Devs have already said, that Cougar's strafe acceleration is getting reduced. Turn rate is freighter-like, so no reason to complain about that. It's very similar to the GMG bomber but I haven't seen anyone asking for nerfs on that one.
If a LAC can't hit a bomber from up-close, the issue is with the carrier's pilot. A LAC shooting only with secondaries or solaris works just fine. A LAC shooting with Cerbs+Prims+Secondaries at once does not.
If 5 fighters can't gank properly a single Cougar, then its also fighters' pilots problem. I specifically tried a set-up Conn fight where the Cougar had to dodge the best he can and I was flying a 2.0 fighter trying to kill him. Even then, with my average aim, I could shotgun it. And that was with just one fighter.
The reason you see only bombers and Valors is that there aren't any other GRN ships worth using. The cruiser is totally useless, the gunboat is very underpowered and the LF is VHF sized and turns very slow. The VHF is average and its weapons are below average, but there are always more stuff to shoot in a bomber than in a fighter.
Upholder was already buffed considerably for 4.87 (turn rate increase, much more armor and bigger power core). In fact, it might be the only medium bomber with light bomber turn rate.
Liberator's lack of shield is a bug that is getting fixed in the next update. After that you will again enjoy the most OP LF ever.
I have had the same issue with the new ray guns. For example the old Cruiser Battle Razors worked just fine for insta-ing snubs in my Thresher. The new Cruiser Shock Rays never hit even when both beams pass right through the target. They are also rather useless against gunboats due to much lower DPS than Razors.
