i frequently do missile headons with my A-10, lots of players still don't understand i can lock onto them this way and get away with it. i like doing dumb things to bait others to do dumb things and counter it as well ;)
It's HIGHLY important to have expert crews. However, it's EXTREMELY fucking expensive; at top tier, it's like buying the plane all over again. So, as important as it is, it could be difficult to actually put into use for some.
@@TheAmazingCowpig i agree 100% its arguably an unreasonable cost. The crew i got was for the Mig 21S and the F4E and both were close to 1m. I'm sure they'll make it back, but its a hell of an investment. In my opinion though, the cost at top tier is somewhat outweighed by the fact that most top tier players are rolling in it from sources like the ITP, Japanese corsair or hog hunting in the Mig 21S
Two additional points i would add: 1. Know your planes strength and dont deviate from them. I see so many Phantoms diving into the furball and making sharp turns to bleed all their speed. Or mig-23's trying to 1-circle fight mig-21's. Its certainly more of a nuanced point but knowing the plane is a big one. 2. Stop giving away your postion by spamming radar locks. You're very unlikely to get super long range kills with fox 1 missiles. If u lock onto enemies right away, they'll know you're position early in the match. Wait to lock. Keep the enemy team in your scope but dont lock until you know you're within the likely kill range of your fox 1.
@@mealyrelic3197 keep it at a mid-altitude because of the lack of pulse doppler. Keep your speed up. If ur gunna start turn fighting make sure its only against 1 other plane and take every turn fight 1 circle. Youll bleed speed fast and get one or two solutions with ur vulcan so make them count. Get used to the vulcan ( i run ground ammo). Dip in and out of the fight and keep ur speed up. Lock with ur radar when ur relatively close. Dont lock from far distances so u dont give away ur position.
Sometimes I radar lock targets that I have zero intention of firing on if they’re engaged and I want to split their attention away from the fight they’re currently in, it’s a double edged sword that can be used to your advantage. Doesn’t always work though obviously
Not top tier but I'm using the F-86F due to it's B.R I'm always the worst plane in the battle, I have tried outrunning opponents, turn fighting, climbing to space, and low and fast. Nothing works, I always get caught up to by migs or get uptiered and wrecked by Sraams from a harrier.
A little tip from my side on the topic of flares A fairly solid way of flaring effectivly while also keeping in mind to not use the afterburner is to simply bind them to the scroll-down "button"
@@fate3071 no this is a terrible idea, because it means you lose a finger and your hand is now stuck in one position for as long as you’re after burning. you also don’t want to have it on scroll down; on bigger maps you want to be able to sit on a low burner rather than your max burner and having scroll down would mean you’d flare every time you adjust this
@@wonderwaffle5858 having it set to left shift hasn't caused any issues for me. Thumb is free for flares, bombs, rockets, and flaps. Index, middle, and ring fingers are available for maneuvering.
"Unfortunately, a lot of times me doing something stupid ended up working out anyways..." I think this brings up one of the most important truths about War Thunder, especially Air RB, and *especially* top tier. While being a skilled pilot is obviously favorable, you can also have 3 IQ and manage to do well. When it comes to the missile spotting system, the regular spotting system, etc, there are a lot of factors at play that are skill-independent. That means you could be playing super well with minimal errors and then you get clapped by someone who could've made every possible mistake that game but never got caught out on it. Basically it's a bunch of chance, timing, and not-so-much skill. It should also be mentioned that playing in "dumb" ways *can* be frustratingly effective, simply because your enemy won't be able to predict your actions. It seems this is how about 80% of top tier players play anyways.
Although completely separate from that, some top tier airplanes are just not very good in the meta. A newer player isn't going to know which ones those are... a good player probably almost never plays subpar aircraft at top tier.
to be fair this applies to a lot of games. if no one catches you out on your mistakes in a fighting game for example, you could spam one move forever and win every game. Its probably more frustrating in war thunder because its a team thing, at least if you lose to spam in a fighting game its your fault and not the fault of your team
the f14 taught me a lot of what i didn't know in top tier. for example its ok to fly treetop height to confuse radar and to take the extra time to flank a little further to surprise enemy or to do bombing runs on bases. makes the difference between having a neutral non violent feeling after getting shot down or just straight up being heated by your own mistake.
The worst thing is that I am aware of these mistakes but still do them. Even with 3k hours. I really need to re-think some of my decisions and play more aware.
The strategy that really helped me improve was side climbing. I side climb almost 100% of my games and it has rarely steered me wrong. It’s a great way to get a full view of the situation to find the most vulnerable/dangerous targets. I rarely leave a game without a kill and have learned a tremendous amount about prioritizing targets etc.
Well side climbing in the new Fox 1 meta is a death sentence. I stay very low in my Mig23MF. But I am not good at all so take that for what it's worth.
I think a lot of people could benefit from trying to learn the engine power of their aircraft instead of only the missiles or maneuverability it has. Different engines and airframes allow for different speeds at different altitudes, and being aware of your aircraft's ability to perform in a straight line can mean the difference between life and death. The F-104S.ASA has a ton of power behind it, meaning that you can stick around 3km up and B&Z. However, if you bring it to higher altitudes, you will go very fast. But, you can't dodge a PD SARH apart from attempting to fly away and waste everyone's time. An aircraft like the F-4E still has enough engine power to B&Z slower targets, like a MiG-21 who turned a little to engage a target. Trying to read energy states is also a huge key to getting good passes. If you see a JA37C just going into the mach cloud, you can tell he has a lot of energy to burn and kill you in a dogfight. But if he just finished trying to kill someone above him, you can typically try to catch him off-guard with a semi-long range missile (about 4km or so). Speed isn't everything, but a slow target is as good as dead.
My biggest issue with top tier/10.0+ jets is that a lot of my crews arent well trained enough. You can look around all you want but since 1 second of pulling 10Gs will near black you out, you can imagine how frustrating it gets when you try to do literally anything. I know it doesnt take that long to farm the crew up and all that, but still, its an important aspect of how youre gonna perform and play at top tier. Dodged a missile and suddenly theres two guys on your back? Well, youre done, because if you try to dodge the first guy, youll black out and will not see the second. Plus imagine that in a stock plane with no missiles and no flares.....
In addition to what you said, specifically for attacks at long range: If you get locked up front, try to spot and identify the enemy. If you're unable to spot them, just go perpendicular to the signal (and decreasing altitude a bit) and carefully look for missiles. Once you spot the missile (or alternatively once a decent amount of time for a missile to be closing in has passed), use your countermeasures perpendicularly to the enemy radar and soon after go cold (basically away from the enemy) while also descending a little. This will make it significantly harder for the enemy plane to shoot you down. Once countermeasures starts dissolving (or once you see you dodged the missile) start going towards your enemy to kill them. As you get closer you're gonna have less time to defend like this and so you'll have to move more to the way of using countermeasures explained in the vid. If you get locked from behind, just don't do nothing except keeping an eye on your 6. You're often going to be able to outrun the missile. If that's not the case just use the defensive maneuvers explained in the vid (if the missile is slow enough countermeasures might even not be necessary, of course the more agile the plane, the less likely you're gonna have to use countermeasures)
first, do not hold a radar lock too long, waiting for an enemy to get in range, this only gives away ur position, while preventing u from scanning. second, do not drop chaff on pd radar equipped aircraft without notching, it will have no effect. third, when trying to outmaneuver a missile dont go up, if u can, dive steeply and turn into the missile. fourth, if u see a po2, DONT RAM IT
It's amazing how intentionally severing your prefrontal cortex in terms of tactics can still work out against top tier players, given the fact that many seem to have an iq that boils at room temp.
Yesterday I was flanking around, came from behind on a furball of enemies, fired 2 missiles and flown in the direction of my AF. 5 of the fkrs turn 180 and start chasing me down despite previously turnfighting other people. I was like wut? Well anyway, these 5 people spammed their whole arsenal at me and my team just picked them one by one. You know what s funny? I did not recieve a single RP since the 2 missiles didn't hit and because the entire enemy team focused on me I was unable to score even an assist. Thats pretty demotivating considering I indirectly helped to kill 5 enemies (+ the ones the spotting system didn't mark) and defeated 14+ missiles. PS: I actually was negative on SL in the match result cus I had to pay for my flares and missiles. Very nice Gaijin, very nice.
I agree that evasive and defensive gameplay should be more rewarded and appreciated. That's also teamplay and something that can lead to victory. Manouver kills should also be somehow counting
@@jimmyjazz166 I think they should make it to where you get like a half assist in air rb if an enemy is killed within a certain distance of you that scales by BR
happened to me not to long ago in my A-10, i just kept getting pieces blown off me as my team picked them all off 2 by 2. Talk about the ultimate distraction.
One of the biggest things I tell people who ask me for help is to study the capabilities of your opponents missiles HARD. Spend enough time and you can tell exactly which missile was launched at you based on the plane, acceleration, initial pull, and burn time. This will allow you to understand how to defend against them. Additionally, learn to to defend against missiles kinetically first. I see too many people who use countermeasures as a crutch and not a tool. Countermeasures, like missiles, must be used properly to be effective. I'll give an example of knowing a missile. The R-60. This missile is arguably the best dogfight missile at TT jets. Why is that? Most people stop at the 30G overload and the 7G launch tolerance. However, there are a few more aspects to this. The missile has less thrust by ratio to most other missiles, but burns for a second longer than many. This allows the missile to stay agile for longer and keep pulling. This is compounded by the missiles weight. Only 44 kilograms. For reference, the Aim-9G is twice that at 88. This means the missile, given a decent launch speed, rips off the rails unlike any other missile at TT. However, that weight is a double-edged sword. When the motor burns out, it means the missile will lose energy quicker than any other competitor due to lack of inertia. This means the missile on the deck has an effective range of only ~1.7km in rear-aspect for fast targets to the Aim-9G's ~2.3km. I'll give another example. This time, using the spotting system to m advantage. A long time ago, when the Aim-7E first came to WT, I calculated that if I was to shoot at 15km (high flying target), the motor would burn out just a little before getting within spotting range, essentially meaning if my opponent didn't see the smoke trail, they'd have no idea a missile is coming other than a lock tone. So many people have accused me of cheating simply because I took the time to experiment and gain knowledge and tactics they didn't have. He who has knowledge, has the upper hand.
Really no reason to go so indepth when flares are so powerful. Get off ab and pop one flare then you are safe from any heatseeker. Then Turn 90 degrees to be safe from any radar missile. Easy.
@@Red_Lion2000 I omitted flares because every IR missile is vulnerable. Even then, it wouldn't make sense NOT to give your missile the best chance. Also, you aren't always safe after just popping one flare and off AB. There have been plenty of times where an enemy missile has burned through my flares when playing phantoms after doing just that.
I do that a lot in my MiG-23M, but it’s usually to force the opponent to bleed too much speed and give me the advantage to energy trap them. Otherwise, I try to just keep the turn up until they start pulling lead and then reverse quickly with rudder. It’s risky, but against some aircraft it works really well if they’re rudder/roll isn’t very responsive, and it makes them bleed speed again.
Things i have learned: 1. Don't spam missile's at the enemy, that know about you. 2.Allways use "seeki". Thx for video, other things i haven't known already.
Those guys who just follow you for ages are the WORST. Its so frustrating that neither of you gets to play the game because they got a hard-on for you. For the 180 guys: If you are a plane with a good first turn, trying to make a hard pull for a surprise shot isnt bad play if you are reasonably sure there isnt a ton of other enemies around. Mirage3's for example are super good at this. Enemy going past, slam on the full pull into a surprise buttsex magic. Cool, good use of the strength of your jet's - it's initial pull. Just gotta make sure you have some space from other guys. What IS a bad move is sticking on the person if they notice you even though they're probably leaving you in the dust since you just 180'ed. If that first try doesn't pan out, everything after that is likely a waste of your time and you'll likely be better off finding another target or just disengaging altogether to regain speed.
Know the _Vy_ of your plane: The speed where you have the best sustained climb rate. In jets it will be a Mach number; in props it will be an indicated airspeed.
I agree with everything you said except about head ons. Head on is super effective. You have to read the Queues of the other plane and that is why you see last minute turn-ins like that. If he is gonna turn away(most of the good players do because they think head ons are dumb) that is when you strike. sometimes the timing is off and they can recommit. But the alternative is to give them your 6 because they will not merge with you. AND even if they do, while you are dogfighting, some scrub will hit you with a missile that wasnt even trying. BTW Every single person that tells you head on is wrong, HAS killed and has been killed in a head on. Sometimes its the only play. WTF are you gonna do if hes pointing his nose at you? Just not shoot him? Good advice...
Thanks for the awesome content! Just started playing again recently and finally ground my way to my first top tier jet! Your videos have been a great help with the new gameplay of top tier!!
My first top tier games went suprisingly well even tho i had aircraft that was mostly outperformed. I got su22m3k grinded 6x r60 loadout with bomb then knowing i am fast but fat ass i flanked around the battle and then ussually got 2+ kills on unsuspecting enemys. Might have been because i got polish camo (good looks are confirmed to improve skill)
Whenever I get a guy that focuses me for the entire match or pulls the 180 monkey I just waste his time and then crash into the ground to deny the kill. There are more fish in the ocean, look around.
A lot of players don't care about being good. They care about having fun. Several times in this video you've made reference about "top skill" or "it wont matter, because you wont kill the GOOD players" etc - Who cares. You do, and we're all really proud of you. But some, dare I say most of us - don't care. Thanks for the video.
A good piece of advice I found it try to preserve yourself, wether it be your energy, your weapons or your airframe. Not getting shot down means you can get more kills later and potentially win the match rather then throwing everything away just to get 1 kill
My very first, and only, jet is the Mig 23MF. My God, was it a learning curve going straight into top tier air RB. I lost probably 300k SL over the first week of having that thing. With some help from a buddy giving me tips like these, I can now manage to get 2-4 kills a match pretty consistently, albeit still making some of these mistakes. Old habits die hard and prop strats are definitely not the same as jet strats.
My issue has always been flairs, I have gone in games and gotten pretty decent kills I always look around I've switched targets when it's pointless going for the same guy, but it was the flairs, now I know I can also turn my afterburner off to help me evade I think that will help me in the future, thanks for showing what I should have been doing.
Nice channel & narration, I am happy that YT finally decided to suggest it to me :) I respectfully disagree on your points about head-ons and missile spamming, as they are both exceptionally situational concepts. 1- On head-ons, why people do this "delayed engagement" head-on that prominently, because it is a noob friendly tactic and it works reliably well against other newbies 4/5 times. It hides the flight vector of your plane and also gives you additional options even not to engage there and then. What you fail to mention in your example is, having head-ons can be considered a very bad tactic generally.. Preferably, they should only be taken when forced to do so, which can and will happen both for situational or tactical reasons. So there is actually no good way for a head-on, both solution have their advantages with high possibility of catching a bullet yourself. Admittedly, I also do like to head-on the way you described, but It is actually the dumber choice, because we commit to a head on w/o an actual need while we can use the chance to find another solution. If you have enough energy to commit to a straight trajectory, speedy head on with 2km disengage capability, then why the hell are you having it in the first place? I suspect this is just a WT thing, once you get more experience, this tactic gives you more RP/SL per time spent, but does not mean you will survive, especially not if you are a newbie in distancing or new in a BR bracket. In delayed head-on engagement method, at least you can actually use it in a bad spot which forces you to take it and add some ruse to the delivery to catch some newbies. You yourself stated that "..and hope they (opponent) run into it (your spray of bullets) ..." during your head-on, and while you disengage, a dedicated and a lucky head-oner can actually follow through your disengage, gain the angles upper hand and punish you. I'd say never head-on unless situation demands it and if you need to do it, you already failed somewhere else. 2- On missile spam, it is actually advised to use your armament to keep pressuring the opponent if you outgun it. In your case it actually worked for the opponent. Your ally killing the dude, does not equate he did something wrong spamming missiles, it just means he either had a low situational awareness, did not care, or lacked the luxury of a teammate himself. He just broke the rule on gaggle tactics, which then left him vulnerable. Speaking of which... What you were trying to explain as winning tactics (very correctly) are principles of "gaggle doctrine" from navy fliers cookbook, a type of division tactic. It emphasizes simply keeping your mobility up, engage on dictated terms and support allies by-proximity (engaging targets of opportunity). It is a damn good solution to WTs meta as it is tailored for the exact scenario. It is a formalized tactic for battles over condensed hot zones with variable number of boogies present in many-to-many engagements. Especially in late tiers of WT, this situation is very prominent, because every match is a target rich one with usually 32 super fast planes, quickly devolving into short range BVR engagements (you are in-visual-range with your opponents, but unable to notice the aimed threats before they actualize due to the impossible levels of awareness required to notice ALL of the missiles, fast planes etc. therefore effectively creating a beyond-visual-range engagement within short distances. ) where instead of hoping to react successfully to an attack, you should generally employ pre-emptive denial strategies. A very good read would be "Robert Shaw's Fighter Combat, Tactics & Maneuvering" to explain further if you haven't already, but I'd suspect you might have as it is a form of bible for most virtual pilots out there in addition to "In Pursuit - Johan Kylander" . Finally, let me share my list of one single item which I believe people are doing wrong most of the time : Not bringing a wingman with you. The only reliable direct gain advise I can dispense is just this, bring a friend, any friend, with VoIP if possible. Having a wingman improves situational awareness to the next level, and unlocks the possibility to reverse worst of the situations, even while being completely outmatched against an opponents due to skill level or choice of situation/plane. o7 ~S~
Head ons don’t necessarily mean you made a mistake. If you’re in a furball with several enemies and no support you can get forced into a situation where avoiding one enemy’s guns forces you into a head on with another enemy. It’s a situation caused by desperation for people that know to avoid them and you can get lucky and pop off a kill in a forced head on in a furball. Also using your ordinance to pressure an enemy and keep them on the defensive might work in a 1v1 fight but in a war thunder air rb match those 6 missiles which all missed and let him get a gun hit then immediately die could have instead been used to get 3 or 4 kills on a different target that was less aware of his missiles. Sure, it CAN be an effective strategy but it’s extremely wasteful. If you avoid tunnel vision and locking on a single enemy like you’re supposed to then you’ll never end up doing that. Edit: as he said in the video, something working for you doesn’t mean it’s the smartest thing to do because a lot of people have room temp IQs and just don’t get caught on their mistakes long enough to get a kill. Missile spamming is one of those things. You CAN get a kill but you’ll get more kills playing the field instead of tunneling on one guy
Hey @@tylerfoley6644, If you are in a furball, you are already in an unwanted situation. Of course head-ons can be necessary, and that is why I frame them as a thing of necessity, out-gunning an opponent was a real thing with tactical benefits in WW2. On wasting missiles, current end game WT meta is hardly about using your missiles effectively, I do not think for example you can actually use 8 missiles in any meaningful manner during a 2 min match, I forego 2 of them most of the time for other benefits. If you check the stats for every match you play, you will see that 9/10 matches , 9/10 people will have less than 2 kills due to how everything set up right now (short matches in small maps , with everyone having missiles and huge amount of very green players just doing suicide attacks all around = WT top BR meta) , therefore having just one kill can be 9/10 of your matches even just due to meta, so it is better to have it when you can. Also, the guy died because he did not had a wingman, in contrast to the op. Sure he could've easily guessed he should not focus one dude that long time (therefore gaggle tactics as mentioned) but it is a completely different thing than the missile spam strategy as mentioned, it is about situational awareness and it has its own problems in WT context. These are my own takes of course, as a player who had spent enough time in WT which could've made me an expert in any real life skill to be fair, if you know what i mean. However, I am by no means near getting into top 30 anymore, so please take it with a grain of salt as everything else in the internetz :)
Head ons... I learnt after my first encounter with a D5 Stuka in a Spitfire game that head ons are bad ideas. If I can help it, I don't go head on, I only head on out of desperation when I've got nothing else. If you've got an energy advantage, keep it and let them stall out under you, it's much safer than doing a diving head on. One significant cock up at top tier is that some people keep their radars on. If your radar is on and the target has RWR, they know that something is behind them even if you haven't locked them. If your radar is cold, they have one less warning sign your there. Its also important to know what your plane is capable of and what the enemy planes can do. Having suffered through the grind of the F-8C Crusader, I've learnt at what point she snaps, what she doesn't like and what to do to turn her about and she's marvelous in a 1vs1 if you know how to fly her.
My biggest tip is while dogfighting, wasd qe is your best friend, you can use c key to look around whilst controlling the plane with wasd, and flaps use your mf FLAPS
I use SHIFT and CTRL for elevator so I have pitch control while looking behind me. You get better instantaneous turn rate doing that than using the mouse, so it's useful even when you aren't holding down the look key.
Sometimes I fail at the 180 part... typically when I get altitude and go into the enemy team. It's not that I 180 for one person rather that I believe the entire enemy team has passed me and so I turn only to find that I died to a harrier wayy high up and behind me. I also sometimes do full commit headons when I am particularly lazy and I also fake headons when I don't think someone is coming for me/don't want to believe he is coming for me and then I turn in like that....
@@People_Tube Learn to read. He's taking about looking around with C, seeing what he believes is the entire team go by, and then getting a missile up the butt from a target he didn't see diving down from space after doing a split S. Sometimes you just get unlucky OP. This happens to me sometimes as well.
Thanks again , think im gonna play for a while practicing these evaision tactics as my primary goal , so try to stay alive as long as possible evaiding missiles...
at around the 10.0 br 180° monkeys with the mig21 sps-k are most annoying since the mig just lets you do that in such sort time and without much energy loss
Please make a video on energy trapping, *especially* on jets pls😁😄💯. Nice video btw, I have learned quite a few things, and am gonna put my knowledge of them to the test lol💯💯💯🔥🔥🔥💪💪💪
I tend to be guilty of something similar to the fake head-on, the double-head-on, and I'm not sure if it's an alright practice or not. If say, I'm flying something nimble like an F-5E, and am fighting something heavier like a Phantom, I fire a burst around a mile out, roll to the side to dodge their burst, and come back on target from an angle to fire a second burst. One thing that people do "wrong" quite frequently that I notice is not going with the general direction of the team at the start of the match. Generally it seems that teams try to do a quarter circle around the battlefield before heading into the merge, and if you don't go with that, you are going to face the entire enemy alone with their full attention and weapon complements.
Thanks for this. I play mostly at 6-7 because I don't have the time for the grind and am weak enough to buy premiums - so I want to make sure I don't hurt my team!
Most cummon mistake: having faith, or trust in your (so called) "team-mates" ! Example: U minding your own business in a relatively safe area; there's only 1 enemy fighter within 6 km, and 2-3 "friendlies" already heading towards to it. You think: surely they can handle it, and u don't want to steal anyones' kill, so u go after bots and AI units for some extra "income". But then: one of them rips his wing/crashes, the other gets killed, and the last wasn't even trying to fight the enemy, or already fleeing; And you are stuck there with no energy, on a low alt, and the enemy is coming for its next easy frag: YOU! Your Options: - crash ASAP, so at least he wont gets a free kill! - try a desperate head-on, and than crash it it fails! - Drop everything, kick the throttle, and try to run to your base (maybe towards allies but 99% they wont help anyway), if that's hopeless and u wont make it in time: crash!
one of the biggest issues i find in top tier and why i dont play it is half the team flies 20km away from the battlefield to use the remaining team as bait and hoping a furball ensues for an easy 1 or 2 kills before dying
The missle spamming one i dont think is actually a bad thing. If you are in a situation where you are chasing and your opponent is faster than you it works because it forces him to evade and he bleeds speed so you can catch up. You can do this without tunnel visioning and even so if you know what you are doing and its safe for some spamity calamity this works great. Kinda situational but you can always go back to base and grab more missles. I do this mid game alot to try to get a numbers advantage on the enemy team. I consider it normal to rearm atleast once per match also considering I take lower fuel for more speed/maneuverability.
In lower tiers that’s a viable strategy. in top tier, where everything has counter measures, missile can be very easily defeated without losing any speed at all, so that doesn’t actually work. (provided the target is flaring well)
@@SeekerHead yup just seems to me atleast the r60 dont seems to care about flares in my countless experiences getting blown up by one. Yea def more a 8.0-10.0 strat with the speed bleeding. I guess it was user error at their end that let me do it at top tier. Btw just started checking out your vids and keep up the good work!
for missle missuse they fire so many to make the other player evade and bleed speed to get guns on instead but that does all depend on the plane and player skill
I would add that there are missles that are undodgable even if you know they are coming but this always has something to do with energy. If you have 0 energy a missle fired at 1km will kill you even if you try to use countermeasures. But when using them try to give them as much energy as possible. I remember back before the aim-7 existed in game when I still got 5km missle kills not always but consistently with the aim-9J. Try firing IR missles against the ground and not against the sky because that will increase range and firing missles from a longer range means the missle has more time to outturn you. Also try to avoid firing IR missles at someone directly from the back. Sounds good but if he has energy he will probably dodge it. Instead try to get missles in during a slight or decent turn to make it harder to avoid because it reduces the time the enemy has to react in a meaningful way.
I think my problem at top tier is that I always end up in situations with not allies, so it’s more of a bad positioning and not looking at where my Allie’s is than everything else. In my defense I’m mostly a tank player and only play jets to unlock the new jets in my tech tree (France, which does not receive a lot of top tier jets) so i can use them for CAS.
Enemy tunnel vision chases for good 2 minutes. "Move after me" "Destroy the target xXx_GuNToPAce_xXx 🎮 (F-5♿)". 5 minutes later said target becomes the last player on their team. Gets furballed by the rest of my team who completely ignored me and them. I get 0 RP, while they get 70-ish RP. Skill issue on my side. Should've sidclimbed.
I have many many hours of top tier experience, but frontal lock missiles still give me issues. I launch them too far and of course the guy with a missile flying at his face flares, but I get too close and I'm a prime target for getting gunned down/trading. I'm still having that issue, but I've realized that it may be better to put a R-60M into someone at a very strange angle, like above them and slightly offset. I still don't find much success with this method either, as they'll either try to full commit headon or just see me and pop flares anyway.
i know this is off topic but i was a pretty good player and then quit for a year and now iam average at best but the game actively punishes me for it as the repair costs are really high for avg players
Sometimes the head-on commit is the only option.. if you’re slow and someone is committing to a strafe you can’t dodge, you might as well shoot back. .. but if you’re slow at top-tier, you already made a mistake a while back, so why not make another one?
Irritates me when people go for head ons like that. I sometimes like to drag out the dogfight so I always turn away after firing missiles, or guns also in an attempt at having them pass me and then get behind them
Sometimes I just want to relax and don't want to think about things and just fly about doing my thing (often badly) ...it is just a game after all. Also I'm in the minority by using a joystick (making gun hits much more difficult) and use cockpit view and 1st person view (even though I play realistic), which also makes things more difficult.
im not in top tier right now honestly im in rank 4 but ive never focused on an enemy or 180 monkeyd lol bcs its just like i watch a lot of top tier gameplay and picked that up and it seemed logical but great video i think it will help me as i go to top tier
May I correct you, misusing flares is only a thing against everything that isnt Russian, the second it is a R-60 you can drop a small lighter out of your cockpit while afterburner on and the R-60 would go for the lighter.
the best way to fly in top fier is to be 'loose' in combat. always swapping targets and keeping track of everyone around you, and keeping manuevers to an absolute minimum. if you ever 'lock up' in a battle your most likely going to die bith often and soon
Once again another video to help develop my own skills! HOWEVER!, we need to have a chat about key bindings. It looks like you're using the WASD to pitch and roll while using the look bind. I have altered my own map as WS for thrust and AD for roll and RMB for look. After watching your videos and studying the combat conditions and your reactions I chose to bind Up, Down, and L and R keys for pitch and roll and it works quite well. to the question: How is your keyboard and mouse setup? Is that a question for another video?
I missle spam last guy just to slow him down so either I or my team mate can catch him Just like in the good old days where missles were more of a tool to make people loose their speed and energy instead of a kill
@@SeekerHead it works against planes like f4e/j, f5 and such which have flares dropped directly behind, but recently I just found my self baiting people to commit head on and then they eat an r-60
In all honesty I spam missiles if only to make the other player maneuver, forcing them to lose energy so I can get guns on. If the missile kills, cool, but I hardly ever expect it to.
Hey mate Ty for Tipps help me a lot …also with my choice witch plane I should take to lern game best ,started war thunder two weeks ago and I was full 180 monkey , after I stop do it I get always 2-3 more kills in the game …one day gonna lock u in my target 😉…great job on your channel mate !
I had a guy waste all 4 of his missiles on me. He ended up getting me with his guns in the end, but I felt pretty good for making him waste all of them. He shot most from a mile or so or less sometimes.
*me on console who finds its incredibly hard to continue looking around while still having controls of flight* (its very hard for me to see what's behind me and still make evasive maneuvers)
Hi mate, ground player here, gotta say I never paid too much interest in air rb, was always playing tank for 6 years by now, although I got a mirage 3e thx to spamming cas, I never got interested in playing it for I thought top tier jet battle was just stupid missile spam, but I gotta say, your videos got me really interested and you might actually get me to learn those damn air rb top tier mechanics lol and for that I thank you, it's nice to see someone that look, at least to me, really good actually giving good advices
the problem I need help with at top tier is inversely the opposite of your first point about flares. Everyone these days pretty much nails there flare use so in that case how do you shoot them down? or is the answer blindingly obvious and it's "you dont"
Might be time to learn to fly with the mouse and use TrackIR. I am one of those that doesn't use the C key as much as I should. Also every single one of these tips work in Falcon BMS and DCS as well especially with coming off burner while flaring.
From my experience the faking head one only works with using the t2 and f1 because of there high AOA and the Vulcan but it requires skill and experience with them. Other than that it’s a bad idea.
i allready got the mig 21 mf the mig 23mf and the f4e but i still havent played much top tier just because the whole missile meta is rather new to me hopefully this video will help
“your first mistake is playing war thunder”
HahahahHabahzxhdndjabhAhH
Shut up.
You're first mikstake is pleyiing warthundet.
Its true tho.
@I Agree J + KD ratio + no flares + stock + you're in a full uptier
@@Dan86130 absolute suffering
i frequently do missile headons with my A-10, lots of players still don't understand i can lock onto them this way and get away with it. i like doing dumb things to bait others to do dumb things and counter it as well ;)
Leaving this in the comment because today I learned the difference that an expert crew can make; pay your crews! they gotta eat!
Facts I finally bought it after having top tier jets for dam near a year I can pull more Gs without blacking out
It's HIGHLY important to have expert crews.
However, it's EXTREMELY fucking expensive; at top tier, it's like buying the plane all over again. So, as important as it is, it could be difficult to actually put into use for some.
@@TheAmazingCowpig i agree 100% its arguably an unreasonable cost. The crew i got was for the Mig 21S and the F4E and both were close to 1m. I'm sure they'll make it back, but its a hell of an investment. In my opinion though, the cost at top tier is somewhat outweighed by the fact that most top tier players are rolling in it from sources like the ITP, Japanese corsair or hog hunting in the Mig 21S
@@Kilanov the way I make my sl is playing the bf 109 k4.
Don’t judge
@@Suo_kongque tf how. Never tried it but the repair cost is huge!
Two additional points i would add:
1. Know your planes strength and dont deviate from them. I see so many Phantoms diving into the furball and making sharp turns to bleed all their speed. Or mig-23's trying to 1-circle fight mig-21's. Its certainly more of a nuanced point but knowing the plane is a big one.
2. Stop giving away your postion by spamming radar locks. You're very unlikely to get super long range kills with fox 1 missiles. If u lock onto enemies right away, they'll know you're position early in the match. Wait to lock. Keep the enemy team in your scope but dont lock until you know you're within the likely kill range of your fox 1.
Any tips on the f-4 E?
@@mealyrelic3197 keep it at a mid-altitude because of the lack of pulse doppler. Keep your speed up. If ur gunna start turn fighting make sure its only against 1 other plane and take every turn fight 1 circle. Youll bleed speed fast and get one or two solutions with ur vulcan so make them count. Get used to the vulcan ( i run ground ammo). Dip in and out of the fight and keep ur speed up. Lock with ur radar when ur relatively close. Dont lock from far distances so u dont give away ur position.
TWS lock shouldnt give a RWR. But I think for Fox 1s you need STT.
Sometimes I radar lock targets that I have zero intention of firing on if they’re engaged and I want to split their attention away from the fight they’re currently in, it’s a double edged sword that can be used to your advantage. Doesn’t always work though obviously
Not top tier but I'm using the F-86F due to it's B.R I'm always the worst plane in the battle, I have tried outrunning opponents, turn fighting, climbing to space, and low and fast. Nothing works, I always get caught up to by migs or get uptiered and wrecked by Sraams from a harrier.
6:46 example of what no to do as a top tier enjoyer i can say that whats behind you is always more important than whats in front of you
Me getting cucked by guys in front of me cos im watching for a missile launch behind me
T+3+1
@@koakt3357 T+1+4
A little tip from my side on the topic of flares
A fairly solid way of flaring effectivly while also keeping in mind to not use the afterburner is to simply bind them to the scroll-down "button"
only works if you are playing a plane with lots of flares
No he meant to bind both flares and throttle down to 1 button so it does both actions together.
Another good way to remember afterburner is to require you to hold the throttle up, so that when you simply release it the afterburner shuts off
@@fate3071 no this is a terrible idea, because it means you lose a finger and your hand is now stuck in one position for as long as you’re after burning. you also don’t want to have it on scroll down; on bigger maps you want to be able to sit on a low burner rather than your max burner and having scroll down would mean you’d flare every time you adjust this
@@wonderwaffle5858 having it set to left shift hasn't caused any issues for me. Thumb is free for flares, bombs, rockets, and flaps. Index, middle, and ring fingers are available for maneuvering.
"Unfortunately, a lot of times me doing something stupid ended up working out anyways..."
I think this brings up one of the most important truths about War Thunder, especially Air RB, and *especially* top tier. While being a skilled pilot is obviously favorable, you can also have 3 IQ and manage to do well. When it comes to the missile spotting system, the regular spotting system, etc, there are a lot of factors at play that are skill-independent. That means you could be playing super well with minimal errors and then you get clapped by someone who could've made every possible mistake that game but never got caught out on it. Basically it's a bunch of chance, timing, and not-so-much skill. It should also be mentioned that playing in "dumb" ways *can* be frustratingly effective, simply because your enemy won't be able to predict your actions.
It seems this is how about 80% of top tier players play anyways.
Although completely separate from that, some top tier airplanes are just not very good in the meta. A newer player isn't going to know which ones those are... a good player probably almost never plays subpar aircraft at top tier.
to be fair this applies to a lot of games. if no one catches you out on your mistakes in a fighting game for example, you could spam one move forever and win every game. Its probably more frustrating in war thunder because its a team thing, at least if you lose to spam in a fighting game its your fault and not the fault of your team
5:01 Peak collision physics right there
the f14 taught me a lot of what i didn't know in top tier. for example its ok to fly treetop height to confuse radar and to take the extra time to flank a little further to surprise enemy or to do bombing runs on bases. makes the difference between having a neutral non violent feeling after getting shot down or just straight up being heated by your own mistake.
The worst thing is that I am aware of these mistakes but still do them. Even with 3k hours. I really need to re-think some of my decisions and play more aware.
The strategy that really helped me improve was side climbing. I side climb almost 100% of my games and it has rarely steered me wrong. It’s a great way to get a full view of the situation to find the most vulnerable/dangerous targets. I rarely leave a game without a kill and have learned a tremendous amount about prioritizing targets etc.
Watch out for fox 1’s because they can end up your day quickly ( with All the f14 spam rn)
Well side climbing in the new Fox 1 meta is a death sentence. I stay very low in my Mig23MF. But I am not good at all so take that for what it's worth.
I think a lot of people could benefit from trying to learn the engine power of their aircraft instead of only the missiles or maneuverability it has. Different engines and airframes allow for different speeds at different altitudes, and being aware of your aircraft's ability to perform in a straight line can mean the difference between life and death. The F-104S.ASA has a ton of power behind it, meaning that you can stick around 3km up and B&Z. However, if you bring it to higher altitudes, you will go very fast. But, you can't dodge a PD SARH apart from attempting to fly away and waste everyone's time. An aircraft like the F-4E still has enough engine power to B&Z slower targets, like a MiG-21 who turned a little to engage a target. Trying to read energy states is also a huge key to getting good passes. If you see a JA37C just going into the mach cloud, you can tell he has a lot of energy to burn and kill you in a dogfight. But if he just finished trying to kill someone above him, you can typically try to catch him off-guard with a semi-long range missile (about 4km or so). Speed isn't everything, but a slow target is as good as dead.
My biggest issue with top tier/10.0+ jets is that a lot of my crews arent well trained enough. You can look around all you want but since 1 second of pulling 10Gs will near black you out, you can imagine how frustrating it gets when you try to do literally anything. I know it doesnt take that long to farm the crew up and all that, but still, its an important aspect of how youre gonna perform and play at top tier. Dodged a missile and suddenly theres two guys on your back? Well, youre done, because if you try to dodge the first guy, youll black out and will not see the second. Plus imagine that in a stock plane with no missiles and no flares.....
In addition to what you said, specifically for attacks at long range: If you get locked up front, try to spot and identify the enemy. If you're unable to spot them, just go perpendicular to the signal (and decreasing altitude a bit) and carefully look for missiles. Once you spot the missile (or alternatively once a decent amount of time for a missile to be closing in has passed), use your countermeasures perpendicularly to the enemy radar and soon after go cold (basically away from the enemy) while also descending a little. This will make it significantly harder for the enemy plane to shoot you down. Once countermeasures starts dissolving (or once you see you dodged the missile) start going towards your enemy to kill them. As you get closer you're gonna have less time to defend like this and so you'll have to move more to the way of using countermeasures explained in the vid. If you get locked from behind, just don't do nothing except keeping an eye on your 6. You're often going to be able to outrun the missile. If that's not the case just use the defensive maneuvers explained in the vid (if the missile is slow enough countermeasures might even not be necessary, of course the more agile the plane, the less likely you're gonna have to use countermeasures)
first, do not hold a radar lock too long, waiting for an enemy to get in range, this only gives away ur position, while preventing u from scanning.
second, do not drop chaff on pd radar equipped aircraft without notching, it will have no effect.
third, when trying to outmaneuver a missile dont go up, if u can, dive steeply and turn into the missile.
fourth, if u see a po2, DONT RAM IT
It's amazing how intentionally severing your prefrontal cortex in terms of tactics can still work out against top tier players, given the fact that many seem to have an iq that boils at room temp.
Yesterday I was flanking around, came from behind on a furball of enemies, fired 2 missiles and flown in the direction of my AF.
5 of the fkrs turn 180 and start chasing me down despite previously turnfighting other people. I was like wut?
Well anyway, these 5 people spammed their whole arsenal at me and my team just picked them one by one.
You know what s funny? I did not recieve a single RP since the 2 missiles didn't hit and because the entire enemy team focused on me I was unable to score even an assist.
Thats pretty demotivating considering I indirectly helped to kill 5 enemies (+ the ones the spotting system didn't mark) and defeated 14+ missiles.
PS: I actually was negative on SL in the match result cus I had to pay for my flares and missiles.
Very nice Gaijin, very nice.
I agree that evasive and defensive gameplay should be more rewarded and appreciated. That's also teamplay and something that can lead to victory. Manouver kills should also be somehow counting
@@jimmyjazz166 I think they should make it to where you get like a half assist in air rb if an enemy is killed within a certain distance of you that scales by BR
happened to me not to long ago in my A-10, i just kept getting pieces blown off me as my team picked them all off 2 by 2. Talk about the ultimate distraction.
Another thing I'd like to share is to keep distance in mind, know your enemies and their weapons. Some can yeet you looking at you from 10KM.
One of the biggest things I tell people who ask me for help is to study the capabilities of your opponents missiles HARD. Spend enough time and you can tell exactly which missile was launched at you based on the plane, acceleration, initial pull, and burn time. This will allow you to understand how to defend against them. Additionally, learn to to defend against missiles kinetically first. I see too many people who use countermeasures as a crutch and not a tool. Countermeasures, like missiles, must be used properly to be effective.
I'll give an example of knowing a missile. The R-60. This missile is arguably the best dogfight missile at TT jets. Why is that? Most people stop at the 30G overload and the 7G launch tolerance. However, there are a few more aspects to this. The missile has less thrust by ratio to most other missiles, but burns for a second longer than many. This allows the missile to stay agile for longer and keep pulling. This is compounded by the missiles weight. Only 44 kilograms. For reference, the Aim-9G is twice that at 88. This means the missile, given a decent launch speed, rips off the rails unlike any other missile at TT. However, that weight is a double-edged sword. When the motor burns out, it means the missile will lose energy quicker than any other competitor due to lack of inertia. This means the missile on the deck has an effective range of only ~1.7km in rear-aspect for fast targets to the Aim-9G's ~2.3km.
I'll give another example. This time, using the spotting system to m advantage. A long time ago, when the Aim-7E first came to WT, I calculated that if I was to shoot at 15km (high flying target), the motor would burn out just a little before getting within spotting range, essentially meaning if my opponent didn't see the smoke trail, they'd have no idea a missile is coming other than a lock tone. So many people have accused me of cheating simply because I took the time to experiment and gain knowledge and tactics they didn't have. He who has knowledge, has the upper hand.
Really no reason to go so indepth when flares are so powerful. Get off ab and pop one flare then you are safe from any heatseeker. Then Turn 90 degrees to be safe from any radar missile. Easy.
@@Red_Lion2000 I omitted flares because every IR missile is vulnerable. Even then, it wouldn't make sense NOT to give your missile the best chance. Also, you aren't always safe after just popping one flare and off AB. There have been plenty of times where an enemy missile has burned through my flares when playing phantoms after doing just that.
Reversing a turn when your pursuer prolly wont overshoot, just makes you one hell of a target
I do that a lot in my MiG-23M, but it’s usually to force the opponent to bleed too much speed and give me the advantage to energy trap them.
Otherwise, I try to just keep the turn up until they start pulling lead and then reverse quickly with rudder. It’s risky, but against some aircraft it works really well if they’re rudder/roll isn’t very responsive, and it makes them bleed speed again.
Is it really that hard to just write probably? Is it? Or are you mentally challenged?
@@mathiasjensenlarsen2536 nah I do it specifically to piss you off
Not gonna lie target fixation is always my biggest problem at top tier
Things i have learned:
1. Don't spam missile's at the enemy, that know about you.
2.Allways use "seeki".
Thx for video, other things i haven't known already.
Those guys who just follow you for ages are the WORST. Its so frustrating that neither of you gets to play the game because they got a hard-on for you.
For the 180 guys: If you are a plane with a good first turn, trying to make a hard pull for a surprise shot isnt bad play if you are reasonably sure there isnt a ton of other enemies around. Mirage3's for example are super good at this. Enemy going past, slam on the full pull into a surprise buttsex magic. Cool, good use of the strength of your jet's - it's initial pull. Just gotta make sure you have some space from other guys. What IS a bad move is sticking on the person if they notice you even though they're probably leaving you in the dust since you just 180'ed. If that first try doesn't pan out, everything after that is likely a waste of your time and you'll likely be better off finding another target or just disengaging altogether to regain speed.
Know the _Vy_ of your plane: The speed where you have the best sustained climb rate. In jets it will be a Mach number; in props it will be an indicated airspeed.
I agree with everything you said except about head ons. Head on is super effective. You have to read the Queues of the other plane and that is why you see last minute turn-ins like that. If he is gonna turn away(most of the good players do because they think head ons are dumb) that is when you strike. sometimes the timing is off and they can recommit. But the alternative is to give them your 6 because they will not merge with you. AND even if they do, while you are dogfighting, some scrub will hit you with a missile that wasnt even trying.
BTW Every single person that tells you head on is wrong, HAS killed and has been killed in a head on. Sometimes its the only play. WTF are you gonna do if hes pointing his nose at you? Just not shoot him? Good advice...
Thanks for the awesome content! Just started playing again recently and finally ground my way to my first top tier jet! Your videos have been a great help with the new gameplay of top tier!!
Im about to reach jet elo/br and this video actually felt like it saved me! Thank you 🌹 keep up the good work.
My first top tier games went suprisingly well even tho i had aircraft that was mostly outperformed. I got su22m3k grinded 6x r60 loadout with bomb then knowing i am fast but fat ass i flanked around the battle and then ussually got 2+ kills on unsuspecting enemys. Might have been because i got polish camo (good looks are confirmed to improve skill)
Good looks improve skill because the owner of the camouflage is very happy about the camouflage
Bydgoszcz navy na topie 💪😤
sir thankyou just got to jets was finding a lot of the problems you metioned so again thank you, you just earned yourself another sub
This was a great video, you earned a sub 👍🏼
Whenever I get a guy that focuses me for the entire match or pulls the 180 monkey I just waste his time and then crash into the ground to deny the kill.
There are more fish in the ocean, look around.
A lot of players don't care about being good. They care about having fun. Several times in this video you've made reference about "top skill" or "it wont matter, because you wont kill the GOOD players" etc -
Who cares.
You do, and we're all really proud of you.
But some, dare I say most of us - don't care.
Thanks for the video.
If you're not interested in getting better, then why did you click on the video? You clearly don't need to watch it then.
A good piece of advice I found it try to preserve yourself, wether it be your energy, your weapons or your airframe. Not getting shot down means you can get more kills later and potentially win the match rather then throwing everything away just to get 1 kill
My very first, and only, jet is the Mig 23MF. My God, was it a learning curve going straight into top tier air RB. I lost probably 300k SL over the first week of having that thing. With some help from a buddy giving me tips like these, I can now manage to get 2-4 kills a match pretty consistently, albeit still making some of these mistakes. Old habits die hard and prop strats are definitely not the same as jet strats.
My issue has always been flairs, I have gone in games and gotten pretty decent kills I always look around I've switched targets when it's pointless going for the same guy, but it was the flairs, now I know I can also turn my afterburner off to help me evade I think that will help me in the future, thanks for showing what I should have been doing.
unless you're flaring an aim9-l I wouldn't bother turning off the burner, unless popping 1 or 2 flares doesn't work
Glad someone pointed it out
Nice channel & narration, I am happy that YT finally decided to suggest it to me :)
I respectfully disagree on your points about head-ons and missile spamming, as they are both exceptionally situational concepts.
1- On head-ons, why people do this "delayed engagement" head-on that prominently, because it is a noob friendly tactic and it works reliably well against other newbies 4/5 times. It hides the flight vector of your plane and also gives you additional options even not to engage there and then.
What you fail to mention in your example is, having head-ons can be considered a very bad tactic generally.. Preferably, they should only be taken when forced to do so, which can and will happen both for situational or tactical reasons. So there is actually no good way for a head-on, both solution have their advantages with high possibility of catching a bullet yourself. Admittedly, I also do like to head-on the way you described, but It is actually the dumber choice, because we commit to a head on w/o an actual need while we can use the chance to find another solution. If you have enough energy to commit to a straight trajectory, speedy head on with 2km disengage capability, then why the hell are you having it in the first place? I suspect this is just a WT thing, once you get more experience, this tactic gives you more RP/SL per time spent, but does not mean you will survive, especially not if you are a newbie in distancing or new in a BR bracket. In delayed head-on engagement method, at least you can actually use it in a bad spot which forces you to take it and add some ruse to the delivery to catch some newbies.
You yourself stated that "..and hope they (opponent) run into it (your spray of bullets) ..." during your head-on, and while you disengage, a dedicated and a lucky head-oner can actually follow through your disengage, gain the angles upper hand and punish you.
I'd say never head-on unless situation demands it and if you need to do it, you already failed somewhere else.
2- On missile spam, it is actually advised to use your armament to keep pressuring the opponent if you outgun it. In your case it actually worked for the opponent. Your ally killing the dude, does not equate he did something wrong spamming missiles, it just means he either had a low situational awareness, did not care, or lacked the luxury of a teammate himself. He just broke the rule on gaggle tactics, which then left him vulnerable. Speaking of which...
What you were trying to explain as winning tactics (very correctly) are principles of "gaggle doctrine" from navy fliers cookbook, a type of division tactic. It emphasizes simply keeping your mobility up, engage on dictated terms and support allies by-proximity (engaging targets of opportunity). It is a damn good solution to WTs meta as it is tailored for the exact scenario. It is a formalized tactic for battles over condensed hot zones with variable number of boogies present in many-to-many engagements. Especially in late tiers of WT, this situation is very prominent, because every match is a target rich one with usually 32 super fast planes, quickly devolving into short range BVR engagements (you are in-visual-range with your opponents, but unable to notice the aimed threats before they actualize due to the impossible levels of awareness required to notice ALL of the missiles, fast planes etc. therefore effectively creating a beyond-visual-range engagement within short distances. ) where instead of hoping to react successfully to an attack, you should generally employ pre-emptive denial strategies.
A very good read would be "Robert Shaw's Fighter Combat, Tactics & Maneuvering" to explain further if you haven't already, but I'd suspect you might have as it is a form of bible for most virtual pilots out there in addition to "In Pursuit - Johan Kylander" .
Finally, let me share my list of one single item which I believe people are doing wrong most of the time : Not bringing a wingman with you. The only reliable direct gain advise I can dispense is just this, bring a friend, any friend, with VoIP if possible. Having a wingman improves situational awareness to the next level, and unlocks the possibility to reverse worst of the situations, even while being completely outmatched against an opponents due to skill level or choice of situation/plane.
o7
~S~
Head ons don’t necessarily mean you made a mistake. If you’re in a furball with several enemies and no support you can get forced into a situation where avoiding one enemy’s guns forces you into a head on with another enemy. It’s a situation caused by desperation for people that know to avoid them and you can get lucky and pop off a kill in a forced head on in a furball.
Also using your ordinance to pressure an enemy and keep them on the defensive might work in a 1v1 fight but in a war thunder air rb match those 6 missiles which all missed and let him get a gun hit then immediately die could have instead been used to get 3 or 4 kills on a different target that was less aware of his missiles. Sure, it CAN be an effective strategy but it’s extremely wasteful. If you avoid tunnel vision and locking on a single enemy like you’re supposed to then you’ll never end up doing that.
Edit: as he said in the video, something working for you doesn’t mean it’s the smartest thing to do because a lot of people have room temp IQs and just don’t get caught on their mistakes long enough to get a kill. Missile spamming is one of those things. You CAN get a kill but you’ll get more kills playing the field instead of tunneling on one guy
Hey @@tylerfoley6644,
If you are in a furball, you are already in an unwanted situation. Of course head-ons can be necessary, and that is why I frame them as a thing of necessity, out-gunning an opponent was a real thing with tactical benefits in WW2.
On wasting missiles, current end game WT meta is hardly about using your missiles effectively, I do not think for example you can actually use 8 missiles in any meaningful manner during a 2 min match, I forego 2 of them most of the time for other benefits. If you check the stats for every match you play, you will see that 9/10 matches , 9/10 people will have less than 2 kills due to how everything set up right now (short matches in small maps , with everyone having missiles and huge amount of very green players just doing suicide attacks all around = WT top BR meta) , therefore having just one kill can be 9/10 of your matches even just due to meta, so it is better to have it when you can. Also, the guy died because he did not had a wingman, in contrast to the op. Sure he could've easily guessed he should not focus one dude that long time (therefore gaggle tactics as mentioned) but it is a completely different thing than the missile spam strategy as mentioned, it is about situational awareness and it has its own problems in WT context.
These are my own takes of course, as a player who had spent enough time in WT which could've made me an expert in any real life skill to be fair, if you know what i mean. However, I am by no means near getting into top 30 anymore, so please take it with a grain of salt as everything else in the internetz :)
Head ons... I learnt after my first encounter with a D5 Stuka in a Spitfire game that head ons are bad ideas. If I can help it, I don't go head on, I only head on out of desperation when I've got nothing else. If you've got an energy advantage, keep it and let them stall out under you, it's much safer than doing a diving head on.
One significant cock up at top tier is that some people keep their radars on. If your radar is on and the target has RWR, they know that something is behind them even if you haven't locked them. If your radar is cold, they have one less warning sign your there.
Its also important to know what your plane is capable of and what the enemy planes can do. Having suffered through the grind of the F-8C Crusader, I've learnt at what point she snaps, what she doesn't like and what to do to turn her about and she's marvelous in a 1vs1 if you know how to fly her.
My biggest tip is while dogfighting, wasd qe is your best friend, you can use c key to look around whilst controlling the plane with wasd, and flaps use your mf FLAPS
I use SHIFT and CTRL for elevator so I have pitch control while looking behind me. You get better instantaneous turn rate doing that than using the mouse, so it's useful even when you aren't holding down the look key.
Tip: Bind your flares to M.wheel down so your afterburner auto cuts
the amount of times i had like 5 ppl spam 10 or more aam at me in my viggen just to out run them anyway and my team kill them is staggering
Sometimes I fail at the 180 part... typically when I get altitude and go into the enemy team. It's not that I 180 for one person rather that I believe the entire enemy team has passed me and so I turn only to find that I died to a harrier wayy high up and behind me.
I also sometimes do full commit headons when I am particularly lazy and I also fake headons when I don't think someone is coming for me/don't want to believe he is coming for me and then I turn in like that....
use C key, dont turn
@@People_Tube Learn to read. He's taking about looking around with C, seeing what he believes is the entire team go by, and then getting a missile up the butt from a target he didn't see diving down from space after doing a split S.
Sometimes you just get unlucky OP. This happens to me sometimes as well.
9:23 Another mistake people make, leave the look around bound to C, instead everybody should bind it to the right mouse button.
I have rmb bound to cannons from when I was still playing props that had mixed armament.
Congrats on 7k subs Seeker! There's so much potential in the content man keep it up
Love your content!
Thanks again , think im gonna play for a while practicing these evaision tactics as my primary goal , so try to stay alive as long as possible evaiding missiles...
at around the 10.0 br 180° monkeys with the mig21 sps-k are most annoying since the mig just lets you do that in such sort time and without much energy loss
One of the big problems (which I still have sometimes) is that people try to play jets as prop planes. You’re a jet. Use your energy
Please make a video on energy trapping, *especially* on jets pls😁😄💯. Nice video btw, I have learned quite a few things, and am gonna put my knowledge of them to the test lol💯💯💯🔥🔥🔥💪💪💪
learning to play the yak 38 that punishes you for the slightest mistake has thankfully taught me all these lessons XD if only it had flares.
I tend to be guilty of something similar to the fake head-on, the double-head-on, and I'm not sure if it's an alright practice or not. If say, I'm flying something nimble like an F-5E, and am fighting something heavier like a Phantom, I fire a burst around a mile out, roll to the side to dodge their burst, and come back on target from an angle to fire a second burst.
One thing that people do "wrong" quite frequently that I notice is not going with the general direction of the team at the start of the match. Generally it seems that teams try to do a quarter circle around the battlefield before heading into the merge, and if you don't go with that, you are going to face the entire enemy alone with their full attention and weapon complements.
Thanks for this.
I play mostly at 6-7 because I don't have the time for the grind and am weak enough to buy premiums - so I want to make sure I don't hurt my team!
Most cummon mistake: having faith, or trust in your (so called) "team-mates" !
Example: U minding your own business in a relatively safe area; there's only 1 enemy fighter within 6 km, and 2-3 "friendlies" already heading towards to it. You think: surely they can handle it, and u don't want to steal anyones' kill, so u go after bots and AI units for some extra "income". But then: one of them rips his wing/crashes, the other gets killed, and the last wasn't even trying to fight the enemy, or already fleeing; And you are stuck there with no energy, on a low alt, and the enemy is coming for its next easy frag: YOU!
Your Options:
- crash ASAP, so at least he wont gets a free kill!
- try a desperate head-on, and than crash it it fails!
- Drop everything, kick the throttle, and try to run to your base (maybe towards allies but 99% they wont help anyway), if that's hopeless and u wont make it in time: crash!
Also when it comes to jets, my game-style changes according if I end up in a up; or down-tier! Even on 11.0
Thanks!
one of the biggest issues i find in top tier and why i dont play it is half the team flies 20km away from the battlefield to use the remaining team as bait and hoping a furball ensues for an easy 1 or 2 kills before dying
can definitely agree with all his points especially in 9.0 + Air RB games
The missle spamming one i dont think is actually a bad thing. If you are in a situation where you are chasing and your opponent is faster than you it works because it forces him to evade and he bleeds speed so you can catch up. You can do this without tunnel visioning and even so if you know what you are doing and its safe for some spamity calamity this works great.
Kinda situational but you can always go back to base and grab more missles. I do this mid game alot to try to get a numbers advantage on the enemy team. I consider it normal to rearm atleast once per match also considering I take lower fuel for more speed/maneuverability.
In lower tiers that’s a viable strategy. in top tier, where everything has counter measures, missile can be very easily defeated without losing any speed at all, so that doesn’t actually work. (provided the target is flaring well)
@@SeekerHead yup just seems to me atleast the r60 dont seems to care about flares in my countless experiences getting blown up by one. Yea def more a 8.0-10.0 strat with the speed bleeding. I guess it was user error at their end that let me do it at top tier. Btw just started checking out your vids and keep up the good work!
I really love the su-57 digital and how it now has a lot of user skins
As a hunter fga.9 main I've gotten way too many kills with the cruddy aim 9e on 9.7-10.7 players not watching their 6
One thing I'd add is to have decent map knowledge (know climb corridors for both teams so you don't end up going alone into the entire enemy team).
Finally someone explained what I was doing wrong thanks for the help ..
for missle missuse they fire so many to make the other player evade and bleed speed to get guns on instead but that does all depend on the plane and player skill
Terrible last minute head ones are a tradition in Warthunder! How else u gonna get snowplow?!🤣
I would add that there are missles that are undodgable even if you know they are coming but this always has something to do with energy. If you have 0 energy a missle fired at 1km will kill you even if you try to use countermeasures. But when using them try to give them as much energy as possible. I remember back before the aim-7 existed in game when I still got 5km missle kills not always but consistently with the aim-9J. Try firing IR missles against the ground and not against the sky because that will increase range and firing missles from a longer range means the missle has more time to outturn you. Also try to avoid firing IR missles at someone directly from the back. Sounds good but if he has energy he will probably dodge it. Instead try to get missles in during a slight or decent turn to make it harder to avoid because it reduces the time the enemy has to react in a meaningful way.
I think my problem at top tier is that I always end up in situations with not allies, so it’s more of a bad positioning and not looking at where my Allie’s is than everything else. In my defense I’m mostly a tank player and only play jets to unlock the new jets in my tech tree (France, which does not receive a lot of top tier jets) so i can use them for CAS.
Enemy tunnel vision chases for good 2 minutes.
"Move after me"
"Destroy the target xXx_GuNToPAce_xXx 🎮 (F-5♿)".
5 minutes later said target becomes the last player on their team.
Gets furballed by the rest of my team who completely ignored me and them.
I get 0 RP, while they get 70-ish RP.
Skill issue on my side. Should've sidclimbed.
I have many many hours of top tier experience, but frontal lock missiles still give me issues. I launch them too far and of course the guy with a missile flying at his face flares, but I get too close and I'm a prime target for getting gunned down/trading. I'm still having that issue, but I've realized that it may be better to put a R-60M into someone at a very strange angle, like above them and slightly offset. I still don't find much success with this method either, as they'll either try to full commit headon or just see me and pop flares anyway.
i know this is off topic but i was a pretty good player and then quit for a year and now iam average at best but the game actively punishes me for it as the repair costs are really high for avg players
Impressive quality for your sub count my friend. Look forward to seeing more from ya!
But the head-on trade is always fun :) cracks me up
Me watching this video: "Oops, yeah, um, that's me, right, done that, uh-huh, yup, ouch ... guess I kinda suck." Good guide! 👍
Sometimes the head-on commit is the only option.. if you’re slow and someone is committing to a strafe you can’t dodge, you might as well shoot back.
.. but if you’re slow at top-tier, you already made a mistake a while back, so why not make another one?
Irritates me when people go for head ons like that. I sometimes like to drag out the dogfight so I always turn away after firing missiles, or guns also in an attempt at having them pass me and then get behind them
Sometimes I just want to relax and don't want to think about things and just fly about doing my thing (often badly) ...it is just a game after all. Also I'm in the minority by using a joystick (making gun hits much more difficult) and use cockpit view and 1st person view (even though I play realistic), which also makes things more difficult.
Not the fist but the others I do commonly, also the trying to catch up to a mic in an f5c or the firing missile to targets in an f5c Beyond 5km away
im not in top tier right now honestly im in rank 4 but ive never focused on an enemy or 180 monkeyd lol bcs its just like i watch a lot of top tier gameplay and picked that up and it seemed logical but great video i think it will help me as i go to top tier
May I correct you, misusing flares is only a thing against everything that isnt Russian, the second it is a R-60 you can drop a small lighter out of your cockpit while afterburner on and the R-60 would go for the lighter.
the best way to fly in top fier is to be 'loose' in combat. always swapping targets and keeping track of everyone around you, and keeping manuevers to an absolute minimum. if you ever 'lock up' in a battle your most likely going to die bith often and soon
Once again another video to help develop my own skills! HOWEVER!, we need to have a chat about key bindings. It looks like you're using the WASD to pitch and roll while using the look bind. I have altered my own map as WS for thrust and AD for roll and RMB for look. After watching your videos and studying the combat conditions and your reactions I chose to bind Up, Down, and L and R keys for pitch and roll and it works quite well. to the question: How is your keyboard and mouse setup? Is that a question for another video?
I believe you’re asking for this? ruclips.net/video/rvDoU-4YHm4/видео.html
Thanks a lot because I need to spade a bunch of top tier jets this will definitely help!
I missle spam last guy just to slow him down so either I or my team mate can catch him
Just like in the good old days where missles were more of a tool to make people loose their speed and energy instead of a kill
that doesnt really work in top tier tho, every plane has flares, and u can use CM without really bleeding any speed.
@@SeekerHead it works against planes like f4e/j, f5 and such which have flares dropped directly behind, but recently I just found my self baiting people to commit head on and then they eat an r-60
In all honesty I spam missiles if only to make the other player maneuver, forcing them to lose energy so I can get guns on. If the missile kills, cool, but I hardly ever expect it to.
Hey mate Ty for Tipps help me a lot …also with my choice witch plane I should take to lern game best ,started war thunder two weeks ago and I was full 180 monkey , after I stop do it I get always 2-3 more kills in the game …one day gonna lock u in my target 😉…great job on your channel mate !
I had a guy waste all 4 of his missiles on me. He ended up getting me with his guns in the end, but I felt pretty good for making him waste all of them. He shot most from a mile or so or less sometimes.
*me on console who finds its incredibly hard to continue looking around while still having controls of flight* (its very hard for me to see what's behind me and still make evasive maneuvers)
i play on xbox but always use keyboard and mouse, so much easier. also do u know how to fix fps on the xbox? i have like 30-40 fps in prop planes
Hi mate, ground player here, gotta say I never paid too much interest in air rb, was always playing tank for 6 years by now, although I got a mirage 3e thx to spamming cas, I never got interested in playing it for I thought top tier jet battle was just stupid missile spam, but I gotta say, your videos got me really interested and you might actually get me to learn those damn air rb top tier mechanics lol and for that I thank you, it's nice to see someone that look, at least to me, really good actually giving good advices
Appreciate it, but be warned, the mirage is not going to be the most fun plane lol
@@SeekerHead ikr especially stock lol, F1 must be good tho even tho i understood DEFAs were not the easiest gun to use
F1 is the worst top tier jet in the game unfortunately
big oof
yooo thats me at 0:28 and 1:34! glad i saw this video
Here he said missile spam is bad. But in a Phantom video he said that missile spam can be used to keep an enemy slow so you van get them with guns
Ty for making this video it really helped I will prob watch lots more times
Thanks for tips. I will make sure to ignore them, proceed to die and call gaijin bad. Bro the game literally hates me trust
Lol 😂😂😂 me too
I don't c key enough and I focused to much I need to just flow with the fight more instead of being glued 😮💨😤
1. Me Going head on but not avoiding the bullets
If you need to turn around pointing your nose down helps maintain speed
the problem I need help with at top tier is inversely the opposite of your first point about flares.
Everyone these days pretty much nails there flare use so in that case how do you shoot them down?
or is the answer blindingly obvious and it's "you dont"
Might be time to learn to fly with the mouse and use TrackIR. I am one of those that doesn't use the C key as much as I should. Also every single one of these tips work in Falcon BMS and DCS as well especially with coming off burner while flaring.
Sometimes you just gotta full commit to the head on
yeah I needed this thank you
Well done Seeker
sometimes I engage in enemies that are bullet sponges, so I just crash myself at their wings. Im not afraid to die as long as I destroyed my opponent
From my experience the faking head one only works with using the t2 and f1 because of there high AOA and the Vulcan but it requires skill and experience with them. Other than that it’s a bad idea.
i allready got the mig 21 mf the mig 23mf and the f4e but i still havent played much top tier just because the whole missile meta is rather new to me hopefully this video will help