zz going to explain a bit how FIRE works. When you infantry gets totally rekt and dies instantly to fire its due to a critical. A critical which triggers usually when you are below a certain hit point.
When the unit gets to a lower hit point the critical will trigger more frequent.
More damage > lowers hp faster > triggers critical quicker > entity dies in a fire.
Less damage > lowers hp slower > triggers critical slower > entity die slower in a fire.
Essentially if your squad was already damage it could still potential get one shotted by the KV-8 Flame shot. This has not changed.
What is the biggest thing your going to notice with the KV-8 with its damage reduced? Well it wont kill buildings ridiculously fast. That is going to be the most noticeable difference with this change.
To answer to Napalm with the damage being reduced previously to 40 to 27; is when we changed how fire damage worked and how the critical system was applied to units. Technically it was pretty much the same thing but done differently.
#1 Thanks for the detailed explanation.
#2 I do understand why you might feel zzz about people overreacting and freaking out about changes at times but
#3 You have to admit, the game is not at all transparent or easy for people to figure out on their own as far as the stats under the hood or the damage of things so interpreting balance changes can be pretty hard for 99% of the player base at times. Especially given how much things have already been re-worked over the past year.