The Hairy Meow Appreciation Thread

[Haswell 294]

Harimau, hairy meow. Go figure.

I free-XP'd to the improved load conveyor right off the bat because I was impatient, my confirmation bias keeps telling me it's well worth it and my buyer's remorse should shut up. Who am I to argue against myself?

First impression is that this is a Stingray all grown up. The extremely fast burst reload meant I could dump out ~2k damage within the span of less than 5 seconds, which is guaranteed to delete anything with 1800 hitpoints or lower. Superior Bradley bots at 1909 hitpoints can also be reliably deleted assuming I don't low roll. Keeping in mind that the tier 8 meta still faces a lot of BMPs and BMDs as well as fragile and normal bots, this makes the Harimau extremely capable at removing priority targets faster than everything at tier 8. The downside is that its DPM output drops off significantly once the RR is depleted, my 5.69s reload pales in comparison to the Dragun's 4.89s or the ST1's 3.67s. Even so, good positioning can easily compensate.

Mobility-wise, it's extremely slow for a squishy. You're still faster than every MBT, but you won't be winning any races. Despite having a high top speed you'll still take forever (relatively) to go faster than 70km/h without using the Override ability. That being said, it's still fast enough for me to get to positions with plenty of time to spare, I just have to start moving slightly earlier than I'm used to.

Vision control is nothing to write home about, though it does have marginally higher camo than other lights (38% vs 37%). Armor is nothing special either, not getting shot at is still the best defense.

 

Overall a very fun vehicle to play, definitely less boring than conventional single-shot squishies. I only wish it has HEAT so I can dump out even more damage.

 

 

This is also a hairy meow, but she's a whole lot prettier.

[JCPershing 0]

The tank gets a 7/10 from me.

Main reasons being no HEAT shell, big as a house, HESH at T8 is meh,and the low AP pen compared to other T8 lights.

As positive points I like it how stealthy it is, the rapid fire active skill to fill the rack faster and the improved load conveyor to unload it even faster.

[Haswell 294]

I too opted to use Rapid Fire instead of Override for refilling the ready rack faster, since it cuts almost a full second off my per-round reload and up to 4 seconds of total reload time. It's not much, but it's definitely useful for quick repositioning or waiting for bots to spawn.

20 seconds of speed boost is nice, but I tend to spend more time shooting than having to run long distances.

No HEAT makes me sad.

[EbenezerScrooge 5]

with HEAT it would be so OP 

I'm using HEAT all the time and it was kinda painful to play with AP. This thing rocks and its a good addition to this game.   Fun to play 

[Haswell 294]

Finished the grind at 20k DPG, could definitely be higher had I not dragged it through SH for x4 bonuses. Knowing when to save up for that 2k damage burst (or less) and when to transition to single shot is crucial in maintaining a high and constant damage output.

The poor mobility definitely got on my nerves at a lot of times. Sure it's fast enough to get to positions in time, but competing against others in racing to such positions showcase makes it feel extremely slow in comparison. I'm definitely not going to outrun Draguns or other squishier things.

Still wish it has a HEAT option.

[BumbaX 8]

No HEAT, decent mobility, but inferior to the one of some PvE competitors, probably is not the best LT at his tier, i would say that the Dragun is the best one.

I still have to test it properly in Random Battle and there its burst capability probably make it way more interesting as the time windows an enemy tank is exposed are usually shorter, then he dies fast, pops out smoke or reaches some kind of cover, to pack massive damage in a short time is a real bonus to punish every error from the enemy. It has burst damage capability without the problem of being helpless as he reloads, like it happens on the PL01, and if an enemy counts your shots and pops out and attacks you as you are reloading with a PL you have a real problem as you can not react for many seconds.

In Random Battle i would probably use the choice with more shots in the rack, in PvE i find better to use the other one as you tend to fire almost continuously if properly positioned and in most of the maps and with only 4 shells in the rack you have a better sustained damage. You loose 2 shots at the beginning but usually you catch up later reloading faster.

Edited March 29, 2020 by BumbaX (see edit history)

[Lenticulas 9]

what do you think the best final upgrade is (for glops/pve . .)

either:

• the 6 round burst Ammo rack
• or increase burst speed "Improved load Conveyor"/autoloader thing

Normally i'd just say the Autoloader - but i do actually run out of the 4 shots ...

 

I like the thing, it has decent .. everything
except initial acceleration (for an LT) where it's a  bit slow.
Apart from that, pretty damn good. - I like light vehicles anyway

 

 

Edited April 17, 2020 by Lenticulas (see edit history)

[Haswell 294]

I'd say the increased burst speed upgrade is THE defining feature of the Harimau. The ability to quickly dump out 4 shots for 2000 damage within 5 seconds gives you far higher effective DPM, and will greatly minimize your exposure time if you're spotted. Your DPM also isn't too bad in single shot mode, you can keep firing even after emptying your RR for a while in case you just need a few more shots to remove something.

It's all about juggling whether or not you should wait to reload the RR or just keep firing after the 4 shot burst. Sometimes I wait until I have 2 shots loaded so I can quickly dish out 1000 damage, other times I just keep going if I know I'll lose out on too much damage if I wait. It's all about experience sadly, so I don't really have guidelines on when to reload and when to keep firing.

[BumbaX 8]

With the Improved load Conveyor it has almost 600 more sustained damage, so for PvE it is what I use, I had try both and seems the choice that works better for me.

For Glops it depends on your own style, the commander you use and the ammo you use, if you use HEP 4 shots should ammo rack almost everything if you know where to aim, using Sabrina probably only 2 or 3 shots are needed even if the enemy has more ammo rack HP for the commander he is using, but it is true only flanking at short or medium distance as the min spread is not fantastic, if you fight at longer distances AP is less damaging, but more reliable, so to have 6 shots is probably better.

[Lenticulas 9]

I jumped in and put the Improved load Conveyor"/autoloader thing on it, and had a glops game....

  ..... bang, bang, bang, bang, oh you're dead, sorry :-)

That is absolutely a good decision. I'm not saying that the 6-round clip might also not have its advantages, but I think I'll stick with this one for now.

Ammo: for glops I've been using AP, since reliability beats the lucky chance to get the position to ammorack them IMHO.

AND very importantly, the higher speed of AP, means you hit much more often on distant, and moving targets, and that more than makes up for maybe a bit less theoretical damage per shot.

_________________________

As for what @BumbaXt   and @Haswell were saying re: tactics, I think of it, starting from the other end. By that I mean that if I set up the vehicles in a certain way, it enables certain tactics, rather than taking playstyle X and trying to fit everything around that. Although maybe I just have 3 preferred play styles, so I can set up quite a few tanks in different ways and still get something out of them... not sure. It probably ends up as the same thing anyway. 

OK, to the point:

Having the Load Conveyor ie "super-duper clip you out in 10 seconds" upgrade, means I have the Rate of Fire to jump round the corner and take someone out, so that tactic becomes feasible. I like that tactic. You can do it in a centauro and it feels natural because I really like both Stingrays. And it's good for glops, because getting people out of an area, eg a cap, definitely improves your chances of winning.

Edited April 17, 2020 by Lenticulas
Stoopid android autocorrection (see edit history)

[Lenticulas 9]

Ok, a really stupid question:

this 'click x' Suspension locking thing.

If 'unlocked' enables the extra-fancy suspension mode, for extra gun depression, supposedly like an Altay (i think), OK that's great.

Then what's the point of locking it? ... I suppose you could lock it forward and drive around with the top plate a bit more angled forward . ... although with the Hari's 'armour', I'm not sure if this is useful at all?

 

PS. the Hari is an absolutely excellent vehicle for Glops.

Edited May 7, 2020 by Lenticulas (see edit history)

[Katsumoto 11]

5 hours ago, Lenticulas said:

Then what's the point of locking it? ... I suppose you could lock it forward and drive around with the top plate a bit more angled forward . ... although with the Hari's 'armour', I'm not sure if this is useful at all?

Someone told me that he got sick of the gimbled affect where he was on a slopped surface.  He was facing front and allow the hull to do its thing as the target started to drop below his gun depression but when he turned the turret to get a shot off on something to the side the tank "rocked" as he was trying to target another tank resulting in a missed shot.  That is the only thing I could think of for a time to actually lock the hull on the HM.

[Lenticulas 9]

"Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful 4-shot Autoloader?"

This thing is superb.

Armour
- Not much, but the turret will stop AC fire, and you may get the occasional lucky bounce.
Your main protection is the other guy being dead, because you just clipped him out. That and speed and bushes.

Spotting/camo
+ Reasonable Range
+ Reasonable camo
+ No camo penalty while moving.

Armament
+++ AMAZING burst damage. I want this gun on every tank.
+ Very good gun depression, via suspension, I haven't met a ridge line I couldn't peek over.
+ Ready rack loads quickly. 5 sec per shot, is faster than many tanks' normal reload.
- Not good for swapping ammo types, since you have to empty the whole rack, and reload from scratch. Or carefully watch and swap when it's naturally empty. - Don't bother, just blam AP.
- No anti-infantry Machine gun. So you will have trouble with infantry, and having thin armour, an AT Squad can do you serious damage.

Speed
- Accelerates slowly (fit Top Speed ability, and get good acceleration!)
+ easy to manoeuvre around objects/reverse out of trouble
+ good top speed when you get there

Troops
- none

Misc
I haven't bothered with the Rapid Fire ability: I can dump the rack in under 5 seconds, and I don't think doing this any faster, gets you much benefit in the real world.

To explain:
For this ability to make a difference, the faster rack dump would have to prevent them from shooting you more. Whatever happens, they are probably going to shoot you once. That means their tank must already have a sub-4.5 second rate of fire, to stand a chance of a second shot. Maybe this applies to... another Harimau, Centauro 120?, or one of those AA machine-cannons: GAU-8 Avenger, Griffin. Most vehicles get one shot and then go back to the garage/respawn point. Of course Rapid Fire also ruins your accuracy, so you may well miss a shot.

Upgrade possiblities
+ you don't have to buy both ultimate loading upgrades, so you get the best one first, without having to bother with the other.
+ AP ammo works fine from stock

Commander
Anything with damage, camo, whatever. I actually have been using Rashid the missile guy, since I'm grinding him, and the only relevant skills he has are: Less Camo Penalty while Firing, and some module damage, and he works just fine.

Other
Everything here is mostly in regard to Glops. Works fine in pve too. Haven't tried it in pvp.

 

I finished it after 60 Glops matches with 61.7% - I'll take that any day of the week.

Crazy fun: 9/10
Effectiveness: 9/10

 

Edited May 12, 2020 by Lenticulas
Adding goth poetry (see edit history)

[Beeda2004 2]

Harimau

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Medium_Weight_Tank

https://army-guide.com/eng/product6044.html

0.33