No, it’s not a skill issue, and there’s no need to act like you’re some professional player.
Compared to the other aircraft at its current BR, the F-4J is heavier, less maneuverable, and has inferior radar performance. That’s simply a fact.
At 12.0 it regularly faces F-16s, F/A-18s, modern MiGs, and other aircraft with significantly better flight performance and avionics. My point isn’t that the F-4J is a bad aircraft—it’s that it’s no longer competitive enough in its current matchmaking.
You’re free to disagree, but dismissing the argument as a “skill issue” doesn’t change the aircraft’s actual performance relative to its opponents.
The F-4J is a fighter-interceptor, not a dedicated air-superiority fighter built for prolonged dogfights. Its strengths are long-range interception, radar-guided missiles, speed, and high-speed performance—not sustained turning.
At its current BR, especially in uptiers, it regularly faces F-16s, F/A-18s, and modern MiGs that have significantly better maneuverability, energy retention, and more advanced flight performance. In those matchups, the F-4J is clearly at a disadvantage if the fight turns into a dogfight.
That’s exactly why I believe its current BR deserves to be reconsidered.
Bro what. I play this vehicle almost exclusively at 6.7 / 7.0 and still do okay with it. I’ve gotten a nuke with it in a full uptier to 7.7 lmao. It needs no BR reduction.
The F/A-18 and F-16 both have superior radar systems compared to the F-4J. Even many MiG variants have radar performance that is equal to or better than the F-4J’s.
The F-4J simply doesn’t belong at 12.0. It’s at a clear disadvantage against many of the aircraft it faces. A reduction to 11.7 would be much more reasonable.
Watch it perform badly at 12.3 with AIM-9Ls, then wait for it to move down. Once it does, both the F-4J and F-4S will have AIM-9Ls, and the British Phantoms will too.
It’s funny because the FGR.2 is going to receive AIM-9Ls and SuperTEMPS, but it will have to move up because the developers said it would be too effective at 12.0. Meanwhile, the Tornado stays at 12.0 with the loadout the British Phantoms should have, and the aircraft that was literally built to replace them.
You really don’t seem to understand much about aircraft technology or dogfighting.
The F-16 Early’s infrared missiles are objectively superior to the F-4J’s. One of them, the AIM-9L, is an all-aspect missile and is much harder to decoy with countermeasures. On top of that, the F-16 Early is more maneuverable, faster, and lighter than the F-4J.
Comparing the F-4J to the other aircraft at the same BR again, the F-4J can only maintain a lock on one target at a time, unlike aircraft such as the F-14 and the early F/A-18 variants.