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I-Gear

 

The I-Gear is a gear based entirely on Speed and Damage. An I-Gear’s primary strengths are Attack and Agility. With the fastest available engines in the game, and the highest evasion, the I-Gear can outrun nearly every missile in the game, and evades the ones it cannot. It also has the opportunity to become an attack gear, well-balanced between aggression and damage per shot, and an interceptor — able to take down any gear attempting to run away. Once this gear has become high level (70 or higher), a properly built and played I-Gear can take on multiple opponents while also dodging a majority of their missiles. The I-Gear is the foot soldier of Air Rivals. The most commonly played Gear, and the bread and butter unit of any war.

How it plays:

Like a very fast moving interceptor. Your basic fighter class. Easy to get used to, very straightforward. Levels fast and isn’t restricted to certain maps.

Stat Distribution

Stat Points
Attack 4
Shield 2
Defense 2
Agility 4
Spirit 3
Fuel 3

How to Stat Your I-Gear

I-Gears get 4 points into two very powerful stats, Attack and Agility. It is easy to max one of these stats out at 300 points by the 50′s or 60′s (although severely gimping yourself when it comes to engines to do so).

- Attack/Agility - Primary stats for the I-Gear over all, and required stats for your engines. Get at least 100/100 so you can use the level 50 slow engines, and begin working to the good high level engines. As an I-Gear your engine is your greatest asset.
- Defense - Do not put any stats into this, keep it at 2.
- Spirit - Put enough points in so you can cast your skills again if you die. Most I-Gears have between 300 ~ 500 (30–64 points in the Spirit stat) skill points by level 70. Not recommended to go 500 but it doesn’t really hurt either.
- Fuel - Keep your loadage below 80%, 27 or 30 fuel points will last you until level 80.
- Shield - Do not put any stats into this, keep it at 2.

Higher level engines will require a certain amount of points distributed into attack and agility.

Builds: How Does Agility/Attack/Pierce work?

All builds will want 27 or 30 Fuel by level 70, and will last until level 80. Most recommended is the Agility or Attack Hybrid builds.

Agility
Your “Evasion” stat in the Ammo tab. 300 points into Agility give you a 50% evasion rate without buffs or armor. If someone shoots you with an Arrow type missile at the default 74% probability, there is only a 24% chance one of those will hit you. Fully buffed, 300 agility, level 80 I-Gear with a Fox Binder v4 hits 98.96% evasion without any charms on. If that same Arrow is shot at you, it will miss completely every time.
In order to calculate your chance to evade, [Probability of missile] - [Evasion rating of target] = Overall chance to hit
Attack
Your “Pierce” stat in the Ammo tab. 300 points into Attack give you 45% pierce and 5% extra probability on all weapons when equipped. Pierce negates the defense stat, so if you shoot a level 80 M-Gear fully buffed up (98% defense) your damage cuts through 45% of that, making only 53% of their defense effective.
In order to calculate the percentage of Damage Absorption available on the target, [Defense of Target] - [Pierce of Attacker] = Overall Damage Reduction available to the target
  • Pure Attack: 300 attack points, giving you 45% pierce (negates Defense stat) and 5% extra probability, with only enough agility to use engines. Usually you stop at the 27 store bought Jet engine, or if you’re lucky and find a Jet F-1 (lvl 34) or Jet F-7T (lvl 35), and dump the rest into attack then spirit when needed. After hitting 300 points you begin balancing out agility to use higher level engines or go for more Spirit. You’ll do a lot of damage to Defense builds (M-Gears, B-Gears) but die very easily. 500 Skill points is almost a necessity for this build.
    • Rapid Binder for the high Shield and bonus Evasion. The added Evasion will benefit the I-Gear more than a Prizma Binder against standard fire and most A-Gear’s, allowing them to run around more safely.
  • Pure Agility: 300 agility points, which give you 50% evasion without armors or buffs (missiles without high enough probability can give a lot of misses). Same as above, only swapped with the stats. Agility is a more PvP focused build since it increases your survivability. However you barely scratch Defense builds and M-Gears will laugh at the damage you do to them (you will see 1′s).
    • Fox Binder, however a Rapid Binder can be used over a Fox in some cases, because it will prevent most one-shot kills from a B-Gear and Air Bombing (reasoning is, most people have full probability weapons equipped, especially B-Gears). If a Legendary Fox is obtained and up to the Gears level, that is used over a Rapid Binder.
  • Agility Hybrid: 132 points into Attack, the rest into Agility and enough Spirit to recast your buffs if you die. This lets you use the level 66 Jet FF-I engine while still having very high Agility, although you will not max out that stat until mid-70′s with this build. This is the most recommended PvP build. Decent Attack so enough to take down some Defense builds. Most commonly seen build.
    • Fox Binder or Rapid Binder, and it comes down to personal preference and situations to chose one over the other.
  • Attack Hybrid: 132 points into Agility, the rest into Attack. Again, same as above, only you’ll be doing a lot more damage to Defense builds. Survivability is also high because of the Jet FF-I engine and decent evasion.
    • Fox Binder and Rapid Binder, again up to personal preference and playing style.
  • Balanced/Engine Build: It’s balanced. Not really any weaknesses, you have decent evasion and attack, and can equip all the high level engines, which are probably worth it. Usually has a good amount of Spirit too.
    • Rapid Binder, or a Legendary Fox if obtained. Because the I-Gear does not have high agility or high attack, the Rapid Binder is ideal as it balances between Shield and Evasion for this build.

The I-Gear Boss Armor, Exorcist Binder, is the end-game Binder if found (only a level 88+ Legendary Fox can beat it), and can be used over all other Binders for all builds.

CPU Suggestions

Your goal is to supplant the weaker stat points with the CPU. I-Gears do not require much more than 30 Fuel or 40 Spirit, so use CPUs to try and support these stats. Each stat point you put into Agility/Attack vs. Fuel/Spirit is an additional 1 point.

This first table allows the I-Gear to never re-stat unless they find a Purple A-type datacube or the SC-Dolce-8A level 82 CPU. Place the minimum stats into fuel as needed, and nothing into Spirit. By the time you’re nearing 60, make sure you have enough fuel WITHOUT a fuel CPU, and perhaps a point or two into Spirit in order to supplant the low spirit. You are free to spend the rest of your points on Attack/Agility as you see fit.

A Thunderforce Final U level 1 Unique CPU will be the best until level 70 if found. Otherwise follow the chart below.

CPU Name and Level Requirement Attack Agility Fuel Spirit
Prelude 4001 VF - Level 30 n/a n/a 7 8
Prelude 5001 FF - Level 40 n/a n/a 11 10
Prelude 7001 ARC - Level 50 n/a n/a 15 15
Tenpole line 8 DDR - Level 60 5 5 n/a 30
Tune Square PS R-1B - Level 70 20 n/a n/a 35
Sequence X GP - Level 80 8 12 n/a 40
Wingo jazz format V-Q - Level 90 11 n/a 9 45

There is no level 100 CPU worth using on an I-Gear. It is better to continue using the level 90, and the 82 Dolce is end-game if you get one.

Unique Items

There are only four I-Gear specific uniques currently in the game, two of which are not even good.

  • Armors: The I-Gear’s Boss Armor is called the Exorcist Binder (shown at right). It is a very rare drop off of the Rock Emperor, and a Plumage of Emperor is required to upgrade it. The level 54 Reiz and Shield Panzer Binder’s are useless.
  • Weapons: Ace Arrow and Lion Sniper II are the only unique weapons an I-Gear can viably use. The Ace Arrow has very high damage per hit, with a base 100% probability, so it is desired for grinding and taking out defense builds. The LSII are best equipped for chasing B-Gear’s and other I-Gear’s.
  • Engine: I-X is the unique engine, it is a mid-speed/turning engine. It gives the I-Gear the ability to win in any close combat dog fight, especially 1 vs 1. If used correctly, the I-Gear can be very difficult to keep a lock onto and sometimes manage to fight off multiple attacking enemies.

The Role of the I-Gear

Think of them as the foot soldier class of Air Rivals, the more in a fight the better. They are the Interceptors, and anything caught in their crosshairs on the battlefield will have a very tough time shaking the I-Gear off. They pursue and kill targets, clearing the skies for everyone else, especially from B-Gears.

Evasion built I-Gears are hands down the most difficult to kill class in the game. Coupled with the fastest engines, and the highest Agility, anything that is shot at it will not catch up, or miss if the weapons connect. This is where I-Gears will shine. Evasion I-Gear’s will not do much damage to M-Gear’s, but they kill and do their damage solely by out surviving everyone else and tanking ridiculous amounts of enemy fire, easily allowing the I-Gear to wreck a gate camp or get into a Strategic Point / Mothership map.

Attack built I-Gears will not be able to break most camps, but they are essential in defensive situations and obliterated M-Gears in Den wars. One attack I-Gear can do the job of 5 evasion I-Gears for taking down an M-Gear. High attack and with Frenzy up, and attack I-Gear dishes out the most constant and high damage output in the game.

There is a lot of variety with I-Gear fighting (being the fighter class afterall), and can be rather simple to very intricate in gameplay.

What is “Feathering”? What Makes a Good Engine?

Feathering is the term used for boosting without overheating. Essentially, you are tapping your spacebar at intervals to obtain a maximum amount of speed without draining your booster gauge down.

Jet
Your fast engine. There are a few things to look for in your Jet engine. The Speed stat is your airbrake and natural cruising speed. The higher the cruising speed, the faster you get to full boost speed. The level 35 Jet has a Speed of 220m/s and a boost of 500m/s for 8 seconds. The level 76 Jet has a Speed of 290m/s and a boost of 500m/s for 16 seconds. You will get to 500 significantly quicker in the 76 Jet compared to someone using the 35, purely because of the Speed. This is also what makes feathering at higher speeds easier. As an example, most people will feather at ~460 to ~470 in the 35 engine, while people in the 76 will feather at ~490 and have a lot more room to work with thanks to the higher boost time.

Base
These are your “midspeeds”, or “turning engines.” Look at the Standard Rotation Angle and Booster Rotation Angle, the higher the numbers the better. Base engines are used primarily in grinding, 1vs1, and Den fights. Some people use them in open maps such as Bark City to focus fire on targets, and get more shots off or drag people into close combat. If you are in a Base engine, and your opponent is in a fast engine, you will win purely because you keep constant locks on them.

Intertrans
These are the “slow engines”, and the slowest an I-Gear can go is 50m/s with their airbrakes on in these engines. They are used almost exclusively for killing bosses, Den fights, or when camping and do not have an M-Gear formation to fire on a gate. The last Intertrans engine you will want to use is level 68, as the higher levels gain in airbrake speed (yes it is stupid, and no one knows why). At level 100 it finally goes back to 50m/s but no one will ever hit that level.

I-X
The unique engine for I-Gears is called the I-X, the best midspeed engine available until level 93, and even then it still has its perks making it more desirable. It has a boost speed of 350m/s, airbrake of 103m/s, turning angle of 134, and a strafing speed of 25. The strafing speed determines how quickly it turns and how responsive the engine is, and is what makes the I-X preferred even over high level Base engines.

PvP Equipment

You will require an arsenal of specialty missiles, especially if you are not an Attack build. There are only two types of missiles worth using in PvP: Edrills and Arrows. From there, you need to craft each missile to go up against specific types of Gears. The following does not take into consideration Speed Card’s, which opened up a whole new area of possibilities for I-Gear weaponry.

Arrows

Getting as close to 100% probability without Concentration up is almost always essential, as even non-Agility build gears will have evasion if they are buffed by an M-Gear. From there, think of what you will be using Arrows against the most: almost exclusively non-I-Gears because of the missile speed, so don’t worry about higher probability. Focus on raw damage or more reattack, but only if you can achieve −30% or more in reattack.

A specialty Arrow is when you have all enchants and Supergambles focusing on one stat. Example being purely reattack, or all probability. A full reattack Arrow is devastating with Berserker and against targets with no evasion buffs up (exception being other I-Gears).

Edrills

Edrill type missiles are considered the best PvP missile for an I-Gear, as their base 2 Valid Angle (VA) goes up to 7 when Frenzy is buffed. Along with their base 100% probability, they travel at 450m/s and have a very high induction angle of 120, making out turning these difficult for a lot of players, even other I-Gears, and especially B-Gears.

An I-Gear should always have a pair of “Valid Angle Edrills”, which means having a Particle prefix, or Stinger suffix on the Edrill. Those fixes boost the base VA up to 7.7, so with Frenzy you have 12.7 VA to work with. Along with the VA boost, aim for more probability so you always land hits on I-Gears when caught in dog fights.

A full reattack Edrill is considered a B-Gear killer, and are useful to have. A probability Edrill is essential to have though.

Guns

Yes, these matter a lot for an I-Gear. You are always chasing someone down, so constant damage going into your target only makes you deadlier. It is important to have a lot of probability, as every 100 meters over your guns Range is 10% probability lost. Never damage card a gun, instead go on more probability or more reattack. The more hits your target gets into their energy, the quicker they slow down and allow your missiles to connect.

Adhesives

Shield Adhesives. I-Gear’s get the least amount of points into shield and the Binders do not add much either. If you take energy damage you slow down, allowing all those missiles to hit you. A Small Shield Generator is better than an Armor Intensification Large, because it will allow you to boost around longer.

Combine your Shield Generator with a Fuel Tank, so you get some extra fuel points, allowing you to fight longer before having to refuel. However, you cannot combine Fuel Adhesives with the Extra Large Shield.

PvP as an I-Gear

Fast Engine PvP

This is the PvP where you must be constantly going at full burn to avoid being killed. Get good at feathering, real good. Most of the time this is during Strategic Points and Motherships, where everyone will have high probability Edrills or Snipers equipped.

There is a lot more than just feathering. Use every bit of terrain available to your advantage. Snipers have very low induction, so you can easily shrug those off by boosting close to the ground and making sharp turns. However, if someone has Edrills on, you will want to watch your speed and not drop below 450 when in tight turns. Hug the terrain, missiles do impact on obstacles and detonate there instead of against you.

If snared, and no readily available terrain is there, use Overboost to make a quick getaway. Otherwise, kit up any damage done then hit Turn Around and barrel roll immediately, it is possible to still take some hits but you will have everyone else going the opposite direction as you; Snare has worn off and you are free to go. Sometimes a Back Move Mach afterwards helps, it all depends on the situations.

Close Combat PvP

Close combat generally doesn’t have a lot of boosting (feathering) around, and you’re usually turning tight circles and trying to gain the upper hand by having a constant lock-on, while at the same time trying to make sure your opponent does not have a lock on you. Equip a Base midspeed engine, which have the highest turning angles, if possible.

Turning left: S + D + mouse left. Right: S + A + mouse right.

Turn with the corners of your screen to get behind someone. It is sometimes good to turn into the strafe as well, this allows you to stay constantly behind them and always locked, making it very annoying for your target to get you into their locks.

Fighting the Gears

Fighting other I-Gears
Equip an Edrill with bonuses to Valid Angle so you get an easier lock and more constant hits, because IG vs. IG often turns into quick dog fights before boosting away again. Do not be afraid to use your movement skills, Back Move Mach, Turn Around, and Hypermoving (Hypermoving only if you have enough Skill to spend). If your enemy got the jump on you, a nice trick to do is point your gear down, barrel roll then smash Back Move Mach during it, so you roll all of their incoming missiles, you are suddenly behind and above them, and you get another roll in once the BMM is completed, rolling even more missiles. Open fire.

It all comes down to player skill when versing another I-Gear, and weaponry if they are evasion build.

Fighting B-Gears
There are two ways to do this, and it all comes down to what you are most comfortable with. You need to avoid every single shot they take at you, otherwise you will be severely damaged, if not killed in one hit. To do so, barrel roll their Air Bombing (it has the green animation and sounds like Missile Shot). When you see the animation go off, wait until you actually see the Bawoos, a lot of good B-Gears fake it to make people roll too early, allowing the B-Gear a free shot. Bawoos have a 4 second reattack time, while barrel rolling is 3 seconds, so you can come out completely untouched.

If in a fast engine; keep your distance. B-Gear’s need to be close to do their damage, so use this to your advantage. Watch as they chase you, a B-Gear that knows how to play will try cutting you off from the sides, so stay mobile and unpredictable. If caught in a dog fight, use your movement skills. They have the same skills, and can keep Air Bombing/Ground Bombing toggled while using them. Boost off after you take shots at them, you are faster, so gain ground then go right back at them, while staying out of their range. Use reattack Arrows so you keep pressure on them. When chasing B-Gears, equip Edrills or Lion Sniper II if you have it. They only go 460 (unless 86, which is 520 boost then), so Edrills are difficult to outrun.

If in a midspeed or slow engine, stay behind them as if you were fighting an I-Gear. They cannot do anything at all to you then, and because of the 4 second reattack on Bawoos, you have a huge advantage on them if using Arrows, especially reattack Arrows. Barrel roll their shots, and keep shooting whenever you are locked.

Fighting M-Gears
They will most likely be in their 0-speed engine, and Reverse Engine can really make this a pain. They dominate in 1 vs. 1, so expect a difficult if not impossible fight. The best way to fight M-Gears that some people find is equipping your best turning engine (named Base) and trying to keep the M-Gear under pressure, making it spend all of its Skill on healing and Reverse Engine. Use full damage, or full reattack Arrows, their high defense will brush off any other missile type.

The best way to take on an M-Gear is to simply bring help. Attack build I-Gears will do insane amounts of damage to them, but if you’re an evasion build you will want help unless your attack stat is nearing 200 (level 80+ I-Gears get this much eventually).

Fighting A-Gears
Two options: Abuse their minrange and break Siege Mode lock by staying extremely close to them, or stay out of their range and use your evasion to your advantage. Both are very hard to do, an I-Gear is naturally weak to the A-Gear.

They will almost always throw Barrier up, which lasts for 15 seconds and missiles will not damage them. Your guns will, though. If you are alone and their gun does a lot of damage to you, boost away (past 1600m) and wait for Barrier to wear off. It is best to use reattack Arrows to chew through as much of their HP as possible, and they have a lot of it.

source http://aircodex.org/Game/I-Gear