My vehicle of choice in BF3 is the MBT; I’ll often opt to use it even when provided with a choice between a tank or a chopper. While I realize there are many different ways to use a MBT, I figured I’d explain how I implement it, as well as my three upgrade choices.
In my opinion, the most important goal for a tank driver to achieve is survivability. Flags will be taken and re-taken, LAV’s will come and go, and infantry will keep passing by, but the tank should remain. It should be a steady and predictably supportive element of your team. If your team is starting to capture a flag or arm an MCOM near your position, they should be able to count on your tank’s covering fire without having to check to see if you are capable. If you are getting aggressively attacked, odds are your team is getting relief due to you taking the pressure. Either way, you need to be able to survive, which is made possible by both avoiding damage and dealing it effectively.
So let’s take a look at the upgrades, which generally set the tone for how the tank will be used. While upgrades do help certain roles to be filled in more easily, they do not inherently preclude a tank from filling a role it wasn’t upgraded to fulfill; there is always flexibility, if you know what you are doing. That being said, this is the setup I run on my MBT.
Passive: Proximity Scan.
Secondary: Guided Shell.
Gadget: IR Smoke.
I think this setup provides tremendous versatility and survivability. While not optimized for an anti-infantry role, I really don’t have much of an issue dealing with foot soldiers using the main cannon. I used to employ the canister shell, but with the recent change in firing rates when switching between the main cannon, I find the loss of fire rate frustrating. It’s not like the canister was that much more effective than the main cannon. Rather, it was the two being used in conjunction that made the canister worth it. So if you can switch between the two and maintain a fire rate that matches only one weapon firing by itself, why not just stick with the one? I really never cared for the LMG, and find the HMG to be fairly ineffective. With the other choices eliminated, why not optimize the MBT for an anti-vehicle role? The GS (which did have the time required to fire increased after switching weapons) makes the tank very formidable against every vehicle on the ground. Its firing time was nerfed, but it doesn’t affect it that much (it takes about that long to lock on when doing so as a driver), and seems to move faster, and get top attack bonuses when targeting a designation made by another player. One of a tanks roles in a game is anti-vehicle, and the GS helps in that regard. You get used to the lack of an anti-infantry weapon pretty quickly.
The more I play, the less I see proximity scan, and I can really see why. With attractive choices like autoloader and reactive Armor, PS seems pretty mundane. However, with PS, the close quarter urban situations that lead to repeated C4 deaths become much more manageable. If you keep the chassis of the tank lined up with the roads (or are just always sure you can quickly burst forward or backward), you can avoid and kill the infantry running at you with C4 pulled out. This means you can move the MBT into interesting locations and still prevent soldiers sneaking up on you, vastly increasing your lifespan in close quarters. While autoloader is useful, tank duels can be won with the GS. And if they have IR smoke and autoloader, you could play smart to gain the 1.5 seconds you need. Reactive armor can provide be hard to deal with, especially if they have smoke, but keep the front of your tank on them and you can win those duels. Remember, reactive is only good for one hit per side; it doesn’t provide longevity for very long.
While IR smoke doesn’t augment your offensive capabilities directly, it greatly increases the length of you and your tank’s life. It keeps Javelins, GS’s, and the missiles from jets and choppers at bay, gives you cover to repair under, and a screen to fire from behind. Essentially, it opens up the map for you. Those open areas are more accessable now; lock ons gained by moving your tank into the open can be combatted effectively with smoke. While I realize sometimes it might be worth switching when few people seem to be using lock on weapons, I still recommend sticking with smoke. The other gadgets can be replaced with skill, for the most part. Get good enough at aiming, and zoom optics becomes less necessary. Become familiar with mine patterns and spamming with the spot button, and finding infantry, and the thermal optics is becoming less useful. I seldom have issue with taking on tank “snipers” that are using zoom optics with my normal optics, let alone my GS.
All together, these three upgrades put together allow this MBT to pretty much go anywhere and fill multiple roles. However, you need to get comfortable with the main cannon; you will be using it a lot, and the less you miss with it, the more effective you will be. In fact, if you aren’t quite good enough to actually start hitting infantry directly with the main cannon projectile (the actual shell, not the explosion), practice until you can. If you use the layout effectively, you will find yourself getting very few deaths and plenty of kills. Enemy tanks, LAV’s, choppers; they all go down easily if you keep calm and play smart with the GS. Don’t be afraid to capture flags or run very close quarter support, as the PS will keep you aware of your nearby targets. And smoke will help keep you alive during the entire process.
Some tips about using the GS:
–Disable/destroy an enemy MBT in mere seconds by firing the main cannon, switching to the GS and locking on and firing when able, then switching back the main cannon. This will disable a tank when firing against front armor, and destroy a tank if good shots are landed on side/rear armor.
–If you have a player in the CITV Station, have them acquire your GS locks against ground vehicles. The damage you will do using their lock on will be increased, and will instantly disable an MBT.
–Your GS lock can be achieved through your own smoke. This means you can spot the enemy tank, reverse through the smoke, and fire your GS.
–Pull up behind a hill and have someone SOFLAM ground and air targets for you. The GS will dodge some geography, and the geography will shield you from immediate return fire. You can keep enemy ground vehicles disabled with virtually zero risk to yourself and with minimum team involvement.
–You can “fling” the GS so its trajectory is more appropriate for the shot you are trying to make. Just acquire the lock and quickly slide your aim more in the direction you wish for the shell to travel. The lock will be discarded if you move the sights too far, however; I generally don’t move much more than the four lines in the GS aiming sight. Using the “fling”, you can have the shell hit specific parts of vehicles, fire around buildings and over objects. It helps ensure you aren’t wasting a lock and maximizes the chance of a hit, provided you know what you are doing.
–Just because a vehicle just smoked does not mean it is unable to be locked on. The smoke breaks current lock on attempts and kills tracking on airborne missiles, but only prevents target acquisition if the target remains in its smoke. If it moves outside of it and is not obscured by the lingering smoke, you can acquire and fire before the smoke is ready to be deployed again. Be aware of timing, though; they might be close to dropping smoke again, in which case it wouldn’t be worth firing the GS.
–A tank with a manned CITV station and GS is incredibly difficult for any chopper to attack, and makes traversing the airspace near the tank risky. GS’s kill attack choppers, scout choppers, and jets in one shot. GS’s make the tank a fairly effective anti-chopper vehicle, augmented by the tank’s durability and near impenetrable smokescreen.
Tips about IR smoke:
–By sitting in the smoke and dropping more when it is rearmed, you can avoid impact from lock on projectiles quite easily and comfortably for some time, if done right.
–Smoke breaks tracking as soon as it’s dropped. Meaning, you don’t have to hide in it to avoid getting hit. However, if you are moving, you can be locked onto immediately after firing the smoke. Be aware.
–If a tracking projectile is fired, smoke reduces the damage from it, even if the projectile is merely half a second away. I’m not sure if it’s just the final 10m portion of the downward curve being prevented (so the projectile actually misses by a few meters), or the projectile becomes a dumbfired projectile in the game’s eyes and losses damage because of it, but you prevent yourself from being disabled with a last second smoke, if you have no choice.
–Related to the last tip, smoke just kills target tracking. It doesn’t make the projectile harmless. A missile tracking downward towards your tank will continue to fly straight after the smoke drops, potentially hitting friendlies. Try to be aware of your team and smoke when it won’t affect them.
–Spot enemies through your smoke. Using the spot button, spam through the smoke to find targets and hit them behind the smokescreen. This is actually a very effective method of breaking off on target fire from you, and allows you to still semi-accurately maintain targeting. This is also very useful in tank duels, and drawing a miss from the enemy tank can mean victory for you, and is very helpful if you find yourself a hit behind.
–The description for smoke says (I believe) that it removes enemy spots from you. While as, yes, it does, it does not seem to be very consistent, so don’t count on it. However, smoking after a battle would be more beneficial than not.
Random tip–If you are playing in a match where the enemy is using mines frequently, spend a few seconds to spam the path you intend to take with the spot button! The game is lenient on mine spots, and it’s easy to do and will save your life many times. Too few people do this.
–MP
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