General

[mrmag11]

Originally Posted by Drum

That said, I have been LOVING the fun of my Type 59 (the poor/cheap man's T44)...

How is the Type 59 the poor man's T-44? I didn't pay cash for my T-44.

[titan aresta]

How do you like playing higher tier heavies? Do you enjoy your time in your Tiger, Tiger 2, IS, etc? Or do you find it a bit of an expensive drag?
While the IS3 is somewhat more nimble than other heavies, it still maneuvers like one. The BL9 is a good gun, but it is no better than the 105 on the Tiger 2. The armor is good, but not significantly better than the Tiger 2 either. All of the tier 8 heavies are fairly well balanced, so you won't see too much of a difference between them. And remember, high end heavies require a lot of support from teammates to really shine, they really can't operate by themselves and live to talk about it. If you find that the general gameplay with the Tiger 2 isn't a lot of fun (even if the tank feels good), you will find that the IS3 is exactly the same.

[Stevefe]

The IS-3 is a bit faster than the other tier 8 heavies. It drives like a fat medium. With the big gun on it, it will do some damage. I've been thinking of getting mine back for tier 8 tank companies.

[Drum]

I call it a poor man's T44 because of the fact that, compared to the "price" in credits of running the Type 59, the T44 will run you into the poor house.

Sure, there is cash involved in the purchase, but it is pennies on the dollar compared to what I could be making while NOT grinding away for top tanks. And I did not call it the poor man's T54, because the T54 is SO much better stats wise.

TA, I have been groovin on the IS3. Only have a handful of games in it so far, but find it to be far kinder on my bank balance than the Tiger II. I have recently trained myself to treat the Tiger II as a big fragile long distance puncher and have been faring much better, but I still die alot and it costs me big time.
The IS3 is slightly cheaper, far stronger (probably on account of the sloped rounded armor) and it is capable of sniping or brawling, depending upon my mood. All is all, a fun tank.

The 7.0 patch has been fairly generous to those tanks that have sloped armor to any degree. "Shell normalization" has really taken the stuffing out of the general damage delivered by HE, so... that has probably helped my perception of the IS3.

So... I am nearly to the end of my foreseeable grind. Only a few more tanks in my scope, requiring 10 million or so credits... I have a long way to go on these;

T-50-2 - To complete my collection of Tier V lights, though I am not really enjoying the T-50 and know its big brother is gonna suck as bad, but I am a completionist collector.

IS4 - Well, dont really want this tank either, but if I can get my credits and XP in line for the tech tree change, I would not mind the boost from the bonus tank. If I can pull that off, I will have 3 new tanks (already have KV and KV3 socked away), 3 garage slots and probably 5 tanks to sell off... all for "free".

Pershing - Not sure why, but I want this tank too. Doubt it will be as much fun or lucrative as my Type 59, but it DID see action in WW2, so... it fits my collection.

And that will be pretty much it, grindwise. No interest at all in French tanks (for historically obvious reasons) and probably wont get too in to British tanks either. Likewise, I have no real interest in anything above Tier VIII, at least until my skills improve.

Though, after nearly 7k games, I doubt I will be improving much above the state that I am in now. I am a middling tanker and damn proud of it!

ROck on

[Millar156]

I am officially not happy with the HE nerf. One of my favorite tanks to run is the M5 with the 75mm. I constantly get put into tier 8 or 9 battles with it but I could at least play arty killer so I had a purpose. Since 7.0 SPG's that used to die in one or two shots now take three or more. It might not seem like much but my life expectancy in that tank is very short so every shot counts.

Lastnigh playing my M41 SPG I hit a T-25-AT consistantly for 4% a hit. If I can't do better that that against a TD I can't see the use of spending 1k+ credits a shot.

Those 2 tanks used to be money makers for me. The M5 still is to a lesser degree but I barely break even or lose money on my M41 even with a win.

On the plus side I am noticing more bounces in my IS but I still lose money with it. It was also nice to finally see a MCB tanker lastnight. I got put into a Tier 8 match with my M5 and had Drum sitting right in front of me in his Type 59. I tried to play spotter but ran into the teeth of the other teams light rush so I switched views and watched Drum drive around like a madman in the other teams base.

I think I'm going to have to stick to my meds and TD's to make credits now. Not sure if I want to continue the arty line since it's going to be as big a money sink as the heavies if not more.

[skiddish9999]

Happy Holidays From Wargaming! | News | World of Tanks

Apparently, in a few weeks with 7.1 we can get a lend-lease tank...

[Drum]

Yeah, that free tank is pretty lame looking. I will try it, but at this point, I am all about free garage spots.

I have become quite the tank slut of late!

Now have 22 friggin tanks! Collecting things that take up only virtual space is just as addictive, if not more so, than 3d objects!
In my defense is the fact that a third of these rides are low tier tanks that my nephew has so we can run together. That has been tons of fun.

Somehow, despite all the holiday falderall and traveling, I managed to 5x each of my tanks each day and the winnings were remarkable, especially since I bought myself a week's worth of premium. Rang up about 5 mill in credits and almost 100k of free xp.

So... after a modicum of research, I decided to invest some of that into skipping the T20 altogether and buying myself a fully upgraded M26 Pershing. Tier 8 is so much tougher in a non-premium tank. No wonder people hate those Type 59's!

Pershing costs about 13k to totally fix and, now that my premium acct has expired, I am down btw 3-10k credits every battle with a 30% win ration after 15-20 battles. Shells are 1/3 the cost of my other T8 tanks, so... that is nice.
Anyway, despite all of that, still fun! This tank is about my speed... not too much that I get into roadrunner type trouble and not so slow that I get bored and et up by arty. Just powerful and strong enough to enjoy the games and say "fair enough" when you get blown to pieces.

It is gonna take a long while to learn this tank, methinks.

On the lower side of the tier slide, I have been enjoying the HELL out of the slew of premium tanks I bought (or was gifted) during the 50% off sale.
The T127, the Matilda, T-25 and the RamII are standouts. Fun and profitable tanks. I even camo'd all my premies! Used my tier V premiums to train their equiv. crews too (for example; used my Churchill to get my other Russian heavy crews a double taste of that 5x exp special)

Anyway, if you see me out there, it will be in either my Pershing, trying to learn it, or my Type 59, trying to afford the Pershing.

Happy New Year, fellow WoT'ers.

[Longshot]

Same to you Drum, guys!

I've been having tons of fun on my VK 2801. Not sure what a change to HE will be like; I use HE on that exclusively and that speedy hard hitting tank can be a game changer.

[Drum]

I have noticed a bit less consistency in damage in the 105 guns, including that on my Vk2801. I am a terrible manual aimer, especially with a tank I need to drive well, so I depend on the autoaimer and that is where the change in HE dynamics has been appreciable.

If you are used to aiming for weak spots and so on, then, you will likely not notice any HE nerf, aside from maybe needing an extra shot or two to take out the heavier arty

[mrmag11]

I have to rant, I get so mad when I can't do a single bit of damage to the IS class with my T-44. I was doing circles around an IS-3 yesterday, watching his turret turn slower than I could move. I got off four shots, one did 10% damage, the other three bounced. I kept shots away from his turret and put all four in the back half of the tank. I have the 100mm D10T and I might as well have been shooting a .22 at it. The fourth and final shot was HE so I have no idea what's wrong.

I love having the speed of the T-44, but damn, against tanks in my tier, I am out-gunned it seems.

End of rant.