I think, but at now i had only very few battles in PvE with it, as yesterday I played mainly MBTs with a boost running to level up a commander not suited for AFVs, that your review is on spot, but...
"To go along with being F A T it also has relatively poor base camo" depends on which commander you use, and the commander depends on the role you want to use the tank and somehow also on the map you are playing. With Erin and 2 stacked view retrofits has only slightly worst view range, but if not near to friendly tanks and maybe behind a bush or 2 can still easily out spot every bot that is not a lieutenant, in some optimal situations even them.
"It's mobility is almost MBT-like, very slow, Poor armor, only somewhat resistant to autocannons and nothing beyond that" True, but if it would also be as fast as a Sphinx or Kornet it would had been truly OP, and to not be resistant to the big calibers is quite normal for a not MBT, at least as AFV , like the Marder or the T5 premium dakadaka we had in the last battle path it can survive the autocannon fire, thing that many other AFVs can not, as long as you attack a Bradley or even a T15 after he has fired the missiles, as he reloads, and maybe if you have some part of the hull behind a rock you can easily outdamage it, while with a CRAB, a Sphinx or a Kornet it would be a suicide.
"Top Attack missiles are finicky, and deal less damage to vehicles with unmanned turrets" well... I think that it is not a problem of this tank alone, but of all the tanks that share that kind of missiles, you have to wait to lock the target, then to wait that the missile travels a long time, then, if the team mates don't have already killed the enemy firing against some tanks you have a big chance to get only a reduced damage or no damage at all, as you can not aim for weak spots. I would say that the missiles on this tank are, at least in PvE, a very situational weapon, and we have to learn on which tanks is worth to use them, as i found that against the T15 and some MBTs they hit often for full damage, that is certainly not impressive, but quite reliable and is possible to lock the aiming also in 3rd person view, while the enemy can not fire at you as you are behind an hill ridge. Yesterday i killed a lieutenant MBT that way. And as secondary weapon it is very good to have it, the problem is when this type of missiles is the primary one, like in the Shadow, or like in the other AFV released yesterday, that with the AC can pen only the Bradley back, has an AC that is almost only useful to kill infantry in Spec Ops, as there is no way to pen the sides or butts of most of the well armored tanks and even penetrate many AFVs from the front is not a real option.
It seems to me that the AS21 is a very fun and powerful tank to play, without the cons you are talking about we would had an other OP abomination in need of nerfing, and we had way too much of them lately...
For reference here is the result of my very first PvE game with it, as I did not knew how to use it, i had only a quick trip to Alabino to see what it can pen with both the weapon systems, i surely did not play it in the best possible way, also even if in PvE usually i get more blue stars then the times i rank lower i am far to be a very strong player, i know people that are 10 times better then me in every single mode, so see the result as the one of a semi noob not completely crap player, in a PvE crowded of crap players, like the one that yesterday on Raiding Party, that we lost as we cleared the final cap few seconds too late, was making fun of us, the 2 tanks that was in the cap and that did most of the work, while he camped all the game on a hill near the spawn point and did 600 damage only in the whole game, with a TD that has the potential of doing 30K on that map.
As you see not only i got the share of the lion as kills, but i got good damage and good spotting damage, that is exactly what an AFV should do in PvE, a very good tank, perfectly suited to cover the role is supposed to have.
