Im a little late on this topic but I feel that not everything is said about it.
In the new seek and destroy update, a few changes including the IFVs and mainly 2S38 have came out, and there has been a lot of negative feedback on the changes. The 2S38 in the new update will now have infinite ammo (not need to reload ammo into ready rack) and can switch between ammo pretty much instantly. I’ve seen a lot of people saying that this change will make the 2S38 the best IFV in the game and it needs to go up in BR.
The 2S38 compared to other IFVs at the battle rating, makes it look like a joke stat wise. The Bradley, Puma, and CV 9040 all outclass the 2S38 in pretty much every way, they are all more maneuverable, deadly, and survive able. And due to the changes to the ammo racks, the 2s38 can be 1 shot almost anywhere
For people complaining about it being a better HSTV-L, heres why it isn’t:
The HSTV-L has a better round by ~70mm, smaller profile, better survivability, faster, better post pen, better maneuverability. while the 2S38 could go up in br to 10.3-10.7 Its round would be almost obsolete
About the round, The 2s38’s SABOT is incredibly bad. With little post pen and not being able to pen the front of every mbt except for the italian lower front plate (I think) at 10.0, it cannot, fight anything from the front. And while it could flank with APHE, the round has barely enough pen to go through the sides of tanks and poor post pen for an APHE shell. making it take ~10 rounds to kill with sabot and ~5 for APHE
Many other premiums in the game around 10.0 are WAY better than the 2s38, for example the M1 KVT, its a copy and paste of the tech tree M1 and is pretty much the best 10.0 vehicle in the game.
While yes, some points are valid I believe it should have never been a premium, had a cap on sabot and aphe due to it being a SPAA in reality, I think that raising its BR past 10.3 would make it a terrible vehicle.
PS: I don’t own the 2S38, and yes I can play against it, it is not hard to kill.
Same with the Strf 9040s, Bradley, Puma. Only difference is that these vehicles have a more limited combat range than the 2S38 and HSTV-L with higher calibre rounds. The only reason that its less noticeable is that most IFV players wait until they have the advantage to engage. Then use the faster Rate of fire to knock out the important components first, then finish them off.
Most HSTV-L and 2S38 players i encounter just rush in and spray and pray. Those who dont and keep a slight defencive role often survive untill the end of the match. or til a bomb gets plonked on their head.
This is not going to be exclusive to the 2S38, its going to apply to most or all vehicles in the future. Remember its a new feature it takes time to apply. I get it feels unfair, but as i said its currently on plan to be implemented in all Tanks/Vehicles.
They are not that manoeuvrable. The CV 90s in my experience have a particularly bad manueverabiluty. At least in cities and while turning. Sure the top speed and straight line acceleration is good. but you are almost never going straight forward constantly.
the CV90 and other NATO IFVs was made with Crew survivability in mind, Shaped charge, shrapnel and mine protection all-round protection. The CV90 “Caesar” variants are designed with maximum protection.
The 2S38 is just a modular gun platform, Same with the HSTV-L They are made with volume of fire in mind, Crew be damned.
Um, how did you plan to compare a MBT to a Modular Gun Platform. Sure a MBT is better, but you cant compare Two vehicles that share no similarities apart from being Premium/Squadron vehicles.
The 9040s, Freccia, and bradley will have little to no change, as they either have a clip, or compact ammo. any change to these vehicles will not have any change to size in ammo storage.
Many of the top tier maps you would play at 10.0 are large, its incredibly important to get to a good spot first so you can catch people off guard, being able to reverse fast to get out of bad situations is incredibly important which the 2s38 can’t do
The HSTV-L literally means high survivability test vehicle, it was made to keep crews alive. And the 2S38 was designed to be used hull down. The 2S38 uses the BMP-3 chassis, which had spaced armour and steel plate welds. This armour should be able to resist some 30mm rounds from the front at ranges around 200+, but can’t. As well, the BMP-3 uses self sealing fuel tanks which also are not in the game.
I meant that in terms of just how good a vehicle is at its BR. The M1 Abrams is a top 3 10.0 vehicle.
2 things:
I believed the PUMA had a 160-170mm pen round, which is false
I forgot to add in that nato IFV potency also comes from top attack missles which the bradley and 9040 have, if these get moved down to 9.3 like some people say they should, it would be an absolute nightmare.
Because it’s historical accurate the fact that doesn’t have ready rack thing,
The topic about the ammo change is quite controversial, since there’s only two ways that the ammo comes to the breech which can leads to only two types of ammo begin able to be loaded instead of 5.
I have no doubt that will, and if do, I hope it’s 10.3, which lacks on Soviet tech-tree.
Because it’s was intended to replace the 2S6 as it says on its article in Wikipedia.
It can be worse than HSTV-L, one thing that could make HSTV-L really good if it had more ammo count, 26 is quite limited for a auto cannon. Maybe 52 (the double) would be nice for a such caliber auto cannon.
Because it’s low caliber sabot round? It’s just APCR but can do some damage and penetrate in angled faces.
M1 KVT is maybe the worst premium (in my opinion) at this BR range.
And NO, PUMA and Bradley can’t outclass 2S38, the Strf 9040C (not B because that think is a joke) can be better in some situations since it have higher fire rate and maybe even more with the Lvkv 9040C with search radar and lock radar.
How do you think a single crew can load a chain gun in less than 0.3s to keep the constant fire rate? The 25mm and 35mm Oarlikon and Bushmasters chain guns works different from Breech-fed guns like the 40mm Bofors or the 2A90.
Top attack missiles like the TOW-2B aren’t that good. 100mm pen against certain vehicles doesn’t deal that much damage, in other hand Bill II can really do some nice good damage, I’ve played with it sometimes but since it’s based on the Strf 9040B it isn’t that my favorite vehicle to play, and even worse with that “deployment” mechanic.
I really don’t see much problem on the M3A3 Bradley begin moved down BR, doesn’t change much. This one is most know to be a secondary vehicle in a lineup, barely seen someone using it at first if it wasn’t just to spade it.
Yes, I completely agree, It might be a weird take but I feel like the 10.0 sprut could go up to 10.3? the 500+ pen round would not struggle and it has decent maneuverability.
I don’t see that? Even then I feel like the 2S38 could not compete with it due to it not having guided munitions. the range is said to be 7.5mi at most but that cannot be done in game.
The HSTV-L only ever carried 26 round but they did want more. Would be funny as an event vehicle to have the one with a 25mm bushmaster and a 40mm grenade launcher. would prob be overpowered though.
IG it is kind of opinion based.
The Bradley definantly does better, top attack missiles allows it fight mbts frontally, but I understand an argument for the PUMA as it struggles
And it can’t, it’s obvious, it’s a short range SPAAG, if the game had actually a good simulator mode mechanic with absolute 0 markers, larger teams and better maps you’ll probably see 2S38 ruling the match.
Depending on what you are fighting against, even with Kontakt-1 (400mm for chemical protection) It can’t go through (1st gen ERA) like we find in the T-72AV (Turms-T) or T-72B. But in case of facing a MBT and in a situation when you have the advantage of the enemy still reloading, maybe the PUMA would be a better choice, better ammo performance, better mobility, can quickly disable critical modules like tracks and cannon and flank the vehicle.
But as most vehicles in this state, those are situational. Can’t apply to all encounters. So it’s can also be a good sign for M3A3 Bradley, disabling the cannon breech and flanking when the target couldn’t move anymore.
I heard that the 2S38’s 3UO8 round isn’t supposed to be proximity fused but rather must be programmed like AHEAD. Since programmable rounds now work shouldn’t it be changed from proximity to programmable?
The CV9040 is more maneuverable, and that’s it’s. The Bradley is good, but by ABSOLUTELY NO MEANS is better than the 2S38. It gets good penetration, IRST, good, good HE-VT, and the fuel tank eats spall like no ones business. It’s finally getting balanced and now people get mad…
Just the HSTVL.
2S38 also has a <1kg projectile; Its closer to Strf 9040C’s APFSDS performance than it is to HSTVL’s.
Outside that, HSTVL also is the fastest unlockable tank in the game, with one of the best optics, tho gen 1 thermals.
And of course the ~1.9kg round that pens over 300mm of armor angled.
If it is programable, it probably will come later. RN tho, they are having trouble making shells explodes near the planes. so far they just miss and do no damage
that’s because of the fragments not cuz of programming issues, the programming issues were solved now, the fragments issues its all that’s left to resolve
