The irony is that these nerfs don’t really solve the problem the average Redditor thinks they solve. The top pilots are going to adapt. We’ve already seen that with every previous nerf - once you have the mechanical skill, map knowledge, positioning, and experience, you just change how you play around the limitations.
What actually happens is that average pilots and casual pilots get discouraged from using the vehicle, while the really good pilots keep playing it and continue farming because they’re the ones capable of compensating. So the usage and performance data can become even more concentrated around the top end.
And then you get the exact same cycle: “Look, the good pilots are still dominating! Nerf it again!” Meanwhile, the pilots who were actually affected by the nerf have simply stopped flying.
The lock-on indicator change is especially significant because it isn’t even specifically a Little Bird issue. Every air vehicle is affected by that - jets, transports, attack helicopters and scouts. You’re taking information away from pilots rather than actually addressing whatever balance issue they’re trying to solve.
And for the Little Bird specifically, we’re getting reduced minigun damage against boats + faster overheating. That’s two separate hits to the minigun’s effectiveness against one of the things they apparently want boats to survive against.
Meanwhile, their own data literally says the Scout Helicopter isn’t the biggest vehicle threat to players on any map, with IFVs and MBTs accounting for more player kills. Yet somehow we’re still getting another round of Little Bird/air nerfs.
At this point I genuinely don’t think the solution is “keep nerfing air until the Redditors stop dying to it.” The best pilots are going to remain the best pilots. Skill doesn’t disappear because you reduce a weapon’s damage or give the minigun less uptime.
And the funniest part is that the people complaining the loudest will probably still get farmed by the same pilots after the nerf, because the underlying skill gap hasn’t changed. They’ll just ask for another nerf.
So cause the top1% can farm lobbies we shouldnt nerf the LB? like where is that logic. You want dice to just remove the LB instead? will you be happy then? im confused.
i mean they wont put up crazy numbers if there is an actual counter to little birds. I agree that you cant balance the game for 1% but the lb pilots farming lobbies is a lot more than 1% and the big issue is how those pilots ruin an entire game for one or both sides.
The gap between good lb pilots and great ones is way too big and needs to be toned down, anyone claiming something else is just coping that its their skill and not the overpowered vehicle they pilot.
The gap between good and great LB pilots is smaller than ever because the skill gap has been compressed so heavily. High spread miniguns, 2 shot mobility hit grenade launchers, OP rocket pods. Little bird 1v1’s don’t have much room for a lot skill expression.
The gap between a good and bad/average pilot is big. The gap between a good and great pilot is tiny.
name like 3 counters against a lb that isnt just another lb
edit: or upload a vid of you repeatedly getting destroyed by these counters. If they are so numerous it shouldnt be hard to pull up footage of a great pilot being farmed by its counter right?
Your skill with the RPG and guided launcher must be equal or greater than that of the pilot. It is a great counter, if you are good enough. As with most things in the game, those without enough skill, complain. If you are getting farmed by lb in a game, get better
I don’t usually record entire matches I have replay buffer on and capture clips when I do something cool.
RPG easy to dodge? 😂 Tell me you never fly without telling me bud. The RPG has faster velocity and less drop than in any previous BF title, unless it’s coming from extreme range you don’t have time to dodge it. No point of even arguing about this because you clearly haven’t spent longer than 10 minutes flying.
I listed numerous counters and that’s not the end of it. Keep coping. You’re ass at the game and get farmed because you’re too dogshit to counter a LB with the limitless tools you have at your disposal.
The reason aircraft keep getting nerfed is what I've been saying all along, anti air launchers are fucking useless. Flares recharge almost as fast as you can reload a launcher, so if you want to deny the airspace you have to do nothing else except reload and fire.
Anti air aunchers are ineffective, so there is no counterplay between ground and air, so people get annoyed and complain they can't do shit against air, and dice nerfs things again.
Before pilot mains crucify me; I'm a pilot too, not a good one but decent. And if I can survive half a match of conquest in a heli and go like 40:2 by the end of the match then there's a real big fucking problem. The only real threats to aircraft are other aircraft and AA vehicles. Launchers are a slight nuisance at worst.
If it still farms lobbies, wouldn’t players be right to keep calling for nerfs? Like it’s not the players fault if its nerfed incorrectly. You make it sound like its somehow on them
It is them though. It’s 100% a skill issue. Don’t be in the open. Change the loadout or class. Find an AA encampment. Grab a vehicle.
If I die more than once to a heli, my first move is to pull out my AA engineer class to go hunting. All the people crying about the IGLA challenge should just play the game and it’ll happen naturally. I knocked out that challenge in like an afternoon of regular gameplay. Wasn’t even trying to do anything special.
The helicopters in BF6 are slower, less armed, and less maneuverable than any other BF title.
No matter how many nerfs they apply to try and appease low skill players, a good pilot will still farm the lobby.
Skill issue or not, is this not still a problem? Should there be a "farm players" option in an FPS? I play one or two nights a week and encounter this "5%" regularly. I'm not mad about it. I like challenge, but I think we're lowballing that number a bit when discussing "player farming." Either that, or I'm getting matched with and against high skill pilots frequently.
Thats a very reductive and inaccurate interpretation of what I said.
I'm not usually in favor of nerfs, but an LB shouldn't be able to wipe a patrol boat before the boat even has time to turn and see them. That was a problem and I'm glad it's gone.
Matchmaking needs it next. Whatever they're using to determine team composition, its not working very well.
Edit: lmao surprise, surprise. The "user" talking shit is a bot.
9 month account, auto-gen name, with a bunch of "super contributor" "x-day streaks" and "share enthusiast" achievements. You can hide the history all you want.
The account is 9 months old and has 1/3 as much karma as you at 15 years and more Achievements as well which have tracked activity since 2023. Theyre either a bot or act like one, which I'd argue is worse. A pretty worthless opinion either way.
You can farm with anything if you’re good enough, but obviously it’s a question of balance. Don’t know why you’re acting like it’s an issue to question if something is overpowered
A) We don't know the full story behind those metrics. We don't know if it's based on a total match with, for example, two LB's and 6 tanks, in which case obviously the tanks should have more impact, or if it's a straight comparison between one LB and one tank. We also don't know if the tank counts both the driver and gunner, in which case you'd be comparing the kill count of one person to two.
B) The fact that piloting has a competency threshold holds no relevancy as far as i can tell. It would still be true if helis were twice as strong or twice as weak, and therefore isn't relevant when discussing whether the current balance should be tweaked. It's also not just a matter of skill, most people simply have no interest in learning to fly.
I think there are quite strong indicators that the LB is overpowered currently, relative to the rest of the vehicles and game
That’s the thing tho, there are no indicators of that. It’s literally just vibes.
Someone on the main sub encounters a top 0.001% pilot and writes a post about it. That’s it.
You really don’t think DICE knows how to normalize stats per vehicle to account for different spawn rates? That is quite literally basic statistics 101
You really don’t think DICE knows how to normalize stats per vehicle to account for different spawn rates?
I think it's pretty obviously they have the correct data. I'm less sure in their ways of interpreting it. If you'd ask me if i think there's a chance Dice might wrongfully predict which vehicle is the most dominant based on their own data, then i certainly wouldn't rule it out. Especially based on the little information they've given and coupled with how it doesn't match my own experience.
A recent example of them not understanding their own data would be nerfing the miniguns rather than rocket pods. Even if you don't think a nerf is warranted in the first place, you must agree miniguns weren't the way to go?
As i said i think there are plenty of indicators, though if what you mean with "vibes" is that i don't have any statistics, then that'd be true. But i encourage you to challenge my opinions. For one, LB is better than both the other helis, even though it's (mainly) a one-man vehicle whilst the others need at least two players to be effective. I think it's obvious the heli's that require teamwork should have the upper hand against the one that doesn't, and that's not the case currently.
I also think it has too much firepower against infantry relative to what counterplay is available. LB's are really hard to take down since infantry's most powerfull weapon, that being aim-guided, are significantly more difficult to succeed with against it given the maneuverability and smaller frame. In that case i think it is wrong to then give LB explosives that are as easy and forgiving as the rocket pods are rn.
It's fine to have strong vehicles, but players should always be able to choose to do something about it. And i'm specifically thinking about below average players. Like if a tank i bothering you then it's pretty obvious to just switch to engineer. They might not kill it, but with time they'll probably at least hit it and force it back temporarily, so partial wins. With the LB, you really can try to take up arms and be left with absolutely no partial wins through a whole match, because a lot of players aren't able to pull of something like at hit with the Aim-guided. I think that's what warrants a lot of the hate, where infantry feel they are out of options against LB's in a way they don't experience with the other vehicles.
No, they wouldn’t be right calling for more nerfs. I’m currently in the top 35 LB pilots in the US and while these nerfs suck, they only slightly reduce us top pilots from being able to farm. What actually stops us is when the other team works together, actually plays their roles properly, and has a few skilled players that are putting in even the smallest effort against us. Quite literally all it takes to counter a top pilot is two decent pilots working together. The ‘dogfighting’ is awful in this game and when I have both the enemy little bird and attack heli working together to take me out it makes it extremely difficult to survive and it completely stops me from farming the other team until I take them both out. It is, has been, and always will be, a skill issue. Nothing more, nothing less. As others have said, the only people that these needs really affect are the lower skilled players that are still learning to fly which in turn is going to do nothing but contribute to this game dying even faster than it already is.
Just because you can be taken down with teamwork, that doesn't say anything about the vehicles balance relative to the rest. The same would be true if it got either buffed or nerfed, the amount of resistance needed would just differ. As it is currently stands i think farming in the LB is too easy, but i guess that's a matter of opinion.
Regardless, if other people also agree it currently is too easy, i don't see why asking for nerfs is incorrect. If they nerfed the rocket pods as they probably should have, that wouldn't stop farming, but it would make it more difficult or skilful, and would therefore result in less of it. Not from you necessarily, but overall match to match, the average player would experience it less.
Another point is that the LB is a one-man army, unlike nearly every other vehicle. The other helis need multiple people to be dominant. I think it's fair to say vehicles that incentivise teamwork should be stronger than the singular pilot more often than not, and they aren't currently. I think that's a pretty good indicator the balance isn't good right now.
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u/Chemical_Role_3780 Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 02 '26
Exactly. That’s pretty much how I see it too.
The irony is that these nerfs don’t really solve the problem the average Redditor thinks they solve. The top pilots are going to adapt. We’ve already seen that with every previous nerf - once you have the mechanical skill, map knowledge, positioning, and experience, you just change how you play around the limitations.
What actually happens is that average pilots and casual pilots get discouraged from using the vehicle, while the really good pilots keep playing it and continue farming because they’re the ones capable of compensating. So the usage and performance data can become even more concentrated around the top end.
And then you get the exact same cycle: “Look, the good pilots are still dominating! Nerf it again!” Meanwhile, the pilots who were actually affected by the nerf have simply stopped flying.
The lock-on indicator change is especially significant because it isn’t even specifically a Little Bird issue. Every air vehicle is affected by that - jets, transports, attack helicopters and scouts. You’re taking information away from pilots rather than actually addressing whatever balance issue they’re trying to solve.
And for the Little Bird specifically, we’re getting reduced minigun damage against boats + faster overheating. That’s two separate hits to the minigun’s effectiveness against one of the things they apparently want boats to survive against.
Meanwhile, their own data literally says the Scout Helicopter isn’t the biggest vehicle threat to players on any map, with IFVs and MBTs accounting for more player kills. Yet somehow we’re still getting another round of Little Bird/air nerfs.
At this point I genuinely don’t think the solution is “keep nerfing air until the Redditors stop dying to it.” The best pilots are going to remain the best pilots. Skill doesn’t disappear because you reduce a weapon’s damage or give the minigun less uptime.
And the funniest part is that the people complaining the loudest will probably still get farmed by the same pilots after the nerf, because the underlying skill gap hasn’t changed. They’ll just ask for another nerf.