The defender drone was probably the difference maker. I haven't used any drone other than brutus. It was affordable and have slowly upgraded it over time to max. What was you k/d with that set up prior to the patch update?

I'll try it out then once I get Heat Resistance on Viking. I had HI not HR. Right now I either use a different hull with less health or use stock vulcan. I never saw it as God Mode in matches after the nerfed damage. Do you pair a drone with it? What is your other account with Vulcan?

Don't forget the Dragon's Breath aug on Hammer and Incendiary Round on Smoky. Heat Resistance effects both of those as well.

Oh, I just noticed you don't really play with Vulcan. Vulcan's damage is a product of rate of fire (number of projectiles/bullets per second) and damage per projectile/bullet. The only way it gets kills is through a steady stream of damage. The damage per bullet was reduced from 50 pts per bullet to 44 points per bullet. Simultaneously the rate of fire was reduced 10% from 20 shots per second to 18. Overall it was needed with a tank was equipped with IB augment and HI since on top of the damage from each bullet you were slowly increasing the enemy tank's heat by ,07 per bullet hitting them. I other words, if you can land 15 shots on the enemy you can double their heat and create an afterburn effect. The afterburn effect was the same as firebird (300 points per second). The duration of the afterburn would range from 3-7 seconds depending on how long you heated the enemy tank (if you landed 15 shots you got a 3 second afterburn...if you landed 60+ shots then you would get the full 7 seconds of afterburn). So for an example, assuming 3 things: 1) Neither tank is using double armor or double damage (I know that is incorrect terminology now), 2) The enemy tank does not have Hull augment of Heat Immunity (no afterburn) or Heat Resistance (50% reduction in heating rate and damage from heating rate), and 3) The enemy tank does not have a Vulcan Module or Fire Module for protection... If you hit one 15 times and nothing more, then you would inflict 15 shots@44 pts damage per shot=660 damage from the Vulcan shots. And an additional 3 seconds of afterburn @ 300 points per second of burn =900 damage from the afterburn. The total damage therefore would have been 1560 on the enemy tank. If there was no earlier nerf of the Vulcan damage per shot then it would have been over 1800 damage from the attack. The reduction in damage from the Vulcan from 50 per shot to 44 per shot seems small, but it isn't over time. The reduction in rate of fire by 10% reduced the shots landed (hence Damage decrease from the bullets, as well as decrease in heating of afterburn). Overall it was balanced in game play since the attacking tank could use Heat Immunity and not self-destruct. Now with self-damage in play again (since you get no afterburn with the Heat Immunity protection on your attacking tank), it is really not worth the cost of the IB augment since you are either losing your own health to the afterburn at the same rate as the opponent or you are not generating any afterburn and simply shooting slower shots at a distance and therefore landing fewer shots resulting in a reduction in damage from the Vulcan. Either way it is no longer too functional. On a side note, after they nerfed the damage rate on the Vulcan I bought the Brutus drone to recoup most of the damage loss. Now that Brutus doesn't really do that function, it is just an overall less functional turret compared to Thunder, Rico, Smoky, Shaft, Twins, etc. I am trying to play around with some options, but Firebird module doesn't protect the Attacking tank from the self-inflicted afterburn anymore and neither does the Vulcan protection module (that was changed a long time ago). Someone has suggested using the Heat Resistance augment and I am trying that. Overall I am scoring better with the stock Vulcan.

Sorry, it was a 12% nerf of vulcan damage from 50 per bullet to 44 per bullet . as well as a 10% reduction in shooting rate...from 20 bullets per second to 18 bullets per second. That is why is was more or less a 15% damage reduction for Vulcan. This was needed to balance the IB (with afterburn) for those who used the HI hull augment. Now that self-damage is back, they should let the damage increase on the Vulcan along with the shooting rate. Otherwise it is a reduction in total of the Vulcan's ability in the battlefield.

I realize that because I played with it. You also realize they nerfed the damage per shot 15% following the release of the HI hull augment. So no one actually has ever played with this version of Vulcan and IB before now.

I realize because I played with it. You also realized the nerfed the damage per shot 15% following the release of the HI hull augment. So no one actually ever played with this version of Vulcan and IB before now.

My point of the slower turret rotation was that in close quarters you are at a disadvantage and with the slower projectiles you are also at a disadvantage at long range. In other words without the afterburn, IB is a losing proposition. The only thing that ever made that worth the while was Heat Immunity.

Well, you could always shoot longer and choose to heat up your tank in order to finish off other tanks. Using DA and Fox module would allow you to shoot even longer between deaths. So IB didn't add that feature. It allowed you to burn others while self-destructing...really never an overall benefit at all. Fire Immunity changed that where it was a net positive. Slower shots made it much harder to deal damage consistently and slower turret made it much harder in close quarters, so it took more skill to land damage at distant and up close, but the benefit of afterburn was worth the trade off in my opinion. Now that I have to self-destruct to get a single kill on a heavy hull, I will find another (higher damage per shot turret) to do more peek-a-boo tactics. As far as not having to buy them, I assume you would know that all players would know that? The issue is always when a basic function of a turret, hull, augment, module, supply is changed after the investment was made. It is frustrating. I know it is the nature of tanki and it has cost tanki loads of players. I've stuck around for 6 years. Will pivot to some other combo or see how adrenaline works once a sale hits.

Not useless...worse than useless. Better off on stock vulcan or any other option since there is no advantage and only a negative now. You can shoot slower shots (hard to hit targets with much success and when you miss there is no lingering burn to help destroy them) if you'd like with no additional damage? I am going to save up for adrenaline I think...at least that would give me normal shot speed and some additional damage.

The Vulcan with IB was ideal on a faster hull to strafe enemies at a distance (allowing a small weakening of defenses) between barriers followed by a more straight assault to pave the way for flag grabs, goal scores, etc. As it is now it is suited more in a suppressive role (at least what I have seen) while others handle more of the storming of base, etc. The burning effect also was a cheap means of tracking defenders as the damage would continue to tick for 3-7 seconds depending on how many rounds they were hit by. Obviously that is gone so you are very blind should you choose enter into closer quarters without a high DPS / faster rotating turret.

Well, since augments aren't that cheap I don't have that many. Would love to have adrenaline, but cost is prohibitive. Unfortunately with the removal of IB the vulcan is no too much fun to play with. The IB gave Vulcan some different roles on the team. Now, it can be helpful as a suppressor (much like twins) but that's about it.

Some Turrets are naturally easier for me to use. The Hammer is simply not one of them. I am awful with it. I am sure in time I will figure it out. Not sure which account I am posting from, but when players know what they are doing with it, turret seems amazing. If you have any tips, I'd appreciate them.

I didn't use it before. What made it "sad"? Did you prefer using it before?

They removed the delayed reload time from the augment, so it is pure bonus. There are other augments that are solid (this is coming from a user whose favorite turrets are vulcan, thunder, shaft, rail, and rico). Just had a bunch of crystals and hit the Hammer on sale. Mounted on Viking with the high cap it does well. Mine is only at M7.8, but hits hard, you face few protections, and deal damage in confined areas much better than smoky and rail.

Hunter has always been one of the strongest pushing hulls.

Do you have a screen shot of what it looks like?

That explains the chaos when I tried a hovering hull a while back. Don't keep a mouse on me with the laptop. Haven't used one since 1990s:) I was tempted to get one when someone shared that when using shaft (my most used turret on another account) you could look around with the mouse while in scope mode. Never decided to use it. Launched this account when COVID hit last spring. Discovered the fun side of vulcan.

Sorry, I have no idea about mobile or mouse controls. I don't have a mouse on the laptop...just a track pad. But for those who are playing on the highly inefficient and limited mode I am on, you can get by quite nicely with the IB + Heat immunity on the Viking

With heat immunity I love IB. I use Viking with it and find that the turning on the hull offsets the decrease in horizontal speed on the vulcan when firing. The advantage of IB is the fact that: you can spray a group of enemies and deal solid damage in a fast moving path between cover, light up a tank and track it with the afterburn, maximally heat up tanks under Titan's dome after it has been active 10-15 seconds (and they don't really care)...when the dome collapses they immediately take on 300dps for the next 5-7 seconds. There are other benefits of the IB, but I use these almost every battle.

At upper ranks, stay mobile and aware or die very, very fast...whether it is a wasp dropping a love package on your backside while camping, a shaft zeroing in on you, or 2-3 enemy rails converging on you as a sitting duck. Got to move, stay aware, and use coverage. My non-primary account ranked up too fast and I had to choose to go all in on a combo...vulcan-viking (V2) it is. I look for players like you are describing. Easy pickings:)

Wasp also seems to drive much better on HTML5 IMO. I find that I am flipping over much, much less. I sort of miss laughing at myself trying to fly over a bunch of enemy tanks, dropping bomb and landing upside down...

Do not get the augment without getting the heat immunity. Otherwise you will be very disappointed in the results. I tried it on hornet and died so quickly. Luckily I had heat immunity on the viking...that became the "go to" set up for me. It is very nice...especially in team battles like Siege, Assault, and Juggernaut

As a regular user of the IB+heat immunity the projectile speed nerf is definitely a help in balance. While it makes it much harder to land shots quickly vs. enemy tanks at distance, it also allows a nice barrage of shots and time to relocate and unleash some more. So I like it the way it is. As far as an augment to a turret, do NOT get the IB without getting heat immunity. In other words, you will need to be a buyer or really, really lucky on containers to be able to use it with the augment. I am still hoping to get heat immunity on hornet or dictator. Until then, I am stuck with Viking as my heat immunity hull. I got it in a container and then saved for the augment. I love the combo, but it is not cheap.

For sure...I remember thinking Hornet OD was lame when I read the same description. Then I kept getting killed by rails with my 50% protection and double armor in a medium hull. "Impossible!" I screamed! Nope...just another day in the office for Hornet OD. Welcome back to Tanki!!