Air raider and Anti-Air combat.

[Sky]

One of the most horrifying things ive ever had to fight against in a game is a Swarm of something. Dosen’t have to be anything special, just a wave of bodies that makes reloading a potentially fatal second and stopping for an instant gets you trampled like mud.

Thats not a problem with various long range explosives and vehicles.
What IS a problem is when they FLY.
A swarm of flying monstrosities is something I can’t quite get a handle on as an Air raider.

So I figured, what would be ideal equipment for a raider for fighting swarms of dragons? Or swarms of Bees? Or drones?
I have lvl 84 equipment from inferno grinding so assume I have a good bit to work with.

I have tried Naeglings. They work somewhat. Just they can’t shoot down enough before im surrounded and burned alive.
Vegalta missile guns? My personal favorite. The gatlings help and the missile lock ons work as well, just, not fast enough locks, and gats can only do so much.
ZE sentry guns? Im lukewarm on their effectiveness. Their aim is questionable. And reload times hurt, even when doubled sentried.
Y impulse AA mines? I can’t tell.

I have no idea on support call ins.
Strafe runs seem to work. Just they don’t reload fast enough to mean anything.
Whale MGs? Only when clustered.
Not gunna even bother with guided missiles.
The sat blasters seem to be an idea, but again questionable effectiveness.

Anyone have a few ideas on this?
Im honestly surprised that the Raider dosen’t have a support call in for Fighter jets to hunt down air targets, it would be so helpful in this regard.

[Zeddy]

It's not the weapons, it's how you use it.

If you're on a team, your best option by far is Strafe Plan or Whale Artillery, but Satellite Blaster is also great, the other two options are just cheaper.

First of all: get to cover. Don't just stand in the open, no weapons in the world are gonna save you if you don't use tactics playing a tactical class (in a highly tactical game). Good cover includes under bridges and tight alleyways, but just anywhere that has a wall on at least one side is helpful.

Tight alleyways will funnel the enemies into a small area you can keep bombarding with Air Whale. Strafe Plans also draw aggro on their own, if you dual wield and stagger them, flying enemies will follow the bomber planes passing by, lining them up for the next strafe plan you throw.

On hardest and below, Vegalta Missile and Vegalta Revolver are also really amazing vehicles with an excellent turn rate and deadly machine guns. The missiles themselves are nothing to write home about.

Naegling is also tremendously strong, but it's a support vehicle that needs something in the front to draw aggro. This can be your allies, but it can also be cleverly placed decoys put somewhere that flying enemies won't easily reach them. Again: tunnels and tight alleyways. Many buildings provide little nooks where you're nearly untouchable.

Tempest missiles are better at this than you might think. Tempest SA1 has a 100m blast radius, meaning it covers an airspace 200m in diameter. A lot of fliers fits into that space if you do the math. Unfortunately, it is very expensive, but I've seen it used to wipe out almost every single drone in Brute Force.

Impulse Mines bounce and pierce, they're best used in tight spaces.

Also consider Proteus and its ridiculous 1100x30 missile launcher.

And finally Balam can tank flying enemies for several minutes, and punch them too. Don't forget to pop out once in a while to call in airstrikes on your own position.

tl;dr: Take cover.

[☪︎ Leinad Zdc ˚ ☾]

In what difficulty?
Only turrets i use are
For inferno, is ZEXR
Hardest: ZERA or ZEX-Launcher...kinda...
If you have time to deploy 10 turrets...ZE-10...but is so meh

At lower levels, you can use any limpet gun(Not detectors) like Limpet Launcher, and just evade bees by rolling...Really.

or..deploy YDX AntiAircraft Impulse and find some cover until the claymores do their thing...

Also; If you fail one mission, the next time you play it, you will know when the swarm is coming, do your plans and have turrets or naeglin deployed before.

[Sky]

Originally posted by Leinad Zdc:

In what difficulty?
Only turrets i use are
For inferno, is ZEXR
Hardest: ZERA or ZEX-Launcher...kinda...
If you have time to deploy 10 turrets...ZE-10...but is so meh

At lower levels, you can use any limpet gun(Not detectors) like Limpet Launcher, and just evade bees by rolling...Really.

or..deploy YDX AntiAircraft Impulse and find some cover until the claymores do their thing...

Also; If you fail one mission, the next time you play it, you will know when the swarm is coming, do your plans and have turrets or naeglin deployed before.

In all honestly, its only been hardest to Inferno that have me a bit confused. The lower difficulties are easily managed using naegs or as you said, Limpets.
But it seems to me that all Ive really needed was some space between my targets and to constantly put said space as much as possible.
Turrets have been ZEXR and ZERA for me at these difficulties. I don't trust the launchers and the snipers aren't enough.

Cover is obvious, but its something Im not going to rely on due to...mishaps with explosives.

[Boboscus]

I was surprised how well AA mines actually worked, did not think something like that would even be useful until I tried them. I threw them around the area where I called in Naegling and it kept me safe, obviously I'm not talking about Inferno but maybe there are higher levels that will be just as good?

[☪︎ Leinad Zdc ˚ ☾]

Last antiaircraft impulse is At lv63. Each one hits 120x40 in range of 150m. Fun to use in The Air Force mission offline

Also the last naeglin with a guide beacon deal some nice damage. But is made from glass too.