Best and worst tanks by tier and type – best tier VII heavy tank

There are nine tier VI heavy tanks (by patch 9.15):

• IS
• KV-3
• Tiger (P)
• Tiger I
• T29
• AMX M4 mle. 45
• Black Prince
• IS-2 (the chinese tank, not the russian premium)
• O-NI

Note: I have not yet played the O-NI or the AMX. But I am quite confident none of them are best in class, so it will not affect the verdict.

I am a bit strange, I guess, because I really enjoyed the KV-3. It is a nightmare when it is bottom tier, but when it is top tier in a city map it can be a monster. I might even like it more than the IS, which may be a better tank, all things considered. So in my personal opinion the KV-3 is the Russian candidate. I bought the “Berlin quartet”, so I have the IS-2 (russian premium tier VII heavy tank) in my garage. But was the KV-3 good enough to keep? No, I sold it once I unlocked the KV-4. (If I had had another Russian heavy tank crew, I might have kept it.)

The two German tanks are quite similar, but the Tiger I is in my opinion better than the Tiger (P). The armor on the Tiger I is not the best, but the gun is great, and the damage per minute is best in class. I have kept the Tiger I, but that is partly because I grinded it at the same time as I grinded the Tiger (P). The Tiger (P) was sold quickly and the crew moved on to the Tiger II.

The T29 has a lot going for it. The strength of the turret is legendary, and the gun is also pretty good, even if the gun on the Tiger I is better. I have kept the T29 and will keep it.

The Black Prince is a piece of shit, because of the gun. Low penetration and low alpha damage. In addition it is very slow. The turret is quite strong, but is easy the flank it, and get the side of the hull.

The Chinese IS-2 is almost the same as the IS, but the gun handling is worse because of worse gun depression and gun elevation. It also has less hull armor. The IS is definitely better.

So, which one is the best? 

Best and worst tanks by tier and type – worst tier VI heavy

There are eight tier VI heavy tanks in WOT (patch 9.14):

• KV-2
• KV-85
• T-150
• VK 36.01 (H)
• M6
• ARL 44
• Churchill VII
• O-I

I have already stated that the T-150 is the best tier VI heavy. It was a tough decision, but it is very easy to single out the worst tier VI heavy. It is actually the one with best frontal armor and highest DPM. You might ask why, but it is down to two factors: Penetration and speed. And the winner (loser) is the Churchill. The VK 36.01 (H) has even worse penetration, but it has got the speed to cope with it, either to escape from a highly armored tier VIII or flank and get around. The Churchill is to slow to do any of those things.

Best and worst tanks by tier and type – best AND worst tier III heavy tank

There are only one tier III heavy tank in the game by patch 9.13:

• Type 91 heavy

So, what’s it like? For a heavy tank, the rate of fire is very, very high, by 27 rounds per minute. The penetration is ok, when it’s not bottom tier in the match, so the damage per minute is quite high, by 1909. However, it’s got thinner armor than the tier III Japanese medium tank (Type 97 Chi-Ha). So it’s quite the opposite of the Matilda, which is actually a heavy tank classified as a medium. The Type 91 is a slow medium classified as a heavy.

Pros:

• High damage per minute
• You won’t have to play it many matches to grind it
• If you have the patience to play this tank for some matches after you have unlocked the next one, your crew will benefit from this, since the rest of the line are all heavy tanks

Cons:

• Paper thin armor for a heavy tank
• Noe a very precise gun
• Very slow
• Weak engine

I guess an Ace tanker could be quite easy to achieve on this one. This match is a good one, with some lucky shots now and then:

See all best/worst tanks here.

Best and worst tanks by tier and type – worst tier V heavy tank

There are six tier V heavy tanks in the game (by patch 9.13):

• KV-1
• KV-1S
• VK 30.01 (H)
• T1 Heavy tank
• Churchill I
• O-I Experimental

Notice: I have not played the O-I yet, but I do believe it is among the best heavy tanks on tier V, so it really doesn’t affect my verdict.

Since I believe the BDR is the best tier V heavy tank, of course it can not be the worst. The KV-1 and the KV-1S are both good (enough) for this tier, and the T1 is actually ok. This leaves us with two candidates: The Churchill I and the VK 30.01 (H). I really don’t like the Churchill, but I do believe it is superior to the VK. The Churchill is much slower, but it is better in almost all other aspects. (The gun has slightly worse penetration, but the damage per minute is better.) It’s armor is significantly better.  So the worst tier V heavy tank has to be the VK 30.01 (H). It is basically only a tank you have to play to grind for better tanks, not a tank you play because it is great fun.

Pros:

• Good gun depression, by 8 degrees
• The grind leads to “important” tanks, and you can unlock a lot of modules
• Penetration is quite decent, compared to the Russian tanks
• It might be an easy tank to get an Ace tanker in?
• Not a lot more?

Cons:

• Long and hard grind
• Long aim time, even if it is better than the Russian tanks
• Bad armor

Take a look at this replay for how an ace tanker game in the VK 30.01 (H). The match starts at 6:25 in the video.

See all best/worst tanks here.

Best and worst tanks by tier and type – best tier VI heavy tank

There are eight tier VI heavy tanks (by patch 9.12):

• KV-2
• KV-85
• T-150
• VK 36.01 (H)
• M6
• ARL 44
• Churchill VII
• O-I

Note: I have not yet played the O-I, so it will be kept “out of the equation” for now, so to speak.

There are several good tanks here. In fact, only the Churchill is bad / very bad. Some might claim that the VK 36.01 is rather weak, but it actually has almost as good armor as it’s bigger brother, the Tiger I.

The KV-2 has the (in-)famous derp gun, and is sort of a different beast than the others. Therefore it is kind of difficult to compare it with the others, but it is perhaps the funniest one to play. 

Equipment for heavy tanks

I recently wrote about the equipment you should use on light tanks and arty. Here, I will describe equipment to use on a heavy tank.  First, you should decide on whether you want to keep the tank or if you want to sell it when the next one is unlocked, because this should affect how you want to equip your tank.

If you want to keep them, you should mount the following:

1. Ventilation (“vents”) – always mount ventilation on tanks that can use this equipment. All heavys can, I believe.
2. Gun rammer – decreases reload time by 10%.
3. Vertical stabilizer – if you mount it, do. This will increase your accuracy and decrease your aiming time.
4. Enhanced gun laying drive – decreases your aiming time by 10%.

Vents

If you do not want to keep the tank, mount the following:

1. Ventilation – always mount ventilation on tanks that can use this equipment. All heavys can, I believe. I would mount this also on tanks I do not want to keep, even if it costs 10 gold to remove it.
2. Tool box – 25% faster repairs. Since heavy tanks get tracked a lot, this one is very useful. And you can move it to a different tank without cost.
3. Binocular telescope – increases your view range by 25% when stationary, when you have stopped for 3 seconds. This is only partially recommended, but you can move it to a different tank for free.  And you should use all three equipment slots. It’s better to use telescope in the third slot than leaving it empty.
4. If you absolutely want to avoid paying 10 gold to remove ventilation, you only have one more type of equipment you can use, and that is camouflage net. On a heavy tank this isn’t very useful, even if it increases the tanks camo value by 5%.

Best and worst tanks by tier and type – best tier V heavy tank

There are six tier V heavy tanks in World of tanks (by april 2015):

• KV-1
• KV-1S
• VK 30.01 (H)
• T1 heavy tank
• BDR G1 B
• Churchill I

Three of these are contenders to the title  “best tier V heavy tank”, and that is KV-1, T1 heavy tank and BDR G1 B. A lot of players would say the KV-1 is a clear winner, but in my opinion, I had a lot more fun with the BDR G1 B. Therefore, I go for the BDR. It is big, has less armor than the KV-1, but the gun ticks all the right boxes.

Pros:

• The 90 mm DCA 30 is a very good gun: It has good penetration, nice alpha damage and above accuracy (even if the KV-1 has higher damage per minute)
• Better than average gun depression

Cons:

• Worse armor than other tier V heavys
• Fewer HP than other tier V heavys
• Big target

Really, the BDR shouldn’t work as well as the KV-1, for instance, but I really liked the BDR more, even if my win rate on the BDR was much lower than the KV-1. Pointy Haired Jedi will show you how to play this:

See all best/worst tanks here.