[Woolie Wool]

EAF Claymore from Inferno R1, without a doubt.

[Scourge of Ages]

"Dragons, ****ing Dragons!"

This is all I wanted to say

[Drogoth]

Basilisks. Obviously

[X3N0-Life-Form]

Well, actually if you let them use their trebs, they are quite annoying.

[Scourge of Ages]

Basilisks. Obviously

Actually actually, with their swarm missiles, Basilisks have killed more mission critical cruisers, transports, and escape pods than about anything else.

[NGTM-1R]

EAF Claymore from Inferno R1, without a doubt.

Only if you were flying it...

[Mebber]

Claymore 1 or 2? As far as i remember i found the Claymore II much more annoying to fly. It was a real pain in the ass to hit anything smaller than a cruiser, thanks to the positioning of the guns.

As for retail, i'd go with the dragon too.

[Woolie Wool]

EAF Claymore from Inferno R1, without a doubt.

Only if you were flying it...

The Claymore is a pretty decent fighter for dogfighting. It's garbage at assault but that's not what it's designed for. Fighting against it in a GTVA fighter is absolutely maddening, it's much harder to hit than a Dragon.

[blowfish]

Actually actually, with their swarm missiles, Basilisks have killed more mission critical cruisers, transports, and escape pods than about anything else.

Sure, if you let them, but given a half-decent primary and a few tempests you can get rid of a wing of them in no time at all.

[TwentyPercentCooler]

Actually actually, with their swarm missiles, Basilisks have killed more mission critical cruisers, transports, and escape pods than about anything else.

Sure, if you let them, but given a half-decent primary and a few tempests you can get rid of a wing of them in no time at all.

Well, I think the problem is that a lot of people don't realize (at first) that they're actually pretty dangerous to vessels you're escorting. Hornets kind of suck, so you look at Basilisks and go, "Meh, they're just firing Hornets. I have more important things to deal w...what the ****? Where did that transport go?" 

At least, I remember that being an issue for me when I first played Freespace 1.

In response to the OP question: @#$% Dragons.

[Mongoose]

Yeah, I can remember more than one occasion where I've been a few kilometers away from a wing of Basilisks jump in, and I got to watch from long-distance as my escort's hull just evaporated.  Not fun.

Also Dragons are going to be a major contributor to my eventual carpal tunnel.

[NGTM-1R]

The Claymore is a pretty decent fighter for dogfighting. It's garbage at assault but that's not what it's designed for. Fighting against it in a GTVA fighter is absolutely maddening, it's much harder to hit than a Dragon.

Maybe I'm thinking of the Mark 2 then, but I seem to recall both Claymores had a serious problem with their firepoints being spread out impossibly and they existed in the age before such things could be fixed or mitigated.

[Mobius]

Also Dragons are going to be a major contributor to my eventual carpal tunnel.

This. Nothing more to say.

[Woolie Wool]

The Claymore is a pretty decent fighter for dogfighting. It's garbage at assault but that's not what it's designed for. Fighting against it in a GTVA fighter is absolutely maddening, it's much harder to hit than a Dragon.

Maybe I'm thinking of the Mark 2 then, but I seem to recall both Claymores had a serious problem with their firepoints being spread out impossibly and they existed in the age before such things could be fixed or mitigated.

The Claymore Mk1 had three gun points clustered together in the nose. The only problem was that one of them was in a separate bank, so you had a pair of guns that were good enough and a third gun that was useless.

[Droid803]

You could link them for a 3-bank which has even less firepower~

[deathfun]

Honestly, Dragons were only a pain if I didn't have an opportunity to pelt them from afar with a couple trebuchet missiles. Most times, they simply don't dodge them for some odd reason despite their tracking ability being rather limited

I'd have to go with the Top Hat Perseus from JAD  though
Reason being obvious

[arjuna 1]

The Nephilim Shivan bombers: They are almost indestructible and if you happen to be in front of a wing of them, they will tear you apart in seconds with their primary guns.

[Terminator]

In singleplayer: SF Dragon
In multiplayer: GTF Ulysses

[BengalTiger]

The Nephilim Shivan bombers: They are almost indestructible and if you happen to be in front of a wing of them, they will tear you apart in seconds with their primary guns.

Keep your wingmen in formation, fire at the bomber from a long distance to attract its attention. Then order them to attack that single bomber while pulling away.
It should either follow, getting the wing on its @$$, or it will disengage, giving you free shots.

That's pretty much how I got the ace pilot in the main FreeSpace: The Great War campaign- got him to follow me and then got the team to kill him.

[Klaustrophobia]

i just spent a VERY long time taking deflection shots at about 1% hull per hit.