Team Reviews: WipEout 2048 Edition

Why have you chosen the team you stay loyal to? Do you ever switch? What do you like about your team, what do you hate? Does your team ship look ugly or amazing?

All of these questions must be answered, as I've found myself changing team every few weeks.
Post in this thread about your chosen team's performance, your opinion on why they are better than the rest and your feelings on their aesthetics.

Are they faster? Are they tankier? Can they just stick to a line better than the others?

In particular I want to hear your say on their:

Looks, the way they pilot, why they are better or why they are bad if you are choosing to write about a team you don't recommend to others!

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2048's physics are a drastic change compared to HD's fairly rigid style, and the team lineup has been stripped back down to basics, plus Pir-Hana of course.
I stick with FEISAR in this game out of loyalty, although their Speed ship tends to slide a lot, their Agility ship is completely redundant and their Fighter ship has mediocre combat stats. They are still very precise machines, but with a boot full of power added if you decide on the Speed spec. For me, AG-SYS are too twitchy and too slidey to be useful, and their shields make it so they can't last. Qirex are a good high-speed craft with middling handling, with Auricom being their shielding-based brother. Pir-hana forgo all handling for raw speed, something I loved until the point I found you scrub all that speed off in standard cornering manouveres.

In short, FEISAR in 2048 are the all-rounder they never meant to be. Reasonably fast with fine control and okay combat stats for their speed ship. Their prototype is something to marvel at too, quite the beast for lower-class time based events.

Alright here is my 2 cents.

This is similar to the same debate for HD, and the answer is just about the same too.

For lower classes, Piranha is the way to go. I always chose the speed version too. For faster speeds, I find the FEISAR somewhat useful, but only for a few tracks. Piranha is still the best ship for most circuits. Now this is only for racing, because for combat, the Qirex does the most damage, and has the best shield.

Speed versions are the ONLY versions to ever use for racing, and Fighter versions are the ONLY versions to use for combat with 2 notable exceptions in that the Piranha prototype is devastating for racing if you are a good zone pilot. The Agility versions are all limited by their speed, so they are primarily useless for combat and racing (for example on Sol at A class, the Piranha Speed is tough to handle without perfect lines, but the Piranha agility version isn't as good as the FEISAR speed). The FEISAR prototype is a unique exception as well, but only for certain tracks and only in speed lap mode. Due to the stupid way the majority of people play on combat, (which is just going back and forth in one section the whole race) the Auricom prototype would be an ok fit for combat because limiting the defensive weapons means a higher chance for a Quake.

Remember that lines win races. Sideshifting doesn't slow down ship speed. Handling only really matters at faster speeds if you know the track. So based on that:

Piranha: best all around for races, holds *ideal* lines easily
Qirex: best all around for combat, good second choice for racing
AG sys: looks good, too "squirrely", not fast enough
FEISAR: only to replace Piranha at higher speeds, good tradeoff on handling/speed
Auricom: only useful for "adaptive" combat play, flies heavy, not as fast as Piranha

Speed version: best all around for races
Fighter version: best all around for combat
Agility: useless. Utterly useless for anything
Prototype: limited usefulness based on specific event

Agility isn't that useless at all, Zone mode, or for unexperianced players, as an example :)