Planetside 2 is fundamentally a game about infantry combat; brutal meatgrinders where you can spend half an hour securing a stairwell or half of a hill. However, tanks can still have an incredible effect, their main guns deal significant damage to infantry, hostile vehicles, and allow the driver to quickly move with a lot of firepower. The three faction MBTs have an interesting relationship, not quite rock-paper-scissors, but each clearly excels in a small set of circumstances and will easily triumph over the other two in them.
The Magrider (VS)
The Magrider is easily the most unique of the three; it hovers and can (eventually) reach any location, it can also strafe from side to side, letting it dart from rock to rock and evade rockets, tank shells, and the swearing of frustrated enemy Heavy Assaults or bombard enemies from hard to reach locations. It also has an afterburner you can buy for 192 cert points, which allows it to reach speeds unrivaled by another land vehicle for brief period, making it even more evasive.
It pays a great price for all these unique traits though, its main gun is spinally mounted and can only move up and down. The main gun is also mounted distressingly low on the frame, while this means it impedes your view very little it also makes chest high walls into one of your worst enemies and makes shooting over small inclines nearly impossible. The tank itself also rotates very slowly, slower then the turrets on any other MBT, if a Magrider is caught from behind it has a greater chance of dying then any other MBT. To make matters worse the rear hitbox on the Magrider is vertically the largest of any MBT, making it easier to hit from a distance and from the air. As a result the Magrider relies very much on its secondary weapon and gunner for survival and dealing damage.
Which brings us to the matter of the Magrider’s unique anti vehicle secondary weapon, the Saron Heavy Rail Beam. Quite honestly it is the best of all three, a single shot rail gun with long range, high accuracy and enough damage to one shot most infantry, shred tanks, and if you can land the shot, seriously damage a fighter. It functions as a second main gun in the simplest terms and covers the weakness of Magriders main gun, if you wish to seriously drive a Magrider it is not optional, without it you have no way to damage vehicles you are flanked and if you get the drop on someone it nearly doubles your damage output.
Overall the Magrider fares the best of any MBT in open areas with a great deal of cover and in smaller engagements due to its ability to evade fire and escape situations which would destroy any other MBT, but as the scale of the engagement increases the Magrider sharply dips in effectiveness, the spinally mounted main gun, slow turning speed, and reliance on strafing and cover mean the Prowler and Vanguard will both beat it in larger scale battles unless the Magriders make liberal use of their ability to attack from unexpected angles. They are also by far the worst MBTs for a siege, their low mounted guns mean fences and low obstructions are a serious issue and there are many ways to exploit their large rear hitbox by attacking from rooftops or windows.
The Prowler (TR)
The Prowler is the exact opposite, in smaller engagements its thin armor and reliance on landing two shots quickly to deal similar damage to other MBTs in a fight can easily leave it vulnerable to Magriders and Vanguards. However, its natural speed and ability to vomit ammo like a bulimic model shine in large battles and sieges where one shot matters less then putting many downrange. The squat, square frame makes hitting it from a distance more difficult and makes shots more likely to strike front or top amor, but it has the widest rear hitbox of any MBT, making it easier to hit with glancing blows.
Its unique two shot main gun excels at destroying infantry and gives you a sounding shot you can use to make sure the other hits, it also works well to break defenses on turrets and sunderers, along with clearing decks on towers. Its special ability is Anchored Mode, which it can deploy to drastically increase the speed at which the main gun reloads and as well as its accuracy. This makes the Prowler even better at clearing out areas from a distance and allows you to reliably hit vehicles from almost a kilometer away assuming your infantry are spotting things and terrain allows. It also requires good awareness, knowledge of and access to an ammo tower, and a secondary gunner who can yell at you if something gets behind you because it takes a whooping three seconds to exit anchored mode. Zoom optics and ammo certs are strongly recommended.
The faction specific anti vehicle weapon is a grenade launcher called the Marauder. It has a small explosion radius, does great damage to armor, and will heavily damage infantry. It is also the only anti vehicle secondary that loads more then one shot, carrying instead ten in one clip. This allows you to saturate an even greater area in explosions. As they are grenades they have a great deal of drop to their shots so your gunner will need to account for it. I also wish you the best of luck trying to hit fighters with them.
In any situation that calls for killing infantry in droves or bombarding hardened targets like turrets and spawning sunderers the Prowler is the clear winner and strongest tank but care must be taken to compensate for its lack of the Magriders grace or the Vanguards thick armor. It also requires a bit more ability to aim since a single hit from its main gun does less damage then one from any other MBT and you must land the followup shot to keep up in terms of damage. However, it has a frightening ability to simply overwhelm enemies with sheer volume of ammunition which cannot be underestimated.
The Vanguard (NC)
The Vanguard functions as a middle ground between the two, it is not agile like a Magrider or as fast or ammo spewing as a Prowler. Instead it has armor thicker then any other MBT and a main gun that deals an absolutely terrifying amount of damage in a single shot. It also has the smallest rear hitbox of any MBT, the widest side hitbox, and to add insult to injury it can temporarily render itself invulnerable to any damage. As a result the Vanguard has a gift for simply charging in and enduring damage that would destroy any other MBT handily.
The main gun one shots infantry without flak armor or HA shields anywhere in its generous splash radius and will seriously damage any vehicle or turret caught in the radius. On the other hand it is amazingly inaccurate, to the point where I would say the safest place to be while a Vanguard is moving is directly in front of the main gun. It also occupies more screen space then any other main gun, making it hard to see things flanking you from the right.
The faction specific anti-vehicle secondary is a rocket launcher called the Enforcer, it deals quite a bit of damage to both armor and infantry. Even better, it will lock on to hostile ground vehicles and unlike the Vanguard’s main gun it is not particularly inaccurate and has no drop, like lock on AV heavy assault rocket launchers. It can hit fighters but your gunner needs to have somewhat good aim and it will not reliably do so.
The Vanguard is equally comfortable in field battles and sieges, what it lacks in grace, accuracy, or rate of fire, it more then makes up for with sheer weight of armor and damage per shot. I would strongly recommend any driver buy the shield system to make this advantage even larger. To compensate for the Vanguards incredible inaccuracy I would also suggest you fire as little as possible while the vehicle is on the move, you have the armor to survive more then any other MBT so you can take the time to make your shot count unless the situation is truly dire.
The Winner?
Overall I would say the Vanguard is generally the best MBT, sheer damage and endurance are typically the most important thing in field battles and help quite a bit during sieges. On the other side the Prowler is probably the weakest, it has thin armor and its special ability requires the most effort to harness and will get you killed if poorly used more then the magburner or shield. The Magrider is the odd duck of the three insofar it is by far the best in small battles and progressively gets worse as the scale of the engagement increases, it relies very much on its ability to evade fire more then survive it and there is simply too much to avoid in large fights. It also suffers horribly in confined spaces and sieges, where there is much space to exploit their generous rear hitbox.
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com, written by Unknown.
