Recommended Specs for BFV Vehicles and Discussion on Vehicle Meta

#27

While I’m posting I’ll also respond to this as well.

Because you’ve missed this in my initial reply:

With the intent of this guide in mind, the default cannon is the logical choice.

I want to know the game you’re playing where you don’t lose mobility when a track gets disabled. Must be fun.

:ok_hand:
All these things said about how you have to be able to farm infy if you pick a Flakpanzer, and then also stating that a flieger can do its job…so why not take an actual tank then? Glad you were able to kill 10+ planes on Panzerstorm once though, I’m sure they were quality pilots then who would have done large amounts of damage to your team otherwise.

Spawning a CGC on Breakthrough Narvik offense? You’ve gotta be messing with me now.

So because I either can’t aim or because I am so far removed from the action that I need to account for drag, I should be begging for .4m of extra boom on top of al already generous 2.2m, and then provide smoke cover for the enemies I’m apparently going to miss anyways. No thanks. The specs recommend kill infy just fine while hitting armor harder.

I believe there is much more that goes into explosive damage calculations through a wall than just innerblast radius. I will update this when I get a solid answer from someone more qualified than I.
EDIT: See below quotes from a dev -

[There is not] any sort of special inner blast interaction with the wall that I’m aware of…

Blast damage does an occlusion raycast to check if things are blocking the blast damage. The occlusion checks are settings that can be tuned on every blast (so in theory they could all be different) and can tuned to generally ignore everything or to make a thin fence post block the blast damage from a 1000lb bomb. Its kind like your setting “how far or if blast damage can reach around something”

World objects like walls don’t generally take tons of damage from blast and rely more on direct impact to destory[sic]…the Pz4 is actually just destroying the wall with the direct damage of the shell then there is nothing to block the splash…the Sturmtiger [is] supper[sic] blast damage oriented and world objects like walls don’t generally take tons of damage from blast and rely more on direct impact to destory[sic].

TLDR: not innerblast that determines how effective an explosion is through a wall, not to say that a bigger lethal innerblast isn’t more helpful of course

Again, no thanks. If I wanted to duel a tank at 200m+ I’d respawn myself irl for trying to be so irrelevant. Tank engagements past 125-150m are almost always futile endeavors which only end in a kill when one of the two tankers is too dumb to take cover. Any tanker with a few neurons firing should just avoid the engagement, or if they took a surprise first hit, take cover and repair any damage off with no consequence, then go about their day.

Universal lethality versus armor. If you had looked to those posts you would have understood the quantification of that claim. Yes its inner blast sucks. But if you can’t hit an infy within 1m /~3.3ft or slightly more and then follow up with a coax round or two, FPS games might not be the genre to play. Despite the nerf the 75mm Type5 cannon is still powerful, although it did make other alternatives slightly more viable.

With lackluster mobility or lackluster armor plus parts damage, tanks in BFV cannot be the center of attention. They should provide direct support to objectives without stepping on them. This means play in close-moderate proximity to the point, sitting slightly away to keep clear lines of sight, watching spawns, and clearing the point of enemy infy that pop up on it. Not on the point. Not 200m+ away. Say ~25m from the edge of the capzone, moving towards the edge of the capzone and maybe inside when needed, but backing away quickly to regain that spacing. Otherwise welcome back to the respawn screen.

#28

i double checked and i dont have the 7.0 section opened

[Album] imgur.com

(left is ingame, right is from guide)

Sorry for being annoying

#29

Not annoying at all - good catch! I don’t even remember the game prompting me to re-spec the vehicle after this change (as it has done in the past when spec tree adjustments are made by DICE), so good catch.

Guide updated, I agree with the specs you have selected there.

#30

Well, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I do not expect to convince you, so I will just write this for others reading this post.

  1. track mobility reduction is relatively minor while engine damage you can hardly move. If track damage makes you 25% slower, engine damage is at least 75% slower. Consider the severity of both.

  2. Churchil GC has highest dps vs tanks besides churchill croc, and has very good blast while have decent reload compared to awful howitzers. It is relatively effective vs unit in building and excellent tank killer. A niche but decent vehicle. Do not expect it to be your main tank though.

This person has barely used Churchill GC, let alone after the buff. Take this person’s advice with a grain of salt.

  1. See for yourself, the radius affect kill area exponentially. Try engage with staghound then a sherman and see the difference. Again, if you are a aim god like this guy who can remove infantry in 1 shot then sure. If you find default gun to greatly help your consistency then go with mine. Your call.

  2. The idea of tank on tank engagement beyond 150m is futile is absurd. Many vital corridors for fire support require you to aim at distance, for example panzerstorm, Iwo jima, aerodome. AP is important there. This is one example I will totally disagree rather than say pick your style.

  3. I will politely say agree to disagree on this one. While both are viable I strongly prefer AP + more shell + bigger blast over more effect anti-armor damage at close range. Your style matters. I feel this guide somewhat underestimate the alternative, but then again it could be his play style.

Lastly, there are points he did not address so I will say them again. My playstyle generally favors anti-infantry more. Not that I ignore armor. I find with proper aim on armor weakness, I am more frequently find myself needing to deal with squad of top tier clan infantry players than other tank aces. I will of course switch set up immediately in the off chance I am facing a equally skill tank player (like once in over 100 games or so).

Snake launcher is pretty terrible on flat ground, ignore them. Without practicing lobbing them with slope it will never be worth it. Once you get good with it it can be effective, though AP is better off in most cases.

Light tanks are in general the best general tank to pick. This is reflected in both our stats.

Howitzers are god awful vs infantry due to poor reload for only moderately more blast. With exception of stubby panzer 4 stay away from it.

#31

This was very helpful.

I needed direction on planes and this article was great on directing me on that. Buuuuut I have some questions

Personally, I’m not sure on the staghoud. Its my favorite british tank and I enjoy playing with it but I feel like rockets for flanking is better because when you use ap rounds it becomes more of a fair 1v1 which is never good for a light tank. so why use it?

Sherman
I personally will always choose the flamethrower/howitzer for europe and most of the time on the pacific. when you are facing a limited number of japanese tanks that will probably be handled by infantry, why would you take the 76? for europe I think I take it because I like burning houses. :wink: I understand why the 76 is insane in europe but why in pacific?

Last thing, where can you get that panzer 4 skin?

#32

Glad my guide was of use. It’s been a while since I’ve last played BFV - not that there’s been any game updates but the pub meta may have changed - so I’ll give the best responses I am able.

Logic behind AP rounds comes down to better ammo economy and a better fit for the most optimal vehicle playstyle. Ideally like you said, you would never want to take the fair 1v1 in a light tank. However, like with the RP-3s, you’ll still want to get a favorable angle with the AP rounds. While the burst damage with the RP-3s is much more impressive, you only get 4 rockets. AP rounds will do similar damage, albeit slightly more slowly, but you can engage at any, much safer distance and still absolutely destroy a target before they can escape (again, provided you have the correct angle, ideally rear). Even with the velocity/drag buff RP-3s got, they’re still not that usable outside of close range. And if you miss a shot, you’ve just lost 1/4 of your damage. Look to AP rounds which have room for error plus ammo to spare. Generally light tanks have high velocity AP rounds for easy armor hits and generous blast on their HE rounds, both with great RoFs, making them great for mid-range engagements on both armor and infy respectively from alternate angles. Hit the enemy and run if needed from a smart distance. Also direct-hitting infy with AP rounds is fun and a great way to conserve HE rounds for the hidden or grouped opponent.

Flamethrowers are always fun (in games), and I would never tell someone to never ever run one because cool factor is too much to ignore. However I would say that being a flamethrower tank puts you closer to the fighting than you might want to be in a game that heavily punishes aggressive, close-in vehicle play with lacking mobility and part damage, which are usually fatal unless played near perfectly at said range - much harder then sitting slightly off a flag and cutting off spawns.

Additionally if you’ve read any of my responses above or can glean from the initial post, I prefer to be as well-suited as I can versus opposing armor because you don’t know what the enemy will spawn. If you’re not playing with friends, you won’t know if anyone else on your team will be able to deal with it. So if you want to win, that onus might fall on you. The flamethrower spec path leaves the Sherman a bit weak in the anti-armor department. Granted, like you stated, the Pacific maps tend to be a bit US-armor sided so you can certainly get away with being lighter gunned, but I really like the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge of destroying enemy armor with as few shots as possible, so I can go back to deleting infantry asap. That’s why I usually lean towards recommending specs heavy into armor damage, and then mopping up infy with the default coax LMG. The LMG will allow you to kill infy at ranges where the fire fizzles out, and usually its effectiveness (provided one can aim) is as-good (if not better) than the flamethrower. Also the heavier main guns tend to have generous infy splash as well. But again, cool factor points to the flamethrower.

Tldr though, I would say do what you want and use the flamethrower with the caveat of knowing that it may not be the most effective tool, but it looks damn cool. If you want to win using it and not worry too much about the welfare of the team, playing with friends that will help deal with enemy armor is a nice way to balance out your toasty anti-infy fun times.

If I recall correctly, it was a ToW Season 1 reward, though I could be mistaken.

#33

Thanks for this comment, I will give the ap rounds on the stag hound a try.

for the sherman though I think I’ll stick to the flamethrower. when Im in a tank sitting a few yards outside of an objective or sniping it I don’t feel like im helping the team. I know that enemy tanks will effortlessly destroy me in all situations exept for close range,(id still loose but it would be a better fight) but the flamethrower is better for me because when Im sitting outside the objective I feel like im being a useless stationary weapon. my playstyle which is charging the objective which more often than not rushing with the flamethrower. RRRRRR path is probably the best but I might stick to the more chaotic loadout to charge the objectives. I like to lead or flagship the infy to the objective even if I get gunned down in the process, because I will do significant damage to the enemy on the objective. I am convinced that an all around player on the pacific will normaly find it better to use the 76, The howitzer/flame is more suited for close range objective charging. even if my tank, more often than not, doesn’t make it cuz some brain dead with a lunge mine gets to close. sorry I didn’t include my playstyle when I wrote my initial comment. I understand why the 76 is better in most situations. thanks for your response.

#34

Thank you for making a vehicle specialization breakdown. I have been playing BF1 for the last year but re-installed BFV and needed to freshen up my memory on stuff. I am not a 1337 skills player but knowing where the margins are and how to maximize value choosing kit. I play mostly Support or Medic but all four as needed. I like to mix it up and everyone of your suggestions differs from my typical so it will be interesting. I already tried your 38t loadoout on Hamada and racked up my personal best AP kills.

#35

I haven’t been using the panzer 38t cuz i used was mostly playing with the tiger 1 but decided to play with the panzer 38t with my own specs and got a 8 kdr but when i tried your specs i got 40 kills and 1 death
so thank you :).

#36

Hey I have an idea if u want to do it.
Can u make recommend specs for weapons?

#37

Not planning a guide for primary weapons at this point. However @kht120 made a post on reddit a while ago detailing hitrates, and towards the end of the post there is a recommended weapons section that includes specs. I would use that as a starting point. No harm in joining the discord if you want to ask one-off questions as well.

I made this vehicle guide mainly because, unlike infantry weapons, vehicles have a bunch of specializations that are either sidegrades or just straight downgrades. Weapon specs are almost always a straight upgrade. I’m not trying to say there’s no wrong way to spec a firearm in BFV, but its a lot harder to mess up than vehicles.

#38

Alright thank you for responding

#39

I hope that u realize that u can’t hit the engine from the front