7 replies to this topic

[HarryVoyager]

Tried the game on a lark last night and so far have been having a good time at it. Currently aiming for the Wildcat and was wondering where one might find a simple breakdown of what skills and equipment work best with a plane?

 

I've played flight sims most of my life so I like to think I've got a handle on the basics of dogfighting, so I think I'm more trying to get solid setups that facilitate getting into the air and blowing stuff up. 

[Reitousair]

Though this article is old it's still largely relevant https://blog.worldofwarplanes.com/mechanics/new-pilot-skills/

 

So, *ahem* pilot skills have a wide range of uses and are used to help tailor your aircraft a bit more towards your playstyle (or to cover up weaknesses/increase strengths) and there's a lot of different reasons to take different skills.

 

Fire Resistance, solid 1-point skill if you want to ignore taking an extinguisher consumable while using heavier aircraft that can't maneuver very well. Just in general a decent survival skill.

 

Eagle-Eyed, not a very useful skill with how 2.0 works, but it can be useful on HF's if you're hunting people or are entering a cloudy section of map.

 

Battle-Tested, don't take this just for pilot-crit resistance, it's not going to save your pilot, they will still get knocked out, a lot, this is mostly for aggressive turnfighter players who don't want to take the control system consumable, as being able to maneuver a bit despite critted controls can enough to keep you in the fight.

 

Engine Guru I, mostly only obtained for Engine Guru II, would not recommend taking this alone unless you're really desperate for more acceleration.

 

Engine Guru II, now this is what you want, with Guru I the 5% increase in engine power means you'll be quicker than before, and the 2% speed increase matters a considerable amount in high-tier aircraft. This is usually used on speed builds or heavy fighters/heavy fighter interceptors to make getaways faster and the ability to run away from them harder.

 

Marksman I, decreases the spread of your guns, nice little boost to make your shots more concentrated.

 

Marksman II, decreases the spread further and increases your guns autoaim against planes, so not only are your shots more concentrated, you're more likely to land hits as well, using this in tandem with the right equipment can make some guns fire magnetic rounds that require a LOT of effort to get away from.

 

Demolition Expert, use this if you ever plan on focusing ground targets, it's largely useless if you don't focus on killing ground targets, so 99.5% of the time you'll only see it used on bombers and ground attack aircraft.

 

Aerobatics Expert, does not decrease your turn time, but makes all of your control surfaces react a bit quicker, meaning when you try to turn you'll be faster to enter it.

 

Aerodynamics Expert, only useful if you have a speed/maneuverability build on equipment, don't worry about this until later on, you'll only really see use out of it on the high-grade equipment anyways.

 

Protection Expert, only useful if you have an armor/tank build on equipment, again, don't worry about this until later.

 

Expert Rocketeer, DO NOT USE ON ANY AIRCRAFT. Unless you are flying BV's, the F-94D, the Me 262, or the Me 262 HG II, otherwise, an almost completely useless skill unless you are a god of rocketry.

 

These are only the general skills, but the special skills you don't really need to use until you want to get ultra-specialized in how you build your aircraft. Though fire-fighting is a useful skill for fragile turnfighters to quickly extinguish any fire they get while maneuvering.

Edited by Reitousair, 29 August 2018 - 06:55 PM.

[wylleEcoyote]

THings to consider:

This isnt a flight sim.
Leave your expectations behind as you go against Planes that Look historically accurate but dont necessarily measure up to expectations 
They are (mostly) balanced to fit within their tier

Mostly when it comes to getting around and blowing stuff up all the planes fall on a spectrum between Boom&Zoom and Turn and Burn Dogfighting.
The metas to know are
IF they turn better than you they (mostly) cant chase you down
If You cant out run them you can most likely out turn them.  And human players are suckers for a turn fight.
Altitude performance; which in this game translates to a profound lack of optimal performance beyond a certain height, can completely flip the two prior scripts in vehicles of similar classes.

Victory comes from learning what you can turn against and what you should just give one pass and keep on going.

[trikke]

off topic and i apologize for that...

 

please, please don't judge the game on the performance of the wildcat... very few of us could get that plane to work

 

new folks seem to do well in the low to mid tier british, russian and japanese light fighter lines, followed by the low-mid tier german heavy fighters 

 

the corsairs are good-ish, but certainly use your free exp to jump over the wildcat

 

i'm american, and i get the homer-centric narrow view of american airpower, but...  expand your world, and fly some planes that you've never heard of!

[Dru83]

As Trikke was mentioning, the Wildcat is a tough plane to be good at flying. The first few tiers in that line are highly maneuverable turn fighters and the Wildcat is the complete opposite as it is a really bad turner that can fly fairly fast (So is the tier 4 buffalo). It is a fast boom and zoom plane with big hp. So, if you try to turn fight in the Wildcat, people will destroy you every time. You have to make fast hit and run passes to make the Wildcat work well. I'm one of a very few crazy people that run around in a specialized XF4F premium and I have that thing set up with the engine guru skills and the first marksman skill. That way, I can outrun people better and I can get more hits while I'm zooming by them. So, the corsairs are fun when you finally get there, but you have to suffer through the Buffalo and the Wildcat to get them.

When you're first learning the best thing would be to fly around tier four in a Bristol 146 or an I-16 which are fairly basic easy to fly turn fighters.

[12_inch_Hawk]

im going to sound like an argumentative [edited]on this post and I have only been playing for a few months now so im probably wrong but I disagree with almost every post so far.  I find the battle tested skill almost mandatory if you have a sight for equipment.  the sight has a -17 pilot resistance to injury so the +20 of the skill balances it out. Depending on how old the post is it may have been before equipment could be detrimental.  That was only a couple months ago after all im new and I still remember.

 

with the downside to equipment since 2.0.5 the upside is a lot bigger.  SO the 40% increase to equipment of protection expert or aero expert is a really big deal.

 

The rocket skill is one of the very first skills I select on ANY and ALL planes with rockets along with demolition expert.  Maybe I'm a so called "rocket god" but I doubt it.  I just LOVE my rockets. I get rocket kills almost every battle and I have bought every plane with rockets in level 1 and 2.  I was even getting the rocket medal LONG before I had the T8 me 262.  "long fight" is still my favourite daily mission and you have to get rocket kills {or bomb) at EVERY level not just level 3.  I just find watching my rocket fly right up an enemies @$$ so much more satisfying than a boring gun kill.  

 

I love the F4 and think its a great plane (it has the best rockets in tier by the way).  But for dogfighting its a great combination of HP (its always the one you don't see that kills you) speed and maneuverability.  I also have the t4  XF4f but I don't like that nearly as much as the t5.  both of mine are specialist and the t4 I cant set up to turn no matter how much equipment I through at it and speed alone wont help you ALL the time unless you are in a heavy.  The t5 is way more maneuverable and I was actually surprised at how maneuverable it can be.  Im not going to give you specific numbers (trade secret lol) but unless its a really light fighter I can out turn it with my F4F multirole. and if it is a light fighter that's where the speed comes in.  Since you have the hp if someone does sneak up on you and gets you with a few rounds than you can take a look to see what you are dealing with and take the appropriate coarse of action.  Just think of fur balls where you cant track everyone.  Those hp are a life saver and with them im confident to go right into the thickest of fur balls (like over central airfields). 

[SpiritFoxMY]

I run a few Ultimate Gunsights and I don't find pilot crits overly debilitating. Annoying, sure, but I don't find them worth a two point skill and I pack the Control Trim consumable on all my planes.

 

I didn't find Expert Rocketeer worthwhile on anything besides the B.Vs. I tried it on the Lightning and Me410 and I simply get more utility out of everything else to make it worth the two points.

 

I run Demolition Expert on my B.Vs... rocket go boom biggerer is important for a guy who fires them at suicide range at IL40s 

 

I found the Wildcat execrable. Too slow to run, too fat to dodge. I didn't like it at all and I just think of them as fresh meat on the table when I see them in battle

Edited by SpiritFoxMY, 31 August 2018 - 04:50 AM.

[EZP_MRKARP]

planes have been tweaked so many times spec means nothing any more

Edited by EZP_MRKARP, 31 August 2018 - 09:48 AM.