Using Twins? Or getting pummeled by Twins?

I would love to hear a lot more from players who have paired Viking with Firebird. What is your play style? What are your preferred maps? What paints do you use and why? How do you compensate for Viking's relatively slow speed when using Furebird - a short range weapon?

Agreed! absolutely lethal

This is my understanding as well. Driven of course by Premium Account pay users who want their premium protection but hate the Mac and Cheese look of Premium Paint. Don't buy paints. We are in for a change.

It's lag. Happens with all weapons. Remember that where you see yourself on a map is never exactly where the server thinks you are. So what if you went behind a wall or around a corner or building. You'll still take a couple of hits from Rico and Twins. Rail Thunder and Shaft will still hit you. Constant fire weapons will still roast you for another second or two (not including afterburn). Only way to prevent this is to be well and truly behind cover a full second or two BEFORE the enemy fires.

I never considered Isida a threat until M3. M3 Isida is just about invincible in one on one encounters. Pop DD and you just rip through tanks. Any damage you take is self-healed almost immediately

I never considered Isida a threat until M3. M3 Isida is just about invincible in one on one encounters. Pop DD and you just rip through tanks. Any damage you take is self-healed almost immediately. Sorry posted to wrong thread ;)

No, you have to get close. Then impact is HUGE! Paint choice is key because as close range you are vulnerable to close range weapons like fire, freeze, twins, and ricochet. I use Loam which allows me to survive fire and often ricochet. Freezes are rare and I'm out of luck against twins. Don't worry about rail thunder shaft or Vulcan. At long range, it's a hopeless case since you just can't do damage. At close range, you don't need protection against rail or thunder because hammer reloads before they can fire a second shot. Shafts and Vulcans will usually kill you no matter what paint you are wearing, and these two turrets are not common enough to warrant expensive protection paints.

Have to say M3 is a beast. It's tiding me over nicely from Rico M2 to M3. I've got two more ranks to go, and hopefully this turret stays powerful enough to earn battle fund crys. May have to cry and dump an MU or two though. The key is that few folks wear hammer paints. That means I can almost always 2 shot wasps and hornets, and 3 shot hunters and Vikings. If I get fancy with maneuvers I can survive long enough to reload and then take out Titans and mammoths, but that's a lot harder, and rarer.

Tanki knows it's community is clamoring for a 50% sale. I'm hopeful they will deliver.

CTF and CP goodness. Good for spraying multiple enemies who don't WANT to leave, while enduring the punishment those tanks try to deal you.

Tell that to the two tanks getting roasted by Firebird, one wearing 40%+ Loam, the other wearing some fancy Thunder paint.

Playing with Ricochet last night I noticed something new, which does not bode well for Rico at high ranks. It's an ugly beast called LAG When Rico encounters lag, my fire rate drops... To the point where I'm only firing once or twice per second when I should be pumping out rounds two or three times as fast. I've noted in earlier posts that higher ranks are all about doing as much damage as possible as quickly as possible. Fires and freezes, and drugging thunders and rails rule. Rico is extremely powerful at M3+, trust me, I've been on the receiving end, even with M3 Viking, and been pounded to pulp. But when lag happens, and it happens ALOT, especially when entering a nest of multiple tanks, Rico's slow pump just doesn't get the job done. This is very upsetting to me since I am about to drop almost $500k crys on Redneck kit just to get M3 Rico early. They HAVE GOT to fix this

I have seen Thunder be very effective in the outside corners in Iran. Not many shafts play on this map. And the rails tend to move around a lot. When Thunders camp in the corners they easily pick off tanks moving in and out of the buildings and aren't easily killed by campers on top of buildings.

You mean Hornets, right?

Rebound. I've thought for a long time that shots that really should not have bounced directly back at me did so anyway. Has anyone else been smacked by a round that according to real world geometry should have bounced harmlessly elsewhere?

M3 Isida is VERY effective. Get it, definitely.

Might come down to the paint. Both are epic turrets. Firebird is a bit more powerful than Ricochet though, but I can't really judge since I don't have either M3s.

I got a personal discount for Thunder M3 last night -30% Very very tempting, but I need those crystals for M3 Ricochet kit.

That's very high for a personal discount. If you are remotely interested then get it, you're not going to get a better deal.

Ricochet XT - give it horns and markings of a bull. Still not sure I'd buy it... I just can't see paying that much more for the Same equipment

Having so many kits in the game at once makes me wonder this is a precursor to some massive change in the kit strategy. Feels very ominous.

No doubt. Most folks are just feeling out their M1 equipment. And Rico+Sandstone is crazy good among M2s. Dictator is not my cup of tea, but it IS a very good hull. I might buy this kit on an alt just to see if Dictator is as good at taking golds as folks think.

Yes, yes it sometimes means the difference between an instant kill and a chance to fight back and maybe beat your attacker, escape and kill someone else or find a drug. Just not that often.

Guys don't be too surprised when Tanki nerfs Firebird in January. After we've spent loads of crystals on it during holiday sales. Let history be a teacher. Remember the May and June sales, followed by the July rebalance?