Credits to Blind (Destiny from the other server)
edit: nvm he didn't write it he just posted it in their forum
A-Gear
"The A-Gear was made to protect the lower-flying gears and keep the enemy's ground forces in check."
This is the key to being a a-gear, so first and formost be a tank, not a fighter plane. That said lets move on to class.
1. Leveling from 1-60.
First you will learn that "Fire Shot" is very important and used an extream amount on A-Gears, but at later levels it will become a situational buff. This will be explained later.
Second learn to fly and fight, but do not rely on this. From levels 1-38 this is how you will mainly fight. Also during this time you need to find a 0 Speed Engine at level 30 or before. And use it when PVEing. This is the major use of the 0 Engine, and personally i dont use mine in PVP anymore, so raising my stats higher for a higher level 0 drive in my opinion is a waist of pts, however if you use this engine alot in PVP you might want to move to the higher level ones, the boost is lower, but the rotation is better.
From 38-50 you will be in seige mode almost all of the time. Starting in Starlight, on the a-gears there to get practice killing ground mobs, and then in redline to practice on warvlanders. I recomend if you can to get into the Bark Mission instance at level 41 and stay there till at least 50 or 51.
From 50-60 Fight on the moon, then at 60 move to islands dream, the Heavy Messangers on Islands are very easy to kill, and if you learn well you can take on 4 or so with a level 1 binder on and not die. there is a trick to them, but this i will let you discover on your own.
**Important** Save your level 1 armor, put 5 shield cards on it, and level in it at all levels. Also level on blue mobs, they will save you ammo, and net you the same XP over time as a Light red, or white mob. Also it seems your drop rates are better.
2. Stat Points
Sco Fans wrote:
This gear must level up three stats in order to get the highest level engines. (Attack, Defense and Shield)
This is their stats distribution per bonus points :
Attack : 4 Fuel : 4 Agility : 1 Defense : 3 Spirit : 2 Shield : 4
Ok as you can see Attack Defence Shield are the most important issues here. I also recomend this, find a CPU you would like at later levels from this link
http://www.sco-fans.com/pages/computers.php And set your stat points for it. Like if you want to do as i did, i went no fuel on my CPU, and i currently use the,
"Tenpole line 8 DDR All 30 Spirit 10 Defense 5 Attack 5 Agility"
So i always kept my fuel at just enough to not worry about having fuel on my CPU, but you can plan to have 5 or 10 fuel on your CPU and not waist the points on it, and just suffer with the Heavy now and then. This is up to you.
Also remember Spirit is something you need, but you need CPUs that give this stat to you always. Cause of the waist of putting to many pts into spirit that could have been put in defence or attack. There are plenty of 30 Spirit CPUs floating around, and since there are few A-Gears you can usually find one since everyone loves A-Gears on raids. Also i have found 2 myself, so they are not that rare.
DO NOT Take spirit past 16, most times i stress 14 is all you need, but i went 16 and im ok with that. However this is the area you need to aim for 14-16 you might get away with 18-20, but thats 8 attack pts lost, or 6 defence points lost.
No remember this Defence does not work in PVE, it only works in PVP. So with this in mind its your call about your shield vs defence. I personally keep them about equal so i can PVP and PVE about the same. I hate being strong in one, but weak in the other, that is my choice. If PVP is your fortay, i say go more Def, if you prefer PVE go more shield. But not alot more, maybe keep them within 20% of one another. And finally put all the points you can into Attack, i currently have over 100 attack. Attack does help with your prob to hit, not sure by how much but i attacked a 90% evasion I-Gear and got about 60% hits with a 120%+ Mega Web. I thot that was good, and it is i suprised them when i hit that well.
So keep your stats always in mind, first shift them for your Engines, then add to them for your play style. Def for pvp, shield for pve, keeping them within 20-25% of one another. or keep them close to = for a all around good setup.
3. Weapons
Ok you will need multiple weapons. These are my suggestions and why.
Standard Weapon:
First and formost get you a good 80% cannon with the most prob you can, one like below will make people hate you cause even evasion I-gears will get hit hard and often.
Then you will need a second weapon probably a 74% prob cannnon with massive reattack, this weapon is for one reason, to kill other tanks. cause they have no evasion and even if they are in the evasion binder, they will not evade enough to avoid being hit hard with one of these weapons.
Advanced weapon:
You have two chioces. One Explosion Radius, for Den fights but they also seem to hit well outside the dens.
Two Reattack time, more missles more explosions. this is your choice, beefing up %damage from a weapon that does a average of 120 a hit, and hits very infrequently is not worth it in my opinion. Or just stick with the Ancient Arrows. Your call.
Always when leveling use your drop weapons you empty them on blue mobs, and this will save you much cash at 50+. If you do it early on you will notice instead of 1m spi at 50 you might have closer to 2m spi. Use them then sell them to players or NPCs empty.
4. Armor
This is by prefrence, because there is a glitch with the level 48 Blazer armor, which has 19% evasion on it, while the 48 Grizzly has only 11% defence on it. I went Defence, but there are many choices, i do recomend the defence armor tho, as you are adding points into it, and the add % from the armor will increase your overall % which in turn minimizes the damage you will take.
5. Pilot Skills
1. Learn to fly low and with you fast engine on. for two reasons, to use the terrain to get away, and to be able to land fast.
2. Learn to get as low as you can and then land, sometimes you will actually hit the ground slightly and lose a bit of you shield, but i think losing that bit of shield (usually cause of lag) is better then taking 3 seconds to land and taking 4-5 missles from any Gear.
3. Remember being on the ground is your greatest damage so stay on the ground, dont sit in formations when you can land, cause you cant Seige in a formation thus your DPS drops drastically.
4. Learn to fight under 100m against other A-Gears, and dont forget to use your movement buff when a B-gear hangs under 100m from you. You will learn more later.
6. SEIGE MODE
Learn to conserve it and how to use it this is very important. Learn when not to use it, i recomend that you do not use it all the time, and also learn to use Seige Defence, it helps alot in 1 vs 1 with other tanks, it can be the bonus you need to beat them.
7. Snare Shot
This is a very useful skill do not over look it. I have used it many times to chase down I-Gears and shoot them down while flying. This skill costs 50 SP which is alot, and i would hope they would turn it down a bit maybe to 25-30 which would make it more useful then it is currently. Remember this do not use it on a target you think might die, as it is off once they die. It is very situational, but very fun also, it annoys I-Gears alot.
Best time to use it when your seiging is when a I-Gear is flying away from you. This will keep that overboost skill nulled long enough to kill him fast. It is also funny to use on other A-Gears that are flying to the ground it slows them down and gives you more time to beat the hell outa them.
Remeber you can arm snare while in seige but you have to let off your left mouse button first. Also you can snare yourself, not sure if it hurts you at all, but it does use up the SP, this is the same issue with friendly. So be very careful with it. If you arm it and do not want it armed just aim into nothing and fire it. This will clear it without using any SP.
*Additional* Remember snare can work against you, example is snaring a I-Gear flying at you, he now has more time to get volleys off. This skill is best used from behind, or while someone is flying side to side, or away from you.
8. Engines
Only two engines needed.
0 Speed, and 400 Speed. Take note 0 Speed moves faster on the ground, and 400 speed moves slower on the ground. However if you want you can try for a 250-320 speed for all around PVP use, or PVE if your seiging alot. But i recomend 400 speed as stated above, for the boost it will help you more then the faster speed on the ground from a 0 engine. But this si all based off personal preferance, and play style.
Engine Speed and Levels
0ms - Lvl 38
10ms - Lvl 29
400ms - Lvl 34 and 36
9. Know your Enemy
Remember to know the limits of every gear.
I-Gear they are weak to your attacks, unless they have high evasion. They are probably the easiest to kill out of all the gears, if you have high probability weapon.
B-Gear likes to hang over your head and bomb you to death, learn to move fast fly away, or drive with your speed boost on. You will not even if you master up close fighting take down B-Gears very fast when they do this to you. So move fast get away make them move. They can not shoot backwards so drive thru them or fly thru them.
M-Gear avoid attacking them if you see minimal damage, do enough damage that they heal their sheild and then let some I-Gear finish them. But once you see an M-Gear die, kill him ASAP as soon as he warps. Usually after 2-3 deaths they are out of SP and easy to kill, keep them down they can wound you easy and hit you hard with the right missles.
A-Gear learn to fight in close with them, learn how to use LOS (line of sight) to your advantage. Also learn what their range is as soon as you can, if they are below 58 you can kill them at max range fast. Advanced missles work great on other tanks on the ground. If you see a flying tank, letem fly some I-Gear will get giggles from killing him. And while hes in the air hes not as dangerious as that M-gear that just respawned.
Also learn to change positions, a A-Gear who lands in the same spot everytime, becomes a easy target cause everyone knows where to look. And they all hit them fast one shot from 6 gears = instant death to a A-Gear even if they are level 70.
Finally
Being a A-gear has two downsides, one not many ground mobs in BCU, Your a prime target. You also tear gears up fast, but usally some I,B, or M-gear gets the kill mark cause their missles take the last bit of damage from them. Stick it out, learn to fly fast thru formations. learn what each formation looks like so you can take out formation leaders fast and break them up. And remember you are a Tank so act like one, but also remember we dont have the Defence of a M-Gears, or the Energy to take alota hits. so be mindful of your surroundings and learn to use the terrain to your benefit.
If you relize your being targeted alot, mess with the person you pissed off. Learn to move alot, on the ground and boosting in the air. this is the main reason why i use my 400s all the time in PVP.
Subject: A-Gear Guide 
Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:55 pm
