The Rebalance: Biggest Winners and Losers

[Jwimmer 2,835]

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         We have all heard about it, and we all have our own opinions. Without a doubt, the rebalance take II is the biggest update in the past few years. However, the tables of numbers are incredibly challenging to sort through, and not worth the time to read as of right now. So, I decided to do some of the work for you, and compile a completely objective list and explanation of the biggest winners and losers of this update. I will start with the hulls and then get into the turrets. For all analysis, I will be looking solely at the M3 stats, to reduce confusion.

 

 

The biggest winner of the hulls

         With a minuscule decrease in hitpoints, a sizeable increase in speed, and only a small loss in acceleration and weight, Viking is the biggest winner of the hulls. The speed stat actually makes it swap places with Hunter, with Viking becoming the fastest medium hull. While the loss in weight will not be ideal for the hull, gameplay using Viking never has involved a whole lot of pushing, but rather moving around enemies.

 

The biggest losers of the hulls

         When you think of Wasp, you think of a speedy hull that has the ability to get behind cover, quick. The fact that Wasp has lost so much speed, acceleration, and turning speed ties it for the biggest loser of the hulls. While it has gotten a bit more hitpoints, that has never been the purpose of a Wasp.

         On the other side of the spectrum is Mammoth, which got a major nerf. It has gotten the largest decrease in hitpoints, where the main purpose of a Mammoth is currently to be big, and not die. Even with the major increase in speed, Mammoth has now become weak in comparison to its former self.

 

Where the rest of them rank

         The rest of the hulls all fall in-between the extremes. Out of the remaining ones, Hornet and Hunter came off fairly well. They both got increases in hit points and overall maneuverability, which play into the styles of each hull fairly well. Hornet got a handy increase in speed, and I can see it becoming the choice attacking hull, whereas Hunter seems to be a great choice for a roaming midfielder.

         Dictator and Titan did not get off as easily as the rest of the hulls. They both lost health while gaining some speed. Dictator lost turning speed, which seems more fitting for such a large tank. Titan lost a large amount of weight, which does not work in favor of its physical, pushing playstyle.

 

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Overall impression of hull balancing

         If you are looking for an objective piece here, go ahead and skip this section, as this will be my thoughts on the hull balancing. I think that this is not the direction the game needs to go. One of the best parts of Tanki has been the extreme diversity of equipment, with a wide array of hulls being one of the key aspects of this diversity. However, this update seems to have squashed all hulls closer together, effectively decreasing hull diversity.

 

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The biggest winners of the turrets

         Here are the big 3. If you have at least one of these turrets already, you should be set once the update hits. The most improved turrets are Freeze, Firebird, and Thunder.

         Freeze has gotten a much-needed increase in damage, along with the ability to Freeze up enemy tanks much faster. The one main thing it lost was a little bit of rotation speed, which should not be too big of a deal to Freeze-users.

         Firebird now promises to be the definitive short-range weapon. Its damage and reload speed have both gotten better, while the heating rate has been cut in half, with another decrease in temperature limit (whatever that means…). While the decrease in heating rate is definitely a loss, the heightened damage and reload speed being cut in half definitely take the cake here.

         The other big winner is Thunder. For a long time now, Thunder enthusiasts have been lobbying for a shorter reload time, even saying that a shorter reloading time and lower damage is fine. However, what happened is even better- the minimum damage has been increased, the maximum damage has been decreased but only slightly, and reload time has been decreased by about a quarter of a second. The higher impact force and longer range is really the icing on the cake (hmm, I’m starting to see a theme here)

 

The biggest losers of the turrets

         Isida and Vulcan users, prepare to buy a new turret. Both have gotten major nerfs, with the most important aspects of each getting major changes.

         The most notable change in Isida is self-healing getting decreased by over 4x. No longer will Isida be unstoppable while in small maps, and no longer will it be able to kill a Twins and still have half-health. While the damage has been increased, its special sauce has always been the ability to lose minimal health in combat. While I, personally, am excited about most of these things, I am worried to see the large decrease in healing. Isida has always been the medic, but with that value going down, I have a feeling that popularity of Isida will go down a lot.

         Light hull-users, rejoice! The impact force of Vulcan has been chopped right in half! This means that all hulls will actually be able to control themselves when being fired upon by a Vulcan. For Vulcan users, some other notable changes have happened. Your damage has been slightly increased, but rotation speed has been made even slower. Furthermore, your tank will heat up faster, which does not bode well with the decrease in hitpoints in the large hulls.

 

The most absurd change of the Turrets

         When I viewed the changes to Railgun the first time, I immediately refreshed my page to fix the chart that I thought was glitched out. Turns out, it was correct. This is the change that will, no doubt, have the largest effect on the game. Its damage has received a major nerf, while reload time has been decreased by almost two seconds. This means a faster-paced, less camping oriented playstyle for Railgun. With Railgun being the most-used turret in the game, this will completely shake up the speed of gameplay on almost every map.

 

Where the rest of the turrets rank

         While some turrets have undergone major changes, Hammer, Twins, and Ricochet have remained almost the same. All 3 have received increases in damage, with Hammer also getting an improvement in reload time. However, Twins will now fire more slowly, and Ricochet will have more time in-between shots. Of course, all of these changes have been balanced out with other stats, such as Ricochet using less energy per shot, Twins getting an increased range, and Hammer’s impact force being reduced a good deal.

         Upon first inspection, it appeared Smoky was getting one of the largest nerfs. However, it will only have a reduced effectiveness in battles. Its range and recoil have been improved, which will be interesting to see. The biggest change is a major increase in damage per shot, a major decrease in critical chance, and a slight decrease in reload time. With critical shots being crucial to Smoky, this will really shake things up, but since its base damage has been increased, it will even out.

         Finally, Shaft. It appears that it will be about the same, but the 17 stats are impossible to extrapolate anything from. We will just have to wait for the update to see how Shaft has changed.

 

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Overall impression of Turret balancing

         Well, the objective part of this piece is over. From here on out, it will all be my impressions on the update. I definitely approve of the turret balancing. From Freeze and Thunder getting better to Isida and Vulcan being nerfed the most, the game is definitely heading in the right direction with regards to turrets. As much as I, a loyal Twins user, hate to say it, I think Twins should have been nerfed. It is too powerful using supplies and needed something like a decrease in range or damage per shot.

 

Conclusion

         Like any update, and especially this one, it is hard to tell how big of an effect it will have until it hits the game. I am excited for “mid-October” when the update hits, to use all of my equipment. Look at it on the bright side- the update will be like getting an entirely new garage, and should definitely add some excitement back into the game for the first month. Also, the accusations that Tanki is releasing this update for monetary gains needs to be addressed. While yes, this will bring in more revenue, I think the underlying reason for the rebalance is that Tanki has had a weakening level of excitement. Games have been expected, and lots of once-loyal players have left the game. So, overall, I am looking forward to the update. While I am not happy to see the changes in hulls, the vast improvement in turret balance outweigh the hulls.

Thanks for reading! I hope you found this one helpful. I also hope that this was not too similar to @GoldRock’s article, but it should hopefully be a bit different.

-@Jwimmer, @jwimmer2

Edited October 8, 2016 by Jwimmer

[Quarks 2,255]

Edits:

1 off spelling

slight grammar fixes

 

Nice article.

[r_I_already_won0 2,339]

Rail gets nice changes..will make it better in small maps and less OP in large maps.

 

Shaft stats be like...

 

lol

[Ninja 10,468]

Nice article, not sure about Viking being best winner though. Id say Hornet.

[Phoenix.Raised 5,992]

Nice one.

[Hex 11,520]

Nice article, not sure about Viking being best winner though. Id say Hornet.

lol.

Edited October 18, 2016 by Hexed

[Jwimmer 2,835]

Nice article, not sure about Viking being best winner though. Id say Hornet.

Its definitley arguable. Simply looking at statistics can only go so far, so we will see how it really turns out.

[TTK_229 1,080]

Great article. I am a thunder user, and I also have firebird m2. Good times coming soon :D

Although, i hope that alterations will make my thunder 2-shot light hulls, and my viking could use more armour (i mean, after i get it m2)

Edited October 17, 2016 by TTK_229

[BLASTER872 1,892]

Ooh, Thunder and Viking buffed :)

 

I wonder what I'm using :P

[Lethal_Injection 586]

Good article, but the notion that Vulcan is now weak! Pah! Sure, the impact force has been reduced, but it's damage was increased significantly and it's range of max damage was increased to the point where Vulcan has received an overall buff. Also, despite having a slower turning turret, the time it takes for the barrels to stop spinning and start spinning have been significantly reduced, which more than makes up for it. Vulcan is OP. I speak from experience, just bought the M3. 

[omrot 2,327]

Good article, but the notion that Vulcan is now weak! Pah! Sure, the impact force has been reduced, but it's damage was increased significantly and it's range of max damage was increased to the point where Vulcan has received an overall buff. Also, despite having a slower turning turret, the time it takes for the barrels to stop spinning and start spinning have been significantly reduced, which more than makes up for it. Vulcan is OP. I speak from experience, just bought the M3. 

I was playing against Vulcans in the Halloween map. I have to admit, Vulcan is a definite winner

[Jwimmer 2,835]

Yeah turns out I was completely wrong about vulcan. I ended up buying M2 on my alt, and M3 on my main because it is so good now. As I said, it is hard to tell how an update effects the game until it actually happens, and this was written a few days after the announcement.

[Mr_MooiBoy 35]

I don't like the smoky, because the new crit damage is pathetic, you can barely see difference between a normal shot, and a crit shot.