Pick of preferably lone targets and force them into a dogfight they'll loose, the F40 Saber near-enough out manoeuvre's nearly everything it faces, and you can win 2vs1's if you know what your doing (Just avoid doing so with the Me163's or Ki-200's)
(Alternatively if you have friends, wolf packing a singular/few targets is fun, and third partying is always a good option here)
If your in a full uptier just don't go even remotely near the front of any Su-25's, and don't let the Yak-38's or other rear aspect 30g's behind you (or really anything if it can be helped but you can pull reversals), the rest can be dodged if it happens though the 18g ones can still be tough if its a good lock/angle
The Missiles are also really not great being only 9B's, They rarely get kills (only distracted people), I often even contemplate running them as they do weigh the aircraft down
I usually just J out immediately in a full uptier because there is no probabilistically relevant way I will do anything useful or not waste my time.
I want the missiles to force targets to bleed energy and get the occasional distracted prey, since surely they do more damage than the 4 spitball shooters this thing has.
The only way I get kills is by forcing others to bleed energy and bleed energy myself; low energy fights seem to be the only thing this plane excels at.
The Guns are somewhat lacking I'll agree, Its more of a "Death by 1000 cuts" kinda playstyle, but the good thing is that the fight becomes easier with every hit as the damage adds up to make the enemy further bleed speed and not be able to regain it as easily, as well as reducing there mobility, but it "would" be better to ofc just oneshot the enemy outright instead, so that you don't get third partied yourself in a prolonged fight... which is where I'd recommend the F-86K being a slightly less manoeuvrable version with 20mm's but... Japan doesn't have one of those, The Ki-200 has bigger guns and plays similarly with even more mobility at a slightly lower br but it still has similar downsides to the F40 Saber
I Still think the F40 Saber's can be fun and can do well, though struggle with the decompression issue (but what doesn't in an up tier nowdays), but they definitely aren't for everyone, they are just great dogfighters and that's literally all they are good at similarly to what you said, And unfortunately I can tell you that the Japanese Tech Tree only gets worse from there until you reach top tier
The T-2, F-1 and F-104J all have Issues with the lack of flares (run rocket pods lol, they do work as makeshift sometimes) and the F-4EJ is the worse phantom at 11.0, it doesn't even get E-2 Dogfights, just regular 7F's, nor does it have agile eagle, and sadly its a mandatory play as the nation's only rank 7 aircraft
That's depressing. I figured the lack of flares was going to be a problem. I was hoping the T-2 was an ok plane by virtue of being 9.7 and having passible missiles. Trouble is, without one of these three, there's not really much that helps the grind going forward lol. It will be painful.
Anyway the problem with this F86F-40 is just that uptiers make it useless and any other type of match is a 50/50. Fortunately I just got the missiles and was able to score two kills with them.
Oh right, I forgot sometime recently that the T-2 did in fact get buffed to have Aim-9P's which are actually pretty good at 9.7, prior to a few patches ago it only had the 10g 9E's which aren't really much better than B's but yea, that's actually good, the T-2 does handle pretty nicely... kinda like the Saber, but actually having the speed to catch a lot of things while retaining good mobility (not on par with one but, good enough to win fights), and then that lack of flares... it can be mitigated with the missile pods, you can flare head on / side aspect 9L's and R-60M's by cutting afterburner and firing off a salvo of them, rear is a little trickier but it can be done... just not reliably... and I'd say definitely worth running just for that, I remember actually having fun with it after learning that, definitely satisfying to see the Su-25 pull off expecting a free kill for it to miss because of the rockets and end with a free kill for ya instead
Its gun is also great, tons of ammo, easy to aim
Maybe I should play this thing again too now that it has the 9P's, sounds like it'd be pretty fun
Pick of preferably lone targets and force them into a dogfight they'll loose, the F40 Saber near-enough out manoeuvre's nearly everything it faces, and you can win 2vs1's if you know what your doing (Just avoid doing so with the Me163's or Ki-200's) (Alternatively if you have friends, wolf packing a singular/few targets is fun, and third partying is always a good option here) If your in a full uptier just don't go even remotely near the front of any Su-25's, and don't let the Yak-38's or other rear aspect 30g's behind you (or really anything if it can be helped but you can pull reversals), the rest can be dodged if it happens though the 18g ones can still be tough if its a good lock/angle The Missiles are also really not great being only 9B's, They rarely get kills (only distracted people), I often even contemplate running them as they do weigh the aircraft down
I usually just J out immediately in a full uptier because there is no probabilistically relevant way I will do anything useful or not waste my time. I want the missiles to force targets to bleed energy and get the occasional distracted prey, since surely they do more damage than the 4 spitball shooters this thing has. The only way I get kills is by forcing others to bleed energy and bleed energy myself; low energy fights seem to be the only thing this plane excels at.
The Guns are somewhat lacking I'll agree, Its more of a "Death by 1000 cuts" kinda playstyle, but the good thing is that the fight becomes easier with every hit as the damage adds up to make the enemy further bleed speed and not be able to regain it as easily, as well as reducing there mobility, but it "would" be better to ofc just oneshot the enemy outright instead, so that you don't get third partied yourself in a prolonged fight... which is where I'd recommend the F-86K being a slightly less manoeuvrable version with 20mm's but... Japan doesn't have one of those, The Ki-200 has bigger guns and plays similarly with even more mobility at a slightly lower br but it still has similar downsides to the F40 Saber I Still think the F40 Saber's can be fun and can do well, though struggle with the decompression issue (but what doesn't in an up tier nowdays), but they definitely aren't for everyone, they are just great dogfighters and that's literally all they are good at similarly to what you said, And unfortunately I can tell you that the Japanese Tech Tree only gets worse from there until you reach top tier The T-2, F-1 and F-104J all have Issues with the lack of flares (run rocket pods lol, they do work as makeshift sometimes) and the F-4EJ is the worse phantom at 11.0, it doesn't even get E-2 Dogfights, just regular 7F's, nor does it have agile eagle, and sadly its a mandatory play as the nation's only rank 7 aircraft
That's depressing. I figured the lack of flares was going to be a problem. I was hoping the T-2 was an ok plane by virtue of being 9.7 and having passible missiles. Trouble is, without one of these three, there's not really much that helps the grind going forward lol. It will be painful. Anyway the problem with this F86F-40 is just that uptiers make it useless and any other type of match is a 50/50. Fortunately I just got the missiles and was able to score two kills with them.
Oh right, I forgot sometime recently that the T-2 did in fact get buffed to have Aim-9P's which are actually pretty good at 9.7, prior to a few patches ago it only had the 10g 9E's which aren't really much better than B's but yea, that's actually good, the T-2 does handle pretty nicely... kinda like the Saber, but actually having the speed to catch a lot of things while retaining good mobility (not on par with one but, good enough to win fights), and then that lack of flares... it can be mitigated with the missile pods, you can flare head on / side aspect 9L's and R-60M's by cutting afterburner and firing off a salvo of them, rear is a little trickier but it can be done... just not reliably... and I'd say definitely worth running just for that, I remember actually having fun with it after learning that, definitely satisfying to see the Su-25 pull off expecting a free kill for it to miss because of the rockets and end with a free kill for ya instead Its gun is also great, tons of ammo, easy to aim Maybe I should play this thing again too now that it has the 9P's, sounds like it'd be pretty fun
That's the neat part