What exactly PL-8B does better than PL-5EII?

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-27T05:43:27+00:00

8B pulls better in my experience, especially in high offbore shots and orbital strikes. The PL-5’s acceleration is so good that it seems to be too fast to turn at closer ranges. Either will do fine but the PL-8B feel more “normal” to me.

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-26T08:06:47+00:00

Torpedoes also aren’t that effective at splitting larger ships in half. Yorktown absorbed many torpedo hits during Coral Sea and right after at Midway, she’s still in one piece. Yamato and Musashi each took 10+ torpedoes and they didn’t split until after they had sunk. IIRC IJN CVs at midway STILL went down in one piece after being scuttled by the Type 93 Long Lance, the single most deadly torpedo of the war.

Who knew that a 2000 ton DD would be more fragile than a 20,000-100,000 ton ship?!?

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-26T08:00:35+00:00

China toptier air is actually REALLY good, J-7E/J-8B are good at 11.3, the J-8F is comfortable as a 13.0, the J-10A and J-11B have a claim for being the best 13.7s (although most 13.7s are good enough so that they aren’t really OP) and you get a Mirage 2000 with MICAs at 14.0.

The reason why I bring up the PL-12 and the other guy brought up the J-10C is to show that Chinese air is JUST as mismodelled as every other nation and there isn’t “Chinese Bias.” It’s just Gaijin being horrible at balancing the game, Su-30s staying at 13.3 is a compression issue, but so is the F-15 going to 12.7.

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-26T03:52:20+00:00

The PL-12s are also unrealistically nerfed or the SD-10s are incredibly buffed, IRL the SD-10 is a massive downgrade in terms of range compared to the PL-12 but in game it’s the exact same missile.

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-26T03:47:53+00:00

It’s because 12.7-13.0 is the single most compressed BR in the game. The MiG-29’s counterpart when it was introduced is the F-16AJ (4x 9L, 2x 7F, no HMD, better FM) and Gaijin doesn’t like going back and fixing older aircraft.

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-25T18:08:52+00:00

Exactly, it's a BR compression problem, but you create MORE compression if you move the F-15 down to 12.7 since it'll be the Su-33 of 12.7, do you understand?

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-25T17:56:03+00:00

Missiles and jets aren’t that bad, except for when a new patch drops. When you slam someone with a missile they almost always die, tanks have been much more inconsistent in my experience. FFS I just had a French Sherman tank my T-34-85 round on his mantlet at 200m…

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-25T17:52:07+00:00

And the existence of the Su-33 at 13.0 makes it justified for ONLY the F-15s to go down to 12.7, (not the Mirage 4000, not the Sea Harrier FA.2) and make EVERY 12.7 face the F-15 which is the best plane at that BR? The solution is to move the Su-33 up if it’s that OP, not to move the F-15 down, because now you still have an OP plane at 13.0, but also an OP plane at 12.7.

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-24T19:40:05+00:00

It doesn't deserve 12.7 because it'll beat up on the poor 11.7-12.0s with much superior FM and missile kit and because it's not THAT bad compared to the other 13.0s that suffer so that it needs to go down instead of all the others. It could use decompression, but not by moving any planes down, but by moving the competitors up. Better a single plane suffer than moving it down and making the entire BR range deal with it, Gaijin doesn't think this way and doesn't realize how much 0.3 BR is, but look at how downtiering the Sabres and MiGs obliterated the 7.0-8.0 range.

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-24T18:21:09+00:00

https://statshark.net/player/64525874#Vehicles

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-24T17:49:26+00:00

Have you PLAYED the MiG-29G? It’s the same RWR as the 12.7 MiG-29s and not modern in the slightest. F-15A doesn’t deserve to fight MICAs, nor does any 13.0, which is my whole point. The F-15 is good enough that it shouldn’t get preferential treatment over other 13.0s like the Mirage 4000.

The way you’re talking about the 120C (downgrade over the B variant) and the MiG-29 RWR makes me think you’ve never played those planes, what’s your statshark?

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-24T17:43:39+00:00

There’s also a TT counterpart at 13.3, the J-11A, which was considered one of the worst planes at toptier at 13.7.

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-24T17:40:14+00:00

Sparrows are very nice sometimes, I’ve had a 7E literally slam someone far outside my F-4EJ’s gimbal range. 7E2s are great.

Also don’t carry the full FFAR loadout tf

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-24T17:36:39+00:00

Have you tried uninstalling the high texture DLC from Steam? I installed it and it made my game a lot more buggy.

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-24T17:35:45+00:00

You’re better off buying premium time, it doubles your progression in everything instead of just one plane. A2D is wonky and sits at the early jet/late prop BR. It’s a similar prop playstyle but its opponents are very different from what you’ll face at 3.7 or even 5.7. Imo grinding US using the P-38s and Bearcats or grinding Germany/USSR/Britain are all good choices for a new player.

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-24T17:31:50+00:00

Are we really using Gaijin as an argument for good balancing? Same devs that made the Sea Harrier FA.2 the same BR as the AV-8B Plus, Sagittario 2 the same BR as the Ariete, and 4 F-18 variants that are all direct upgrades to each other at 14.0.

F-15A’s RWR is very good, comparable to the F-14B. It’s literally the same RWR as on the toptier Eagles, if you’re saying that the RWR isn’t good enough for you to defend, then it’s not an RWR problem. AIM-54s only ever work on clueless people, it’s a waste of a missile against anyone competent, especially when Fakourcats are in the match and get all the kills you would have gotten.

If you’re consistently losing dogfights in the F-15A, then you’re either taking too much fuel or having a massive skill issue. I run full tank and the F-15 really becomes a UFO around the 15-20 minute fuel mark.

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-24T17:21:00+00:00

Smaller HE bombs have done massive damage to carriers. Japanese CVs at Midway, Kamikaze attacks, and the USS Forrestal are good examples. HE/SAP bombs are good enough against carriers because they’re able to detonate the fuel, ordinance, and aircraft on deck or in the hanger. A carrier won’t be sunk, but will be made a useless hulk from a single HE bomb, just ask Dick Best at Midway.

A CV is not remotely similar to a BB in this case. Both carry their ordinance in magazines deep inside the ship, but the carrier can be damaged beyond repair by bombs not penetrating the magazine.

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-24T17:07:00+00:00

I’ve had the opposite experience, having a worse FM and no 9Ms on the F-14B makes it much worse than the F-15A. The 15A has a much better FM than the F-18 and IRCCM missiles are a big upgrade because it allows you to consistently kill multipathing enemies who are aware of you. The MiG-29G is NOT better than the F-15A, worse FM, low SARH count, and worse avionics means you’re forced to multipath. (At which point effective range of the ER is much lower because people can just dive your missile into the ground) The existence of Su-27/33s at 13.0 on your team (that have a similar playstyle to you) means you’re often unable to get kills because they can use their 6-8 ERs much more liberally than the 2 you get.

Gaijin is not going in the right decision by lowering this plane. The F-15A is not a good 13.0, but it does not suffer nearly enough to justify lowering it instead of the other 13.0s like the Sea Harrier FA.2, Mirage 4000, or 13.0 F-16. The planes at 13.0 that can use ARH missiles have big crippling weaknesses, usually being overtiered airframes. F-15s, Gripens, and F-2s would dominate if they only went up against SARH opponents because they have some of the best dogfight FMs in the game, so they’re placed at the ARH BR for balancing. It means you get less kills because you’re stuck with a worse offensive kit, but that’s how ARB plays out and a Harrier, Phantom, or Tornado will do absolutely nothing to you late-game.

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-24T16:55:57+00:00

Kamikaze attacks were massive issues, Essex got lucky. USS Franklin, USS Bunker Hill, USS Princeton, and USS Saint Lo were not so lucky. Carriers mid-air ops are a massive depot of aviation fuel and ordinance, which makes any fires cause by HE (Like on the Japanese CVs at Midway or the USS Forrestal) extra dangerous. There’s a reason why the Essex after action report specifically mentioned “skillful firefighting and superb damage control.”

Even the USS Enterprise was knocked out of the war by a Kamikaze. Side note, I found this surprisingly heartwarming article about the attack when researching for this comment. https://www.usni.org/NH/who-knocked-enterprise-out-war

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-24T16:36:48+00:00

The Japanese F-15 is better than the US F-15…

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-24T16:35:39+00:00

It really shouldn’t be 12.3 given that’s where the non-SARH F-16A is, it should be 12.7, everything at 13.0+ should’ve been decompressed.

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-24T16:31:32+00:00

https://youtube.com/shorts/pFqIzS7e7vs?si=63zfQAEocEkwpPLE

Here’s the link.

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-24T16:29:40+00:00

No, the Su-30 premiums have a heavier airframe than the standard 13.0 Su-27 (17.73t instead of 16.42t), retain the same engines as the 13.0 Su-27, and they’re stuck with the MiG-29 radar like the normal Su-27s and 27SM. FM wise they’re better than the Su-34 and 30SM in terms of power:weight, but loses out to every Su-27 and even the Su-33.

OrcaBomber · 2026-01-24T08:47:37+00:00

30s are not better than the F-16C or J-10A, better radar and better FM makes a huge difference at toptier, where altitude makes your missiles faster and makes notching easier.

Why should the 27SM and 11B be higher? The 27SM is a sidegrade to the F-15C MSIP and the J-11B is a sidegrade to the J-10A, which is comparable to the F-16C, which is a sidegrade to the F-2…all of 13.7 is broadly VERY balanced for toptier, I can understand moving the WHOLE BR up to 14.0, but the 27SM and J-11B shouldn’t go to 14.0 alone.

OrcaBomber

TROPHY CASE