The Rinoceronte and the tanks leading up to it have been rebalanced along with two Premium mercenaries! Get the details below.
Tanks Reforged is the initiative that overhauls vehicles from World War II mode and brings them in line with today’s battle standards.
This edition is packed with information. For months, the team’s heard requests to take a look at the Italian Tech Tree’s heavy tank line. There’s a lot to say about the changes that were made as a result, so let’s get into it!
Take a look at the rebalancing details below to start. Then continue reading to see how to make the Tech Tree vehicles yours with On-Track.
Italian Heavies
This week in Tanks Reforged, we’ll be discussing the Italian heavy tanks. We would like to go into more details surrounding these vehicles to give better insight into how they’ve been doing and what our plans were to change them.
First, let’s start off with some performance data to show how the Rinoceronte compares to other Tier X heavy tanks.
Note: Below is a general overview of the main performance areas that will be covered further in this article. We also performed a more in-depth dive into the data where we broke it down to the individual gun performance and went through all the additional performance parameters of these tanks that were used to determine what to change and by how much.
Win rate cross-compared across skill level: ~0.5% below average
Survival rate cross-compared across skill level: ~5% below average
% of shots hit cross-compared across skill level: ~7.8% above average
% of shots penetrated cross-compared across skill level: ~5% above average
Damage per battle cross-compared across skill level: ~150 below average
Note: The 105/71 and 105/76 guns are the cause of the lower performance bringing the averages down. For the 120/62 gun, the performance is average to above average.
Win rate cross-compared across skill level: Average
Survival rate cross-compared across skill level: Average
% of shots hit cross-compared across skill level: ~5% above average
% of shots penetrated cross-compared across skill level: ~7% above average
Damage per battle cross-compared across skill level: ~100 above average
General Analysis
While the data shows that the tanks are performing decently, let’s take a closer look at this data. As you can see in the performance data above, these vehicles have an abnormally high % of shots hit and % of shots penetrated compared to other vehicles. Why? Let’s look into this using the Rinoceronte as an example.
Question: Is it a result of having really good accuracy and penetration stats?
There is no supporting data to suggest that this is the case. When we look at other vehicles with similar or better accuracy or penetration values, we see that their data does not collaborate this as the cause.
Tanks with similar accuracy:
Tanks with similar penetration:
Question: Is it due to shooting mainly premium ammo?
There is no supporting data to suggest that this is the case. Premium ammo usage is ~10% less than normal for these vehicles. This is likely due to the reload times making it harder to switch ammo types, so players stick to the default AP shell.
Question: So why are the penetration and hit rates so high?
We believe that it’s due to the playstyle of the vehicles. Because of the reload mechanics, players tend to not fire unless they are highly confident that the round will hit and penetrate. For these vehicles, it’s more important to not waste any shots and make sure each one counts in order to do well. This type of playstyle requires a player to put in a lot more effort to play these vehicles successfully compared to other tanks.
Question: So if the current playstyle and its users are effective, why are the tanks being changed?
While this playstyle is effective and players can be very successful with it, it’s not the most enjoyable playstyle for the general player base. In other vehicles, players can take more of the risky shots, as they can afford to miss shots and still do well because they don’t have the same reload times. This allows other vehicles to be played more casually but still perform well while providing a more enjoyable experience.
As a result, we receive frequent requests to re-evaluate these tanks, so we did. With these changes, we’re hoping to make the line appeal to more users by relaxing its playstyle while not causing the vehicles to overperform in the hands of existing users.
Question: So how will they change?
To achieve this, the reload times for most of the guns will be reduced. However, in exchange, they will lose some gun handling to keep things balanced.
The last round in the clip will see the most reduction, as that is the first round you shoot. The concept behind this is that you play this vehicle as a single-shot gun until the right moment arises when you can safely fire the shells and have time to refill your clip before your next engagement. Clip management is an extremely important skill for playing these vehicles successfully.
With this round receiving the most reload reduction, it allows you to stay engaged in the fight and spend less time watching it happen. You also don’t have to focus on making sure every shot counts, as the reload is now more forgiving, So, you can miss some shots but still do well.
These changes are fairly significant, so they’ll be something we’ll keep a close eye on. We want to see how they impact the performance of these tanks and the way they’re being played.
Did we get this just right, go too far, not go far enough? Or maybe do we need to change them back? We certainly look forward to hearing your thoughts and getting your feedback on these changes once they go live.
The Bisonte C45 has not received any changes in this pass, as we first want to see how the adjustments to the Tech Tree vehicles work out and if players like them before making any adjustments to a Premium vehicle.
Experience these updates for yourself! On-Track is the event that gives you Silver discounts and a huge +25% XP bonus on every tank in a specific Tech Tree line. It’s never been so easy to earn a top-tier tank like the Rinoceronte!
Check out the Silver discounts available for the Rinoceronte line through April 25th:
