2
People really like to look down on T-44-122.
I cannot understand this logic. I admit that I bought back T-44, but it isn't for stat padding. Its for nostalgia of T-44-122, the only incarnation of T-44 I like. And strangely the only one I could break 2.4k average damage in. But that was a while ago.
Back before 3.8 it was a different time. When low pen guns actually had a chance, when gold ammo was actually even remotely worth its price, when Object 140 was broken and I still sucked at it, when T-62A had the turret armor to actually be worth its salt. When tier 8 mediums had even the slightest chance at tipping the balance against tier 8 heavies despite being completely and utterly dominated by them even back during the medium tank meta.
When I actually liked more than 2 tanks in this entire game that I now loathe. When you anticipated the chinese mediums, dreaming of a more mobile IS-8 with better snap shot abilities and a little more DPM at the cost of anything not related to the gun or mobility. Truly a harsh dream to be smashed against the rocks on the shores of the WG balance department.
When some posters actually supported +/-2 MM and wanted it back. Literally predicting the playerbase decline in quality and increasingly boorish nature of the game.
Before French line was introduced and WG proceeded to smash everyone's dreams of the firepower based French autoloader lights that would then lose their only advantage; firepower for the crime of being an LT with firepower, with WG forgetting that was the only thing they actually did well.
When IS-5's didn't run rampant. When Lowe wasn't pay to win and was actually remotely balanced instead of banishing anything with low enough pen to certain death.
A time when T-44-122 ruled the world.
Yes. T-44-122. The oft lamented T-44 hero, also known as the only incarnation of T-44 that was ever worth its salt for an entire year. Because early T-44 with 100 got replaced by Type 59 back then.
It was really fun, wheeling about, smashing their flanks for 500 HE, T29, T34, who cares, they're going to lose around 1/3th of their health. Watch them burn. For that matter, just light everything on fire. Shoot their fuel tank with a penetrating HE shell. Even if that doesn't work, you have enough module damage with AP.
Its glory days were probably back in +/-2 MM, way way back when food shared the same bar as other consumables like it should have in the first place instead of the idiot friendly way it is now. When the fences ate bullets, allowing you to actually attack the enemy from just about any part of the map. When the maps weren't as flat so you could take up so many more positions that are now extinct.
Realistically speaking, it should go back to that way, where the walls temporarily eat bullets. Forumers can disagree but I think people have realized I don't care. I don't think they remember the old maps and how useful those walls were back then. But then, even if they did, they aren't going to support something like +/-2 MM since they aren't open minded enough to recognize the greater good. Shooting through them was quite a challenge. You could really be a lot more aggressive, simply because you could actually have a kind of 'temporary cover'.
But back to the main topic.
T-44-122 wasn't about the DPM; it was about making the enemy feel every bit of the 400 alpha from the start of the game to the end of the game in a series of 'wheeling' attacks, cutting into them, snapshotting them left and right. The HE was especially key, as was making sure you hit something good. It really felt rewarding, right up until you needed to actually farm something and your awful DPM came to light, but it wasn't that common I think.
It was a truly unique experience. Sure the 175 pen + poor acc combo was nasty, but you'd get used to it eventually. What was it? 'Suck it up'.
If you had them in a platoon you were a menace. You could destroy an enemy heavy tank, in just 17 seconds. 1 reload. Run in, over half his health is gone, reload, fire again, dead heavy tank. T-44 with the 100 didn't have anything on that; it'd have to poke repeatedly. You'd need 3 firing passes. And with 175 millimeters pen, that isn't something you can execute favorably.
It couldn't contest much, but anything tier 7 with DPM could easily be brought to heel for long enough so that you could bail out. You couldn't commit.
You had to actually think. You needed to be aggressive, but not stupid. You had to be smart. You had to count every single shot in a simple, strong battle plan, execute, and feel the results. It really make you work for the score.
It probably was not an especially competitive tank at the time. But with proper co-ordination (in a platoon), it had its own unique place. Called delete enemy purple heavy at cost of 400 HP. Wheeling fighting was extremely exciting compared to the dullard gameplay of literally everything else.
It really was a fun tank. And it still is now. But it shows what could have been, and never will be. And honestly, it is very pathetic this tank was cast away. The problems it experiences are the problems so many tanks experience now, because of what WG did to the game.
Had T-44 at least 1.8k base DPM with the 122 millimeter gun, it would be competitive I think. Well, it is not something WG would do. And it is their game after all.
The nostalgia I have when I play this is strong, but mostly, it recommends something clear. Abandon this game. There isn't going to be an intuitive game out of this. T-44-122 is probably one of the most intuitive experiences in the game, and it manages to be actually decent, as well as interesting. I think that is making it one of the few tanks in all of WOT that does that. Of perhaps 3.
Well, that is not the most WG friendly message.
After all. No one wants to hear that their 'intuitive' tank requires them to use the most basic cognitive functions available to them. Or that WG isn't capable of balancing tanks in an interesting way, just like their unimaginative approach of 'just add armor'. Its almost like the devs gave up on attracting new players and want you to spend ever more gold ammo.
However, I don't really care. This community and its partisan politics can go [edited]itself. I hate the better part of it anyway. Basic knowledge like 'the most expensive thing is something that is free' is severely lacking.
T-44-122 is extremely under rated I think, not as a tank specifically, but as an experience. Well, for me, that is because of nostalgia. For you now, it will be because you are interested in a high speed boomstick you never considered a good idea because you aren't capable of playing it in the first place.
While the new Chinese have DPM; T-44 has snapshot. 0.12 bloom while kitting aim and acc is very good honestly. Even though I've been playing mine clean as of late. Both aren't competitive. I refuse to acknowledge the trash that the Chinese medium line is right now.
They are not the same.
Well, in the end, it is not as if people will appreciate the tank. In this era of 'new thinking' armor loving 'players'.
This post won't get attention for a variety of reasons, but I think, it is good that I post this. It expresses some of my feelings about this game. People who are thinking closer to the way I do, might talk here, but I doubt it.
T-44-122 deserved some notice from a decent player, with average abilities at best, such as myself, not many decent players like to try and think intuitively, confident they know what they are doing it seems.
If you are able to 2k average the tank, I think you ought to play it. Otherwise, you are just wasting other peoples time.
