5 Tips for Tanks

A few tips i gleaned playing countless hours of BF2142 (the magrider == the PAC hover tank)
Hover tank tactics
a) Circle strafe, Circle strafe, Circle strafe the magridrs weakness is also it's strength. your front armor is ALWAYS facing what you are shooting at (and presumably, it's shooting back at you
b) ancient Vanu wisdom: we call it the MagMower for a reason. a quick juke to the side will save infantry in most situations Vs a tracked vehicle. the Magrider can and will squash you from any direction. don't believe me? just ask VS Engies.
c) all MBT's have a very predictable fire timing. once you have that down, it is very possible to approach in a zig zag route to frustrate an opponent's attempts to lead you
d) need to hang a quick U turn? Crash. Catching your front right or left bumper, will allow you to use your forward momentum to pivot your tank faster than otherwise possible. adding mouse input and strafing to this will also accelerate the process. also possible to do backwards, but harder.

Time for the Vanguard.

This is a slow tank, just like the Magrider. It goes from slow to snail when off road, hills the Mag doesn't notice and the Prowler climbs with ease slow the Vanny down to 15-20 km/h.
A simple hill climbing maneuver requires setting the tank on the trajectory it is to go all the way, because any corrections will stop it on the slope and it may roll back a bit, giving the enemy time.

What it gets for the lack of speed is heavy armor and a massive gun.
The Vanny forgives mistakes, so it's easy to get out of trouble if trouble gets too deep, at least as long as the enemy isn't paying attention.
If the battle isn't a static shootout from long range, the Vanguard will have to mix maneuver and brute force to compensate for its weaker mobility.

The Vanguard is PlanetSide 2's stereotypical heavyweight NATO MBT, such as the Abrams, Leopard 2 or Challenger II. It has very resistant armor, a serious punch, but it takes some effort to get it moving.

Tips:

-First of all, a Vanny driver should take the tank to Indar and practice driving up the narrow valleys to reach the high ground. Without practicing, the Vanguard will not cooperate with the driver and get stuck every few meters.

-Just because the tank has the best armor doesn't mean it's Chuck Norris. Rushing blindly into enemy fire will not end well. Staying in battle until the tank is seriously damaged is also a good way of getting it to blow up.

-While driving the Vanguard to the best possible position is challenging, combat on a wide and static front is not. If the enemies want a slow paced battle, let them have one. As long as they don't move around and flank too much, they'll eventually lose.

-The Vanguard is no taller than the other two MBTs, it could go into hull down positions easily. In such a position it could hold the line for a pretty long time.

-Only the frontal armor is significantly better than what its counterparts have.
It's a good idea to watch the flanks and have friendlies across the whole battlefield. It takes some time to get everyone in formation, but it pays off as soon as the enemy's attempt to flank bogs down instantly.

-Dodging bullets is only an option at pretty long ranges due to no strafing ability and rather bad acceleration. Just keep the front pointed at the enemy in case he/she is a good shot.

-When somebody actually manages to pull off a flanking maneuver while driving a Vanguard, the result is a knock-out blow. The several minutes spent playing around and learning to drive off road pay off quickly.
A platoon that leaves a static shootout for 2-3 minutes to gain a good position can win the battle if the main force holds long enough.

-The Vanguard can't easily disengage and rush to a new firing position on the other flank. NC tankers should look at the map from time to time and see if the enemy is forming a concentration of forces anywhere.
If so- get moving to counter the upcoming rush before the enemies assault. This will deny them their advantage of speed and mobility.
Simply reacting to the enemy requires a quick tank that could plug holes in the front line quickly, and the Vanny is not quick.

-It's good not to park the tank for a long time, the tank might be slower and less nimble than its counterparts, but it could move and therefore it should move. Staying in one place makes it easier for the enemy to control the battle.

-Avoid close range chaos. The 150 mm takes time to reload, and the Vanguard will be the static sumo wrestler among the ninja tanks the enemy uses.

-This tank does have a reverse gear. Used early and often, this feature makes flanking a Vanny take much more time, allowing it to make more use of its frontal armor.

-It takes a single shot from the main gun to shoot down a fighter. Anything that hovers nearby is asking for it.

How to defeat one?


-Both the Mag and the Prowler have the advantage of mobility. They should be forcing the Vanguard to fight when and where they want, not the other way around.

-If only a Vanguard's front is visible, don't expect to gain much. Flank it before attacking and it should be a sitting duck.

-If the Vanny is in a hull down position, on the high ground and has buddies covering its flanks, the NC already won by selecting the right battlefield.
Go home.

-If the Vanny's are rushing in a group, avoid a grand battle unless over long distances. Long distance combined with the better mobility of the other two MBTs allows them to dictate when the shooting starts and when it stops.

-The Vanguards ain't climbing up anything quickly, so most players just stick to the bottoms of valleys. That makes them easy to ambush by tanks that could reach the high ground faster (Lightnings included).

-Forcing the Vanny to fight at really close range against high speed enemies is a good tactic as well. A Lightning or a Prowler can circle a Vanguard or Magrider to death. People who come from World of Tanks should be familiar with this method.
The sole difference is that the Vanguard will shoot back all the time if it could aim.

-The Vanguard also has a very hard time avoiding air strikes. No strafing, no reaching speed quickly and no really hard turning.

And finally- the Lightning.

In its basic form this little tank is slightly effective against every threat. The autocannon can damage tanks after they get flanked, the 6 round bursts are enough to shoot up infantry, and it takes under a dozen hits to shoot down an ESF.

The tank is quick, a bit faster than the Prowler.

It's also very small and very tough to hit. It's small enough to drive around its target, 50 meters away, and get hit by only one out of several shots fired at it.

Bone stock, it's pretty much like a Panzer II tank of WW II.

Tips:

-DO NOT TRY TO DUKE IT OUT. Getting hit in the front hurts. Getting hit in the sides means trouble, and a shoulder launched rocket in the rear ignites the little bugger.

-If the situation demands it, and a Lightning driver happens to run into enemy tanks, the only valid tactic is to go hull down somewhere (nearly everywhere due to its small size and incredibly small turret) and retreat if the enemy doesn't give up. If the enemy didn't notice the Lightning, one can climb up a hill and wait till the enemies drive by. Shots to the rear work even against MBTs.

-Ambushing works even better when the Lightning is parked behind a hill and the driver goes to the top on foot and observes the enemies with a rifle scope. A head sticking out from behind a hill is much harder to spot than a turret.

-This tank is as fast as a 4-wheeler. Both on and off the road, those 5 km/h of difference in top speed ain't significant. This can be used to drive around the walls of a base under siege and shooting Sundys.

-The Lightning is best used as a ninja, which sneaks up and attacks from the rear, and then disappears before anyone knows what's happening. Given its speed, this tank could flank an enemy easily, unless the enemy is a Prowler. A couple clips of 75 mm bullets will destroy any tank if most shots hit the rear.

-The Lightning is useful as an infantry support tank. It just needs to reverse its way out of trouble on the first sign of enemy bazookas. Good targets include Infiltrators, light infantry and Engineer machine gun nests. Firing volleys through doors and windows also doesn't hurt, ammo is plentiful.

-This tank has very flexible upgrades in weapons that change its role significantly.

-With the Skyguard turret, the Lightning becomes useless.

-With the 100 mm gun, the Lightning becomes an M18 Hellcat.

How to defeat one?

-Shooting one with anything but small arms or anti-infantry grenades does the job. Bazookas, rocket pods, tank guns, and even jetpacking on it as an LA and dropping a C4 charge will blow up a Lightning.

-It's very important to have one's rear covered by friendlies when Lightnings are present, so that they don't flank with their lightning speed and get an easy kill.

-If there's a Lightning with a 100 mm gun, shooting accurately and changing positions before anyone hits it back, keeping a safe distance so that nobody could catch up with it and force it into a direct, close range shootout...
Go home.

Why did you choose VS then?

They glow in the dark, so they're cooler.

The Prowler is no-where near as weak as everyone suggests, a Prowler with an experienced two man crew is a scary thing to come up against unless your also working in a team. Just last night my driver and me happened upon three NC vanguards, we got the jump on one and killed him before he knew we were there, then we took out the other two in a head on fight simply by backing up as they pursued. That's three 1 man vanguards vs one 2 man prowler, if that's under powered then what would a properly balanced Prowler be like, the end of days for tanks?

Prowlers are pretty good tanks, I find. Working with a friend, our two Prowlers managed to take out four magriders and three HA on our own by taking advantage of the things that the OP pointed out. I regularly get lots of kills when I roll out a Prowler. Anyone who says it sucks is using it wrong.

Very simple when i played PS1 they were the underdogs, also they had some of the most skilled players. In PS2 during early stages of beta they were the same. I enjoy a challenge that is why i chose them both sides i personally am an infantry player anyways and at that i am a HA player tanks don't bother me at all.

In my experience, the Prowler does very well if you use it's big advantages: rate of fire and speed. Tank shocking someone and filling their screen with MBT shell explosions can be devastating. But you have to keep it moving, sitting around and trying to slog is a good way to get your giant rear armor shot full of RPGs. It's so fast you can (as suggested above) run really long flanks in short time and get around behind the enemy, and it's very very good for hunt/kill on enemy sunderers as you can cover a lot of ground fast and when you find a sunderer you can stand back and light it up, scoring dozens of kills in the process. The important thing is that if you take anything more than 25% damage it is time to get the **** out and repair/rearm, and if you go below 12 shells it is time to start rolling toward ammo because if you hit any resistance on the way to resupply you're going to blow through that ammo right away.

The Magrider turn speed is vastly improved from early beta, and the tank practically dances now. Don't play it like a MBT, play it like a heavily armored infantry soldier, and you'll be a lot happier. Think of yourself as a fatass with a big gun and a machine gun toting monkey on your shoulder and you'll find a lot more success. Also, the AV top gun upgrade (can't remember what its called) is like an anti-tank sniper rifle. Find a hill across the continent and pick off tanks, people, turrets, and anything else that catches your fancy. When they notice you, switch to the driver seat and scoot out.

Wow, I'm actually impressed with your motivation... But NC seem to be the underdogs now. Come join.

Also, don't get MBT shields unless you're willing to spend actual money on fully upgrading it. It's not worth 100 certs at level 1. It only lasts for a few seconds then you have to wait an entire minute for it to be used again.

This whole thread is a very good idea- props to Bengal
Tempted to say a copy should be put in the vehicle thread as well


Also, indeed our Magriders have cool neon lights



-A request: could you take screenshots(or anyone else) of the 4 tanks in GOOD hulldown positions? and then perhaps hop out of the tank and show the view from the fromt/enemy position ?

Heck, even footage from real battles of hull-down?

It'd help describe the position to those new to maneuvering of that sort. Having visuals would help

If someone who does videos would be willing to help out- that'd help also as far as this goes.

We could use more tank tactics in PS2 - it helps the immersion with tanks

Where's the screenshot folder?

Tips on ammo types:

AP is fixed compared to Beta, I talked to a player who used AP rounds on his Vanguard and he said it takes 3 shots to kill a Prowler... Frontally. Back in Beta there was no significant difference between HEAT and AP vs tanks.
This is a kinetic round, no explosion, no splash, no blowing up infantry by shooting right next to them.

HEAT is what we all know, works a bit when shot at the front of an enemy tank, works much better against the sides. A good tactic to use exploding ammo is to aim at the ground right next to the enemy- if the shot misses, it won't fly past its target and explode far behind it.

HE can easily kill infantry based on splash damage alone, the splash radius is also large (how large- IDK, never tried). Based on what people say it works very well vs infantry and has limited effectiveness against armor.

And as requested, here's Vanguard in the first hull down position available after logging in on Indar, still in the Warpgate:


In a situation like this, where the road goes downwards and out of sight, it's good to fire a couple ranging shots, so as soon as an enemy arrives in sight it'll get spanked (and often stop to try to find who or what just hit it which allows for another spanking).


This is from a big rock, half way from the tank to the outpost. The scope is a 2x zoom reflex sight and the tank is nearly invisible, but that's due to the steering wheel icon disturbing.
The turret actually fits inside the lower part of the wheel. The gun can be seen as a few pixels if someone zooms in good enough.

I'll take an Infiltrator next time to show what a fully upgraded tank zoom would show.


This is showing that the hull is in fact down when looking directly into the gun's muzzle. The Vanguard has a non-symmetric turret, so it's a good idea to have the higher part of sloped cover to protect the wider part of it, as seen here.


And finally, this is how it's parked as viewed from the side. The gun is fully depressed, so this is the max incline a Vanguard could use while still being able to aim horizontally.

I'll do the rest during the week, I'll also find different ways of going hull down, to give a better idea of using not only boulders for cover as seen above, but also hill tops, slopes, and even canyons and other terrain features for protection.

About time to get this updated.

Here's the Lightning:





Going hull down is not limited to driving up a hill and shooting across it (unless one's driving the Mag- more on that in just a moment).
The Lightning is also by far the easiest tank to use cover with, and the 100 mm gun upgrade was a beast in Beta and probably didn't change much since.
When only its 3 foot tall turret sticks out from behind cover, it becomes so OP that it's not even funny. I've tackled Prowlers and even a Magrider in 1 vs 1 combat when I dictated when and where the battle takes place. It's also really easy to do that having the smallest, sneakiest and fastest tank in game.

Now time for the Prowler:

First a shot of its gun depression, parked up a hill:



And secondly- going hull down does not require a tip of a hill, rolling terrain also does the job nicely:







This tank has the second smallest turret, it's probably only 1/2 - 2/3 the size of the Vanguard's in terms of frontal surface area. Its gun depression also seems a bit superior, but I haven't measured yet.
The hull height offsets this advantage a bit, as some rocks a Vanny could use for cover leave part of the Prowler's hull exposed. Getting the best effects requires some practice, but becomes easy after parking the tank in a few spots and taking a look how the enemy would view it. This refers to all tanks.

After taking these screenshots I defeated a Vanguard in a 1 vs 1 battle without even catching fire from damage taken. He rushed across an open field, with me hull down on the other side, and when he got closer and started hitting me, I pulled off a reverse slope defense and he fell for it.
What's that? I'll give info in the next update.

All in all, while the Prowler can't afford to take serious hits, it's also very easy to make the hills work as an additional layer of armor that no gun can penetrate. A bit hard to learn and not capable of brute force all out offensives, but otherwise very good tank.
A Lightning on steroids and with 2 guns.

And finally, an attempt with the Magrider parked at the peak of a steep hill:





This is the only form of cover it could take, a less steep hill will require it to go to the top so the gun is exposed, and everything else such as using an object for cover as I did with the Lightning only allows the secondary gun to be fired.
My guess is that it's still more much more exposed than a Vanguard in terms of total target size, but the whole upper hull is hidden.

Up next- a quick guide on turret down position, reverse slope defense, team based tactics and the gun depression ranges of each tank (measured by taking screenshots+photoshop).

So I took screenshots, did measurements.
I rounded the numbers to the nearest full degree (I got results like -20.3 or +29.85, etc.).

The Mag can aim its gun from -20 to + 30 degrees.
The Vanny has an elevation range of -10 to +30 deg.
The Prowler's gun goes from -15 to +30 degrees.
The Lightning-> -10 to +35 degrees, with the 100 mm Python and most likely 75 mm Viper. The Skyguard is 0 to nearly 90 (not unlocked yet, didn't measure, so I'm not sure about how high it aims, it doesn't go below the horizon for sure though).

The Magrider has the best gun depression of all tanks. As seen earlier, it can push its nose across a hill and aim waaay downwards to shoot stuff on the other side.

The Vanguard gets the short end of the stick with the least depression, giving it another "soft stat" that makes it harder to use it.

The Prowler has another reason to use it as an off roading tank, having the best depression of all turreted tanks it can park on the most tilted terrain and still shoot.

The Lightning gets the best gun for AA and urban combat, those 5 deg could mean giving that one more shot at a Lib that's flying above.
Skyguard is very limited in anti-infantry duties though, it's good to park it on a hill facing downwards to be able to shoot targets on the ground better.

If anyone's interested, I could post the screenshots, but I figured not to make a very image heavy post this time.

Now for the images:

Here's what a reverse slope defense looks like, and what not to do to fall for it:


Stormrebel had a good shot at my belly. He was also outside of my view at that point, so my tank was a big @$$ target and I wouldn't even know about it.
Using AP ammo one can win the battle with a single shot if the enemy had more/less 1/2 health left, just pull behind a steep hill, to the reverse slope, and wait till the enemy chases.
We'll check how belly shots compare to frontal and side hits in terms of damage, there may be a bonus for shooting the floor.

Cresting hills should be avoided, even if it seems that the enemy is just one hit away from being destroyed when he/she dives for cover.
A platoon of tanks focusing fire on the single guy that's crossing the tip gives instant kills in complete safety from enemy fire.

The chat messages are not blurred, for the collective giggles of the readers.

And finally, the first team based tactic- Fire and movement:


One tank stops, right now Stormrebel is overwatch and in case of spotting an enemy- the "fire" part of this tactic. I overpass at full speed, doing the "movement" part and drive some 100 meters further down the road to a position I find will be good for shooting.


Now the roles are switched- I fire, he moves. This tactic works for 2 tanks, but could also be used by 2 sections of 2 (or more) each.
This could be moving from boulder to boulder down a road like we did, or from hill to hill, or the overwatch could wait on one side of a canyon while the moving units go to the other side and climb up its wall, or plenty of other situations.

Tips on fire and movement:
-Find a position with a good view of the most probable direction a threat may arrive from.
-This position should be at least partially protected, either hull down, or parking behind cover like I did in the 2-nd picture.
-The moving person should stop before going out of view of the firing tank, as that renders overwatch useless.
-It took us about a minute before we began hopping without the use of chat messages, so it's very quick and easy.
-Should the moving tank run into trouble, it can go full reverse and there will still be somebody accurately shooting at the enemies, possibly not detected by them before having the first shot. This can easily spoil the perfect ambush.
-This tactic should only be used when nearing a battlefield, in friendly territory it may look cool (we had 2 players spectating at one point, following the rear tank- the mover until he over-passed overwatch and then waited for overwatch to begin moving), but it slows down a Vanguard march to 25 km/h.

After practicing fire and movement forwards, do the same in reverse. That way the enemies will need to cover a greater distance before getting up close and they'll be under constant accurate fire.

Later we also had a third tank in the platoon, so 2 tanks covered 2 areas, while the 3-rd one moved. It was easier to coordinate with only one player moving at a given time.

More to come, feel free to suggest stuff as well.

I was disappointed with the lack of giraffe camo. That camo does wonders for confusing the enemy, and it is arguably the one most suited for Indar tank combat.

Also, deployed enemy Sunderers should be stormed when spotted, even with a solo tank. At long range, enemy heavy assaults will be able to use cover to take out the tank and engineers will be able to repair it. Run over stuff and shoot the remaining ;_;

Great stuff Bengal !

I agree that Prowler isn't too weak. It has some solid strengths. People just engage in 1v1's and lose, and figure that means their tank is worse.

This is probably the Prowlers strongest suit. The ability to move quickly around bases with HE rounds, and a Vulcan or other AT secondary and kill sundies, and their little offspring.

At close range meaning less then 50m then sure. The further you go out the more it really starts to screw you over. The real issue is the time it takes you to aim is approximate to (albeit faster) then the reload of your enemies gun. So unless you can pointblank pump rounds into the enemy it is a massive disadvantage. If the guns reloaded independently the problem wouldn't be as big, but in tank fights tanks dance around going in and out of cover exposing themselves for a shot then going back into cover. Often you only have a split second to get off a shot. A shot, not 2 shots. If you are trading shot for shot the Prowler will never win, so you have to over commit and expose yourself to land a second hit.

The Magrider actually has the best climbing speed, and best turning rate. But the prowler dose have he fastest top speed, problem is it's default acceleration is horrible. The prowler becomes much better as you invest in it's racing chassis, and i think that's one of the largest issues new players have with the default Prowler.

With the performance chassis perhaps, but the default Prowler has an issue sliding down the hill on it's approach to TI alloy (even upgrading to racing chassis helps alleviate much of this problem)


Tips:

That's one of the big issues with the prowler it's an upgraded lightning, but we already have a tank to fit that role. It's called a Lightning. Prowlers in general are very weak in large tank vs tank battles, being stationary=death, and often larger battles dont allow for the prowler to exploit its speed.

Agreed, if you don't have double HE you are doing it wrong.

The best kill streaks I ave with the prowler (my top being 120 kills) is breaking into the enemy lines, farming infantry (perhaps using my secondary gunner to kill sundies If i'm not just cert farming), and getting back out to repair and do it again.

Which is all fine and dandy, and the prowler certainly excels at this role, but we already have a tank that preforms this role. It's called a lightning. The real problem with the Prowler is not that it's a bad tank, it's just a redundant Tank. The TR don't have a Tank to preform the role that NC and VS tanks preform.

Agreed, it's why I'd gladly give up my utility of anchored mode (staying still=death) to be able to carry infantry. If i run into an enmy Tank I could drop my HA, and my secondary gunner could assist.

Only if you have an avenue of escape. You will rarely find a 1v1 tank encounter. It's typically few tanks scattered moving on a position, with infantry mixed about them. But if you can get the jump and get out with a friend or two giving you a hand then then you just ran into the perfect scenario for the prowler. But the prowler has no staying power.

The speed isn't that great. Not so large to allow you to flank entire battles and out run ESF. The real strength of the prowler really isnt even it's speed, it's acceleration. Just how quick the thing get;s up to max speed. It allows it get out of situations, rather then get into them.

If you are in a vanguard I'd also recommend just using yourself as a battering ram. If you have shields all the better. If you slug it out with a prowler then he is going to lose every time.

If it's a good prowler he has HE rounds and IR scope. attacking it with infantry is the last thing I'd do.

Hopefully people will do this to all tanks.

They are also the easiest tanks to strafe too. The have a wide back and are very boxy. If the option is available always use air power.

If you can close on one you can kill it before it has the ability to get away. Typically tanks move in to a tight corner with 1 direction to advance, and another to flee, to help protect their flanks. If he has to reverse to flee then you can get ontop of him.

Up a long sustained hill I had a feeling the Prowler would be quicker. It would take lots of time to drive all tanks up to the same exact hill and measure how fast they go up it, so this is only based on observing them going on similar terrain.

With its 15 degree gun depression and small turret it's quite possible to have it hold its own.

I've been rushed by a Vanguard while testing the Prowler and at a longer range he couldn't hit my small turret, while at closer range I reversed down the hill I parked on and waited till he gets to the top. Those 2 bonus shots got him burning, and after I finished him off I still had 1/3 health left, more or less.

That is a problem, but it's up to SOE to find the answer.

If it was up to me, I'd give the Prowler gun stabilization, which would make its speed advantage much more useful, but making the Prowler a Merkava would also definitely make it unique.

Which is why I wrote it's a tank to break the line, not to hold it.
In fact it's actually a tank that should go around the line, not break it, for best results.

Feel free to create a new character and take a Vanguard for a ride. When it reaches 17 km/h, it stops accelerating for about a second while the transmission is shifting to 2nd gear.
Same thing happens at 34 or so, when the transmission is changing to 3rd.

Trying to move around in a tight area (or far off the road) with frequent accelerating and decelerating sometimes results in a 17 km/h speed limit, because there's no room to keep the tank going at full throttle until it shifts.

Never considered that actually...

I've bazooka'd quite a few tanks already, the rule of thumb is if they're busy shooting something, they're too busy to look around and it's safe to proceed- especially when the tank's alone.
It all boils down to attacking from more directions than the tank could cover, not having a single big frontal rush, which is equal to free kills for the tank crew.

Then the Prowler's big rear and large hull sides become great targets.