The devs did it again... Buffed B4 into the heaven

just used a lefh vs 2 b4s and i killed them both. guy made another he end up having 35 inf kills 1 tank kill i had 97 inf kills and 7 vehicle kills. lefh seems more reliable. the b4 kill a squad or 2 but i killed stuff every barrage and base killing from far was amazing with lefh

The LEFH rolls the RNG dice 10x per barrage versus 8x for the ML20 with similar AOE or 3x for the B4 with slightly larger AOE. The scatter angle and distance is about the same for all three, so of course the LEFH is more "reliable" when it comes to kills. I've tried the new B4 in two matches. The best I've done so far is roughly half the kills that I've done with a LEFH, and that was on Port of Hamburg against a couple players who stacked their trucks on top of each other.

Why do you ask off topic questions? Is it really that necessary to go into whataboutism to dismiss someone's opinion?

+1

So you two want only opinions that agree with you on this thread? The comparison to the LEFH isn't off topic, as it is the most similar Axis unit. You've had about 3-4 years where you didn't have to worry about Soviet howitzers at all, so now it's the end of COH because you actually have to look at someone's loadout and think about picking a counter?

people, please play B-4 first. Stop fighting please.
btw: Now Axis players can invest their IQ and Mirco to counter fire arty. Thanks god.

The point is, the complaints about needing to hold a commander to counter the B-4 is the same the leFH generates. That's why many of the highest picked Allied commanders in big team all have consistent anti-howitzer abilities. Because they were mandatory. Planning around howis is now mandatory for Axis as well, and that's OK. The B-4 might need to be toned down, but forcing both factions to factor in Howis in commander picks is good. Sitting under uncontested leFH shelling is back breaking, especially with its HUGE 80 damage radius and large number of shells.

The B-4 and ML/20 now do that without easy Counter Battery to stop it.

Lets give it at least a week for the meta to shift favoring some anti-Howi call-ins and recon. The commanders were balanced already accordingly. Jaeger Armor even comes with Recon.

It's definitely overbuffed IMO. But give it a rest about CB lol. Not even sure what that has to do with this. They are/were problems for completely different reasons

Just using it as a point of reference as people used to complain so much about it.

I really enjoy this hypocrisy and idiocy.

Firsly for ppl liking to bring "counter-barrage". Counter barrage can go fuck itself, because any resonable player will bring Storm Doctrine if he want to go for LeFH, at least the one who has brain power.

Secondly one can care less about LeFH and ML-20. It doesnt matter if they shoot more shells and why not. B4 shoots 3 shells yes, but thouse 3 shells have such AOE and impact that you dont need to fire more of them.

Thirdly. If you arent facing completly stupid enemy you dont need more then 3 shells anyway, since if your enemy wont retreat the second he hears B4 firing, B4 will be able to land 2 shots, pottentually getting you on retreat.

Fourthly. Having 3 shots on B4 vs 10\8 for LeFH and ML20, meaning that you over-all can fire much more frequently, because cooldown starts when the barrage has ended.

And finnaly LeFH and ML20 are better when you need to bombard defensive possitions or destoy key buildings\deny zone. They all hands down much worst when it comes to dealing raw damage with first few shells unlike B4 which is now focused on a full burst damage.
1 Direct hit from B4 will always oblititare squad or multiple squads, unlike ML20\LeFH.
1 near hit, will always stop inf advance (because of suppresion), unlike ML20\LeFH which wont do anything.

ALso, but I might be wrong here, vet for B4 wasnt even ajusted considering its power now. I'm not sure if the vet requrements are the same for ML20\LeFH, but B4 is incredibly easy to vet now on top of everything. Vet 2 B4 barage cooldown reduction is also quite insane.

In other words, B4 is a consistent, fast firing wiping machine now. Yes its worst in a long run area denial but its better in litteraly everything else. And as I said, the main difference is that it is consistent, unlike ML20 and LeFH which are RNG units.

+1, sums up my experience with the new B4 as a user so far.

Oh yeah, escpecially AT performance was buffed, right? no no it wasn't. B4s ability sucks now. You pay 60 ammo for 400 of damage and closeish range.

ALso, but I might be wrong here, vet for B4 wasnt even ajusted considering its power now. I'm not sure if the vet requrements are the same for ML20\LeFH, but B4 is incredibly easy to vet now on top of everything. Vet 2 B4 barage cooldown reduction is also quite insane.

We had a look at the veterancy requirements but decided not to change it for now. It has the same requirements as the other howitzers (1200/2400/4800), it just vetted up really quickly before because of the very high vehicle damage. Now that that has been lowered, its vet gain should also be considerably slower. But veterancy requirements and bonuses can be changed if it turns out to perform too well now. If it does need anything, I'd probably lean towards keeping its high damage but increasing the cooldown between barrages.

We had a look at the veterancy requirements but decided not to change it for now. It has the same requirements as the other howitzers (1200/2400/4800), it just vetted up really quickly before because of the very high vehicle damage. Now that that has been lowered, its vet gain should also be considerably slower. But veterancy requirements and bonuses can be changed if it turns out to perform too well now. If it does need anything, I'd probably lean towards keeping its high damage but increasing the cooldown between barrages.

If anything is needed, without butchering stats.

1) Vet requements could be kinda increased, because raw AOE allowing unit to hit and gain exp much frequently.
2) Maybe vet bonuses could be ajusted acording to the new behavior model.
3) Cooldown should be increased to match ML20\LeFH firing their full barrage, since as I was saying barrage cooldown starts faster for B4 since it fires less shots per barrage.
4) Maybe cooldown between shots could be increased.

Something in this directions might fix it, without the need to change stats of the unit.

Just using it as a point of reference as people used to complain so much about it.

Yeah and it was complained about for completely different reasons. It's not a good point of reference

Not to mention the B4 has been like this for less than a week. I assume we'll have to put up with it for far less time than CB

some games the b4 vetted quick i think its becuz i was hitting static mega blobs of inf and vehicles blobs up but some games i didnt get any good barrages and vet took forever. i think this happens with other howitzers aswell so u just got to get lucky. and all arty have there pros look at how long werfer had pinning and katy still dont have pinn and the shells are bigger and katy was meant to scare the enemy.

Yeah and it was complained about for completely different reasons. It's not a good point of reference

Not to mention the B4 has been like this for less than a week. I assume we'll have to put up with it for far less time than CB

Inb4 winter patch 2021/22? It's not an exploit or major bug so I suspect Relic might just say to move it to the next patch. On another note, I still say the whole CB saga was much overblown but it is what it is, will have to agree to disagree. Show Spoiler

On another note, I still say the whole CB saga was much overblown but it is what it is, will have to agree to disagree. Show Spoiler

It was "overblown" because people waited years for them to do something about it. People have been complaining about CB for a very long time

Look no further than the old veterancy bug story if you think a bug going unnoticed for a while means it's not an issue

The style of CB was the problem not it's power. Auto-pilot abilities aren't fun (don't get me started about loiters). With the B4 it's clearly a power issue. I don't think people object to the existence of a barrage, they object to it's potency

Since this night no one need skill anymore since you only need some B4 and cons with at package and all is done to bomb the enemy back into the stone age.

And yeah... Let's nerf hard axis arty... So they don't even have a valid counter anymore.what was the idea?

Loom stream. They laugh their ass of when using b4.

So you if you see a B4 commander equipped you'll have to make sure you have a counter commander. Just like everyone else has been doing against the LeFH for years.

Hard nerfed the LeFH, yet all they did was remove an ability many said wasn't even that good. lol.