Do people not like the T-34-85? I’ve heard bad things about it, but with the top 100mm gun I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. The armor isn’t great, but everything else about it is pretty nice.
schurem
5722
Its a great little tank. I love it. Makes a good deal of cash as well.
I like the T34-85 better than the two tanks that come after it, honestly.
The T-34/85 is a good little medium for tier 6. Its glaring weakness is shared by Russian tanks in general, though, the ridiculously slow to aim gun.
Really? While I’ll agree with the T-43, which I could not wait to get out of, the T-44 is a beast when fully upgraded (was one of my most-played tanks in the beta). Sure, it’s not as good as the Pershing or the Lorraine these days, but still a very good vehicle.
Played a lot of games with the T-34-85 but vastly prefer the VK3601H, which is at the same tier. Winrate favours the VK too with 67% vs 54% for me (account-wide I’m 56%)
From my own experience I found the same: the VK3601H and VK3001H are much better vehicles. Much more engine power, better guns*, and for the VK36 far better armor, even if the tank is slower.
*penetration is lower, yes, but you’re not supposed to engage the front of targets in a medium tank in the first place. And the aim time, damage and accuracy are better than the Russian 100mm.
With the 100mm gun on my T-34-85, I was blowing up German mediums like they weren’t even there, but it might have just been the two VK3001 versions. I think there was a VK3601H or two in there as well, though.
The slow aim time and low accuracy did get me killed a few times, though.
Dejin
5728
I’ve also rejiggered the ammo loads on several of my tanks to reduce the number of HE rounds. As far as I can tell the only real uses of HE are resetting the timer on someone parked on our flag or taking out enemy artillery. And when shooting on flag, more often than not you’ll actually want to risk using AP even if penetration odds aren’t that good, mostly I think HE makes sense only if you’ve got friendly troops on the enemy flag and it’s a question of which timer goes down first.
So for tanks with a lot of ammo, I’ve pretty much left the original AP/HE breakdown, but tanks with small amounts of ammo, I’ve reduced the HE, in some cases down to just a few shells.
ShivaX
5729
HE just isn’t worth it most of the time. Even for resets you can use AP reliably since a track hit will reset the timer, even if it doesn’t break the track.
Most of my low ammo tanks run all AP anymore. Everything else tends to carry about 2-4 HE rounds at best unless its low tier.
In a couple of tanks, mostly the big spearhead heavies, i dont carry HE at all, just the 20-odd AP grenades.
RichVR
5731
Probably better off using the gun. ;-)
pyrhic
5732
Tier 6 is just an ugly tier all-round. In general, i hated the russian medium line after, uh, the bt-2. I played it through the t-43. The t-44 was supposed to be much better, but with 2M+ credits for the t-44, i just decided there was better things to spend my money on.
Strangely, i preferred the Easy8 to any of the other T6 mediums - in my mind, it plays as a medium should, pretty fast, agile, and quick firing.
Dejin
5733
I hated the T-34-85 but liked the T-43 and really liked the T-44. The T-34-85 always felt sluggish and the hull was very weak for those who knew where to shoot.
I like the Easy8 and still play it. It’s gun is it’s main weakness though. It’s very solid and its high fire-rate makes it a joy when shooting at things on or below its tier, but it can’t penetrate upper tier heavies or TDs at all. Mobility is decent, but I found the Russian line to be a bit faster and more maneuverable.
Oddly enough my best win rate in any tank with more than a dozen battles under its belt is my M4A3E2 with a 70% win rate – with only 27 battles though I presume that’s a statistical anomaly, a Tier VI medium is to low tier to really be a game winner, and I can’t really remember any spectacular games in my M4A3E2. It is a rather interesting tank though. It’s got the same gun as the M4A3E8, but it’s much more sluggish. It’s armor is tough enough to bounce most stuff in it’s tier, but unfortunately it’s weak enough that going against upper tier stuff it still gets completely pulverized. I haven’t decided if I like it or not.
I loved the Easy 8, and in beta I really liked the T-34-85, but in release the Russian tank was just ok for me. My favorite mediums so far have been the E-50 and T-54 (I have the Patton unlocked but not purchased, and I’m a billion away from the Bat.Chat). The E-50 is basically a delivery system for it’s great gun, and it also oddly enough is a great rammer. It has good overall speed, if not agility, and good protection. The T-54 is a brawler and a speedster. It’s gun is so-so, it bounces shells pretty well, and it can really mess up a flank and rear area if it gets loose–not as quick as the Frenchie but a lot more durable, and no 45 second reload fests either. The drawback on both is cost–if you don’t do well you end up paying through the nose.
pyrhic
5735
What I do find amusing though is that as I play both the 34-85 and t-43 now, i like them better than when I was grinding through them (in particular the 43).
Yeah, grinding kills fun, period. And who knows, maybe they buffed those tanks without letting us know? Hard to tell with Wargaming.
Arrrrrghh, the Somua tier 4 French TD is the worst, most painfully awful tank I have yet to play. That include the crappy light tanks who get pitted against tier 9s in other tech trees. I have to admit I’ve never played the legendary M3 Lee though.
mk56
5738
Well there has to be some reason to keep playing!
So the French TD tree is the same as the other two tank lines where they’re awful for at least the first 5 tiers to get you to spend free xp to skip them?
The tier 3 was silly and kind of fun, it’s a little gun with treads where you’d expect the bipod mount to be and the “crew” clearly stands behind it because there is no tank. I enjoyed it, which makes the tier 4 even more painful because it’s even worse than the other French tier 4 tanks. I HATE IT SO MUCH.
