If the lightning isn't allowed serious firepower it needs better durability

Lightning is not high mobility though, as noted by Goden.

Never used it before so I just checked out the stats. You ain't kiddin, should be 275m/s at least.

At 1600 damage a shot the damage certainly doesn't need buffed, and the quick reload means that a reload reduction would also probably put it over the top.

Generally though, in these cases all that's really needed is like what you said - a quality of life buff to just make an already unforgiving gun a bit less unforgiving.

He's correct about a racer Lightning, but rival is the best choice for all the reasons he listed. It's already really fast stock so making it fast in reverse (a HUGE benefit to a tank that absolutely cannot show its butt in combat at any time) and also fast to show the strongest armor to the enemy

I dunno, I feel like it's plenty nimble. My favorite AV tactic is to reverse toward friendlies, pop smoke just before they come into view, and have the enemy tank come busting through the smoke....into the face of a half dozen 2/2 Vanguards. Or 2600 Phoenix HAs. Certainly not anything I could do with an MBT

It's not nimble. Even with rival a magrider is far more mobile. The problem is it's just a clunky rectangular shape, and the traction like on all non-magrider tanks is terrible. .

I think its chassis needs to change. Not those nifty little icons in the 'perfomance' slot, I mean its overall model of behavior (or however it's called). Low and narrow profile is good, those terrible, terrible track casings and zero clearance are not. Oh, and secondary weapons, please.

A secondary kobalt style weapon would be great to give it more defense against infantry at close ranges without the longer distance explosion spam against infantry up on a tower somewhere.

Would also make AP a more viable choice. Being able to defend yourself against infantry is important and slow reload AP w/no secondary gunner looking out for you is a recipe for failure.

Making it work like the ESF weapons would be ideal, so you can keep mobile with either equipped. This'd make it more than just a nerfed smaller MBT in function/play-style.

No, tanks in this game definitely don't need more armor and durability. They already have too much of it.

What they do need is more reliance on mobility rather than raw armor for their defense (GUN STABLIZATION). What they need is MORE mobility, MORE firepower and LESS armor. In other words, exactly the opposite of what SOE is slowly but very deliberately driving to - clunky static iron boxes, taking potshots at each other with their nerf guns. A 4-year old's concept of tank warfare.

Give a coax to tanks and you BREAK the game.
All bases are (re)designed based on the fact that tanks can't get a splash hit on infantry.


Now if you really want a coax, I think you could replace HE by "weak-HEAT-plus-coax"

What lightning really needs is some better driving characterstics. More traction, working suspension, working gravity (NO FLIPING!), maybe a slightly buffed acceleration, top speed and traverse speed - for each chassi respectively.

Disagree strongly. I think HEAT is perfectly fine and the lightning is still a good vehicle
Of course its not going to beat an MBT 1v1, that doesnt mean it doesnt do considerable damage

Silhouette lower than standing man, engine sound same for all faction, decent speed and a lot of versatility.
Hell what you want a wraith module or magburner maybe vanguard shield?

Lightning is ninja tank destroyer. Use it low silhouette to escape cos you can hide almost everywhere.
My personal certing is fire suppression(not at max but is nice boost and when engine burns), auto repair(not at max but still lot faster then MBT autorepair), rival or chaser(not at max to give me an edge over newbies), python ap or heat(after a viper nerf I will use heat much more often cos every lightning I encounter will no kick my a**) and finally HA + AA lockon as driver to harass Esfs.
With this setup I can engage almost anything and still have lot of durability to beat pesky buggies and small squads of infantry.
I Call it opportunist build

So use your brain it is only thing what needs to buffing not Lightning

And a turbo boost. Would be a fun, yet slightly useless addition to the frame of the Lightning.

Lightning should serve as a support tank with multiple roles:
-Mobile Artillery (Viper)
-AA (Skyguard)
-Tank Hunter (Python AP)

MBT should serve as it is:
-Main Battle Tank

Lightnings don't need to be changed at all. They're perfectly fine as is IMO, and will still be fine following the Viper nerf.

Because there is other tanks, this is a faster way to destroy em' than using an HA with launcher
Becuz there's peasant to farm
Becuz 100% resistance against small arms ( Wish ESFs got this... )
Infiltrator can't stalk you and "I see what you did there" if you are in a tank.

But Warthogs are closer to Harassers than they are to tanks, and Harassers were already meganerfed because people (mostly 1/2 tankers, probably) complained that ITZ A BUGGY IT SHOULDN'T KILL ME IN MY FARM MACHINE. So now we should reduce tanks to Harassers? Pre-nerf or post-nerf?

I see your point though. Infantry will always complain about things that kill them and that they should be able to kill everything. We need to get rid of that mentality in this community.

It will be/is fine, pre-nerf Viper was crazy OP, post-nerf is still decent. This is a rare example of SOE fixing an OP'ed weapon by slightly nerfing it, rather than making a half-dozen changes in one patch that completely cripple the vehicle (...harasser..)

Dude, making a 1-hit kill into a 2-hit kill isn't "slightly nerfing" a weapon lol... What this moronic change does is to harshly nerf skillful play and good shot-by-shot aiming while very slightly detracting from aoe spamming... In short, you'll see much more 6-shot spamming with vipers because this becomes the only effective way to use it. Pretty much the opposite of what (I guess) SOE wanted.

In fact, I predict that we may even see an INCREASE in infantry deaths by vipers following this patch. I know I will never again let off a single shot from the weapon. It's 6-shot barrage now all the way...

If the problem is 6-shot spamming against infantry, then don't do something which will actually promote spamming! Do something else, like make magazine smaller, reduce splash, increase recoil, whatever but not this! It is literally the very worst possible solution if your goal is to make the weapon less spammy.

Back in Beta, the Lightning did have access to the Turbo Boost that the Flash and Harasser currently have access to. It was removed for reasons unkown. I dont remember it being annoying or overpowered. It was however, hilarious to watch a lightning rocket off at warpspeed.

Personally i think the Lightning as is is in a decently good spot. Its a light tank designed to be used when you have either No Techplant or not enough resources to pull a MBT. It is durable enough to stand its ground against Infantry and Light Armor threats, but mobile enough to combat an MBT with skilled piloting.

The problem however, lies with Warpgates. And the fact that you can pull a Lib/MBT/Gal from Them at any time by just recalling and taking a short drive/flight back to the battle. It largely makes the Technology Plant bonus a moot point. If stripping a Empire of its Tech Benefit meant that the whole empire on that continent was forced to rely on lightnings, we would see more Lightnings and Tech plants would become a valuable base to both attack and defend. Especially on a continent like Esamir where there is one One techplant in the center of the continent.

MBTs should always have the upper hand in both Armor and Firepower, even 1/2. Lightnings should be the middle ground of Armor, Firepower, Speed and Mobility, and the Harasser should have the upperhand in Mobility And Speed with lesser armor.