u/Chemical_Role_3780

I want to give some grounded feedback on the Little Bird in BF6, because I think a lot of the discussion around it is missing the bigger picture.

First of all: this is NOT a post asking to buff the Little Bird. Don’t judge or comment before reading it.

In some aspects, it’s actually overpowered right now — especially in air-to-air combat and in how random some engagements feel. But at the same time, it’s also one of the easiest air vehicles to take down if the enemy team is even semi-coordinated.

People act like it’s invincible, but the reality is there are already a huge number of effective counters:

- Small arms fire chips it down very fast
- LMGs and vehicle HMGs absolutely melt it
- RPGs and M136 AT are extremely strong against it
- TOW missiles are very effective and honestly not that hard to land
- MANPADS already work well as area denial tools

The only real issue with lock-ons right now is the flare bug that’s existed since release, especially with the IGLA. Missiles sometimes ignore flares completely. That’s obviously broken, but lock-ons themselves should not be guaranteed kills anyway — Battlefield MANPADS are supposed to deny airspace and force flare usage, not instantly delete helicopters every time.

Additionally, flares last longer than visually represented and MANPADS or other AA missiles are able to lock on before the flare effect is over, which results in a guaranteed miss. Fix this by making the visual animation of flares longer to make it clearer when they’re active. Also make it only possible to lock on once the flare effect is completely over. This would make it better for both AA players and pilots, AA players would know when their missiles will actually hit and pilots will know when their flares are a really protecting them.

And honestly, no matter how good you are in a heli in BF6, you WILL die against a semi-coordinated team. The Little Bird is nowhere near as survivable as people pretend it is. - Except manhattan bridge, that map is out of the discussion for anything air vehicle balance related.

Where I DO think it needs changes is in how it plays mechanically.

Right now:
- Air-to-air TTK is too high
- Dogfights end too quickly
- Pilot sniping is extremely common
- Miniguns rely too much on spread and random hits, and make it too easy to kill infantry for low skilled pilots

This lowers the skill ceiling massively.

A lot of Little Bird vs Little Bird fights don’t feel like they’re won by precision or control. They feel like:
- who saw who first
- who happened to be higher
- who landed random spread shots into the cockpit first

Especially with the .50 cal variant, the spread + damage combination creates a ton of “lucky” pilot kills where you aren’t even properly aiming at the pilot. It’s the same with the 7.62, you just need to be closer.

I think a much healthier direction would be:

- Significantly reduce minigun spread
- Make the guns much more accurate, similar to BF4
- Remove the separate 7.62 / .50 cal split and just make one balanced precision minigun, one minigun + the grenade launchers is good enough for variety
- Reduce TTK against air vehicles
- Slightly improve cockpit protection
- Reduce how quickly mobility hits happen - make them consistently happen at 20% health or lower

Mobility disables happen way too fast right now and often instantly end fights before there’s any actual depth to the engagement, aswell as making it impossible to fly effectively on maps like Sobek due to the MAA instantly inducing mobility hits on the little bird.

The important thing is that these changes would NOT make the Little Bird stronger overall.

In fact, for 99% of players, these changes would probably reduce its infantry farming potential significantly.

Why?

Because accurate miniguns require actual precision.

Right now, lower skilled pilots can get kills partially through spread and random cockpit/infantry hits. If the guns became precision weapons, farming infantry would become much harder unless the pilot genuinely has elite aim and tracking.

The top 0.1% of pilots would still be able to dominate with it — and honestly, that’s fair. Highly skilled vehicle players should perform well. But average players would have a much harder time farming infantry while better pilots would be rewarded for precision instead of randomness.

That creates a healthier skill gap.

And about manhattan bridge;

Manhattan Bridge honestly should not even be part of the helicopter balance discussion because that map is way too forgiving for helicopters. As a pilot myself, yes it’s fun to fly on. But is it fair or skilful? Not really. It’s basically BF6’s version of Siege of Shanghai from BF4, except this time it’s the Little Bird instead of the attack heli dominating the server.

The amount of cover and vertical protection on that map makes helicopter survivability dramatically higher than on other maps.

If anything, I think Manhattan Bridge would actually be a better infantry map if the Little Bird was removed from it entirely. People who love the map but hate heli farming would probably enjoy it a lot more.

Also, ground-to-air balance across the rest of the game needs major work. If that balance was improved properly, more maps would actually become playable and enjoyable for helicopter gameplay instead of everything revolving around one extremely heli-favored map.

Overall, I don’t think the Little Bird is overpowered as a whole.

It’s OP in some specific areas, and far too easy to use for pilots that aren’t highly skilled, but it’s also extremely fragile and heavily countered already.

The goal shouldn’t be to buff it or nerf it into irrelevance.

The goal should be:
- less randomness
- higher skill expression
- lower infantry farming for average players
- healthier air-to-air combat by introducing a higher skill-gap
- better overall balance between ground and air

That would make the vehicle far more balanced for everyone involved.

Since BF6’s release, I’ve been seeing a lot of people saying the mobile anti-air is weak or needs buffs, and honestly I don’t agree at all.
If anything, it’s one of the most balanced vehicles in the game right now.

Loadout matters more than people think
My go-to setup:
High-velocity munitions on larger maps
Armor-piercing on smaller maps
High-velocity is insanely strong once you actually learn how to use it. If you can aim and lead properly, you can beam jets across the map on maps like Firestorm.
People underestimate how fast you can stack damage with it. You land a few solid hits, mobility hit kicks in almost immediately, and from that point the target becomes much easier to track and finish.
That’s where most kills come from. Not lock-ons.

Stop relying on lock-ons as your main tool
This is probably the biggest misconception.
Lock-ons are not supposed to be free kills.
They’re there to:
-Force flares
-Apply pressure
-Finish targets when you know they’re vulnerable

If lock-ons guaranteed kills, it would be terrible for balance. They take almost no skill to use. Just point and click.
The real strength of the MAA is the main gun, especially high-velocity rounds. That’s where the skill comes in, and that’s where the vehicle actually becomes dangerous.

Skill gap is exactly where it should be
The MAA is:
-Extremely strong in the hands of a good player
-Almost useless in the hands of someone who can’t aim

That’s a good thing.
A player who just got farmed by a heli or jet shouldn’t be able to hop into an MAA and instantly delete them with zero effort. That’s not balance.
Compared to older titles, this is honestly healthier. In older games, like bf4 AA could just shut down air way too easily with very little skill involved.

Positioning and awareness matter more than anything
A lot of people sit in spawn next to C-RAM and just spam lock-ons.

Yes, that can work in some cases, especially on small or poorly designed maps, but you’re limiting yourself hard.

On maps like Blackwell, you can dominate from spawn, and yeah, that’s broken. I’ve done it myself. It works, but it’s not engaging gameplay.

On better maps like Firestorm, positioning actually matters.
You want to avoid areas where enemy armor can push you, you need to stay mobile, you need to be aware of incoming strafes.

If a jet lines you up, standing still and trying to beam him is a mistake. Move, avoid the damage, then punish once you get your shots in.

Good MAA gameplay is about decision-making, not sitting still and holding lock-on.

On smaller maps, it’s arguably too strong
On maps like New Sobek City, a skilled MAA player can completely shut down helicopters.

If you know what you’re doing, helis don’t last long at all.
That’s why I don’t really get the “underpowered” argument. In some scenarios, it already borders on being too strong.

The real issue isn’t MAA balance
If anything, the game already leans heavily in favor of anti-air.
There are:
-Tons of counters
-A lot of low-skill options
-Constant pressure on air vehicles

The bigger problem is how easy it is to sit in base with C-RAM and just spam lock-ons all game.
It’s not even that effective, but it’s annoying and forces constant flaring. You might get one or two kills in a full match doing that, but you’re not really contributing much either.
The only time that kind of playstyle makes sense is if the enemy air is actively spawn camping your team.

And if you do get taken out by a skilled pilot, don’t let it frustrate you into giving up or going into your base and camping by your CRAM like a bitch, embrace the fact that you have the rare opportunity to fight a skilled pilot and have fun fighting him! I’ve my fair share of skilled pilots, highly skilled jet players are probably the rarest sight. And to be fair, a very skilled jet will win more than a very skilled MAA. But that’s fair in my opinion, I mean it’s a fucking jet, also jets are the highest skill-gap and skill ceiling aspect of battlefield in my opinion, so it’s only fair.

Final thoughts
-The MAA is not underpowered.
-It’s one of the few vehicles that actually feels well balanced:
-Strong when used properly
-Weak if you rely on easy mechanics
-Rewards aim, awareness, and positioning

Instead of asking for buffs, people should spend more time learning how to use the main gun properly.
If anything, air vehicles are the ones that need help right now, not anti-air.

I wish BF6’s vehicle-design philosophy was more similar to the MAA all-round. Reward high skilled gameplay, make low skilled gameplay ineffective.

Tried to mention as many of the issues with air vehicles I could think of here:
https://forums.ea.com/discussions/battlefield-6-general-discussion-en/the-state-of-air-vehicles/13380983

Maybe if it gets some good engagement EA will see it and realise how fucked air is, I don’t have much hope but why not try.

Some points may not be agreed upon by everyone but I think most of the stuff is a no brainer, go comment your thoughts and upvote it if you have the time. The more engagement it gets the higher the likelihood EA/DICE sees it.

I see a lot of players saying that MANPADS like the stinger or IGLA are underpowered or useless, and I just don’t think that’s true at all. In my opinion MANPADS do their job extremely well in bf6.

MANPADS were never meant to result in a guaranteed kill or death, they’re an area denial tool and force pilots to flare and retreat to cover so they’re out of the action for a bit. They take no skill since it’s just point and click, so resulting in a guaranteed hit/death would be unfair.

MANPADS can obviously still get kills if it’s against a bad pilot, or with teamwork. Against a bad pilot, he will get punished quickly because he won’t know good routes or when he can strafe vs when he needs to go to cover. With teamwork you can position yourselves well with multiple lock ons and catch a pilot off guard, even if he’s good.

And about below radar, this mechanic is not OP for pilots and is actually one of the only tools pilots can use to their advantage as of right now. Without below radar the average lifespan of a Jet or Heli would be less than a minute. Also, flying below radar leaves pilots more vulnerable to other weapons like the RPG or stationary anti air turrets. Additionally, if you’re a good pilot then below radar becomes meaningless 99% of matches since someone will have you painted the whole game, which is very easy to do since painting lasts a whole 20 seconds.

Stingers and other lock ons have 600m horizontal range and INFINITE vertical range in bf6. That’s a shit load of range considering how small most of the maps compared to other bf titles, aswell as the airspace boundaries being very small.

I think the infinite vertical range needs to go, but only against jets in order to prevent attack heli sky ceiling camping and farming. It’s almost impossible to have a dogfight without getting locked on in bf6. Other than that I don’t have an issue with the power of MANPADS other than some bugs I’m going to address next.

So there’s two bugs SINCE RELEASE which have been affecting air vehicle gameplay and ground to air counter gameplay massively, and are in my opinion game breaking.

Bug #1: Lock ons going through flares;

This has a decent chance of happening and is unpredictable. It makes lock on launchers even and more powerful than they deserve to be. It can happen with any type of lock on, it doesn’t have to necessarily be MANPADS. It’s currently most common with the IGLA though. This is broken and needs urgent fixing. And please don’t say anything about realism and flares not being a 100% guarantee in real life, BF6 is an arcade shooter not a milsim. Everyone wants fair counterplay, not luck based unpredictable counters.

Bug #2: Flares lasting longer than visually represented / missiles instantly missing;

I count this as one bug because they go hand in hand. Currently, flares are actually active a bit longer than visually represented and you are able to lock on to an air vehicle before the flares are done being active. If you lock onto an air vehicle right after it has popped its flares, the missile will instantly miss. This is frustrating for both pilots and anti air players since it’s extremely unpredictable.

The fix would be very easy, just change flares to how they were in 2042. Once flares are popped, one large burst is shot out and then a few more flares are gradually dispensed for the last few seconds of the flares being active. Only allow the air vehicle to be locked on once the flares are visually gone, not before. This would fix the issue easily and remove that instant miss issue aswell as enabling pilots to know when they’re actually safe.

Anyways I just think it’s crazy to call MANPADS underpowered when they do their job extremely well especially if it’s more than one person using a lock on.

And please fix the bugs :)

Painting is completely broken, and it doesn’t get talked about enough. You can paint the entire enemy vehicle fleet with your PLD in a few seconds. Hold for 1.5 seconds, painted for 20.

You can also sometimes paint through mountains, which is just stupid. Painting needs to be nerfed heavily, instead of painting for 20 seconds the target should only remain painted for 1-3 seconds after losing LOS (so you don’t lose the ‘paint’ when a tree gets in the way for a split second).

This would encourage team play and communication instead of one recon being able to paint every vehicle with absolutely no effort.

Air vehicles are affected the most by this since painting negates below radar, which is one of the few survivability tools pilots can use to their advantage in bf6. Bf6 is very lock on spammy due to the smaller maps and 600m lock on range. On some maps this covers locking on from your HQ to the enemy HQ.

The recent LABS test reduced the duration to 8 seconds if I’m not mistaken. That’s still far too long in my opinion.

Air vehicles really need some love in the upcoming updates, especially jets.

Jets were released in the most bland state ever, no air radar and no load out customisation. The s3 labs test didn’t have a working air radar either… and even when the air radar works (which is like 5% of the time) the minimap is so small and zoomed in that it’s essentially useless.

Give us an air radar and the ability to customise minimap size/zoom in jets and helis.

There’s so many other issues too but please just give us a working air radar it’s a joke that this hasn’t been fixed after 7 months.