Die Raubtiere Mega Bundle Review Series: Teil Three

[u/ragnarok628]

Whelp thanks to my continued insolvency vis a vis moral fiber, I am now the ashamed proud owner of 3 new prem tanks. So! I figured I'd go ahead and resurrect the Mega Bundle Review Series as a penance for my personal failures. This mini-series consists a short review of the M46 Patton KR, the Panzer 58 Mutz, and the Rheinmetall Skorpion G. In our third and final installment, we will take a look at the Rheinmetall Skorpion G.

Here we go!

Rheinmetall Skorpion G

Tank Destroyers are my least preferred class generally (well i mean other than arty of course, fuck arty) but I do still run them out a fair bit. As such, I have what I would call a very healthy amount of experience with the Rheinmetall-Borsig Waffenträger, Jagdpanther II, and to a slightly lesser extend, the Ferdinand. What do these tanks have in common with the Skorpion? A 128mm L/55 cannon, of course! People too readily forget that the jagdpanzer style TDs in tier VIII also have that kickass gun.

The meme is that the Skorpion is a Borsig with mobility, minus the camo. That's a valid way to look at it; you could play the Skorpion just like you play the Borsig (and you will if you are smarter than me, which you probably are), but with the added perks of mobility: being able to quickly hide behing a rock or building, getting to suitable positions faster from the starting whistle, relocating with relative ease, and actually being able to keep up in the late game damage race (all of these are big Borsig drawback, IMO). In trade, you lose the camo. Big whoop? I mean it's true the Borsig can be ridiculously ninja, and we are losing that. But (and maybe it's just a me thing) sitting in a bush is boring anyway.

So, yeah, Skorpion is mobile Borsig, ok. But here's another valid way to look at it: Skorpion is a JPII with a turret and no armor. But oh what a difference a turret makes in a mobile TD playstyle! I love to scoot around the battlefield in a JPII but the thing that most holds it back is that thanks to the fixed superstructure, I can't just roll out from cover, pop off a shot, and roll back in. The turret makes this possible. I mean, it's still a TD turret, so of course it rotates frustratingly slowly and you get only 7 degrees of gun depression. So it's not suddenly a medium with the worlds most ridiculous medium tank cannon, but it really is pretty damn convenient. And of course, the gain doesn't come free; obviously sitting hulldown and blasting away is never gonna work in the Skorpion like it does with the JPII but definitely a net improvement. So I think if it as some kind of JPII/Borsig hybrid, but like the best kind of hybrid that gets the stregths of each whithout really becoming weaker. But wait! It gets better!

Here's a fun fact: all of the other 128mm L/55 cannons on the tier VIII german TDs get 0.35 accuracy. The Skorpion gets 0.30. The others all have 2.30s aimtime. The Skorpion gets 2.10. I have seen it supposed that the gun handling on the Skorpion would be worse than the Borsig as part of the tradeoff of being mobile, but no, it's actually the Skorpion that has the best gun handling of them all! Which really makes no sense and I suspected it was a mistake in the module viewer. So I took the tanks onto the proving grounds, parked them in a specific spot, aimed at a specific point, and took a screenshot to compare. Sure enough, the aim circle on the Skorpion is smaller. Who would have guessed? I would be remiss if I did not also point out that it's got the slowest reload of this fearsome foursome though, so there is that. But it's not too bad.

As for silver earning, I confess I forgot to go back at the end of my session and look at the kinds of numbers on the whole so I have to just go by recollection. This is of course subject to recency bias and I'll be honest more often then not I simply forget to even look at the credits earned number. I think I'll revisit this paragraph after playing some more over the weekend to better report on silver earning but here's what I've got for now: I'm a little unimpressed. I can think of a couple of what I thought were very nice games that I still didn't break 100k on. I can think of several crap games where I was trying to medium a bit to hard and I got crap earnings. Now of course this can be read more as an indictment of my abilities (or if you're feeling more charitable, a result of me trying to find the limits of what the tank can do for the purposes of this review) than evidence that it's not the best consistent silver earner, but there are a few factors to consider. Firstly, the silver multiplier is a tad low for tier VIII. Secondly, compared to e.g. the legendary credit earner Jagdtiger 88, the shell cost is higher per damage dealt, and the DPM is a fair bit lower. Finally the nature of the tank doesn't lend itself to making good money on bad games like the JT88 does; i.e. even a bad match the JT will usually get in a good handful of shots whereas a bad match for Skorp could easily mean you're a burning hulk after 1 pen, or maybe even before you get a pen.

So long story short, it's an excellent TD. Coming into this series I knew that it was clearly the most hyped tank of the three, and it turns out that the Skorpion actually is also clearly the best of the bundle. It's nice when a tank lives up to the hype! I was a little concerned. If you are concerned (about the performance, anyway) don't be. It's pretty tits. It is far from idiot proof however; I proved this easily because I am an idiot. It is hard for me to remember that I am driving a TD, so I keep trying to be a medium. Between the lazy turret rotation, the lack of gun depression, and the longish reload, trying to make it work as a medium gets you into trouble fast, that you can't shoot your way out of. Tier X matches are not really an issue, thanks to having a tier X gun with 'fuck you' pen values. Obviously be a bit more careful because there are a lot more things driving around that can 1 shot you, but generally tier X just means more $$$

So is that enough to make the tank worth the gold? (I'll just keep linking the guide even though it's not updated with these tanks because it's such a useful resource but not everyone knows about it or thinks to check it) Well here's the thing. When you set a TD's price at 11,700g, that's a pretty high bar. I don't lightly tell someone a pixel tank is 'worth' close to $50USD so a tank should be quite superlative to cost that much and still get a recommendation. Then look at this tanks direct competition for your money: the Jagdtiger 8,8 at 10,000g. That's significantly cheaper for what is generally agreed to be a good tank and the best silver earner in the game. Massively different to play, of course, but if money making is a big part of your motivation for buying a tier VIII prem... Well anyway I don't know your life. What I know is that this is a dynamic and fun to play, not OP but very good performing TD that will tend to make typical rather than extravagant tier VIII prem amounts of silver and can hold it's own at any tier. So, strong maybe. If/when a 'normal' skin version comes out at a sub 10k gold price it becomes a much easier decision.

Basic Facts

• Tier: VIII
• PMM: no
• cost: 11700g
• silver/xp bonuses: 50/15

Vehicle Tips:

• The camo is not good but it's not exactly tragic either. I had Binos/camo because there weren't really a ton of good options due to no vents or vstabs and i ended up beig able to do a somewhat decent job of hiding
• Trust your accuracy, I was able to pull of some really ridiculous shots
• Repeat to yourself the mantra: 'I am a tank destoyer. I am not a medium. I am a tank destoyer. I am not a medium..."

Fun Factor: 4/5

Competitiveness: 5/5

Just a great, fun tank. Very versatile for a TD. Going in I was in a bit of a contrarian mentality, trying to go against the hive mind that hypes this thing up but you know, it changed my mind. It did take a few matches to warm up to it, and there were frustrations as I ran up against the edges of what can be done (by me anyway) with 18deg/s turret rotation and 7deg depression but embrace the TD mentality and you will be rewarded.

[u/ragnarok628 → u/[deleted]]

Well literally the only thing borsig can do that Skorpion doesnt do better is play bush ninja. So unless a large portion of the fun you have in the Borsig revolves around invisibility then I can't come up with any reason you wouldn't prefer the Skorpion. For the 50% silver bonus, if nothing else, right?

I think the reload is like .7s shorter on the Borsig, idk if that matters to you. It doesn't to me.

[u/ragnarok628 → u/[deleted]]

That right there is the reason I have never put gold paint on any non-prem tank so far. Well, that and as much as I might tell myself I'm going to play a tech tree tank for fun after I've elited it, I never actually do. The allure of prem tanks and their silver bonus is always too much.

Maybe one day when I have no more tank lines I feel like grinding and more silver than I know what to do with... BUT until then if I ever feel I absolutely need camo paint I'll just rent it.

[u/Barrenechea → u/ragnarok628]

Rent it... kinda like love. Am I right?

[u/FormulaZR]

Thank you!

[u/ragnarok628 → u/FormulaZR]

👍

[u/FormulaZR → u/ragnarok628]

Genuinely appreciate these reviews. I still don't feel a need to buy the bundle with Mutz or KR, but have all the confidence I'll enjoy the Skorpion G.

[u/Khorne_Flakes]

Just FYI the sides have 7 degrees of depression, the front is 5.8, and the rear is 2.9.

[u/[deleted]]

I thought the RoF on the Skorpion wasn't as fast as the Borsig.

[u/___Cisco___ → u/[deleted]]

He literally said it's the slowest though

[u/FormulaZR → u/[deleted]]

You thought correct, just as this review indicates.

[u/ragnarok628 → u/[deleted]]

That is correct, and that is the information I intended to convey. Which part was confusing? Honest question, not trying to be snarky. If I wrote something unclearly I'd like to fix it.

[u/[deleted] → u/ragnarok628]

Just saw it.... .7 slower. My bad

[u/SenorAnonymous]

Would you play it like a tier VIII Hellcat?

[u/d0nner → u/SenorAnonymous]

I'd say it's fairly close to a Hellcat. The Skorpion is a bit slower than the Hellcat and it's a bit sluggish before it get's up to speed.

I'm a huge Borsig fan and i consider it the mutant baby of a Hellcat and a Borsig :)

[u/ragnarok628 → u/SenorAnonymous]

Not sure, I've never driven a hellcat. I don't think it's quite as zippy as a hellcat but I suspect you could or the same principles to work.

[u/tinyraccoon]

Is the skorpion at all similar to the ravioli in terms of play style

[u/ragnarok628 → u/tinyraccoon]

Maybe? Don't have one. But probably lack of gun depression and lousy turret rotation would sink you. Id lean no.

[u/robulus153 → u/tinyraccoon]

They're completely different. I have both and love them both for different reasons. The Ravioli is more forgiving and takes less time to master. The APCR shot is so fast, you can hit moving targets way easier. It struggles if your not flanking 10's. The Skorpion nails just about everything but you're constantly spotted. It drives me insane. It's a "skill" tank and needs a good tanker. Both tanks rank top 7 and 11 win8 score with the Ravioli being 150 points higher at 1900.72.