Supertest - Cobra, AKA the Caliban 2.0 - another perfect example of absolutely terrible balancing by WG (4x360 or 4x515 in 3.99 seconds, gg)

[leggasiini 1,567]

This thing silently appeared in-game files around a year ago, it's actually viewable on tanks.gg with placeholder stats (that are quite frankly pretty hilarious). 

Now it has been finally officially revealed...and god, I wish it never was.

Remember the Caliban? I thought WG wouldn't ever be able to introduce an abomination that could contest with the Caliban. Yet here we are, only a month later, they introduce what is effectively a Caliban 2.0 (before the 1.0 was even released). The Cobra seems dogshit for most part - bad armor, mediocre top speed, bad dispersion, 4 second aim time and only HEAT as non HE shells. Then you see what it has going for - it has 4 shell magazine, with 1.33 second intra-clip reload. It has 360 alpha with standard, so it can deal 1440 damage in just 3.99 seconds. But that's not all - it also gets HESH shells with nearly 50% more alpha and actually very good pen at 219 mm (pretty sure that's the 2nd best HESH in the game, only beaten by the 183s). That's right, the Cobra can deal 2k damage in under 4 seconds if it pens all the shells. Just to give a perspective, the WT E100 would need 50% more time to deal 10% more damage (2260 vs 2060), and it was a whole tier higher. What the actual fuck.

Unlike the Caliban, the Cobra isn't COMPLETELY crippled with gun stats, either. It doesn't need ridiculous RNG to completely delete you like the Caliban does. While the hard stats seem dogshit (0.4 dispersion and 4 sec aim time, which is tied for the 2nd longest in the game with the KV-2, and only beaten by the aforementioned Caliban), they're not even nearly as bad as they're with the Caliban, and it also gets 0.14/0.14/0.08 movement bloom, which honestly all things considered is actually very decent for an autoloading tier 9 MT, let alone for something that has such a stupid clip potential. The Cobra is the ultimate wet dream of a bot who likes to yolo people with his autoloaders, ruin someone's game and die instantly in return. It's PERFECT for exactly just that, but in return it's likely absolutely terrible at everything else. What a fantastic design. Sure, it can't consistently delete tanks from full HP, considering how many shortcoming it has. However, the fact the potential is even there in the first place is bad enough. No matter how terrible the tank itself is, (potential) insta-kills are bad for the game.

The most depressing, sad, infuriating, hilarious (or whatever you prefer) thing about the Cobra is that it actually has a chance to be a tier 9 premium. So not only we have a complete abomination of a tank, but it there's also a chance that someone with less than 500 games could buy the said "complete abomination of a tank" for money. The absolute peak comedy would be putting this in this years Christmas boxes alongside the Caliban (which all things considered is a very likely candidate). Remember when some people said that tier 9 is the last "safe place" with far better balance than tier 8, 10 and lower tiers? The Cobra is coming to say "fuck you" to all of those people.

This one, this masterpiece right here, is the perfect solution to the all the problems the game has. Absolutely beautiful. Someone who designed and balanced this tank should be awarded. 

[GehakteMolen 2,063]

50 sec reload for 4x360 is also pure ghetto, Char futur has 40 sec with 4x 390 (and alrdy has poor dpm / long reload)

This cobra will be total garbage...

I rly hope they are placeholder stats for a new tank line, or for an event, but given we get the YOLO tanks for end of year new tech tree, this brit crap tanks could still and as prems...

[SchnitzelTruck 3,600]

This thing is gonna be the shittiest tank in tier for consistency.

Pub trash will load one clip of 219pen HE and proceed to either 1 clip a poor medium or die after dealing 4x100 damage to a heavy tank. Option B is load heat and proceed to hit spaced armor, low pen roll e100 lower plates, and cry like a little bitch.

[Panzergraf 68]

All the 38% pubbies will love this!

[kolni 69,670,872]

Lmao it’s just a pinata

[ZXrage 1,318]

>nearly as bad dispersion stats as a KV-2

Imagine needing to pray for any of the four shots you're going to take. Who would you even pray to? Churchill? Doesn't quite have as nice of a ring as Stalin

[CraBeatOff 5,741]

Need this gun on the Sheridan plz.

[sr360 4,988]

On 10/4/2021 at 11:16 PM, ZXrage said:

>nearly as bad dispersion stats as a KV-2

Imagine needing to pray for any of the four shots you're going to take. Who would you even pray to? Churchill? Doesn't quite have as nice of a ring as Stalin

THATCHER!

[Fulcrous 2,073]

On 10/5/2021 at 4:22 PM, CraBeatOff said:

Need this gun on the Sheridan plz.

*heavy crab breathing noises*

[Expendable_Lad 753]

On 10/7/2021 at 12:18 AM, sr360 said:

THATCHER!