Finally, the last class, the pilot. The pilot is more often than not, the captain of the ship, and will often be supplying orders even if he's not. Controlling a ship takes practice, and many players are put off but some of it's complexities. Persevere, and command a zepplin!

One of the problems with flying is the controls kinda switch on you. You get used running around WASD style but at the helm it's not relevant, as W and S control your height, not speed, which is relegated to R and F. Practice, practice, practice, until this seems natural. Flying a ship has a lot to do with momentum, planning your move before you make it and letting the ship swing itself around.

Unlike the other classes, pilots are like Highlanders. There can be only one. If the ship you are trying to join already has a pilot: be something else. With no ammo or repair versatility, additional pilots are completely and utterly useless.

Let's look at the helm:



We see, with my crappy writing, the wheel but more importantly the spirit gauge thing and the speedometer. The spirit gauge thing is an approximate gauge of height, and the speedometer shows the speed you're set to; once set, you can leap off the wheel, and it keeps going. Remember, in combat, whilst high speed will help you to avoid being hit, it'll take you out of range quickly and make your own gunners job of hitting the enemy much harder.

First of all, take whatever ammo you feel like 'cos you ain't using it. For repair items, you'll equip similar to a gunner; Rubber Mallet, Pipe Wrench or Shifting Spanner. I'd actually recommend the Spanner and the Pipe Wrench over the Rubber Mallet; you should be glued to the helm, and if you're leaving it is because of a pretty big damn emergency, not minor repair work. Now for the real stuff, the Piloting equipment! Piloting equipment is very similar to the 'Get out of jail free' card, in that they're designed to get you out of sticky situations.

Spyglass: Don't take it. I've recommended everyone else take it. Spotting ships? You have people do that for you.
Phoenix Claw: One of my favourites and completely recommended: For a little engine damage, the claw lets you turn on a dime. Great to end a circle strafe war, or to chase off a ship peppering your behind.
Drogue Shoot: Gain height fast but lessens engine power. Another strong recommend as it does no damage and let's you pop up like a cork from a bottle. Use when you really don't want to be some place or if you feel a balloon failure is imminent and you need some height to counteract the fall. I've seen it used to great effect when used with a full reverse, shooting over a pursuing enemy's head to chase them instead.
Kerosene: Shoot forward quickly with engine damage. With the Drogue Shoot and Phoenix Claw this is my set of recommended starting equipment. Great to get to capture points early or escape situations, but be careful not to over tax the engines. Warn the engineer before use.
Moonshine: Kerosene's big brother. Faster, but more damage. So much damage that you can very easily overwhelm engineers with it, so communication is vital.
Chute Vent: Rapid descent with balloon damage and lingering effects. I am not a fan of this item. Unless you're very high up, with a flat, bump-free ground, with a balloon and hull at high health and a razor sharp engineer, use of this item can easily see your balloon getting destroyed a mere three inches off the ground that will result you smacking your hull against the ground in a futile attempt to grind the sky barnacles off. (Hint: There is no such thing as sky barnacles.) It's a very costly escape attempt, and coupled with the fact if you are using you've probably taken some damage anyway... and that most people have an easier time shooting down rather than up... unless you're very high up you'll fall too far... steer clear of this one unless you really know what you're doing.
Impact Bumpers: Go a little slower but brace against impact damage. I tend to avoid ramming people, but if it's you thing, go for it. Hell, the Pyramidion has an armoured front prow for this very reason.
Tar Barrel: Creates clouds that damages enemies and breaks sight, hurts engines. Try the Kerosene instead. It'll hurt your engines less, and get you out the range of guns quicker. EDIT: You guys watching Angry Joe? Check out the first 10 minutes, starting at 7:56:

Perfect use of a Tar Barrel. Small, agile craft, drops a barrel in front of Joe's ship, which is more lumbering, and is peppered to oblivion. That's how you use a Tar Barrel, at advanced level.

For a beginner, I'd recommend the Kerosene with the Drogue Shoot and Phoenix Claw. They won't wreck your ship too much, and give you some brilliant maneuverability. You should never take a Spyglass with you, it's a waste of a slot, and I personally dislike the Tar Barrel and Chute Vent for being not useful enough or downright dangerous to yourself.

There are two key things about being a good Pilot: ship positioning and communication. Now ship positioning doesn't just mean, 'Don't slam it into the floor.' I mean, don't do that, clearly, but there's more to it. It means placing your ship in a way that maximizes the amount of guns that can shoot at an enemy, whilst positioning yourself in such a way that minimizes the the amount of enemy guns capable of firing back. Remember, a single medium gun will not really do enough damage to overwhelm an engineer. Two medium guns? That's completely different. Let's look at the ships:

Goldfish: Using: Big heavy gun up front, you want this pointed at the enemy at all times. Not bad speed and deceptively high hull health. But considering the slowness of heavy guns, if you've weakened you opponent circling it using your side cannons is a good finisher. And to all those who combine flame throwers and heavy flak cannons: Don't ignore the flame throwers. They are devastating up close, and refusing to do anything but use flak will be slow, boring, and often unsuccessful work. Attacking Goldfish: From above, below, or behind. Most Goldfish take closer range side weaponry so don't get closer than medium range from the side, and be careful or sudden turns.
Spire: Using: Terrific firepower from the front, but very slow. Get them in front of you and laugh. Be careful manoeuvring where the enemy can creep up on you. Attacking Spires: Creep up on them. They're slow and vulnerable from behind.
Pyrmidion: Using: It's all about the front cannons, baby. Point and shoot. If you're charging, and it looks like you'll pass one another, try to get them on your left side for the chance to use both of your side guns, or ram 'em. But please don't ignore the front for the side cannons. Don't do this.Slow acceleration but reasonable speed. Attacking Pyrmidions: Hit the right or the ass of the ship. With no guns on the right a clever pilot can really punish a Pyrmidion in this blind area. Once the balloon or engines fail it's vulnerable due to it's poor acceleration letting you stick in it's blind spots.
Galleon: Using: It's all about the broadsides. For best results, use the left broadside where an engineer can man the medium gun up top. If you do decide to take a Field Rifle in that medium slot, try to remember if you see crew hits pop up from the Field Rifle that you might not be in your most effective range as the Field Rifle has superior range to anything. Lots of health to play with, and surprisingly, not the slowest ship, beating out the Spire and the Junker. Attacking Galleons: If you see the left broadside, RUN. It's slow, so the front and back blind spots are nice and tempting, but stick to the back as pilots find it easier to turn to face a enemy in front than behind.
Squid: Using: I hate this ship. It's fast, but with few overlapping firing lanes, and, well... look... The best tactic is to circle strafe with the enemy on your left. Which you can't see due to your own ship blocking line of sight. Like the Spire, this ship does better in support roles, but jumping in and out of combat rather than slowly lumbering covering fire. Because of this, it's better to put closer ranged guns on it, leaping in to do damage and leaping out if it doesn't stick.Attacking Squids: No guns on left side, but this ship is hella fast, and will run the hell away.
Junker: Using: Think of the junker like a mini Galleon, and try to avoid the temptation of the front gun to attack head on – it's all about the broadsides.Attacking Junkers: From behind and above and that balloon is huge and can't be missed. It turns quicker and the Galleon, and is more compact, so take care there.

Three further details about ship positioning, the first being clouds. Jumping into clouds not only hides you from physical view but gets rid of being spotted. Of course, Guns Of Icarus Online likes to balance, and clouds will damage your engines and guns over time, so it's worth noting if that's your exit strategy to hit them with a bit of speed in case your engines go down and you have to drift. The next detail is map knowledge, and that'll build over time, which is a fancy way of saying, 'Don't look at me, I'm useless with directions.' Yeah, and try not to spawn camp. It's a ♥♥♥♥ move. Finally, teamwork. As mentioned, one gun not enough to make a kill, two guns more like it... what about three? Or four? Or five? Well, that's a conclusively dead opponent. Stick with your teammates as lone wolves get killed. Use your ship to compliment theirs, like using a Spire impressive front armament whilst a quicker Goldfish or Squid keeps the enemy from effectively flanking and chasing down those that flee.

Don't forget, the point of the game is not just killing. There are other match types, like King of the Hill and Crazy King. Both are capture points, (littlie glowing ballons) though in Crazy King they'll move around. Keep checking the map to see where it's going. And hey, if you lose out on points? That's your fault. You're the bleedin' pilot. Pilot the ship to the capture point! Don't go wasting time hunting people down, capture the point! It's not like the gunners can pyschically capture points from a distance.

Now, to return to the second part of great pilots, is all about communication. If you're a pilot, I'm sorry, I'm going to insist you get a mic, or be a tremendous touch typist. Crew management is a fundamental skill, either giving gunners orders to target wounded ships, to relocate to side guns, organizing repair detail, or most important, telling your crew they did a good job. Seriously. Every kill you make, congratulate them, tell them to keep it together, and you'll see great dividends. For starters, if they do mess up, they'll try extra hard to make it up, they'll listen to your advice more (helpful for new engineers) and stick with you between matches. Even if you lose your crew will appreciate the feedback.

Nowadays, Guns Of Icarus has some handy-dandy buttons that you can press to direct you crew ahead of time to fire on different sides of the ship, or repair certain parts, as well as the aggressiveness of any AI on board. Use 'em. Prep the gunners by telling them which side yu intend to place the enemy, and prep your engieneers to oncoming engine damage when you Kerosene.

And don't scream and shout and blame them. Okay, fine, there are times when you can point to one member of the crew leting you down, but in mid-game, there's little point of angry screaming. Firm berating and education, fine, but if you start screaming and blaming, trust me: You crew will just leave. I've done it before - people are here to have FUN, you understand? And then you're stuck with bots. Who are useless. Who will definately make you lose. Leave that rage for the lobby, if you must.

Unlike other classes, you won't get the luxury of wandering round the ship when the fancy takes you, but you'll at least take comfort being more engaged in actively doing something. Because of this, I find the pilot a really fun class to play as it has a lot less downtime than other classes. But being a pilot naturally flows into being...

… a captain of your own ship. The way captains work is that you select to head a ship, whatever class you desire, but it's almost exclusively a given that captains will be Pilots. This is mainly because of being a captain means it's your choice of ship weapon loadout, and captains get access to the captain's channel on 'C' that let's you talk to other captains on your team. Choosing your own weapon loadout means you already know how you want your ship to be used, which another pilot may not quite get, and as most inter-captain communication involves ship movement, it's easier to steer the ship yourself than to constantly relay instructions to a pilot. If you want to try out a weapon combination but lack the confidence in your own piloting ability then please feel free to try out being a captain as a different class.

Captaining involves a lot of the communication previously mentioned, like a few paragraphs ago. But lets look at ship weapon load outs. Here are some I've used or been crew on that I've found quite fun, but feel free to experiment. The silly names are my invention.

Sniperidion: A Pyramidion with two Field Rifles on the front mounts. Stay back and laugh. With all Pyramidions, try to convince a gunner up top to watch the balloon to check pressure off the engineer.
Gatflakfish: A Goldfish with a Heavy Flak Cannon and side Gattling guns. Hit with the flak, circle with the gatt! (I promise to never try to rhyme again.)
Flaming Death: A Goldfish with a Mortar or Heavy Cannonade on front with flame throwers on side. Same tactics as the Gattflakfish, but disabling the balloon makes the close range flame throwers a lot easier to score hits.
The Topsy Turvy Murder Machine: A squid with a cannonade in front, flamer on right, and gatling on back. Charge in, take out their ballon and circle with the flamethrower as the enemy sinks, waving their fists at you futilely. Unless they gets things together, then RUN AWAY.
The Stay the Hell Right There: A Galleon with a harpoon on the left side, with flak/cannonade below. Flak for range, harpoon and cannonade up close. Heavy Cannonades are so powerful up close regardless of their lessened hull damage they'll still royally wreck ♥♥♥♥. With Galleons, you sort of need two engineers - one for the guns (also on shooting duty) and one up top for hull and balloon. Try to encourage your crew to switch appropiately.
No Balloon, No Hull, No Problem: A Junker with Cannonades on the top side mounts, and Gattling on the bottom side mounts. Devastatingly effective when fired together. Similar results can be achieved with a Pyramidion with a Cannonade on the front left mount, Gattlings on the front right and left side mount.


This guide was originally published on my blog, http://sarcasmisaverb.blogspot.co.uk/