[Vehicle] Harasser vs Lightning

I'm not an expert or anything just speaking from experience, but if a harasser pops out from behind cover on a tank, I rarely ever see the tank survive. It usually can't get more than 1-2 shots off before it's dead and often these may miss because of the speed of the harasser.

In an open engagement, sure the harasser can't do as much but on the other hand they can be very hard to hit when dodging at long range. Most of the terrain on maps seems to be low hills with cover as well, which suits harassers. For a vehicle that has so much protection through it's speed and mobility, it seems over armoured.

Ok, since they're so easy to use, go get a harasser and come back and post a video of your kills.

... and in exchange, the Lightning always has perfect communication between it's driver and gunner. Never a miscommunication, never improper targeting, nothing of that sort.

Not to mention that it frees up another person to be doing literally anything else. That 50/50 fight between a Harasser and a Lightning becomes pretty damn lopsided when the Lightning has a friendly heavy with a lock on, engineer with a MANA AV, or an entire second Lightning.

Battles are typically won or lost by who brings more pop to the fight, and the Lightning is vastly more effective per pop than a Harasser ever will be. ('course the Lightning can't hold a candle to a 1/2 MBT in this regard, but it still outclasses the Harasser.)

on the other hand you are ambushed more often which is sad given that you have to manage your weak spot (concept totally alien to harassholes), getting stuck on a random pebble gets you killed much more often. Harassers have twice the awareness, twice the repairing power, twice the AT mines/C4, twice the AV manas. Then there is a better turret stabilization which makes it much easier for a harasser crew to lay accurate fire on the move. Tanks pretty much have to slow down/stop to be as accurate which dramatically decreases their survivability.

As if it mattered. It's not a 16v16 game and lopsided pops in every possible configuration are a fact of life.
When the fight becomes lopsided why don't you press turbo to bail, doing impressive 50m long jumps over hills? You know what happens when a lighning gets into a duel that ends up being supported by a random lockon or a mana AV? It's a do or die right there, no questions asked.

Tanks don't win fights either way and they are not as cost effective. They are also so much easier to catch with pants around ankles (c4 out of nowhere, rear armor weakness). Wear down 2 waves of tanks and you have a guaranteed victory on the field because the enemy has ran out of resources. Is there a moment where you cannot afford to pull a harasser?

That doesn't apply to most situations (moving at high speeds) when a lightning and harasser clash as that extra free guy on the lightning's team can't assist the outcome. Furthermore -- because the harasser wins more often than not, they get to go on and kill more stuff while the lightning driver is out of the fight while they spawn, get a new tank, and drive it up to the fight (if they can.) Simple fact of the matter is -- all things being equal, a harasser will kill a lightning. At significantly less resource cost. And continue to do so after the lightning is dead. Being able to focus SOLELY on driving and SOLELY on gunning (the two things that keep these relatively fragile vehicles that both survive by virtue of agility) trumps pretty much everything else.

As a harasser main, I can agree with a lot of what your guys are saying, but also find a lot untrue, at least in my experience.

The biggest thing i'd like to note is how vastly different the driving and shooting mechanics are between the harasser and lightning.
I win a majority of 1v1 fights not just because of the speed and agility but because the lightning turret mechanics makes it significantly harder to hit moving targets,which is further amplified if the lightning is moving, especially over rough terrain. The cannon movement feels slow and restricted, and becomes very jerky when moving over even the lightest terrain. For this reason I dislike combat in tanks.

Experienced lightning pilots have overcome this, and will win most harasser engagements if they can lead their shots properly.

I'm not gonna lie, driving and gunning on a harasser is 100 times easier, which leads to more reliable hits better dps, and more kills...