Profile of elchino7

It works every single time as long as you don't destroy the wreck.

It trades 250 MP 10 FU for 200 MU, which makes it the most favorable resource transfer in the game. The old fuel to ammo CAS ability, which was deemed too OP to keep existing, returned 150 MU for 50 FU. The Luftwaffe supply drops bring in (IIRC) 150 MU for 200 MP, which is close, but this is still way better since it can't be stolen.

It's even less, cause you can "use" the medics to cap/fight/recrew something. Can you salvage abandon vehicles right? Is it the same return ?

You are flat out wrong. The IS-2 got several armour buffs that the Tiger never saw1 (both started out with the same frontal armour, while the IS-2 by now is on the level of the King Tiger), the IS-2 had a lower reduction of its rear armour.2 When the Tiger's vet0 gun range was increased, the IS-2 got a previously non-existing vet2 gun range-buff that negated the Tiger's buff.3 The IS-2 over the past couple years had several changes to its AOE and accuracy profile, resulting in a much better performing tank. It got several penetration buffs.
Not to mention that there is absolutely no proof that the Tiger is used more often than the IS-2, so even that claim of yours is dubious at best.4

Do you even read the changelog thread (on the official forums) before you post your answers?

P.S.: I posted an in-depth explanation in this very thread why the IS-2 is superior to the Tiger. There is factual, objective, mathematical proof for you. I don't expect much, but the minimum politeness of actually reading what I wrote when trying to make me look dumb would go a long way to not make an arse out of yourself.

Before reading forward, mind you that i answered you previously from what i remembered. When i check the changelog, i had to go back into APRIL 2014 (BEFORE WFA was released) to see any mention of armor been changed1. I think we can both agree that is irrelevant, heck 2 years ago changes is even stretching it since several things had changed. Those armor "buff" were done with a completely overhaul of the IS2 (remember it used to get 240dmg with a 9s reload and changed it to +6.5 and 160dmg). It also had 960 HP and crap penetration compensated by deflection damage. Calling those changes in isolation is just manipulating the information.

Before any further confusion or nitpick is done, i interpret your comment "over the past 2 years" as 2015 onwards.

https://community.companyofheroes.com/discussion/67/coh-2-changelog/p3

-KT saw it's armor reduced to IS2 level, not the other way round
-Tiger / Tiger Ace / Panther / King Tiger and the Blitzkrieg Ability (nerf)
-Super Heavy Call in Vehicles limited to 1
-Prioritise vehicles
-All heavies get an increase CP of 2 Points
-Tiger Population reduced from 24 to 19
-IS2 Population reduced from 24 to 19
-Tiger Penetration increased from 180/200/220 to 200/220/240
-Tiger range increased from 40 to 45
-Wehrmacht Tiger & Tiger Ace rear armored reduced from 180 to 140
-Soviet IS-2 rear armor reduced from 205 to 140 2
-IS2 Scatter offset adjusted to match other vehicles.
-IS2 Penetration increased from 250/220/190 to 250/230/210

3They always had that gun range buff at vet2 which put them at 50 range. The change to the Tiger was a buff at vet0, moving some part of the veterancy bonus. Both units converge to the same point.

Unlocks the 'Secure Mode' ability
+50% weapon rotation speed, +25% range, +20% accuracy
-30% reload, +20% rotation speed, +20% speed, +20% ac/de-celeration

Unlocks the 'Blitzkrieg' ability
+5 range, +20% accuracy, -20% scatter
-30% reload, +20% rotation speed, +20% speed, +20% ac/de-celeration

4
https://www.coh2.org/news/57846/tournament-statistics-allied-meta
https://www.coh2.org/news/57812/tournament-statistics-axis-meta

From the few times i see games, i barely see people choosing it or even having it on the loadout.
Shock frontline (5th) and Armored assault (6th) were picked 7/5 respectively and there were 10 IS2 fielded. In perspective, Guard Motor was picked 26 times, Partisan 11 and Mech support 9.
Mech assault was picked 48 times (1st pick), lighting was picked 5 and Elite 3. 23 Tigers and a sigle Ace were fielded.

From my limited 2v2 experience, i barely seen Shocks/IS2, when we are living the Penal dream nowadays. Regarding tournament play this is what i found:
https://www.coh2.org/news/56975/the-nmc-cup-s02-recap-statistics

I don't expect much, but the minimum politeness of actually reading what I wrote...

TL;DR: The IS-2 is considered shit, while compared to the Tiger the IS-2 is superior and gets even better with veterancy while the things the Tiger is good at don't get better at the same rate. How that is supposed to give both units a way to perform uniquely yet properly while justifying both vehicles costing the same can only be understood by Relic.

Which i don't agree with. Not saying that the Tiger or IS2 is better than the counterpart. After buffing it's vet 0 performance, IMO, i'll say that they are balanced asymetrically to each other.
IS2 still has it drunk main gunner which has edges against 4 man OH squads when RNG is on your side (or when they are against a wall, since IIRC it tends to overshoot). This is offset with steady damage from their HMG gunner. Not as great against OKW.
Tiger get's a more consistent performance AI wise, with RoF and scatter but it's less "1 full health squad" shot wipe.
AT performance, there's few tanks you would need a higher pen. IS2, ISU, KV2 (not commonly seen), Pershing and Comet. The first 3 are barely seen and the other 2 relies more so in manoeuvrability than on their armor (Comet OP).
For the IS2, it helps when facing PV, Tiger or KT but that's not the default unit to get when facing those units. Besides matching an OH Tiger head to head on 1v1, the scenario where you want an IS2 is mass Puma/Stug-E/PIV, specially if you are stuck with T3.

AND this is all talking about the units in isolation. When we consider the meta, non doctrinal units and what commanders they are part of, i'll consider the Tiger been in a better spot (not because of the unit per se). Reason? Explained before with the meta commanders and more so in teamgames.

Is it an exploit to farm other vehicles to salvage them with recovery sappers, and then use the resources to spam arty cover?

Nope

Is it an exploit to farm ambulances

Definitely. Why?

They are 200 MU each

The reason.

This isn't really true. The player at #1 still can gain elo to run away from the second player. He is going to get less for win than he loses for loose, so it's a little uphill, but if he plays mostly against worse players, especially at the hours where there is less players playing, he can get enormous elo. The example could be paul's stats before his ban.

Also number of games > quality of opponents in order to rank up.
If you are "decent" and spam games, you'll get to higher ranks than people who might be better than you by quite a margin.

snip

Damage model in the game follows similar values.

For infantry it goes from 2-4-6-8-10-12-16. This is per bullet, so while a bolt action rifle deals 16, a faster firing AR or HMG which does 4 per bullet will be doing more DPS. This is why RNG wise, there are chances that a single volley from a squad might get a kill on a single model. Early on it's relevant (when fighting 1v1 squads) but as the game drags it's less important as multiple damage sources are combined.

On the AT role, MOST sources are set at 160, which is 1/4 of the health of a medium tank (T3476, Sherman, PIV, Cromwell). Then you have "soft" AT at 80-100-120 (small AT gun, Puma, Schreck, Zook, Piat, Su76 and snares) and hard AT at 200-240-280-320. (Jackson, KT/ISU, Firefly vet3, JT/Ele). REALLY low are set at 16-20-40 (PTRS, Flak HT, 222, Luch).
The difference is set mostly on penetration vs armor, RoF and range.
This is how you balance and understand most tanks engagements. HOW MANY penetration shots you can survive. If you have a PIV fighting a Jackson, it will survive the same amount of shots if it was fighting a T34-85 (4) (200*3 = 600 HP. You still need an extra shot to finish it off).

Something as small as increasing 2 HP (cof sniper cof), makes a unit "OP" or not, cause it can survive things which would generally kill (grenade, mortar shell or rocket) or survive an extra shot. This is also the reason people use the auto repair on the T70 (they can survive an extra pak shot even if the ability only heals for 1 HP).

Again, this damage and HP thresholds are what makes or breaks a unit. Stug/M10 are really effective because, while they have "lower" HP than mediums (560HP vs 640HP) it's basically the same when fighting (most) tanks and AT gun walls. They all die to 4x160 shots.