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di_duncan

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Posts posted by di_duncan


  1. I would like to add my two cents to this discussion, from the perspective of someone who primarily plays GlOps. You may have already seen my previous post on this topic on the thread for the April 23 Update Notes, but I'll attempt to delve into greater detail with this post.

    On 4/26/2020 at 7:11 AM, Haswell said:

    It received a minor buff to its armor with the recent update, losing its small turret weak spots with the trade-off that it got a slightly weaker lower plate.

    In the environment of PvE, the most recent changes to the 99A2's armor are largely beneficial. The buffed turret armor is especially helpful as AI tend to fire at weakspots around the turret. Consequently, the nerfed LFP bears little to no change to the effectiveness of the vehicle in PvE.

    Unfortunately, the nerfed LFP has ruined the viability of the tank in PvP modes. Whereas AI HEAT threats are the primary concern for players in PvE, the most common rounds fired in PvP are APFSDS. Following improvements to their reload times and ammunition characteristics, the Type 99A2 (and its up-gunned brother, the Type 99A2-140) were balanced vehicles in PvP, with a signature/standout feature: their consistent frontal armor.

    On 4/26/2020 at 7:11 AM, Haswell said:

    Performance wise it's virtually the same as before the changes, maybe slightly better now that the turret can eat ATGMs all day with impunity.

    Similar to the LFP of the XM1A3, the LFP armor values of the pre-"buff" Type 99A vehicles allowed them to bounce lower pen rounds/guns. This was the only area in which the high-tier Chinese MBTs excelled at apart from mobility, which provides few tangible benefits in PvP (which I will elaborate on further). In addition, the side armor on the Chinese MBTs were (and are still) practically non-existent. In other aspects, the Types were mostly average.

    • [Average] HP: 3550
    • [Average] DPM: 6662
    • [Average] Penetration: 800mm (with APFSDS)
    • [Average] Gun Depression: -7°
    • [Average] Spread: 0.095° (without retros)
    • [Average] Aim Time: 1.67 sec

    The consequence was an effective mobile frontline brawler which could hold its own when trading/baiting shots. 

    Unfortunately, with the most recent changes, its capabilities have been reduced significantly. While retaining the same average stats, the LFP can now be consistently penetrated by almost every single large-caliber gun from T8 to T10.

    On 4/26/2020 at 7:11 AM, Haswell said:

    What it does boast is ridiculously good mobility, and it gets a 20s boost ability on top of that. With a top speed of nearly 90km/h coupled with great acceleration, the 99A2 is positively a speed demon for rushing to good positions and aggressive play.

     While 99As still have great mobility, they now lack a defined PvP role. Great, they are able to rush forward quickly, but upon arrival and/or encountering enemies, questionable survivability means they are no longer proficient as brawlers. A quicker death translates into less damage downrange, less time on the cap, fewer chances to spot/track, and more time + point/tickets to respawn.

    11 hours ago, Norse_Viking said:

    Never liked fighting the 99a2 head to head when Im in tanks that only got APS and Heat. I never felt that i could reliably penetrate the lower plate.

    Its the mbt I switch to explosive when i meet them and just pump rounds on the driver hatch for garantied damage.

    Although it was frustrating to deal with frontally, the previous armor weak spots meant players had to be dynamic and adapt, like (as @Norse_Viking mentions) switching to HE or HEAT-MP and shooting the turret weakpoints, which would usually destroy several modules as well as dealing damage.

    Or...  

    On 4/26/2020 at 7:45 AM, BumbaX said:

    PvP I would say that is a pretty strong tank if the players that you face have no clue about how to deal with it, but very risky if they know what to do. An ADTU with green ammo and many other tanks can easily ammo rack it if it is not perfectly aligned to their line of fire shooting at the front track wheel and it has some other weaknesses that can be exploited. 

    By using its Achilles heel: PISH/PELE.

    PISH was able to penetrate the UFP prior to the "buff", now it can also go through the LFP.

    PELE on the other hand, wasn't able to penetrate the Type frontally before it was "buffed", but PELE mechanics meant it could still deal point and module damage without penetrating. This meant I could often ammo rack the Type from the front using a Wilk. With the current nerfed LFP, Wilks can now penetrate and deal full hitpoint damage while also causing massive internal damage.

    Of course, there's always the option of exploiting its paper sides to immobilize and flank it (which was the most common counter to the Type anyways).

    I'm expecting winrates and other performance statistics will continue to stagnate or decrease in PvP modes, while the number of players queuing in the high-tier Chinese MBTs will fall drastically. I myself will refuse to play these vehicles until these concerns are properly addressed. 

    Thanks for reading my great wall of rant. I hope some of you can better understand my perspective of the recent changes.


  2. As a player who enjoys his light tanks, here is my tier list of GlOps maps currently featured in the game:

    1. Grindelwald
      • An obvious choice really. An expansive map, with many angles and positions (cover, foliage) to spot and fire from with decent verticality as well. Unique wildcards and capture point locations result in quite a bit of fun (assuming team composition and competence is roughly equal).
    2. Barren Divide
      • Another "proper" GlOps map. Huge, with impressive verticality. Allows for many different LT playstyles while emphasizing spotting and flanking (two very important roles LT fill). Only gripe are the northwest and southeast cap points, as they are very distant from each other and are also relatively congested, which isn't particularly great for LTs.
    3. Ghostfield
      • Quite a surprisingly fun GlOps map to play, despite not being a "purpose-built" GlOps map. Cap locations encourage movement, while snipers and spotters can utilize the interesting geography to counter pushes. Unfortunately, it feels slightly unbalanced (to me at least), as the southeastern spawn seems to have a slight advantage which I believe can be traced back to elevation.
    4. Roughneck
      • Some people hate this map in GlOps, which is totally understandable as the southeastern spawn is significant disadvantaged. However, with LTs, the map is relatively open and offers quite a diverse selection of positions and opportunities to spot, snipe and even flank. It is also a map which encourages LTs to cap, which is nice for a change.
    5. Waterway
      • Another interesting map, which doesn't seem to lend itself well to LTs, but somehow feels pretty great. Honestly not sure why I'm not upset by this map, but the hybridity between urban and open warfare might be the cause.
    6. Desert Crossing
      • The only GlOps particular map which I dislike. Despite its large size, the cap placements and stubborn terrain result in a map heavily favoring armored pushes. The carrier in the center is massive, occupying a large section of the map which is left mostly unused after the first phase. The capture points for the final phase are also heavily slanted towards the spawns of respective team, resulting in futile attempts to capture them.
    7. Narrows
      • FUCK. THIS. MAP. Apart from some sniping positions during the first phase and some hull down positions for specific LTs with unmanned turrets (PL, Anders), LTs and most other lightly armored vehicles are at a significant disadvantage compared to MBTs and other armored vehicles. Both phases revolve around funneling teams to one side of the map where they are expected to trade shots and progressively push onto cap(s). LTs ain't about that tho... Oh yeah, and it's also the only GlOps map which has two phases instead of three.

    I hope some of you have similar opinions of the GlOps maps... They certainly aren't perfect. However, GlOps remains the most enjoyable mode in AW for me, and it's the only one in which I can even claim to be playing at a competitive level. 


  3. To be completely honest, there is little feedback we can provide without some gameplay from your end. It's very difficult to diagnose a condition when there are no symptoms to reference.

    If you can record some matches and/or upload replay(s), it would be quite a bit easier for us to suggest next steps and potential areas of improvement.

    Don't give up though. While it may certainly be difficult to improve, surrounding yourself with the right community, listening to feedback, and playing more in general will undoubtedly improve your performance.


  4. TL;DR: The PLZ-05 (with the 4 shot cannon) is the best artillery at the present moment. 

    It was overwhelmingly popular in GlOps and still is the go-to arty piece (when chosen) in Heroics.

    Regarding lower tier artillery, I would use reputation to skip through them if anyone is limited to grind with them in PvE. The current PvE meta and map pool make grinding artillery in PvE tedious and painful.


  5. This update has uttered destroyed the effectiveness of the high tier (9-10) Chinese MBTs in PvP. The armor "buff" has taken away the one distinguishing feature of the high-tier Chinese MBTs, their frontal armor.

    Prior to the update, their LFPs were trollish (especially the LFP of the Type 99A2-140) as their armor values were relatively consistent across the front. This meant that the MBTs were good for brawling, as sometimes RNG would cause lower penetration rounds (800-820mm) to bounce off the LFP (even on the progression Type 99A and 99A2). This is especially helpful against the current CATTB meta, as its nerfed 140mm rounds cannot reliably penetrate the Type's lower plates. 

    Did this decent frontal armor make the Type 99A and Type 99A2 overpowered? No, au contraire (in fact, this "buff" was only implemented because the Chinese MBT line was significantly underperforming). You see, the Type's frontal armor was it's only distinguishing feature, it's saving grace for some players in PvP. The rest of the vehicle's characteristics were mostly mediocre:

    • Decent DPM
    • Low Penetration
    • Good Mobility
    • Horrendous Side Armor

    Now that the LFP has been "buffed", I am expecting a sharp decline in the number of T9-10 Chinese MBTs being played in PvP modes. Their winrates will also likely remain stagnant or decrease even further. To restate what I've already written on the official Discord, I would rather play a vehicle with "minor/inconsistently penned" turret weakspots than one with "guaranteed/consistently penned" LFP weakspots. I'm sure my opinion is a unpopular one (especially within the English speaking community), as these changes are largely positive for PvE, but I believe I must state my case nonetheless.

    On the other hand, the lower tier (T8 and under) Chinese MBTs have been buffed significantly. As @Haswell has noted on the Discord, while still retaining their best-in-class DPMs, the armor profiles on the 9910 and Type 99 have been buffed significantly, effectively crowning them as the MBT kings of their respective tier ranges. 

    I hope these changes will be revised and/or reversed. This is not how you "buff" underperforming and underplayed MBTs.  


  6. 2 hours ago, TekNicTerror said:

    And the parts we dont need anymore [aka the tanks we got 100+ parts on; we just supposed to let them sit in our inventories doing nothing at all when they could enable trading and allow us to trade other players in the similiar situation with different tanks?]?

    While a trading system would certainly benefit the playerbase, My.com would be losing out. They still need to have a source of income, and premium vehicles (parts included) seem to be the most lucrative. A trading system would cut into their margins.

    2 hours ago, TekNicTerror said:

    There's no way to sell them for gold or credits, the K1A1 stuff was the only tank's parts I was able to sell other that t90ms hades parts

    This is also a gripe of mine, so I can understand your frustration. Who knows what the future holds though. 

    For some vehicles for which I have many parts for, I find it better just to purchase enough crates to get the remainder. In some cases, the resulting gold from the completed vehicle may be more cost effective than just purchasing gold outright.


  7. 7 hours ago, Tashkent said:

    yet they don't mind letting their own people be able to trade on myloot.

    dem double standards.

    Nonono, there is a difference between trading and a marketplace. Lootdog is a managed marketplace where players can list, sell and/or buy from each other with commission to My.com. Think of the Steam Marketplace for CS:GO for example, it too allows buying and selling between players, but Valve takes a small commission from each transaction. 

    What an inventory trading system implies is players giving and receiving items between each other without direct monetary transactions or direct involvement with My.com. Such a system would be entirely disadvantageous for My.com, as they cannot act as a middleman and are thus unable to benefit from trades.

    I too would like a in-game economy with Lootdog, but EU restrictions are preventing it to be rolled out to players outside RU (or so they claim).


  8. @Silentstalker Can we expect some high-tier light tanks with some armor in the future? I love my PL-01 to death and I would really like an alternative (preferably premium) equivalent at tier 10...

    All of the BPs so far have had T10 MBTs as final rewards; and while I understand the rationale behind only adding T10 MBTs (easier to play, more popular overall, etc.), it would be nice to play a premium T10 LT with armor (the ability to hull-down and occasionally bounce large-calibre shells is very appealing to me ;).

    May I suggest the CV90120-T Ghost as a possible candidate?


  9. 4 hours ago, BumbaX said:

    About being a glass cannon i see a big difference between tanks that have camo and tanks that lack of it. At least if those tanks are not used only as long distance snipers leaching on other people's spots, as i sadly see some MBT players doing.

    4 hours ago, BumbaX said:

    Luckily it does not seem to me that the present CATTB is so hopeless against AI missile tanks, surely it can not face a T15 and a couple of Bradley without any precaution, it is not the ADTU, but i find it better against them of some other T10 MBTs.

    The CATTB in its present form cannot reliably withstand ATGMs in PVE, but the progression XM1A3 faces the same dilemma. It's UFP is paper against ATGMs as well, yet it can perform just as well if not better than other tier 10 MBTs. Again, weakspots and armor vulnerability can be mitigated if players play smart/cautious.

    There will always be MBT snipers in the game. It's a fact of nature. Even if the tank's stats are not suitable for such a role, uninformed MBT players will still camp and snipe. While it is certainly annoying, claiming they are leaching damage from others is not particularly relevant, as many TDs, AFVs and/or LTs are even worse in this regard (ever try to outdamage a Griffin in a MBT?).

     

    4 hours ago, BumbaX said:

    About increasing the aim time even more please no. It would maybe fix a little the burst damage problem, but at the cost of creating other problems in all the modes, it is a gun that already does not shine as accuracy and aim time.

    Which is why I proposed to compensate the nerfed aimtime with:

    On 3/13/2020 at 9:31 AM, di_duncan said:

    slightly better accuracy and better APS reload time.

    On 3/13/2020 at 9:31 AM, di_duncan said:

    In effect, this would require players to aim the weapon more carefully, rewarding those who are patient while punishing those who doubletap haphazardly.

    Plus the CATTB's penetration has already been nerfed to 800mm with the most recent update (as previously mentioned).

     

    4 hours ago, BumbaX said:

    Instead introducing some delay between the shots in an other way is certainly possible, all the other tanks with multiple shot have it.

    This wouldn't help in most scenarios:

    On 3/13/2020 at 9:31 AM, di_duncan said:

    While the doubletap is definitely punishing, I don't think it should be removed. The insane bloom following the first shell requires players to wait for aim time to accurately pen MBTs (frontally), thus effectively negating the insane burst fire rate.

    Plus the gun is a two-round "fastdraw" ready rack. It shares the near-instant intra-clip reload of the "fastdraw" 120mm on the XM1A3.


  10. 7 hours ago, TeyKey1 said:

    The spotting delay is a mechanic of AW that's been there for as long as I can remember. It does not have to do with any hits but is just a simple time delay. 1.5 or 2s.

    ^ There has always been a delay, and there are upgrades available for some vehicles to reduce the "spotted" delay (eg: Merk 4M)

    On 3/16/2020 at 7:42 PM, hellheat said:

    most modern vechiles ( we are in the future ) have sensors to know if you are being spotted ( laser sighted, like most radar detectors now )

    No, modern vehicles only have sensors allowing them to recognize when they are being actively targeted and/or fired upon. AW is not Steel Beasts, if we based all gameplay elements on reality, third generation thermal imagers found on all modern MBTs would vastly outrange and outperform the smaller, less capable optics on the "light tanks" we see in-game.

    Would this make MBT performance more realistic? Yes. Would this also make scouts and spotting entirely irrelevant? Yes.

    7 hours ago, TeyKey1 said:

    The stuff you're talking about ist to know when you're being targeted (Ie being lasered for example) and in that case you're probably screwed anyways.

    ^ @hellheat make the distraction between being spotted and being designated. The equivalent of being lasered in AW is being designated, which has no delay and which involves audio/visual feedback.

     

     


  11. Based on what I've seen of CCs and "supertesters" playing it, it looks great imo.

    The armor is more than solid, but suffers when dealing with PISH, PELE and/or HEAT (akin to CATTB). And while the gun DPM is not stellar statistically, it can really shine when it is able to employ it's massive potential burst damage. It seems properly balanced at the moment, which is good to hear after experiencing the "chad phase" of the CATTB. It's only shortcoming is probably the lack of alternative ammunition types, which doesn't help when being rushed by Ophelia'd little wheeled shitheads in GlOps...

    Note however that I am basing my opinion from a PvP and GlOps perspective, it's possible it may not be equally effective in PvE... 

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