Author Topic: Evasion and Approach on a Pyramidion  (Read 9812 times)

Offline pandatopia

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Evasion and Approach on a Pyramidion
« on: May 30, 2014, 08:42:34 am »
Hey yall,

I've been learning how to fly a pyramidion better, and I was wondering if you had any tips on flying a metamidion, flamer/mortar, flamer/carro close range pyra.

I found the pyra to have a godawful turn speed, lazy balloon (though too fast with hydrogen...I need to get used to this), and I don't have too high of a success rate on ramming.

With claw as a given, what else do yall use? Moonshine or kerosene? Hydrogen?

And what are some tips for approaching ships that haven't spotted you yet? What about if they've spotted you? I've been relying on speed and charging but that doesn't work well vs hwachas or other fast ships who can just back away from you.

What if you're attacked from behind? I haven't had much success running away or disabling ships that come from behind, esp more maneuverable ships like goldfish and squids.

Offline redria

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Re: Evasion and Approach on a Pyramidion
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2014, 10:29:13 am »
I'll just leave this here. ;)
https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,3222.0.html

Ramming is best done carefully. Don't commit to a ram unless you know you will keep gun arcs through it. It is better to not ram if you would lose arcs. Especially against junkers, charging them and paying attention to where they are going, then slowing down and just lightly booping their balloon so you don't fly past them is probably the best bet.

Kerosene is my personal favorite over moonshine, but that is only because I never let off the gas, and my engineers could never keep up with moonshine.
Hydrogen is a must, just to get out of sticky situations/dodge rams/get out of blender situations (what?).

Being attacked from behind, you will probably want to reverse hard towards them and try to slip past them, or if you have the opportunity, surge forwards and slip around cover.

If you get blended, you might try slipping down to the ground, and getting a rebuild and mallet hit as you bounce and hit a split second of hydrogen to rocket past a ship that is descending as fast as possible to try to keep you in arc. It can work better than it should.

Offline Alistair MacBain

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Re: Evasion and Approach on a Pyramidion
« Reply #2 on: May 30, 2014, 12:33:20 pm »
Im not the most experienced pilot but in most cases i go with kero, claw and hydro.
As mainly engineer i know the pain of moonshine to repair against. And i dont think i need the extra speed unless i want to do really fancy things and ram alot.
Claw is a must have on most ships and the faster turn keeps my deadly front on the enemy. Also lets me turn with an enemy when i dodged him.
I love hydro on pyras. Getting low? Pop hydro and go above the enemy. use the claw to keep facing the correct direction and at the time your enemy is in arc again you are ready again to fight.

Ps:
Metamidion: Gat mortar pyra.

Offline Imagine

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Re: Evasion and Approach on a Pyramidion
« Reply #3 on: May 30, 2014, 12:35:56 pm »
The biggest mistake I see captains make while flying pyras is the tendency to charge, and then keep charging while you could easily lay off the throttle and let your front guns do work for you. Many new captains just keep rushing forward, get evaded, and then expose their backside to their enemy. So, my advice is to know when to stop so you don't put yourself in horrible situations.

Offline SuperPrincessPeach

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Re: Evasion and Approach on a Pyramidion
« Reply #4 on: May 30, 2014, 04:21:50 pm »
Just dont get cough off by the squid or else its gg no re...squid will out maneuver u like a bitch

Offline pandatopia

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Re: Evasion and Approach on a Pyramidion
« Reply #5 on: May 30, 2014, 06:37:14 pm »
Nat what is your fascination with squids lol

I just feel like the pyra is easily dodged, the metamidion only works if you get the drop on them or buffed gat. I mean the pyra has decent armor and hull but drops just as fast as anything else to a gat + explosive combo, so if you have to also suffer your low turning speed I don't see it beating out another ship unless you ram as well.

Basically, at the same range I don't see how it can outperform a junker, unless obv you need to get somewhere faster.

The pyra seems to be good at going forwards and thats about it.

Offline Nidh

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Re: Evasion and Approach on a Pyramidion
« Reply #6 on: May 30, 2014, 06:48:47 pm »
Just remember this is a team game, and working with your ally opens up a huge number of strategic options. Win the fight before you even engage the enemy.

Offline Mysterious Medic

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Re: Evasion and Approach on a Pyramidion
« Reply #7 on: May 30, 2014, 08:48:47 pm »
The thing thats great about moonshine is that not only is it really great for rams, it's also REALLY great for stopping your forwards momentum very quickly. This way you can easily charge in, but if you feel you will miss your ram you can easily moonshine backwards and avoid a sticky situation.

The most important thing for me about a pyra, is using height advantage. This is the main deciding factor in pyra vs all other ships. You want that gat/mortar to have its good downwards arc, you want your hades artemis to have that downward arc, you can kind of get away without it with hades flak, but its still good tactically to have good downwards arc. This doesn't necessarily mean to use hydro ALL the time, although some good pyra pilots do that (Fiasco total). Personally, I'd rather just rely on a balloon buff to keep me above my enemies. I constrict hydro to escaping, or if I'm trying to get a quick kill on a weak ship and I'm fairly far below them. I just don't like it because it takes my flak/art/mortar engi off his gun and forces him to repair the balloon (and the explosive damage that engi deals most often decides the engagement).

When it comes to hwacha, it's all about the height advantage. It's pretty easy to just stay above a galleon's broadside. Against a spire I'd say aim you're pointy bit at the very top of his balloon and just rush, the hwacha will most definitely hit your underside where there are no components. Hwacha fish is a bit tricky, what you really want to do is catch him off guard and ram his hwacha out of arc (pretty easy against goldfish).

I think the most fun part of flying a pyra is definitely evading. You see another pyra right behind you? Use my patented MysteriousEvade™ maneuver. Hydro up, sparingly, and moonshine full speed backwards. Keep going backwards until you're above and behind them, and then you quickly have the advantage. You'd expect this to only work against pilots who are unexperienced, but I think the sheer novelty of it will surprise even experienced pilots- I've done it multiple times in competitive and it always worked out. First time can be seen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-vvPctKeWI#t=3m32s. However, don't do anything else seen there like... say... don't put on phoenix claw while you're being rammed like I did, and don't not shoot at someone when they're right in front of you.... The only reason I had to use that maneuver was because I messed up in the first place.

Offline Battle Toads

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Re: Evasion and Approach on a Pyramidion
« Reply #8 on: May 31, 2014, 08:24:02 am »
I see a lot of talking about hydro but I still think chute vent is another option for pyra. In the same way that hydro can get you above an enemy, chute vent can get you below the enemy (unless you are next to the ground, but then again I think there is a limit to how high you can go which would effect hydro, but I might be wrong) Also although the tactic can be failed easily and can get you in a tight spot, using chute vent along with rams can allow you to get a good stomping on someone below you, but doing this is a lot more fun than it is effective

Offline Captain Smollett

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Re: Evasion and Approach on a Pyramidion
« Reply #9 on: May 31, 2014, 12:35:28 pm »
Do not underestimate the value of moonshine on a pyra.

Moonshine far outclasses kero when trying to accelerate or stop on a heavy ship. Though kerosene can mindlessly be kept going, controlled bursts or flickers of moonshine lets a pyra travel at the same rare that it would with kerosene. Furthermore the utility of tapping moonshine to stabilize the ship after a ram, terrain bounce or hard turn is far more useful than it is given credit for due to the precious seconds of gun arcs it can grant.

Also don't forget that drogue chute can make a pyra nearly invincible vs blending.

Offline Captain Smollett

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Re: Evasion and Approach on a Pyramidion
« Reply #10 on: May 31, 2014, 12:44:23 pm »
When it comes to approaching enemies, it's far more important to keep gun arcs then to hit a ram. Slowing down and tracking the target with pheonix claw on the way in is usually best.

The pyra doesn't have much going for it with evasion. Unless you can hydro to safety at close range or in the rare instance use your speed to fly away you're probably boned if an enemy catches you off guard.

This is why positioning in pyras are critical. Try to always have an understanding of where your enemies are and where they might be coming from so you can keep them in front of you.

Also against higher level players you'll likely do better with gattling mortar since a chemmed hull will take longer to break against a flame thrower than battling leading to a slower kill.

Offline SuperPrincessPeach

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Re: Evasion and Approach on a Pyramidion
« Reply #11 on: May 31, 2014, 01:58:01 pm »
Nat what is your fascination with squids lol

Beware of the squiddddddddd lol
No I just have bad memory with squid....