As the lower con, I *will* take a shot, depnding... even if I have to hold it until it stalls out and the enemy bears down from above (often coming off the stall themselves and unstable, resulting in the chance for me to either take the shot or get out of the way, rolling back down on them.)
As the higher con, I generally won't fire until the lower one either stalls out (giving me a nice planform shot) or see tracers coming up (I may fire back or rollout)...
I'll just do whatever I do at the moment.. and each moment is different. (yeah, you're all special snowflakes.)
If you manage to come more from the side (higher or lower), whoever has nose on has the shot... I often present that oppt'y (my side briefly) to the higher con and once they miss the shot, I roll down onto them.
I don't generally present it as the higher one (hate not having visual), but when I do it's usually followed with a shallow banking turn, to stay out of guns and see if I have an oppt'y to press it.
If they start to stall out too far for their shot, and I'm already coming back down, I'll try and stay slow enough to close and not overshoot. (throttle management for you noobs) If I''ve yet to nose over and they stall out, well... it's more or less a reset in that I still retain all advantages.
I generally fly energy over bnz when I have the alt. A higher con over me only means it takes more time to equalize our alt and energy states before they run or die. Even 2 higher cons don't overly worry me... it's the 3-4-5-6th castrati that come tearing in.

A rope is merely a vertical HO.... or front quarter as the case may be.
