I think that the complete bomber class is at the moment pretty bad, especially in group combat.
The more agile light bombers seem to do better (mainly by having more capability to stay in a fight longer), while the heaviest bombers (e.g. Thor, Waran) die incredibly fast and pitifully to pretty much everything that is not a battleship or Cruiser despite amazing botcounts.
Experience from large group fights (Bretonia-Sairs, Sairs-Core) has shown for me...
...that bombers are nothing but fast and free blue messages in group fights.
...that they are practically useless against any sort of fighter
...that bombers are practically useless against gunboats with small hitboxes (try and snac a Bnose or a Gallic Gb) while they suffer a lot under Primary and Solaris fire and just melt.
...that bombers are somewhat useful against bulky gunboats (Sair GB, Dragon GB), but 1 GB can keep everything below 3 bombers from doing much. Good gunboats need at least 3, more likely 4-5 bombers to beat it.
...that bombers do not even perform very well against Cruisers (Novas do not hit. Snac does not do a lot of damage) while Cruiser Solaris or even Razors are brutal because you have to go close for snaccing.
...that grinding down Battleships with bombers is rather pointless, as it takes ages and at some point a fighter will find you.
...that the only class of ships (light) bombers are good are: snaccing heavy bombers.
What is responsible for this change towards a bad class:
> fast projectile speeds on fighters (the change is good, but it affects the already limited dodging abilities of bombers massively). Bombers die very fast and contribute little to a group's effort during that time.
> TS & TZ
> bomber guns are a joke and have not been changed appropriately to the rest of pvp changes
I feel that the bomber class deserves some buff in general.
Bombers should in my opinion...
... become more survivable against fighters. Flying a bomber shouldn't be a safe "be out after like 2 minutes" bet.
... become useful against a special class (which they are not really at the moment, as the high damage Nova cannot hit anything but a battleship reliably).
... be less dependent on the Snac as a damage dealer
... have a buffed snac that allows for +100 or +200 m distance in shots (compared to now) in order to avoid being forced into very close range on every pass (which always drains bots or means insta when facing Razors). Would likely have to fly even faster to give a better chance at hitting GB from larger distance.
... have guns that are worth equipping (buff the projectile speed?)
I can understand the rock-paper-scissor argument, but that one says that there is a special class that you wreck and a special enemy that will wreck you. For bombers, I do not see the shipclass that they wreck, but I see 2 classes that totally annihilate it (GB and fighters).
It would be nice if the class could become something useful again, instead of a nieche class that can only be logged (and survive) when you have an enemy that only brings caps.
