The Mobula

[Cl ick to Ca p t ain]

So aside from all the "Oh the Mobula is objectively sh!t"  craziness on this forum, I'd like to bring this ship to public attention since it hasn't been discussed that I've seen

This is not necessarily a 'Mobula is broken' thread, even if in my honest opinion I still think it is.

I'm just trying to understand what is the point of it, I mean, I freaking love the looks of it, probably the sole reason I even play the darn thing, but what else is there about it?

- 5 count em 5! forward facing guns, 3 main ones that easily converge fire, and two secondary support guns.
- The hull is also a massive target, wide profile makes it an easy target for brawlers look to land erratic mortar fire and moonshine rams
- Armor and Speed is below average
- I honestly think either the hull, or the speed, could use a buff. Since it seems a bit lacking in both those regions, but buffing bother would make the Mobula OP in my opinion
- It's still horribly slow which disallows it to easily maneuver out of danger
- Rams still pretty much one-shot it
- Can only brawl generally only with support, and sniping it's hard to get good optimum killing power out of light guns
- The ship is cut in half with no way to access both sides easily, this makes it almost absolutely needed to bring 3 "Gungineers" and have them in very specific places to even begin to think the Mobula as viable

When I look at the Mobula, all I see is a beautiful ship with lots of promise, that's just lacking in a few areas

All in all, the Mobula can be a pain to be in a moving engagement in. Causing it to really only be viable in "glass cannon" or "burst damage" strategies where engagements happens quick and violently.

My question is, what is everyone else's opinions on the ship, what would you add/take away to make it better?

[Alistair MacBain]

Well i always think of the mob as a sniper ship with the possibility to switch to a closer range weapon due if the enemy closes in.
At long ranges its low height profile makes it not so easy to hit which gives it a similiar tankyness like the junker.
The problem is as u stated. Its quite hard to finish an enemy when you only have light guns available. And if the enemy gets close if you dont get the kill rly fast your pretty much dead with no real possibility to kill cause you mainly miss one if not two guys shooting cause they have to repair.
It currently is more a support ship but the problem is that there are ships that support way better.
A Galleon with a lumberjack has better longrange capabilities and can hold the enemy in place if it has a decent lj gunner so there is currently just no point in using a mobula cause there are way better ships with pretty much the same job.

[GreyTea]

The mobula has so much potentional
1 gungerneer up top to man mid gun and main engine
 2 engineers to man the two sides
I think the idea is kill them before they kill us strategy rather than out repair
With 3 cross over light guns and the right combo you can devestate ships like a pyra before it rams

If the mobula got a walkway connecting the hull and balloon
It would be broken in my oppion at least haha

Merc mid duel artimus top with say a gat mortor bottom deck combo
You deal alot of damage at diffrent ranges. I think it comes down to the skill of the pilot in awarness and communucation i know if a mobula is behide you. 9/10 your going to be destroyed.
 
Easy target but i woukd say with the right tools such as helium and hydrogen and a phoniex claw you can get out if any
Stick situations. So dont be put off flying the mobula try to beat the challange it sets once you do that the
Skys are yours :-D

[Cl ick to Ca p t ain]

At the topic of a Sniping Mobula it would have to be within a certain team build I think to even be viable, as you could use the Mobula for armor stripping and disabling guns, while delivering hull damage from your other ship. Such a set up would require full team coordination though, and would be high risk. I also have to agree where engagements should be spent mainly firing, only repairing when out of gun arch, because chances are if you're taking enough damage to really need to repair, if you don't kill what's shooting you you're going to die anyway.

how about some I'll show you min you show me yours when it comes to Mobula builds in with the comments?

I've been favoring a simple double gatling gun lower decks, and mortar center, with flares in case they are needed on the ends. I've been bringing bumpers, kerosine, and claw to pubs, but I would swap out bumpers for balloon gas for any sort of competitive play. Though I have been thinking of putting a mortar on each end, so that way if a target gets too far and out of arch for the other two guns, the center gungineer can run over and at least converge with what ever gat is closest.

[Echoez]

I'd appreciate it if you were a bit more creative with your posts in the future instead of copying entire sections of my own, it looks kinda creepy to me right now > .>

Not saying you should change it, but ehhh..

[Cl ick to Ca p t ain]

I'd appreciate it if you were a bit more creative with your posts in the future instead of copying entire sections of my own, it looks kinda creepy to me right now > .>

Not saying you should change it, but ehhh..

Simply used your post as a template to start a conversation about the Mobula, it had a decent solid structure and it seemed to work for starting a ship discussion.

[Alistair MacBain]

Mob just isnt tanky enough or manoveurable to be brawly. You can finish up a already softened up enemy when he gets close but its just useless in closerange if your fighting any good enemy.

[Spud Nick]

I suggested the idea of a faster overall speed for the Mobula awhile ago. Everybody thought it would be over powered or that it's not necessary because it is already fast.

[Gryphos]

As someone who flies almost exclusively Mobula, this ship has shitloads of potential.

The ability to have a constant trifecta is devastating, and in straight dps playoffs you'll almost always come out on top. Of course, since it does indeed have low health, it won't be long before you're almost dead. At this point you take advantage of it's insane manoeuvrability. Now, of course it has the turning speed of the moon, but that's why I almost always bring phoenix claw. And it's speed is hardly impressive, but that's not really the point a lot of the time. What it does have is great acceleration, a lot of the time it's acceleration that allows you to escape more than straight up speed. And it's no secret that it has the best vertical manoeuvrability of any ship, meaning it's easy to get out of enemy arcs.

Say, for instance, a pyramidion is charging straight at you. What you do is drop out of the way using it's insane vertical speed and burst away underneath it using its acceleration, getting you firmly out of its arcs and giving you a huge window of escape.

However, I will say that the Mobula does need support to be properly effective in a fight, since if it is focus fired it will go down extremely fast, but that's no huge issue, that just makes it balanced.

Weapon wise I use a brawling setup, but that's just because I don't ever snipe, but I can imagine it being a good support sniping ship if that's you thing.

Even then it's best not to think of it as a straight brawling ship, it isn't the ship that rushes in first, it's more the ship that waits just on the sidelines and swoops in after.

[Alistair MacBain]

That is maybe enough for pubs but if you aim to get the mob competetive it isnt enough cause there your enemy will probably focus you down and get you killed faster than you can. Or just outrange you.

[Echoez]

Simply used your post as a template to start a conversation about the Mobula, it had a decent solid structure and it seemed to work for starting a ship discussion.

That's fine and all, I'm just saying it looked weird at first, would like it if I get contacted in advance for circumstances like this and now I'll stop derailing.

[James T. Kirk]

I've noticed that Mobulas are potentially good against charging Junkers, as you can backpedal easily and stay out of his side arcs fairly easily.

But that's the advantage any forward-facing gun ship has: control of engagement distance.


Sidenote:
5 Banshee Mobie is insanely fun, unless they bring chem spray.
Just make sure all your engines have greased.

[Spud Nick]

We should all think about competitive play when we read these ship threads.

[Echoez]

We should all think about competitive play when we read these ship threads.

Not nesessarily, competitive play has nothing to with the fact that people that know the ship's weakness will simply abuse the living hell out of it, letting the ship in shambles most of the time and the pilot and crew dissapointed in it.

Though I honestly think the Mobula on the finer side.. at least it can dodge and keep a trifecta very easily and switch from long to close range in the blink of an eye. If Chem spray is buffed, so will be the Mobula

[Captain Smollett]

I think the idea is kill them before they kill us strategy rather than out repair

That and always have a buffed balloon.

I've started using the Mobula in pub play a lot more lately because just a straight up viewing of its stats show the ship should be dominant but for some reason it's been more or less ignored by the vets.  This I think is mostly due to its weirdness factor (ie it flies weirdly, crews weirdly etc.)

Due to the slow turning of the ship I tend to fly the mobula conservatively until the enemy positions are known. Once fighting commences I engage with a constant trifecta only having the main engineer coming off for a mallet hit during reload while more or less staying on gun for the whole engagement.  This will almost always result in the enemies armor breaking before my own (mobula has 600 armor, pyra 650, junker 700) due to the superior firepower the constant trifecta brings.  This will usually result in killing a brawling ship during a 1v1 so long as my main gungineer has timed his shots for when the enemy's armor is down. 

If the kill missed or I'm in an otherwise sticky situation, that's where the buffed balloon comes into play.  If it appears I'm in immanent threat of death a rapid change in altitude will often break gun arcs and give the ship enough time to lick its wounds and reengage freshly.

After playing with the mobula more, I've just been sort of convinced that the ship is underutilized and underappreciated, not underpowered; and that people just haven't learned the meta for it yet.