How does everyone feel about the Vanguard Shield now?

It's nice to see bad tankers who used to rely on their shield to win engagements burn to a crisp. While good tankers still do well with the Vanguard and just have to be a little more careful.

It's good to feel like shooting a shield now accomplishes something and isn't just a waste of ammo.

It's good that tankers will now learn to focus on positioning and landing more shots than the enemy rather than pressing a button at the right time.

The chassis needs a little love, but tbh that's true for all vehicles on tracks in this game. The shield is now in a better place than it's ever been. It is still useful, it allows you to compensate for missing one or two shots, but not four or five like it was before. And tankers might actually start to consider using a different utility from time to time, which is a good thing. Shield shouldn't be the no-brainer it was.

And finally, it's nice to be able to tell NC players what we've been hearing for so long: think of it more as a HA shield

Is the shield still strong enough to survive 2 C4?

This would make the Vanguard into a really bad Magrider in much the same way that slight buffs to speed/mobility in exchange for huge nerfs to the shield would make it into a really bad Prowler.

And I don't think rekt is the word for what happens to someone who spend an hour and a half dominating the leaderboards while platoon leading from a tank seat

Which of course was my undoing. I literally told my gunner when we pulled that Vanguard, "okay now I'm pretty good and you're pretty good, but I'm also playing mapgame and leading so we're GOING to get C4'd while I'm not paying attention and I hope you're alright with that"

Ran out of ammo 3 times though while running a cool 50k/hr crushing a seemingly endless wave of sunderers and PPA Magriders, so a good run overall.

I don't really consider that to be long range in any case...I was mostly brawling with Maggies and Sundies right below the biolab and taking breaks to lob shells at Snake Ravine from the cliff, which is maybe 150m and solidly middle distance for tanks.

Hasn't changed anything for me. Every enemy tank on Connery is dinner on wheels.
The only things that kill me often are the ones that kill me instantly, or the ones hovering over me.

That would be fine, but only if the Magrider gets a similar feature. Maybe it takes 20% damage every time it use's Magburner lol.
That would be similar to your suggested Vanguard handicap.

I think they must have altered the resistance values when the shield is up or something, I don't think a drop from 3000HP to 2000HP accurately describes how quickly the shield drops when under fire now.

That's already a thing. Ever tried to Magburn on anything but a road?

They get 1 shot. They got 2 before.
And the prowler is best for shooting at distance.

On topic: The anchor mode is now fully superior to the shield. Magburn is imo still underwhelming.

Yes, they can still live through 2 C4.
But now it puts them on fire.
Before they would just drive off with scratched paint.

LOL, very true, nerf something and people use it more, so it gets nerfed again?

I see no need to nerf the VG further. Its has the advantage is SOME situations but that is where i think SOE fail with this game at times. Only because something is good or even the best, it dose not mean it requires a nerf. If i AP my prowler with a good halberd gunner and get up close i know i have a good chance in battle. If a change is needed to be made, just buff the AP's on VS or TR or increase there turning speed, which is more inline with their faction trait and would make both tank advantageous in situations.

I have been forced to leave Briggs so it is hard to draw comparisons when I don't have my fully certed tank. I have noticed a significant reduction in low-BR tankers that just hit the shield and charge head-first somewwhere they don't belong resulting in a fiery death though.

I´don´t know if someone have already said this but i think they should revert the shield BUT make the vanguard slow as hell when this happens. Then they can´t run away so easy or the enemy can run away when they come charging. The old shield was to OP and now it is pretty weak but slow them down and i will be happy.

I exclusively drive the Prowler and here's my anecdotal experience:

Over the weekend I won two close-up engagements with Vanguards who used their shields when I was in maxed out anchor mode and didn't have a secondary gunner. Before in my 400 hours+ of playing I can't think of a single time where I won in such a scenario although I was on fire both times by the time the Vanguard exploded so it was pretty close.

Not sure how I feel about that TBH as I try and avoid being so close to Vanguards at all costs as that's where they are at their strongest, but I was still able to beat them even though I made a mistake of running into them.

Remember that V-shield is only one of the Utility Slot options. Before the nerf, Vanguard was either great or garbage tank - depending if it had the shield or not. Right now, it isn't good even with the shield.

The problem with Vanguard is the same as the problem with "S" weapons (i.e. Gauss Compact S, TRAC-5 S, Solstice SF) - they're balanced with te addons. In other words, We know that these weapons have worse stats than the starting ones, but hey, they have access to under barrel attachments. Same thing goes with Vanguard: We know that Vanguard is slow and has bad DPS, but hey, it has access to V-shield.

befor the patch for the most nc tankers it was ok with a AP/AP setup to turn the shiled on and kill 2-3 mag until it goes away. now its still op 1vs1 but you dont have the chance to kill more than one save without any risk

It definitely changed my playstyle. What with the triple nerf of shield, Enforcer and Nanite Auto Repair all coming at once. What is it with SOE and triple nerfs? Anyway, I have to play a lot more cautious now. The Vanguards specialty was being able to push and break through a siege line but that is no longer possible.

The shield was both frustrating to face and frustrating to use. To face cause it's a bs ability. To use because it is a crutch that hides that negatives of the Vanguard. Overall maneuverability, acceleration and reload speed of the main cannon are just bad on the Vanguard. Always have been. The shield nerf is showing this slightly but not enough. I say nerf it more so the real downsides of the Vanguard can be shown.

A lockdown Prowler is now absolutely deadly and will obliterate the shield before I have the chance to find cover and re-engage. Being such a slow lumbering beast, meeting a lockdown Prowler with no visible means of escape means death. Meeting a Prowler with no shield active also means death. So I guess we are getting where we are suppose to be.

I run full stealth now instead of nanites. I still have the shield but I no longer play siege breaker tank. That role has gone. My job now is to get behind the enemy and obliterate them from the rear. It's very effective and lot more exciting as any moment I could be spotted and destroyed.

Still my favourite tank is an AP Lightning with full stealth. Maneuverability and overall agility is a vastly underrated statistic and seeing as the Magrider is the tank with the longest life when it is pulled, it definitely says something about just how good maneuverability is in relation to keeping a tank alive.

In conclusion, the slowest accelerating tank with the slowest reloading main cannon with the least amount of maneuverability had its crutch weakened and the cracks are beginning to show. Not enough yet. Shield worked properly for a short while and was nerfed but not enough. It needs to be nerfed even further before the real flaws of the Vanguard become obvious even to the opposition.

Shield is still powerfull in 1v1 or 1v2 fights (only if you took care of first target before using shield) but yea, it still allows you to win 1v1 fight with other tanks but now it is more balanced. Prowler who is anchored far away now have a chance to destroy Vanguard (so prowler skill works in his dimension) but on close range Vanguard with shield up will wreck even anchored prowler. And if prowler is not anchored and Van is on full HP you dont even need it. Magriders are always dangerous on long range, but still easy to kill on close-mid if you cut distance to them or you land your TITAN shots (they will have to fall back first).

On long range open area anchored prowler destroy 1v1 one. But on the other hand on open area when he is anchored and you can get in and out cover (like rock or something) TITAN is better becasue he can move and it is easy to hit him every time. It all depends from situation conditions really.

My opinion is now it is balanced more then ever. Vanguard is a bad tank in performance (well, racer 3 is good on him), but well, nerfing shield was easier them revamping whole tank (and I think SOE has no idea up to today what each tank should be...). I think Vanguard should get buff to turning and to side and front armor numbers (like 3-4%) but thats my opinion.

Canguard should get a stabilizator on main cannon so he can fire and fight while moving. Having to stop vanguard and then aim, and then fire is one of its biggest flows.

Another one is realod speed, which should be faster then supernova, since vanguard cant move side to side. One shot weapon should also have faster reload then 2-shot weapon. I think realoding two shells is longer then one, but well...it is SOE. Same with NC MAX- worst fire rate, worst range, smallest magazines but has longest reloads....just well, maybe because of nanites....

The reason lockdown Prowlers aren't a threat isn't because they can't just burn down the shield and kill a 2/2 Vanguard while being 1/2 themselves, which they certainly can do now, it's that 99% of lockdown Prowlers are HE becuase nobody locks down to farm tanks

The Magrider turns faster than the Vanguard. If I recall correctly, it also turns faster than the Prowler.

Pro tip: bind turning left/right to actual keys when using a Magrider so you don't have to do deal with the mouse acceleration that prevents you from instantly turning at maximum speed.

You're left with <5% health.