every match is based on a few things.
the map: certain maps favors certain ships.
the setup: the setup your team runs with, and how effective you are on using it. some setups doesnt work well together.
the mindgame: at some point you hit higher competitive play, and it is here that the mindgame comes into play. Knowing what your oppenent is going to do by observing his flying style, tactics and positioning. These things you need to base your counter around.
Lets say we are playing vs the ducks who are notorious known for their 2 junker setup.
what do we know about their build? junkers have a high armor rating, but will die very quickly from well played focus fire. The ducks use hades cannons and artemis to circle and disable their opponent, so getting caught between their ships are bad news.
They tend to fly at medium altitude, but they will change altitude when your team does. They also fly together at all times, and does not split up.
How do we counter this then?
in open maps a galleon with immense focus fire and very experienced gunners might be able to take down the junkers and tank some damage. - but this setup leaves your team very stationary and easy to go around.
No matter how to look at this the junker is in the top tier of ships at the moment, due to its strong endurance and damage capabilities.
However the junker has some severe weakspots.
if you break the junkers turning engines he is not going to move for some time, this means pulling one of his engineers from shooting to the back engine to rebuild it.
Stay mobile and keep using the terrain, junkers have a tendency to use a medium and a short range side. When you end up in the double medium range side of 2 junkers you will go down very quickly. Using the terrain to block shots or stay in hiding is very important.
timing the perfect engagement is what will define who takes the lead. If you rush straight on you are most likely going to die before you were able to get a kill.
The junkers using artemis have a disadvantage in that they shoot down, if you pop hydrogen on a goldfish or pyramidion you will be able to shorten the distance before they spot you or are able to counter your engagement.
Here is my favorite. junker pilots love to focus on three players using guns, this can also be the weakness as there are no engineers on the vital component. a quick focus fire + ram will deal a large portion of damage that might kill the junker outright.
- a thing I have seen vs junkers is that moonshine ram from a pyramidion to the junker balloon, instantly kills the junkers balloon and pushes him away from you actually exposing his engines to your guns.
a last thing about junkers. they are not agressive ships, sure you can play them as such, but they dont work well with rushing and front facing ships. Goldfish, pyramidion, mobula and spires all have guns pointing forward which means they dont need to turn to have their full potential.
Using a junker with any of the above mentioned ship can leave a big disadvantage to the team using it. Why? because when a goldfish or pyramidion especially needs to move forward, they are weak if their ally does not have strong front facing guns that can support them. this means that the junker in order to move forward has to stop using his trifecta ability. (perfect time to start an engagement)
feel free to disagree with me
But I hope this will help anyone in looking at a larger picture of ships and their "Overpowered´ness"2