I'd like to hear from anyone who considers themselves a decent bomber pilot. Specifically I'd be interested in fits and tactics for the 2 Rheinland bombers and reasons for such fits etc. I thought i had a fairly good grasp on things but I have found most of my bomber sorties to be relatively ineffective.
There used to be a rather detailed bomber guide somewhere I'm sure but that seems to have vanished too.
Not a pro bomber pilot, and I somewhat dislike the ship class, but I will tell you what I know:
-Get a Bergelmir. It might not turn fast, but it is tiny and have a very good powercore.
-Put Novas on it
-Subtarget on your enemy - shoot off the weak gear (on cruisers go for Enhanced Thruster or Cheetah thruster if they've got one of those)
-At a distance, fire your novas. Swirl your mouse around in random circles when people are shooting at you, and keep launching novas until your enemy explodes. The nova gets a bit of extra speed if you are going directly at your target at full speed when you launch it. Be aware of your surroundings and make sure you don't accidentally blow yourself up.
-If possible have a mate CD for you, so you can get a snac mounted alongside your nova. Go for full shield buster guns (perhaps a Hellfire or two just for fun) and practice snac'ing and using mines (and/or hellfires) to get the hull on other snubs. Bergel is good for that with it's tiny size and big powercore. If you know what you are doing, you can dodge and get within snac range of caps too without taking damage, and you will be able to take on everything from fighters to battleships in your bomber.
I don't like the Fafnir, but it will do well against newbie cap pilots. You might even be able to solo a cruiser or poorly armored BS. You can mount dual novas and a CD at the same time which is practical if you are roaming on your own. However you are dead meat as soon as another snub shows.
Hope it helps. You could go to conn and check out what the pro bomber pilots there do.
If you want to copy what the torpedos do, then you need a couple of buddies. Always stay at 2-3 k range and never get closer (be disciplined) and launch novas in tandem so it is difficult for the enemy cap to dodge or flak all of the torpedos. Never getting close means the enemy will never get to fight you while you chew away at him. They've got some advanced anti-snub nova/mine/cd tactics against snubs, but you'd need to ask them about that or watch them in conn.
Great stuff. I had already decided to switch to the Berg. One question in Novas though, I was engaged with a smuggler last night and my Novas seemed to do nothing to him, no shield damage, no hull damage. They were evidently hitting him as i was watching them do so. Found that rather confusing. Am I missing something?
He might have CM'd the novas and you were seeing the explosions of the nova hitting the countermeasure, or his hitbox might be bugged. Next time it happens, try and sub-target something else on his ship. In general snac or guns/hellfires work better against transports and gunboats and smaller.
Ok cool, thanks for your time
Just be careful with your nova, it may blow on your face if your opponent knows how to use CD
(01-20-2013, 11:31 AM)Savvy ? Wrote: [ -> ]Just be careful with your nova, it may blow on your face if your opponent knows how to use CD
Yeah, I usually give it a swift strafe and direction change plus a burst of thruster as soon as I launch one and stay well clear of it
As far as I know, the Novas have enough health to survive CDs. Same with BS missiles, but Cruiser and fighter missiles can be disrupted.
If you have a group of caps to fight, some Fafnirs might be nice because of the huge core. Bergelmirs are very nice to fly though since they are undersized, and 5 guns gives you space to put Hellfires and still be able to de-shield snubs etc. effectively.
For bombers, I've found that practice makes perfect. RM and LN fights will give you plenty of that.
Use turret zoom to counter fighters.
I'm fairly sure CDs blow up every type of missile, from fighter missiles to Battleship ones. Blowing up Battleship Missiles with a CD I tried in Connecticut, and I've blown up plenty of Novas in people's own faces with CDs.