Surprisingly, this isn't a rant about arty (which means i'm probably getting downvoted to hell).
DISCLAIMER: I'm not an arty player, and I'm not 100% pro-arty and pro-whatever stuff goes with it, so you might want to read this thread till the end to see what I mean.
Also, many of you will probably disagree with the points I make, so feel free and correct me in the comments, maybe I'll change my mind after all.
So, what I want to say is that arty is important for the game and creates a unique playing experience. Here's why:
- It punishes players who have a bad playstyle against arty, eg. players who don't know how to avoid or dodge it.
Let's say you're playing a hull-down HT on Westfield. You take a shot at someone, fall back behind the ridge line and wait about 10s until you reload. If you get hit by arty at that moment, it's your fault. You should reduce the chance of arty hitting you (or even focusing you) by making unpredictable movements.
This goes for all tank classes, but mainly HTs and TDs. For each situation you need a different tactic to avoid arty. Makes players use some more brain while playing.
- Arty "appreciates" the spotter's work.
When you're spotting, a good arty player will shoot the enemies right away, punishing them for being on a vulnerable and exposed spot.
If the arty player isn't good at what they're doing… then you just have to hope the spotted enemies aren't that good at dodging arty.
In both cases the spotter gets rewarded for spotting properly.
- It adds balance to else unbalanced matches (oh boy, lot's of triggered people in the comments coming up)
Imagine being top tier with your Tiger II + T32 platoon against a Defender platoon on the enemy team. If there's no arty (or incompetent arty), your platoon gets smashed, you have a trash game, meanwhile the Defender platoon has an amazing game.
If there is arty, you get a better chance at winning by luring them into the line of fire of the one thing that actually can destroy those OP tanks.
- Arty is a free kill at the end of the game.
Only if the don't kill you first, that is
Now onto the stuff that I think is wrong with arty.
- The arty playerbase.
Most players play arty just because of missions. These players often aren't that good at playing arty (I'm one of them mediocre arty players), or they focus entirely on the mission and end up stunning a MT instead of helping the heavies on an open map.
Then there are the infamous players with 20k battles with arty and a 45% WR. Yeah, they suck. Sometimes they're good arty players with a good WR though. It's always good to have them on the team.
And god do I hate the arty players that go after lights. Watched one of my friends playing arty, he prevents the lights from """camping""". It's a pain to watch, even though he's pretty good at it tbh.
- Being on bad maps with superheavys against arty.
Man do I hate when I'm on Malinovka with my Type 4. There is no way to prevent that from happening except blacklisting the worst maps for superheavys. It's pretty much the equivalent of getting Himmelsdorf with a LT.
Lastly, some pretty popular opinions that I disagree with:
- "There should be a maximum of one arty per game"
Yes, that would be nice, but there's a pretty big downside to it. No match would be without arty, since the 2/3 arty that aren't in one battle will get thrown in an artyless game.
- "They say arty prevents camping, but it doesn't"
Good arty players do. And, if someone is good at camping, no arty can get them. And you can't just take down the campers and help your heavies at once.
I'm not that good at writing, so congrats if you made it all the way to here lol.
TL;DR: Arty currently has its flaws, but it still is needed in the game and gets way more hate than it should.