I am in favor of increasing recoil by 50%...putting it well over 300. That would make landing all pellets from both shots incredibly challenging...hence reducing damage except for the most skilled.

It does come with the fairly significant negative of much slower reload (over 2 seconds at m4). Overall, the alt was better before the adjustment, but it is still my favorite of all of them. I am saving for the triple arcade shot on 50% discount. With so few shaft protections, it should definitely do what you stated. Looking forward to it. Thanks for the review!!!

Definitely wrecked the turret for me. They also nerfed the assault emitters. I have started using shaft again because they did buff the short-range damage and speed of arcade shots...

It does not decrease damage on a shot by shot basis. It does decrease overall DPS however. Those are two different statements. For you they might mean the same thing however.

That rocks!!! I was in several TDM matches over the past day and only once did an isida help out. I couldn't figure it out. When I see another vulcan on my team I will hit the garage and become the isida for him if the team doesn't have one already. Makes great sense to me...sort of like titan/twins too, but even more so.

I am assuming all your kills were up-close and personal (similar to hammer without the slugger alt). Is that correct? Did you use many drugs?

By default that set up (and others using it) will be incredibly OP for up to 5 seconds... The only counter possible for a medium hull at m4 would be DA and 50% protection for hammer for those 5 seconds IF the hammer lands every pellet. I certainly don't want to face ANY turret at m4 with DD and booster drone mu to the max... I am not a fan of the drones at all...that is one of the reasons. I get the alts...yes some are quite devastating, but combined with drones several are OP.

I just got the duplet alt...what hull do you all find is most effective with the turret/alt?

After bashing Viking ever since the flipping of Hunter and Viking I now offer something positive on the Viking. I just got the duplet alt for hammer...I didn't realize how much lift it causes on the hull. The first time I used it with my Hunter I completely missed the second shot due to being at a 10% elevation from the recoil. I think Viking and Titan are incredible with this alt. Viking stays so flat after each shot that you truly can land most all pellets every shot. NOTE: I realize I have very limited time with the Hammer, but it seems a perfect fit for the viking. What do others think?

If you want a vulcan to help let me know...

My preferences are the autocannon (although I am saving for it) and precision aiming. I have assault (fun vs. wasp/hornet rails) and incendiary (more effective than critical hits assuming no fire protection as well as a nice tracking effect of damage being broadcast as the enemy tank drives behind barriers). Exactly. That is why that alt is my least favorite one.

I have been buffing up my hammer protection ever since the alts were released...it is no fun getting hit by a squad of 3 hammers and an isida

Totally right! Missed that little detail:)

Assuming you all were completely same levels and same drugs at play (with no isida behind him) the only way he will wreck you every time is IF you just spawned...at that time he will have landed 2 shots on you BEFORE you even begin shooting anything at him. You vulcan will not start overheating until you have been firing 11.29 seconds. At that point your alt will kick in and you will begin to do normal damage + afterburn at 300dps upon him. If you do not have Fire protection yet, you should make that an incredibly high priority. Also DA is a better drug for your set up than DD. You want to get to overheating as quickly as possible and extend your time in that zone as long as possible. DO NOT overheat and then stop shooting unless there is a RK nearby. You will continue to burn at 300dps for 6 seconds and deliver ZERO damage to enemy tanks.

This alt does NOT effect range at all. It only effects the chance of landing a critical shot (which is completely independent of distance from target) and the amount of damage that shot will inflict (which is not effected by distance either). This alt gives you NO DECREASE in damage AT ALL. It reduces your frequency of landing a critical shot by 50%. That is the only negative.

The damage and percentages are correct that I listed for a baseline m3 smoky. You can visit the wiki and run the numbers to confirm if you want. I don't think I'm wrong. Standard shots are left unaltered. All you are changing is the frequency of critical shots decreases by 50% and the damage increases by 50% per the wiki for Supercumulative Rounds What it looks like you are doing wrong in your calculation is multiplying the chance of critical shots by the damage of a critical shot and that is NOT at all what the alt does. Hope that makes some sense. The damage I listed for critical damage shots is the exact amount you will inflict on the enemy tank when you do land a critical shot.

I don't think any of the OD will last more than a few seconds, but I might be wrong. Perhaps someone "in the know" could chime in here:)

The supercumulative alt for smoky cuts your chance of landing a critical shot by 50% but in return it increases the critical damage by 50%. So take a basic m3 smoky with no micro-upgrades: Standard m3 with NO alt ---> Critical Chance=18.9% and critical damage is 776.47 Standard m3 WITH supercumulative alt ---> Critical change=9.45% and critical damage is 1164.705 So you can figure out your playing style and decide if that is worth the trade off. Instead of a critical shot every 5 shots on average it would become about 1 every 10 shots landed...the nice side of this alt is your firing rate is NOT degraded like it is with the precision aiming alt.

I start every battle with Fire, Thunder and Rail protections. I will swap out one of the long range ones for rico, smoky or twins depending on enemy composition. As far as limiting protections to turret you are using, that would be a big step backwards IMO. If I were you, I would max out turret, then hull, then save and save for a few protections. I suit up for one short and two long or medium turrets regardless of my turret. I do not like getting one shotted.

Correct...I bought it and did it reluctantly. Before it was a normal part (and skill) of using shaft...

Are you saying that by the time the shaft shoots a scoped shot and reloads for another? Or are you talking purely about arcade vs. smoky? If they are same level and m/u then they should shoot roughly at the same rate. Three primary differences at close range that are all in favor of smoky are: shot impact, turret speed, and critical shots You can visit the wiki page here (shaft) and here (smoky) to compare numbers yourself.

What do you mean "more powerful?" I use both turrets and have done so from m2 up. I have taken the shaft to m4 and have the smoky close...m3 (17/20). For me the shaft is a more flexible turret. They are incredibly similar in close combat (i.e., using arcade shots for shaft and normal shots for smoly). But at far distance the shaft is light years ahead of the smoky on the damage front (assuming you are using any form of a scope shot). Now if you are comparing arcade shots at a distance for shaft vs. smoky shots at distance you are correct...but that is why you have a scope on the shaft and the capability of one-shotting most enemy tanks.

Personally, I would like to see the quick scoped shot not drain 100% of the energy in the turret. Other than that it is fine. It just ruined the dynamic side a bit. I am not a camping shaft and rarely use the full scoped shot since you have to sit still for so long. The one exception is probably "Highways" where every shaft user is probably camping and dropping 8-9,000 mines around themselves :lol:

On a side note, I just saw your rank...I would put my focus on your next kit. Don't do what I did and try to buy every m1 turret and hull. Choose a good medium hull and your favorite turret and work those. The alts are really intended for folks who already have a solid hull/turret/protection set up. You are probably just getting going. Also it looks like you haven't been playing recently. So welcome back.

It depends on how you enjoy using the smoky. The benefit of the alt is a fairly strong increase in normal damage across the board (especially minimum damage), plus an subtle but noticeable increase in critical damage. All of that comes at the expense of firing rate. If you tend to use the smoky's faster fire rate to keep enemy tanks off balance and unable to land solid shots on you, then this alt is not worth the crystals. If, however, you like the peek-a-boo tactics or stay mobile and hit-and-run, then the decrease in firing rate is not that important...for that player the alt is worth it. I have 3 alts for the smoky...assault rounds (no crit, but lovely amounts of impact), precision aiming (see description above), and incendiary rounds (nice after burn for tracking enemy tanks and hit and run tactics). I think my favorite of those is the incendiary rounds...but that fits my playing style better. Hope that helps and good luck!!!