[MMO] World of Tanks

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Elcs

Diamond Member
Apr 27, 2002
6,278
6
81
The ARL 44 has an AMAZING gun. Luckily everything else is bad.

Stats wise the gun is great, especially for tier 6. Unfortunately the gun in real use is pretty poor at tier 6.

3s aim time... Even if you had a 90% crew, EGLD and Vents it takes forever to aim. Peekaboo is completely out of the question and you're not really in a position to be a Tiger (sniper).

The tracks are oddly positioned. You get tracked regularly and take damage most of the time.

The 120mm armour looks almost King Tiger-esque, however good luck bouncing on it as most of the time something like the Short 88 goes right through it.

Accuracy suggests it's good. In reality it's not as good as you'd hope and ends up letting you down.

Looks good on paper, awful in reality. Sad tank.
 

LurkerPrime

Senior member
Aug 11, 2010
962
0
71
So I made it home and decided to start my epic grind on the american line. only had enough free xp to get the M3 Lee. Apparently its begginers luck or something, but first game had 7 kills over 2K xp, second gave 4 kills and like 1k xp. Then it set in and in the third game only 1 kill and a few hundred xp. Man this is going to take awhile.
 

PowerYoga

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2001
4,603
0
0
I mean, what happened to that gun? And to the tank in general? Is the gun just not center heavy? (randomly falls outside of the reticule?)

edit:

Play the Lee like a tank destroyer, it's not a tank. :p I actually had a lot of fun in the Lee, didn't understand what everyone was bitching about. Sure it has a huge silhouette and the gun sucks when you're fighting tanks 2 tiers higher... but that's fairly normal. My record in it is decent and I do a good amount of damage in it. The tank is pretty mobile as well, and it's more than enough to deal with anything its own tier and more. I mean, a tank that can damage the KV is always good in my books.
 
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Daverino

Platinum Member
Mar 15, 2007
2,004
1
0
Stats wise the gun is great, especially for tier 6. Unfortunately the gun in real use is pretty poor at tier 6.

3s aim time... Even if you had a 90% crew, EGLD and Vents it takes forever to aim. Peekaboo is completely out of the question and you're not really in a position to be a Tiger (sniper).

The tracks are oddly positioned. You get tracked regularly and take damage most of the time.

The 120mm armour looks almost King Tiger-esque, however good luck bouncing on it as most of the time something like the Short 88 goes right through it.

Accuracy suggests it's good. In reality it's not as good as you'd hope and ends up letting you down.

Looks good on paper, awful in reality. Sad tank.

Respectfully disagree on this one. The ARL-44 and it's gun are an amazing piece of kit. Easily the best T6 anything in the game, in my book. You just cannot beat 212 penetration on a T6 tank. You can frontally penetrate every T8 tank and many T9 tanks in the game, which is critical because T6s WILL get matched against these tanks ALL the time. And 240 damage is no joke. Fighting at your own weight class or below, that damage will cripple anything you shoot at.

The point is that the ARL-44 can hang with tanks heavier than T6. No other T6, not even the KV-3 can do it as well as the ARL-44. You don't have to worry about running over the map looking for the two or three opponents you can actually damage. If a IS-4 or E75 sees a JpIV or a KV3 hanging out on his flanks he can ignore it. The ARL will pen them and damage them. The benefit of this cannot be overstated.

Tier 6 is the ugly step-child of the game. It's only incrementally better than Tier 5, but usually vastly inferior to Tier 7 and light years behind T8 and up. And yet, the match maker will put you in T6 max matches about 10% of the time? A tier 6 that is even fair to mediocre in a T7 or T8 game is anything less than painful. I can't think of another T6 that can hang at higher tiers like a ARL-44.

PS. Play it like a Panther against high tier tanks.
 

clamum

Lifer
Feb 13, 2003
26,252
403
126
I watched a couple of WoT videos on YouTube last night and rather than going to bed, decided to fire up the game.

First clicked my Panzerjager TD and started a battle; it was an open, desert-like map that I hadn't played before. Because of this, I stayed close to the start and just behind several friendlies. Just as the enemy came into view range, I began to rotate my TD to fire upon them when in a couple seconds was one-shotted and destroyed. :-\

Sigh. Back to garage, click my Pz35t and then into "Mines". Started in the south; waited a few seconds to see where friendlies were going and about half went left, half right. Went left slightly and got behind a rock to watch the left/beach area. Enemy comes in normally, to the east of the beach, and we engage (enemy is still far off from me). Suddenly I'm under fire from directly west of me by fairly rapid fire, and die without seeing the tank (don't think it was arty) that killed me. :-/

I don't usually get killed quite that fast, but more often than not do not even get a kill. While I'd like to get better at playing the TD line, it's frustrating to play a tier 2 Panzerjager against a team made up of tier 3 and tier 4 tanks with a couple tier 2s thrown in. At least in the Pz35t I'm not matched up like that. Oh well. Looking forward to getting raped again tonight. :wub:
 

Skott

Diamond Member
Oct 4, 2005
5,730
1
76
The stock gun on the ARL 44 plain outright sucks. The first 90mm gun is mediocre at best. Now the second 90mm gun, which I have, is not too bad. Much better penetration. However, the ARL 44 has one major glaring weakness. Its tracks. It is one of the easiest tanks in the game to track, if not the easiest. They are completely unprotected. The sprockets, the part you need to hit to track tanks, can easily be hit from side, front, or rear. Most tanks have a fender that at least gives some frontal and rear protection on the sprockets. Try playing peek a boo in a ARL 44 that is constantly tracked. Try advancing or withdrawing in a ARL 44 that is constantly tracked. Not fun at all. It usually means certain death.

Now people will say, 'But you are not suppose to play peek a boo with the ARL 44 or be near the front', but the plain fact is that it is going to happen due to the fact everyone knows French tanks are squishy and they have little fear of them and they are not afraid to charge French tanks including the ARL 44. Hell, I do it myself when playing non French tanks. I know they are squishy and are basically two hit tanks by their tier mates or larger tiered tanks. Even lower tier tanks can do significant damage to a ARL 44. The damn thing is slow to turn too. It can easily be flanked by many other tanks.

Ideally you want to lay back with the ARL 44 and snipe but often the team fails and you soon find yourself in the front line facing charging tanks that can take more than two shots and anxious to brawl with you because they know your armor is weak. And don't even get me started what arty can do to a ARL 44. That is another rant.

I don't have the third 90mm gun yet. On paper it looks nice but I can't speak from experience yet. I've heard both good and bad about it. Right now at best I can say the ARL 44 is an average so-so tank. Nothing real special about it. Not one I would keep in my garage after researching the next one in line. So far my opinion about heavy French tank line is that it still sucks and extremely unbalanced compared to other tank lines. I'm hoping the Tier 7 is better but grinding the French heavy line is so frustrating. Not sure if I can keep going. I haven't given up yet though.
 

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
41,091
513
126
Just had a game where the lowest tank was a tiger on our team and a t-50-2 on theirs without arty.

It was a bunch of heavies sitting in tree's trying to inch forward enough to snipe at each other. 15 mins of me eating a pizza and talking to the GF until a draw. I never missed arty until then lol
 

Binky

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,046
4
81
How could you hate this ridiculous tank? I got 5 kills in a tank that can barely hit something point blank.

Victory!
Battle: Erlenberg Wednesday, January 18, 2012 9:35:08 PM
Vehicle: AMX 40
Experience received: 2,610 (x2 for the first victory each day)
Credits received: 17,364
Battle Achievements: Steel Wall
 

eLiu

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2001
6,407
1
0
Just picked up the 105 L/68 for my Tiger II a few games ago. Uhhh... I think I like the Long 88 better?? I don't feel like I have substantially more penetrating power here... am I failing or do others use the long88 too?

It's less DPS & the ammo costs a boatload.

edit: after more games, I'm warming up to this gun a little bit. It still feels crazy expensive to run b/c I shoot often in my KT. I think the one place I'm really noticing the pen is when attacking the side of an IS-4.

And my win ratio still sucks :(
 
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stag3

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2005
3,623
0
76
wow mm just fucked us over
12 vs 14 and they had an extra tier X and 9
wtf is that bullshit
 

Elcs

Diamond Member
Apr 27, 2002
6,278
6
81
Just picked up the 105 L/68 for my Tiger II a few games ago. Uhhh... I think I like the Long 88 better?? I don't feel like I have substantially more penetrating power here... am I failing or do others use the long88 too?

It's less DPS & the ammo costs a boatload.

edit: after more games, I'm warming up to this gun a little bit. It still feels crazy expensive to run b/c I shoot often in my KT. I think the one place I'm really noticing the pen is when attacking the side of an IS-4.

And my win ratio still sucks :(

Difference between 203 and 225 is night and day. I also much preferred the first 10.5 on the KT to the 8.8cm (it's not the long 8.8cm anymore, title taken by the 8.8cm L/100 on the E-50).

The gun turns the King Tiger from a heavily armoured tank which can damage most tanks of it's tier reasonably well into a tank that can demolish anything it's tier.
 

eLiu

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2001
6,407
1
0
Difference between 203 and 225 is night and day. I also much preferred the first 10.5 on the KT to the 8.8cm (it's not the long 8.8cm anymore, title taken by the 8.8cm L/100 on the E-50).

The gun turns the King Tiger from a heavily armoured tank which can damage most tanks of it's tier reasonably well into a tank that can demolish anything it's tier.

Well I already felt like the KT could demolish anything in its tier even with the 88/L71, haha. Err, well except the T28. God I hate going against those things. I know I can pen the lower glacis or the cupolas, but damnit they're still scary. Ferdinands are a little scary too. Before that, I found IS-3s challenging until you pointed out to me that the 88/L71 can pen the front XD I haven't gotten a chance to go head to head with an IS-3 yet with the 105mm but I'm sure it'll be even easier now.

Of all things I swear it feels like I'm bouncing off of Lowes more than with 88/L71. I'm sure that's in my head but I mean geez. Front armor (which should be smashed by the 105), side of turret (wat), bah!

I guess I just need more time to feel out the gun. Been using the 88/L71 so long, so I've grown to know/tolerate what it bounces off of. I was hoping that with the 105, I'd be able to take shots that I previously couldn't or I wouldn't have to aim as carefully or something. But that's not really reasonable lol.

But I think it's more that I should still go for the exact same shots as before (well, a few doors are opened, like pen'ing Ferdi superstructure or JT any non-superstructure, and probably tier10 sides will be less bouncy to me), but I'll get a lot fewer bounces now. I bet I already experience way fewer bounces but just feel bad b/c there several very memorable "NOO WHY DID THAT BOUNCE?!" moments.


Oh, and now my survival rate (48%) is higher than my win rate (47%)! FAIL. My global win rate is 53% and most of my tier6/7 tanks are above that (KT is my only tier8 atm). I dunno why I can't keep a good win rate in this tank... my avg exp is like 820 (my best of any tank) and I'm doing more than my health in damage on avg. Is it b/c doing damage + staying alive isn't enough anymore in tier8? Maybe I don't do enough to help my teams, I dunno if it's me or them :( Maybe I should play TCs...
 

LurkerPrime

Senior member
Aug 11, 2010
962
0
71
Difference between 203 and 225 is night and day. I also much preferred the first 10.5 on the KT to the 8.8cm (it's not the long 8.8cm anymore, title taken by the 8.8cm L/100 on the E-50).

The gun turns the King Tiger from a heavily armoured tank which can damage most tanks of it's tier reasonably well into a tank that can demolish anything it's tier.

I love the best gun on the KT (not at home so I can't see the name of it). It has great penetration that goes right through those pesky type 59s from practically any angle. That gun also gives you a fighting chance when your on the bottom with all tier 9s and 10s. Sure penning most from the front is still a craps shoot, but you can penn all but the maus from the sides reliably. With its accuracy you can also snipe reliably all day long with it.

The only downside to the gun is the shell cost. I've shot through 35 shells in one game, albiet I had 7 kill, I still only netted less thank 10k profit. Your best bet is to not miss with it, since it costs so much to shoot the damn thing. Also if your going to try for those light tanks that rush your arty, switch to HE as it costs half as much.

I'm halfway through the Lee and damn I forgot how much I hate the lower tiers. When you get placed in games with tier 6-7s you cant do shit and your likely to get 1-2 shotted. I shot a VK in the rear 3 times with this tank and every single one of them bounced. Directly in his ass, at like 15 meters, bounce, not once, but 3 times. WTF!
 

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
41,091
513
126
I can generate ok profits with the 88 on the KT provided I dont die right away. But that is why I thankfully got the Type 59. That thing can be blown up by arty within 15 seconds of the match and still make 30K. After that the sky is the limits :D
 

Possessed Freak

Diamond Member
Nov 4, 1999
6,045
1
0
wow mm just fucked us over
12 vs 14 and they had an extra tier X and 9
wtf is that bullshit

I never understand the 'balancing' MM does. Somebody waited for 3 min or whatever in MM that caused the 12v14, but regardless it *should* be 13v13 with as closely matched tiers as possible.

What I have noticed since the redoing of the 59 in the tier 8,9,10 games is that the 59 is weighted as a tier 7 heavy. Before the side without the 59's would get other tier 8 tanks. Now a tier 7 heavy is treated as equal to the 59. I have NOT seen other tier 8 mediums weighed like this.
 

LurkerPrime

Senior member
Aug 11, 2010
962
0
71
I never understand the 'balancing' MM does. Somebody waited for 3 min or whatever in MM that caused the 12v14, but regardless it *should* be 13v13 with as closely matched tiers as possible.

What I have noticed since the redoing of the 59 in the tier 8,9,10 games is that the 59 is weighted as a tier 7 heavy. Before the side without the 59's would get other tier 8 tanks. Now a tier 7 heavy is treated as equal to the 59. I have NOT seen other tier 8 mediums weighed like this.

I've been in plenty of lopsided MM games where one team has more higher tier tanks than the other. It seems like each tank has a rating value and each game has an acceptable rating range. Then matches are "balanced" based on the total rating of both teams. This is of course all speculation, but it could help explain the tier mismatches. Everyone knows that MM has its issues, but once you get an upgraded tier 8 tank you can fight effectively no matter what your stuck with. Personally everyone thinks getting stuck with 6 T59s on the enemy team is an auto loss, while I love it since the KT eats those things up.

Playing my tier 4 Lee is just funny at times, especially when its top tank in the match. In the lower tier games there isn't any coordination at all, everyone just zooms off in 10 different directions doing thier own thing. Only 7k xp away from the T1 heavy, but I know I'm going to loath playing that tank. I always laughed when seeing one in my KV cause they are so easy to kill. I guess if I can learn to position myself to take advantage of my turret armor I wont do half bad.
 

PowerYoga

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2001
4,603
0
0
you shouldn't bounce off a lowe unless you're engaging at extreme distances like 500-600m. The bottom glacis is so huge you can hit it easily from 400m away with a 88 L/71. the front part of the turret is really tough, don't shoot it.... but if you're face hugging you can hit the copula. Top glacis I found can be penetrated reliably by the 10.5 if you get a bit of an slope shooting down into it. As always, side turret and hull are butter.
 

stag3

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2005
3,623
0
76
man the E100 is uber dissapointment, it is a pain to pen IS-7's ugh. bounces a lot.
am i supposed to use AP or HE? i know before it was HE pre nerf.
 

Daverino

Platinum Member
Mar 15, 2007
2,004
1
0
man the E100 is uber dissapointment, it is a pain to pen IS-7's ugh. bounces a lot.
am i supposed to use AP or HE? i know before it was HE pre nerf.

My general opinion is that all T10 tanks as well as T8 artillery are hugely disappointing unless you're playing them in a company or clan match. You NEED to have a coordinated team to make use of them.

All the T10 tanks have a great strength and a great weakness. In a public match, you can expect not to play to your strength and have you weaknesses exploited. A Maus is tough to kill, but only packs the gun of a Ferdinand. Once the enemy knows where your Maus is, it's possible to avoid it. The T30 has a god-like gun with god-like penetration mounted on a fragile chassis. Force it into a brawling situation and it falls apart. The AMX-50B has a massive alpha that can cripple or destroy any other tank in the match in a matter of seconds. But it has no armor at all and is defenseless for 40+ seconds after firing its last autoloader round. The E-100, as pointed out here, has excellent armor and a gun that does a ton of damage, but does not have the penetration to tackle T9 and T10 tanks and TDs at medium to long ranges. Only the IS-7 has the best mix for a pub, being an up-armorer IS-4. But it doesn't dish out enough damage quickly enough to make up for its lack of hit points. So it's happy fighting T9 and T8 tanks but ironically cannot go toe to toe with any other of the T10s.

And T8 arty needs protection. It shoots too slowly to influence a fast game and is very vulnerable to scouts. A coordinated game where scout lanes are covered and you have dedicated arty spotters is where T8 arty shines. I run my T92 in CW every night and then I put it away until the next day.

So when you say the E100 is a disappointment, you need to put it into context. In a company battle or clan wars, you can use a single E100 or AMX50B to lock your base down better than any other tank. A T30 trailing a Maus is a sword and shield combo that's hard to beat. A pack of IS-7s running as a unit can savage anything they find.

Running an E100 in a random pub? That's like playing in ultra-hard mode.
 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
15
81
Now the type 59 is gone i wish i had bought one... stupid facking game :'( My lowe is so slowe it never used to bother me but after 600 games with it im a bit fed up being slow.
 

PowerYoga

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2001
4,603
0
0
I thought the same thing before I started driving french tanks. Now I think the lowe is quite speedy.
 

FallenHero

Diamond Member
Jan 2, 2006
5,659
0
0
I am now learning the meaning of patience in my games. I push where there is an exploit in the weakness of the teams, but none of the 4 heavy tanks behind me push at the same time...allowing me to be utterly destroyed by the single tank and arty that has me bracketed. I think I may just guard arty in the rest of my games.
 

PowerYoga

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2001
4,603
0
0
Pushing should be left to breakthrough tanks, if you're in a medium or little tank you need to either flank or group up with other mediums and coordinate a flank. I see lots of mediums moving up expecting the big boys follow and that's just not how it works. Did you try coordinating and getting confirmation from your teammates that they'd be supporting you?

Of course if you're in low tier matches (4-6) don't expect any level of competency from teammates.
 

stag3

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2005
3,623
0
76
yea i meant in random pub matches as i'm still trying to get my crew to 100%
i'm almost at the point its better to use the stock gun on the e100 now for the pen