Katyusha changes 22th:
Katyusha
We wanted to increase the lethality and reliability of the Katyusha.
AOE radius from 4 to 6
AOE distance from 1/2/3 to 1.5/3/4.5
Damage from 80 to 160
Scatter angle from 5 to 10
Scatter offset from 0.25 to 0.1
Katyusha changes 31st:
Ability recharge time from 70 to 110 seconds
Far AOE damage from 4 to 8
Damage from 160 to 80
Deflected shots now deal 20 damage
What it has now, compared to before the changes:
+ Much larger AoE damage area. + Much larger infantry-killing radius. + More rockets land near the target's center. - But a few of the rockets can also scatter more to the left and right (depending on katyusha distance). + Better damage against heavy vehicles. - Longer cooldown.
To be honest, by stats the Katyusha is now better off than it was before. It has gained in power but shoots less often.
I think people are just perceiving it as bad because they got used to its performance between patches. I also think people got used to using it "wrong": Its splash area and killing area before meant that it did not really matter how far from the target the Katyusha was positioned and vision did not matter as much. One could even argue that it scattering more was good to cover a larger area. However, I think that now it is better to fire it from medium instead of from maximum range and preferably with line of sight.
People should give it more of a try in the new patch, I certainly will. Same for the Panzerwerfer, we'll see if that works out.
In any case it won't help at all if nobody uses those units anymore just because they assume that they are now that much worse. Possibly I'm wrong with my stats interpretation but instantly writing it off as useless is bad attitude.