What MBT is the best? Why?

Is it the slow accelerating, hard hitting, I win button, and awe inspiring Vangaurd?

Is it the double barreled, in your face brawler, infantry destroying, but can anchor Prowler?

Or the shifty, maneuverable, sneaky, must have two players, and overall fun to drive Magrider?

I honestly want to know. Back it up with anecdotal or statistical evidence. I don't care. I just want to know what MBT is the best vs infantry, vs vehicles, and even vs air.

I would say for AV Vanguard wins hands down. Assuming equal "skill" between opponents, 8 full seconds of invulnerability is an eternity to turn around any fight with another MBT.

For AI spamming a base, Lockdown Prowler + marauder can't really be beat.

Though the PPA is IMO the best AI secondary weapon for MBT's.

For AA against ESF I'd say Vanguard. For AA against Lib's + Gal's, Vanguard is still great but Lockdown prowler edges it out.

Not saying the magrider is bad, just middle ground is all. The maneuverability is nice when it actually causes your opponents to miss shots, and the turret stabilization makes it about the only tank you can reliably fire on the move. (With any degree of consistency)

Vanguards and mags are tied for usefulness. Prowlers are only any good for attacking infantry and tanks that don't know you're there.

Best AI: Prowler
Best AV: Vanguard
Best at range>200m: Magrider

There is no "best" tank. Each tank has a weakness and a strength

The general idea is that the prowler is best for AI and vanguard is best for AV and magrider hovers.

vanguard - highest alpha damage, best armor, invincibility shield, best versus other vehicles

prowler - fastest tank, highest dps with lockdown, more forgiving with double-barrel cannon, good versus both infantry and vehicles

magrider - fast flanker with magburner, very fun to drive, stabilized gun makes it very easy to shoot after stopping/on the move, good versus infantry


there's no "best"

Vanguard - Best all-round tank by far.

Prowler is the best for how most people want to play. They just want drive from one base to another and spam it with shells and not have to think or do anything interesting.

As the name "Prowler" would imply, if you know I'm there I done goofed.

I have yet to see another vehicle single-handedly wipe out any enemy tank column with *** shots like an Anchored down Prowler with AP cannon + Halberd.

The only time I ever lose is if a Vanguard has his I WIN button ready and suicide rushes me with it, losing his tank in the process to everyone around me shooting him, but managing to take me out before his invulnerability is up.

You can kill any number of tanks with any tank while flanking... The prowler has the issue of not being good at anything else.

Shifty - Within 150m, no.

Maneuverable - Compared to a turtle? Yes. To dodge tank shells? No.

Sneaky - It's the tallest and widest of all the tanks. Kinda hard not to see it especially with the giant flame shooting out the back.

Must have two players - I think you just disqualified the magrider as being the best right here.

Fun to drive - It's slow so no.

There we go fixed it for you.

For all you people going on about the shield. Undoubtedly its very good in small scale tank vs vehicle fights. But how many fights are actually like that? and also once you take the shield away from the Vanguard and the TR and VS seem desperate to do, what exactly does the Vanguard have left? Big, slow, it will just be easy prey for most things in the game. If the shield is truly a problem then they need to redesign the Vanguard completely to bring it closer to the Prowler and Magrider in other areas.

Well, Magriders probably kill more VS than the other two combined, so I'd say it's the best tank.

Flymo away!

overall this.

Can be situational though. At extremely long ranges (500+) ap lockdown will probably overtake a vanguard in AV effectiveness for example.

Another example is vanguards are the best at destroying ESFs, but i would say AP-AP is probably best against Libs.

overall im going to say the prowler:

- highest top speed
- highest DPS (by a massive amount)
- most forgiving
- best at AI
- great fun to drive and gun
- useful ability.

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vanguard is arguably better at long range AT, but without shield its fairly crap. and whilst i love my mag the **** main gun, and lack of turret and the disadvantages that brings (poor FOV, poor situational awareness, poor gun positioning, inability to aim up, ect) kills it.

Cannot be done in a prowler or vanguard:

i only play Prowler, but i can tell you this, as long as you play to each tank's strengths, they are absolutely amazing in their own ways.

a Vanguard will almost always win in a head on fight, due to its high armour and devastating firepower.

a prowler (w/ AP and anchor, how i play) works extremely effectively as AV artillery, dealing high DPS from long distances.

a magrider is extremely manoeuvrable and can easily flank you and can go where other tanks cant.

I would gladly let them take away the Vanguard Shield as long as they make the Vanguard the only vehicle in the game that REQUIRES Heavy Ordnance type weapons (HEAT, HE Direct, Default Launchers, Decimator) or AP weapons to take it out (no lock-ons, AV Mana and vehicle secondaries with 1 or 2 exceptions) and requires at least 4 C4 or 3 Tank Mines to destroy from full health.

Only then can you have my Vanguard "I win" shield.

I don't know how this turned into a rant about the Vanguard shield thread but I'd hesitate to change it in any sort of way after learning that the Vanguard is the worst performing tank based on statistical datamining. At least, I wouldn't suggest doing anything until we can identify why it's the worst performing tank. The VS and NC often incredulously wonder why the TR don't think their weapons are amazing and the TR wonder how the other two factions' tanks are not much more useful, the Vanguard especially, if not just for the difficulty in engaging them.