I'm not having fun with the Abrams

Machinery of War Discussion Ground Vehicle
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I’m not here to call it a bad tank, it’s ok at best. I’m doing fine in it, but i’m feeling miserable playing it.

The armor simply doesn’t exist, even in a full downtier i still get my turret lolpenned by T-64s.
The ammo is lackluster. The same T-64 can bounce your shells like it’s nothing.
This leads to a very frustrating encounter with every soviet tank, where they simply rush you, forcing you to take a snapshot that 8/10 times won’t do anything.

If someone shoots you, doesn’t matter where, the turret ring commits sudoku, which is again very frustrating and usually a death sentence. The most frustrating part is when someone shoots your engine from the front at an extreme angle and somehow your turret ring is the victim.

I think they require too much sweating and having everything go right to have a good time in them. They leave absolutely 0 room for mistake, but if the enemy leaves you alone, you can take out an entire flank by yourself and reverse your way to the other side of the map in a few seconds.

It feels like a “We have Fuji at home” type situation.
Do they get better?

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it is we have Fuji at home, but trade slower reload(1 second slower, 1.3 if expert) for faster turret traverse(~10 degree/s faster). But later 11.7 Abrams has usable turret armor to a degree
most of the time, just hit shot before they can hit you, cuz 100% everytime u get hit ur a germany WWII tank destroyer

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I’d suggest to take some time learning the weakspots of the most common opponents, because the T-64 should in no way pose a threat to the M1 given that the M1 is the massively superior vehicle.

You should also rarely be faced with them head-on, given your enormous mobility advantage.

I’m getting a strong impression that you position yourself poorly, and that you fail to spot opponents before they spot you.

You’re essentially giving your opponents the opportunity and time to aim for your weakspots before you’ve even seen them.
I’d suggest to watch some videos from BPA-Jon, Cavenub or any other skilled players and watch how they position themselves on the various maps, try to replicate what approaches they keep their eyes on and how they keep track of the mini-map for constant info.

That goes for pretty much every top-tier MBT.

Type 90 is a significantly higher BR, of course it’s going to be superior in some ways just like the M1A1 is superior.

A better comparison would be the Challenger Mk.3, Leopard 2A4 or T-80B, in that list of vehicles the M1 is on the top.

Depends on what you mean, the BR’s increase proportionally to the capability increases.

The base M1 Abrams is among the best MBT’s relative to it’s BR, there aren’t many MBT’s in the game that will offer significantly better overall packages whilst keeping the BR relatively low.

Personally I find the M1A1 to be the best all rounder for the BR, you essentially get better firepower than most 12.0’s, you get extremely good mobility, first class gun handling, decent survivability and average armour, all whilst still seeing frequent downtiers.

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Thanks for your advice, but i’m not having skill issues with the abrams, it’s just not fun to play and too much sweat

I’m doing fine in it, but i’m feeling miserable playing it.

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While having excellent armor, in War Thunder everyones knows each other weakspots, trying to rely on armor in War Thunder isn’t very recommended, is like the survivability onion stupid thing, don’t get shot.

Abrams has awesome mobility and with a trained crew, great firepower that’s for sure. If you can’t take a enemy in one shot, try disabling it before trying something else, in worst case scenario, the best option is aways retreating, best losing one kill than being destroyed in the proccess, this is valid for every vehicle.

While T-64B excels in damage and protection, it lacks mobility and gun handling, if you have a chance to move around, the T-64B will struggle to get you, specially in hilly maps where it’s easier to deal with Soviet vehicles.

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seppuku you mean lol

Gaijin refuses to fix the Abrams. Multiple bug reports out there concerning the lower mantlet, hydraulic pump location, and turret basket. They say there’s no bias but the new T-72 arena had their volumetric mantlet patched the DAY AFTER leviathans came out. Actions speak louder than words. Instead the lower mantlet of the Abrams has a FLAT 25.4mm mantlet and a 50.8mm turret ring.

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yeah and trade the black hole hull survivability to being entirely disabled if someone looks at your hull

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M1/105 sucks balls, get the M1IP and M1A1 and you’ll have the world in your hands.

Mix that with the F-5E and A-10A[L] and you’re god.

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At these tiers you need to be playing behind cover no matter what tank you are in. If you are being rushed by a soviet tank while you are behind a hill hes not going to depress in time, or if its around a hill your higher profile gives you the advantage in getting gun sights on first, if you are playing behind a building you have the advantage as he has to round a corner to shoot.

You should be avoiding situations where you are running into someone out in the open. This goes for every mbt. If I ever die and im just sitting out in the open its either a failure of situational awareness, or a gamble that didnt pay off, never a vehicle issue.

You have the best mobility and depression at your tier for mbts, you can leverage that to make yourself exposed for as little time as possible when taking shots. Mobility isn’t just about map traversal but instanenous mobility for peeking and reversing playing in a posisition.

There isn’t any vehicle at these tiers that is comfy or doesn’t require sweating, everyone can easily kill everyone and the games play a lot differently than lower tiers where armor is much more useful. Which is why a lot of people express how much they hate these tiers often.

No one is playing soviet mbts having a fun adventure holding W and just bouncing shots left and right. You will die horribly doing that in any tank.

I understand you are saying you do fine in it, but if it is frustrating maybe its a playstyle issue that can be adjusted. I’m assuming here frustration= feeling like you aren’t in control of the situation.

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Uh huh.

Looks good to me!

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Though if concerning issues of the lower mantlet’s equivalent thickness against KE, bug reports aren’t needed… A proper volumetric model is.

It’s a hydraulic reservoir, beyond a naming issue it would result in the exact same outcome if hit.

If the engine itself is damaged (in which the pump is actually located), you still lose all hydraulic power and your turret traverse is heavily impacted.

Location is more than fine, naming isn’t.

Because without it the mantlet was borderline impossible to reliably hit with effective outcome?

Neither are flat, nor do they lack the depth model that they need to be functional.

What is lacking is actual use of said depth model. The backing chin to the mantlet is VERY detailed in its geometry, yet its penetration values do nothing more than add the impact angle to a blanket 70mm number that isn’t swayed by how much material the penetrator actually needs to go through.

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Please tell me you are not just aiming center mass

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WaitForMe has good map guides if you dont mind ai voice over, easily the most detailed ones on youtube and helped me a lot. Also the only person that goes over how to play differently in low depression russian tanks in these spots.

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No one is playing soviet mbts having a fun adventure holding W and just bouncing shots left and right

I’m inclined to disagree

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Mate, you die in 93% of your matches using the T-80U-E1.

You die in 91% of your matches using the M1 KVT.

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And my brother, the T-80 is more fun. I did say i do fine in the M1, but it sucks to play it. With the soviets you can turn your brain off and go on a click and point adventure

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I’ve seen plenty of people make this claim in the past, and in each and every case their stats did not reflect this.

And that’s totally fine, what vehicle you find most fun is totally subjective.

I’m not entire sure what the point of your post was however.

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I’m not entire sure what the point of your post was however.

To vent my frustration and ask if higher tier abrams still lose their turret ring at the first opportunity. What was yours?

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I answered that question but then you never replied to it, which is why I wasn’t sure why you asked the question in the first place and what the point of your thread was.

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And i thanked you for your advice. After i research the LAV-AD i will go for the M1A1, hopefully the better gun will make it less frustrating

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I feel you bro. Aside from my own biases against the Abrams tanks, I just started playing RU/Sweden/Italy after I got sick of getting shot in neck while using Abrams tanks over, and over, and over, and over. I have gotten a lot better since then, and can utilize the Abrams tanks more effectively, but I have found more fun in other countries now. I have all of the Abrams tanks now (other than the SEPv2, but no real point in using it as I have the first SEP max crew skilled and Ace trained.) I still enjoy other countries more than the “best” Abrams tanks, but that’s me.

If you don’t like it, don’t play it. I’m not making excuses for some of the issues that I consider valid with the Abrams’, but no point in playing something that you do not enjoy, regardless of your skill.

Ahhhh, yeah the first Abrams definitely do not have “uber” darts, the later one’s darts are substantially better. You might enjoy those much more than your experience with the M1’s.

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