamentally different when playing at top tier, or at bottom tier. At the time of writing the B-29C is bugged and only has two consumable slots in stock config which is a MASSIVE nerf since the ordnance consumable lets the B-29C just barely reach a ton of damage breakpoints, even when using silver ordnance which provides no blast radius increase. But, when given some kit with specialization, the B-29C is a serious force to be reckoned with and should be considered extremely threatening on any map where the most important sectors are not placed in opposite corners of the map. When top tier B-29C can absolutely wreck any cap and will wreck you if you try to stop it; when bottom tier B-29C can cause some serious damage but needs to rely on ADA kills, or killing you if you're foolish enough to approach it when it's on anything but minimal HP. Still, it rides an extremely fine line of effectiveness since despite having a huge bombload, they fall in strings of 20, with random intervals between each bomb falling, with positively horrific bomb accuracy. BUT! With silver ordnance (+ Demolition Expert,) being top tier, careful play, and flying within 1300~1800m, it's still full well able to annihilate everything in its path with very high consistency, and I do mean everything--both air and ground targets. The """""defensive firepower""""" is the strongest in the game, just the firepower from the ventral turrets is already competing with the Ju 288C, the dorsal turrets can put out more than the Tu-10, add the tail mount to the dorsal turrets and now you're dealing more damage than the Su-10, two tiers lower. At close range and with optimal firing angles, the B-29C is legitimately capable of doing more than 100 HP of damage every second, most fighters cease existing in only a couple seconds, with heavies not faring much better.

Now, this all sounds a little tricky to utilize, but amazing, and it really is, however there are critical drawbacks that can be exploited. The B-29C while having decent cruise acceleration, has terrible cruise speed which means you really need to lay on the boost to maintain your decent boost speed, except its boost acceleration isn't good, at all. This leads to the strange conundrum of a plane that needs tons of boost to keep its speed up, but it doesn't like to gain speed. It's a lot better than B-32, but being better than one of the most sluggish planes in the game isn't a very high bar to clear. It has the characteristic 1 minute engine repair time of 4-engined American bombers which is extremely painful and a critical weakness since the engines are prone to getting shot out compared to control surfaces/crew. With the last serious flaw being how the bombs themselves function, however I already detailed why B-29C ordnance is very tricky to utilize so I'll just state that single drops or extremely fast string drops (A-26B, He 111) are the meta in WoWp currently; carpet bombing is extremely inefficient and often RNG-dependent, two things that are very, very bad for a plane that only gets two strings.

Overall B-29C is a curious plane that has two skill floors which combine into one decently high skill ceiling. If you can master gunshipping and master playing with an ordnance load that just barely scrapes past a few damage breakpoints (when you have your ordnance consumable,) you have a plane that can take on all comers, literally, DO NOT APPROACH THIS THING IF IT IS SHOWING ITS TAIL TO YOU. However it's a plane that can't traverse the entire map very well since it needs so much boost to get around, so taking sectors on the opposite side of the map from it is something it can't really do much about in a timely manner. B-29C is a plane that is best avoided in combat and should only be attacked with hit-and-run tactics, approach from the front or the sides and be well below or well above it. B-29C is a powerhouse of a plane and will probably be a meta mainstay (though not popular due to its unwieldiness) but it's still prone to having other planes run circles around it (not that you should literally do that unless you have a deathwish.)

 

 

Tier VII: XP-75 Eagle

Recommended Skill Level: Medium

Availability: Available in tech tree and premium shop, drops from Hawk Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): P-51D/K, Bf-109Z (loosely)

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, engine, engine, guns

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Most maneuverable of the tier 7 heavies.

TEN .50 caliber machine guns

Gets a gun equipment slot

Fairly high dive speed

Good climb rate

Good dive acceleration

Effectively no maximum optimal speed, only dive speed is beyond maximum optimal

High cruise speed

 

Cons: 

Low healthpool

Somewhat low boost speed

Small boost pool for a heavy (20s)

P-51's effectively outperform it in every area but firepower

Same model of .50 cal as the P-40, a tier 5 plane

Six of the guns are wing-mounted somewhat far down the wings

Engine is EXTREMELY vulnerable, almost guaranteed to get critted upon damage (yes, the XP-75 is single-engined, IRL it's two smaller engines conjoined into one)

 

Opinion: A slightly situational hidden gem of tier 7. The guns suffer from very short range but when you have ten of the things, planes turn to ribbons real quick. The XP-75 has a terrifying ability to shred most planes within seconds with relative ease, provided it can get within range. This is where it gets a bit interesting, XP-75 is the only pure-.50 cal equipped plane in the game that gets a gun slot, I'm going to break my usual deference for equipment recommendations and state that long gun barrels are able to mostly fix the gun range problems the XP-75 has. This allows for the XP-75 to still be kind of weak in head-on engagements, but it's borderline impossible to avoid the incoming bullet storm. This is somewhat insane as most planes at tier 7 have burst length problems (I-220) or range problems (Bf 109Z) to achieve good DPS, but XP-75 suffers from neither. Where problems do arise however is the armament layout, the six wing-mounted guns can be awkward to try and have converge on target, without them the XP-75 isn't all that much better than a P-51D. The flight performance is decent, not as good as P-51D but enough to still have a lot of options in most tier 7 engagements. The main flaw is that the XP-75 simply doesn't have the durability nor gun range to be a head-on monster which is traditionally an important advantage a heavy fighter has. It requires being a bit more clever and deceptive to try and minimize the damage you take from planes that have more gun range than you before you can open up on them and show them the power of freedom.

However... there is a very unique aspect of the XP-75; the P-51D/K is the only hard counter to it. Even the I-220 has a way for the XP-75 to run away/kill it, however the XP-75 is a heavier Mustang in every way, while the firepower is much better the performance is markedly worse leading to it being effectively impossible to deal with Mustangs beyond "kill them before they kill you."

 

 

Tier VI: XP-55 Ascender (aka the [edited]ender)

Recommended Skill Level: Low-Medium

Availability: Only obtainable by completing the XP-55 personal mission set

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Spitfire V, P-51A

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Low turn time

Good dive acceleration

Good dive speed

Good acceleration

Very controllable

All guns are nose-mounted

 

Cons:

Fragile, does not have massive wing hitboxes unlike the Spitfire

Very high stall speed for a turnfighter

High minimum optimal speed

Four .50 caliber machine guns are somewhat weak for a turnfighter

 

Opinion: Certainly not like the... ehhh let's not risk getting a warning for undesirable language about donkeys; XP-55 in that other game which has planes and is a popular MMO which was brokenly overpowered. Here, it's a very solid plane that can do what no other turnfighter can, chase people that try to BnZ it. The guns perform better than the P-51A due to their mounting, and due to being a turnfighter you'll usually be close to your target, as such the guns can punch above their weight and prove more than adequate however they're not quite as apt at quickly killing a single enemy aircraft. The main flaw of it is the excessively high stall speed and minimum optimal speed. It makes it very hard to sustain fights against other turnfighters and you're not quite fast enough to just run away from them. Is it worth the effort of the personal missions though? Yes, it's a solid plane, but, well, when I get to the British later it'll give you an idea why I recommend the Vampire missions over the Ascender's first.

 

 

Tier VI: P-39N-1 Airacobra

Recommended Skill Level: Low

Availability: Only sold occasionally in the premium shop or given as a reward, drops from Hawk Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): La-5 (loose)

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Good turn time

Extremely controllable

Excellent combination of guns

Good heat cycle for the 37

Decent cruise speed

 

Cons:

High stall speed for a turnfighter

High minimum optimal speed

37mm cannon is inaccurate

 

Opinion: An excellent aircraft that doesn't really do anything poorly. The high responsiveness allows for extremely smooth maneuvers which does a lot of favors for using the guns. The 37mm while a little inaccurate, is still serviceable and hits extremely hard for a turnfighter, the .50 cals help supplement the 37mm, and the .30 cals do a good job of maintaining constant DPS on people when in close range. Extremely forgiving in all aspects though the speed is mediocre, but hey, better than being outright bad, right?

...Spitfires can still be a bit of a pain to deal with though if the 37mm decides to troll you.

 

 

Tier VI: XP-50

 

Recommend Skill Level: Medium-High

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop, drops from Hawk Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane: P-38F/J

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, engine, engine, guns

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Highest speed of any tier 6 HF

Fast bomb reload (60s)

Good maneuverability for an HF

Strong rudder

Extremely accurate guns

Good burst length

Good altitude

 

Cons:

Somewhat weak boost

Lowest firepower of any tier 6 HF, in fact less firepower than any tier 5 HF (except F5F)

Extremely weak ordnance

Extremely fragile for an HF, similar healthpool to LF's and MRF's

 

Opinion: A fairly mediocre plane with some real potential when specialized and equipped. The low firepower actually isn't all that bad thanks to the great accuracy of the 20mm cannons, the .50 cals are there too. It's somewhat responsive for a heavy fighter to boot. However the incredibly low healthpool really hurts this planes ability to fight as a few shots from most planes and you'll be dead, which also means head-ons are extremely dangerous since you don't have the firepower to quickly put people down. Overall not a particularly noteworthy plane but its higher responsiveness and gun consistency than the P-38's might intrigue some people looking for a different playstyle with similar stats.

 

 

Tier VI: XP-54 Swoose Goose

 

Recommended Skill Level: Low-Medium

Availability: Rarely sold in premium shop, drops from 2021 Holiday Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Ki-102, Me 410, P-38J

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, engine, engine, guns

Consumable Slots: cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

High cruise speed

High dive speed

Great dive acceleration

Good maneuverability for an HF (tied for most maneuverable at 12.3s)

Very strong elevator

Good guns

Excellent 37mm cannons (effectively identical to XP-58 guns)

Unusually high autoaim on the 37's

Long burst length on the 37's (~8s)

Great altitude

 

Cons: 

Subpar boost acceleration

Below average boost speed

Somewhat stiff ailerons and rudders

Effectively no backup guns for the 37mm cannons (.50 cals have less range and composes less than 20% of the total DPS)

Somewhat inept at climbing

Fairly fragile for an HF, large (one of the largest tier 6 fighters in fact) and has a subpar healthpool

 

Opinion: An overpowered aircraft, sitting right up there with the Me 410 and Ki-102 for making a mess of tier 6 games. Just looking at the paper stats and comparing it against its peers shows how hilarious the general statistics are--faster than Ki-102 with more altitude, more DPS, the same healthpool, and the same turn time (and better roll rate.) In fact a decent amount of the stats are startlingly comparable to the Me 410 as well (similar DPS, speed, and on-paper climbrate.) In practice however these paper stats won't tell you the whole story, while it does have the same turn time as Ki-102, it has stiffer rudders and ailerons but a much, much stronger elevator with higher minimum optimal speed and stall speed; the differences lend the XP-54 more towards dominating short dogfights but losing lengthy ones. The climbrate and cruise/boost speed are similar to Me 410, but it has inferior climbing capabilities and struggles to maintain speed as well as the Me 410. Despite this, however, the XP-54 combines many of the best traits of the tech tree heavies into a single plane that can sort of do everything. The 37mm cannons can melt through most everything within the 8s burst length, and usually only require 2-3 solid hits to kill an enemy aircraft. It can turn so well that it can even catch energy fighters (Bf 109 F, P-51A) off guard when engaging them. However a sustained dogfight is highly advised against as the XP-54 lacks the raw turn time and energy retention to keep up for more than a couple turns (not that you'll need more than a couple considering you kill them in only 2-3 shots.) Basically, explosively powerful at the start of an engagement but it starts to show cracks as the fight goes on.

     P-38J diving capabilities with much better firepower and the extra altitude it has over most other aircraft means the XP-54 is extremely good at BnZ, and the strong elevator gives tons of options for what you do during/after your pass. Ki-102 maneuverability allows the XP-54 to actively pick fights with lighter aircraft and prevents people from simply dodging your pass, it also means other HF's cannot safely dogfight you and combined with superior altitude/dive speed, makes the XP-54 a fantastic choice for anti-HF work. Me 410-like cannons mean anything that's in front of you simply ceases to exist in rapid order, the superior burst length, range, and DPS means that you rarely (if ever) have to fall back on the machine guns which cannot be said for the Me 410 when dealing with many targets at once. Overall this plane is a relatively easy-to-use powerhouse that will make the life of everybody else quite hellish. Devastating firepower combined with adequate maneuverability and speed makes for a very tricky combination to fight against no matter the plane. No, I'm not going to force in a comparison to the Mosquito here, they don't share many traits at all. Oh, "but Mosquito is a tech tree heavy," fine, the two-caliber armament of the XP-54 leads to two sets of guns for different situations and always allows you have have one set of guns ready. There, are you happy? Comparison to the Mosquito despite the XP-54 sharing effectively nothing with it.

If you really, really, REALLY want an XP-54 dead, the F4U-1 and Tornado are fantastic choices against all but the most intelligent of XP-54 players. They have the durability to take a hit, the maneuverability to play evasively at the start of the fight and then press the advantage afterwards, the speed to get around the map and chase the XP-54, and the guns to shred the XP-54 whether it's maneuvering, or running away. Just remember to dodge its shots in the first couple of turns, you have the durability to take some hits but you'll still die really quick if you don't play evasively at the start of the fight.

 

 

Tier VI: P-38L Lightning

 

Recommended Skill Level: Medium

Availability: At the time of writing, only available in the P-38L Lightning: Start Your Engines event

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): P-38J, F7F, Hornet

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, engine, engine, guns

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Flight performance is a copy-paste of P-38J

Very high boost speed

High dive speed

Good boost acceleration

Great dive acceleration

Great climb rate

Somewhat high maximum optimal speed

Above-average maneuverability for an HF

Great altitude

Tightly-grouped guns

Quad-cannon armament (yes, I'm calling .60 caliber guns cannons)

Uniform gun range despite mixed-caliber guns

Uniform muzzle velocity despite mixed-caliber guns

Incredible burst length on the 15.2mm guns (20s!!!)

EXTREMELY powerful ordnance (only beaten by P.1056 for heaviest ordnance load of any HF in the game... and it's tier 6)

 

Cons:

Somewhat fragile

Flight performance is a copy-paste of P-38J

Below average controllability, controls are stiff

High minimum optimum speed

AWFUL ordnance reload times (180s for bombs, 240s for rockets)

Rockets have an unusually large penalty (-25 kph, -0.3s turn time)

Full ordnance load greatly impacts flight performance

 

Opinion: A good plane made better. So this plane on first inspection really is just a copy-paste of the P-38J but with different guns and different rockets. However the implications of these slight changes is actually quite large and overall makes for a plane better suited to the current (at the time of writing) tier 6 meta that revolves heavily around Ki-102 and XP-54. The 15.2mm autocannons have machine gun burst length on top of having the same muzzle velocity and range as the 20mm cannon, this means that the P-38L is somewhat akin to the F4U-1/Tornado in that it has uniform quad-cannon armament. However unlike them, all of the guns are nose-mounted. And compared to say the Mosquito which also has four cannons in the nose, the P-38L has them more tightly grouped with better burst length and features markedly better flight performance. I won't go into extreme detail about the flight performance beyond saying that it's arguably the best in all of tier 6. The only thing that's totally lacking is controllability, but considering it's still reasonably capable of maneuvering and also able to run away from most planes, it's not too big of a downside. In general this means the P-38L is very good at setting up its own kills and killing whatever it shoots at, however the extremely tight grouping and stiff controls actually make the P-38L struggle at sudden extreme deflection shots. Sometimes the way to avoid getting whacked by it is to simply maintain airspeed and try to force it to keep rolling while flying past it.

However, where things start to get very interesting is when you start to discuss the ordnance options; clean, bombs-only, and fully loaded. Rockets-only is also an option but will not be discussed as it ends up in a bit of a no-mans-land of not being committed enough to ground strike nor air attack to offer worthwhile advantages over the three listed. Anyways, continuing on, the three options give three different playstyles; the ultimate interceptor with better flight performance than anything else in tier 6 that can control any engagement it pleases, a slightly lesser interceptor that's more flexible, and a somewhat unwieldy heavy fighter that can easily nuke a cap a couple of times over the course of the battle.

No ordnance at all is a bit risky as it makes it difficult to capture heavier sectors but it also means the P-38L is basically untouchable (heck, it's even able to give a lot of tier 7's grief.) There is no having fights you can't control, you are always either in the advantage, or easily able to be in the advantage state of a fight. Meanwhile having only bombs still means the P-38L is heavily air-to-air focused, but it has a pinch of ordnance to pick up a couple ground target kills to push a cap over the edge while still having enough performance to run circles around most everything else. Fully loading it up with both bombs and rockets is where the P-38L becomes truly unique and not just merely a up/sidegrade of the P-38J, for better or for worse. The penalty for bringing both bombs and rockets on the P-38L is immense--45 km/h lost and curiously a 0.3s turn time increase. The ordnance reload times aren't enough to consistently flip sectors with it--3 minutes on bombs, 4 minutes on rockets. However, the P-38L has the second heaviest ordnance load of any heavy fighter in the game, and it's at tier 6. This means that while the penalty is extreme, while it severely hampers your ability to control engagements against other planes, the P-38L is capable of taking any sector it wants every 4 minutes. On maps with mining plants this is huge because it means you're a heavy fighter that can quickly and easily capture one at the start of a battle, and at selective points over the course of the battle you can flip more. You'll still have to primarily focus on killing planes and you're still very apt at doing so despite the huge performance penalty, however it's considerably more awkward and forces the P-38L to be a lot more careful about other aircraft.

Overall the three options are strong and have their tradeoffs, you could say. It's an ACTUALLY BALANCED plane that's still very competitive and can handily take on other HF's at tier 6. It's able to outmaneuver and outspeed Mosquito/Me 410, meanwhile its guns are able to grievously wound Ki-102/XP-54 before they can lay a finger on it in a head-on, if they even can as P-38L greatly outspeeds both of them (except XP-54 against fully loaded P-38L where P-38L only has a minor advantage.) All-in-all, the P-38L is able to hold its own against the competition, effectively fulfilling the role of what the P-38J used to be; a plane that while not having the strongest guns, is able to deal with anything it sees (with the ability to instead become a situational cap-nuker that's still capable of fighting other aircraft.)

 

 

Tier VI: A-26B Invader

Recommended Skill Level: Medium

Availability: Available in tech tree and premium shop (somewhat common reward plane from events,) drops from Gyrfalcon Trophies

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Ju-88A, Pe-2 M-82 (fairly loose, arguably no planes fit)

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, engine, turret, ordnance

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, engine, engine, turret ammo, ordnance

 

Pros:

Large HP pool

Fairly fast

Somewhat strong boost

Decent maneuverability (for a bomber)

Very strong rudder

Large boost pool (60s)

Six .50 caliber machine guns in the nose

Decent forward-firing DPS (324 DPS)

Two twin-.50 caliber 128 DPS turrets (note that these are considered 1 mount and cannot fire separately)

Solid climb rate

Decent dive acceleration (if you want to pretend to be a heavy fighter, I guess?)

Very fast ordnance reload time

Good altitude

 

Cons:

Somewhat flimsy, prone to crits

Engines are made of glass

Subpar bombload (19200 damage per bombload, Ju 88A has 24000)

Strings of bombs leads to some inconsistency

Front guns are inaccurate, especially with no sniper view for bombers

Short-ranged forward-firing guns

 

Opinion: A very fun bomber that's not very good when unspecialized, but with some carefully considered kit it becomes the best overall tier 6 bomber in the game. The A-26B may not be the best at anything (except forward-firepower) however it's also the worst at nothing. In fact, A-26B is almost always second-place when it comes to any given stat which may lead you to think "well that means it's a second-rate plane" but in reality, this means it's actually quite flexible and lacks the weaknesses of other bombers. The only weaknesses that are relevant as a bomber are how crit-prone it is and how inconsistent its ordnance can be, but, with some kit... well, giving up boost speed for engine protection isn't worth it, but the bombload can be fixed to actually become pretty formidable. The extremely fast reload paired with improved ordnance consistency means it's full well capable of taking on any sector in 2 passes, except it also has very powerful turrets and forward-firing guns which means it can start taking on ADA or even enemy aircraft to help accelerate a sectors capture. Funnily enough after the buff to .50 caliber HMGs the guns on the A-26B are actually quite lethal. While it lacks both accuracy and autoaim it has the gun range and DPS to really rack up damage on people foolish enough to sit in front of it. If you're a good fighter pilot and figure out how to throw it around the A-26B is actually a clumsy, but not completely incapable dogfighter that can pick fights with people (especially with the turrets to rack up crits or get additional damage on people.) It's fast, it's agile (for a bomber,) it's high-flying, it's (in the HP sense) durable, it's lethal to both air and ground, and it's the best overall bomber in tier 6.

...Good luck actually making it the best tier 6 bomber, though, the specialization grind on this thing is one of the most painful experiences I have ever put myself through and you need to be apt as both a bomber pilot and a fighter pilot to really draw out its full potential. This plane is easy to get into, but the path to true mastery is a long (and painful) one. Inconsistent ordnance and the general flimsiness of modules against all the high-firepower tier 6 MRF's and HF's without enough speed or strong enough turrets to keep them at bay is not a good recipe for maintaining sanity. Ultimately if you want a less skill-intensive means of carrying your team in a tier 6 bomber, you may want to consider the Do 217M which is capable of 1-passing sectors at the cost of A2A capability and some durability.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Reitousair, 03 September 2022 - 10:22 PM.

[Reitousair]

Soviet Aircraft

Tier IX: Antonov M "Masha"

 

Recommended Skill Level: Low

Availability: At the time of writing, only available in a limited time event and 2021 Holiday Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): La-9, La-15

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine, engine

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Good firepower (only ~15% worse than Me P.1092)

Somewhat fast gun cooling

Resistant to both critical damage and fires

Somewhat fast

Good climb rate

Decent dive acceleration

Good maneuverability

Best-in-class stall speed

Best-in-class minimum optimal speed

Very little controllability/maneuverability loss when below minimum optimal speed

Highly responsive ailerons

Powerful elevators (curiously, they seem to get even stronger at higher speeds)

Decent altitude

 

Cons:

Horrific burst length (3~4s)

Awkward gun placement (2 far below the nose on either side of the fuselage, 2 in the nose itself)

Large wing surface area leads to heavy damage from above-below

Low roll rate

Low maximum optimal speed (partially offset by unusual elevator characteristics)

 

Opinion: A hybridization of the Vampire and Lavochkin line, but in an era (both chronologically IRL, and virtually in-game) where the meta doesn't actively favor it. This plane, is, arguably, overpowered when it comes to being a light fighter. It's an incredible blend of performance and firepower while also being a little durable. Like the Vampire (and La-9,) it has solid firepower, not necessarily the best, but more than enough to punish people who think they can just go head-on (in fact tier-for-tier, the Masha has better firepower.) This is paired with well-rounded performance, however unlike the Vampire which trades altitude for extreme speed and boost acceleration— the Masha takes many queues from the La-15 instead. In fact, the Masha copies quite a few stats from the La-15; cruise, maximum optimal, and stall speeds are all identical as well as turn time, and altitude. In many regards the Masha is an La-15 but adjusted for tier 9. Which indicates a most excellent plane that while not exactly the strongest at anything, it is decent in quite a few regards for amazingly well-rounded performance. Pair this with 33% more DPS than the La-15, and you have a pretty fearsome fighter. Yet, the Masha has a few traces of the La-9, being a bit durable with guns that overheat quickly and are a bit janky at times. And this is ultimately the tradeoff for all of the good, the soft stats of the guns are, frankly, poor. While the guns do cool a bit quickly (like the La-15,) they overheat even faster. Even when tap-firing, you will be jamming your guns unless you are exceedingly careful. Gun placement is also a problem (though this is corrected with equipment and pilot skills) having a similar problem to the 302, two pairs of guns firing from largely different positions. The Masha has good guns, and arguably the most well-rounded statline of any tier 9 LF everywhere else with little-to-no serious flaws, ultimately with enough practice the problems with the guns can largely be quelled.

 

You may have noticed however that I stated the meta doesn't favor the Masha yet I described it as a possibly overpowered aircraft, why would that be? Well you see, at the time of writing, the top-tier meta in WoWp revolves around bombers. To put this in perspective, the average speed of tech tree tier 8 bombers is about 665 km/h yet the Vampire can fly at 870 km/h, an approximately 200 km/h difference. While the RB-17 is indeed quite fast, it's also far less powerful at flipping caps compared to both the Tu-12 and Ju 287 (and the Vampire is still 70 km/h faster than it. Meanwhile the average speed of tier 9 bombers is 830 km/h while the Masha can fly at 900 km/h, that's only a 70km/h difference, the same difference as the Vampire to the RB-17. Yet both the Tu-12 and Ju 287 are far better at flipping caps, and the maps don't get any bigger. This isn't even taking into account the Su-10 and EF 131 which are effectively as fast as the Masha. When you start looking at heavy fighters which are the natural counter to bombers, things look even bleaker. It's a similar predicament to what the La-15 deals with these days. Despite this looking bad however, it's ignoring all the other match-ups where you aren't dealing with THE META which is where the Masha starts to excel. Like the Vampire and Lavochkins, it's really not the best at dealing with large amounts of ground pounders, however fighters? They're fair game. While you may not be able to intercept HF's and can't chase them for very long, the durability and agility as well as the climbing/diving capabilities of the Masha are able to seriously punish them for underestimating you. God forbid LF's and MRF's start trying to pick on you. You are full well able to win any fight against any tier 9 LF/MRF (though you will need to be specialized to keep up with specialized enemy aircraft in fights.) On maps with lots of airstrips/airbases/garrisons the Masha can prove to be excellent on both the offensive, and the defensive, no matter the matchmaking. Though... at tier 10 the increased healthpools pose a serious problem for guns with such awful burst length. Yet if the Masha ends up top-tier, well... let's just say that the Masha is to tier 8 as the Vampire is to tier 7.

 

Ultimately in the end the Masha is a plane that's arrived late to the party and is now in a meta that doesn't favor it. Yet despite this it proves to be a massive thorn in the side of anything short of tier 10 meta spam and top-tier bombers. This is a plane that is easy to get into, yet has a second skill floor to be truly effective and win battles. It has performance that in all honesty, could probably do with a couple minor tweaks. It has powerful guns held back by soft stats. And despite being a turnfighter it's not a plane that just instantly explodes when looked at strangely. If this plane came out a few years ago most people would probably have called it overpowered. But no matter how much the game has changed, fantastic all-round performance and punchy guns is sure to give many an enemy many a migraine. 

 

 

Coming Soon: Tier VIII: La-11

 

Recommended Skill Level:

Availability: 

 

Similar tech tree plane(s):

 

Equipment Slots:
Consumable Slots:

 

Pros:

 

 

Cons:

 

 

Opinion:

 

 

Tier VIII: I-260

 

Recommend Skill Level: Expert

Availability: Available in tech tree and premium shop

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Su-9, MiG-9 

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine, guns

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

57mm delet gun (insanely high per-shot damage and range)

Solid 23mm backup guns

INSANE dive acceleration, possibly the best in tier 8

Very high dive speed 

Very high top speed

Strong boost (however the plane needs to be ~500kph before it accelerates properly)

Somewhat large boost pool for a multirole (15s)

 

Cons: 

57mm potato cannon (extremely low velocity and somewhat inaccurate)

NS-23's have awkward hit registration at times

Maneuverability is a myth

Very high minimum optimal speed

Very low maximum optimal speed

Very high stall speed

Multirole altitude cap

Basically requires a good internet connection to use

 

Opinion: An aircraft that can be either extremely good, or utter garbage. The pilot can make or break this plane as it straddles a very fine line of performance with a very unique set of characteristics. Still, it's a MiG at heart despite the awful maneuverability and is excellent at BnZ. It's fascinating that the dive acceleration is so good that you can dive slightly to gain a lot of speed and then climb if you want to gain altitude (yes, this works, WoWp """""physics"""" can be funny.) The 57mm if you know how to aim it is truly devastating and is full-well capable of one-shotting some planes but at the same time the velocity is so bad that you basically need <150 ping to make it consistently hit. The armament overall is hit-or-miss, but when you never miss you can take on heavy-fighters, head-on.

Oh, also, be prepared to be called a hacker once you learn how to use the 57 on this thing.

 

 

Tier VIII: RB-17

 

Recommended Skill Level: Medium

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop, drops from Hawk Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Ju 287, EF 131

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, engine, engine, turret, ordnance

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, engine, engine, turret, ordnance

 

Pros:

Forward-firing NS-23, can be used to finish off ground targets or planes

Very high boost speed (800 KPH)

Very low minimum optimal speed (200 KPH)

Higher dive speed than contemporaries (850KPH compared to 800KPH of the other tier 8 bombers)

Large boost pool (60s)

Durable (1500 HP)

Quad-engined, retain most of your boost when suffering engine crits

Excellent altitude (2700m)

Excellent tailgunner range (1km, tied for longest turret range in the game)

Good gunner angles (effectively entire area behind aircraft)

3X6 Strings of bombs, very consistent against ground targets at nearly all altitudes within 3km

Somewhat fast ordnance reload (40s)

 

Cons:

Front gun is inaccurate, especially with no sniper view

Very prone to control surface crits

Very low cruise speed (400 KPH)

Poor cruise acceleration, bleeds speed exceedingly quickly

Inept at climbing due to mediocre boost acceleration (and awful climb rate)

Low turret DPS

Three strings of bombs can't capture any sector in one load without assistance

 

Opinion: This plane has a bit of an interesting history, both in this game and with me personally. It used to be quite broken in terms of game balance, able to wreck caps with rapid-reloading bombs, fast enough speed to effectively run away from everything in tier 8, and eviscerate anything that got behind it (which was everything because it was too fast to properly intercept without almost immediately ending up within the turrets firing arc.) However bombers and turrets had their mechanics tweaked, the RB-17 is one of the rare premiums which has been outright nerfed in WG history as well. Waaaaaaaaaaaay back in the day when I was still a--to quote a certain someone--"GA purist," back during Skies of Albion (December 2017.) I made a promise to myself, "RB-17, not even once." I saw it as such a fundamentally flawed, broken, and not-fun to fight against aircraft that I refused to even own the thing. But after all of the changes made to the game, this plane is more properly balanced.

Anyways enough with the boring history lesson, so how about the plane in the current year? Well, it's a very strong, consistent, and ultimately pleasant bomber to play. High speed, high altitude, decent accuracy, and the string size often means you overkill targets (in fact, the only ground target it can't kill in one string is the central workshop of a mining plant.) Though it's still not 100% consistent, and as such occasionally flying at lower altitudes is a good idea to maximize your accuracy. The aforementioned high speed and altitude means that despite your poor turret DPS, you can use your excellent turret range to put up a formidable defense. The main problems are the low cruise speed and low cruise acceleration. To put it simply, the RB-17 is a fast plane that doesn't want to go fast. Which considering speed is a major part of both your offensive and defensive capabilities, can lead to some awkward moments where a Bf 109Z catches you and cripples you before you can get up to speed. So be mindful of how much boost you have and pack engine cooling to keep your speed up between caps.

Like most bombers, things change a fair bit when specialized and fully kitted out as your decently fast ordnance reload because a genuinely fast ordnance reload making 2-loading sectors a lot less painful and you can become even faster to the point most tier 9 planes struggle to catch you. Overall the RB-17 is weaker than the Ju 288 C when it comes to the role of being a bomber; less ordnance, less flexible ordnance, less adept at climbing, weaker defenses. But it's a very consistent one that is good for learning high-tier bombering due to how consistent and (relatively speaking) easy it is to fly. It's still a tier 8 premium though, so despite being a good plane to learn bombers with don't buy it until you've clocked in some time with the lower tier bombers. Think of it as more of an intermediate trainer instead of plane for new bomber pilots.

 

 

Tier VII: Yak-3RD

 

Recommended Skill Level: Low-Medium

Availability: Drops from Unique Supply Crates and Gyrfalcon Trophies

 

Similar tech tree plane: Yak-1M (very loose)

For the sake of comparison, similar premium plane: La-9RD

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Extremely strong boost, the strongest in tier 7

Extremely responsive to input, can effectively snap-to-target

Excellent maneuverability

Excellent climbrate

Very high speed

Good burst length

Fast gun cooling

Good gun range

High altitude for its maneuverability

Twin-engined, however losing the prop engine discards 66% of the boost

 

Cons:

Extremely fragile

Extremely low DPS

One gun, not much volume of fire

Altitude is somewhat restrictive

 

Opinion: A decent plane that is ruthlessly strong in its niche; 1v1. The controllability is incredible, which in tandem with the maneuverability means that a bit of creative thinking leads to the Yak-3RD being full well capable of outmaneuvering anything. But why bother trying to outmaneuver everything when you could just... rocket away? Who would've thought, a rocket booster on a lightweight plane makes the acceleration obscenely strong? Against effectively every turnfighter the Yak-3RD can just exit the engagement, at almost any time, and in any direction which is quite strong because on occasion you may run into problems outmaneuvering turnfighters that have a turn build equipped. However this incredible acceleration and responsiveness makes it terrifyingly good at dealing with BnZ planes as it can spin around on a dime and catch up to just about anything no matter if it's climbing or diving. All of this insane performance is lovely, and the single gun is a very solid gun to boot dealing fairly consistent damage at unusually long ranges with great heat cycles; but this all falls apart (literally) with the Yak-3RD's durability. It's an incredibly fragile plane meaning a short burst from most planes can put the 3RD down with great ease, and in fact some planes can outright one-shot it. Flying the Yak-3RD requires extraordinary situational awareness if you aren't able to isolate people and fight them 1v1 as it has the agility and speed to dodge incoming attacks, but if it fails to dodge it's dead.

Curiously, this plane shares many similarities with the La-9RD below; the La-9RD is a better plane for defending sectors and dealing with massive furballs. The Yak-3RD is a much better plane for hunting people down and dueling people mano-y-mano.

 

Note: NEVER get into a 1v1 situation against a Yak-3RD, try to drag them closer to teammates, over friendly sectors with copious amounts of AA and/or ADA, or avoid them altogether unless they're distracted. The Yak-3RD is the single best duelist in tier 7 but in a furball they're less likely to notice incoming attackers which is your chance to strike, they have little recourse if taken by surprise. Additionally tag-teaming a Yak-3RD with a flightmate is another effective means of dealing with them since they can only survive so much damage however be warned; if not handled with utmost care the Yak-3RD has the power to make a 1v2 two 1v1's and can full well end both of you. It's a scary plane to fight if it can force duels, so try to prevent it from doing so.

 

 

Tier VII: La-9RD

Recommended Skill Level: Medium

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): La-5, La-9

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Extremely strong boost

One of the highest climbrates in tier 7

Accurate guns

Somewhat high healthpool

Somewhat durable

High boost speed

Has two engines (technically, it seems jets can be critted to lose 6s of boost, but if prop engine is critted all boost is lost)

Very good maneuverability

 

Cons:

Low damage output, only two 23mm cannons

Very long cooldown on guns; cooling is longer than burst length

Low maximum optimal speed

Low cruise acceleration, bleeds speed quickly when not boosting

Struggles to take advantage of high boost speed due to above speed problems

Stiff elevators, might have problems entering turns

 

Opinion: A fun, somewhat effective plane with a niche for pursuing/intercepting attacking aircraft while defending a sector. The guns restrict the La-9RD's ability to kill, not through their damage output, but due to their lengthy cooling time, even tap-firing causes frequent overheats and jams without practice since the guns refuse to cool down. Still, the La-9RD's extremely strong boost and high maneuverability make it excellent at chasing down aircraft that try to BnZ it or in general try to escape. This also means you can surprise people by quickly boosting to well beyond your optimal altitude and shooting them down. Take caution when doing this because the La-9RD isn't great at diving meaning you'll be an easy target on the way back down. The La-9RD can be excruciating to play in tier 8 battles since you really feel the lacking DPS and long cooldown time but when top tier, definitely a plane capable of getting work done just... don't expect to solo carry games in it.

 

 

Tier VII: 302 (aka I-302P)

 

 

Recommended Skill Level: High-Expert

Availability: Available in tech tree, occasionally sold in premium shop, drops from Steel Supply Crates and Harpy Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): None

For the sake of giving you a comparison: Similar premium plane(s): Meteor Mk.I, J8M

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Extremely high speed

Very high dive speed

Good altitude

Fairly strong boost

Four 20mm cannons in the nose

Somewhat high crit-resistance

 

Cons:

High minimum optimal speed

Extremely fragile

Poor acceleration in minimum optimal speed, very prone to stalling

ShVAK cannons are obsolete for tier 7

Weird mounting, two guns in the nose and two guns below the nose

Guns overheat very quickly

Very bad maneuverability

 

Opinion: Not a particularly great aircraft, not necessarily bad but it's merely decent. Very fun to play but the guns do not work very well due to their weird mounting, hit registration, and short burst length. Oh also they are ShVAK's, guns that are better used at tier 5 than at tier 7. The acceleration isn't strong enough to quickly bail out of a situation and entering low-speeds at all is practically a death sentence if you are not extremely wary of your surroundings. All of this means maintaining high speeds at all times is a must. Can still do some work, but the guns limit its ability to kill, the engines somewhat limit the ability to rocket away, and the maneuverability limits the ability to stay on target. But I must say, the Meteor X J8M flight/fight style is interesting to work with and can prove quite effective with practice. Though... it can also fight tier 8 planes where its problems become more apparent.

 

 

Tier VII: Yak-3T

 

Recommended Skill Level: Medium

Availability: Rarely sold in premium shop

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Yak-9U (somewhat,) Yak-3

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine
Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

High firepower for a turnfighter

Centerline gun mounting

Very maneuverable (though worse than the dedicated turnfighters)

High roll rate

Low minimum optimal speed

Low stall speed

Good controllability

 

Cons:

Extremely fragile, even for a turnfighter

Very inaccurate guns

Extremely short burst length

Long gun cooling time

Low cruise speed

Below average cruise acceleration

Low boost speed

Below average boost acceleration

Extraordinarily short boost time (5s)

Low maximum optimal speed

Bad altitude

 

Opinion: A below average plane that can be salvaged through the magic of specialization. The Yak-3T out of the box is an aircraft with very few strengths at all, most of the things it can try to utilize are situational at best or hampered by some downside that ultimately outweighs the upside. For example despite having good guns on paper, in practice the accuracy is awful, the burst length is extremely short, and the gun cooling is long. At least Ki-84 has somewhat 20mm cannons that cool at average speed, Yak-3T isn't afforded this luxury. Most of the flaws are also ones that are innate to the aircraft and severely harm its ability to perform. It is the most fragile of all planes in tier 7, yes even Yak-3/3RD and the Japanese LF's have more HP than this thing, and for the most part are more resistant to crits/fires too. It also has the smallest boost pool of any tier 7 plane. I don't understand why this plane has been cursed with so many massive drawbacks but it makes for a real challenge to play. When unspecialized this plane teeters on the border between outright bad and simply being underwhelming; it's awful when attacking but is reasonably apt when defending.

Specialization turns this plane around, depending on the build. I don't usually make any recommendations on builds but maneuverability equipment should be avoided on this aircraft, it's far too fragile and its speed is anemic to warrant any improvements to maneuverability; even if this means it will be less capable against dedicated turnfighters. With specialization this aircraft is finally allowed to show its niche without getting trampled by most other aircraft. The improved speed/durability of the aircraft allow it to get around the map fast enough to be eating the dust of faster aircraft instead of slowly pedaling through the wreckage. In general Yak-3T becomes a notable plane that is able to utilize its strengths with some of its crippling flaws patched up. High DPS with centerline mounting and extraordinarily snappy controls allows for some clever plays to outdo other turnfighters and seriously threaten other fighters, even heavies to some limited extent. It's debatable whether Yak-3T truly has a niche it can fill or if other aircraft do its job better, but it's still a somewhat capable plane that can prove a serious threat to people who underestimate just how much damage its guns can do. Sadly, until specialization this plane is rather anemic which means the grind to said specialization can become quite painful unless you have a competent teammate to do the attacking for you while you do what Yak-3T does best--sit over a sector and deal short bursts of high DPS.

As a slight extra note: Yak-3T is lethal to GA's, even though it's quite flimsy if you're careful about avoiding the tailgunners Yak-3T can deal a large amount of damage quickly against targets big enough to not suffer from inaccuracy issues.

 

 

Tier VII: Tu-1

 

Recommended Skill Level: Medium-High

Availability: Available in tech tree, very rare in premium shop, drops from 2021 Holiday Supply Crates and Hawk Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Me-410, Yak-9U (loosely)

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, engine, guns, turret

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, ammo, turret ammo

 

Pros:

Two 45mm cannons

Solid backup guns

Both guns have the exact same muzzle velocity

Extremely high healthpool (700 HP!)

Excellent controllability

Two .50 caliber gunners

Small profile from the front and rear

Huge boost pool (45s)

Excellent low-speed characteristics (for a heavy)

 

Cons:

Somewhat awkward hit registration

NS-23's are in the wing-roots, HC-45's are in the bottom of the nose; lead isn't quite the same on both guns

Very low speed

Very low climb rate

Very bad maneuverability

Roll rate is almost nonexistent

Large profile from above/below

Gunners are somewhat weak

 

Opinion: An excellent aircraft that flies a lot like the Me-410. The problem comes is that you basically have Me-410 performance a tier higher, which is... not the best, to say the least. However thanks to the impressive controllability (responsiveness to input) it's full-well capable of dogfighting other heavies and it can fly slow enough that it's hard to get one to overshoot. To some extent it can hover behind a target and blast them away with the very high firepower. The hard stats may look like garbage, but, remember, you're effectively a Tu-2 but instead of bombs you devastate people with sniper cannons. It's infuriating to be flying a bomber and a Tu-1 approaches, high health, high firepower, long range, long boost, and low speed-- a very strong combination for making a bombers life difficult.

 

 

Tier VI: P-39Q-15 Airacobra

 

Recommended Skill Level: Low

Availability: Available in tech tree and premium shop, drops from Harpy Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): La-5 (loose), Yak-1M (somewhat loose)

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Good turn time

Extremely controllable

Good heat cycle on the 37mm cannon

Decent cruise speed (helped by having speed paint)

 

Cons:

High stall speed for a turnfighter

High minimum optimal speed

37mm cannon is inaccurate

Two thirds of DPS comes from an inconsistent gun

 

Opinion: A decent aircraft that doesn't do anything particularly well nor poorly. Like the P-39N, the controllability makes maneuvering very smooth which alleviates some of the problems with the 37mm's inaccuracy. However in comparison to the P-39N, this is a markedly inferior version since rather than 48% of your DPS coming from your 37, it's 65% of your DPS yet the P-39Q in no way makes the 37mm more consistent. This is a very serious issue since even while maneuvering, the gun accuracy can become a problem and you lack the .30 cals to DPM people. According to the statcards of the P-39N and P-39Q, the 39Q has slightly more health and boost speed but in practice these benefits are negligible at best, especially compared to the loss of 26% of the 39N's damage output. In summary if you have the option, buy the P-39N over the P-39Q, however the P-39Q still makes for a solid Soviet premium. It may be markedly worse than its Western counterpart, but being a worse version of an excellent plane is a good base to form an ultimately decent plane.

 

 

Tier VI: IL-1

 

Recommended Skill Level: Medium

Availability: Available in tech tree and premium shop, drops from 2021 Holiday Supply Crates, Steel Supply Crates, and Harpy Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Spitfire V (loose)

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, guns

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Extremely durable

High healthpool (450HP! Me-410 only has 400HP)

High controllability

Good maneuverability

Large boost pool for a multirole (15s)

Somewhat quick

Extremely long burst length (~12s)

Long ranged guns

Accurate guns

Fast ordnance reload (60s)

 

Cons:

Extremely bad speed (the IL-10 --a tier 7 GA-- is 15KPH slower)

Extremely low altitude (the IL-10 has 100m less altitude)

Somewhat stiff elevators

Small ordnance load (2X100kg bombs)

 

Opinion: A very situational plane that is excellent in said situation. Great for smaller maps with lots of sectors thanks to the long range of the guns and low speed of the IL-1. The surprisingly good agility lets it dogfight effectively everything but turnfighters which unfortunately bully the IL-1 with ease due to how slow it is and how low its optimal altitude is as well. Still, the IL-1 is not to be taken lightly and should be considered extremely dangerous if piloted well: it has the health to go head-on with even heavy fighters, the range to almost always engage first, and the maneuverability to either rapidly turn around or dogfight with on top of its very low speed meaning it can prolong its gun range advantage or already be turning as tight as it possibly can. Running away can be a problem thanks to the long gun range and the capability of the guns to hit beyond their max optimal range.

*flexes in camping power*

 

 

Note: the IL-1 actually lead to the development of the IL-10. This creates the amusing parallel of the IL-8 being a further development of the IL-2 and the IL-10 being a further development of the IL-1. While the IL-1 wasn't successful unlike the IL-2 the IL-8 was ultimately overshadowed by the IL-10.

 

 

 

Edited by Reitousair, 26 August 2022 - 10:11 AM.

[Reitousair]

German Aircraft

Tier VIII: Ho 229

 

Recommended Skill Level: High

Availability: Occasionally sold in the premium shop, drops from Gyrfalcon Trophies

 

Similar tech tree plane: Ta 152

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, guns
Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

High boost speed

Fairly high cruise speed

High dive speed

Strong boost

Somewhat strong cruise acceleration

High dive acceleration

High climb rate

Great altitude

Unique fight model, capable of surprisingly sharp turns

Two MK103's taken from the Me P.1099 B-2, good RoF, range, and damage

Looks really cool

 

Cons:

Guns overheat in only a couple of shots

Guns are somewhat awkwardly spaced apart

Guns cool down somewhat slowly for a MK103

Bad turn time

Unique flight model, needs practice to figure out

Somewhat poor controllability

Somewhat fragile

High minimum optimal speed

High stall speed

 

Opinion: An overpowered plane;  arguably the strongest in tier 8. It may be hard to learn at first but it's a terrifyingly powerful aircraft capable of going anywhere it wants, wherever it wants, and can attack whoever it wants. The guns are great once you are practiced and people struggle to hit you in a head-on due to how thin the Ho 229 is. The weird physics attached to it allow it to dogfight with far more maneuverable planes than it at higher speeds and it doesn't suffer from being crit prone which is nice, because if any control surface is critted dogfighting becomes nigh impossible. When played well it can control just about any engagement --even if it didn't start it. In fact even against tier 9's there are very few planes that can put a stop to the Ho 229's dominance.

 

 

Tier VIII: Me 109 TL

 

Recommended Skill Level: High

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop (one of the more common tier 8 reward aircraft during events)

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Fw 190 D, Su-9 (loosely)

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, guns

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

High dive speed

High dive acceleration

High boost speed

Large boost pool (15s)

Good controllability

Decent firepower

Fast ordnance reload: 60s and 90s for rockets and the bomb respectively

 

 

Cons:

Bad maneuverability

Somewhat poor acceleration

High minimum optimal speed

High stall speed

Inconsistent guns

Somewhat short burst-length

Guns cool down slowly

 

Opinion: A decent plane with the ability to become a good one. The subpar acceleration really hurts the 109 TL as it forces it to play more like an HF lest it finds itself unable to get up to speed and die. It does have good dive acceleration however, and the altitude is decent, even if it's not HF-tier. Guns are very weird with their hit registration, the 30mm cannons tend to be more reliable than the 20mm cannons. This leads to a very close-ranged style of gunnery that tends to get you killed against planes with higher DPS and crippled against planes with similar DPS but better range. Maneuverability tends to be lacking for close-quarters-combat so you'll have to be creative and instead use the controllability; it may not turn well but it will respond to your inputs accordingly. As an anecdote to give a clearer picture of this, I won three dogfights against a specialized P-51H in my 109 TL which has an 11.9s turn time compared to the P-51H's <11s turn time I didn't turn as well but I kept maneuvering in ways to cut inside his turns and come out on top.

With equipment, the 109 TL becomes a genuinely good plane, with just a single piece of turn equipment you can really use your controllability and with some speed equipment (particularly a turbine) you can rectify the acceleration problems. Unfortunately the guns still fail to be reliable but careful play can generally get around this anyways. Extra speed also makes the 109 TL a surprisingly good MRF thanks to its very short ordnance reload times, with practice (and some strafing) you can score some ground target kills to finish off a cap.

This may be a relatively easy to understand plane to try and score Gabreski medals in, small amounts of fast-reloading hard-hitting ordnance and the guns to strafe targets/kill planes

 

 

 

Tier VIII: Do 335 A-1 Pfeil

Recommended Skill Level: High

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Me 209 A, P.1056

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, guns, ordnance

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, engine, engine, ammo, ordnance

 

Pros:

Large boost pool (30s)

High cruise speed

Very high dive speed

Unique MK103 (1km range!)

Very good back-up guns

Four 250kg bombs

Good roll rate, fairly easy to stay on target

Durable

Great altitude

 

Cons:

Awkward hit registration with the MK103

Very big, easy to hit

Turning is very stiff

Weak firepower for a tier 8 HF

Somewhat low boost speed and acceleration

Bombs greatly impact speed

VERY high minimum optimal speed

 

Opinion: A great aircraft capable of doing a bit of everything. Especially for going to altitude and diving on people. Despite being a great plane, it isn't quite a hard-carry plane since it lacks the speed to quickly get around and the firepower to quickly put heavier enemies down. It lacks the low-speed characteristics to hang around particularly well so... have to be a bit careful with it. But, hey, as long as you aren't up against a line-up of the strongest planes around, you can dominate. Even if you're up against a line-up of the best planes around, the Do 335 can handle itself just fine, provided you keep an eye on the map.

 

 

Tier VIII: BV P.203

Recommended Skill Level: High-Expert

Availability: Very rarely appears in premium shop, drops from Harpy Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane: Me 262

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, guns

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, engine, engine, ammo, turret ammo

 

Pros:

Good cruise acceleration

High boost speed

Somewhat strong boost

Fairly high dive speed

Huge boost pool (40s)

Very powerful armament

Great altitude

Durable

Twin 13mm gunner

 

Cons:

All three guns have different ballistics

Dive speed is only 50kph higher than boost speed

Low cruise speed for a heavy

Wings are extremely prone to being critted, no airframe consumable to repair them either

Somewhat low climb rate

EXTREMELY bad roll rate, on par with some GA and bombers

Maneuverability, wait, what's maneuverability?

 

Side note: this plane uses two mixed-propulsion engines yet it only has two engines in-game, so if you happen to buy this plane, do be warned about that. This plane also comes equipped with the same MK103 variant as the Ta 152 which is the worst version of the MK103.

 

Opinion: A somewhat overpowered plane, you have a lot of boost and a lot of speed, paired with long-ranged, mid-ranged, and short-ranged guns. It's effectively the best bomber hunter in tier 8 thanks to the 40s of boost and 950m range guns. However, it does take some effort to bring the guns to bear on anything that has any semblance of maneuverability as the BV P.203 is a very unresponsive plane on top of being highly unmaneuverable. Still, you have a pair of guns for every occasion--even in your rear--so if you can wrangle the plane, you're sure to do a lot of damage.

 

 

Tier VII: Fw 190 A-8

Recommended Skill Level: High-Expert

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop, drops from Harpy Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Fw 190 A-5, Fw 190 D

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, guns

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Extremely high firepower (marginally worse than Me 265 and Fw 190 D, more than an Me 410)

Highest cruise speed of any Fw 190 (beats Fw-190 D by 3KPH)

Gets cruise speed paint

Notably high roll rate

Most durable Fw 190, can take a beating

Large boost pool

Small minimum optimal speed band

 

Cons:

Is almost a complete copy-paste of the Fw 190 A-5, a tier 6 plane

Extremely low boost speed

Very bad maneuverability

Bad altitude

Below-average climb rate

Guns are somewhat inaccurate

30mm cannons are halfway down the wings

Bleeds speed excessively quickly

Somewhat sluggish

Somewhat high stall speed

 

Opinion: A bad, but not completely irredeemable plane. The sheer firepower in tandem with the healthpool makes the 190 A-8 somewhat apt at ground-pounding or going head-on with HF's. The abnormally high cruise speed can also be useful for hanging out above your pitiful optimal altitude. But, unfortunately, this is a(n) (arguably inferior version of a) Fw 190 A-5 upgunned and uptiered. While the A-5 is a great tier 6 plane, it has problems fighting tier 7's, now take that plane and make it fight tier 8 planes. I would tell you about my experiences fighting Vampires and Ho 229's in this thing, but I believe one could already color in all the details of how frustrating that would be and thus I shall refrain from going into detail about giving myself a new hairstyle.

 

 

Tier VI: Spitfire V DB.605 (aka the Messerspit)

 

Recommended Skill Level: Low

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Spitfire V, Ki-61

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Mostly a copy-paste of the Spitfire V in terms of stats

Excellent maneuverability

Great controllability

Decent cruise acceleration

Great boost acceleration

Accurate guns

Fairly strong guns

Fairly durable (due in part to the narrow fuselage compared to the wingspan of the aircraft)

Excellent altitude, only the Bf 109 F can match it

 

Cons:

Largely a copy-paste of the Spitfire V, but without the engine upgrades

Somewhat low cruise speed

Low boost speed

Somewhat prone to control surface crits

20mm cannons heat up quickly

.303" guns cool down slowly

 

Opinion: A Spitfire that's even better on the defensive than its British counterparts. In the social circles I interact with, "altitude is a suggestion" is kind of a running meme when it comes to Spitfires thanks to their powerful boost which allows them to climb to altitudes far above their normal rating. However with the Spit DB not only can it climb to high altitudes, it can fly around at high altitudes too. Altitude is pretty much a non-factor with the Messerspit, 2000m is incredibly high, especially for a turnfighter. In fact, the altitude is high enough to match that of the Ki-102 and Me 410. Basically, you can kind of BnZ-proof the Spit DB if you play it intelligently *insert comment trashing the skill level of Spitfire players here* due to its altitude. You can even do something no other turnfighters (at tier 6, anyways) can do, control the rules of engagement. In that regard a well-played Spit DB is a serious threat. You can't really gain an advantage on them, you can only disengage or risk an engagement with a high chance of dying should the engagement not go perfectly. Of course in HF's they can attempt to practice something known as "horizontal BnZ" or as some might call it, "Boom n' Run" (BnR). But that involves a lot more boost since they won't be able to get away with just their dive speed against the Spit DB.

Overall the Spit DB is a good plane. It may not be meta-defining due to its low speed and occasionally awkward guns, but a well-played one is sure to give the enemy a serious headache. However, if played like a normal Spitfire, the Messerspit is an inferior version of its British counterparts due to its slightly weaker engine and lower speed. So for those Spitfire players out there who get this, remember that you have altitude, and that planes lose maneuverability when going above their optimal altitude. Just some helpful advice if you happen to run into your British counterparts.

 

 

 

Edited by Reitousair, 08 July 2022 - 12:46 AM.

[Reitousair]

Japanese Aircraft

Tier VIII: J8M Shusui

 

Recommended Skill Level: "Super-Expert"

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop

 

Similar tech tree plane: None

To get some sort of comparison: Similar premium plane: 302

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, guns

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Strongest boost in the game

Highest boost speed in tier 8

Highest dive speed in tier 8

Best altitude in tier 8

Extremely good climb rate

Powerful armament

Decently high roll rate

Somewhat low stall speed

 

Cons:

Bad maneuverability

High minimum optimal speed

Very bad cruise speed, well below minimum optimal speed

Only two guns that overheat quickly, and are short-ranged

Extremely fragile

Crit prone

Extremely prone to fires

 

Opinion: A very fun, but very niche plane. Would not recommend, extremely hard to fly, let alone do well in. But being a rocket can be really fun as you enter/exit any engagement you want and the guns hit hard.

If you really feel up to the challenge: the J8M is a capable aircraft in skilled hands with the insane speed and acceleration it wields, the guns while short-ranged are somewhat accurate and hit extremely hard, and the maneuverability is just barely enough to win dogfights with HF's. But keep in mind I said skilled hands, extraordinarily few people are able to use this aircraft effectively; even some of the best players struggle greatly with the J8M. It is not an aircraft one should buy without second thought (unless you just want bootleg Me-163 as hangar decoration) as the extreme difficulty of flying it does not bode well for ones sanity, credit-earning efficiency, or statistics if you're into those. So, be warned if you really feel up to it: trying to git gud at the J8M is a hard commitment to uphold.

 

 

Tier VII: J4M Senden

 

Recommended Skill Level: High

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): F6U, F7U, MiG-9 (loosely)

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, guns

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, guns

 

Pros:

Very high boost speed

Very high dive speed

Great dive acceleration

Large boost pool for an LF/MRF (15s)

Nose-mounted 30mm cannon

Somewhat durable

 

Cons:

Bad maneuverability

Poor low speed characteristics

Low altitude

Guns overheat quickly

Guns cooldown slowly (especially the 30mm)

Hit registration can be awkward

 

Opinion: A sorely overlooked aircraft, it plays a lot like higher tier aircraft and can approach tier 8 speeds quite easily. It hits hard and goes really, really, fast while having just enough agility to stay on target. It's great at hunting heavy fighters who dare fly low (in fact with bombs equipped it's only slower than the Hornet) with the absurd speed and high dive acceleration. The J4M can even pick fights with tier 8 aircraft, just... don't expect to survive all the time; the J4M may be good but it's still a tier 7 plane.

 

 

Tier VII: Ki-94-I

 

Recommended Skill Level: Expert

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Bf 109 Z (loosely)

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, engine, guns, guns

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Insanely high firepower, same raw DPS as the Me-262 but a tier lower

Good cruise acceleration

High cruise speed

Good boost acceleration

Somewhat strong rudder

 

Cons:

Low boost pool for an HF (20s)

Extremely poor maneuverability

Very awkward gun mounting (two guns halfway down each wing)

Low gun accuracy

Guns overheat very quickly

37mm cannons cool down slowly

 

Opinion: A weird plane that certainly provides a unique experience. In short it's the ultimate troll plane, it either trolls you by never hitting, or it trolls your enemy by insta-gibbing them. It's actually not a particularly slow plane despite what some might believe, the boost speed may seem low but it actually has the ability to rapidly reach and hold said boost speed. This also leads into it being deceptively apt at climbing which can surprise people who think they can just climb away from it. An extremely important skill to learn is adjusting what angle your aircraft is banked at in order to have your guns converge on the fuselage (which deals full damage, shooting wings deals half damage) of your target. So for example in a head-on or tail-chase you generally want to roll 90 degrees to the left or right and open fire. The Ki-94-I also has a mildly strong rudder which makes it easier to keep your guns on target and is critical in order to have it do anything resembling a turn.

 

 

Tier VI: Ki-88

 

Recommended Skill Level: Medium

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop, drops from Unique Supply Crates and Hawk Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane: Bf 109 F (VERY loose)

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Above-average cruise speed

Very powerful armament

Great altitude (1800m)

Fairly agile

 

Cons:

Fairly fragile

Extremely short burst length

Somewhat inaccurate guns

Slow gun cooling

 

Opinion: A decent aircraft, it hits a lot harder than the P-39's but it's not much faster and is considerably less maneuverable while being pretty flimsy itself. However the main strength of this aircraft is that it has longer-ranged armament while also having energy-fighter-tier altitude. With some kit the Ki-88 can fly at bomber altitude in relative comfort. Paired with its punchy guns and cruise speed it is surprisingly capable at killing careless heavies and can even take on some of the lesser-armed bombers. Unfortunately the lacking boost characteristics means the Ki-88 takes a lot of time to get to altitude and travel across the map which means it often lends itself to being a more defensively-minded aircraft that has enough firepower to kill pretty much anything in a decent amount of time. This altitude also allows it to be a functional capping machine, but also acts as the main way to deal with turnfighters. Only the Spit DB both outright turns better than you and has more altitude than you. However against other turnfighters your sheer altitude advantage is your primary means of dealing with them as they are both as fast as you and more maneuverable than you. With a bit of """creative thinking""" there are also minor ground-attack applications if you're extremely desperate to flip a cap but do be warned that at lower altitudes you will struggle to disengage with other aircraft.

 

 

 

Edited by Reitousair, 08 July 2022 - 12:48 AM.

[Reitousair]

British Aircraft

Tier VIII: DH.100 Vampire F.1 (shortened to just Vampire)

Recommended Skill Level: Low

Availability: Only obtainable through the Vampire personal mission set

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Me 209 A, Spitfire XIV 

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine, engine

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Very strong boost

Very high speed

Fairly high dive speed

Great climb rate

Decent dive acceleration

Great low-speed characteristics

Deceptively maneuverable for its turn time

Fairly controllable, though bricks at higher speeds

Solid armament, four nose-mounted 20mm cannons

 

Cons:

Guns are somewhat inaccurate and overheat somewhat quickly

Somewhat fragile

Small healthpool

Low altitude

Pitch responsiveness can be a bit stiff, may have problems entering turns

 

Opinion: The best plane in tier 8 currently. No hard counter to it exists and it always holds some advantage over an enemy. Not very good at taking out bombers and kinda weak at GA hunting as well, but there's effectively nothing better when it comes to fighting other aircraft. It always has either a huge speed advantage or huge maneuverability advantage over its opponent (not counting equipment.) A very easy way to describe it would be, "It's the Attacker but without the altitude and tier 8." A lot of the performance characteristics it has are very similar to those on the Attacker, which helps make it a very straightforward, effective aircraft to fly. On top of this through specialization and some equipment, it can use some of the quirks it has to become quite similar to the Spitfire in maneuvers, while also maintaining Attacker-like speed. The ability to confidently fight in every engagement is what makes the Vampire the best tier 8 plane, but that doesn't make you invincible: you must take care to not let people get easy shots on you, you may have some armor, but your healthpool won't keep you flying for very long under fire.

 

Tips for fighting these things: while the Vampire has decent dive acceleration, there are a fair few planes that can outdive it despite the Vampire's dive speed. Vampires have low altitude so the effect is compounded by them having weakened engines; this is generally the optimal choice if they're going head-on with you. If you have a serious altitude advantage and a similar turn time (like P-51H, for example) and the Vampire is climbing to you, another choice is to try and turn away from them and go into a 45° climb or so; at higher altitudes the Vampire will suffer an even weaker engine and a very noticeable maneuverability penalty meaning hard turns will quickly drain them of any semblance of energy. Being on low altitude and low energy is a death sentence, but the Vampire raises the bar for what a "death sentence" is so try to keep a very close eye on their movements if you aren't in a particularly fast, or particularly high-altitude plane (like the F2G/Tempest, which have little counterplay to a competently flown Vampire,) your only real counterplay is to figure out how to get your guns on target long enough to kill the Vampire as you most likely have a durability advantage--your only advantage.

 

 

Tier VIII: Seafang F.32

 

Recommend Skill Level: Medium-High
Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Tempest, F4U-1/4, I-220 (somewhat loose)

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine, ordnance
Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Accurate, consistent guns

Somewhat quick

Fairly long boost

Good controllability

Strong rudder

Decent climb rate

Superior altitude to the Tempest/F2G

Second airframe consumable rather than an ordnance consumable

Cons:

Somewhat slow gun cooling

Small rocket load

Bombs not available in specialist configuration

Long ordnance reload time

Somewhat low healthpool

 

Opinion: A decent plane with the ability to become a good one. It's practically the same as the Tempest in flight performance however it trades pretty much all ordnance for improved flight characteristics. The increased responsiveness of the controls and roll rate is great for some very interesting maneuvers that the Tempest simply can't handle. It's a bit unusual in that it can dogfight using the same tactics as both the Tempest and F2G which makes for a lovely hybrid style of dogfighting and increases the Seafangs flexibility in dogfights greatly. Overall it feels pretty reminiscent of the I-220 with its punchy, accurate guns that have somewhat bad burst lengths, it's a bit fragile, but it's decently fast, climbs well, and allows for very creative maneuvers. The Seafang could perhaps best be described as the air-to-air focused plane out of the F2G, Tempest, and itself. They all function similarly; the F2G being focused more on sector control and BnZ, the Tempest being incredibly flexible in both objective play and combat, and the Seafang being weaker and restrictive when attacking sectors but can defend said sectors and fight against most of its opposition. Overall if you love the Tempest and/or F2G but want just a bit more Spitfire in your life, consider picking up the Seafang.

 

Performance Notes: After some testing, the Tempest and Seafang are identical when boosting in level flight. Seafang is notably better than Tempest in climbs (and has better altitude to boot.) Tempest is notably better than Seafang in dives (and has better dive speed to go with it.)

 

 

Tier VII: Meteor F.I

Recommended Skill Level: Medium-High

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop, drops from Gyrfalcon Trophies

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): I-220, Hornet (loosely)

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Quad nose-mounted 20mm cannons

High cruise speed

Above-average cruise acceleration

Fairly strong boost

Good climb rate

Very high dive speed

 

Cons:

Guns overheat quickly

Bad maneuverability

Somewhat low boost speed

Low altitude

VERY prone to fires

 

Opinion: A good tier 7 fighter. The accurate nose-mounted guns, boost acceleration, and cruise speed make it a very capable plane. The Meteor is full-well capable of killing most same-tier opponents in head-ons, after all, you have the firepower of the Hornet--a tier 7 HF. The ability to maintain most of its speed and quickly gain speed when diving and/or boosting is a great strength and lets it get away from most of its competition, as well as make it extremely hard for the competition to get away. It's a fantastic HF-killer if they make poor life choices and fly below your optimal altitude, in general having an altitude advantage puts enemies in a very tough position. However the low boost speed, turn time, somewhat stiff controls, and low altitude make the Meteor an awkward plane to fly at times. So taking care to not let people get the jump on you is critical lest you want to die to anything that can fly faster than 700KPH. Also, the Meteor is a very fire prone plane, yet it's not even Japanese!

 

 

Coming Soon: Tier VII: Spitfire XVI

 

Recommended Skill Level: Low

Availability: Occasionally available in the premium shop

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Spitfire V, Spitfire IX

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine
Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Very similar to Spitfire IX

Higher roll rate than Spitfire IX

 

Cons:

Very similar to Spitfire IX

Lower altitude than Spitfire IX

 

Opinion:

 

 

Tier VI: Mustang IA

Recommended Skill Level: Medium-High

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop, drops from Gyrfalcon Trophies

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): P-51A, F4U-1

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Quad 20mm cannons

Effectively retains all of the soft stats from the P-51A

Same dive speed as P-51A

Same boost pool as P-51A (10s)

 

Cons:

Guns overheat very quickly

Dumpsters P-51A's hard stats

Less durable than P-51A, somewhat fragile.

Slower than P-51A, fairly slow

Less maneuverable than P-51A, if not outright bad maneuverability

Stiff elevators, hard to enter turns

Less altitude than P-51A, somewhat low altitude

 

Opinion: A very good tier 6 aircraft due to the fact it retains all of the soft stats of the P-51A but pairs them with VERY strong guns for the tier. The hard stats may look bad but despite what the paper says, it can do some serious work. However the Mustang IA falls short of being a tier 6 meta plane due to said hard stats ultimately crippling its ability to move around the map and deal with enemy aircraft. It's a curious balance, really, the guns are so great that they can singlehandedly overcome the performance issues by making it quite easy to kill people before they even have a chance to fight. However on the other hand despite the excellent guns its performance restricts it from outright dominating any fight it gets in to. The Mustang IA is ruthlessly strong when in an advantaged position and can often win many neutral engagements through sheer firepower. Sadly it lacks the P-51A's ability to fight in a disadvantaged position save for the ability to try and dive away, but why worry about that when you can just kill anybody trying to threaten you?

 

Note: Please do not confuse this with the Mustang Mk.I when playing, as that plane retains almost all of flight performance of the Mustang IA but has almost the same firepower as the P-51A. I've seen a couple people thinking they could go head-on with the IA because they thought it was just a Mk.I.

 

 

Tier VI: Mustang Mk.I

Recommend Skill Level: Medium-High

Availability: Occasionally sold in the premium shop, drops from 2021 Holiday Supply Crates, Steel Supply Crates, and Hawk Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane: P-51A

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Effectively retains all of the soft stats of the P-51A

Same dive speed as P-51A

Same boost pool as P-51A (10s)

Extremely forgiving heat cycles on the guns: slow heating and somewhat fast cooling

Slightly stronger firepower than P-51A

Slightly more maneuverable than Mustang Mk.IA

 

Cons:

Dumpsters P-51A's hardstats

Less durable than P-51A, somewhat fragile

Slower than P-51A (and most planes in tier 6, for that matter.)

Less maneuverable than P-51A, fairly bad maneuverability

Stiff elevators, hard to enter turns

Less altitude than P-51A, restricted in ability to use dive speed

 

Opinion: A very bad tier 6 aircraft that has little going for it. While it is almost a complete copy-paste of the Mustang IA the extremely short range of the guns in tandem with their low DPS make the performance exceedingly unforgiving if enemies react to your presence. In fact it arguably has worse guns than a stock P-51A thanks to the bad accuracy of the guns. In effect, there is nothing salvageable about this aircraft as the strong points are rendered moot by the guns. Do not buy this aircraft.

 

Okay, fine, so you actually want to use this junker. Well you're in luck as in late 2021 .50 caliber machine guns got buffed and took this thing from trash to "okay." Nonetheless you'll need to be very careful as your flight performance is still rather subpar for the minor firepower edge you have over the P-51A. The main problem is that the guns aren't strong enough to quickly put down anything beyond the most fragile of targets nor is your flight performance strong enough to actively gain the advantage. There is a very heavy emphasis on using the dive characteristics of the Mustang Mk.I to have enough energy for fighting--whether that be fleeing the scene or going for a dogfight. Generally speaking this means you will be bullying low altitude turnfighters as they neither have the dive speed to chase you nor the durability to withstand your bullet hose. But then again if an XP-54 or a Mosquito happens to be flying low, well... you are a Mustang, so you might as well take advantage of it. Something to note is that your DPS is lacking until you're in .30 cal range so you better get ready to learn how to manually roll so you can predict/track targets.

 

Actually that's perhaps the biggest takeaway of this thing; the Mustang Mk.I requires a lot of effort to make work. Considering how much effort is needed to perform, there is very little reason to play this when P-51A exists and is both easier and more effective, or the Mustang Mk.IA which is about as difficult but much, much more rewarding. At least it is no longer the terrible, borderline irredeemable aircraft it used to be, but if you see this thing show up in the premium shop, just go buy yourself a Mustang Mk.IA instead.

 

Note: Please do not confuse this plane for the Mustang IA. The Mustang Mk.I is somewhat harmless in a head-on while the Mustang IA will win head-ons with most aircraft in tier 6. It is very important to distinguish if somebody is in the Mk.I or IA as these are two wildly different aircraft in their capabilities (almost all of which is down to the weapons used.) I would also like to take a bit of time to air a grievance of mine; the inconsistent naming between the two British Mustang variants. I don't just mean that one is simply the 'IA' and the other is the 'Mk.I.' But that the Mustang Mk.I has a different display name when on a team that's simply the "Mustang I." This is the source of almost all of the confusion between the two in battle. So again, remember to be take care to see whether or not an enemy is a 'Mustang I' or a Mustang IA.

 

 

Tier VI: Spitfire Vb/Spitfire Vb IM

 

Recommended Skill Level: Low

Availability: Spitfire Vb: Occasionally available in the premium shop, drops from 2021 Holiday Supply Crates, Steel Supply Crates, and Harpy Supply Crates

                     Spitfire Vb IM: Unavailable, released once during an Iron Maiden crossover in 2018.

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Spitfire V, Ki-61 (somewhat loose)

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, airframe, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Literal copy-paste of the Spitfire V, but without the top engine upgrade

Excellent maneuverability

Great controllability

Good cruise acceleration

Great boost acceleration

Decent climb rate

Very accurate guns

Fairly strong guns

Fairly durable

Particularly narrow fuselage, many shots hit the wings and not the fuselage thereby increasing general survivability

 

Cons:

Literal copy-paste of the Spitfire V, but without the top engine

Somewhat low boost speed, less speed than Spitfire V

Less climbrate than Spitfire V

Somewhat prone to control surface crits

20mm cannons overheat quickly

.303" guns cool down slowly

 

Opinion: Two identical aircraft except one was made to avoid legal trouble and given a different coat of paint due to WG's contract with Iron Maiden expiring and thus they can no longer sell the Spitfire Vb IM. So while technically they are two different aircraft I'm listing both here since they are quite literally, identical in every way except for cosmetic changes. But these are Spitfires, I'm not sure if I really need to do much explaining here about how to play a barely nerfed Spitfire V. There's good reason why Spitfires are generally seen as the easiest planes to fly and the marginally nerfed performance of the Vb/Vb IM demonstrate this well; they're great planes despite the lack of the Spitfire V's top engine. While not necessarily the strongest of tier 6 planes, the sheer ease of use on top of them being premium planes makes them a great choice for grinding out credits relatively stress free.

 

Notes: Unfortunately, the Spitfire Vb IM will never be available ever again, let alone sold due to licensing issues. So for those of you who were there in 2018, treasure your Spit Vb IM, for it's now one of the most elusive planes in the game. 

Oh also a cool cosmetic touch for the Spit Vb IM; Eddie from the poster of the Iron Maiden Song "Aces High" replaces the normal pilot model

 

 

Getting the icon for the Spitfire Vb IM was a bit of a pain, they've purged the Vb IM's webpage from existence and the icon is not available on the WoWp website (which is what I use for the plane icons) so I had to do some digging and thinking to find the icon for it. Just in case I've downloaded the picture and for this review have it hosted on a Discord server I frequent for preservation purposes.

 

 

 

Edited by Reitousair, 05 December 2022 - 08:55 PM.

[Reitousair]

Chinese Aircraft

Tier VIII: JL-1A-37

 

Recommended Skill Level: High

Availability: Rarely sold in premium shop, drops from 2021 Holiday Supply Crates and Hawk Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): F6U, MiG-9, MiG-15bis

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, guns

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

High cruise speed

High boost speed

High dive speed

Great dive acceleration

Great climb rate

Almost the exact same armament as the MiG-9, but a tier lower

Good altitude

Somewhat low minimum optimal speed

 

Cons:

Guns overheat VERY quickly

37mm cannon cools down slowly

Very bad maneuverability, particularly exacerbated by mediocre controllability

Prone to fires

High stall speed

 

Opinion: The JL-1A-37 borders or just crosses the line of being overpowered. While the maneuverability is just enough to stay on target and nothing more, it effectively copy-pastes everything else from the MiG-9 onto a tier 8 plane and gives it a new look making it quite powerful for tier 8. But the severe lack of maneuverability is what cripples it from casually dealing with every match-up it can see as in tier 8 some planes can turn better than it and also fly almost as fast, as fast, or even faster than it. The guns also suffer from the short range of the 37mm cannon which while accurate, is short-ranged which can put a serious damper on your ability to go head-on with people. Not to mention the constant fires you'll be having akin to the Meteor I.

 

Fun fact: this is the most modern plane in the game since the JJ-1 had designing begin in 1956 and the first flight being in 1958, the JL-1 is a fictional armed version of it. Kind of looks like a bootleg Swift with MiG-15 guns.

 

Tier VIII: IL-10M

 No, it's still not happening.

 

...Okay fine, it's happening.

 

Are you ready for this?

 

This is years in the making.

 

Here it comes.

 

Tier VIII: IL-10M: For Real This Time, Probably

 

 

The art looks pretty cool, I like the clipped-wing design of later IL-10's. Gives more of a proper Cold War-era look on a classic plane. Unlike the IL-10 which upgrades to the experimental AM-43 engine with a four-bladed propeller, this thing keeps the classic AM-42 with three-bladed propeller design. Admittedly I kind of prefer the look of the four-bladed propeller but I guess you can't have it all. In general it's cleaner, better-looking version of the IL-10, though that's to be expected for a later model of the plane.

 

As another note this thing gets an unpainted paint scheme but why you would use it over the considerably more fashionable and functional camouflage schemes (well, the Winter one is kinda ugly) is a mystery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tier VII: P-51K Mustang

Recommended Skill Level: Medium-High

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop, drops from Steel Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): P-51A/D/H

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

An almost perfect copy-paste of the P-51D

Great energy retention, especially in turns

Somewhat large boost pool for an LF (12s)

High dive speed

Good rate of climb

Good altitude

Good controllability

Good roll rate

Fairly durable, fires are very rare

Slightly better muzzle velocity than P-51D

Slightly better unboosted climb than P-51D

 

Cons:

An almost perfect copy-paste of P-51D

Low gun range

Low gun accuracy beyond 300m

Somewhat high minimum optimal speed

 

Opinion: One of the best tier 7 light fighters in the game, but limited by the range and accuracy of its guns. If you like the P-51D, you'll like the P-51K, if you hate the P-51D however, you'll also hate the P-51K. I would recommend getting the P-51D for yourself to see if you want a version that prints out a lot more credits, but, alternatively, if you want to see what the P-51D is like then the P-51K is for you.

 

Now, how about actually playing it? Well, it plays a lot like a Mustang, wow, what a surprise, truly incredible and unexpected. This means you play the altitude game and kill people through sustained fire rather than burst DPS; Marksman 2 or an ultimate gunsight is a requirement in order to have the guns consistently deal damage. The range of the Mustangs is on the lower end, however the sustained DPS in tandem with large amounts of autoaim (bullets adjusting trajectory when shooting) mean that once you latch on to a target, they'll melt pretty quickly. The P-51K is surprisingly apt in head-ons as well despite the poor gun range since planes will begin to melt, it's pretty durable, and it's very heavy meaning it frequently wins rams. Against most light fighters and with some maneuvering, you can come out in pretty good shape from a head-on while crippling the enemy.

 

Mustangs have exceedingly good climbing abilities and is their primary means of escape, but learn which planes have better burst climbs because simply pointing your nose up and boosting won't get you away from everything. They are also good at diving, having both high dive speeds letting you dive away from your problems or pursue heavy fighters, and high maximum optimal speeds allowing you to follow through maneuvers on targets or engage in dogfights. Overall this allows for superior engagement control, allowing you to pick/leave fights almost at will.

 

Speaking of maneuvers, learn to manually roll, this is a crucial skill to have as it greatly helps following people in maneuvers and with a bit of predictive ability can lead to nasty traps that practically guarantee a kill if nobody interferes. Maneuverability is also quite good --certainly not turnfighter good-- but the great controllability in tandem with somewhat strong controls can allow for deceptively sharp turns and the incredible energy retention means that the longer a fight lasts, the more likely you are to win. For the more perceptive, skeptical readers out there, this might bring up the question, "but why is it a good thing that a plane excels at long, drawn out duels in a game about quickly killing people?" And that's a great question, it's a highly situational tool the Mustangs have but is important to note, Mustangs when played well will never get into an endless turnfight against anything other than a Mustang.

 

Overall: learn your match-ups, learn your maneuvers, and learn to control the plane yourself if you want to truly unleash the power of the P-51's.

Psst

 I had a rewrite pending for this plane for quite a while after the .50 cal buff that happened in December 2021 but as it turns out I only had to change a couple lines and update the general capabilities of the plane. I'm being a bit lazy but as it turns out having good guns really didn't change the P-51K all that much fundamentally, it only really changed how well it performs in certain match-ups.

 

 

Tier VI: Mosquito 26

Recommended Skill Level: Medium-High

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop, drops from Steel Supply Crates and Harpy Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane: Mosquito

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, engine, guns, ordnance

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, ammo, ordnance

 

Pros:

Large boost pool (30s)

Decently high speed

Consistent, mid-ranged firepower

Large ordnance capability

Bombs stored internally, do not effect speed

 

Cons:

Less speed than Mosquito

Less maneuverability than Mosquito

Bad low-speed characteristics

Bad high-speed characteristics

Low altitude for a heavy

Low firepower for a tier 6 heavy

Not much armor, loses health quickly

Very sluggish, in cruise, boost, and dive

Low climb rate

Bleeds speed very heavily in turns, even compared to the original Mosquito

 

Opinion: Not a very good aircraft, in fact, it's easiest to just call it a bad plane. The Mosquito is already a plane that's decent, but making the Mosquito worse when tier 6 has some of the strongest HF's in the game? Unless you're a Chinese aviator like me, hard pass, it's not worth the money. Just go play any of the other tier 6 HF's and they'll probably make you more money from their superior performance characteristics. Now, this isn't to say it's unusable, however it takes some adjustments to the Mosquito playstyle to deal with an inferior version of it. Probably not worth the effort it takes anyways, if you're thinking about buying this: don't.

Oh, so you really want to use it? Alright, fine. The Mosquito 26 is a solid aircraft when it comes to horizontal BnZ, using your large volume of fire to melt people with them having very few options to not be diced to pieces. It can also carry a lot of ordnance though you probably just want to stick to the bombs, it's not a very fast plane so making it slower is a death sentence. It's pretty durable and has a somewhat strong rudder allowing for some cheeky snapshots while under fire. However the Mosquito 26 is EXTREMELY sluggish with a low cruise speed and bleeds speed EXTREMELY fast (especially in turns!,) it's truly a struggle to maintain anything above 500-550KPH or so. The climb rate is also awful, meaning that once you dive down, you aren't going to come back up anytime soon. Trying to dogfight is a surefire way to kill yourself, the aforementioned lack of speed retention on top of a high minimum optimal speed and a bad turn time mean that even planes like the Me-410 can competently outmaneuver you. Not unworkable, but it sure is a lot of work just to keep it flying, let alone fight with it.

 

 

 

Edited by Reitousair, 13 July 2022 - 12:22 AM.

[Reitousair]

European Aircraft 

Tier VIII: J21RB

Recommended Skill Level: Medium

Availability: Available in tech tree and premium shop, drops from Gyrfalcon Trophies

 

Similar tech tree plane: Sea Hawk

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ordnance

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, ammo, ordnance

 

Pros:

Great dive acceleration

High dive speed

Very strong boost

Retains speed very well

Good climb rate

Above-average boost pool (10s)

Extremely controllable, highly responsive to any inputs

Powerful ordnance that reloads quickly (60s!)

Rockets are mounted under nose, easy to aim

Very good burst length

20mm cannon cools down somewhat quickly

 

Cons:

Somewhat low boost speed

Lacking acceleration when cruising

Mediocre turn time, partially offset by controllability

Cripplingly bad altitude, partially offset by service ceiling and boost power

Most of your firepower is short-ranged .50 caliber machine guns

20mm cannon is somewhat inaccurate

Lengthy cooldown time on the machine guns

Rockets induce a noteworthy speed penalty (20kph)

Somewhat prone to critical damage

VERY low maximum optimal speed, especially for the dive acceleration

Struggles to decelerate, highly problematic due to low max-optimal speed

Almost complete loss of control beyond 700kph

 

Opinion: copy-paste from this thread:

I've described it before: "It's like a Sea Hawk but tier 8 where the Sea Hawk statline actually works."

 

On paper it doesn't look very good but it has excellent dive acceleration and controllability which with proper application makes it very good at running away or dogfighting things. Like the Sea Hawk the boost is pretty powerful and allows you to just kinda... climb, especially with a turbine equipped you pretty much don't lose speed when climbing until you reach red altitude. Do beware of the very low max optimal speed though, the J21RB bricks pretty quickly and doesn't like to drop speed all that fast so you might have problems entering/exiting dives/turns. Also you're probably not going to have much of a chance against most specialized aircraft as they likely have equipment to render any advantages you have moot.

 

The 20 is very good but mediocre on the accuracy, while the .50 cals are very accurate and will shred things plenty fine once you get close enough. It's surprisngly good at going head-on actually, the firepower while short-ranged is accurate enough to do some damage and you have the healthpool to take a few hits on top of the plane having some armor to lessen the damage taken, don't push your luck against full-health targets though as you WILL lose the DPS race and you will likely lose the ram as well (too lightweight to safely ram.) The ordnance is good and reloads quickly which means it's surprisingly apt at ground pounding.

 

However, you still suffer from being like the Sea Hawk, you're a decent all-round aircraft with a few good niches but the hardstats just aren't enough to make it good. It's certainly not a bad aircraft, but it can be a bit hard to get used to and requires a fairly familiar hand to wield properly.

 

 

Tier VIII: NC 1070

Recommended Skill Level: Low-Medium

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): IL-20, Me-329

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, guns, turret, ordnance

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, engine, ammo, turret, ordnance

 

Pros:

Incredibly powerful turret, fifth strongest in the game

Turret equipment slot

Good firepower, slightly less than half that of the Me P.1102B

Good ordnance load

Long boost (40s)

Very strong rudder

Excellent at low-speed maneuvers

 

Cons:

Cripplingly long ordnance reload (120s!)

Burst length is somewhat short

Less than desirable fire chance

Very slow; low cruise speed paired with somewhat weak boost cripples mobility

Somewhat weak elevators

 

Opinion: A fun but ultimately kind of mediocre plane that has some tricks up its... hmm... engine cowling? The NC 1070 is a middle ground of sorts between the Me-329 and IL-20 being marginally faster than the IL-20 while being marginally more durable than the Me-329 with a turn time in-between the two. It would be prudent to be disciplined at both in order to maximize the NC 1070 as 8X100kg bombs can actually do quite a bit of work but the two minute reload often forces you to rely solely on your guns. Think of it this way; the NC 1070 when it has ordnance ready can act like an IL-20, and when its ordnance is out it has to act like an Me-329. Now I'm not saying dogfighting people in a GA is a good idea but... it's a pretty quick way to get caps, considering you have some absolutely lethal guns on both the front and back of your plane. Turns should be done with roll and rudder, the rudder is actually so strong that the NC 1070 turns better using it than the elevators which leads to some real wonky turns that people don't really know how to react to; this can also be used to rapidly point your turret at people and begin melting them. Another trick the NC 1070 has over the tech tree GA is superior low-speed maneuvering ability, this allows you to pretty much hover while people fly circles around you; combine with turret and DEFA 551's for maximum hilarity. Still, while this all sounds great--and it is-- the very low speed and awful ordnance reload cripple the NC 1070; you'll be playing in Me-329 mode a lot more than IL-20 mode but without the speed to get around nor the guns to tear apart ground targets. Equipment may nullify the awful reload but unfortunately that comes at the cost of speed; an already crippling flaw that is irreparable, and now exacerbated. Simply put: don't play the NC 1070 if you want to carry your team to victory, play it to have a laugh at its weird maneuverability and guns.

 

 

Tier VII: VB-10

Recommended Skill Level: Medium-High

Availability: Available in both tech tree and premium shop, drops from Harpy Supply Crates

 

Similar tech tree plane: F7F (somewhat loosely)

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, engine, engine, guns

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Huge boost pool (40s)

Very powerful, consistent guns (requires accuracy-boosting equipment/skills)

Maneuverable for a tier 7 HF

Twin-engined, engines are not particularly prone to crits either

Very resistant to fire

 

Cons:

Very low controllability, not responsive to input

Bleeds speed excessively quickly

Bad low-speed characteristics

Very poor acceleration in all areas

Low altitude for an HF

Awful climb rate

Wing-mounted guns, compounded by very large wingspan

Slow

Low healthpool

Guns have questionable accuracy

 

Opinion: A pretty mediocre plane with the potential to become very good at a specific niche. It's great at shredding everything that dares take it on, provided it gets its guns on target, and provided they hit. Top tip when fighting one of these: don't get hit. The sheer firepower is enough to quickly rip apart even bombers. However, in order to use this firepower you pretty much have to fight this plane every step of the way, from reaching your target, to maneuvering on target, to actually hitting the target. You have the same healthpool as the XP-75 but are far more likely to get shot than the XP-75; the VB-10 is a pretty big plane on top of it's thoroughly mediocre performance. Probably one of the worst purchases I've made though I can't say I particularly regret it, the raw firepower and turn time it holds can be amusing to play with but, phew... compared to the J21RB above which is highly responsive to what I want it to do, the VB-10 puts up a fight when it comes to controlling it.

 

 

Tier VI: S-199 Sakeen (aka the Messer[edited])

Recommended Skill Level: Medium-High

Availability: Available in tech tree and premium shop, drops from Gyrfalcon Trophies

 

Similar tech tree plane(s): Bf 109F/G, Bf 109 E

 

Equipment Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, guns

Consumable Slots: Cockpit, airframe, engine, engine, ammo

 

Pros:

Copy pastes the soft stats of the Bf 109 F

Good controllability

Retains and bleeds speed in a controllable manner

Above-average boost pool (12s)

Great low-speed characteristics

Extremely accurate guns

Fairly fast ordnance reload (90s)

Somewhat durable, not particularly crit/fire prone

Has a gun equipment slot, unusual for a period 2 MRF

 

Cons:

Dumpsters the hard stats of the Bf 109 F

Very low cruise and boost speed

Weak boost, hard to accelerate

Fairly bad maneuverability

Standard multirole altitude (aka, bad)

Low DPS for a tier 6 MRF

Weak ordnance, limited ability to destroy ground targets

 

Opinion: A fairly fun and decent plane as it copies the soft stats and flight style of the Bf 109 F while having more firepower than it. However the hard stats are a severe drawback to it doing much against a lot of the more powerful tier 6 planes. It's the Mustang IA of the Bf 109's, soft stats? All there, hard stats? Mostly gone, but it picks up firepower which helps greatly for taking down enemy aircraft, especially due to the great accuracy of the S-199's guns. I've even gotten several Gabreski medals with it thanks to the fast-reloading bombs, however despite this I wouldn't say it's a good plane to try and go for a Gabreski. You really need to know the limits of your ordnance and precisely where to place it. Even if it's a bit... limited in ordnance the fact that it gets a gun slot is a huge advantage over other MRF's. The guns go from accurate and punchy to potentially quite menacing. In tandem with the somewhat diminutive stature of the Bf 109 airframe it's surprisingly strong in head-on engagements. It's not the easiest plane to fly but it's a perfectly capable aircraft that can be transferred to any of the main five nations you please, or if you're like me you can keep it Israeli because imagine not using your one, solitary Israeli pilot. Poor guy has no friends and just wants to see some flight hours.

 

 

 

Edited by Reitousair, 05 December 2022 - 08:47 PM.

[Reitousair]

Alright, phew, finally got all of my tier 6+ premiums written up about to some extent. I'll have to do some proofreading later to fix some inconsistencies and grammar but for now, I'm done.

 

Do feel free to add your own, this thread has been dead for quite a while but may prove useful for people if it gets new guides for post-2.0.5 content.

 

Also, if you have any questions do ask, especially with some of the terminology I use which may not be clear to some people.

[hoom]

Superb effort!

[SpiritFoxMY]

Vampire vs. Horten?

[vcharng]

Anyone have a guide about NC1070?

[Reitousair]

SpiritFoxMY, on 20 October 2019 - 01:35 AM, said:

Vampire vs. Horten?

 

Hmm, may I ask for clarification here? Not sure if you mean a comparison or the match-up between them.

Received clarification from elsewhere: I would say the Vampire is the superior aircraft. It wins more match-ups than the Horten thanks to the far superior maneuverability, and similar speed.

 

vcharng, on 20 October 2019 - 03:52 AM, said:

Anyone have a guide about NC1070?

 

I don't, but, hopefully others can help revive this thread with more relevant (post-2.0.5) information about premium aircraft.

Edited by Reitousair, 21 October 2019 - 03:38 AM.

[trikke]

thank you, Reito!

[hoom]

So how would you rate P-51K earnings vs Tu-1?

 

I'm kinda wanting to buy a 2nd T7 during current discount & I've recently repurchased P-51D, specialised it up & been quite enjoying tearing around with Ultimate gear so I quite like the idea of doing that but earning like the Tu-1.

 

I wanted to get the VB 10 but nobody seems to have much positive to say about it & I don't want to buy a mediocre plane thats not much fun to fly.

[SpiritFoxMY]

I'll let Rei know of your question but personally - get the Tu-1. It's a powerful meme machine and you'll end up earning more simply by virtue of murdering everyone - something which the P-51K can't match.

[hoom]

I have the Tu-1 its very good, earns very well.

But its not really the sort of thing I can spam & spamming the Vampire for Silver is getting a bit too repetitive so I want to get another high-tier Premium & am too cheap for a T8.

Edited by hoom, 28 October 2019 - 12:10 PM.

[trikke]

I love the vb-10.   

Fly it every time I get to T7, but I just bought the Tu-1 so it getting all the love currently

Only 4 battles in the Tu-1 so far, but the raw numbers are way above my average stats so far

 

Tupolev Tu-1

6 4 16 0

 

Aerial Targets Destroyed 7.33 44

Ground Targets Destroyed 0.00 0

Damage Caused to Aerial Targets 3,017.30 18,103

Damage Caused to Ground Targets 0.00 0

Edited by trikke, 28 October 2019 - 12:43 PM.

[Reitousair]

hoom, on 28 October 2019 - 02:57 AM, said:

So how would you rate P-51K earnings vs Tu-1?

 

I'm kinda wanting to buy a 2nd T7 during current discount & I've recently repurchased P-51D, specialised it up & been quite enjoying tearing around with Ultimate gear so I quite like the idea of doing that but earning like the Tu-1.

 

I wanted to get the VB 10 but nobody seems to have much positive to say about it & I don't want to buy a mediocre plane thats not much fun to fly.

 

I believe Tu-1 and P-51K have similar credit multipliers, only bombers/GA make notably less (even when prems) iirc.

 

However P-51K is also a lot harder to rack up high scores in and thus you'll generally be making less credits for similar amounts of work.

[hoom]

Well I've been scoring well & enjoying the D so I think this is going to be what I'll buy.