I’ve just come back after taking a break from the game for two months to check out the new update and I’m amazed at how bad ATGMs have gotten since then.
First thing I want to bring up is that it seems at least 1/4 of all ATGMs have no spall after penetrating, but after playing French mid tier for a bit I believe might be an issue with all rounds in the game since it seems like it’s happening with solid shot in general more often now.
I was going through the Russian and French ground trees before I took my break and had a pretty good idea of how the ATGM handling on many of the vehicles felt like the 9M117 on the BMP-3, 9M120 on the Sturm and the 9M119 on the Sprut for Russia and the ACRA missile on the AMX-10P and AMX-30 ACRA and after coming back I can see they’re all performing worse then when I left.
All these ATGMs have extra spread after firing on top of the spread the weapons already had before the update – i.e. ACRA missiles were very accurate before the update but now have a like 3 meter spread cone instead of being on point. They also have sloppy handling compared to before the update, they can snap to where the camera is pretty easily but actually staying within a reasonable distance of the crosshair while guiding the missile is impossible for these ATGMs to do now.
Funny enough other ATGM carriers and platforms that have ATGMs are entirely unaffected. The Swingfire ATGMs are still fantastic, by far the best in the game while the 9M113 on the BMP-2 is a little lazy to respond but can almost always keep centered on the crosshair while guiding as I remember it doing before the update. The Ruben ATGMs on the Obj. 775 are also still exactly the same as I remember them and most other nations are the same as well. The shillelaghs still act like they weigh 800 kilograms, TOW missiles still act like gravity is 4 times stronger in game then it is in reality, the MILAN missiles still suck ass, etc.
I have this feeling in my body that the introduction of the Terminator with the 4 ATGMs it has and perhaps the BTR-82AT gave gaijin the thought that they should nerf every missile introduced in the 8.3 - 10.7 BR range that had decent performance since the terminator is basically a jack of all trades, master of all in its current form at the BR it’s at but that’s just speculation on my part.
Another comment I wanted to throw in here before I wrapped this up is that it seems like way more obstacles obstruct the LOS to the missile for SACLOS missiles, I was pretty sure most foliage like shrubs and bushes on the ground you could guide missiles through before the update and now it feels like the wrong ray of sunlight getting between your vehicle and an ATGM will break LOS but maybe I’m going insane at this point.