lavawing

Just curious: what's the best arty for the job? Something fast-ish with a rapid firing stock gun? Or would it be more useful to run large calibre guns for maximum spashage?

I had great success in my 44-100 while tooned up with my buddy in his Mod 1. The armour of the Mod 1 and the reliability of the -44-100's gun let us 2 v 3 pretty much all mediums we met except for Centurions and 4202s. However, he did complain about not being fast enough to disengage from disadvantageous fights against things like Defenders. The Aussie Cent is great for point defence work, but I find that the gun just can't put out damage quickly or reliably enough, and the tank is a bit too large and slow to flex properly. I'm not sure if this comes with not running food, but I'd take the T-44-100 over it in every engagement which isn't point C or E. About the Lowe: tbh I don't think Frontline is really a good mode for heavies. The engagement ranges are too long, the map is overall too large, there are too many angles from which you can get cross-fired. Heavies that rely in particular on armour that only works from one direction, e.g. Chrysler, Liberte and even the Nameless, are particularly fucked. Even the IS-3A isn't as hot as it is in randoms since it just isn't cut out for frontline fighting except for guarding objectives in the last few minutes of the game. In my experience, heavies that work well here need: (1) a 35 km/h or above top speed, and can keep it, (2) a good snappy gun, (3) armour that works from multiple angles. This pretty much narrows it down to the Somua, the 50/53TP, and the IS-3. Even then, I'd rather take a good medium over most of them.

Here is what I noticed were the best performing tanks (SEAmeta so ymmv) LIGHTS: 432 is the best of the bunch, but still has issues against 240 alpha meds, then the occasional EVEN for bushing and wheeled thing, the Lynx irrc for active scouting. MEDS: Progetto/P44 for damage whoring, Lorraine for if you don't have those tanks , T-44-100 is godmode with quasi light mobility, best in class bloom and enough armour to hold positions. the only other medium which struck me as notable was the Cent RAAC, which is used more like a heavy for locking down the cap zone on point C. HEAVIES: IS-M or Defender with engineering for bumrushing caps. Chrysler works as well depending on spawn, but large profile means you get easily focused 50TP/Somua SM/3A for shitting out damage at a breakthrough or standstill, T26E5 and Caern AX for general stuff, though both generally compare unfavourably to the 53TP. Nameless for taking dumps on meds. TDS: SU-130PM then Skorp for being a TD. I prefer the SU since it's smaller and has better camo, but some may take the Skorp over it due to speed + accuracy. 120GFT then JPII: not as good as farming/sniping compared to the above two, but you can actually hold positions and DPM people down. ISU-152: sits on a ridge and delets u team When defending, at the mid-late game when people are focusing on objectives, you can actually go rambo behind enemy lines with anything that has enough speed and camo and just evaporate whole sections of their team.

#feelsbad having a 5A and 277

Thots: Easier to play than the 53TP which isn't even remotely hard to play by any stretch of the imagination. Don't sidescrape, just peek at a slight angle against small guns with <200 pen and at a 30 degree ish angle against big guns and pray they don't hit your side hull. The protruding drivewheels make this easier than it sounds to pull off. Gun depression is not an issue: upper hull is autobounce in most parts. Side gundep allows sneaky shots for big numbahs Better hulldown tank than the 53TP tho can't play heavium role. Gets worse hit by arty. Don't not run food

When the other side is firing 340 pen or above HEAT exclusively, I'd take the IS-4 above the E100 and the Type at least. The Type is strong and broken, but even pubbies have long learnt to focus them down with gold. The IS-5 is also faster than the others and the least inflexible option. It would be a pretty decent tank if only they'd give it something like 200 more DPM and E5 soft stats.

T-54>>>>>>430>>>>T-10 in terms of where they are on the med to heavy spectrum. The 430 is faster, more agile, has better camo, and is situationally the better bully. I personally prefer the T-10 for being reliable, but the 430 is a very effective alternative, and one that is cheap to upgrade and grind, and leads to a better tier 10.

I don't understand why tanks/armoured cars being hard to hit is a bad thing. There are 5 or 6 'sniping' tanks at tier 10 that currently have no point since shell velocity and accuracy barely make a difference. IMO tho it remains to be seen, this will probably punish TDs/SPGs a lot more than meds and non-brick heavies. If this somehow manages to cull TD/SPG numbers (nothing has, so far), I'd be happy with them.

And here I was wondering whatever could be taking WG so long to fart out its latest powercreep of the week..........

One other problem on the 50TP that in my experience has prevented getting consistent results is the baddish gold pen. 303 is not terrible, but it does mean there will sometimes be engagements that you simply cannot win due to not having the raw pen needed (340-ish) and cannot avoid being a normal heavy. Against good players in armoured tanks who don't make many mistakes, the 50TP feels limited. I generally prefer running the tier 8 50TP with food since that's so much more flexible while not being any worse tier for tier at trading.

actually doesn't make much difference except at sniping range

@leggasiini O Ho will literally be god mode if it gets through these 'rebalances' unaltered

'became'

imo playing like a medium in the current tier 10 climate is even more cancer than playing like a normal triple r(etard) heavy. besides, the IS-7 already has enough mobility and comfort to flex. the armour advantage that the IS-7 has isn't just for facetanking gold (which the 277 can also do pretty well thanks to angles + turret), but for mitigating otherwise unavoidable HE damage from arta focus and 4005s. the ability of the IS-7 to not get fucked for 500-700 damage HE shots and the slightly more generous HP pool makes it much easier to play and also play aggressively (which in turn helps mitigate the poor gold pen). I might and probably would take the 277 over the IS-7 if I were fighting mainly meds and 'normal' tenks, but atm I wouldn't go into tier 10 without the insurance I won't be double/triple tapped by 183s, which is not something the 277 can offer. Then again I suck in the 277 - worse stats than on the M4 54 so ymmv