State of balance right now ?

Hello there, i didn't take the time to DL and test by myself the latest build (which is on Beta server). As a mainly Wehrmacht player, i was kind of afraid of the changes to PAK firstly, and the return to 0 CP for the WC51 dodge, i felt like the faction wouldn't hold a chance anymore versus early game light armor spams (and double BAR spams). Maybe some of you who actually tried it could enlighten me ? It felt like most of the other changes were on point with what the game needed (ISU, JT, better infantry cover usage, lots of little balance tweaks here and there). Is my faction broken ? Shall i take the time to try and test it myself, when my RL is currently very time consuming and i can't commit that much time just for the sake of testing ?

Thanks in advance guys.

looks like ostheer is going to be really hard vs USF on some maps now. The dodge is nothing to be afraid of though.

I tested beta but unfortunatelly I didn't have the chance to play so much against real players. Quite few players there, I had 4 maybe 5 matches against real people. Made some tests against CPU but these are irrelevant. CPU won't never attack you with double bar blobs.
So based on my low player vs player experience in BETA, these are my conclusions:
- Speaking of USF I concluded that the fast teching is still their best bet, not the double Bars and such. They appear to be more viable now;
- Wehrmacht is doing fine in my view, you have enough options to answer to different strategies. The only shitty thing there, are the vanilla grenadiers that are still dying like goofy chicken. But if you resist in early game, don't loose to much territory or to entire squads, you have prety good chances. A faction for skilled people ;
- OKW is doing fine, with the kubel fuel cost and everyting. I didn't observe changes, kubel is still usefull but now you can actually hit it and that's a good thing. Requires less skill than Wehrmacht though;
- Didn't have the time to properly test soviets so I can't say much about them but seemed that are no important changes except that the cover system serves them well with their high numbered squads.

Hope this was usefull.

I have to agree with a lot of what Johnny said. I didn't get a chance to auto match at all so mostly played bots or with friends to test stuff so I'm not really sure how things will ultimately shake out, but the thing that struck me most is how different the infantry play feels. The new responsiveness and cover system is awesome but it will mean that nades and such have a lot higher chance for squad wipe if not dodged. Luckily, the responsiveness means that it's easier to do now. Rifle nades are going to be a lot more effective I think (all nades will be but I think rifle nades will benifit the most from allied squads more effectively getting into cover).

The WC51 just feels like an M3 now so if you can counter that, you can counter the WC51. From the Ami's perspective though, it'll be nice to have it back at 0 CPs to counter early kubels and for light harass.

I don't know if it was my imagination, but it felt like my MG-42s were performing better some how. It felt like they did something with the way they reload or their aoe suppression or possibly both but it felt like there were a lot fewer wtf moments where it just didn't shoot or failed to suppress a blob. Again though, I'm not sure on this one.

Guards still seem pretty meh but the new infantry system means that they stop rolling around on the ground, laughing at themselves as much and actually fire their weapons. PTRS felt a little more useful because of this but I don't think it's going to shake things up that much.

ISU and Jagdtiger are much easier to flank now and I really hope they both gracefully bow out of the meta.

There's a lot more but I'm on my phone and this is tedious to type lol

Thanks for the first inputs, it seems it isn't as bad as what i thought at first glance. Still i'm worried for how Grens are able to survive until they reach vet, especially now the BAR is very strong.

Don't fear BARs. Fear Rear Echelon spam Kappa

Don't fear BARs. Fear Rear Echelon spam Kappa

With Double BARs.

rear echelon spam is like not even bad at all. It's not that good either but it can work.

rear echelon spam is like not even bad at all. It's not that good either but it can work.

Not sure about that, remember that with how weapon profiles work only bazooka/shreck doesn't loose cost effectiveness on them.

well I've won a lot of beta games doing it. Sometimes even against decent players

Not sure about that, remember that with how weapon profiles work only bazooka/shreck doesn't loose cost effectiveness on them.

Wait what...can you explain? ive always thought that soldiers in a squad that pick up a weapon gain that weapons traits like volks or shocks stealing an MG34 become obers basically for example...Does that mean 2 RE models with bars are not as good as two riflemen entities with BARs weapon damage wise?

Wait what...can you explain? ive always thought that soldiers in a squad that pick up a weapon gain that weapons traits like volks or shocks stealing an MG34 become obers basically for example...Does that mean 2 RE models with bars are not as good as two riflemen entities with BARs weapon damage wise?

I usually thought that the RE's would be less accurate because of their vet compared to riflemen vet.

Balance is pretty okay now if you ask me.

Maps are a bigger problem. Can't really think of a single one that does not favour at least on faction.

Balance is pretty okay now if you ask me.

Maps are a bigger problem. Can't really think of a single one that does not favour at least on faction.

Would you care to explain a bit ? How has the patch had so much impact on maps, and why ?

Balance is pretty okay now if you ask me.

Maps are a bigger problem. Can't really think of a single one that does not favour at least on faction.

that's because the ost are purposely balanced to be weak at close range and the allies to be weak at long range.

This also make them very map dependent. Open map favor the lmg42 and mg42, while urban map favor the garand, bar, and ppsh.

Dodge, M3, new BAR wreck OKW, AGAIN.

Kübeljesus, vet 5 shreck blobs, 8 min Puma, vet 5 Panzerfusis and Obers wreck ALLIES, STILL.

To the OP; Againts USF ALWAYS go for Osttruppen or Mobile Defense, otherwise you are screwed...I had played the beta in this match-up vs good players like Romeo, Brian and Quentin.

About the patch overall; it has more effect on teamgames, shit tons of bug fixing and very little balance (spot on!) with the new retarded squad AI

Edit: Got 25 hours in the beta

Hey is just my impression or there aren't freezes anymore in Beta (praise God)?!

To the OP; Againts USF ALWAYS go for Osttruppen or Mobile Defense, otherwise you are screwed...

What's mobile defense? Great, I need to use one of the 2 commanders that I don't have to compete... Though in my opinion some of the vanilla commanders can still be good. Those with the command tank. And of course spearhead (premium) is always viable.

All right guys, thanks for the input, it was very valuable since i clearly didn't have time to beta test myself.

So to summarize: balance is still somewhat OK, except maps that favor long range (advantage Axis) and maps that favor CQC (advantage Allies). If i understood well. If those are the only noticeable change, then i guess nothing is that different than pre-patch (except squads AI, and the heavy tanks that got nerfed). I feel better now, i was afraid to discover that Wehr was completely broken.

Thanks again, now i'm waiting for the beta to be implemented live.