I don’t even want to debate about whether it is OP in 10.3. Here’s my statement: I don’t think its OP at all, but even if you think it is, what’s the difference between it being 10.3 or 10.7? It’s going to face the same tanks most of the times anyways and will function in the same way, being slow, weak to head ons, and great at flanking. Nothing will change for it.
But commercially its truely a terrible idea and shows how incompetent Gaijin is at giving good deals. Russian 10.3 lineup is often the first lineup that makes the relatively rich players (that may pay a lot) to buy not 1, not 2, but 4 premiums to fill the lineup. Now you are taking away the most fun and attractive one out of it and all it tells to people is, hey, don’t buy any of the four vehicles now. Without 2s38, your gameplay will simply be playing the boring Russian tanks that can’t reverse and occasionally lives hits. No one will buy any of those vehicles anymore, literally. By moving up one tank in a single br change will forever shut players away from those premiums, their habits of potentially getting more premiums (especially after they find out Russia is hard and unenjoyable to play), and instantly plunder the ungoing revenue forever. And what benefits? Nothing. Not even better game balance will be achieved.
In my personal opinion, keeping 2s38 being as is, or give it slight buffs and push it up 0.7/1br would both be valid solutions considering gameplay and maintaining sales. I’m just amazed by how Gaijin chose the worst possible solution (after delaying for ages) to satisfy the 2s38 whiners.
Nothing terrible has happened anyway once you realize what things USSR has at 10.7+.
You grab 2s38, grab su25bm, destroy 10.7 lobbies.
You grab 2s38, grab mig27m/su17m4/mi28n, destroy 11.0 lobbies.
You grab 2s38, grab bmpt, grab mig27k/su24m/su25t/su25tm/ka50, destroy 11.3 lobbies.
Wow, so this doesn’t even surprise me, 2s38 players are worse than clickbait players lol, meanwhile bmpt players all have at least a nuke and always are top of the team; sure the bmpt is doing way to good but the players are making the bmpt go from very good/op to absolutely broken, meanwhile on the 2s38 it’s practically the opposite . But 10.7 is where the 2s38 should stay, sure it does kinda ruin the 10.3 russian lineup that since the type 90 series were moved to 11.7 is one of the best in the game but it is what it is.
It doesnt tho. 2s38 at 10.3 and 2s38 at 10.7 dont differ much from each other in terms of performance. The only difference is that you dont face 9.3 tanks. Tho with all that bmpt spam you wont face 9.3s in most battles anyway. But in case of 10.7 you also get decent lineup.
On other hand, booker at 10.7 and booker at 11.7 are pretty much different tanks. There is difference between seal clubbing turms, leo2a4 and playing vs stuff like t80u, t80ue1 and even strv122b+.
Also f111f kinda sucks. Huge flying brick playing versus hordes of free pantsirs and new sams like irist, cssa5, sampt.
If you think the F-111F sucks, then you definitely think the Soviet CAS sucks unless you’re shilling for Russian vehicles.
Pantsir is a higher BR, let alone the other SPAA.
Last time I checked soviet counterpart had lower br and didnt have 6 extremely unreliable missiles with heat warhead and 0.9 mach speed (plus 2 bombs which are only thing that reliably does its job on f111). It had 3 1.8 mach 200kg tnt missiles, 2 1.8 mach 120kg tnt missiles and 2 160kg tnt guided bombs (or 4 without ml). Also lower spawnpoint cost, gnss, glide bombs and unguided rockets that instagib tanks just by hitting nearby.
Tor m1, hq17 and maaaybe flarakrad are more than enough to keep f111 at bay. And missiles… they are so bad that even 2s6 or osa can deal with them.
And thats just br of f111 or lower. Game will often throw you versus pantsirs thanks to abundance of 12.0 premiums.
Its not shilling for russian vehicles its just shilling for reliable stuff. If su24m was american I would take it over russian aardvark at any time. Because it can reliably get frags while being at lower br and with lower spawn cost.
