1761

Best weapon in the game. Or close.
And he is called Tim, not Tom.

1762

Really? I did torch kill for the first assignment on a clueless sniper. When they’re scoped they lose all situational awareness. Just walk up behind them and light them up.
My problem was to remember the assignment and use my torch. I usually just shoot on sight.

1763

I’ve been playing recon just to unlock the SOFLAM to use for the assignment. Since I am crap with the snipers, I have been using PDWs instead (or sometimes the SKS with HOLO). I’m starting to like the class a lot. With the motion sensor and the mobile spawn, you can really support your team (and your own score) in rush.

1764

Canister shot is like the hand of God reaching out to instantly end someone’s life, at almost any range. Even at extreme ranges you can do harrassing damage or get a lucky headshot. It disables fast light vehicles at range, which you can then destroy with an easy cannon shot. It also disables attack helicopters, if they come in low and close enough and you get the lead right. Along with thermal optics and proximity scan, you can completely dominate infantry, unsupported. You only need to watch out for Javelins and dogged RPG squads raining rockets on you, especially if you miss a couple shots. I also run from tanks unless I think I have an advantage. It’s more efficient to let your team finish them off while you kill more infantry elsewhere.

This used to describe the mobile AA. That used to require merely a quick burst to kill infantry, and posed a serious threat to tanks. It was the most versatile weapon, able to quickly destroy anything in the game. Now you can aim an entire belt at infantry at range and still not kill them. So tanks with canister shot fill that role now.

Seine Crossing sucks because of narrow hallways and the sniper camping spots in the interior rooms. It’s decent for Conquest at 32 players or less.

1765

Fuck yeah, air vehicles are awesome. I mostly die but they’re fun to control with my X360 gamepad. (Only problem with that is I have to remember to turn it on before I enter the game so it detects it.)

I’m totally lost in the metagame and have no idea why I lose 1v1 duels against similar helicopters and such. Other pilots seem to lock on and recharge their flares at just the right time. And of course I have a hard time hitting anything with rockets and guns right now. I’ll keep practicing.

But I do great as attack helicopter gunner. I got some nice compliments tonight from the pilots. It really helped jack up my score. [EDIT] That’s a good thing because my jet SPM is 30, which kind of drags everything else down. :)

Then later some punk destroyed my tank, so I knifed him to finish my last assignment. It was another good night of BF3. My stopping point with this game is in sight, but I still have a ways to go.

1766

I surpassed the 500 SPM barrier. Yayy!! /does little dance.

1767

Nice job! I was going to shoot for that too but air vehicles are killing it. It would take too long to steadily climb back up, especially if I decide to max out the jet and scout heli perks.

Speaking of air vehicles: Cobra, let’s talk jet metagame!

1768

Mine is about 633, but slowly declining. I’m still not sure what I do to get it there. I think my comparatively low playtime and the fact I started very strongly off the back of BC2 and the beta probably helped. I have friends who are very similar to me in terms of their general skill level and points in the games I play with them who have significantly lower SPM.

Still, I’m kind of attached to it now. I’m scared of using jets in case I cause it to dip below 600.

1769

I hope this hasn’t been covered already in this thread but for real, how the fuck do you knife someone? It was fairly easy in BC2 but I can’t even seem to knife an unaware sniper from behind at point blank. It just sort of slips past, is there an alternate button now or something?

1770

I got 1100 points with a single shot.

Here’s the setup:

Wake Island, playing for the US side. We’re dominating the upper half of the island, with the ruskies spawning on the “North” bases below. I’m hidden in the bushes; recon with an L96 rifle (Ballistic, bipod addons). There’s a particular building in the village at the far end of the island where there’s a doorway people rush through to check for cappers. The huey went down near there, but the passengers managed to scatter, so the US team is decapping it while the ruskies are trying to clear them out.

I see a ruskie medic running towards the aforementioned building. He’s spotted an engineer who just ducked back there to get out of the line of fire. I know where the medic is going, I know how long the bullet will take to travel that distance. I know the elevation I need (1/4th up from the second line from dead center).

I take the shot.

I stay scoped to readjust for my next shot I watch the medic run into the doorway, and hesitate… The bullet goes right through his head… and the head of the support soldier standing right behind him.

Kill 100
Kill 100
Headshot 10
Headshot 10
Marksman 420
Marksman 420
Doublekill 40

:D

1771

F key, from behind. Insta kill.

1772

I’m on a PS3 though, I’m pressing the swipe button and it works for fences as it did in BC2 but not for K I L L I N G.

1773

My experience:

Perks: 1. Air Radar 2. IR Flares 3. Rocketpod/Guided missile.

Once you’re in a jet start thinking like a shark. Take off to a high altitude and asses the battlefield. Always go after the enemy that forms the greatest risk to you.
They are from high threat to low threat:

  1. Enemy jet fighters
  2. Attack helicopters
  3. Mobile AA

Vs enemy jet fighters:
Try to spot them from a distance and figure out what direction they are flying. They can’t see what’s behind them so 9 out of 10 times you can sneak up on them from a high altitude and shoot them(with your cannon ofcourse) before they spot you. Be creative when sneaking. If they’re flying low you should be flying high. Try using mountains and other terrain to conceal you’re movement and hide your approachment.

If they do spot it will turn into a dogfight.

The rules of a dogfight are simple: Get behind them, mimic their moves and shoot them down. Getting behind a plane that has spotted you can be very tricky. You should rely on sharp turns to gain the advantage. Remember that using the afterburner(Shift) will only make you take bigger turns. The easiest trick is to turn the aircraft 90 degrees so that it’s on its side and then hold down “S” to slow down your aircraft and the “back” button to make a sharp turn. If the other pilot is thinking in the same way it will result in what I call “the tornado” where you’re both flying in exact the same circle. The first one that gives up is the one to lose. Use your air-radar to see when the enemy has changed direction.

When you finally do get behind him shoot in front of the plane which means your crosshair should never be on the plane itself. You can try using heatseakers but I think they put you at a disadvantage by alerting the pilot to your presence. Mimic the enemies moves while shooting your cannon. 1 full burst of the cannon is enough to completely destroy a jet.

Vs attack helicopters:
Heli’s rarely form a danger but some of them equip heat seakers and can be a real pain. Helicopters are sometimes hard to spot against the background so always try to spot them for yourself(With Q) so it’s easy to shoot at them. Once you start approaching a helicopter hold down the “back” button to slow down your aircraft. This gives you more time to line up your shot. 1 full burst is enough to destroy a helicopter. Some helicopters have both the pilot and the co-pilot packing heat-seakers. The trick here is to shoot them with a small burst from the side or back and them disappear before they can turn around. Remember that it’s a lot harder for a helicopter to gain altitude so usually just flying a few hundred meters higher is enough.

Vs Mobile AA:
The same rules as the helicopter apply. Try to spot from a distance, unload your cannon/rockets and pull-out before in spots you. Reload and repeat but now from a different side to keep the enemy guessing. Don’t get close to AA’s, their cannon can take you out quite easily.

Tips:

  1. The F35 is a bomber and not a very good one at that. Don’t go dog fighting in it. It will almost always lose to the Flanker or Hornet.
  2. Don’t attack deployment bases. Besides being a dick you risk being shot down by the indestructible AA.
  3. Use flares responsibly. Just because someone locks on to you it doesn’t mean they’ll actually fire. Wait for the distinct sound of an incoming missle before you pop flares. It takes about 10-15 seconds for flares to reload.
  4. Once you get 15000 point in the jet you’ll unlock the “Below Radar” perk which is a passive perk that is always active. This perk makes it very hard for anyone to get a lock one when you fly at very low altitude. You should fly at low altitude when you’ve just popped flares.
  5. When bailing out of a jet make sure you jump out above the battlefield. The out of bounds limit for a jet is much larger that it is for an infantry man.
  6. Know how high the ceiling is on each map. At the moment it seems that all maps have a ceiling of a 1000 meters except for Kharg Island which has a ceiling of 300. Once you go above the ceiling your aircraft will stall and it will be uncontrollable until it falls down below the ceiling. This can take some time and you’ll be sitting duck for enemy fighters.
1774

Cobra, we can’t figure out “Below Radar”. You seem to have a lot of experience; can you answer definitively?

Is it useless on a Jet (requires 50 ft) or not? Does it work with ground and air AA?

1775

Just to frustrate the fliers:

In the attack heli or AA, the trick to shooting down planes is to fire your first missile immediately upon lock, then immediately re-lock and fire your second missle. Your lock time is slightly less than the flare reload time. Otherwise do the same thing waiting for someone else to cause the plane to pop flares.

1776

I have no idea. 9 out of 10 times I don’t even know where the missiles is coming from. Perk or not, flying low has saved me countless times.

1777

I’m on the PS3, knifing seems to only work from behind where you catch the guy completely unaware and it’ll be an instant kill. Otherwise it doesn’t seem to work any other time. You can still try and knife from the front but you’ll just get shot dead instead. I have about 30 knife kills or so. Seems a bit pointless unless you just want bragging rights and dogtags since it’s just faster to gun them down from behind.

1778

Nice shot Tankero. Stuff like that makes me want to play recon with sniper rifles for a bit, maybe until I unlock the medal.

And yeah I prefer BC2 knifing. It was a little cheap but now I hate accidentally hitting someone with the knife instead of triggering the kill animation. I also don’t care much about the BF3 dogtag game, whereas I kind of liked tracking the bronze/silver/gold dogtags.

Could be. I felt lost all over again at the start of BF3, just like when I first played BC2 a year ago or whatever. Losing lots of 1v1 duels, didn’t know how to play Conquest, etc. I used the bf3stats.com history graph to estimate I’m currently playing in the low 500s, but it takes forever to pull the average up.

Still, I’m kind of attached to it now. I’m scared of using jets in case I cause it to dip below 600.
Yeah you don’t want to do that. Cobra is QT3’s best pilot and he’s at 143 SPM. I’m at 41. If I decide to grind perks, I’ll probably use the VTOL planes to capture flags on a sparse Conquest server.

Speaking of which, I still find it strange that my base infantry SPM (that you see on the stats page of your personal platoon, if you have one) is in the low 200s for each kit. The top players in the QT3 platoon are 350-450. I don’t expect to be that good but I’m clearly leaving some score on the table. I guess that’s why you guys are 500-600 overall and I’m in the low 400s.

1779

Air radar, even on a normal server? Do you zoom your minimap out, or expand it? At this point I feel like I’m more likely to die to missile lock rather than a jet getting behind me, so stealth buys me a few extra seconds.

Interesting comments on jet mindset. I’ll try to be sneaky when I take off. Maybe that’ll cut down on missile locks.

Remember that using the afterburner(Shift) will only make you take bigger turns. The easiest trick is to turn the aircraft 90 degrees so that it’s on its side and then hold down “S” to slow down your aircraft and the “back” button to make a sharp turn.
I know about decreasing speed for a smaller radius turn, but I read somewhere that holding the deceleration button and afterburner at the same time made the smallest radius. Is that just a tall tale?

You can try using heatseakers but I think they put you at a disadvantage by alerting the pilot to your presence.
I do like the gun but I need more practice with it. I’m sticking with the X360 gamepad so it’s a bit harder to aim when I finally have him lined up. Are rocket pods the same way, kind of like attack helicopter rockets? I’m just now getting decent with those.

On attack helis: I have to remember to decelerate for more time, and I need to remember to use my missiles as the helicopter gunner!

Once you get 15000 point in the jet you’ll unlock the “Below Radar” perk which is a passive perk that is always active. This perk makes it very hard for anyone to get a lock one when you fly at very low altitude. You should fly at low altitude when you’ve just popped flares.
Awesome. I had no idea that was a passive perk. After you pop flares do you only fly low or do you try to bug out or get behind mountains until they reload? I think my problem is I try to continue the fight, and then I get killed from the next missile.

I’ve read people talking about losing missiles without flares. I’ve seen someone mention “dodging them manually” and someone else “out-turning them.” Is that possible? Can you lose missile lock by flying away from the craft that launched them (or by flying low), or are they locked on for good at that point?

Do you juke or anything when you pop flares, or is that unnecessary?

What do you do if there’s a SOFLAM up? Just die and go destroy it on foot?

Yeah I figured this out last night. I feel pretty good in a 1v1 against another below average helicopter pilot. I see that if they pop flares late, the missile might still damage them. So you can still launch one from up close if your rockets are reloading.

1780

The jet counter being to always extend out of the area after popping flares, you’ll break lock before the next missile can come.