Truth be told if APDS ever was given its accurate postpen performance and the idiotic shell shattering was removed (since APHE had that problem way more than subcalibers yet it “mysteriously” doesn’t ingame, I wonder why…), the Centurion Mk3 would be either just fine or more likely deserving to go even higher.
Really if all the currently nerfed-to-shit round types were unshackled you’d need to bump upwards everything 8.0+ by three entire BRs just to give the WW2 tiers more space to be spread out. APCR should be good, nevermind APDS or HEAT.
are you actually complaining about the best 7.7 vehicle in the game? the literal only downside is its awful top speed
just angle it keep driving abuse your stabiliser dont let people carefully aim for a weakspot
brits are pretty bad until 7.3 but become insanely powerfull just by having a full stabiliser at such a low BR and with the extreme pen you can easily punch thgough anything you face just remember where the gunner sits for a 2 shot kill or the minimum load ammo for a sometimes luck based one hit
Somua is the best 7.7 and trying to say the centurion is better is just laughable.
The downside is the APDS. Anything angled has a good chance of shatter and most russian tanks you need ~3 shots to kill. Yeah, your first shot disables, but you can’t reliably pen a T44 UFP without high chance of shatter. Even things like MG ports can shatter as your round hits multiple surfaces that have high angles.
Stab is fine, but not much to talk about. You are so slow that the stab isn’t actually doing all that much except quick hill peeks. Turns out, about 70% of the combat in this game is urban and its not like enemies have to aim at weak points to kill you.
Stab might not be raw pen, HE filler or insane armor, but to dismiss it as “not much to talk about” is massively downplaying what it brings to the table. At 7.7 stab os exception, not a rule. Its advantage isnt seen just in relation to hill peeking, its pushing in general and flanking as well. It shaves off invaluable seconds from your reaction time and gives you ability to accurately land a shot while the enemy is still aiming.
Moreso, lets look at entirely different situation - when your tank lacks stabiliser but all other tanks around you have it. That is the story of AMX-30 and Im willing to say that most people that played it will agree the lack of stabiliser massively limits how you can actually play.
The sheer scale of the maps and the sheer number of obstacles and uneven terrain make the stabilizer extremely important, as you often only have a split second to shoot an enemy between when they emerge from one obstacle and hide behind another. Tanks without a stabilizer are forced to sit for minutes on end behind a slope or obstacle, doing nothing, until another tank appears in an open area facing the other way.
Larger, more open maps would balance matches, as tanks without stabilizers would have more time to aim and benefit from their aiming systems (rangefinders). Tanks without stabilizers would have to remain stationary but still have the opportunity to fire, while tanks with stabilizers would rely on aiming accurately and quickly thanks to that stabilizer.