This Pay to Win BS is getting worse!

I see you've become acquainted with the Ao Jun

FYI, this is not pay2win at all. You simply fall behind because of no activity.
Every single free player who actively playing should be able to have 1-2 lvl9 Aojun + 2 lvl12 Avengers with absolutely no problem.

If you take a break and come back being steam rolled, it’s not other people or developers fault. It has to happen if a popular game is evolving.
Just like the society, if you get cut off for 10 years, you’ll be screaming the same thing.
Sit down and grind, get your own dragon.

Don't be too dismayed. The game is very playable and still fun even if you don't have the latest bots. Hang in there and learn how to survive, then once you've learned to survive...learn to kill.

Ao Jun is a menace for sure. I find the Ares to be worse overall. The Ao Jun you can somewhat counter if you use the Quantum Radar active module, then you can hit them while they are flying in stealth. When you do that they usually avoid you. I don't run Quantum Radar much anymore, and yeah I sometimes get bit hard by the Ao Jun. However I kill them often by waiting out their jump then pouncing on them.

Granted you really don't want to be in the line of fire the Ao Jun if you can help it - and yes you can protect yourself. Battlefield awareness helps - you'll start to see the Ao Jun's on the field, then you'll also be aware of the available cover you can take if they target you. The range of the built in flame weapon is 350m, something else to keep in mind if you want to avoid them.

Stealth bots are nothing new, Spectre jump, Inquisitor jump, Mercury jump, Stalker, Pursuer, and whatever else I'm missing was here months ago too, and there are different ways to fight them in stealth, sometimes it's just waiting until stealth is over.

I rate this rant a 1 out of 10. Not enough anger and your sentences are direct and to the point, needs more incoherence to add texture to the subject. Plus the rant itself is slightly outdated.

I will add one thing about the flying dragon that annoys me, the distance it can travel when it is in free fall. Notice when the dragon first takes off it goes into a vertical climb, then starts to maneuver around.

When its flight ends it should drop vertically to the ground as well but at the moment it has this extra ability to travel a great distance as its falling to the ground. I think this needs to change to make the bot slightly more risky for the operator if they get too close to the enemy.

I'm a totally ftp player. You gotta grind if you want the cheddar. 

The PTW aspect is more in the amount of content, which is way too much. Too many bots, too many weapons, too many modules, too many pilots. All that adds a time factor, so if you don't keep up, then a MK1 L11 hanger can look lightyears behind a maxed whale hanger. Workshop is pretty easy to get stuff. If you've been around years like you said, then i built so much crap when the new WS 2.0 was introduced. 

Even if you missed the boat, it takes 1 month to build most bots and items. By now since ares was introduced early this year to WS, any player can have their own rookery and bestiery of 4 dragons and ares. Maybe 5 if you add in invader or fenrir. As a free player, i have more bots than i know what to do with. These are sitting at L1-6  for me: invader, mercury, pursuer, phantom, hades, raven, blitz, etc. 

I also got whole bots for free. I got the phantom from a Gold Chest last month. Got AQ from LNY event. Got Blitz and Invader from Super Chest. 

If your not in champs like me, then you shouldn't have the same problems of leveling all that gear. Should be much easier to maintain a L8 or L9 hanger. Its become a game within a game for free players to get a good hanger, and deal with all the shenanigans of buff/nerfs etc. 

A big mistake i made last year was to invest all my time in bots. They go obsolete so fast, then i'm left with nothing. So I am spending more time upgrading weps this year. So next year, i can just focus again on bots, and not worry about spending any extra time for wep upgrades. Because i have to do bot + 2-3 wep for each bot i build, it takes 3-4 months to get an entire bot online. 

There's Operations Pass which is giving away tons of resources just for playing. Don't miss this! According to the grapevine, won't be back until after the oct event. Also events usually have reduced upgrade times or costs, so save up that silver. I leave my stuff at L11 and wait for them now.

Hey hey... welcome back... you are now as I was a few months ago! I decided to stick around a while cuz I figured at least NEW would be INTERESTING. So... it's been interesting! lol

We’re not going to start discussing tanking...

Flying and unable to aim at them... yeah. I have a choice of words I use for them lol. Even when they use that one weapon that uses lava or plasma and no shield helps. It’s not difficult to find cover but not always possible unless the bot is fast-ish.

I’m still learning all the newly added stuff. Will take time but in my eyes someone has to fork over to get the premium bots and weapons cause I don’t have much in terms of components for any bot.

Just accept mediocrity and spend money elsewhere. ?

If you want good on the cheap, relatively speaking, get or produce a Falcon.  Get a pilot and do what ever to get Traditionalist skill and-IMO-a Glory.  Survives and defeats all the meta, unless they are way leveled up. Don’t engage 3 or more reds, either....

Mine is level 9 bird, L10 Glory and I wreck dragons and panty bots but do use “normal” heal module.....my 2 other pilot skills are Roadhog and Mechanic........give her a whirl!