I agree. So what does one do? I’ve been back in the game several months now and rarely get a clean merge. The times I try to avoid the HO I get shot in the face. Good fights are rare (just like I remember). It seems to me HOing and picking is still the name of the game.
Once upon a time it was usually used by point mongers and people as bad as me.
Today, even those who claim to be the best will resort to cheap tactics of the unskilled, many times as first resort,.....the point monger.
Problem is, since I've been back it's become an epidemic. A few started HOing everyone so everyone else started using it in retaliation.
Now its to the point that if you don't nose in and fire, they will. Many are avoidable, to a degree. Today the first merge is always HO
One would think a good pilot with a lot of kills wouldn't need or use it, yet they capitalize on HO, bouncing and picking. That is NOT a great pilot, it's a dweeb.
Those skilled pilots who fight with honor and respect are diminishing.
When one pilot who plays with such disregard for anything but himself becomes the face of AH,... it's time to gut down vomit.