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.

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I can't shoot. So i spot.

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