you missed the point entirely. my post was, fix call ins, not buff panthers. making them cheaper, directly or indirectly is a buff. also, lets not word play, this isnt politics. keep it simple. a cost decrease is definitely classed as a 'buff'.
that is why u compare with 'teched' units. panther is a class of its own with performance reflecting it, therefore the premium cost. but panther also requires teching. problem now is, t34/85 and M4C are also call ins and dont require teching, making them so much more cost effective than regular units. if you were to buff panthers on the level of M4C and t34/85's accessibility, the cost reduction will have be pretty significant in order to bring the panther out in time for them.
if u want to keep tackling the SYMPTOMS of the problem, so be it, then you will never be able to fix the problem itself. panthers are good as it is.
reason for their current under performance is because call ins are much cheaper, more cost effective and in some cases, come earlier. its much more effective to hold ground with t2/t3 with paks or p4, depending on ur preference, then get tigers. probably gonna come out roughly the same time as panther and with even more performance to boot, not sure why people are even saving up for panthers really.
Panther has same health as ONE t-34/85 ,LESS DPS than ONE t-34/85,and has much less AI,its advantage being in mainly armor..penetration value ends up being over the top as its previous value was already sufficient to penetrate enemy tanks.Now when on top of this it costs 405 fuel to get a panther assuming t2-t4.
Now soviet player can get TWO 85s for quite a bit less than that price...so yeah the teching fix better be good if u want panther to be viable coz its a niche unit.Same health as t-34/85 maybe accepted but if its DPS is going to be lower than a single 85 then it really can't cost this much...given that its useless vs infantry.
Now lets examine ur point...is the panther really 'in a class of its own' even without the teching price?Is it worth its unit price in itself?
490 MP and 175 fuel.
Now for dual call-in 1 t-85 costs 360 mp and 130 fuel.For single call in 380 mp and 140 fuel.
So i pay even ignoring teching costs - 130 MP plus 45 fuel more for a tank....that has incomparably lower value as an AI platform,SAME health,LOWER DPS,more or less same speed,and only much greater armor,and better penetration.How is this justified?And how cost wise does it make the panther a 'premium' unit 'in a class of its own'?