Profile of Mr.Smith

Combat Blitz is considered on steroids, however it is only a few seconds duration.
War speed, just means that - tanks move at race-car speeds - there is no acc/reload boosts.

You need to rephrase your sentence. I can't figure out what you are trying to say.

Btw:
https://www.coh2.org/guides/52852/the-coh2-ability-guide

The only thing related to balance I can think about is the following:
- All factions have a dedicated Sniper-detection vehicle (Kubel, 222, M20, UC, M3)
- Sniper hunters get better detection radius and better accuracy vs snipers
- It doesn't matter which one is the best

The UC is the most pathetic sniper hunter for this job because:
- It loses a lot of DPS while moving (thus it can't kill the sniper)
- The traverse rate/speed is terrible, and fausts await the UC at every corner

Instead, for Brits that vehicle should have been the AEC. (Yes, Tank Commander for Cromwell increases detection radius. By that point in time, it is too late, already).

I did some detective work on coh2stats and I found the following:

The Stuka-Dive Ninja-buff has increased the killing area by at least 5 times (for no reason)

If we look at the stats over at http://www.coh2-stats.com/explosive_weapons/stuka_500_lb_bomb_mp we can conclude that:
- The ninja-buff MUST have added the insta-gib death critical (the radius of the pre-buff and the post-buff Stuka are identical, but the performance is nowhere the same)
- The one-hit-kill radius used to be 6.5
- The proposed nerf (Miragefla's mod) will knock the killing radius down to 9.5 (that's already better than pre-ninja)

Thus, the ninja-buff increased the killing radius from 6.5 to 15 (that's an area).

If the Stuka Dive Bomb wasn't UP before, and nobody ever asked for a buff, why did it merit a 5-times increase of the killing area?

(also added to OP)

The best way to counter the Stuka diving bomb is actually BY pro-blobbing. The reason is that you don't have to jump around the map like crazy to find out which squads you need to move.

Regarding acquiring sight. This is actually the most trivial thing to achieve in any team-game setting:
- Artillery Flares
- or (if you want to get nasty) spotting scopes on 222 (The Elefant doctrine has been very much in-meta since release)

There will ALWAYS be some point in time where your enemy will be microing (e.g., because they have to dodge your Elefant, or they have to just micro their tank). Now their support is dead; and you only gambled 160 munitions for it.

What's not right about stukat is the fact that most likely you will hear the sound around 6-7sec before landing and it's way to short to move crew weapons.

I wonder why it was ninja buffed in the first place.

Second thing, railway should be most devastating, not dive bomb.

no stuka dive bomb into the base sector. Otherwise its fine. Never had a problem with stuka

Am I the only one who doesn't struggle vs this? If I hear it I can almost pinpoint it accurately and move at the same time. - Hell ask any of the other Angry Bears when we are against it I can ping on almost the exact spot they are gonna get hit.

I agree with the removal of it being able to hit HQ zone.

I honestly can't remember when I last lost more than 1 unit to stuka dive bomb.

Please post your sound settings (Low? Medium? High?). I am not kidding.

I've been using Low sound settings (since the soundbug days). For the purpose of this thread I've also trialed Medium and High and they sound dodgier (especially if you pan the camera on other parts of the map). I might be wrong.

I always get a 5 second warning tops (and only if my camera does not happen to be at the other side of the map). There is also a 5-second no-warning time between activating the ability and when the plane starts growling. If you count the time it takes to:
- Pan the camera around to the right location
- Pan it a bit more to tell EXACTLY where that ability hits

If you have split your forces in more than two parts, you run an enormous risk of losing part of them. That's why Stuka Bomb, actually, REWARDS blobbing.

I find it's the only really useful offmap artillery ostheer has... that and incendiary Arty. All the other ones are just so meh.

At OP:
The AOE you are proposing is absolutely tiny. It takes a super long time to land and often the noise is more noticeable than red flares. The only time it's truly effective is when they are pro blobbing or greatly bunched up and even then they can always move their units.

Is it really tiny?

- Currently the one-shot-radius is equal to 15. That's way too much.
- I estimate that if we remove the kill-critical, the one-shot radius will be reduced to 9.5
- 9.5 is already bigger than the pre-ninja-buff Stuka Bomb radius (which was 6.5; see updated OP)
- I don't know if Miragefla did any further messing with the values (since I used his mod to take the screenshot)
- The (one-shot radius of the Sturmtiger is 8)

As a compromise we could reduce the delay between firing the bomb, and when it hits. The initial 5 seconds where the sound cue is inaudible don't help the defender in any way.

If you still believe this is tiny:
- Propose what should be the one-hit radius of this ability, then we can discuss
- Recall that the ability costs only 160 munitions
- Compare the AoE effect of this ability to ANY other ability in the game (even if the enemy forgets about their infantry for the entire duration)
- Again, recall that this ability only costs 160 munitions.

I still don't understand why it needs to kill infantry within 15m simply by touching them. If we don't want to touch its AOE then remove the instant death crit from the ability which could probably go to all artillery that crits infantry even if they're on the outer edges.

The death-crit is down to aesthetics mostly. I too, agree that it would look better if some troops were not-instagibbed but were brought down to low health, depending on the distance.

Whether the radius of the Stuka Bomb should increase or decrease to accommodate this could be a topic of this thread. However, it is more important to decide what the one-hit-radius should look like, though.

Welp becauce Stuka is kinda a skill shot ability, which requres prediction and luck. Not to mention that Stuka cound be countered by mass retreat (its not a bad think because you know Air supperiority force you to do this aswell). Not to mention that if you are not a blober Stuka is not more dangerious then any other arty.

If you look on it from the insane wipe possability then yes, it should be nerfed but also demo charges and other insta wipe arty then. If you look on it from arty perpective its not THAT good.

A mass retreat is the LAST thing you want to do vs a Stuka Dive Bomb:
- There is high chance you retreat through the blast radius (and be ded)
- You don't know if the enemy's teammate is lining another stuka bomb right at your base.
- Also, that 50-second cooldown.

what is the mod you use to do your tests?

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=333763272&searchtext=cheat+mod

would you remove the sound too or at least make less sound for that aoe (smaller than ST) ?

The main gripe I have vs this ability is that it turns the game into a gamble:
- If I am losing hard, a lucky stuka bomb will bring me back to the game

Having gamble-like abilities is not necessarily bad. However, if the reward (wipes) is so much bigger than the associated risk (munitions), then it becomes broken.


The way I see it, there are two options:

1) Keep Stuka Dive Bomb as it is, but increase its cost and cooldown

This increases the risk aspect of the Stuka Dive Bomb. That way risk matches reward (wipes).

If we want to retain the Stuka-Dive-Bomb at its current performance level (i.e., change nothing), I would say that 300 munitions is a fair cost for the current Stuka Bomb:
- None of the other artillery abilities cost so much devastation
- Even if the enemy is AFK while their infantry is getting shot
- Those other abilities cost about 200-250 munitions AND have a warning flare (so that you know which way to dodge)

If 300 munitions seems unpalatable:
- Have a look at the devastation caused in the 2nd screenshot
- Would even UKF Air Superiority (320 munitions) have achieved a similar result?

NB: Air Superiority comes with a 30 second, telegraphed warning.

2) Remove the insta-gibbing critical vs infantry, but retain the cost

This reduces the reward aspect of Stuka Dive Bomb. That way, again, risk (cost) matches reward.

Even post-nerf, the ability will remain practically impossible to dodge with support weapons/etc.

Given that it is one of the cheapest call-in arty abilities, the Stuka Dive Bomb will remain excellent at:
- Wiping pak-walls
- Wiping veterancy from on-map Howitzers
- Punishing mass retreats to a FRP

yes pls.. nerf ostheer more. cannot kill them quickly enough.

I am genuinely interested in hearing your arguments.

If your main concern is the 1v1 performance of Ostheer:

- The last time I checked Stuka Dive Bomb doctrines were out-of-meta in 1v1. Thus any change to that ability will not affect "competitiveness" in this mode.
- The main arguments around Ostheer weaknesses in 1v1 have to do with the early game. Stuka Dive Bomb is a late-game ability. Again, no effect.
- If you believe that OST REALLY needs to crutch on Stuka Dive Bomb to retain its 1v1 rating, wouldn't it be better to buff OST in ways other than are more consistent than an all-or-nothing gamble?

If you are concerned about anything other than 1v1:

- Then don't worry. Ostheer is consistently one of the best-performing factions in these modes (along with OKW and UKF) -- after the VetBug fix (and despite UKF cancer-play)