During the BoB the 110 wasn't agile enough to fight the Hurricanes and Spitfires on equal terms. However it was still fast and was successful in making B&Z attacks against British fighters, usually while altmonkeying. Later in the war pure turning performance was losing relevance to pure speed, and the 110's deficiency was poor speed and climb while it was considered superior to the 109 as a gun platform and smoothness of flight. The F model was generally considered the best fighter by the 110 pilots with the G taking second place. Note that the G more often than not flew loaded down with extra weapons and equipment. Very few flew them clean as fighters as often seen in AH.
I think the 110 has an undeserved bad reputation fueled by Discovery Channel quality (or lack there of) historical accuracy. The 110 was one of the great workhorse Luftwaffe planes that like the 109 and Ju 88 flew till the end of the war. After the BoB it was usually relegated to ground attack roles or long-range patrol duty. However some were used as heavy fighters in the air war in the west, usually against USAAF daylight raids. The 110 also created a lot of aces, not only in the night-fighter role, but also in the daylight heavy fighter role. More than 70 Luftwaffe pilots made ace status in the 110 in daylight operations. The best of them, Eduard Tratt, had 38 kills to his credit when he was killed in February 1944, including three Hurricanes (1940) and five P-38's (1943-44).
