Tankers do not want to farm infantry.

But of course, unless we're talking about the random infantry grunt running around a base lemming-style. There are always the exceptions, like the one you mentioned.

Half the time, infantry vs. infantry combat IS a permanent stalemate until someone drop-pods the enemy Sunderer... Between Medics and short respawn timers, infantry downtime is actually really short.

I have two versions of my prowler, 1) ap cannon with halberd or vulcan 2) he cannon with marauder. The one that sees more use and has a lot more kills is the he prowler by far, and yes, I use it to kill mainly infantry. Not necessarily in spawn camp mode, because spawn camping can get you c4ed pretty easily, but definitely infantry suppression when attacking an enemy base or defending a friendly base to keep them away from the control points. I roll the ap cannon version when I know there are plenty of enemy vehicles to hunt or I know I have a good gunner to go along with me.

I stick to AP because the Mag's HE gun is pretty crappy anyway. My AP is much better than my HEAT in terms of optics and reload certs, and I've gotten pretty good at sniping infantry with it when I need to.

I do consider the Prowler a bit of an exception because its HE can fire twice for a double dose of splash damage.

I agree with OP. I'd say nowadays I run AP on my Prowler 9 out of 10 times the 10th time is HE just because I see it more suitable for the situation (ie. I need to help push infantry stalemate or destroy some annoying sniper/ha nest behind rocks or sth...) most of the time I curse all kind of AV turrets and HAs running around because I wouldn't care about them, most of the time I just want some smooth tank vs. tank battles, flank enemy armory etc. Also I am nowadays pretty good at shooting infantry too with APs but mainly I do it because I don't want any dumb C4 fairy or something to blow up my tank.

Then we come to spawn camping. The problem is that there is no way to cut down enemies spawning during an assault thus leading to spawn camping just to keep the remaining hard-headed defenders to spawn into already-lost base, I swear I would rather do something more constructive than sit near enemy base to wait if some inflintrator or HA decides to try to get up. Also in my opinion shooting through the spawn room shields shouldn't be allowed by any means, it is just lame.

State of tanks is terrible with so many hard hitting and lame (ehm, AV turrets from hexes away or lock-ons in general or drop podding C4 fairies) AV weapons available to every infantry class (except inflintrator) in the point of view of somewhat dedicated tanker.

I drive a HEAT equipped tank, as to most of my outfit (a larger outfit on Connery). I highly disagree that 'most dedicated tankers use the AP'. AP only makes sense when driving a tank in an enemy armor rich environment and infantry poor environment, specifically because of the issues you raise.. I don't got out of my way to farm infantry, but neither do I ignore them.. there are lots of situations where there are limited armored targets but a plethora of infantry targets. Why on earth would I equip my tank to make it useless in such scenarios?

I'll occasionally equip a lightning with HE.. but that role is different than an MBT.

I think you are talking from your own point of view, which is just fine.. but please don't generalize to the rest of us.. you certainly don't talk for myself or my outfit-mates.

Op is so god damn right.
To name it easily for the forumsiders. Give us few dedicated AP tank drivers something to do.
Because we lost our main exp source he/heat tanks.
Shooting Inf. with AP isn't fun - its just sometimes a necessary evil for self defence.
I myself get bored damn fast while shooting inf spwans. I did it sometimes while rolling with my outfit for supression, but its so boring and not even rewarding in terms of exp.
Hunting vehicles is so much more fun and rewarding - but it gets boring if you have to search half an hour for a lighting, because nobody pulled vehicles or got killed by inf. zergs on the way..

How about bases that HAVE to be capped by vehicles? add no inf. zones to them - I couldn't care less.

You can use AP for AI.

Yup.. I do this some with a lightning.. but if you haven't tried HEAT on your lightning.. give it a go.. the trick in a lightning is to use your mobility to maneuver for rear-shots on an MBT.. and HEAT does fine with infantry..

Lightnings in this configuration are much like world war 2 tank destroyers.. egg-shells armed with sledge-hammers. Its great fun.. and I rarely die since I try to never stop when in LOS of enemy-anything.

I didn't say you can't.. but its lacking in efficiency. Your aim has to be frightfully good.. and in zerg situations peek-a-boo is the way to keep your tank alive, which makes it hard to aim well. And with almost no AOE damage in AP, you aren't going to kill multiple folks with shots, which you can with HEAT or HE (especially into buildings and Spawn exits and such).

Just because you can doesn't mean its a good idea.

Thanks.

You can't kill multiple people with shots from any tank gun. The splash from HE isn't enough to kill, so you have to hit directly to kill in one hit.

Those aren't tank drivers. Those are scrubs who got in a tank.

They're synonyms.

Hmmm... I infinitely prefer 30 infantry to 10 tanks. It's less certs for better gameplay. Fighting infantry is fun, fighting tanks is... Not. It's either stupidly easy or suicidal. There's a critical mass that tanks tend to reach that makes approaching as infantry almost impossible. Believe me, it goes both ways.

However, the biggest problem, which you notice in passing, is that base defense is not a combined arms game! There are no enemy tanks there! You've already destroyed them! Once friendly infantry have moved in, there's little to no infantry AV threat either. Which means that tanks can usually farm with little interference or threat.

It's quite obvious that 5 tanks+10 Infants is more then 20 infants, since tanks are tanks. And what tanks are meant for is suppress enemy infantry and structures. But now soe tries to reverse that and make 5 tanks mean less then 10 infants, which is nonsense.

I could definitely see adding tank casements to walls. Large windows in walls with ramps leading up to them to allow tanks to fire out. Make it easy for a tank to get to the casement from the vehicle pad, give the casement good cover for vehicles, and let tanks become part of the base defense.

That was adorable.

I swing around, getting as close to the sundy as possible and as far away from the infantry as possible. Kill the sundy... back away repair, then go back to clean up the infantry (unless there are other support vehicles around... in which case I ignore the infantry). Killing the infantry is futile if you don't take out sundy first.

I kill in order of threat.... MBTs, Lightnings (non-skyguard), Harassers, LA's/HA's/Maxes actively shooting at me, Flashes, Any infantry in close proximity, Infils. I'll pass on Infils if they cloak and start moving around cover, just due to laziness (make it hard enough and i'll not bother hunting you down)

I strongly agree with the OP, and I think the reason behind the terrible balance we currently have is the fact that no one ever pulled a tank to defend a base.

So the only things tanks could do to have an impact on the fight was to kill/farm infantry. So people called tanks OP, and now it takes 2 tank shells to kill any infantry with splash.

Now tanks don't even dominate open areas anymore. In fact, wide-open spaces are even worse.