My thoughts on the PTS:
Please provide additional feedback to Tier 7-10 MBTs in 0.33. What would you improve? What seem to be the problems?
The mobility and vision changes feel good. I like the fact that MBT should have less spotting than spotting vehicles. The Mobility changes are nice because you feel like you can get to the front lines quickly and be in positions you need to be in to perform the role that you're designed for. However, the nerfs to armour profiles makes them pretty silly.
I'm really not sure why the armour profiles were changed so much. Making MBT side armour almost paper thin (200-500) seems a strange balance to me. I can only assume that making every tank bland, and basically the same, is an error or oversight. Giving every tank the same weakspots and making them larger (bar 1 case) seems like it removes skill and knowledge of the game and reduces rewards for long term players who have knowledge of all the other tanks weakspots and what pen is needed for each case. This is not a rewarding gameplay experience, this feels like it's pandering to make the game an arcade shooter which doesn't reward skill and knowledge, rather who can fire quicker.
The T-14 now is a powerhouse. It has amazing armour (best frontal armour of any tier 10), mobility and firepower. Sadly, EVERY other tank on the PTS just pales in comparison. It has better frontal armor than the Chally, it has better DPS than the Merk, it has better speed than the Leo. In it's current state, there is simply no reason to play ANY other tank. If the PTS changes get released on Live, I think there would be a strong argument for "Russian Bias" being actually true. The T-14 can perform EVERY role in one tank, where as all other MBT's are shadows of their former selves where they don't really fit any role well. The ATGMs on the tank now take over the role of the PISH shells as they will, frequently, destroy several internal components of a tank and have over 1000mm of heat pen. If anything slightly angles against you, you can wreck it through the sides, or simply track it, flank and wreck the target with a 2nd ATGM in 5 seconds. If it stays at a distance, then you have a topdown ATGM. It fills front & back line roles and can kill anything it faces with relative ease while remaining relatively safe due to unmanned turret, great armour and a rapid fire gun.
The reduction in damage to the ATDU Pish shells is strange, it's a niche shell that performs 1 task well and allows the ATDU to perform some what decently. Adding 10mm of pen, but reducing damage by 33% is a crap trade off. It can't disable things with 1 shots anymore, often requiring 2 or 3 shots do knock out a turret ring or ammo rack, so it doesn't really fill any role. By the time you've done 1800 damage, it's piers can dish out around 3-5k. Combined with the "slow" reload (of around 8 seconds) makes it a weak choice to play in any map. It's armor is now crap and you can't angle at all as you WILL be penned.
The Leo, while having a high damage shell, is weak frontally and will get killed quickly. I always imagine it to be more of a "support" MBT, slightly behind the front line providing fire support. Now with the mobility changes, I feel it won't really be able to perform that role as it will be playing catch up all the time.
The Merk is interesting as having a 4 second re-arm on it's shots is pretty silly! Highest DPM and great frontal armour. Not sure if this was intended or a mistake
I did not test the Abrams line as it was clearly inferior to every other line.
As it stands, there is little (if any) point in picking any shell other than a gun fired ATGM. AP can bounce, Heat has been nerfed, so you run with ATGMs as if they can pen, they hit harder than any other shell. If they don't pen, they'll still deal damage.
Please provide additional feedback to Tier 7-10 AFVs in 0.33. What would you improve? What seem to be the problems?
The limited play of AFVs I performed left them feeling somewhat lacking. With the mobility buffs to MBTs I didn't really see a need to test them extensively as they would be overtaken by MBTs with similar / higher effective DPS and better armour. If a MBT is infront of you already spotting and dealing large amounts of damage, why would you be sitting behind them trying to spot for them and not be able to deal damage?
Please provide additional feedback to Tier 7-10 TDs in 0.33. What would you improve? What seem to be the problems?
The only TDs that stood a chance at keeping up with MBT dps were ATGM based ones, or if it wasn't ATGM based, then equipping full ATGM loadouts. They still fell short. The mobility and vision range nerfs on TDs felt like it wasn't needed. They are designed to get to a spot and sit there for a while, while being stealthy and wrecking things from a distance.
Now it feels like the best TD is the T-14. It has better / the same damage output with higher mobility & armour.
With dedicated ATGM based TD's, I'm not sure the reason for longer intra-shot delays. They have, in most cases, worse performance to MBT's. The AFT for example, can hit hard with it's ATGMs, but it fires a salvo of 8 ATGMs with ~4 seconds intra-shot delay. Once it has shot 8, it'll than have to reload for ~30 seconds. Replace the AFT with a T-14 and suddenly you have similar / better performing ATGMs on a ~5 second reload, with no long reload, with the advantage of Top Down attacks at high range.
The reintroduction of 'chip' damage is concern as now, even if your opponent plays their MBT well, they can always be damaged. If, for example, an AFT can unload all 8 ATGMs into the enemy tank, even if you don't pen they will be taking around 1700 damage (1 ATGM blocked by APS). This will not give MBT's a good player experience as it doesn't reward skill, it rewards lobbing ATGMs at a target and getting rewarded for it. While yes, it won't kill the MBT, it will knock nearly half of it's HP off. Now if you platooned up with somebody else who owned the AFT, you now have 16 ATGMs and can do around 3600 damage - enough to cripple or kill most MBTs, without scoring a penetrating hit. This is not rewarding gameplay, this is making ATGMs the ONLY choice in any tank, on ANY platform.
Please provide additional feedback to Tier 7-10 LTs in 0.33. What would you improve? What seem to be the problems?
A less armoured version of MBTs, with worse mobility. It felt like they were outperformed in their role.
Edit: As if feels, if PTS changes went live, it would kill the game. It would become Armoured Warfare T-14 ATGM Edition, or simply just be called Project Armarta, with the removal of all other tanks from the game, just different tiers of the T-14