George In The Meta
Are tanks overpowered in WARDOGS Season 02?
By George In The Meta · · updated
Short answer: yes, I think tanks are overpowered in WARDOGS Season 02, and making them this easy to unlock was a horrible decision. It's another game in a row where a tank crew is just at the top of the charts. It feels overpowered mainly because of how early the tank unlocks compared to everything else, though it could also just be because people are no-lifing this. In Season 01 the only tank, the L2A6, sat at Driver level 35. In Season 02 the new T-72B3 unlocks at Driver 20, and early on you've only got C4 to fight it.
Is it still this bad on day three of WARDOGS Season 02?
Yes. On the evening of 17 October, day three of Season 02, the fix hadn't changed much in my games. There was a Leopard in the game already, the top-tier tank at Driver 35, and the global scoreboard had players at Wardog level 81, 83, 90, 93 and 94. On the third day of the season. Absolute losers.
All chat was full of it. When I asked how anyone was level 90 already, the replies were about tanks: "Not even the T-72 man", then a Leopard. Before that, other players had been saying "Utter waste of time trying to build anything this season" and "fobs are 100% useless", with a tank parked up outside a FOB.
So I'm probably going to stop playing WARDOGS until BULKHEAD sorts this season out. The same day, BULKHEAD said there would be no reset that weekend and that it's bringing Season 3 forward instead (will WARDOGS reset Season 02?).
How does day three of Season 02 compare with the end of Season 1?
On day three of Season 02, people already had better gear than they had at the end of Season 1, and that's insane. Season 1 ran from early access on 10 September (Steam) to Season 02 on 15 October (Steam announcement), 35 days. On 18 October another player posted that on day three of the wipe there were three tanks roaming the hot zone, a Ural killed by a mine and a rocket helicopter killing spawn APCs: "This should be the experience 3 weeks into a wipe, not 3 days." I've seen all of it, and we've complained about all of it many times already. The gear should arrive slower than this.
What has BULKHEAD said about tanks in Season 02?
BULKHEAD has admitted that WARDOGS players were getting tanks too early in Season 02. On the evening of 15 October, launch day, the official WARDOGS account posted "We're holding our hands up and we got a few things wrong", including a fix for a "Driver Exploit Preventing lots of players from accessing tanks too early". When a player replied that people got tanks in about an hour, WARDOGS answered: "Yep, we dropped the ball here. No excuses." According to PCGamesN on 16 October, CEO Joe Brammer said a Driver XP exploit, setting a FOB close by and making rapid round trips back and forth, let players unlock tanks, especially the cheaper T-72, before other roles could get the counters. BULKHEAD has adjusted the Driver track, fixed the exploit to slow down early tank access, and handed out 24-hour bans to players who abused it, which it put at under 1,000 people.
The levelling itself is faster on purpose, too. On 15 October Brammer posted on X that "the time it previously took to get to Level 14 will now get you to Level 20", and Driver 20 is exactly where the T-72 unlocks. In Season 01, he said, players got stuck at levels 9 and 14, and the median for every role was around level 10, so the design team is now tracking that median and trying to push more players into the mid game. He got railed for it in the replies, over 300 of them within a day. Most of the ones with the most likes say progression is now too fast, and plenty want another wipe: "There's literally tanks alr less then one day into s2", one wrote, and another, "A grind is good. That's the fun part."
So it isn't just how early the tank unlocks on paper: some of those tank drivers got there faster than intended. Later in the season, BULKHEAD also plans "Limited Mode Servers" in update 0.25 that take out level four armour, power weapons, tanks and artillery altogether.
How easy is the tank to unlock in WARDOGS Season 02?
The WARDOGS Season 02 tank, the T-72B3, unlocks at Driver level 20 for $250,000, then costs $16,000 each time you buy one, per BULKHEAD's Season 02 patch notes. The notes call it "slower than the L2A6, but cheaper and slightly more fuel-efficient", and say Driver players "now have more ways to get kills before reaching the L2A6". The L2A6 is still at Driver 35, and the Flakpanzer Gepard arrives at Driver 25. It's the opposite of what BULKHEAD did with helicopters in the same patch: the armed Little Bird AH-6M "was too strong for how early it unlocked, so it now unlocks later and costs more", moving from Pilot 4 to Pilot 8 and from $50,000 to $125,000.
By my fourth or fifth game of the season I was already at Driver 12 with $77,000 in the bank, and someone had a T-72 parked in our safe zone on day two (what I saw in my first Season 02 games).
| Tank | Season 01 | Season 02 |
|---|---|---|
| L2A6 | Driver 35 | Driver 35 |
| T-72B3 | Not in the game | Driver 20, $250,000 to unlock, $16,000 to buy |
| Flakpanzer Gepard (anti-air) | Not in the game | Driver 25, $300,000 to unlock |
What are tanks doing in my WARDOGS games?
In my WARDOGS games, tank drivers are topping the scoreboard. In my game on the night of 16 October, a tank on green was up at the top of the charts, just sitting there murdering people. Second place on the scoreboard had 26 kills, one assist and no deaths, and third place, also green, had 25 assists and no kills. Assists that match the kills like that, that's obviously the driver.
Why are tanks so hard to deal with early in Season 02?
Tanks are hard to deal with early in WARDOGS Season 02 because the anti-tank tools come later than the tank does. You need to be Support level 6 to get the RPG: its rocket is locked at Support 6 in the ammo vendor. Before that you get the shitty C4, which sits at level 4: the patch notes moved the C4 and its remote detonator into the Assault track there. The improvised explosive is unlocked straight away, but it's so slow to use that if the tank has any infantry around it, there's no chance of you getting close enough. The MAAWS launcher sits at Support level 18 with a $100,000 unlock. So it's super hard to deal with a tank, and they've made them way easy to unlock this time.
It's a change from Season 01. Back then, when I was levelling Driver, tanks felt aggressively easy to take out as long as one player on either of the other teams had an RPG, so I stopped levelling Driver at the Ural and moved to recon (how I played logistics in Season 01). The RPG-7 itself got slightly cheaper this season, $1,800 instead of $2,000.
Can you buy MAAWS ammo without unlocking the MAAWS?
Yes, in WARDOGS Season 02 you can buy MAAWS ammo without ever unlocking the MAAWS. It's just there in the rockets tab of the equipment vendor: the 84mm anti-tank shell, $200, available straight away. I never unlocked the MAAWS and I don't have one, but I could still buy its rockets. Meanwhile the RPG's rocket next to it is locked at Support 6. That makes no sense to me.
How do you kill a tank in WARDOGS Season 02?
You kill a tank in WARDOGS Season 02 with the RPG, and once you've got it, the tank goes down fairly easily: its health is pretty shit. It's just getting to that point. Reaching Support level 6 for the RPG shouldn't be too difficult in just one round, if you can survive long enough to do it. The RPG-7 itself is $1,800.
Right now that's a difficult mix in Europe, because we keep playing without FOBs. In one game the score was 47, 37 and 7, so a lot of ticks had passed, and we still only had one FOB, which we'd only just got back. The next round was the same: one FOB, on the tower blocks, and none on the drill. I think that plays into it a bit too (how Europe plays FOBs compared to Asia).
What do you get for destroying a tank in WARDOGS?
Destroying a T-72B3 in WARDOGS Season 02 pays $8,000, and an L2A6 pays $11,000, down from $14,000, per the patch notes. Every vehicle variant now has its own reward, and armed variants give 1.5 times the XP of the default version.
FAQ
What level is the tank in WARDOGS Season 02? The T-72B3 unlocks at Driver level 20 for $250,000. The L2A6 is still at Driver 35.
How much is a tank in WARDOGS? After the unlock, a T-72B3 costs $16,000 to buy, per the Season 02 patch notes.
Can you buy MAAWS rockets before unlocking the MAAWS? Yes. The 84mm shell is $200 in the rockets tab straight away, even with no MAAWS.
What kills tanks in WARDOGS early on? The improvised explosive from the start, C4 at Assault level 4, then the RPG at Support level 6, which takes a tank down fairly easily. The MAAWS needs Support level 18.
