So this change is somewhat on me, the 7.5 setup time was being pushed by Relic/Smith so I put forward that with all the offensive bonuses at a halfed set-up time all the drawbacks of the ability start to dissipate.
A hulled down panther with 960 HP on current Hull Down stats would be completely broken, if you could set hull-down in half the time people would actually start seeing how op the stats it gives actually are.
I'd rather not see the ability changed at all but if it's forced down to 7.5 seconds it cant have the offensive buffs it'd just be too OP. If you can constantly be setting up and tearing down hulldown quickly it starts removing the bad elements.
Onlive Hull-Down fits a niche, the only reason it doesn't typically see plays in 1s is that the 3 most viable Ostheer commanders are around pushing early game and countering light vehicles (ostheer's main problem). I've been using it in my 2v2 loadout for a long time as have a lot of other high rank 2v2 people, Festung and Ele Comm in particular can combine CT's damage reduction with all the bonuses from Hull Down, total aids with Panther and Ostwind.
But yeah i'm pushing for it to go untouched because it's actually a sort of well-designed ability, 15 seconds of set-up is a fairer risk-reward than 7.5 seconds if you get all the buffs you do on live. It has over-synergy with Ostwind, Panther and Command Tank
Yeah, this is a good analysis and I can agree with most of it. The only thing I'd like to mention is that if relic would really force the change to set up, which is in my opinion unnecessary, then it should get smaller nerf to compensate than removing all of the offencive bonuses. With all the offencive bonuses removed it is actually a downgrade, even if you could cast it in a second.
Also, if newly buffed panther is the problem, then I would rather see the removal of defencive bonuses. It won't affect the usability of the ability for most units, but it won't make panther OP.