How does everyone feel about the Vanguard Shield now?

Fixed that for you.

Seriously though, statistically the Prowler pre-patch was better at the Vanguard at everything, except 1) AV secondaries (and even then the Prowler AP cannon more than made up for it) and 2) blowing up vehicles with a HE cannon. The Prowler simply had better average kills per hour with all three main cannon, better average vehicle kills per hour with two of the three main cannon, and a better ES AI secondary.

In terms of AV secondaries, the Prowler's Halberd does pretty well, with an AKPH of 22 and an AVKPH of 11. The pre-nerf Enforcer on the other hand was a little better at killing vehicles (AVKPH of 13), but a little worse against infantry (AKPH of 21).

The Prowler was just straight-up a better tank.

1. Not sure what server you play on, but if you wanna see what i am talking about come to Woodman and try a vanguard at any armored front against TR. Not saying they are pros or anything, but many times where you think "ok i will turn around and cover/repair" that 4 secs turn around made you see stars and i am not talking here of solo charges or solo yolo gameplay.

2. Do you play vanguards?

the enforcer still has better dps than the halberd. But it got nerfed without any logical explanation other than "this gun was too good at killing vehicles" which has been stated many times that that's the very reason of existence of this gun in the first place. Source: blast dmg and blast radius. The vanguard as a whole was a vehicle killing machine and that was the task it did best. Now it's as bad as it always has been against infantry and it's plain outgunned by the prowler against vehicles.

What for? 2% front and side resistances? **** B A L A N C E **** at its best.

I finally had some time for proper tanking this week. I must say, it feels good to actually be able to take out a competent vanguard crew that you've snuck up on perfectly without basically forfeiting your tank unless you can hide for 8 seconds in between. We pulled off sneak attacks a few times and it was very satisfying. I did mess up a few times as well (getting spotted before firing the first shot, hitting side armour with the first shot) and it did cost me the tank. So, in terms of skill and risk vs reward the new shield feels much more balanced and better from my perspective.

I think it was fine as it was, but it needed a downside, like you couldn't use it while moving, and you couldn't move with it on. A down side.

Those would have killed the tank.

Nope, but they can strafe backwards at like 50 kph with rival.

I still don't take on Vanguards head on..

The shield should be reworked and made direction with the turret positioning.

This would probably make the VG even stronger in a Head to Head situation especially 1v1 as the shield would have to be made stronger now that it only protects where you're looking at, meaning all a VG that got jumped from behind would have to do is hit his shield and look at you till you're dead.

Stock, this is true.

Put rival on the Van/Prowler and it's rather close. Abuse reverse turn with the Van and the Van wins the turning race.
Magrider never improves, regardless of chassis (as has been mentioned).
What Rival does give is stronger sideways acceleration, and a higher soft speed cap in that axis.

Oh, and the function you're thinking of is called "Look left/right". On other vehicles it does what it says on the tin, you look left or right (with the turret/gun/whatever). But on the Mag, because the camera is hull-locked it pulls double-duty as rotation keys.

Also, did this thread originate in the General Gameplay Discussion Forum?

Yeah if you're reversing down a slope. Regardless, even if it wasn't you'd still be slower than -every other vehicle- in the game.

I think all 3 tanks are perfectly balanced now.

I wouldn't mind this if it worked like Aegis (Toggleable) and unlike Aegis it actually worked

I haven't had enough flanking fights to get a feel for the "sneak up 'n smack them upside the head" type fights. I have had a couple 2v1s and those type of fights and I have felt the ability to burn through the shield better. (In a 2v1 the 1 should lose unless there is a huge experience differential, prior to the change, there would generally be a loss on the 2 side of things.)

Right now, I feel like I have a chance of fighting a similarly crewed Vannie. However, without more experience, i'm going to hold off on any solid judgements. I have a feeling that the Vannie lost a bit of its tank line v tank line fighting ability, but didn't get a good enough boost to its AI secondaries and/or AI killing potential yet.

I don't know how effective the nerf was, but for me, flanking a Vanggy is still not an option. Even if I put 4 shells on his direct back he wilil just pop the shield while smoking and eat all the consequent damage and kill me anyways.

With a directional shield that doesn't last as long as per nerf (I can't comment post nerf) but STILL offers a very nice protection that would be much harder

Run AP.

I know you're not running AP because 4 P2-120 AP shells to the rear will kill a Vanguard.

Two AP shells will drop the shield to the rear.
The shield is exactly half a Vanguard's health.
After firing two AP shells the Vanguard will be at 50% health. If the Vanguard pops the shield he has 100% health for 6s, except you're probably locked down and behind him.

Even if you're using HEAT you're still in position to win as long as you're anchored.

True, I'm not running AP. Thats why I should be on the aviation threads and not Tanks xD.

Prowlers can get by without running AP, but if you're really serious about the anti-tank stuff, pick it up. You'll have to relearn your aim, and be more accurate against infantry, but the P2 AP is the highest-DPS tank gun in the game.

It changed nothing for Vanu and buffed TR a bit.
Magrider still needs to run stealth and attack from behind, the one shot difference do not change anything.
Now I am curious if FS AP Vulcan Prowler have chance to win head on vs AV Vanguard

Instead this update I would liked small vanguard speed and acceleration nerf. Major Vulcan buff combined with minimal prowler turret turning nerf. Small magrider ressistance nerf combined with small speed and velocity buff.
Bringing NC and TR AI guns at PPA level.

i beg to differ. it did improve the situation for us quite a bit. also, i dont think any of the nerfs you're mentioning would be acceptable simply because it'd massively increase frustration and there is no need for any further nerfs at this time.

It wasn't unreasonable.

Until fire suppression restores like over 25% of your HP it's not going to happen.

This is incorrect.

Vanguards do best at brawling vehicles.

Yes. Unfortunately they nerfed it a bit, but I'm hoping they will nerf C4 damage to tanks by about 10% just because.

It's more likely that the shield almost dropped more often than you thought.

20%~ health was not what I would call scratched paint.

You can still win vs a Magrider without using the shield at all.

I've seen quite a few... but that's a battle with SOE and their physics engine

I think you mean to add that the shield would then last for 30 seconds.

Only if activating it instantly nullifies C4 placed on the tank.