Some words about classes of tanks

When you have played a number of battles, you will start to move up through the different tech trees of various nations. At tier V you will unlock your first heavy tanks, even if there are some at tier IV also. (And even one at tier III.) You have probably have noticed what characterizes a heavy tank:

• High alpha damage, but slow rate of fire
• Better armor than other classes
• Slower than all other classes (except artillery/SPG)
• Worse camoflage rating than the other classes

But every now and then, you will find that some medium tanks check one or more of these boxes. The Matilda is one of these, by having great armor for it’s type and tier.

VK 30.01 (p), German tier VI medium

The VK 30.01 (P) is another example, as it’s 220 alpha damage is (almost) twice that of other tier VI medium tanks. Therefore, it is meaningful to characterize some mediums as “heavy medium tanks”.

In other cases, you have some heavy tanks that could be characterized as “medium heavy tanks”, like the KV-1S, at least when compared to it’s brother, the KV-1.

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 IV medium – UPDATED

There are 11 tier IV mediums (by patch 1.0):

• T-28
• Pz.Kpfw. III
• Pz.Kpfw. IV
• VK 20.01 (D)
• M3 Lee
• Grant
• Matilda
• Type 1 Chi-He
• Lago
• SARL 42
• ST vz. 39

You can see which one I think is the best here. But what about the worst? It used to be the M3 Lee a while ago, and when World of tanks introduced the British Grant tank in patch 9.5, we got a new worst tier IV medium tank for a while. It is very similar to the M3 Lee, but the mobility is a little bit worse, and you need good mobility and traverse speed in a medium without a turret. However, there is a new kid on the block, and that is the SARL 42. It has really nothing  going for it. No armor, no speed, and horrible damage per minute. I recently played through it, and kept asking “Why?!?!?”

Some might argue that the Type 1 Chi-He is even worse, with it’s lousy accuracy, but at least it has got a turret and fantastic gun depression.

Pros:

• It is not the slowest tank in the game

Cons:

• Eveything

This is what an Ace tanker game in this tank looks like:

See all best/worst tanks by tier and type here.