Disclaimer: I don't really like Arty as a tank class so I am biased against them. Also I didn't play Sandbox yet, because of lack of time with uni and work killing me, so I purely look at the stats and give you my thoughts on them.
As always I did madeabout it where I try to explain all this with pictures and examples as well as a tiny test to see if module damage has RNG in it.
The Good:
I do like that WG wants to make arty more " skill " based as you need to think what type of ammo you want to do. I do think that on live server the amount of damage artillery can do while still stunning you is too much, so I do welcome that in relation to liveserver arty will do around 15-22% less dmg with standard HE
I also do enjoy that you can get higher alpha HE ( 15% higher roughly) without stun so now you have to think what you choose and what you prefer.
The Bad:
Well having more damage will appeal to most players I think. Only a handfull of players and competetive players will use the Stun HE in the current iteration I think. Also why the hell can arty keep their RNG pen HE while all other tanks have to loose HE as it is not " reliable" and too Random? I don't get that logic. I find it personally far more frustrating to get penned by an Arty for 1000+ dmg then getting penned by a Scock for 500 in a Leopard 1. Plus it also removes the skill of using HE wisely. Like using it to oneshot artillery and getting risky in flanking enemies.
The Ugly:
Why do we need AP? its even more RNG. Yes its little dmg but it is defenitely not "reliable"! The accuracy doesn't give you reliability for that shell type. PLUS what I really REALLY do not like is that most likely because of their huge calibers the Artys will get big module damages. So now you have for example a T92 with ~580 AP alpha, but the Module DMG might be around 320 so it can, IF module dmg also has 25% rng, always oneshot an IS-7 when it hits the Ammorack and can damage it.
There are a lot of ifs in the Ugly part and this is why it is ugly. Do we need more RNG? Do we? I don't see the point in giving SPG's a Ammotype which is basically, Ohh if I am lucky I have a delete button but else I might just do less then a fifth of your dmg… I don't see the point in it.
Yes getting ammoracked is rare as you need to hit the ammorack. But mate, with deadeye its still a 30% chance you damage it.
Conclusion:
Those are just my thoughts quickly thrown together about the new changes. I do welcome the idea of having to decide between stun and dmg but I really dislike the AP as it is WAAAAY more RNG heavy then anything we had before. But what do you all think?
Kind Regards and Cheers
RagingRaptor
