CraBeatOff

HE changes are a mix. It will be a worse damage dealer because you can't slap IS-3 to death for 100 dmg but it has the RoF to track HTs. But equipment 2.0 will make it a 40% camo spotter which patches the biggest issue with the German LTs.

The 104 HEAT was around for about 2 years before the LT line extension to tier X (which is when the tech tree VK2801 lost it's derp in exchange for the improvements in MM). Virtually all my VK2801 games are from that period - i didn't play it much when it was tier V with 150 pen HEAT (10-20 games, I was bad then). But now it's getting the good MM from 6-8 instead of the 7-9 tiers from that intermediate period. And there's just so much soft stuff.

If you've played a lot of M41 90, Hwk30, Kpz07, RU251 and RhmPzW - then the 90-105 pen range is pretty familiar. There is a lot of stuff that is positionally vulnerable to that pen - and having 3100+ dpm in 350 chunks is no joke from a tier 6. Tier 8 TDs go down in a very short period with whatever round pens.

What's the standard for good? I'm so excited for this tank I'm prepared to try hard!

I am really tempted to come back just to play around with the 2801, it looks like a lot of fun and a blast from the past for me. I'll probably give it while though, because I figure playing a 2801 vs other 2801s might not be ideal? With endwalker about to release I have a pretty good excuse not to play anyway.

I haven't scrounged together a crew for mine yet, but I've been playing the tier 6 T78 a lot lately, and the 2801 horde really didn't last that long. Most games at that tier only have one or two VK's per side now, so it's starting to feel normal again.

I'll upload the session tonight!

Very nice.

Tried the stealth build on Standard B, didn't work out for me that well, felt the gun was simply too lacking.
I still have it as my secondary config, in case I get a map and team setup where I can break the game by taking on the role of light tank.
Ended up using bonused CVS, bounty optics and bounty stabs for my main, as the filthy viewrange and CVS really did add quite a bit to my spotting.

I was late on the uploads but the replays are in the Prog 65 thread in the Italian subforum.

What fields mods do you take specifically? So far i've been hesitant to take any with the tradeoffs.

Apologies if there's a post on the meta of this that i've missed.

@Snoregasm2 I posted my T49 ones but maybe not the others. I generally take a mod at each level with a few exceptions. Anything that increases camo gets taken. In most cases taking 3% VR for -2kph forward speed is taken - at least for the French and Italians.

Breech tweaking vs Aiming gears is an interesting one. For the Char4 and Prog 65 and Standard B i choose the dpm increase. For the Bat25t i choose the burst improvements. 90 dpm for far better follow up shots? Takes alot of minutes to equal even 1 extra pen due to gun handling.

The 3% dispersion vs 2% acc tradeoff is another interesting one. It's NOT for turret or rotation dispersion as modeled by tanks.gg but only movement dispersion. It amounts generally to 0.01 more bloom for 0.01 more accuracy. I usually chose the latter or nothing at all. 

Just did a quick comparison between a full stealth 140 and my current t100.

I lose like 5% camo but get 498m vr and gain a fuckton of armour and gun handling.

Might be worth a try, worst case scenario I'll be useless for one battle.

@CraBeatOff T49 is b/c eternal love or for real?

@graukatze Fun is a factor. But also because dual config patches the weaknesses. If you get Prok stealth up. If you get Ensk gun up and shoot butts for 700 with HEAT or burst softs for 910. The gun handling was significantly buffed in the patch that changed HE and HE shells penning tracks makes picking on softs easier. Generally they made the T49 gun very bad at splashing armor but very good at penning - through a combo of the shell mechanics changes, the handling and accuracy buff and the field mods you can deploy to further develop those characteristics. Plus the intuition changes mean you can always have the right shell to make the pen count. HEAT in 4s is enough to really pile into HT and MT and TD butts and sides.

Plus you also get 3% more camo and can trade some excess view range for other stats (speed?). In any case it's very serviceable in both the shooter and spotter roles now. On raw output of course the MTs are better. A Kunze, Char4, BatAP or Standard B easily makes 4k combined dmg and assist in this paradigm - but the T49 puts out 3200 pretty consistently - makes credits. It's gonna miss some shots and lose some games but having 200% more giggles is worth 3% wins imo.

@Snoregasm2 -- @CraBeatOff is a heretic. He also tested the Leo with stealth build... I'm waiting for his stealth build E3 and stealth build CGC.

I can't shoot. So i spot.

Quote

I can't shoot. So i spot.

Shall I post replays of your 8k dmg Strv game?

It works on the waffle4 also. Not quite as much camo but with bounty and directive you get 30% which is great for peeks. 

Someome tell me why i shouldn't put my bond turbo on the waffle4.

Quote

Someome tell me why i shouldn't put my bond turbo on the waffle4.

does it have to be a good reason? I can't think of one

Videos are up. Posted in Crab's Purple Poster Channel. My channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTfYqzUppSVQnzVDyKxU-UQ

Ah, so on Cliff you managed to get around 2k just on the meds on the sniper's ledge, plus some late game 1/2 line farm. That makes sense. What is your reload? It was bugged and I couldn't see. And view range / set up (it feels like at least 500m)? I'm wondering whether it is worth dropping bonds on.

In terms of El Halluf, all I can say is KEKL. I did not realise you could spot that cross from your side at tier 10. I know it was only 1 or 2 shots, but useful to know. Nice use of HE too, especially on the retards who just drove into the open after winning the heavy corner.

Last thought - I don't know how your 3rd person aim so much, it would fuck me up. Kudos if you can do it though, it's preferable to not be constantly switching between 3rd and 1st person.

Yeah El Halluf is riddled with tons of weird spots for doing super specific stuff but since north is such a safe bet it’s where people will always go and never explore the map besides trying beach every once in a while so it goes unnoticed. I couldn’t make it reliable enough though to replace just duking it out up north for results in pretty much anything though 
 

Cliff spotting is almost always done through winning mid and using donut to light 1-2/sniper ledge as that’s really the only area where you can really leverage a VR disparity on the map (elevation disparity for 1-2 as well) 

Cliff was big numbers from cleanup spotting for sure. But what i was most surprised by was my ability to stay concealed in the middle and spot through the bushes to keep vision up on the HT cross and always have first shot from camo on anyone using their ramp. That MT that was contesting middle literally couldn't see me in that bush until i fired.

The VR is 493 , i put bond vents on it. 480 is about where theorycraft says that CVS gets "good". Obviously the EBR is a special case. But the 420 base plus purple vents and other stuff gives me 493 and CVS makes that work a bit better with bushes. Reload is 7.0 seconds. 3300 dpm - far less than the 3900+ that @kolni would make use of! But it still is a decent amount and useful. The Tortoise on El Halluf found out the hard way!

Re: El Halluf. I do all kinds of shit not on the corner - mostly because I've had to figure out how to play LTs on it. That was a sequence I'd do in a LT...except I'd die to the Tort and be angry.

I've still been doing okay in it but I've never really been one to farm damage with HE splash mechanics as it is.  I also haven't had a real chance to put it through its paces cause I'm busy doing the job hunt song and dance.

I do however greatly enjoy the updated Intuition - I had a match earlier today where Intuition and a lucky high roll on penning with a HEAT round helped delete a defending E50 ... and ended up only delaying our loss because our E50 ended up being a tard and leaving base cap.  

Got my first ace in it since coming back just now on Fisherman's Bay south spawn.  LT-15.4 purely on spotting damage... and a draw because I make some poor decisions at the end due to not thinking everything completely through

http://wotreplays.eu/site/5934346#fisherman_s_bay-clorox_connoisseur-t49

Feels bad, man.

After testing for a while I am officially triggered over the HE changes. They're just inexplicably bad. They clearly wanted to make HE basically useless against heavier armor and they succeeded.

oh christ

I don't have the Bourrasque and really didn't plan on picking one up but that sounds hilarious so I may keep an eye out

It's disgustingly broken. Like playing the best in class tier 9 LT...except at tier 8 and matched vs MTs. I'm averaging something like 2300 damage and just shy of 2k spotting for 50+ games

Stay away dont come back lol.

But why? I've been unsalty for years now. If I quit its due to competing demands, and if I come back it's because I have some discretionary time I want to burn with my pals for the lulz. 

T49 gifs when?

Are you playing Frontlines?

I am back to WoT, occasionally the labs.

T49 gifs when @TheChang and I find the time.

Frontlines is horrifically boring, I would much much rather play pubs. 

gotta prioritize them irl gains

Aw, man.. I was wondering why we hadn't seen you in a while. 
@CraBeatOff, hope to see you back before too long. Thanks for all of the encouragement and advice up to now.
 

Just noticed this.  Bummed that you're taking a forced hiatus.  Hope an upgrade falls in your lap soon.

I played for a bit yesterday, just have been busy.

We miss you on G ts! Please come by!

But I'm keeping the 5.5in Conway, cause it's funny

536m

4 hours ago, CraBeatOff said:

536m

*spits out water*

Imagine that on a T-100 with max camo 

Yea you can get the T-100 up to like 517 or something. It's 390 base won't reach the extreme levels the T49s 410 base can. But if you want to see what crazy camo and 535+ does those elc 90 replays...

2 more days of playing and then i can stick a purple rammer on something :^)

.... sigh.. of course they start some bond event when I was out of country. :/

HE is best ammo comrade.

But it's got a turret depression and goes 40, so just try to get an angle and wait for a turret break if you must harass a super.

I switched to the 5.5in and I think I might have to switch back to the 120mm. My DPG has dropped off. I'm having a lot of trouble dealing with how much clumsier this gun is. Positions I used to be able to work are now off limits because of how much more exposure time it takes to bring the 5.5in on target. I've never had so many 0 damage shots from a gun. 

It's not good. Just funny.

My bad, i got to the 416 in 48 games or so. The A-44 was pretty potato. free xpd all the modules on the 416, seems pretty nice so far, only done 3 games or so though. Probably be done with it in 2 nights or so. 

2x xp bonus wasn't worth much for me yesterday. Playing at my usual blueish level, but with under 40% WR. I'm not great at this game, but I usually win more than the afkers. Ah well, small sample sizes and all that.

I'm not really grinding anything but I've been playing T49 and not using boosters - i've done about 200k out of the 300k free xp i need for the 430 so far.  Gonna spend all day tomorrow with boosters on and see how it goes

Optics VS and Rammer.

VS and rammer doesn't need any introduction

152 means you are gonna have a lot of downtime to scout, you need VR more than say GLD even tho you are starving for aimtime.

152 is just shit tho, outside of occasional pens you are basically useless since a 152m HE to the side of a HT is most likely 300 dmg more or less at 19 sec reload, your early/mid/late game role is basically reduced to scout with occasional harrassment, which doesn't do shit on maps like plisen/himms or any city map in general.

Would that change with improved equipment? I've found that rammer is my least preferred 3rd module as I'm so rarely stringing shots together - and that i feel i miss out on more damage from either final accuracy (mitigated by vents) or not being able to close the reticle in time (mitigated by GLD). 

With 152 i find city fights are great, since like the Type4/5 and unlike other LTs you don't need to flank - frontally hits heavies and superheavies for 350, splashes tracks and sidescrapes for the same. The trouble comes on open maps where accuracy and aimtime are key factors - like steppes and overlord

Haha. Why was he even aimed at me? It's the Zen of the T49, RNGesus giveth and he taketh too. In a later game which had shit gameplay i 1-shot an udes for all 1000 hp and then on the next reload i cupola penned an Strv 103-0 for 1005 (at 350m). 

Thanks for posting those CraB. I saw some different things I wouldn't have otherwise tried. 

My pleasure. I'll do more as i play.

pic or it didnt happen ;p

I'll put up a replay pack tomorrow

yayy

Waffle4 and JT are pretty decent tier 9s these days actually

Also no t95? It's broken as balls now that it's not slower than tog

I played the German TDs and just didn't get into them. But neither under 3/5/7. Should revisit