Rant: WTF is with OKW Overwatch doctrines sector assault

The one that's a plane loiter skill plane, it has such insane high alpha damage

I just played a game where it 60-0'd my IS2 then 90-0'd my IS2 within 4 seconds by itself while I'm hauling ass out of it with my IS2 reversing without engine damage. I assumed first time was just bad RNG combined with basically sustaining some damage, second time I was mentally prepared for him to do the same thing but it died 100-0.

How is this thing able to do so much damage in one loiter, I get its an expensive ability and if it killed a t34-76 in 4 seconds I'd be frustrated but not this baffled.

There's no time to even get out of it, is there a catch I'm missing? If there's no counter play this ridiculous ability needs to be nerfed because it's doing ridiculous damage to the tankiest allied tank just point and click.

In my experience Sector Assault right now is kinda inconsistent.

I belivie it have something to do with angles of attack for AT Stukas. Sometimes it goes straight for your tanks, devastating them even if they reversing and sometimes they seems rather following it, shooting at the ground than hitting tank itself. Most of the time enemy managed to save his armor, however damaged at least a bit. You still can escape, but you will need to reverse your tank almost instantly out of the strike zone. If it is in the middle of it, you still be targeted by at least one of skillplanes)))


Also, as far as i know, it does 2 passes for each aircraft, but i do not know exact stats for AT-Stuka damage. Maybe someone will help me with that?

Only thing consistent is AI-strafe planes, always pinning everything inside of circle for solid 10 seconds.

In my experience Sector Assault right now is kinda inconsistent.

I belivie it have something to do with angles of attack for AT Stukas. Sometimes it goes straight for your tanks, devastating them even if they reversing and sometimes they seems rather following it, shooting at the ground than hitting tank itself. Most of the time enemy managed to save his armor, however damaged at least a bit.
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Also, as far as i know, it does 2 passes for each aircraft, but i do not know exact stats for AT-Stuka damage. Maybe someone will help me with that?

Only thing consistent is AI-strafe planes, always pinning everything inside of circle for solid 10 seconds.

The thing is, surely even if I took all square hits rare armored by the planes with my IS2 of the first loiter, it shouldn't do anything more than 50 or even 60 hp of the sturdiest allied tank in the game? Much less the second time where it did 90% of my IS2 damage while I was prepared expecting the other player to use it ready to reverse. Its annoying enough that skill planes of different varieties often 100-0 wipe infantry in this game but to do the same with such high probability to one the heaviest tanks in the game is too much.

This happened on the south VP of kholodny, with hindsight now perhaps being the edge of map meant it gives no reaction time at all. It would be fair if I stood in the circle and it killed it 100-0 over say 8-10 seconds. It didn't even seem to require any vision because the closest unit he had was a p4 by the hedgerows and by the time I reverse'd I was 1 entire sector away.

where it did 90% of my IS2

Impossible. On average, the Stuka AT planes deal about 250-500 damage per pass (both planes combined). And that is on a stationary target. If the target moves, the Stukas will usually miss more (but that depends on their angle of approach).

They both need to be hitting the IS-2's rear armor to deal that maximum of ~500dmg, because they have 180/170/160 penetration (IS-2 armor is 375) and deal less damage on deflection, which is highly unlikely on the first pass given that the planes start on opposite ends.

Since the IS-2's health is 1080, that means they can deal a maximum of 25%-50% damage to it. With 50% being the most ideal circumstances, only possible on a second or third pass, and with 25% being the average damage it deals on the first pass. And again, tested on a stationary IS-2, so expect damage to be even less if it's moving.

So TLDR, unless a replay shows otherwise, Sector Assault can not have done more than 50% damage in a single run to your IS-2 and something else must have damaged it at the same time or circumstances were not as you presented them.

It didn't even seem to require any vision

The ability requires ground forces to spot enemies or it will not target anything.

>RANT
>BALANCE SECTION
??????????????????????????

I mostly find weird that during this ability you can see 4 stukas appearing on the field at once. They can effect for some time, unless you have quad one bursting them down.

Honestly I also think that the ability is busted af, the starting anti tank strafes are too strong. The one from Luftwaffe Ground Forces doc is way more balanced. It'd be also balanced if it was just the JU87 AT loiter ability from Ostheer.

I think right now the ability starts with 4 or 5 target-seeking anti tank strafes right? Whereas the one from LGF starts with 4 HMG strafes that are not target-seeking.

I think right now the ability starts with 4 or 5 target-seeking anti tank strafes right?

No, it has 2 AT planes and 2 AI planes.

The AT planes attack on the first run. The AI planes do one pass without engaging before turning around and targeting infantry.

The AT planes will loiter and go for a second attack run if there is still enemy armor spotted within the ability targeting area. If they did the second attack run, they loiter for a third run. However, if there are no enemy vehicles spotted, they will leave the battlefield instead of loitering for the duration of the ability.

The AI planes do 4 (2x2) strafes in total (no loitering) and then leave.



So all in all the ability is more cost effective than Stuka Close Air Support as long as the enemy stays in the area for SA to do its full potential damage, but the planes will leave faster if there are no targets (they keep loitering longer in SCAS afaik). I think its higher cost effectiveness isn't that bad considering: it's the only lategame ability the doctrine has, the doctrine is very munitions heavy (Goliaths, JLI snipers, For the Fatherland, Sector Assault) so using Sector Assault is a strategic choice that will limit the use of the rest of the doctrine, and that the doctine pick is so obvious that the enemy has plenty of time to prepare and get some AA (at least in team games).

The only thing about Sector Assault that is overperforming right now imo is that the AI planes instantly pin whatever they are shooting at, which is more suppression than they were intended to do, but that is being fixed in the upcoming balance patch.

When this ability is used, it basically feels like its the early morning of Sunday the 22nd of June 1941 and the entirety of Luftflotte 2 is coming at me.

yes, axis still has the most busted one-click doctrinal abilities. they will likely never be nerfed.

This ability in its current state still just always reminds me of the modteam bias considering how they made NKVD useless a few days after its release by nerfing AT artillery to the ground

The whole doctrine is silly. Idk what they were thinking when they made it, the loiter used to be even stronger

Historicaly german air forces in 1944 were far superior to usa or british so it makes sense.

Historicaly german air forces in 1944 were far superior to usa or british so it makes sense.

The good ol historically argument
Historically panthers would experience random engine fires while traversing an incline, American 75mm HE would break the side armor, Shermans could fire smoke on it and cause fires, multiple frontal hits would crack the frontal plate , Pivot steering would break the tank, Successive firing would have to be halted due to recoil , the turret would have to be hand cranked when engine is damaged, every 150km the final drives would break and take a full day to repair and they would be crewed by children half the time for OKW

Historicaly german air forces in 1944 were far superior to usa or british so it makes sense.

i sincerely hope that youre being sarcastic....

The good ol historically argument
Historically panthers would experience random engine fires while traversing an incline, American 75mm HE would break the side armor, Shermans could fire smoke on it and cause fires, multiple frontal hits would crack the frontal plate , Pivot steering would break the tank, Successive firing would have to be halted due to recoil , the turret would have to be hand cranked when engine is damaged, every 150km the final drives would break and take a full day to repair and they would be crewed by children half the time for OKW

Panthers miss shots quite a bit so i think they are manned by mentaly challanged children already.

And i dont do 150km with my panthers so i don care tbh.

Historicaly german air forces in 1944 were far superior to usa or british so it makes sense.

You need to check your history, US was by far the best. Germany had great planes but nobody could match US production rate

You need to check your history, US was by far the best. Germany had great planes but nobody could match US production rate

Don't bother, ddd is on a campaign of trolling and got banned two times in a row for it already.
I guess he's looking for the third straight away.

You need to check your history, US was by far the best. Germany had great planes but nobody could match US production rate

Not true, look at coh2. USF has one loiter in one doctrine, OKW has 2 loiters and with more planes too. Plus more anti aircraft units.

on one hand this guy seems sarcastic... on the other he seems half serious...