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[conjay810]

THE V2.0 GUIDE TO

The Wehrmacht Tier X Medium Tank

E 50 Ausf. M

Superior German Engineering

 

In my humble opinion, the E 50 M is the best looking tank in the game.

 

The E 50 M is a quite rare tank on the battlefield. Few people had the grit to slog through the legendarily bad Panthers and power through the absurdly terrible stock grind of the E 50 and reach the top of this tree, and many used to say that the E 50 was, tier for tier, a better tank. Then +1/-1 MM was introduced, hurting all tier 9-10 tanks that relied on their armor. Many believed the E 50 M was obsolete, and many of the few that ground the line decided to stop at the E 50. However, things have changed. Importantly: he grind became MUCH better. IMO, the best option to reach the Panther I is to go through the excellently fun Pz. III/IV and the well-rounded VK 30.01 D, thus passing the terrible 30.01H and 30.02M. With the massive buffs it received (even after I played it, when it was already great), the Panther I is a great tier 7 medium, packing excellent penetration and accuracy along with decent armor and mobility, and the Panther II also received a ROF buff and no longer has to fight tier X tanks. The E 50 stock grind is appalling (free XP at least the 105/52 and turret along with 75 crew), but a fully upgraded E 50 is one of the best tier 9 mediums. So, the 'grind' isn't even bad (disclaimer: I did grind the E 100/Jpz E100 lines before, so I had lots of modules unlocked). However, many used to hold the opinion (some still do) that the E 50 M is obsolete and inferior to the E 50, tier for tier. In this review, I will be looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the E 50 M and comparing it to other tier 10 medium tanks to help you decide if you want this tank, how to play it, and how to counter it.

UPDATE NOTES: All new information will be updated in italics.

The medium pen nerfs and premium alpha nerfs along with the new equipment have changed the tank itself along with the meta in which it competes. Let's see what changed!

 

 

Firepower

The E 50 M mounts the excellent 10,5 cm Kw.K L/52 Ausf. K rail gun. Despite this gun being made up by SerB as a reskin of the NATO L7 105mm cannon (which also just happens to be a L/52 and fires APCR/HEAT), the gun somehow manages to be superior in many ways to the L7 cannon mounted on tanks such as the Leopard, which entered development more than 10 years after WWII ended. Nice historical accuracy you got there, WG. Lets take a look at the stats of the gun.

Alpha Damage: 350/350/450 350/300/450

Rate of Fire: 7.08 RPM

Penetration (mm RHA): 270/330/60 245/300/60- the biggest hit of all the tier 10 mediums.

Accuracy: 0.30

Aiming Time: 2.1 seconds

Shell Velocity (m/s): 1500/1200/1200

Bloom (turret/movement/traverse): .08/.14/.14

Gun Depression: -6(front), -8(sides), 0 (rear)

 

Lets get the elephant in the room out of the way. The ROF is abysmal, being only .18RPM better than the FV215B (which has 50 more alpha) and being .63 worse than the nearest contender, the M48 Patton (to say nothing of its younger Leopard cousin's absurd 8.57-nearly 1.5 RPM better). This comes out to 2478 base DPM, only marginally better than the T110E5. Engaging in DPM contests with Russian UFOs (or, really, anything) is a great way to be absolutely useless and die quickly.

The alpha damage is standard 105mm MT fare (though WG gave it the best HE alpha of the tier 10 mediums, lol), and the penetration is 2 mm better than the L7 and 6mm better than the RU100mm. With the nerfs to pen, the E 50M now has some of the lowest penetration numbers among tX mediums.

 

The gun handling is beyond excellent. The .30 accuracy is tied for best in the game, and the 2.1 second aiming time is only .1 worse than the Leopard. However, its gun in fact handles FAR better than the Leopard or 62/140, being on par with the M48 Patton at snapshotting (RIP STB, 2x worse turret bloom=cansur). The Leopard has greatly inferior movement bloom to the 50M on top of being faster, and having the same turret bloom with the Leopard's high turret traverse means that the Leopard's aiming circle blooms much larger than the 50M. The railgun shell velocity is in fact better than standard L7 cannon, approaching the RU 100mm gun, and the gun depression is acceptable, with a much larger area of -8 gun depression compared to PC. In short, although the brute damage capacity of its gun is lacking, the 50M makes up for it with the extreme finesse of its handling.

Since the last iteration of the guide, I have been informed that the 50M in fact has some of the worst soft-stats among tier 10 mediums, though it still has good aim time and fantastic final accuracy. Having been a heavy/TD player beforehand, the gun handling still seems extremely comfy-i wonder what a Leopard feels like! How crippling are these three (DPM, gun handling, pen) weaknesses? We shall see.

 

Mobility

Engine power (Hp): 1200

Weight: 62 tons

P/W: 19.35 hp/t

Top Speed: 60 kM/h

Terrain Resistances (hard/medium/soft): 1.05/1.25/2.21

Traverse: 44

Turret Traverse: 31

 

You'd be surprised to note that the E 50 M packs the same HP engine as the E 100, despite weighing less than half as much! This tremendously powerful engine gives the 50M a excellent HP/Ton of 19.35, nearly 30% better than the T-62A! That, unfortunately, doesn't matter, since the RU hovercraft get the most ludicrous terrain resistances in the game, and the E 50 M has the worst resistances out of all the tier 10 MTs. Fortunately, however, the 50M has a high top speed of 60 km/h, and if allowed to build up speed will outrun all tier X mediums except the Leopard. The traverse values are quite slow for a tier X MT, especially the annoyingly bad turret traverse, but are still more than sufficient to COD slow tanks and prevent itself from being circled. 

Also important: you see that huge weight? You see that high top speed? You see that big, smooth, sexy, slanted German upper frontal plate, its sharp wedge poised to plunge into a unwary attacker of the Fatherland? The E 50M is one of the best rammers in the game, weighing nearly twice as much as most other medium tanks and even outweighing heavy tanks and tank destroyers such as the the T110E5, 183, 268 and IS-4! This power can easily help rectify the 50M's low DPM in a brawl, as a hit from a 50 M can eliminate upwards of 500 HP from other medium tanks. Don't get overzealous however, as immediately ramming the first medium you see may leave you tracked in the open with the rest of the enemy wolfpack bearing down upon you. Similarly, don't ram E 100s or Mice unless you're about to die and want to get a bit more damage. Ram Responsibly^TM

 

Armor

Turret: 250/80/80

Hull: 150/80/80

HP: 1900 (up to 1995 with +5% HP)

The E 50 M is exceptionally well armored for a MT, with armor effectiveness superior to many heavy tanks! After the turret was recently buffed to 250mm, the tank excels in a hull down position. The turret is ~260mm effective head on against AP, and even the slightest of low rolls or bad angles from tier X standard ammunition will result in a ricochet. Additionally, the turret face is tiny, with a Nazi Cone Mantlet^TM and auto bounce turret sides surrounding it. The upper plate is the most effective slab of hull armor on any medium tank in the game, and with proper angling is immune to even tier X TD gold ammunition. Thus, in less than ideal hulldown locations, the 50 M can simply expose its upper hull armor and remain well protected. The lower plate is terrible, though it no longer is a source of engine damage and fires. E 50 Ms seeking a fight should always keep their lower plate in cover or extremely well angled. Alternatively, face hugging targets hides your lower plate, though this allows taller tanks to fire down onto your UFP. If all else fails, wiggle-the 50M has fast traverse for such a heavy tank, and wiggling can bait track shots/autobounces off the side from even tier X tank destroyers. The relatively thick side armor with no exposed turret ring allows effective side scraping, but you should still wiggle. The decent side/rear thicknesses protect the tank from most HE (though not HESH) rounds, and wiggling heavily when someone flanks you can elicit bounces off your side/rear armor. Should your armor fail, you are tied for highest health among medium tanks, with relatively tough modules and low fire chance (and only from the rear, a novel feature for most German tanks).

 

Miscellaneous

The E 50 M has relatively poor camo values, though not as bad as the M48. ​(Don't mount camonet, that would be retarded.) This is due to her LARGE size, which is a major liability on maps like Mines, where the big, flat side presents a easy target for camping TDs. Her gun depression angles are odd, forcing you to angle somewhat to use the full -8 degrees-and never face your butt at someone, as you have 0 over the rear arc.

Equipment, Crew Skills, and Consumables/Provisions

Non-Optional Equipment: Rammer. Boosts your bad DPM.

My other two: Stabs, Optics. Stabs>GLD always, and the optics help counter the bad camo and spot RU hovercraft. If you really really want DPM, switch Optics for Vents, though this is suboptimal. GLD is only for people who are really stupid/OCD about gun handling.

Crew skills: Camo is great to counter the bad camo. Repairs helps with track damage. Snap shot/Smooth ride/etc are good too.

Consumables: Multikit, Adrenaline, Repkit. The 50M eats lots of track damage and ammorack damage from the sides, so 2 repair kits is a great way to go. The Adrenaline is for brawling with other MTs to counter the bad DPM. If you're a real risk taker, substitute the repair kit for Engine Boost: The huge HP of the 50M boosted 20% is great for hill climbing.

Provisions: Big Fuel, Big Food, Protection kit/small food. Self explanatory. I have begun to substitute small food for protection kit on many tanks, figuring that two repair kits are more than enough to keep me going.

Equipment: T1: Rammer>pen, Probably modules>Crew (though crew can be ok for ramming damage reduction), Optics>>>>Camonet

T2: GLD probably>Supercharge, 50M already has teleport shells + poor handling for MT; Armor>Health, as the 50M already has good armor so the enhancement is very valuable; Traverse<Accel, as the gigantic engine derives more benefit than most from HP% boosts.

T3: Vertstabs, no question. I haven't unlocked the other two but would probably take enhanced tracks and Consumable delivery.

 

How to Play the Tank

​The E 50M is a jack of all trades, able to abuse one advantage or another to always have an upper hand. Against Heavy Tanks and TDs, you can usually circle or punish them with superior mobility, gun handling and ROF, in addition to often actually ricocheting their shots. Being well armored and fast, the 50M can bully lesser mediums-the 50M's superior armor and amazing gun handling allow the E 50 M to get the first shot off and return to cover before other MTs can pinpoint a weak spot, and in a brawl the 50M can ram large amounts of HP out of other mediums and hide its lower plate with a face hug, forcing the enemy tank to roll dice with RNGesus and server latency against your UFP and Turret face with gold ammo, while preventing them from circling you with your good traverse speed. With its high top speed and amazing hard accuracy, the 50M is a deadly flanker/sniper, taking key sniper spots early and bullying enemy mediums out. This incredible versatility, combining the speed, gun handling and flexibility of a MT with the durability of a HT and the accuracy and sniper capacities of a TD allow the tank to carry games INCREDIBLY well. Despite playing 96% solo, with many of my games pre-buff, I have a 64.7% WR in the tank, despite 'meh' average damage of 2456-thus showing the incredible carrying abilities of the tank. Its ability to bully mediums is especially helpful in a medium-centric tier X meta, often allowing a 56% scrub lord like me to wreck a far superior 70% unicum.

 

​The latest changes have been interesting for the E50M. On one hand, it has been getting shafted quite heavily by the pen and alpha nerfs. On the other hand, these nerfs also hit the other mediums. My belief is that the pen nerfs have shifted the 50M into far more of a flanker and bully than it was before. Unfortunately, 300 HEAT pen is simply not enough to effectively counter E 100, IS-4, IS-7, etc. On the other hand, the 50M itself received a double effective armor buff against other mediums through first improved armor and also the pen nerfs. Consider the case of a Leopard versus a E 50M. Neither improved armor (doesn't help a paper tank) nor increased HP (not significant) will help the Leo, but the improved armor can render the turret of the 50M completely immune to the Leo's now-nerfed APCR. Of course, the E 50M had its APCR (and HEAT) nerfed even harder - except the only medium with the armor to resist 245 pen IS the 50M. The Leo must then resort to HEAT -- but unlike previously, the HEAT now destroys the Leo's previously devastating 20% DPM advantage - and even HEAT has a difficult time reliably penning a maneuvering 50M. Thus, the meta changes have predicated a shift in the 50M's focus - while now, taking it up the banana on Himmelsdorf may prove to be less useful, the 50M instead has specialized even further into its role as Monster of Mediums, and, with its greater speed, can be up the backsides of the enemy at lightning speed. These interesting meta shifts that make surface changes have far different effects than expected show the difficulty of game balance, for which I partially forgive Wargaming -- though their extreme heavy-handedness, unengaged developers and poor PR also have a major role.

 

Do I recommend this tank?

Spoiler

 If you haven't figured out that the answer is yes after reading this, you should uninstall 

There's more nuance to this than my previously blasé answer makes out to be. The 50M, with its dual nature, is a wonderful inbetweener for players going from heavy <-> medium play. I personally find it a excellent solo-pubbing tank. That being said, it is still more of a Jack of All Trades than most tanks, and lacks the minmaxing of the tanks favored by platoonicums and clan-wars. I mean, does anyone have the spare parts to equip new tanks anyway? 

 

 

Comments? Questions? Praise for my glorious text wall? Leave a comment below!

[Chariot_Solace]

Had my eye on this one for a while now. Halted the grind to the Jageroo, and  the Grille, in favor of it.  Free xped the 105 on the E50 + 4 more days of timers to vstab for it, then I'm blowing some 24hr premium certificates on to speed up the grind a bit, then I'll do the same for the M. Good guide. I expect to like them both a lot.

[minitel_NA]

It's a good tank. 

The review is quite good, especially comparing the evolution of the use of the tank. 

If I could add anything I would say for most players start far and get closer as the game develops. It is very easy to blow up in the first seconds of an engagement if you don't know much what you are doing. The tank is huge, flat, and has zero camo. Only unicums will be able to be close from the beginning of the game thanks to the hull down ability. . 

Low Dpm means keep the gun pumping from as early till as late as possible.

hmm did I forget anything ?

[pasdxd]

I actually quite like the tank, despite all its flaws. It's very good. 

 

In most 1v1 situations don't find the DPM to be as bad as you make out. Thanks to the pen nerfs you can really bully lower tier mediums and even tier 10 ones with lackluster penetration, and as always you can outshoot every heavy tank and TD (except 215). So the low DPM isn't as much of an issue IMO thanks to pen/prammo nerfs. 

 

While the pen and prammo nerfs hurt quite a lot in the gun department, with regards to armor the tank was helped. 

[j0nn0]

I just love it for the fact that I can ram everything to death and has a decent bounce rate on its upper plate. Gimme 100 meters of clear runway, or a nice slope, to get up to top speed, then it's clobbering time. Something I wasn't aware of, however, was its relative top speed. I was beginning to wonder if other mediums were just slow or if they didn't equip and use provisions when I'd race neck and neck out of the starting gate.

[conjay810]

j0nn0, on 20 June 2017 - 02:30 PM, said:

I just love it for the fact that I can ram everything to death and has a decent bounce rate on its upper plate. Gimme 100 meters of clear runway, or a nice slope, to get up to top speed, then it's clobbering time. Something I wasn't aware of, however, was its relative top speed. I was beginning to wonder if other mediums were just slow or if they didn't equip and use provisions when I'd race neck and neck out of the starting gate.

The 50M has high engine HP and high top speed, making it a good climber and fast on level ground , though its poor terrain resistances and traverse speeds limit its mobility somewhat. Out of the gate, however, it has a big advantage over  the Russians due to the way terrain resistances are factored in.