You do know people can often spawn full CAS loadouts with a single cap and assist?
You can also spawn SPAA, or approximate when enemy team will spawn CAS (after 2 minutes into the match you should already expect it) and check the skies often with thermals. Go behind buildings or smoke when you see planes incoming. CAS is overpowered against tanks, yes! But it’s definitely not fully “outside your control” unless your entire team has died off and there’s multiple planes up and enemy team camping the spawn.
You get hampered by teammates significantly more in GRB (not saying you dont in ARB, but its much more prominent in ground).
At times you can just come across a vehicle that you cant pen/come across a vehicle you cant kill that can kill you easily
Uptiers are much more damaging.
The asymmetric timeline of vehicles is more damaging due to CHEAT-FS and stuff causing things like the Maus to be difficult to balance. This is where my second point comes back. In a Maus, what am I supposed to do when a Fiat 6614 comes screeching around a corner behind me with its weird anti tank recoilless rifle?
All of these are not really present in air (below around 9.0) as in an uptier you can spent extra time side climbing, you can act as bait for a squad member (dont trust regular teammates still).
You never come across a vehicle you cant kill (aside from going up against something like the Yak-3 VK-107, that thing is op), with pretty much everything you can either outturn it, or out-extend it meaning whatever you do you have an escape route.
I have left CAS out of this argument because its munted beyond all recovery. SPAA is overpowered against CAS, CAS is overpowered against tanks, and tanks are overpowered against SPAA causing a very asymmetrical fight.
Different maps in ARB also dont change how you play the game, they dont force you into a playstyle you dislike or hate
Yes there are other things but I’m tired and cant be bothered elaborating any more.
Yeah I just dont play top tier as I stated in my earlier post (though I didnt clarify very well about GRB). Only top tier ground I play is Britain and they dont get HEAT-FS
As a Britain main I got very used to that already. Hitting ammo or something with HEAT-FS isnt that difficult. Anyway its fairly easy to hit the gunner/driver in one and then just tidy up the other side
Only you tier I play is the USA and I can tell you that literally every top tier tank they have (not absolutely all of them, but most of them) have HEAT-FS, and it’s really annoying when you have it in stock without APFSDS
Erm aktually it’s base HEAT. But seriously things like the Super Sherman are so difficult because they absolutely SUCK but they can also just go clean through a Maus and kill it easily in two to three shots. Thats what I was getting at its so hard to balance vehicles in ground
Imo normal 37mm solid shot is much better than the HMC’s HEAT, though the HEAT’s extremely low velocity does allow you to make some disgusting shots. The secondary 50cal is what makes the HMC great
Also at a low BR of 1.3 the HMC’s HEAT could overpressure most of the enemies it faces (which the 37mm solid shot cannot). Most of the time it’s only Panzers that it can’t overpressure (you need to aim for it’s cupola in order to do so)
Lately, top-tier ground battles have become almost unplayable. It feels like cheaters have made this BR their favorite. There are plenty of videos on YouTube showing the cheats they use and exactly how they work. At least BR 10.7 is still enjoyable to play. I like BVR combat in aircraft, but it doesn’t really require much skill.
Aerial warfare is by definition way more demanding. Even as the same rules for combat apply (correct threat assessment & target prioritization) as in Ground warfare - adding the dimension “air” enforces way faster decision making cycles in more complex scenarios without any chance to hide behind a rock. That’s also the reason why hardcore pilots play SB.
Ground warfare is, was an will always be more popular than aerial warfare as wars are always won or lost by ground troops (at least if the goal is to conquer territory) which results in a way higher demand for them as soldiers (irl) whilst the requirements to participate and play a video game or (irl) getting drafted for becoming a tanker are way lower than for pilots.
Gaijin & Ground RB / Air RB:
From my pov gaijin has done a pretty god job to make aerial warfare attractive for casual players as their mouse aim steering of aircraft lowered the entry barriers to play (=no joystick) and the autopilot (aka instructor) allows together with the artificial stability of mouse aim head-ons in infinite loops - making it attractive for guys looking for a shooter.
But they have also noticed that Ground RB is way more popular by nature as it attracts way more players interested in Ground warfare and players looking for a plain shooter game at the same time.
That’s why you rarely meet pure pilots in Air RB. Dedicated pilots play usually SB, and 90-95% of Air RB players are Ground RB mains.
What you have noticed (popularity difference) is therefore just a reflection of reality.