Not so long ago, any mid or long range battle (at M3 or M3+ level) you would see lots tankers using racoon. There was good reason for this - vulcan was scary. Mammoth vulcan's were not to be messed with, a sentry holding down lanes of the map. However now vulcan is barely worth using in my opinion. I have vulcan m4 and against m4 vikings I often find myself doing less than 100 damage if they have double armour, which is rubbish considering vik m4 has 3000 health. The time to kill against heavier hulls or an opponent with any protection against you is so poor you rarely get this kill before they reach cover or you die. Old vulcan was too strong really, especially trying to fight the infuriating 'pocket isida' which I am sure you can relate to. However, I now find myself never feeling like using vulcan as it is just weak really, and never feeling compelled to take racoon or africa to ward off the damage of this turret. How often do you really see it being used effectively at high ranks anymore? Twins has seen a series of buffs which make it the preferred 'brick on keyboard' supressive weapon. On top of this the alterations available for vulcan are fairly weak where as the twins counterparts can make it a very versatile weapon. Do you think the vulcan has started to die out? And do you think it needs buffing again, and if so how would you want to see it buffed? I think that it needs an small increase in max damage but a larger increase in minimum damage - restoring in to the long range machine gun it once was. Perhaps a decrease in the firing time before self damage or similar could be adjusted to stop it become the OP monster it once was.. However I would like to see it become a more viable weapon. What do you think about this weapon at m3 and m4 since the autumn update? Thanks :D

Who has any thoughts and reasons why for the best thing to m4, I have Isida, Railgun, Hammer, Thunder, Viking.

Annoys me when people say viking is better in every way than dictator. This is just about m2 because thats what I have but Dictator is stronger by a fair bit and barely slower and more maneuverable. Also because the gap in stats between m2 and m3 is massive each MU has a bigger effect than the viking. So dictator is better IMO than viking stock but even better once MU'd. A lot of people say you get hit more and its harder to hide in dictator than viking but i really never find this happens or not noticeably. I think the only disadvantages to it is price and unlock but i think dico is way better on balance. Not to mention its better for golds and way more stable than it used to be

Why did the designers have to make the armor so ugly. You look at what they did for m2 hornet and yet m2 wasp looks worse than most m1's for the extra armor designs you get at M2 and M3

Advice for lower ranks Im not as experienced as a lot of you guys commenting who have all m3's or whatever but for anyother lower ranks like me that are reading this I have some go to m2/hgh MU'd m1 loadouts I use but feel free to completely ignore any you don't like :) Dictator and Rail - Sandstone. Great for wiping out shafts and rail because the shafts don't really damage you with the very good health of dictator and 15 protection from shaft on paint and decent rail protection too it often take 3 hits from rail to kill you but you can get an almost guaranteed 1 shot a slightly damaged wasp/hunter that most other railers use. Good all rounder, can defend and snipe but have enough health and speed to capture flags. Hornet/Wasp and Rail - Tundra. No explanation needed really :D can work well with Smoky too if your rail skills are poor although your time to kill will rise considerably unless that critical comes at the perfect time and mastering rail early will make you a stronger player with the other weapons too. Mammoth and Thunder - and decent thunder protection paint (I use Sandstone because thunder protection as well as shaft and rail who will try and take you down most). Good for being a defensive fortress (fortress kit?? :D ) good at range and thunder-proof paint helps protect against self damage if someone rushes you and you have to kill them up close. You can also try doing this with Vulcan - Storm. this is very powerful but take time to get used to so if you want to pick up a gun and do well with it straight away it might not be for you, put in some hours and tanks won't get within a mile of the flag. Hunter/Viking and Hammer/Firebird - Storm/Atom. Use any of these interchangeably and you will have a close range monster. With hammer make sure to find good cover or keep moving after the 3 shot clip reloads or a rail/thunder will start eyeballing you. Learn how long it take to kill certain tanks with the firebird and you can drive off before they die because you can leave them on a bit of health and let them die on burn time. This saves your ammo and decreases the time you sit out of cover shooting. Hornet and Freeze - Storm/Atom. A unique loadout that takes time to master. Works well on small maps like polygon although you can ambush people on larger maps if your smart and pick your kills. Come from behind and freeze them solid before they can shoot you back or circle them and get handy with your z/x keys to dodge there shots while they fail at trying to turn and hit you. DON'T TRY AND KILL TANKS HEAD ON - YOU WILL LOSE. :D Mammoth/Titan and Twins - Storm/Atom. A loadout built for polygon cp. sit in the middle capping the point and spraying people down. Not very skillful but very good for grinding xp and crystals fast as the battle fund and score get riduculous. We've all wanted that one last push to get a new turret or rank and this works brilliantly and polygon cp is probably the most popular map/game mode in tanki for this reason. Hunter/Viking and Smoky/Thunder - Best all-rounder paint you have. Good midrange combo's as you have probably already realised. Use the versatility to your advantage and do whatever your team needs as you can be mobile and attack and defend quickly. Keep your head up and try not to take to much damage in one go and save your health for when your team needs it (caping or defending the flag/clearing out a mammoth spawn camping your team etc) Hope this helps, just my pennies' worth but don't take it as absloute truth because i'm no generalissimo or anything just only personal experience and observation. Try these out and modify them and see if you like one. Good luck.

I sometimes find it really hard to use because if you dont come up behind people and they see you coming then you take too much damage on the way in and in a 1v1 the freeze wont win if they can shoot back. You can do the circling roundabout thing and freeze them solid which is great but if you cant because there is a wall in the way or something then i also struggle because you cant turn your turret while driving and shooting. Do i need to just put in more hours and get good with it or..? any help would be really appreciated because i always get ruined by freeze and want to hand that out to other people :D

I have smoky m1 at 3rd lieutenant and it's micro upgraded to 26 and although it took a long time and sucked at first it absolutly wrecks people now. I kill people very fast without crit but when that crit comedy they're dead end of especially as so few people use anti smoky paint. With extra damage it will 3/4 shot an m2 mammoth I think and less with critical in the mix. it is so good with my m2 hornet. Interested to see how it does against higher ranks. My go to option for battles where the range constantly changes like rio ctf