Yes, it does. I believe AP augments were unchanged, because they're generally not as imbalanced.

Obviously, without cash there would be no Tanki. My point is, now they can introduce things for buyers which don't break the game. Clearly, if they didn't want people to buy ultra containers, they wouldn't have added the new module into ultra containers. At the end of the day, you have to also look at the situation for the devs. You can want a perfectly balanced game, but the reality is that Tanki needs to take steps to keep bringing in money. My guess is, they feel that these are the appropriate steps, and I would definitely rather have EMP and stun augments which work based on these critical hits rather than get them activating on EVERY hit.

From what I can tell, this update isn't really that bad (and if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me), but: Broken augments such as EMP Railgun/Salvo and Stun Railgun have been nerfed significantly (in the case of Railgun only critical hits will result in enemies getting EMP'ed or stunned. With EMP salvo only 1 turret gets EMP'd. This is AWESOME because now, these OP augments can still be made, and they don't break the game (much like how smoky's EMP is not game breaking) Yes, there is a new critical hit update and you can only protect yourself with the module which I admit is EXTREMELY expensive, but this actually does help out non buyers too. The reason being that buyers (or well off F2Ps) could previously use defender and 50% and they'd be damn near invincible. Now, with critical hits the 50% protection is ignored. Obviously, they don't ignore defender and rightfully so, because then that'd mean that you can do just as well as someone who uses defender, without defender, which doesn't make sense. What's more is that because of these critical hits, you won't get Firebird EMP or something like that which inflicts critical hits constantly (which would be a nightmare). Additionally, turrets such as Thunder which face overprotection a lot of times are now better off because you can occasionally just ignore the protection. Frankly, at the rate and damage critical hits happen right now, this is not broken or biased towards buyers. I think it goes without saying, that most regular people will not be able to afford or obtain the critical hit protection, which is great. I know for a fact that I would need a long time to get it myself. It costs over 4,000,000 crystals to upgrade to mk8 to make the most of it, and even then it isn't a 100% protection. All in all, this update has indeed fixed some of the major problems we had (and I know, everything isn't fixed, but at the very least it's a step in the right direction) and now, we can have EMP/stun augments for turrets which will definitely be powerful, but will not be broken as they were before, so buyers get an edge, but it's not so overwhelming that non-buyers can't do anything. Once again, I may have missed something, so if I have do let me know.

Honestly you don't need heavyweight on Viking in general. Just keep mobile, and the impact force from getting shot at is actually not so bad. Viking Heavyweight is awesome in ASL if you're attacking though because you can just throw anybody who tries to stop you out of your way and capture.

Yes! It's awesome! Earlier I used to be worried when Vikings showed up, but ever since I realized this, I find it especially fun to hurl them through the air! I've even been attacked by 2 Vikings and pulled it off (luckily) and it's an awesome feeling. Yeah, I feel the same way. I find Hunter and Hooper to be the most annoying overdrives. Dying to a Viking's OD isn't reallly that different from a normal death, and it's not a huge deal to me.

To be honest any turret can do really well (I would claim except vulcan). Ideally the harder it hits, the better. The key is really to be smart. Against a Viking's OD, you cannot fight up front, instead avoiding, taking cover, or just generally surviving rather than fighting will be the most effective response. Once the 7 seconds are up, the Viking will be unable to shoot for a second or two, which is when you're supposed to strike back and cripple them. Like most advice, this won't work every time, but it has a decent success rate. As for JGR, often times players will activate their Juggernaut's OD before the Viking uses theirs, and this is really the biggest mistake, because the OD is the easiest way by far to deal with a viking.

Well yes, but the way to beat a Viking user isn't a head on confrontation. Defender and modules will afford you the time needed (not always but at least many times) to escape. A lot of times, Juggernaut users don't really know what they're doing though. Yes, there are the 9999 GS Viking users who usually manage to do excellently with Viking, but even they don't rack up more than 3-4 kills. Ultimately, I think the OD needs to be powerful as it is now. The point of an OD is to make you immensely stronger than you are without it (and I recognize that some hulls don't actually do this directly or even at all).

Thank you! That is an excellent suggestion, and I'll be sure to incorporate it into my next article!

Well, what I mean is that it's not that overpowered. You get at most 2 or 3 kills, and even then, tons of ways to stop it if you're creative. I've taken on 2 viking users both of whom tried to OD me and still come out on top using Crusader for example. Often times, it suffices to simply take cover. A lot of the players who use Viking will literally not even try to come after you for some reason. Actually, defender and modules are often times enough to stop a viking's OD completely, and I speak from experience. Many times a Thunder for example decides to use its OD on me, and due to my drone and protections, I close in and make them self destruct. I was once fighting a Twins stable plasma user who tried to activate their OD on me, using HUnter (without using any OD mind you) I managed to literally drive around a building having the player chase me, and ultimately destroyed them. It's far from being weak, but I would say it's not OP. Yeah, but for example this new update, if true, will definitely lead to less Viking users, because the players who used to spam Hornet before can now return to their Hornet because it's not that much worse than Hornet during the Hornet meta. Nerfing Viking would've been pointless anyways, because Viking isn't OP in the first place.

Yeah. The thing is, unlike the Hornet meta, Viking here is not OP, it's just used too much. Nerf it into the ground, and you'll get something like Dictator, Hunter, Titan or Mammoth turning into the new Viking, and then we'll be accusing those hulls of being OP, when I don't think anybody really thinks they're OP. How one would go about encouraging people to use something other than Viking, I don't know. The userbase is diverse. There are players who are legends and have a pretty low GS, and my guess would be that these players won't change because they don't have the crystals to do so. Then there are Viking loyalists like me, who will likely continue to main Viking just because we love Viking. I don't see myself switching to another hull any time soon, because I love the way Viking looks (ESPECIALLY with the ultra skin), the way it handles, and the fact that it has just the right armour and speed.

Agreed, but I'd say cautiously. Thing is, if you do to Viking what you did to Hornet, another new hull rises up and takes its place as the most overused hull, and you're back where you started.

Well for Isida the augment heals you based upon damage. With this one, you only get a fixed amount of HP based on the tanks you destroy. Even then, not like a huge amount. The second augment is such that if you kill an enemy you get sort of another "free shot" With booster it would most likely mean 1 free shot for Thunder, which isn't that deadly. As for Crysis, i suppose it would be more powerful though.

I think it would be nice to see augments which regenerate HP based on kills, so maybe killing a tank with gs between 9000-9999 regenerates 250 HP for example. Obviously, I don't think it'll be broken because you're not healing for inflicting damage like with Isida, but a health on kill augment for every turret would be interesting IMO. Also, having an augment so that you can fire without reloading every kill would be nice. Naturally, this cannot work for every turret, so for something like Freeze, once you kill an enemy, you can fire without reloading for 2 seconds, and then after that you get half/full charge and shoot. With Thunder, perhaps you get something like you can fire 1/2 shots without any reload, and the same for magnum. This won't work well for Twins, but for Vulcan, you get to fire for 3 seconds without overheating.

Well the problem is that the Freeze effect does absolutely nothing. Even when I use Toxic mix with Viking's overdrive, I STILL cannot freeze enemies. It's like throwing cool water and trying to freeze something. The issue is, it does absolutely nothing against enemies, so it's completely useless. That is true, but the effect is completely useless. You cannot even freeze enemies using Viking's OD. So, why not remove it and replace it with something useful (such as a 5% buff on the current damage, so instead of a 45% damage reduction, a 40% damage reduction with no freezing). It'd still be unique compared to corrosive mix. Right now, it's like throwing cold water on a tank trying to freeze it. If this is done away with, then it'll be beneficial because you don't interfere with your teammates who may be using turrets which ignite your enemies, and you yourself get something actually useful.

Yes, the 50% loss in freezing rate makes the freezing pointless. Be more useful to have say a 5-10% damage boost and no Freezing at all, sort of like Corossive mix but with AP in the fray.

It does literally nothing, except it makes it so that it cools down enemies who are heated up. By removing the freezing effect (which is virtually non existent anyways) the augment will become even more team oriented, and not interfere with teammates using incendiary augments. Either that, or I think buff the Freezing effect, because right now you get the worst of both worlds. The effect is there, but does literally nothing, except it cools down turrets who would otherwise be on fire.

The retention period's gone. Is it a major nerf such as removing stun/burn? No. But, it does count as a nerf since it negatively impacts Hooper's OD. I should hope in the future Hooper receives a slightly greater nerf (I think it would be fair if it just burns and jumps. To me, anything more is a bit too much). I do use Heat immunity a lot, but even using Hooper I would sometimes activate my overdrive right as I am dying to burn and stun and have it back. Not really sure why it retained so well, but it would basically mean I would have my OD back in 30 seconds or so. Well the overdrive recharges marginally faster. It still has a tiny splash radius (both for damage and applying AP effects), has recoil, and without Booster isn't that dangerous. That is, of course, assuming your enemy doesn't take cover and your teammates don't bump into you.

The missions are nice! Be interesting if in the future we got "deal x damage" missions as well, especially as a change from the "earn x sccore" missions. Nice to see Crusader buffed, and especially nice to see Hooper nerfed.

The number of protections generally means that Thunder isn't that strong though. Certainly nowhere near Gauss. To be honest, if developers introduce an augment which is sledgehammer but you get EMP/Stun/Burn/Col effects (only on critical hits which can be added and even then only to the target hit) it would be balanced.

Yeah, that'd be wierd. What I mean is the first impact simply causes it to bounce, and the 2nd one causes the explosion (like explosive smoky) which would suck. Your version would be awesome though ?

Yeah, it would ruin Thunder. I would shoot at the floor precisely to deal splash damage to my enemy and my shot just goes off into the sunset.

Truth be told, I think I didn't like the original Viking, but then it grew on me later on (which is when I think they must've swapped it).

Alright then, enjoy your minecraft!

Once again, I'm talking about Viking and not Hooper. In any case, I'm going to stop debating this because I've got better things to do, and I'm sure you do too.

Well it's pretty trivial that if it's overused, you're gonna get OD'ed much more often Another thing you fail to account for is that not all of the people using it are doing so because of its OD. Like me, I've been using Viking since before it got it's OD because I like the way it drives and I like the way it looks.