With the introduction of the T-90M with Arena and in general proliferation of APS systems even at equal BR to Spike carriers the missile has a bigger issue of being downright hard countered. This is unnecessary and creates an impossible to fix issue since lowering Spikes BR would make it overpowered and increasing the BR of APS vehicles would simply execute the pointless ‘ruin them instead’ balancing archetype.
The proper fix to both increases Spikes firepower and allow it a fair chance against APS is to remove the launch delay that makes it impossible to overcome APS systems with a “double tap” launch. The downside is expending 2 precious spike missiles and requiring to have both launchers loaded. One of Spikes biggest advantages is the ability to fire on and seriously detriment 2 different targets at once, not possible when double tapping. Salvo firing would compliment gameplay diversity at top tier as they do not suffer as greatly when facing tanks at a higher BR until hard countered.
I do not actually take issue much with the loft angles or lack of firepower as I find the massive advantages to it being FnF to more than make up for it. If those advantages are considered and played to, I think it’s mostly fine as is and easily capable of seriously damaging or outright destroying most any tank all the way up to top tier. The negativity bias is real and it really isn’t reasonable for balance to have such a powerful missile strike the roof perfectly from above every time, as it would most likely 1 shot everything and become another problem weapon that breaks balance and jacks up the BR of various light tanks.
Real issue with Spike carriers, focusing on the ground aspect here, is map design. Too many maps, even at top tier, are small, urban locations with short engagement ranges, causing Spike-equipped ground vehicles to be near completely useless there. Not to mention small maps are obviously unrealistic and terrible in multiple aspects.
I really should’ve mentioned this since this also massively effects spikes and is yet another example of why these modern weapons do not belong in urban maps at all. The KF41’s vertical lofting after launch also meant spikes were broken for it in many maps for some time(probably still does have that minimum engagement distance).
- Vehicles equipped with APS are few in number. The vast majority of top tier tanks don’t have hard-kill APS; it is not an existential crisis for ATGM users. There are few situations in which you are forced to target an APS-equipped tank exclusively.
This is true but I don’t think will be true. Now you have T-90M with Arena-M and Abrams with Trophy, both are more than capable of handling spikes unless they make it approach from almost vertical(which would probably increases its effectiveness massively).
It can be argued as well that any weight/mobility detriment is even more accounted for now that we have even more small FnF ATGM’s around being fired from helicopters. Doubly so now that we have MITM coming to FnF munitions, though its worth noting this point may be somewhat moot if some/all of those munitions prove too much for these systems to handle.
I think your 2nd point is a pretty fair argument in conjunction with your fourth point/this entire thread, doubly so in light of so many finding these missiles to have weak damage(I do not personally, but I still get why). These systems need double tap as a way to at least mitigate the advantage especially during the great “spam era” of new vehicles, though I suspect they will be common for the foreseeable future as a way to mitigate the now easier than ever FnF mini-ASM swarms we’ll see.
If anyone has played during the event APS T series tank getting spammed you’ll know how much a problem it is when even 1/3rd let alone 1/2 your targets have APS systems and you can’t do nothing even with 2 missiles. In fact you probably still wont be able to if they group close together.
I disagree with the fact that the maps are too small for the spike specifically, but in general? Yes, they should be extended. There are a couple quality of life improvements that can be done. And a couple things that Devs have already done and are continuing to do.
For one the devs accepted for the loft to be increased, meaning it will have a higher angle when coming down, most of the time countering the APS’s entirely. They have also nerfed all ERA (roof) CE protectcion, yes, even relikt, meaning it will be more likely to penetrate T-series and ZTZ-series tanks as well. That is on top of it receiving a higher target trajectory update speed, meaning it will be hitting turret cheeks of tanks less often by updating the target position more often.
For me, this is okay, but they can go even further: Give Spike it’s real life tracking back, In real life it’s IIR + CCD, and on release and up until hornet’s sting update, was like that, then they changed it to just normal IR and no longer able to lock onto enemies in smoke or onto drones, both are features explicitly advertised by the missile’s manufacturer and doable in real life, why this was changed is beyond me.
Another change I’d absolutely love, would be the ability to close the launchers on vehicles that are able to do so. For some it’s not a big deal, but for some vehicles such as Namer Tsrikhon, Eitan, KF-41 and a couple others the launcher basically DOUBLES their vertical sillhouette, and act as shot traps for HE shells, for vehicles where a single shot makes them useless for the rest of the game, it’s not exactly an entertaining prospect.