A few months ago I wrote a topic about why I thought the AC 1 needed some kind of a buff as it was almost useless when facing tier V's. The player base who responded were split over this matter although the best of them said that it was fine because of the rapid firing gun and great APCR penetration. Now however, mediums and their prammo have been nerfed into the dust.
Before 3.9, the AC 1 was very good at tier IV. It had a rapid firing gun similar to the Matilda and decent armor when fighting against its peers. But as MM has it, it sees tier V's very often. The old solution was to pop in some prammo and give the KV-1 or Pz IV/V 15 shells before it would finally go down. That was back when prammo did the same damage as AP. Now things have changed. APCR does less damage then AP which has proven catastrophic for the AC 1. 35 damage per shot at a KV-1 with 770 health means you need at least 24 APCR rounds in order to kill it assuming none bounce and the KV-1 doesn't kill you. Same story when fighting any tier V tank with a decent amount of armor. This tank is unfit to fight any tier V's at all with a few exceptions. It also doesn't carry that much ammunition! Sometimes in games I will find myself running out before I top 1k damage because so many shots bounce or do ~35 damage. Something needs to be done about this vehicle. It is very competitive at tier IV but almost useless at tier V with this massive nerf.
Wargaming could buff this tank in 2 or 3 ways
- Increase the alpha on both AP and APCR shells but remove the gun rammer as an equipment option.
- Increase ammo capacity
- Increase penetration on both AP and APCR shells
BONUS
4. Give it preferential MM
Sure not everyone will take well to this tank becoming more powerful at tier IV, but it won't be another Ke Ni Otsu or IS-3D. When not even spamming gold works, that tells you this tank needs some kind of a buff. What do you think?