5 Tips for Tanks

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by BengalTiger, Nov 20, 2012.

  1. Zotamedu

    The strafing ability should make up for the lack of hull down. A skilled driver is pretty much impossible to hit with dumb fire if he is strafing in and out of cover at medium distance. The vanguard is easier to hit in those situations since they more a lot more predictable.

    Thanks to the OP for this thread. It is a good read but I doubt it will help me since I'm terrible at driving a tank. I prefer sneaking up on them and putting a decimator up their tailpipe. I would like to add some tips myself.

    1, Always leave your headlights on. It makes it a lot easier for me to spot you as you hide in the shadows.
    2, Gather around in a large pile of armour. It makes aiming a lot easier since I don't really care which tank I hit, as long as something takes damage. It will also be a lot harder for you to get away so please; the larger the armoured column, or preferable the cluster, the harder it will be for you to actually move.
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  2. BengalTiger

    These two make life much easier for Liberators as well.

    Especially when the tanks stick together with lights on after they see the gunship incoming.

    Since I wrote about delivering a nice sucker punch to low speed Libs, I might write on how to minimize damage when it is the Lib that's got the upper (literally) hand in the nearest update(s).

    Hint: The Prowler is [insert impolite, 4 letter word beginning with "F" here]-ed the most.
  3. BengalTiger

    This is a reply to http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/tanks-vs-air.75193/, but I decided to put it here, because this thread is my general tank warfare guide and the tips should kept all in one place.

    How not to get your @$$ kicked by the planes*?

    [IMG]

    Stay away from roads. Pilots often mistake vehicles for ambient terrain features when they're in odd places. Proper camo also helps a lot.

    Keep an eye in the sky. Spotting the plane first gives a great advantage, and this is more than just seeing the character name before exploding.

    Have your gunner look around. He/she's not busy driving, so they can rotate the MG around and make sure there's no ESF stalking your tank.
    The gunner is absolutely required in the Magrider, because the driver can't look left/right/rear while on the move.

    Always point the front of the tank to the attacker. A whole salvo of rockets in the frontal armor does some 25-30% damage.

    When a fighter gets spotted, don't spam MG ammo at it.
    First, call its type, altitude and heading, i.e. "Scythe, high altitude, S-SE", so both crew members are aware what it is and where it is.

    Then let it fly past if it didn't notice your tank.
    This is important, because it is the Burster x2 that can handle fighters easily. The tank should only shoot targets of opportunity or in self defense.
    If it's a Lib, refer to earlier posts and shoot the bugger down.

    If the plane decides to attack, it could come in one of two ways:
    Low enough to hit it with the main gun or too high to reach it.

    If it's too high, there's often a fix- park the tank on a steep slope.

    When a fighter's coming low enough, it's a 1 shot, 1 kill target (2 shots for Lightning with 100 mm HEAT rounds or Prowler; Reavers are said to be tougher and require 3 hits from Prowlers but I never checked this).
    This ain't easy, but it solves the problem instantly.

    If the fighter is coming from too high to aim at it, it's time to press the pedal to the medal (Mag Burner helps here).
    Bonus points for driving in a zigzag across uneven terrain, this will throw the ESF's aim off at least partially (I also ran away from a few Libs as well, always worth a try).

    When the first rockets hit, it's a good idea to activate the shields (Vanguard only option).
    This gives time to reach a higher speed relatively undamaged- the rest of the burst is not enough to shut them down.
    A rule of thumb is higher speed and less predictability in maneuvers = higher chance of survival.

    Now as for the Prowler... No burners, no shields, big rear end... Deploying is also out of question.
    Sorry, TR, no advice on how to survive before reaching full speed.
    This tank is a bad thing to be in under air attack unless it's already moving at full speed and dodging bullets.

    If your gunner is a ninja and you have a rapid fire weapon (Basilisk, Kobalt, Walker), the ESF should be damaged by the time you're at high speed, and will often go look for an easier target.
    Bonus points for quickly driving up a hill and shooting it on its way out. The rare shot that hits it gives lots of satisfaction.

    A good way of losing a plane is driving (actually- falling at high speed) into a very narrow canyon and hauling @$$ downhill through it, lots of these can be found on Indar.
    Bridges, buildings, crystals of Esamir, antennas, towers, pipelines, even big rocks can be used for improvised cover- keep moving so that there is something between the plane and your tank.

    Chances are the plane that doesn't quit will try to go low and slow to get better aim, and that's all you'll need to be able to shoot back.

    Chances are the plane, having no brakes, a wide turn radius, and a pilot too focused on hitting a moving target that just won't die, will fly into an obstacle. Enjoy the laughs.

    *- Replace "planes" with "police" and google the title if you enjoy Chris Rock and lots of bad words.
    • Up x 1
  4. BengalTiger

    So, round one of the Liberator vs tank showdown is over, the tank is on fire but alive, what now?

    First of all, extinguish the fire. A single burst of the repair gun does this job, it doesn't even need to overheat. If one has a fire extinguisher, now is the right time to use it.

    Putting out the fire is all that should be done now.

    DO NOT REPAIR THE TANK FURTHER.

    There is no time to wait until the tank is fully operational, even if both crew members are engineers and fix it together.
    The plane is going to be back as soon as the pilot makes a U-turn (15-20 seconds), and the gunner is now really hungry for a kill.
    Repairing a tank fully is just asking for round 2, except this time the tank is damaged and the crew is outside, not watching the sky.

    As soon as the thick black smoke stops appearing in the engine bay, hop back in and drive deep into friendly territory (best if off road) before finishing repairs.

    This is also true for tank vs tank or infantry combat- put out the fire ASAP, but then continue to fall back until behind friendly lines before finishing repairs safely.
    A good enemy tank will rush forward and try to finish off the smoking wreck that just avoided the killer blow.
  5. Moxin

    playing this game since release, people report almost nothing on ther servers I played. Ah wait, there is only /say and /tell working anyway, hope the game gets a proper chat soon.

    By the way, great post....
  6. EWarren

    Definitely not a good idea to shoot at ESFs flying high about their business. More than once I saw bullet tracer and ended up finding a tank way down below... would not have noticed it otherwise. If the ESF is already engaged, however, it is definitely a good idea to shoot at it to spook it even more ("What? Is there another ESF shooting at me?").
  7. BengalTiger

    There's also /yell, squad/platoon/outfit and voice chat, not counting /orders or /leader, because these ain't for calling out a single vehicle.

    /re sometimes works and sometimes doesn't (from my experience it mostly doesn't), so most of the time telling about a Sundy or other vehicle results in the enemy knowing they got detected, or only your squad/platoon/outfit finds out about the vehicle.
  8. windexglow

    Keep the turret on a swivel when you don't have a target. Gives you more awareness.
    Know where enemy armor can come from and plan for it.
    When moving with an armor collumn, may be hoo of you to to offset yourself by 50 meters or more. Gives the column greater awareness and may trick the enemy into thinking there's more of you on the side. Also flanking.
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  9. lobby85

    The way they designed the maps, disallows too much maneuvering by tanks. There are so many obstacles / defiles / Cliffs / holes that restrict your movement. It border lines on incredible!

    Ground vehicles are an ends to a means! Large Taxi’s with “Shoot here!” Spray painted on them. I wouldn't waste my points on a Tank Especially a Vanguard or a Prowler.

    Oh and Anti Air is ineffective - Sorry it’s true. I see Bases , Infantry, Maxes shooting at Air targets like the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and the Scythe just fly’s away.....to get repaired. do de do de do de do.


    • Up x 1
  10. BengalTiger

    Having personally shot down a Mosquito which hovered too close to my Skyguard for too long and still having over a dozen rounds left in the first magazine, I'll disagree with AA being useless. The recent buff fixed up quite a few things.
    We do need some high caliber AA guns to hurt Libs though, right now tanks guns are the best way to combat them from the ground.

    As for having stuff painted, I'd say the Vanguard with upgraded frontal armor and a shield generator, sitting 200-300 meters from the shootout, in a hull down position and giving fire support will look better with this on the turret:

    [IMG]

    As for moving around, nearly all of Esamir is accessible to tanks. I actually probably drive more off road than on road on that continent.

    Indar is tougher, but with Racer Chassis even the Vanguard can climb up most hills (not to mention the Mag with burners), and many canyons have valleys branching away from them, these are also often accessible for ground vehicles. Those narrow valleys are also worth deliberately diving into at full speed when there's a Lib trying to hunt one's tank down.

    Amerish is hard mode, and in fact it's much better to use Galaxies and spawn beacons than ground vehicles for many bases in those mountains.
  11. MrPokealot

    Very useful information, particularly no.4 and 5. Thank you!
  12. BengalTiger

  13. MrPokealot

  14. lobby85

    Then when your done all that: this is what happens in the next second.

    [IMG]
    OMG WTF FLAMING PHOTON DISCO BALLS OF DEATH FROM STAR TREK. HOW COME I WASTED SO MANY POINTS ON THIS $%*&@$ TANK??? LOLOL
  15. MrPokealot

  16. phungus420

    So whats the tip on how to deal with the reverse turning bug?
  17. BengalTiger

    For today, a few screenshots on how to use tanks for various purposes using maneuver and positioning (how to make the underdog OP).

    First of all, it's nice to drive off the road and flank the enemies (I've never seen mines off the road):
    [IMG]
    There's 3 Prowlers and 2 Sundies down there. Frontally, I'd get stuck. Getting the high ground makes it a turkey shoot.
    It's also good to have AA, or at least a gunner in the turret who would look at the sky (the Lib didn't notice me luckily).
    Setting the personal WP to the nearest ammo tower helps if one is in unfamiliar territory.

    Indirect fire:
    [IMG]
    The explosion shows where the target is (and makes the Dorito nearly invisible). It's a turret on the other side of the valley, and it doesn't see where I'm firing from.
    Once a tanker gets his/her aim, as long as the shell flies clear of cover, the tanker can reverse behind cover and let gravity do its job.
    Just note where the reticule should be relative to the Dorito when the shells hit (in my case the first horizontal notch is just below it) and then drive back a few meters.

    This is a hull down position:
    [IMG]

    Pro tip: Shells hitting the rocks don't damage the tank.
    [IMG]
    But shooting in the general direction of the Doritos will give results. I can count 3 Lightning and 3 Mags, so this is how to go against the odds and ensure the enemy doesn't win.
    Bonus points for infantry placing a few mines here and there if the enemies would want to flank.

    Yes, the Vanguard is a "You shall not pass" tank when used properly.
    Yes, a deployed Prowler would kill them all quicker. No, it wouldn't hold the line as good if the enemy knew how to shoot.
    No, the Magrider can't do this.
  18. BengalTiger

    Vanguard revisited.

    It's been some time and I've put a few upgrades on the tank.

    Utility slot:

    Shields. Shields all the way.
    The glowy blue force field requires a bit of wisdom to use, as it has some hidden perks.

    First of all- it works a bit like the armor. I noticed it fails much faster when the target is shooting the rear of my tank than the front- an ESF firing rockets will not even go past the shield when making a low altitude attack at my front, but will shut them down and do serious damage on top of that when hitting the rear.

    As stated above, activating it at the right time will completely defeat a rocket pod salvo. It's also good for about 4 Zepher shots hitting the top.

    The shield shouldn't be used as an "OK, let's stop these shells and live 5 seconds longer, but blow up right after that because the tank ain't moving", it is to be "Shields up, full throttle, let 'em have a high speed target diving behind a hill to hit when they stop working".

    Defense slot:

    I went with frontal armor. That's the cheapest upgrade, it works nicely (The tank goes from taking 38% damage to 33% from frontal hits), and properly used, a tank will get hit in the front the vast majority of the time.
    Turret armor is the same as the hull front (on all sides, including the rear- I've tested it), so this particular upgrade has a hidden bonus.

    Mobility:

    High speed racer chassis, at level 3 the top speed on level surface is 65-66 km/h, and going up the hill to Rashnu from the Old Stockpile, the tank doesn't go below 50 km/h and in fact keeps up with Lightnings.
    Judging by the direction their turrets are facing, they're pretty surprised the giant doesn't want to get left behind and just stare at me instead of looking at the road.

    Acceleration also improved quite a bit- enough to keep up with the faster vehicles, but the transmission still needs time to shift gears.

    Guns:

    AP for the main gun.

    It shoots Libs in 2 rounds.
    It kills infantry with direct hits, so it takes to be a sniper to kill 'em, but used properly it'll get the job done.
    Kills tanks quicker- a Lightning shot 3x in the side and left alone will burn down in 10-15 seconds and explode.
    All other tanks are 5 hits to front, 4 hits to side (upgrading side armor allows them to survive the 4-th hit though).

    Kobalt for secondary.

    It has a 45 deg max elevation, and the max depression is about -20 or even -30 deg, allowing the tank to be turret down with the MG still in use, and allowing to scare away fighters that are too high for the main gun to reach (about 2 full mags to kill one, only a few got shot down by it so it's not an effective AA weapon if someone wants the planes to go away for good).
    It also doesn't damage armored objects (turrets, tanks, Liberators, etc), but MAXs live just a couple seconds and infantry rarely know what hit them.

    Gun upgrades:

    Ammo capacity and zoom optics (1.75x for the main gun right now, same for the .50 cal). Optionally I have the IR/NV sight for the Kobalt for clearing mines (yup, they glow) and better point defense abilities (with the proliferation of explosives this is increasingly important).

    Bonus tactics:

    With Racer 3 everything written about the stock Lightning and stock Prowler now applies to the Vanguard- movement, speed, getting up nearly impossible hills, flanking the enemy by driving several hundred meters or more are all now valid tactics.
    The Vanguard is no longer stuck at the bottom of canyons, if there was a hill it could barely crawl up stock, now it'll tackle it at 25-30 km/h.

    Combining mobility and the shields, it's possible to move from one position to the next under fire and not feel a thing, putting great pressure on the enemy.

    Enemies retreating behind a hill/rock to repair? Chase 'em down if the shields are ready and blow up their tank before they get it fixed.
    Even if there's more enemies around, the shield will absorb some punishment and it should be possible to pick up speed before the enemies pick up accuracy.

    Magriders with chassis upgrades float high enough to drive below them- the rather low hull front slides under and then they automatically adjust ride height as the Vanguard keeps going.
    Look backwards when driving out from underneath the Mag and enjoy the free rear shot.

    Use turret down position (so only the remote control weapon sticks out above cover) and provide fire support while immune to enemy fire and hard to locate (also works for the other tanks, however it may be limited if the secondary weapon has bad gun depression).

    Shields don't work against C4 or mines, or at least don't work effectively against them, so cooperating with infantry is quite important- just as much as having a competent gunner and keeping a distance from enemy infantry positions.
  19. BengalTiger

    Teamwork.

    With buddies:
    1. Communicate.
    Always call out targets on the squad channel, especially the harmful ones such as planes or enemy tanks.
    With proper comms, all tanks in the group will know where the enemy is, so anything it does will bring more and more trouble to it as the team actively sets up ambushes, flanks and keeps it busy with a shootout.

    2. Give mutual support.
    When a tank starts reversing to repair, get in its position if your tank ain't too busy. The enemies will try to push while tank A is repairing, only to run into tank B, followed by a freshly fixed tank A.
    If your tank is too busy, inform the damaged comrade he/she will have to pull back waaay further- making a fire and movement maneuver in reverse.
    As long as the repairing tank is in the rear, the group ain't overrun and the enemies can't just rush.

    3. Keep count of ammo, inform when getting low.
    I had a situation where 3 Vanguards were holding off a zerg. Then we all just hit reverse and went back for rearm/repair.
    The story didn't have a happy ending, as it suddenly went from 3 tanks holding 15 chickens to zero tanks holding a zerg.

    From that day, we always make sure someone goes to resupply a bit early, so the others still have some shots left. It's wise to conserve ammo when one tank goes back to reload- focus on charging enemies rather than farming infantry or taking pot shots at the Liberator 4 hexes away.
    This works wonders, because enemies don't really count how many of them there is vs how many of us.
    It's just a matter of "Oh, we have a field to pass, they're 400 yards away, hull down, and we'd get hit several times before getting a good shot off".

    4. Ammo Sundy.
    The most important upgrade for the Sundy if it is to be used as a tank support vehicle.
    Why not repairs?
    Because the tank driver, tank gunner and Sundy driver will all be able to repair a tank, none will be able to resupply it. See point 3 as well, decreasing the time a tank is not in action helps the whole group.

    5. Move slowly until the enemy is met, then move quickly.
    This prevents falling into an ambush, and a quick retreat or flanking maneuver- depending on the situation, will give astonishing results, especially when the enemy is kept busy by some tanks while the others move around unnoticed.
    Bonus points for having tanks deployed in such positions that an enemy smart enough to flank the one it sees will get caught by a previously unnoticed tank.
    Even the best players generally don't expect to run into another tank just behind the corner/hill/rock.

    With randoms:
    1. Ammo Sundy.
    Yup, it's that important.

    2. This is a Vanguard only tip, all others use at your own risk.
    If a random tank shields up and starts falling back, but still has a long way to go to reach cover, rush forward, get ahead of it and shield up. Then reverse escorting it, taking all the hits that were to be killing blows to the random guy.
    Then there's 2 damaged tanks, but it's better than a single one.
    Properly pulled off, your tank will be barely scratched, while the other one will have a dozen tank rounds fired at it and live to tell the story.

    Bonus points for having your machine gunner complaining his kill streak got interrupted due to performing aggressive maneuvers in the field.

    3. When in a zerg that got stopped...
    Count friendlies (F), count enemies (E). If F >> E, then find good cover that's somewhere ahead and just rush.
    The zerg will then follow and overrun the enemies.

    4. If the zerg got stopped at a chokepoint and it's impossible to get ahead of it...
    Count friendlies and enemies once again. If F >> E, then:
    "/yell Guys, there's a million of us and we're scared of a handful of them? CHARGE!!!!"
    Works wonders.

    5. If there's much more enemies than friendlies, the friendlies are still useful to buy time to prepare a proper defense or retreat. :p
    • Up x 1
  20. Dethfield

    Wow great thread. More PS2 players in general need to read this. Im always heartbroken when i hear some moron yell at the tank column to rush into the enemy base or other built up area, only to be demolished by a variety of exposives from all sides. I tend to use my "tank destroyer" loadout most of the time (AP gun, zoom optic, stealth, shield), so i stay back picking off tanks. People are initially disdainful that i hang back and dont get into the thick of things alot of the time, but then are dumbfounded when they realize ive been in the same tank for a full hour destroying tanks, sunderers, and turrets left and right.

    One thing i would add is the recommendation of the walker secondary turret. Its been buffed in a previous patch, and is very effective at fending off (often destroying) aircraft, and can kill infantry if you can get a shot on them (usually fixed by angling the tank a bit). Alot of times it becomes a pseudo AA asset for the platoon, comparable to any AA turret or burster MAX.