Profile of easierwithaturret

Nothing at all wrong with focus sight. It is a useful recon ability for a faction that mostly lacks that capability. It gives some ability for the SU85 to poke enemy tanks at max range but the unit lacks the mobility or firepower to do massive damage that way. It gives a chance to finish off tanks reversing away. It cripples the mobility of an already clunky unit and the cooldown means activating it at the wrong time can easily lose you the unit.

I get that in theory it could be used for some BS purposes, such as to destroy a flak HQ with impunity, but how often does that actually happen to a decent player?

This is my personal opinion and you do not have to agree with it:

Soviet faction design (imo) was to have average stock units and very cost efficient call in units.
5 stock units come out better from the patch (+1 doctrinal), that imo is redesign because SU depend allot less in doctrinal units to fill the Gaps.

Sov reliance on doctrinal units wouldn't be bad if they had access to a greater number of viable doctrines, or if doctrines had more variety within them. However the reality is that nearly 3 years on there are at most 3-4 viable doctrines for sovs, and with the linear CP system there is little variety in how to employ those doctrines.

In a game like CoH where resources are so scarce and map control so important, if a unit is not cost-effective then building it can cost you the game. If a unit is hardly ever worth building, what's the point of it even being in the game at all?

To use the t34/76 and SU85 as an example: prior to the preview the t34/76 was hardly built because it had poor stats and was rarely worth the micro needed to keep it alive. The SU85, while great against mediums, struggled against heavies bouncing shots at its optimal engagement range. In team games (where armour play is everything) this forced the soviet player to either spam SU-76 or use one of a handful of doctrines with t34/85 or IS2. Trying to make use of t34/76 or other 'non-meta' strategies would be punished hard and usually result in a loss. This reduces enjoyment and replayability for players of both sides because most games play out the same.

Now that t34/76 and SU85 are actually worth building, the SU player has more than one option on how to play. It's not like seeing these units on the field is suddenly game-breaking, they still have plenty of counters. It's not going to radically change the faction, it's just opening up more valid ways to play it.Yes, there may be some unforeseen balance consequences but that is why we have the community testing the changes before they go live.

Grens really aren't that strong. They have good vet bonuses and rifle grenades are deadly but their small squad size and low durability is their weakness.

Early game: always try to engage grens at close range. Riflemen are superior to grens at short range, both in terms of DPS and because it denies them the ability to use their rifle nades. Don't just charge over open ground though, make use of cover and shot blockers to close the gap.

Mid game: If you have the resources get BARs, they will give you similar firepower to LMG grens and put you well ahead of those not upgraded. Grenades can be useful if he is using a lot of buildings and to impose a micro tax but a good player will dodge your nades most of the time. Doctrinal M1919s will give you a big advantage since they don't need fuel to upgrade.

A stuart can be effective if you use it wisely - be aggressive and try to wipe retreating squads but don't get too greedy lest you fall prey to faust ambushes or teller mines. The .50cal is rarely worth building, especially not against Ostheer.

Late game: Sherman with HE shells and .50cal upgrade is a huge threat to grens with their smaller squads. Make sure you keep it outside panzerfaust range. 2 shermans is better as it gives you more map control and allows you to tackle a p4 that you might otherwise struggle against, so really try to keep your first sherman alive (repair critical is very useful after mine strikes if you have riflemen to cover the crew). Continue to upgrade BARs as you get spare munitions. Rifle grenades are particularly troublesome at this point since squads become more dispersed, so be wary of engaging gren squads 1 on 1 at long range.

Where possible always try to wipe his vet squads. This will force him to replace them with fresh squads which are much easier to deal with. Vehicles are good for this but don't overextend too far - it's not worth sacrificing a sherman to kill a gren squad.

After more thought I think the Tiger is going to struggle quite a bit if that changes in the balance preview go through.

Lower rear armour means it is now vulnerable to mediums (which is good) but it is also much more vulnerable to snares and, let's face it, shitty pathing often means your rear armour gets exposed through no fault of the player.

So while the unit isn't getting a major nerf to its performance, it will be more vulnerable to all of its counters except AT guns. The tiger isn't OP in its current state anyway, so it would be a shame to see such an iconic unit fall out of the usefulness.

Tiger is fine, EFA repair capabilities could see improvements.

Yeah, this is the main thing. Tiger has always been slow to repair, which was fine back when it was just OH vs SU. Even with WFA it wasn't so bad because USF had fast repair to compensate for mediocre armour. So tiger is still mostly OK against SU and USF (currently game, not balance preview) but has trouble against UKF because they good armour combined with faster repairs.

I do think the tiger (and all heavies) will struggle to be relevant if the nerfs to rear armour and buffs to allied TDs go through. In such a situation a bit of a buff to HP might give the tiger the staying power to actually be used offensively as a spearhead tank rather than an expensive bait for enemy tanks.