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Hi everyone, with tier 8 being largely biased towards heavy tanks, I thought I would do a ranking list similar to the tier 9 heavy list, found below.
I will provide my own thoughts on the "best" tier 9 heavy tanks and I apologize in advance if your favorite tier 9 heavy is at the bottom of the list. This is purely my opinion, and you are free to put in your input. Hope you enjoy!
*Note: Reviews are done in the style of WoTLabs.
What do you think is the best tier 8 heavy? Let me know!
Full Potato Division
KV-4 - Big. Slow. A "shoot here" sign almost as large as the cupola found on the tortoise. This tank needs love... bad.
VK4502A - A tank that really goes outside the progressive feeling of the line, the VKA is a heavium that is mediocre in multiple categories. The speed isn't fast enough to have a definite advantage over other tier 8 heavies, and the gun penetration is poor compared to the tiger 2. 3.9 changes to gold ammo have made this tank more usable as the upper front plate can now bounce more frequently used AP shells, but gold still turns it to butter.
AMX 50 100 - With a recent nerf, the 50 100 has fallen from one of the most potentially dangerous tier 8 heavies to garbage pile. With a large profile and armor that can be HE'd, the tank is difficult to use when you factor in poor gun depression and a recently "rebalanced" clip.
Glacial 112 - Apart from the front armor on the turret and upper front plate, this tank is bad. A butter lower glacis, cupolas that seem very easy to hit, and unreliable side armor make this vehicle almost unusable. It is good in a corridor fight, but this isn't 2014 anymore. Let's not forget about the sluggish mobility and lackluster gun penetration on standard rounds.
Play for Fun Division
KV-5 - Using leftover steel, the soviets created this armored behemoth. Aside from 2 glaring weak points on the front, the armor is very thick. This vehicle most likely has the best side armor at tier 8, being able to eat shells with it's black hole generator technology. The DPM is decent, and it is always fun to ram things. 3.9 really helped this vehicle as the weak points are somewhat difficult to penetrate with standard ammunition.
Tiger 2 - Slow, hard to use armor, and high profile make the tiger 2 extremely difficult to use. Against lower tier weapons, the armor is great, but when you see standard IS5's kicking at 221 mm of standard penetration, the armor suddenly becomes wafer thin. The turret is somewhat unreliable despite the inherent sloping. A true long range sniper, the main reason why the king tiger sees as much play as it does is because people let their historical hard on for the King Tiger cloud all rational judgement that it is a poor vehicle. At least it looks cool.
Lowe - Very similar to a tiger 2 but slightly worse mobility and hull in exchange for a more reliable turret and better gun depression. It also makes a cubic butt ton of credits, hence "fun to play."
IS2-H - A Russian engineer took his boss out to bar, and after some vodka convinced his superior that an IS with the turret pointing backwards was a completely different tank entirely. All jokes aside, this tank can move, and has some seriously troll armor. It has good penetration and decent gun handling. This is one of the few rear mounts that is not a bane to play. Additionally, has anyone noticed how small of a profile this tank has? Wow!
Mutant EXP - Ridiculous frontal hull armor and slim weak spots on the turret make this tank a real problem to dig out frontally. Despite having a tall profile, you can use this to an advantage coupled with 10 degrees of gun depression to shoot down on angled plates, essentially making them flat. The sides and rear are nothing much to talk about. They are big and juicy and ready for some HE.
IS-5 - It has a heap of armor. Yes. It has pretty darn good mobility. Yes. It also has a crap gun. No, that would be an insult to crap. This tank would be so freaking good if it had the gun to support its other characteristics. Even with fantastic penetration, watching fully aimed shots whiz over targets like you playing horseshoes is very depressing. This tank would be OP, if it were not for an achilles heel of a weapon.
Stat Padder Division
IS-3 - Once considered the greatest tier 8 tank in the early days of Blitz, the IS-3 is still an very solid choice. With great agility compared to other heavies, this tank can utilize fantastic penetration and troll armor to bully lower tier (and even some same tier) tanks. The DPM is quite low, but looking past that the better than average gun handling, which makes it feel almost snappy, allow the IS-3 to dominate engagements even at long ranges.
T34 - I personally dislike this tank. I find the turret to be unreliable, among other noticeable flaws. However, the T34 is a serious credit grinder with fantastic penetration and a lovely 10 degrees of gun depression. Compound those qualities with 400 alpha and above average gun handling with a turret mantlet that will bounce the shots of noobs and you have yourself killing machine.
T32 - The best turret tier for tier in the game, the T32 can hull down effectively and bounce gold rounds from even the nastiest tank destroyers reliably. With 10 degrees of gun depression, you can play the role of a T34, but also play the role of a brawling heavy with a trollish upper front plate. Better DPM and weapon handling put this vehicle above the T34.
Purple Division
IS3 Defender - The tank that started it all, the defender is such a ridiculous vehicle in so many aspects, the OP factor cannot be denied. Great mobility, an autoloader than will clip some same tier mediums and most tanks a tier below, troll armor, and a monstrous 7 degrees of gun depression all in one compact package make this the poster child for "Pay-to-Win" whiners. Maybe rightfully so.
Caernarvon - It does not appear menacing, but let me tell you... 190 alpha adds up very fast when you get to spam it every 4 seconds. Pop adrenaline and you can burn through any same tier tank you face bar the Jag 8.8 (but who drives that garbage anyway?). 10 degrees of gun depression, good power to weight, strong turret, and an almost 4202 level of troll upper hull make this tank so freaking good. Bushka was right on the money here.
IS-6 - Jesus. Despite the Defender and recently buffed Caernarvon, the IS-6 is the best tier 8 heavy. The speed is pretty darn good for something with such a good armor profile. However, the thing about the IS-6 that makes it special are those traits coupled with the D-30 gun. The lower penetration, higher DPM gun make this tank absolutely ridiculous. The DPM of the D-30 firing APCR is still higher than firing standard APCR on the D-30A. You are death incarnate for any medium you face at same tier or lower tier. Get a flank of a heavy? Goodnight nurse. The IS-6 is truly a special tank, and it took me over 2000 games to realize it. 175 pen sucks on the Glacial 112, but for the IS-6 it somehow transforms it into a monster.
