Rao is one of the stronger specialist in the game with his hack and his spotting since he automatically marks enemies that shoot at him.
Rao isn't my playstyle, I'm a medic, but at this point with air continuing to be broken I feel straight up FORCED to play him. Not because I like his kit or even because it's "strong", but most of the time because he's literally the only thing that can even annoy air.
Seriously, he's only effective at pushing them away.
Aircraft getting hacked? Blow flares before the hack is up for guaranteed 5 seconds of immunity to lockons, and if you're a condor hit your boost and get the heck outta there.
Hacked without flares? unless you've got 4 perfectly timed missiles and the aircraft is in a bad position, every map affords tons of spaces to break locks with line of sight - even something as simple as some twigs between trees.
A good pilot simply doesn't die, and while Rao can at least annoy the hell outta them with constant hacks, the counterplay required to kill aircraft in random games remains way, way too high of a bar.
Why do aircraft have infinite ammo? Why do aircraft have infinite flares? Why do they have infinite repairs and other abilities? (vehicles in general, but especially aircraft)
Infantry don't. Finding ammo is easy enough, except for special ammo which is a bit more uncommon unless you've got Angel's all over, and passive regen between the two is the same.
It just contributes to most matches with halfway decent pilots being annoyed at the constant hacking, and the constant hacking never meaningfully setting up counterplay opportunities for aircraft.
Legit, 100% the only reason I enjoy playing Rao is because I'm imagining the rage and frustration on the faces of pilots as I harass the heck outta them. I'm no threat by any means, but I'm annoying as heck.
As I type I just spent almost an entire round gunning on a condor because, despite hacks, it's impossible to kill without unrealistic expectations of teamplay amongst pugs.
