Profile of EtherealDragon

Not sure how they compare to Bunkers but they have a target size of 10 which makes them rather difficult to destroy with handheld AT coupled with it's suppression. Long range AT gun shots can also lead to frustration sometimes as well as I seem to recall. I feel like I long as you have ISG ready to counter battery any artillery built to counter the Flak then you're more likely to have success.

Now for the Jackson the extra health and armor no longer factor due to the Jackson range keeping it out of harms way. The Jackson obviously pens better and its ability which also increases penetration and damage does not have a corresponding loss to mobility.

Now if we look at it as a 2 tank per side battle it gets even worse. Using both a non-doctrinal Sherman and Jackson vs 2 E8. The Sherman covers all of the Jacksons deficiencies and vice versa while being cheaper than the 2 E8.

It's a question of what you want in your army composition and there will always be tradeoffs. If you want to have 2 units where one is solely AT and the other can be flexible AT/AI then that's fine. But 2 E8s, while more expensive also have the benefit of being generalists and more durable than the M4A3.

You don't ever have to worry about the Jackson getting caught by AT Infantry or the M4A3 getting outmuscled by other tanks (or being forced to use them together all the time). Easy 8 will almost always be the outmuscler and that's not nothing. It's not going to be great AI and it's not going to have Jacksons's Penetration ceiling but those are choices you willingly make and factor into your army composition. Those tradeoffs by themselves don't mean the E8 is trash. More simply put, don't build the E8 and expect it to perform like a Comet because it wont.

My suggestions to balance Pathfinders and prevent people from abusing them:

- Pathfinders 1 CP; increase call-in cooldown to 100 sec.
- Beacon does only provide reinforcements for Airborne Rangers; no sight in FOW anymore (Pathfinders' sightrange is largely enough)
- Sniper rifles take both weapon slots (the possibility of easily upgrading them with double BARs or Zooks is insane)

Terrible suggestions.

1. Pathfinders were rarely used when they weren't 0 CP because it's really hard to fit in build orders otherwise. There is a reason why there has been a trend of lowering CPs for elite infantry or converting them to 0CP and adding upgrades for scaling. They already start on cooldown to prevent early map control and that's enough.

2. Beacons are hardly the problem. They are super fragile and easy to kill. I'd wager a guess that the VAST majority of players don't use beacons for FOW info unless they are a heavy tac map user like Luvnest. It's the same reason you don't see people bitching about Kubel Vet 1 ability or 251 Observation Outpost that do the same thing.

3. Barfinders can be a fun thing to mess around with and can result in some quick wipes if you get lucky with crits but they are still weapon pinatas which can be a downside. The sniper carbines as they are now aren't nearly good enough to justify taking up both weapon slots.

4. Any Pathfinder centric strategy is ALWAYS hamstrung by lack of snares. Use this to your advantage and if you can't then that means you are just getting outplayed generally.

Dont use penetration values for comparing different factions tanks. And E8 is trash. Not good vs armor not good vs infantry so what is the damn purpose of using this shitty unit ? E8 is not a good generalist too. It will be funny to watch how you guys defends this shitty situation.

Um, penetration values for other tanks is pretty useful to give you a sense of just how good the Easy-8 is at countering armor compared to other tanks. I'd love to hear why you think it's bad versus armor given it's extra health, better armor, .75 moving accuracy, and good penetration (especially compared to other mediums). Oh, and now you can get a tank commander to be self spotting with extra accuracy and at Vet 1 you can get extra range and even more penetration. And no "I can't get good results with it so it must be trash" isn't an acceptable answer.

It's a minor QOL improvement as it would often start tracking some unwanted target and then take forever to rotate back. The only way to get around that was to put it on hold fire but then the MG's wouldn't fire.

Makes sense but honestly who cares about the Hull MG. Vary rarely is that going to be the difference between a wipe and not but hey I appreciate the balance team's continued QoL improvements.