There is absolutely 0 reason for this thing to be 6.0, so I’m assuming Gaijin just forgot about it.
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The flight performance is terrible, it gets outclimbed by many same BR planes (do not be fooled by the numbers, its’ acceleration is shit), it CANNOT turn and it CANNOT outspeed many similar rivals.
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CANNOT climb back up after diving down on an enemy. Terrible low-altitude and low-speed performance also means that dive will more often than not be the only thing you do the entire game.
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4x30mm Type 5’s would have you believe it deserves to be at 6.0, but the guns are terrible. Again, do not be fooled by the numbers, you have to use them to know. Back then, they had a velocity of 900m/s and would hit extremely hard, quite literally popping planes out of the sky like baloons, somewhat justifying the Shinden’s place in 6.0 despite the previously mentioned flight performance issues, and despite the guns only having 60 rounds per gun, but now, not only has their velocity been reduced to just 770m/s (which coupled with the Shinden’s awful fire rate make it very hard to hit enemies), but thanks to Realshatter they are now a wildly inconsistent mess, constantly giving you “Hits” and “Critical Hits” (the kind which don’t actually do anything) despite supposedly having a 12.04kg/s burst mass. The J7W1 does not get any high-explosive rounds, its’ ideal belt is supposedly the Tracers belt, which consists of exclusively Fragmentation, which, as you know, have been completely ruined by Realshatter.
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Supposedly, it performs well at altitude (8000M), however it cannot get to a high enough altitude before either getting shot down by enemies or before the game ending, and even if it did, the way War Thunder matches work means enemies will rarely ever climb to such high altitude either way. You’ll be alone up there.
To further reinforce my point, I would like to compare the J7W1 to another plane of the same BR and purpose: the german Ta-152 H1, sitting at 6.0 BR just like the Shinden. Both are “heavily armed” (well we already know how “heavily armed” the Shinden really is…) high-altitude fighter-interceptor aircraft.
Compared to the Ta-152 H1, the J7W1:
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Is slower (“supposedly” 50kmh faster, but realistically cannot reach that speed due to the previously mentioned bad acceleration)
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Cannot turn as well
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Cannot mantain its’ energy and speed in turns anywhere near as well as the Ta
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Cannot roll as well as the Ta
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Only has slightly better wing rip speed, at 900kmh vs 870kmh
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Has less firepower than the Ta (German 20’s and 30’s are High-Explosive, and as such are unaffected by Realshatter)
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Has less ammo (the Ta only has 45 rounds per 30mm, but more than makes up for it with 175 rounds per 20mm, which arguably hit harder than the japanese 30mm’s anyways because of minengeschoB)
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Has rounds with worse balistics than the Ta.
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And, most importantly, DOES NOT HAVE AN AIRSPAWN, despite being first-and-foremost designed as an Interceptor, even going as far as being called an Interceptor MULTIPLE TIMES on its’ Wiki page.
I really like the Shinden, it’s my favourite aircraft, and seeing how badly it performed once I finally got it just broke me, completely. Trying to make it work game after game broke me even further. At the time of writing this, the J7W1 is my most played aircraft in the game, but after nearly 150 battles of trying to make this POS work, trying playstyle after playstyle, reading every tip avaliable out there, even going as far as watching multiple less-than-a-hundred view videos on Youtube reviewing it and explaining how to play it, I’ve just had enough. I can’t handle it anymore, I can’t take it… This has to be the worst Rank IV “fighter” in the game. I listed out the Ta in specific, but there are several other aircraft that it fights against which completely outclass it in every single way.
I think the plane could easily be fixed in a variety of ways, if Gaijin ever remembers it exists:
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The quick and easy way would be to re-badge it as an Interceptor (which it IS) and give it an air spawn, just like the Ta, it’s an Interceptor after all, and it flies like one despite its’ looks.
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Secondly, if it doesn’t get an airspawn, then reduce its’ battle rating to 5.7 so that it doesn’t have to fight jets, at the very least, although it would still struggle massively against other props anyways. Maybe even a 5.3 reduction would be in order, given how bad the guns really are now, coupled with how bad the rest of the plane is too.
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Thirdly, although this would be the more complicated one (and arguably least effective), would be to have a look at the effects Realshatter is having on the Japanese Type 5 and Ho-155 cannons in specific. I hope this post doesn’t fall on deaf ears, or come off as whining. I’m really not the type of person to whine about these sorts of things, I always assume the issue is me and try to correct it. I tried avoiding making a post like this, I really did, but I couldn’t handle it anymore.
The worst part about this plane is that, because it’s not only relatively obscure, but also terrible in-game, nobody actually plays it, so nobody talks about it. And if nobody talks about it, Gaijin’s not gonna do anything. I heard it’s in the new Godzilla movie, which seems to be doing quite well with audiences, so hopefully that gives the J7W1 enough of a “popularity boost” to remind Gaijin that it exists, because quite frankly I think the only concievable way for this thing to still be 6.0 is that they did in fact completely forget about it, as they have with many other vehicles, I’m sure.
