First, Germany doesn’t have a good 9.7 lineup. It is just the R.Kpfw.90, the Leo2k, the Ozelot, the Gepard 1A2 and the Wiesel 1A2. A preatty bad lineup, which not only lacks MBTs, but also has 2 SPAAs in it. And why should I play the Ozelot when the Gepard has the same missiles AND 2 35mm Oerlikons?
9.3 for the Ozelot would make much more sense because at that BR, Germany has a good lineup of MBTs and a light tank. There aren’t even premium/event vehicles at 9.7.
Second, almost every other nation has a SPAA with anti air missiles at 9.3.
USA: Chaparral
USSR: Strela-10M
Japan: Typ-93
China: PGZ04A
France: SANTAL
Israel: Machbet
Italy, Sweden and GB dont have any SPAA at 9.3 or 9.7
EDIT: Italy has a 9.7 SPAA, but it has 4 25mm next to the AA-missiles, so it it like the Gepard 1A2.
And even if considering the performance of the missile itself, the Machbet from Israel uses the SAME missile, the Stinger FIM-92 E and K, and even has a 20mm on top and it sits at 9.3 BR.
So the Ozelot should be at a battle rating of 9.3:
to make a consintent 9.3 lineup with an SPAA for Germany possible
and to make the BR of the missile only SPAA consistent with other nations (one of which uses the SAME missile)
The Kugelblitz sits right now at 7.0.
There is not a single vehicle at 7.0 in the German ground tree.
It is also not viable against jets, least to say against any jets higher than 7.0. It just aims too slow in the vertical. With 16°per second it is worse than the Ostwind 2s 20° or the Marders 60° per second in the vertical (with ace crew).
It should be 6.7 like the rest of the late-WW2 vehicles in the ground-tree.
The Ozelot should definitely be moved down, it seems to be held at a higher BR from a legacy hold over due to being released at an earlier time than vehicles like the SANTAL.
The Kugel is at 7.0 due to players using it as an improvised IFV against light / medium tanks, and its tendency to be able to take a hit or two likely skyrocketed its perceived “effectiveness” in the balance spreadsheet. The HVAP rounds are enough to debilitate a lot of 6.0/6.3 light / mediums.
Unfortunately not much will change from requesting BR changes on the forums. They effectively “automate” the BRs of vehicles via spreadsheet statistics regardless of external factors i.e. low samples / lower skilled players.
I’m sorry, did you say that Germany 9.7 is bad? With tanks alone, they have a 10-tank lineup. If you Include helicopters and jets, you have 4 9.3 to 9.7 helicopters to pick from and they get a low tier Mig-23 with CAS capability. On top of that, the Gepard 1A2 is in that lineup, a gun AA so good that you can first spawn and get nukes with it.
I’ve played many lineups such as Israel, Britain, and Russia. Yet, from my experience, Germany’s 9.7 is the strongest overall. Sure, it doesn’t have consistent Thermals, but you don’t need Thermals to do good at 9.7.
And don’t suggest the Machbet is on par with the Gepard. The Gepard is far more mobile and has significantly more than 40mm of penetration.
Sure, I agree the Ozelot should still be a 9.3 and the Kugel should be a 6.7, but calling Germany’s 9.7 bad is just bonkers.
The hvap round is really poor after the nerf. It has worse flat pen dmg and incredible bad angle pen. It has only a 1/3 hvap belt aswell. It has on thunderskill only 0.09 groundfrags per battle.
If the hvap round is really that much of a problem then remove it and put it at 6.3. Would be an easy solution to fill that gap between the ostwind 2 and marder1A-.
The praga is 6.3 aswell and has much better in the anti tank role
Unfortunately not much will change from requesting BR changes on the forums. They effectively “automate” the BRs of vehicles via spreadsheet statistics regardless of external factors i.e. low samples / lower skilled players.
I suggested that the kugelblitz moves down to 6.7 the last changes already. This br update I will suggest my idea to remove the hvap and put it at 6.3.
My topic on the kugelblitz got many upvotes and at least on thunderskill it seems like the kugelblitz isn’t doing well too (it has 466 battles in rb). https://thunderskill.com/en/vehicle/germ_flakpanzer_IV_Kugelblitz
The things you listed are straight up worse than the Ozelot or have huge drawbacks to justify the lower BR.
Chaparral - No IRST or radar, Caged seeker which counteracts the better G pull since you cannot lead them, Starts with a rear aspect only missile, Worse mobility than the Ozelot, More prone to death from artillery/bomb blasts due to fully exposed crew all bunched up, Can lock the sun.
Strela-10M - Again no IRST or radar, Half the lock range, Locks the sun, Only positive is the better G pull and wider seeker range.
Typ-93 - No IRST(has track only)/radar, Mostly exposed crew(still less safe than the Ozelots), Still more prone to explosions around it.
PGZ04A - Gets a radar, But only has 4 missiles while the Ozelot has 8, Smaller caliber guns than the Geopard with no APDS option.
SANTAL - Only thing here that is comparable, Radar instead of IRST.
Machbet - No IRST/radar, 4 missiles, Worse gun than the Geopard when defending against ground targets.
I see the point you are making.
With a search radar and IRST track it might have a slight advantage in comparison to other missile SPAAs.
Although the Chaparral has IRST track and the Strella has a tracking radar.
But these slight advantages don’t make a 0.3 BR difference and they are negated by the disadvantages the Ozelot has (such as no gun).
Also you seem to compare the ones with guns to the Gepard. The Gepard can stay at 9.7, the Ozelot should not.
The Ozelot hasn’t even gotten a maschine gun for defending, .50 cals (which a lot of tanks have) can easily pen and kill a Wiesel-chassis (on which the Ozelot is built) and it has only 2 crew (and the whole vehicle is way more compasct than the others/ way less free space) so to call it more suvivable is a strech.
And lets not forget that the main enemy are airplanes for the SPAAs. And with the recent BR “decompression” all tanks were moved up, but not the airplanes, so the SPAAs are now fighting .3 above what they were intended for. If they would revert the BR changes for all SPAAs, I would be ok with it (I don’t like CAS).
For locking the sun: It is the forbidden heat signature. Only thing to do is not to aim at the sun.
Stingers lack G-overload. Its just a 10G missile like th e Aim-9b. Makes it hard to hit fixed wings. While Strela f.e. has 20G and no issues tracking even fast flying jets.
So one AAM tracks not that well and often misses, but is more flare resistant. The other one can be easier spoofed off with flares, but is able to track jets alot easier.
It balances out. Don’t really understand why Ozelot is that high BRed. It looks iffy.
Similar for the Kugelblitz. There are better SPAAs (vs air and vs ground brrrrp ) at much lower BRs and at 7.7 we already have the first radar SPAAs. So the Kugel BR is very, very special. Especially if we consider the penetration nerf. Its now around 78mm pen or something. Other SPAA get that or similar pen at low tier.
the only thing i noticed about the Strela-10M is that at least in GFAB it has little to no lock time, select target, activate seeker, lock on. This can take an absurd amount of time with any of the others, stingers in particular.