World of Tanks Mark III

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

What tanks are you currently grinding?
Me:
KV-4 (Slow, low DPM and armor is worthless)

Huh? I found, that while the Soviet Slabwagon's top speed was low, it accelerated surprisingly quickly, as several poor bastards who drove in front of me found out. Also, with the long 107 it could punch through 90% of the enemies it faced, and it just printed Steel Walls. All in all, the KV-4 was one of my favorite tanks, certainly my favorite tier 8 so far.

[The Vortex Empire]

The KV-4 is easily the worst tier 8 I've ever driven. Too slow to flex, not enough RoF to make up for the poor alpha, and the armor is all flat so it only works when top tier or reverse angling, which you can't always do. To top that all off, it's blind with only a 350 m view range. The closest tier 8 heavy to it in role would be the Tiger II, which has more workable armor due to sloping, is faster, has a better gun, better gun depression, brtter view range, etc.

[The Vortex Empire]

Garbad wrote a review of it that sums up my feelings on the KV-4 pretty well.
Link

FIREPOWER:
+ Highest Pen in tier, both AP and APCR
+ Pretty good accuracy
- Extremely poor aim time, only average depression
- Low DPM

Conclusion: The long 107 has reasonably good accuracy and good penetration, both vastly improved from the short barreled version...at the cost of DPM, ammo count, depression, and no improvement in aim time.

PROTECTION:
+ Very thick side armor, excellent side scraper
+ Highly arty resistant
- Low HP, lower glacis is a serious flaw
- Butt armor is weak, no butt down tactics

Conclusion: In theory, the KV-4 has similarly thick armor to the KV-5 with less weak points. In reality, the KV-4 has much more similar armor to the KV-3 than the KV-4 -- specifically, the weak lower glacis makes this tank quite easy to pen. It also lacks the butt armor and HP of the KV-5, making it less tough than you might think.

MOBILITY:
- Its slow as molasses

Conclusion: Seems even slower than the KV-5, even with the stupidly expensive engine. Lacks the ability to turn in place as well

COMPARED TO PEERS:

+ High penetration, good accuracy
+ Thick armor, arty resistant, good for side scraping
- Low DPM, horrible aim time
- Very slow, horrible turning
- Significant weak points, no camo/view range, lowish HP

The KV-4 takes everything that makes the KV-5 great and reverses it. Instead of being a high DPM, high HP brute, the KV-4 tries to be a low DPM, sniping brick. It competes most directly with the KT, and is vastly inferior -- the KT has similar pen/dpm/accuracy with superior aim time and view range, plus a better overall armor plan and even better mobility. I attempted to run the KV-4 using its higher DPM guns like the short 107, and while this gives you DPM...it STILL has worse depression, HP, armor, and mobility than the KV-5...and it doesn't get limited MMing. On top of everything else, the KV-4 is stupidly expensive to upgrade (27k for engine, ridonculous gun price -- neither of which are used anywhere else).

BOTTOM LINE:

Basically, it sucks.

Verdict: 2/10

[Vendetta]

WZ-132 (Good mobility, but need top turret and a useful gun)

The second 85mm is the gun to have and it mounts in the stock turret, the DPM is lulsy. The 100mms have terrible handling and aimtime, and you won't notice 50 more alpha really.

[The Vortex Empire]

Dunno about that, the aimtime is actually the same on the top 100 and the top 85, and the handling is only marginally worse. The extra alpha is pretty nice and having APCR instead of HEAT is always welcome. 85 has DPM and mobile accuracy going for it. Both guns have their place, I think.

[krakonfour]

The KV-4 is easily the worst tier 8 I've ever driven. Too slow to flex, not enough RoF to make up for the poor alpha, and the armor is all flat so it only works when top tier or reverse angling, which you can't always do. To top that all off, it's blind with only a 350 m view range. The closest tier 8 heavy to it in role would be the Tiger II, which has more workable armor due to sloping, is faster, has a better gun, better gun depression, brtter view range, etc.

I'm going to have to agree with that.
Except for the gun part. It's not a sniper at all. In fact, the accuracy is just 0.38, and moving the turret has adverse effects on the aiming circle.
The problem with the armor isn't that it's just flat. It's only 180mm, that's the problem. The guns it faces are able to penetrate it from any reasonable angle you'll find yourself in. The major problem, however, is the turret. It has a gigantic turret ring that's nothing more than a flat 120mm piece of 'shoot me now'. Autoaiming noobs hit it from any range.

[Skywalker_T-65]

I found the KV-4 fun enough, but the ST-1 is leagues above it in the fun department. Admittedly its armor isn't quite as thick as the KV-4's, but it has the major advantage of nice sloping. And the second turret is nearly impervious to the average player you run into (aka: ones not smart enough to load gold/shoot the cupola). Couple that turret with the top gun, and you've got a monster for its tier.

Too bad that gun is also the top one on the IS-4, coupled with the fact the IS has less armor than the ST, it seems like I really may be better off going for the E-100 instead.

[krakonfour]

I found the KV-4 fun enough, but the ST-1 is leagues above it in the fun department. Admittedly its armor isn't quite as thick as the KV-4's, but it has the major advantage of nice sloping. And the second turret is nearly impervious to the average player you run into (aka: ones not smart enough to load gold/shoot the cupola). Couple that turret with the top gun, and you've got a monster for its tier.

Too bad that gun is also the top one on the IS-4, coupled with the fact the IS has less armor than the ST, it seems like I really may be better off going for the E-100 instead.

The sucker punch is that the E100 has a terrible gun selection, and even worse mobility than the IS4. Is that a worthwhile cost for not being penned by T8 guns in the upper front plate? I don't know...

[Vendetta]

E-100 at least has alpha, and you can use the 150's HEAT round to goldnoob people.

And you can sidescrape literally forever with the enormous tracks and spaced armour.

[Vanas]

Having just bought it, if nothing else, the E-100's volcano cannon is thoroughly satisfying to use, especially with the realistic gun noises mod. The fact it makes people wince when it hits is a plus as well.

[Imperial528]

I honestly have no idea how I pulled this off. Fucking hilarious that I did, though:

Victory!
Battle: Komarin 12/4/2013 7:12:05 PM
Vehicle: T14
Experience received: 1,651
Credits received: 63,111
Battle Achievements: Sniper, Steel Wall, Cool-Headed, Spartan

You have to watch the replay to really get it: http://wotreplays.com/site/464578

[Vanas]

I'm hurting for money as Das Volcano Kanonen hungers for vast piles of silver to feed its tankspolding fury. This means that, against all of my reason, for the first time since patch 7.5, Fat Hans rides again.

And, you know? Not actually a bad tank. Less adaptable than the King Tigger, but it has hilarious accuracy and the turret front gives surprisingly few fucks.

Unrelated: Reason I like the Tortoise #5746: That Traverse. It makes lesser tanks weep.

[Vendetta]

Lowe's getting a buff next patch as well.

I still prefer the FCM for farming though, cheap ammo, never needs gold, basically a medium that ate too many baguettes, good gun handling and reasonable pen and DPM.

Also: Bragpoast.



(Click for replay, in which a shittalking T28 goes strangely quiet.)

[The Vortex Empire]

So I just picked up the Object 268, and I'm in love. In the first 5 games, I've had two 6000 damage games already.

[krakonfour]

So I just picked up the Object 268, and I'm in love. In the first 5 games, I've had two 6000 damage games already.

It's pretty awesome.
You do need the Gun laying drive and rammer though...

[Marko Dash]

has anybody tried the jap tanks yet? they all seem to have high traverse rates, my connection is down atm and i havent been able to play.

[Vendetta]

I've tried the tier 7 and the tier 10.

The 10 is great, agile, fantastic DPM (equal to T-62A), -10 gun depression, and 390 alpha. Not great armour but a troll turret. As a mid range flanking medium (ie: What you actually want to be doing with a medium) it's got everything. (I've not been around long enough to know, but I've heard comparison to the Patton before they nerfed it).


The tier 7 is odd. It's as big as an AMX M4 45 and has less armour, it feels sluggish due to a weak engine, and whilst the gun is interesting (3 round autoloader, ~8.5 second reload with rammer and 100% crew) it might be difficult to get the tank into position to actually use it because it's basically an L/70 which is already looking a bit weedy at tier 7.

From everything I've seen, the Japanese tree is basically like the French tank destroyers. Sex when you reach the top of it, but ugly most of the way there.

[Highlord Laan]

I've tried the tier 7 and the tier 10.

The 10 is great, agile, fantastic DPM (equal to T-62A), -10 gun depression, and 390 alpha. Not great armour but a troll turret. As a mid range flanking medium (ie: What you actually want to be doing with a medium) it's got everything. (I've not been around long enough to know, but I've heard comparison to the Patton before they nerfed it).


The tier 7 is odd. It's as big as an AMX M4 45 and has less armour, it feels sluggish due to a weak engine, and whilst the gun is interesting (3 round autoloader, ~8.5 second reload with rammer and 100% crew) it might be difficult to get the tank into position to actually use it because it's basically an L/70 which is already looking a bit weedy at tier 7.

From everything I've seen, the Japanese tree is basically like the French tank destroyers. Sex when you reach the top of it, but ugly most of the way there.

Gotta love Wargaming's devotion to making fantastic tanks that never existed. And since it's not an American tank, I doubt it will be nerfed much. Ever.

[xthetenth]

I found the KV-4 fun enough, but the ST-1 is leagues above it in the fun department. Admittedly its armor isn't quite as thick as the KV-4's, but it has the major advantage of nice sloping. And the second turret is nearly impervious to the average player you run into (aka: ones not smart enough to load gold/shoot the cupola). Couple that turret with the top gun, and you've got a monster for its tier.

Too bad that gun is also the top one on the IS-4, coupled with the fact the IS has less armor than the ST, it seems like I really may be better off going for the E-100 instead.

The sucker punch is that the E100 has a terrible gun selection, and even worse mobility than the IS4. Is that a worthwhile cost for not being penned by T8 guns in the upper front plate? I don't know...

The E-100's doom cannon is silly good. That alpha on a sidescraping beast like the E-100 means that if only half your shells pen you come out ahead, and that's an underestimation of the thing's armor. The turret isn't quite reliable against TD gold, but everything else is a joke to it. The pen on that accuracy is the only thing that can be truly counted as a weakness and everything else is just amazing. It, the T57 and the E5 are basically the clan wars heavies, and they're the ones for very good reasons (where's your anti-american bias here, laan?).

I've tried the tier 7 and the tier 10.

The 10 is great, agile, fantastic DPM (equal to T-62A), -10 gun depression, and 390 alpha. Not great armour but a troll turret. As a mid range flanking medium (ie: What you actually want to be doing with a medium) it's got everything. (I've not been around long enough to know, but I've heard comparison to the Patton before they nerfed it).


The tier 7 is odd. It's as big as an AMX M4 45 and has less armour, it feels sluggish due to a weak engine, and whilst the gun is interesting (3 round autoloader, ~8.5 second reload with rammer and 100% crew) it might be difficult to get the tank into position to actually use it because it's basically an L/70 which is already looking a bit weedy at tier 7.

From everything I've seen, the Japanese tree is basically like the French tank destroyers. Sex when you reach the top of it, but ugly most of the way there.

The 10 is like the M46 Patton with the pre-nerf M48's gun, it's pretty excellent. Great depression, great firepower, decent enough maneuverability, really good speed.

The 8 and 9 both look quite good. The 8 has outstanding pen and good depression, the 9 is similar but with the tier ten gun.

The 7 is going to be awkward. That gun aims fast enough in a lot of ways I'm telling myself to think about it like a soviet 122. It takes a similar amount of time to aim in one of those things as to get the three shells out of the tier 7.

[Vendetta]

The difficulty is going to be getting the side and rear shots you'll need from a tier 7 with only 150 pen in that tank, given that it's sluggish, poorly protected, and enormous, which means you'll be easily countered if you can't peek from a ridge, which you can't always do.

[xthetenth]

Yeah, it frankly looks pretty terrible. The only hope is that gold will be relatively cheap for that and if I'm using gold I may as well use real gold to get out of that tank.

It's like a somewhat worse KV-1S a tier higher.

[Xess]

I love it when someone calls me a hacker when they don't understand the game. I was playing my Ram II with 100% crew and a gun rammer, and this guy in an M3 couldn't believe how fast my gun could reload.

[The Vortex Empire]

I love it when someone calls me a hacker when they don't understand the game. I was playing my Ram II with 100% crew and a gun rammer, and this guy in an M3 couldn't believe how fast my gun could reload.

Run a T-34 with the 57mm and a Rammer and watch the hackusations fly.

[krakonfour]

I love it when someone calls me a hacker when they don't understand the game. I was playing my Ram II with 100% crew and a gun rammer, and this guy in an M3 couldn't believe how fast my gun could reload.

Run a T-34 with the 57mm and a Rammer and watch the hackusations fly.

I believe it's something like 1.8 second reload? Since I already use the 57mm on the KV-1 (250% crew and 2.2 sec reload), I can imagine how it feels.

[Vendetta]

Yeah, it's 1.8s.

Matilda is even faster, nearly 1.7.