The Chimera Battle Tank

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Sumguy720, Sep 17, 2021.

  1. Sumguy720

    Going to try to be concise here.

    Topic: The chimera seems like it's in a rough spot right now. Some main reasons:

    1. I've tried doing the rumble seat thing. Due to the restrictive view angle you're either taking direct hits from tanks or you're not able to see what is going on or contribute at all. If you're the only one in the rumble, you have to constantly switch seats to "take cover" and then get back into firing position. The platform isn't stable enough to hit things either. I've tried lock-on launchers too and the chimera just moves your view around too much to reliably lock a target at even moderate distances. I'm not sure why I would ever sit in the rumble seat of one of these things. It seems like a death sentence and there's very little potential to do anything useful. Being carried from A-B is not a benefit. It's trivial to pull a flash, most other vehicles are faster, and I'm less likely to get shot out of most other vehicles too.

    2. It carries no momentum whatsoever. If you want to slow down to turn without covering a ton of ground you really can't. As soon as you let off the gas you go from full speed to zero in like half a second, then it takes you like eight hours to accelerate to full speed again (hyperbole). This tank stops fast and starts slow, making it a really uncomfortable experience to drive. Navigating basic turns is a pain in the butt.

    3. Being unable to turn in place and topping out at like 65 kph makes you incredibly easy to kill via harasser. If this tank gets flanked it's game over. Not only are you one gun down but you only have two options, back toward your target or drive away, and neither covers your weakpoint. On continents with limited space to maneuver (a big portion of each continent) you really can't operate at all. You have to be traveling at speed to really stay defended with your strong armor toward your enemies and you simply can't do that in a mountain pass or near trees or between rocks or basically anywhere but rolling hills and esamir snowscapes.

    3.a. It's a little disconcerting that you can't turn the wheels in place like other wheeled vehicles.

    4. It's huge. I feel like it's one of the easiest targets to hit in the game. This makes it seem like it has less health just because it gets hit by a lot more a lot more often.

    5. Because of it's rather poor performance and the poor experience in rumble seats, its very difficult to find people to crew this tank with you. Fully crewed you're looking at six people in one vehicle and it's dubious that it even makes you any more effective. It does let your enemies do direct damage to the tank while also getting bonus splash damage on anyone unfortunate enough to be in a rumble seat. It's actually probably better for your enemies if you're fully crewed, in that sense, because they are much more likely to get kills.

    In my limited experience, I've had much more success solo in an AP lightning than in a dual crewed Chimera, which seems wrong.

    So anyway, I'm kind of wondering what the trade off is here? What do we get with this tank that is considered an advantage?

    I heard a rumor that the tank might someday get an ability slot. Something like the Defector bubble shield would be really cool and might make some of the other downsides start to make sense, but currently it feels like we just took one of the other MBTs, made it look much cooler, made it perform much worse, and shipped it.
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  2. BlackFox

    I think they had something like an IFV in mind but threw away any design that would make it effect
  3. RabidIBM

    Yeah, I hear you. I haven't played the Chimera, but it is the easiest tank to kill. I wouldn't get to workes up about the rumble seats though, they're a transport gimmick. It's a two person tank that people can sit on.
  4. Sumguy720


    Yeah I can appreciate that. I think I focused on it a little bit because it's the closest thing to a tank ability it has, so in my mind it has to kind of stand up to the other faction specific tank abilities, which is obviously doesn't, lol.
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  5. Exileant

    o_O If you can find a dedicated group, the thing has some options with those Rumble seats. Repair, rapid deployment inside a Hot-zone, and my personal fav, Anti Air. It is basically a Sunderer... With teeth. It is in an odd place though. Which is why I too just made a post asking for a few things regarding its utilities.

    ;) Regardless, even as is, it has the potential to be hands down the most powerful M.B.T. ever built.... as far as Burst damage is concerned. The issue is teamwork. Everyone wants to be the leader, nobody wants to follow. To make up for its lack if an intrinsic perk, I ask Heavies with Decimators to sit on my front flaps and Heavies with Air-Lock/Dumb-fire or Engineers with A.T. Mines for rear. That way when someone pulls up to either side they are in for horrible surprises.

    :D It can be a bit jittery for your passengers, but that is where the skill of your driver is supposed to come in. Their job is suppose to be to get you close enough on stable ground so you have a smooth shot. :confused: That means slowing down when going over bumps and even forgoing some dodge maneuvers and letting you do your job.

    :( In my opinion I pray.... :eek:PRAY, they do not give it a Defector bubble unless Ablation comes Standard. Because Seraph Shield is only MODERATELY effective when you have like 2 engineers healing you. Otherwise you WILL die that much quicker, just like Defectors do. If the Chimera's problem is it is so large it is an easy target now? A shield linked into it's life pool would make it a Black Hole for potential damage.... ;) I would prefer a type of Discharge like the buried tanks that were on Esamir only perfected so that it does not damage the tank. The Tank Stomp suggestion is pretty much the same thing only more.... Spirited..... Violent... And will take care of the Light Armored vehicle's INSOLENCE once and for all.
  6. Liewec123

    Chimera being a big dumb cert pinata is just par-for-the-course for NSO.

    Chimera: much larger than other MBTs, no MBT ability.
    Javelin: scout vehicle with a couple of bad weapons and no scout radar.
    Dervish: the ESF of the lone wolf faction, the only ESF that is useless without 2 players.

    can see Wrel had a huge hand in the creation of these, because they're so freaking awful.
  7. Exileant

    :rolleyes: You exaggerate, and they are NOT AWFUL!!! The M.B.T. is really only missing 1 element and that is its special utility Defense. Even now at its weird place of being and seemingly under armored, I do not want to drive anything else due and this is setting aside the fact that it looks like my old friend Moon Buggy. I have done some amazing things in it that no other M.B.T. would be able to do and that includes the Magrider. I am sure of the reasons they named it after a Mythical Creature of such power is the fact that it is related to another one that shares a similar name. (The other being it is self driving, and technically you only control the tail so with 2 people in it, it has 3 minds in one body. You do not drive the tank, you BECOME the tank. BAM! No lore search, understood it just by looking at it. If that is not already written lore, MAKE IT SO!!! I love you.) Only this one uses one hit to kill disposable turrets. :eek: It is a QUEEN Bullet Ant that can spawn a legion of soldiers... If all four of my flaps are Light Assault I can roll in like a battle ship at a distance until I get close enough for them all to use their C4... Do you have ANY idea what that translates into? o_O You understand full well. I know you. This is a unit that can EASILY be made to be TOO powerful if they are not careful, and that is the reason it is so big. Battle potential.

    :confused: There is only ONE thing I do not understand.... Why can it not carry MAX's? Now THAT would be a great option for it. It should be a MAX TRANSPORT. Maxs have LONG since been lost to Redeploy after a base has been taken. I should be able to lend my friends a hand and take them to the next base! My tires are open! They would be exposed, and could die, and the Chimera by everybody's standards here could use something beyond a simple utility. I am posting this on Reddit to make sure they see this! They are calling it a cert pinata, lean into it, you all.... 4 max load? An EPIC reward, IF... you manage to pop that Pinata.

    ;) The Javelin only needs to be fixed so that it is on the same stabilizer program as the Magrider. It goes over a hill and stays at that incline for an hour. Beyond that, the thing is gold... The Nest could work a bit better by firing in a straight line, versus the whole Shotgun spray thing. Otherwise it is a dangerous little machine. Especially in groups of 3.

    And the Dervish..... o_O You are badmouthing the only air vehicle capable of clearing the skies of Liberators faster than ground units, with that pilot, or take out fighters like it is some kind of bat eating insects. It just needs an Explosive Round Rotary Nose Cannon. So that's a BAD Liewec123, not a GOOD Liewec123... :eek: NO! *Swats nose with FULL ammo box* NO!!!

    :confused: Wrel is awesome. He, like every other tech on the face of Earth has made a few mistakes, but THESE were not among them.

    o_O *Grumbles* :mad: Talking bad about one of the sole people and reasons you have a game to play, aught-ta find ya and kick ya in the glam shin... *Grumbles* Nail in ya truck-in' tire... *Grumbles* .....:eek: GUM IN YA HAIR!!!:mad:
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  8. YellowJacketXV

    I had an amazing time on a fellow robot's chimera yesterday. I was just my regular engineer, we also had a small squad of two engines, a medic and a heavy. I sat in a rumble so the medic could triage and the engine was pilot. We'd sneak up into enemy territory and engage a "fire everything" protocol on enemy sunderers and engaged armor. It didn't matter that the main guns were strictly the AV types (halberd at home and AV cannon) as the rumble heavy and myself would gun down infantry. My jockey implant was appreciated as I was able to use the punisher engineer-grenades to give the mighty steed a boost in HP right before onslaughts as well as provide reps while mounted due to that ability. During firefights I could easily swap to a side-seat as the driver made approaches on either the right or left side, giving cover to us tagalongs. Also, I'm not sure how but the pilot was able to just outright eat a good amount of anti-tank mines.

    10/10 I love this vehicle and don't see why y'all hate on it so much.
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  9. Botji

    TL;DR
    Chimera has some problems that are really bad and can be exploited by enemies but it also has access to quite amazing weapons, making it a good fire support or flanking vehicle.


    Tbh the Chimera will/should probably get like a 10-20% size reduction to make it more in line with the other tanks but also help it not be completely helpless against a Harasser ramming its rear.... Currently the Chimera does not have enough gun depression to hit some vehicles that are too close, like a Harasser sniffing its rear. Lightning tanks often view Chimeras as free kills for the same reason, they just drive close/under them and there isnt much the Chimera can do about it except hope they can drive far enough away to be able to aim down at it.

    Chimera also needs a bit more power in its forward/backwards movement when starting from stationary, its actually possible to almost get stuck on a slope, cant drive up the slope, even though it was no problem doing it while you were moving and its not a super steep slope either, cant turn the tank because.. you cant turn the tank unless you are moving so you sometimes just have to kinda drive back down again to flatter terrain and start again. Its so bad that this happens on some actual roads where Sunderers and stuff can drive no problem.

    Aside from problems like that the Chimera is ok, it definitely needs a ability to make it compete with other tanks head on but with Stealth, Satyr and Siren you can pretty much instantly kill other tanks from behind, though its some work to avoid being seen in this thing.

    Another big + is that it has the only G2A weapon in the entire game that is actually lethal and not just a deterrent with the Siren, able to do 3200 damage against ESF with a single reload which you can get down to 3.15 seconds so you hit them for ~50% health first, reload just over 3 seconds then hit them again for ~50% of their health. If they have Comp armor or FS ready they can survive but its quite a lot of damage that comes from nowhere so you can often catch people with their pants on, especially pilots since they are so used to just flying around everywhere and having everything done for them with missile lock warnings and such things.

    Its not as good against Liberators or Galaxies but on the other hand they are also often easier to hit so you can do it from longer range but the best part is that the Siren is also a very potent AV weapon capable of doing 960 damage per reload against tanks(the CT2-XP AV turret does 840 damage but has a shorter reload and is more accurate at range).
  10. Crayv

    One of the biggest buffs to the Chimera can have without changing a single stat would be to simply swap the weapons the driver and gunner control. It boggles my mind that it wasn't that way in the first place.
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  11. VV4LL3

    Or... just let MAXes sit on the rumble seats.
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