99A2: Underplayed and Underrated?

[Haswell 295]

I'm serious, I'm growing fond of this bastard despite its bad reputation.

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. 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. The turret ring weak spot is fairly deceiving, since just like the Abrams hole you can cover it up by depressing the gun, as well as angling your hull upwards to hide it.

Don't let that lower plate fool you, it's actually far less of an issue in practice than on paper. It's suffers from Merkava syndrome, where your frontal armor profile is so uniformly thick that your lower plate is the weakest part that the bots will see, so they would tend to aim and shoot there. The issue however is entirely mitigated as long as your lower plate is even somewhat covered, a small rock or change in terrain is all it takes to protect the relatively small weak spot.

I thought people said it has poor armor... I didn't even sit in front of autocannons.

 

Side armor is paper as expected, that's nothing new. 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. It also has 870mm pen tandem HEAT with a  ~6s reload, which gives it very respectable DPM. The combination of reliable frontal armor, mobility and DPM makes it very capable for maps that promote aggressive maneuvering such as Snake Bite or Watchdog, where enemies usually fire from limited directions across your frontal arc.

Of course, there are better choices for MBTs if I'm really trying to achieve something, but the 99A2 is fairly relaxing to play for me.

[BumbaX 8]

I have, PvE wise, mixed feelings about this tank, some times i do very well with it, other ones... not so much. But it is a problem of the player, the tank is pretty good as you learn how to use it.

Its main problems imo are not armor related, if you know how to use its armor is very strong, but with his gun. Fast reload and good sustained damage, but the AP rounds lack of alpha damage, and this makes ammo racking the enemies much less likely then let's say with a Leclerc that has a higher alpha and using HEAT the alpha is good, but only if you aim perfectly, so often i get very little damage even on not well armored tanks like the Bradley or some LT when I have to take opportunity shots and I can not aim perfectly.

Once you learn how to deal with that and to use its armor is a pretty good tank.

about the "Nerf" i am not so happy of that, but because now i can no more damage the 99A2 bots that are hulldown with missiles while before driving a T15 or a Hellfire I could exploit the turret weak spot.

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. 

[Travlla 5]

Used to love this tank (PVE) , but have given up playing Chinese tanks, 

[Norse_Viking 12]

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.

[di_duncan 24]

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.

[BumbaX 8]

I perfectly understand it, the perspective of who play it in PvE or play it, or against it, in PvP can be completely different.

Now probably it easier to play it in PvE, even if now it needs less skill, and I don't think that that is an improvement as PvE anyway needs less skill as mode, when I play the ADTU or when I played the CATTB before the armor nerf, i feel that there is something wrong about it, and i suspect that with the 490, that I don't own, is even worst/better depending if you like challenge or to win easy.

In PvP it was a pretty interesting tank, imo the Premium one somehow broken as only very few mbts could damage him frontally, that if well played had his strength, but also his weaknesses, you could not expose your side armor or be flanked and if someone with PISH/PELE or AGTMs knew what to do you had a problem, an Hellfire could take down a 99A2 frontally in no time and an ADTU/Wilk could make it explode very easily.

Now it has lost most of the perks that made it unique and probably overall PVP wise is weaker, but as for all the changes I think that only when we will adapt to the changes we will be able to give a fair evaluation, as it is true that is a less capable brawler now,  but is also true that if you manage to cover the LFP you now are much better protected vs AGTMs, there is few that an Hellfire at long distance or a T15 at closer range can do against you, while before they could pack 4-8 missiles in your turret weak spot, and this is relevant in PvP as it is in PvE.

[Beeda2004 2]

Type 99A2

 

https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/china/type-99-a2.htm

https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/modern/china/Type_99_MBT.php

https://army-guide.com/eng/product5852.html

0.33

 

[Haswell 295]

Revisiting the 99A2 after a while. Nothing changed much, except for the massive alpha buff to 930.

With the right commander builds, it absolutely goes nyoooooooooom.

 

[Grenier 11]

Yeah, it's nuts. I enjoy playing it now. 

Also, the T9 one is basically the exact same thing but with less armor, RoF and a bit worse pen. So it's also pretty nuts considering you could meet T7 tanks with it. There is stuff you could borderline 2 shot with HEAT down there! Same story with T8 with 890 dmg HEAT.

Anyway, I won't be annoyed anymore when during the BP, I have Zhang Feng MBT missions.