How to Win Fleet Battles

While the ranking system is broken, I see a lot of players struggling to play PvP fleet battles.  Some of it is not being able to outfly or hit other players, but more importantly not doing the right thing at the right time.  Here are some details on how fleet battles work and some of the tricks that good players use to win.

Goals of the Game

There are two high-level goals to keep in mind:

• Destroy enemy capital ships.  This is how you win.
• Get a morale advantage and keep it as long as you can.  This is how you destroy enemy capital ships and protect your own.

How to Destroy Enemy Capital Ships

Any ship can damage enemy capital ships, but the bomber hulls (Y-Wing, TIE Bomber) excel at it.  If a bomber with a high damage loadout can make contact with the hull of a capital ship, it can do over 12,000 damage in about 5 seconds.  This is more than enough damage to destroy a flagship subsystem in one run.

If you want to fly a bomber and rack up crazy capship damage, consider this TIE Bomber build:

• Rotary cannon.  Highest hull DPS option in this slot (766.7 DPS).  Over 5 seconds, this is 3,833 damage.
• Beam cannon.  3,200 damage over 3 seconds.  Can be fired on approach to take down frigates and corvettes at range.
• Proton bombs.  5,500 damage over 5 seconds.  Large AoE for hitting turrets and subsystems.
• Reinforced armor.  This gives you the most survivability to make contact with a hull or subsystem.  You will have 4,000 hull.
• Sensor jammer.  This is a good option for stopping frontal ion missiles, which would otherwise shut you down.  Seekers can work too.
• Twin ion engine.  None of the other choices will help you damage capships.

If you survive the approach and unload all of your damage under the shields, congratulations, you've nuked a subsystem in 5 seconds.  If you're still alive, keep firing your rotary cannon at other hull sections and/or turrets.

The Y-Wing can use a similar build with overloaded shields.  IMO if you're not building your bomber like this, you are giving up much of the value of flying a bomber.

If your team already has this kind of bombing setup, consider flying a support ship with resupply droids and squad jammer or tactical shield.  Because the repair amount of resupply droids is % based, it is a massive heal on armor-tanked bombers, healing a total of 2,000 on a TIE Bomber with reinforced armor.

Getting a Morale Advantage and Keeping It

You can gain morale by destroying enemy ships.  You will lose morale when the enemy destroys your ships.

The amount of morale gained for destroying enemy ships depends on whether you are attacking or defending.

During the initial kick-off phase:

• Destroying an enemy AI fighter is worth 5 morale.
• Destroying an enemy player is worth 10 morale.
• Destroying the enemy corvette/raider is worth a chunk of morale, probably about 20.

While attacking:

• Destroying an enemy AI fighter is worth 2 morale.
• Destroying an enemy player is worth 5 morale.
• Destroying an enemy capital ship is worth 15 morale.

While defending:

• Destroying an enemy AI fighter is worth 5 morale.
• Destroying an enemy player is with 10 morale.
• Destroying the enemy corvette/raider is worth 20 morale.

Looking at these numbers we see that defensive kills are worth more morale than offense kills.  The trade-off is that it's far easier to deal capship damage (which you need to win the game) while on offense.

An effective offense phase will deal as much capship damage as possible while minimizing morale loss to get more chances for bombers to inflitrate and deal their burst damage.  Fighters and interceptors on offense should screen for their bombers, either by baiting enemies away or escorting the bomber in to kill enemy defenders.  Fighters and interceptors may also deal opportunity damage to capships, especially when equipped with rockets, ion weapons, or high burst missiles.  Dying on offense is very expensive for your team, so try not to die unless trading your morale for a pile of capship damage.

The offense team can also recoup a small amount of morale by destroying enemy AI fighters and a little more morale by baiting enemy defenders into their own danger zone, where they will likely be shot down by capship turrets.  If the offense team plays carefully time is on their side, and defenders can have difficulty getting enough morale to attack again.

Check your map before crossing the midfield.  If you are the only player flying into a swarm of enemies, loop around and wait for allies or pop some AI fighters.  Your death may prevent allied bombers from getting another valuable attack run.

Support ship abilities can be valuable on offense.  Targeting beacons add a +30% damage buff and can be applied to capships, turning a 12,000 damage bombing run into a 15,600 damage bombing run.  The squad jammer gives allies 10 seconds of radar invisibility, which can confuse attempts to intercept your bombers.  Repair and shielding abilities can help bombers reach their targets.  The challenge as a support ship is not dying and giving up morale, so play safe and try to bait enemies across the line.

An effective defense phase will stop enemy ships (especially bombers) from dealing damage to your capships, while gaining enough morale to attack again.

The highest priority target on defense is enemy bombers.  No other type of ship can deal as much damage to your capships, so stop bombers before they can hug the hull of their target.  Call bombers as priority targets and help your team burst them down.  Remember, if a bomber makes contact with your flagship it only takes 5 seconds to completely destroy a subsystem.

Ion weapons (either ion cannons or ion missiles), tractor beams, and targeting beacons can be very helpful at preventing bombers reaching their target or dealing damage.  Ion disables are the only way to prevent laser attacks at range and will throw off the approach.

After enemy bombers are dead, the enemy corvette/raider is a high priority target, especially for defending bombers.  The corvette/raider does not do as much damage as a bomber, but it does tank capship turrets and is worth a large chunk of morale.

Otherwise, enemy interceptors and fighters should be cleaned up when there are no incoming bombers.  If the enemy is withholding their morale, do not chase them into danger zone traps.  Carefully clear AI fighters and any attacker foolish enough to break the line.

Attacking support ships can also be high priority targets when they are preventing your efforts to destroy bombers.  Kill them when you get a chance, being careful not to chase them into traps.

tl;dr

• Build your bomber for bursting capships.
• Prioritize stopping enemy bombers on defense.
• Don't get baited.