16 replies to this topic

[PhoLover93]

So I'm grinding the british med line just to add a Centurion to my garage, and now I'm at the ever so controversial Comet. Some people might consider this thing to be a mixed bag.

Mine isnt fully upgraded yet, but so far the mobility is good, not so much as the cromwell but still very nice compared to other T7 meds.
The thing I just cant wrap my head around is how to use the gun to its full potential. Its pen is 145, but somehow it feels like a lot less than that. Statistically I should be able to frontally penetrate tanks like the T34-85, yet it gets these really weird bounces and the shell seems to fly at the edge of the circle a lot.

I get that it's a tank that needs patience, but the gun is just too frustrating to use. Its a damn fine gun on the Cromwell, but feels so wrong on the Comet. Any tips from experienced Comet drivers?

Edited by PhoLover93, Jun 17 2013 - 02:32.

[PhoLover93]

double post sry

Edited by PhoLover93, Jun 17 2013 - 02:31.

[wallet_warrior]

I kinda use mine like at TD most times. Find a bush to sit behind and snipe at targets. It's a soft tank that can get penned by almost anything. if I live to later in the match, I go after targets of oppertunity.I carry 25 premium shells to  help deal with most tier 8 and up tanks.
The only problem is with it's rapid fire rate you can loose credits in a hurry shooting premmie rounds.

[FatalSwoop]

It's actually a very sweet tank once you  have the top cannon.  It's a very fast RoF, low damage, very decent pen, very good aim.  Most people usually don't pay attention to you on the battlefield unless you're in their face.  The good tactic is always support or snipe in this tank.  You also have great mobility, so you can brawl with other lights pretty easy.  Sit back, pick your targets and snipe, or counter-scout in it.

Once you get about 50 battles in the elite tank, it'll all fall together nicely.

[TalonV]

Get the final gun, load APCR, unleash hell.  If you use AP, FLANK FLANK FLANK and abuse the DPM. Honestly though, keep atleast 1/3 loadout for the 77 APCR.  Helps deal with heavies and tanks you're having a hard time with.Also hull down, your mantlet can bounce some serious stuff.

GL!

[nublex]

What tier 7 med have you been driving? PzV/M10?

Comet have slightly better hull traverse, but it isn't stellar; it is very good at climbing, but never make up for its terrible module damage.

My advice? Don't drive it.

[dualmaster333]

PhoLover93, on Jun 17 2013 - 02:29, said:

...the shell seems to fly at the edge of the circle a lot.

This pretty well sums up Brit mediums.

IMO the Cromwell is the best the line has to offer.  Comet is still a fun tank.  I'm on the Centurion right now and it is underwhelming to say the least.

[PhoLover93]

dualmaster333, on Jun 17 2013 - 13:54, said:

This pretty well sums up Brit mediums.

IMO the Cromwell is the best the line has to offer.  Comet is still a fun tank.  I'm on the Centurion right now and it is underwhelming to say the least.

Well maybe this disease will be fixed with the better shot dispersion in 8.6, i hope anyways.

[nublex]

PhoLover93, on Jun 17 2013 - 15:34, said:

Well maybe this disease will be fixed with the better shot dispersion in 8.6, i hope anyways.

Along with enemy able to avoid hitting your mantle/getting odd bounces.

[Mhantrax]

This is a fine tank.  What we are looking at here is a tank where you must learn a new approach.  You will need this appraoch with the Centurion, so trust me, if you hate the Comet, unless higher pen (which is great, I admit) makes THAT big of a difference, you won't like the Cent that much.

This is a mobile terrain abuser.  You move around the fringes of the battle, using terrain to shield all but your fat mantlet, sniping into engages or unsuspecting targets, then moving on once the gig is up (arty, being counter flanked, the periodic massive pen gun firing at you).  It is a patient approach,

It takes constant awareness of the whole battle by watching the minimap.  It takes the willingness to change positions to the place where you are most effective.  Sometimes you need to anticipate and move to an area beforehand.

That is what makes this tank difficult, but once you learn it, you can attribute that learning to a great many other tanks (think Hellcat), and play much better.

Oh, and in a pinch, you can get up and around other meds or heavies, up close.  It isn't the tanks strength, but later in the game when there are fewer tanks, it can certainly do the job.

I love this tank!  And the learning I got from this tank made the Cent. I even better.

Edited by Mhantrax, Jun 17 2013 - 16:00.

[MrWrath]

Mhantrax, on Jun 17 2013 - 15:58, said:

This is a fine tank.  What we are looking at here is a tank where you must learn a new approach.  You will need this appraoch with the Centurion, so trust me, if you hate the Comet, unless higher pen (which is great, I admit) makes THAT big of a difference, you won't like the Cent that much.

This is a mobile terrain abuser.  You move around the fringes of the battle, using terrain to shield all but your fat mantlet, sniping into engages or unsuspecting targets, then moving on once the gig is up (arty, being counter flanked, the periodic massive pen gun firing at you).  It is a patient approach,

It takes constant awareness of the whole battle by watching the minimap.  It takes the willingness to change positions to the place where you are most effective.  Sometimes you need to anticipate and move to an area beforehand.

That is what makes this tank difficult, but once you learn it, you can attribute that learning to a great many other tanks (think Hellcat), and play much better.

Oh, and in a pinch, you can get up and around other meds or heavies, up close.  It isn't the tanks strength, but later in the game when there are fewer tanks, it can certainly do the job.

I love this tank!  And the learning I got from this tank made the Cent. I even better.

Basically this. I had to rethink my approach for this tank as the first few games went poorly. The rof on this tank is great and it's still fast enough to maneuver itself out of trouble. There are many people in this game that ignore the small guns of the British and will instead focus on tanks that deliver greater alpha in one shot. That's a mistake, while it's hard to learn to take on bigger and heavier tanks with a pea shooter, it does work very well when they miss and have a 12 second reload and you get to shoot them 4 times and induce damage to modules/crew while they can't do a thing to you. This is very much a support tank and if it's caught alone in the open it could have a lot of problems unless you learn to track and run. I found the tank to be enjoyable and finished it with over a 70% winrate.

[3BAC]

I enjoyed the Comet, but it isn't an in your face brawler.  I drove both the Comet and the T20 about the same time and did well in both of them.  Use your speed to get you to a flank and harrass the enemy until they realize you are a threat.  If they don't you win, if they do, your ally should be stepping up at that point to take advantage of an enemy no longer aiming at or facing them.  Even though they are better at support, both could carry enough burden to help a team win.

The sad thing with the Comet is the follow-on.  I did well with the whole line up through the Comet.  I hate the Centurion I.  Nothing I did with the Cromwell or the Comet prepared me to do well with the Centurion.   I have 70K more XP to earn on it and am sticking with it only because I hear the Tier 9 is better.  The Centurion is a great support tank, but if the teams are evenly matched or my team is a little bit worse, I simply cannot add enough to tip the odds in our favor with the Centurion I.

[nublex]

Centurion I tends to have problems when your team is full of fail heavies. And if WG wouldn't be brain dead and make that 4 round rack gigantic and easy to hit and damaged.

[Stormrane]

Mhantrax, on Jun 17 2013 - 15:58, said:

This is a fine tank.  What we are looking at here is a tank where you must learn a new approach.  You will need this appraoch with the Centurion, so trust me, if you hate the Comet, unless higher pen (which is great, I admit) makes THAT big of a difference, you won't like the Cent that much.

This is a mobile terrain abuser.  You move around the fringes of the battle, using terrain to shield all but your fat mantlet, sniping into engages or unsuspecting targets, then moving on once the gig is up (arty, being counter flanked, the periodic massive pen gun firing at you).  It is a patient approach,

It takes constant awareness of the whole battle by watching the minimap.  It takes the willingness to change positions to the place where you are most effective.  Sometimes you need to anticipate and move to an area beforehand.

That is what makes this tank difficult, but once you learn it, you can attribute that learning to a great many other tanks (think Hellcat), and play much better.

Oh, and in a pinch, you can get up and around other meds or heavies, up close.  It isn't the tanks strength, but later in the game when there are fewer tanks, it can certainly do the job.

I love this tank!  And the learning I got from this tank made the Cent. I even better.

It's funny how this game caters for different people, I love the shit out of the Cromwell and have kept it, the Comet on the other hand really really didn't agree with me, it's a crappy sniper and it looses the blinding speed and maneuverability which made the Cromwell, sure it's not slow but it bleeds speed cornering and the bulk of the other T7's can at least get around as fast as the Comet. People always say it's got epic depression and a bouncy mantlet, go hull down but in my experience this usually lead to being hull down against heavy opposition which are usually better at it than you, ALA T-29's and they will punch through your mantlet comfortably whilst you can't touch them, the Cromwell might not have had the depression but it had so much speed you could just burn round said T-29 pump 2-300 damage into him, distract him and then piss off before he could even come to terms with you and IMO that's where the Cromwell was a game changer whilst the Comet is at best a support tank which in the right situation can do serious damage.

The Centurion on the other hand I love, it's turret is truly bouncy and it's gun is spectacular. It's not fast but it's predictable in it's speed like a Tiger/Tiger II it doesn't suffer from huge fluctuations on gradients and it's hull/turret traverse means nothing gets around you even though it's a big/slowish tank. It's a great tank for flank sniping followed by hard pushes because you can nearly always hurt what you're facing and the ROF/Pen combo makes static heavies rethink their position pretty quickly

[Fondles]

The Comet was so much better for me than the Centurion.  It at least had a role.  It was a fast flanker with dangerous DPM.  Nothing could match its harrassment potential at tier 7.

The Centurion, on the other hand, just sucks out hard.  A slow, poorly armored and HUGE medium isn't really a medium at all.  Everything it does other tanks do better.  For hull-down tactics, you're better off playing American heavies (which are pretty much just as mobile).  For sniping, you're better off playing the Panther II, because it has way better map presence and can reposition/breakthrough better and snipe pretty much just as well, while being harder to hit by artillery and far better protected.

[Stormrane]

Fondles, on Jun 18 2013 - 18:36, said:

The Comet was so much better for me than the Centurion.  It at least had a role.  It was a fast flanker with dangerous DPM.  Nothing could match its harrassment potential at tier 7.

The Centurion, on the other hand, just sucks out hard.  A slow, poorly armored and HUGE medium isn't really a medium at all.  Everything it does other tanks do better.  For hull-down tactics, you're better off playing American heavies (which are pretty much just as mobile).  For sniping, you're better off playing the Panther II, because it has way better map presence and can reposition/breakthrough better and snipe pretty much just as well, while being harder to hit by artillery and far better protected.

My experience of the Panther II was vastly different to yours apparently :P I finished the PII at 44% whilst my Centurion is at 53% atm. You say the Panther is a better sniper, in my experience that's just wrong, the Centurions gun is just better. You say it's more armoured yet the Centurions turret is much more armoured and far more bouncy and whilst the hull of the Panther does have more armour both are so low they should not be relied upon and the Panther has the typical german brew up/ammo rack syndrome, I couldn't count the amount of times my Panther burned to death from frontal shots and I think I've had 2 fires in the Centurion.

To finish, if you're getting hit by arty in a medium a lot, what are you doing being static?

[Wyvern2]

The comet is something of an ambush support tank. I have a rammer and vertical stabilizer on mine and love it. Hull down you almost cant be penetrated except the cheeks and cupola, which are hard targets. You can also brawl pretty well, especially with tallish tanks with crap gun depression due to your turret armor. Furthermore, the speed doesnt get you into trouble, like the cromwells does, and i never noticed the poor maneuverability, so it might just depend on crew skills and experience. It also has good view range making it an invaluable peekaboo scout, hide behind a crest, pop up, pull down, maybe pop off a shot in between and light the targets for the rest of your team. Either way, the turret is critical for the hull downing to be effective and as long as you're stock hulldowning is useless. In my last match tonight i managed to bounce multiple IS, IS2 and SP shots off my mantlet playing peekaboom and took out the IS2 before the enemy got a couple lucky cheek shots(and help from an M103) so that shows that the mantlet can take at least 180 pen, and i've bounced lowe shots and tiger shots before, so i'd judge over 200 to be the total armor