M1A2C or M1 TTB

[JintoLin 9]

I have finished my grind through the M1A2, now it is decision time.

Either the M1A2C or the M1TTB? I mainly play PVE, tried PVP and fail every time. Match making is not my friend.

Recommendations?

[Haswell 294]

TTB if you want to get to the GAU-8 for the commander, M1A2C if you want a redundant tier 10 token or if you must get a Wolfi tier 10 as soon as possible.

TTB is also a very capable tier 9 MBT, far better than the M1A2C.

[BumbaX 8]

both are good tanks, MTTB has an ammo rack and takes reduced damage on the turret, M1A2 has the hard kill aps, but it takes forever to unlock it.

PvP wise i would say MTTB, but if you almost don't play it both are good IMO.

What I can suggest you is to try more PvP, probably starting from GLOPS that at least let you re spawn, while Random Battle is way less forgiving, an error or 2 are a trip to the garage. It is not easy coming from a PvE experience, most of what you have learned there does not apply in PvP, you are no more facing a large number of very predictable BOTS, but players that play, at least some of them, in an intelligent way, that can push one flank of the map or the other so the battle is never completely predictable and you have to use a lot the minimap to be aware of what is happening. And some players are probably way better then you, so when you face one of them you have little chance, but not all the PvP players are unicorns.

Avoid to go alone, you can not carry a PvP battle in the way it is sometimes possible in PvE, unless you are super strong, and I have seen often unicorns trying to do it and failing. It needs some battles to adapt to PvP, more or less depends on you, for me was surely more, in all the Random Battles i did try I was always destroyed very fast without doing anything really relevant, then I begun to adapt, even if to get my first gold medal  i had to wait some more time.

But for sure playing PvP, specially Random battle, but also GLOPS helped me a lot to improve, overall and also in PvE, that becomes more easy. So I would say pick the MTTB as it can help you to experiment with GLOPS and later with Random Battle, to use the terrain to get cover exposing only the turret and in PvE is not a bad tank at all.

EDIT: M1A2 can unlock the Sphinx, a very fun to play and powerful tank in all the modes and XM1A3 that in PvE, with its big alpha using HEAT is a great tank.

Also GAU is a good tank, but way more situational, you can use it in all the modes, even if in RB i got the gold medal only once with it, is not so easy to play, and to have it in good shape needs a lot of xp, while with the XM1A3 once you unlock HEAT you are ready to go, at least in PvE.

Edited May 24, 2020 by BumbaX (see edit history)

[MK_Regular 24]

The 2 largest differences between the M1A2C and the TTB are the armour profile and the gun.

The armour profile on the TTB has a smaller but weaker lower front plate (it can still resist 440mm of AP pen on the lower half, and 730mm on the upper half) compared to the M1A2C (~650mm of protection across the entire plate). This can be combined with the TTB's hydraulic suspension to hide your smaller weakspot and give you better overall survivability on the hull front. Additionally, the TTB's turret is both unmanned (meaning it takes less damage when hit) and has better frontal armour than the M1A2C turret (no need to worry about the turret ring weakspot). The one area that the M1A2C does better than the TTB is in side protection, as it gets multi-layered ERA on the hull sides and ERA on the turret. As a result, the M1A2C is better protected against HEAT (especially tandem HEAT) from the sides, and has some protection from low-penetration AP and high-penetration AP that hits the side armour at a >30 degree angle.

The other major difference between the TTB and the M1A2C is the gun. Where the M1A2C gets a conventional single-shot gun with an 8.75 second reload (which can be improved with a researchable breech upgrade and loader skills), the TTB gets an automatically loaded gun firing the same ammunition (same damage and penetration on the stock gun, all shells get an extra 35mm of penetration on the upgraded gun) with a 6-shot ready rack that reloads every 10 seconds, with 4 seconds between shots. Overall, this means that the TTB has respectable stock burst DPM of 8850 with the upgraded AP (8700 with the stock AP) and a sustained DPM of 3540 (3480) compared to the surprisingly good overall DPM of the M1A2C (3977 stock,  ~4800 fully upgraded and with loader skills), and that the TTB has a slightly better chance to do damage with the extra 35mm of penetration.

 

Overall, I'd probably pick the TTB. The burst damage it offers is extremely useful in PvE and allows you to do all of your damage up front and retreat to protect your somewhat questionable armour if need be. Event then, the somewhat questionable armour of the TTB is significantly better than the M1A2C's since most of the vehicles you will be facing will likely be firing AP with enough penetration to punch through the M1A2C's hull front (but not always enough to punch through the middle plate of the TTB) or tandem HEAT ATGMs that will go clean through the hull front of both vehicles or get steered around the ERA on the vehicles' sides and go clean through the side armour. The doesn;t even consider the fact that the TTB gets hydraulic suspension or an unmanned turret, which both significantly improve the TTB's ability to find and make use of hull-down positions. In just about every situation, the armour on the TTB stands up just as well or better than the M1A2C, and the advantage in burst fire means that the TTB doesn't need to spend nearly as long exposing itself to incoming fire to deal damage. Sure, the M1A2C gets decent DPM, but it lacks the much of the protection needed to keep itself alive long enough to make use of that DPM.

Edited May 24, 2020 by MK_Regular (see edit history)

[Katsumoto 11]

My thoughts:

The TTB:

• The biggest issue with the TTB is that there is a lot of stuff that is  "overprogression" experience locked.
• Until you get the upgraded gun you feel like you are playing down a tier to start.  Once you get the upgraded gun it starts to improve and once you finally get the upgraded ammo the gun performance is actually not bad and can hold its own if you don't mind the long reload times and the clip style mechanics.
• It has average/above average mobility
• It's armor it pretty good as long as you pay attention to your upper and lower plate angles and what is actually showing.
• Going down the TTB route kinda locks you into this "dead end" of the tech tree unless something else becomes of the Faraday line unless you really want the M48 GA8 or the MGM-166 (both have high XP requirements to unlock modules).

 

The M1A2C:

• The M1A2C is what I would expect of an Abrams.  Only issue is that occurs at tier 9 with all the others being very underwhelming.
• It is a night/day difference once fully upgraded over how the M1A2 compares to it's tier.
• Gun handling is better and only gets better from there but it seems to be more balanced at this point.
• Mobility is improved.
• It can take a bit of a better beating than you might have experienced with the M1A2.  The LFP was improved over the years so it doesn't feel so weak anymore.  BUT!  The turret ring is now the glaring weak spot and if you eat damage it will usually come from there.

I would go down the M1A2C so you can unlock the XM1A3.  That thing is a beast of a tank and is actually pretty damn good.  Having the M48 personally it wasn't as much "fun" as I thought it would be.

Disclaimer:  I hated the Abrams line until I got to the XM1A3 then I started to play all the other Abrams.  All the other varients outside of the M1A2C and the XM1A3 can die in a dumpster fire as far as I'm concerned.  I do some PVP and do a lot of PVE in the TTB, and do a lot of both in the XM1A3.

[BumbaX 8]

The M1A2C and the XM1A3 imo can not be compared, they share the same weak spot under the gun that can make them  an easy target both in PvE and in PvP at close/mid range, and the T10 bounces a lot more with the side, if is moving and the enemy from a long distance can not aim at its weak spots, but the difference is all in the gun.

While the T9 has an average gun the T10 has very high pen with the double shot one and a really high damage, specially if it uses HEAT, at the cost of some accuracy with the 140mm one. Even without Cortez, that I don't have, I get often 1200+ dmg on Bradley and some other tanks in PvE, and the high alpha makes very easy to set fires and is sometimes possible to ammo rack a T15 with a single shot, with 2 you do it almost always if you know what to aim. When I play the 2 tanks I really feel that there is way more then a single tier of difference, to me they feel like having 2 tier difference at worst.

As the T9 MBTs are anyway somehow sub par, as in PvE have to fight the same enemies you find with T10 and often they have to compete with them as you are in a T9-10 party and in PvP it is often the same, but worst as you have often to face T10 MBTs driven by humans, so you can not use the PvE tactics and trick to survive, only some times you get in a T8-9 Random Battle or GLOP, it is probably more important to focus on what a T9 tank can unlock then how it is good. Unless the tank is used to gain (player) experience in PvP, then the MTTB is surely better. But they both perform well in PvE, if the player is able to make them shine, other way they will be constantly out damaged by the T10 MBTs and other tanks like T15, AS21 or Wilk that have a much higher dpm.

And even if i like very much the GAU, that is a tank that in some PvE maps can do an incredible amount of damage and even spot in some situations, with the right retros and Sabrina or Erin as commander and using the bushes, and is viable also in PvP, even if needs much more finesse ( I got my single gold medal with it in RB mostly playing near the MBTs that was brawling and peeking out from a ridge exposing only part of my turret while i was melting the enemies occupied in fighting vs my party mates, not sniping from far) I think that the tanks that are unlocked by the T9 American are more interesting options, you have get a lot of xp to have the GAU really functional and tanks Sphinx and XM1A3 are very good tanks and Leo 2AX has the better gun of all the MBTs, very accurate, good damage and very strong HEAT, and as long as you learn how to use it has also decent protection, even if obviously is not a 490 or an ADTU, but at least his weak spot is the LFP that is way easier to protect then the spot under the gun.

 

Edited May 24, 2020 by BumbaX (see edit history)

[Katsumoto 11]

On 5/24/2020 at 1:52 PM, BumbaX said:

The M1A2C and the XM1A3 imo can not be compared........

Oh, but they can be.  There are people, such as my clan mates that asks certain questions such as how does it scale up and down the line instead of just across to other vehicles in that tier and use this information to gauge if they want to move forward with a certain vehicle.  From there they can get excited that they are getting something they will enjoy, if they have to tough it out and get through a certain period in it, or just forget about it and move on to other things. There are others that do the same thing, hence why the comparison two like I did to help him formulate his own opinion.

The question was asked for recommendations, I provided him my personal opinion.

[BumbaX 8]

@Katsumoto surely they can be compared, you misunderstood me. What I meant to say is that if we do it the American T10 IMO feels much superior compared to the T9 one and the roughly 50% more HEAT alpha damage, and also superior AP alpha, that maybe don't mean a sustained damage so higher in percentage, as also the reload time is increased, but surely mean that you can set enemies on fire or ammo rack them much more easier, in PvE with Sabrina as commander you do it almost always at the first shot with Bradley and very often with T15 and  some LT from the front and ATDU turret from the side.

This is why for me there is no comparison, I feel that one tier more in the same line brings a tank that is much better, when I use the XM1A3 i constantly do much more damage, and as I was lately grinding both them to unlock the over progression modules I played both at least once every day. I checked now their statistics and in PvE i have roughly 6k more average damage per match. I don't feel the same power ramp going from T9 to T10 with other MBT lines, Armata is better then T90MS, but not so better, Leclerc T4 is a very good tank, but also the T9 is so, is only with the American line that going from T9 to T10 i feel like when a turbo compressor kicks in.

[JintoLin 9]

Thank you everyone of the insights and recommendations. I have gone with the M1A2C first. I will be picking up the TTB some time later when in game currency will allow.