The Skyguard

[Humble Techpriest]

To preface; I have Auraxium'd the skyguard previously in the PS4 version of Planetside 2, and my two NC characters have a fair shake with the skyguard as well, recently TR Defending on the Crown I did a wonderful job surviving orbital strikes and dodging colossus beams while slapping away aircraft and having fun so I wondered....

How does everyone else feel on the Skyguard? I feel like the community having something to chew on would be nice.

So go crazy. Tell your experiences and opinions on it.

[Altayado]

While not bad, i believe it miss a 2nd weapon choice for AA. The skyguard is, in my opinion, like a "Ranger", it would be nice if we can also have a "Walker" like gun. No flakk but more direct hit-damage (no no no, not the AP gun).

[Sedrido]

everyone knows vanguard ap rounds will always be the best aa gun (god i wish i could still tolerate playing this game)

[kerawinters]

The Skyguard was a good counter against the overpowered Banshee on Mossies. But due to nerfs, there are less Mossies in the air compared to 2 years ago. And 2 years ago every TR player would have the Banshee equipped and there were atleast over 40 of them in the air on every conflict zone.

It's better now to equip the Lightning with AT guns and leave AA for Infantry/Sunderers. Ever since the Banshee was nerfed, TR high command has been screaming at Wrel because NC infantry and tanks can finally push against TR's already overpowered armor columns. As a result, Wrel gave the Prowler two additional AP cannons on top of its already two overpowered AP cannons, making the Prowler do 4 times the damage compared to a single Vanguard. TR's Lightning gets another AP cannon so that's double the damage compared to the regular Lightning AP.

[Altayado]

Really ? Do you only check the shell damages ?
NC AP gun is 850, TR kingsnake is 4X350. 1400 is not 4* higher than 850.
But i agree that lightning kingsnake is a little too much. (not joking).
2*400 is really two time bigger than 700. (here i am joking).

[Black_Fox]

The skyguard is literall crap as AA - doesn't kill aircraft and can be taken out fairly easy. Having an AP lightning and bringing an AA missile launcher is more effective

[POWER WITHIN USER]

Isn't it funny how THE G2A (ground to air, filtered because of that one site) in this game sucks and really only causes aircraft to ♥♥♥♥ off, while using an AP cannon and a rock results in actually killing aircraft.

[Black_Fox]

Originally posted by POWER WITHIN USER:

Isn't it funny how THE G2A (ground to air, filtered because of that one site) in this game sucks and really only causes aircraft to ♥♥♥♥ off, while using an AP cannon and a rock results in actually killing aircraft.

The game is full of such things, like the class literally called "Infiltrator" being the best Storm Trooper class, or a PDW being a better assault rifle than the actual assault rifles (NS-7 with 20 meter range)

[Cora]

honestly... and im saying this with love...

...the Chimera is a better AA platform.

i think the Skyguard just needs an update to be back on top.

[Victor]

TL;DR just this: Personally I think skyguard is just fine as it is, aside give it a slight buff against liberator. Keyword slight, keyword liberator.

Everything else, it's fine.
It does fine against esf, gals and valks, in fact I kind of think it's a bit too hard on the valks, really. And if a valk duo pop you in one, they did things right to accomplish that. Irritating, but WP valk.

Skyguard is at a notable disadvantage against armor and infantry compared to running any other cannon, while being able to do some degree of damage. That's balanced. Good deal.
My one problem is, I think it's weaker against lib than it should be.

That could change. It's just code. They could put in exceptions to damage/resistance rules or whatever.

But that said...
Daybreak the Incompetent can't cope with complex concepts such as specifically targeting Specific Aspects of the game. They've proven that with other nerfs and buffs they've done. Everything is a nail to them and they only hammer.

Dumdum Daybreak can't do the concept of "nuance" either. So I guess I would support leaving skyguard alone as it is.

I suppose I got my way so to speak...
how they'd get there would be they'd buff skyguard wholesale probably, instead of just addressing one specific point; libs vs skyguards.
Result being they'd chew up gals, esf's and valks too, more than is reasonable even considering it's an aa gun, and for all I know their "fix" would probably buff it verses armor and infantry. So I'd prefer they just leave it alone so they don't screw it up.

[Duuvian]

Unless it's changed since I last played, Skyguards are better against aircraft than top guns on MBTs or sunderers. Two rangers might do similar or more damage than one skyguard but the projectile velocity is worse so two skyguards would probably be more effective against aircraft though lacking the other abilities of the sundie while being unable to provide much help other than AA. If you can land a shot with a main cannon that's obviously better but suffers from lack of gun elevation. If you pull a skyguard it's best if there is a second or third source of AA to support it, as it's damaging enough to need to avoid or flee from them but aircraft will have time to escape without other sources of damage. Once you are able to lead moving aircraft effectively the skyguard is quite effective.

It's downside is it's terrible against everything but air units, even infantry due to having a wide reticle that relies on proximity detonation that only works against aircraft. You will have to be within C4 range of infantry for it to be effective, and while it can hit and damage big targets like MBT or sundies at longer range it won't do much damage by itself.

As the poster above said it will lose to a liberator belly gun that can kill lightnings but only if the liberator gunner knows where the skyguard is, otherwise the pilot will probably have to flee after two or three reloads of the skyguard. You'd need two or three skyguards to kill a liberator before it gtfo and chances are it might still escape behind terrain unless a friendly air unit chases it to death.

[Cora]

Originally posted by Duuvian:

Unless it's changed since I last played, Skyguards are better against aircraft than top guns on MBTs or sunderers (two rangers might do similar or more damage than one skyguard but the projectile velocity is worse so two skyguards would probably be more effective though lacking the other abilities of the sundie). If you can land a shot with a main cannon that's obviously better but suffers from lack of gun elevation. If you pull a skyguard it's best if there is a second or third source of AA to support it, as it's quite damaging but aircraft will have time to escape without other sources of damage. Once you are able to lead moving aircraft effectively the skyguard is quite effective.

It's downside is it's terrible against everything but air units, even infantry due to having a wide reticle and spread that relies on proximity detonation that only works against aircraft. You will have to be within C4 range of infantry for it to be effective, and while it can damage big targets like MBT or sundies it won't do much damage by itself.

As the poster above said it will lose to a liberator but only if the liberator gunner knows where the skyguard is, otherwise the pilot will probably have to flee. You'd need two or three to kill a liberator before it gtfo and chances are it might still escape behind terrain unless a friendly air unit chases it to death.

this is a longer response but im detailing my use of the Chimera to take on Lib and ESF but mostly Libs. as a Lightning pilot you can visualize this and think of how the situation for you would line up as i describe my experience with my AA Chimera build.

you need to try out the Chimera with the raybeam turret and AA secondary. not much use aganst infantry or up close with tanks but at range and aganst air i find its TTK to be more enjoyable than the Skyguard. honeslty, it fits well with the intended role of the Chimera as support for Empire forces... when i roll with it i use mine as a kind of overwatch defending the main force which is the same role the Skyguard is meant to perform. great combination as well when you can mix a Skyguard together with an AA Chimera as well.

At first i only relied on the AA secondary as my only AA and well its alright but it loses a lot of Alpha damage making you not very survivable when a lib has you zero'd in. but if you use the raygun turret as your primary long range and alpha aganst libs especially... then follow up with the AA secodnary... it crushes.

for too long AA has been more of a "scare" an ESF away... rather than a "Kill" the ESF directly sorta thing... obviously ESF pilots wont fly ESF if they actually get killed by AA forces... which is why we see fewer ESF pilots now that AP lightnings and MBTs are 1-shotting any fool who gets too close. under the older engagements AA hit too softly allowing ESF to get away unless they again got to close leading to them attackign with rockets from far of or in very fast and low maneuvers. but this balance doesn't include Liberators. Lib pilots which can rely on their intense armor to get in close and out dps and pound any lightning or other vehicle outright... this just made air power very one-sided. AA was always balanced around ESF and never seemed to be enough to handle a Lib if your allies were aloof and you found yoruself alone on defense. "guns guns everywhere and only yours are pointed at the enemy." that sort of thing. this is wat i think the Chimera is best at. that role of being the one guy watching the skies while your buddies run around with their thumbs up their butts.

Chimera nuke Libs on thier attack runs best. they are a fat tank and naturally Libs zero in on your THICC boody right away and the chimera also has higher defense than a lightning due to being an MBT but the lib pilot just sees you as another MBT which they have killed many in their time... naturally its up to who can out DPS the other. thing is that raygun will wreck a lib... it doesnt hit as hard as AP which can usually put a lib into "fire" with one shot and at much further away... while the raygun needs 2 shots to do this... but this is the good thing. when your AP puts a lib into fire from far out, he pops smoke and disengages from far away having a much greater chance to escape and then comes back and gets you when you arent looking or from a cheeky vantage from behind some tower or something else from far away wittling you down slowly. but the chimera raygun can both shoot back at the lib from this range and when on the attack run puts the lib into fire when the lib is right up on you instead of from far out. he pops smoke and tries to setup above you out of your gun elevation and then your secondary finishes him off... you are then rewarded with his corpse and flaming wreckage falling all around you. Flashy.