Burying the hatchet on the ELC Discussion.

So I imagine most of the Shitbox frequenters know why this is coming around, maybe those who go around but don't browse the Shitbox have missed it in which case I can either provide the full thing or simply sum it up as.
A rather enjoyable disagreement with the ELC.


Now I've not tried to hide it, but I also never went into every discussion about the tank shouting it, I hated the original ELC and thought it horribly unbalanced. The tank simply outperformed its opposing Lights at V by a huge margin and had some absurd stats.
It got 170 AP pen, the only tanks that come close and/or surpass that are the S35 CA mounting the 105mm, the Archer with the 17pdr and the Flak Bus mounting the 8.8cm L/94, just take note of the fact that the only tanks with anywhere near the same pen are all TD's. Then when you pressed A you now got 248 pen at Tier V.

Add on to this high alpha for the tier, one of the most mobile tanks in the game, one of the smallest tanks in the game and yeah you get an OP Monstrosity. 


So understandably it got nerfed, one of the heaviest in the whole Light Tank Rework, we knew this was coming and I was pleased to see it come in all its glory. Because it is now on par with the other Tier V Lights while still offering the uniqueness of having a mobile 240 alpha tank, or a somewhat reliable 110 alpha like all the rest.


A certain known individual who was very fond of the old ELC didn't agree, where do we begin...
- Can't pen KV-220-2's.
- Gets RB-RT'd by everything.
- Gets rammed by everything.
- Can no longer flank/relocate.

Now I must apologise, I didn't have time to play 1,000 games in a single evening, but I did 3 Mark it very quickly.
Let's see how it went.





So, that's a lot of decent games I think, hey at least I didn't just do one game and say 'Oh I did well'.
Survived all but one, so I guess I wasn't getting RB-RT'd and rammed, in fact I only got properly rammed ONCE, and any other instances were minor collisions while circling.

Let's see, can't relocate at all?



Last on the list is that it can't pen Bogatyr/KV-220-2's.


The wonders you can do when you know weakspots, I should have kept track of how many 220-2's I slaughtered, although my annoying team mates kept denying me the full 690 damage.
But I understand, back when the tank had 170/248 you didn't need to learn weakspots.



All in all, this 'clearly unplayable' tank seems clearly playable to me.
Now, is the tank a shadow of its former self, yes but only because of how good it used to be and how balanced it now is.

The 75mm while lacking in penetration and I think it's a horrendous gun, I'm unsure about even thinking it needs a buff because well, that's similar penetration to most other guns on V Lights.
The Chaffee gets 96, the M7 gets either 92 or 105. The Leopard gets 95 or 100 and the T-50 gets 90. The only thing I would say it could maybe do with is slightly better handling.


The tank itself seems entirely fine and the only thing I would suggest is a package allowing you to mount the 75mm and have the fully upgraded tracks.
It only really bled speed uphill, driving through any deep water for the tank and when in a CoD, and that is the only time where the acceleration seemed bad, it seems plenty mobile otherwise.


The low profile coupled with camo and speed meant that I could frequently just avoid getting hit, or even at times lit up. One of the good games above I had a T37 get as close as 79m from my tank and he still didn't light me up, I only risked being lit up if he got so close to proxy-spot.
But that same low profile also caused frequent issues, more often than not I'd snap to a tank, go into sniper view and then find that insignificant wall in front of me now covers the whole screen, or that I'd have to expose it a bit more to actually get shots at the enemy from the tiniest of hills that I would barely even notice in other tanks.


One of the biggest 'issues' I found with it was the upwards gun arc is horrendous, and I'd have to force the tank at odd angles now and again because I couldn't aim the gun up at the enemy because of being on a slight downward angle.



As a whole, the tank is much more focused on stealth and spotting than other V Lights which does put it at the issue of relying on team mates more frequently which is never great, but otherwise is good.
I tried out the 90mm for a bit and while I could still casually snipe away at a 220-2 unable to see me and get lucky enough to 3-Shot him, I found the 75mm more reliable as a whole and the full turret was more preferable to me than the limited one version.


I still didn't find it very enjoyable mind, but that could be because I for the most part dislike the Light play style and don't enjoy most of them, those that I did enjoy have long since been nerfed with the LT Rework.