Slow ? The thing is surprisingly fast and overall way more agile than a Tiger II.
Ok the depression is bad but as long as you don’t play it on a hill it’s not a problem at all.
And the reaload is very overstimated … it’s long yes, but it’s a problem only in close combat. And if you’re in close combat with a heavy you’re pretty much dead, no matter the tank.
I was more comparing it to the T32 which sits at 7.3, since this thread is advocating for a 7.3/7.7 push.
Even the slightest of incline could be tricky for IS-3. You don’t need hills to make it useless.
I think you are underestimating how long 23 seconds are, especially when you consider that round isn’t anything special, other heavies around that BR range have similarly performant rounds, but with much better reload speed.
Not only that, it’s turret traverse is abysmal as well, it tops out at 7.7 deg/s.
To put that in the perspective, IS-3 needs more than 10 seconds to turn it’s turret 90 degrees, that’s ridiculously slow.
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I know the IS-3 quite well as I play it and I play a lot against it.
It would clearly perform quite well in 7.3. Sure on its own the IS-3 can be countered by somehting like a T32 but it’s rarely alone. If you couple it with let’s say a T-44 then it’s really hard to pass through.
Also my biggest problem with it is the inconstent valu of its armour. Even if you manage to flank it, there’s a high chance that the side armour will eat the round or a weird angle will make it bounce.
I’m not trying to argue that the IS-3 is OP, cuz it’s not, but it’s on the same BR as tanks like the Tiger II 10.5 or things like that that are clearly inferior.
Well one gets better armour the other a better gun. Swings and roundabouts?
True I would choose the tiger’s gun anytime of the day but that doesn’t compensate the enormous amour of the IS-3. Especially since the said gun can’t pen it so it’s a one way duel.
I did start to discover that the drivers hatch has become a weakspot though, this wouls balance the tank and ustify its BR.
Those are HEAT or APDS rounds … of course it can be penned but not by regular WW2 rounds.
Furthermore, most of the tanks you’ve shown can be easily scared off or damaged with the AA machine gun.
Yes when you shoot a tank it will generally suffer damage.
You can avoid this by either attacking the tank while it is distracted or ambushing it.
“regular WW2 rounds” can penetrate the side of the tank and the rear
If you want to frontally assault an assault tank you will need to use a tank destroyer.
Utilize the vehicles available to you at your BR range, having a full lineup is what wins games.
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IS-3 is a sitting duck for like 23 seconds, even more if loader is injured, so you should have ample time to deal with it’s armor.
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That’s the only way of dealing with it if you don’t have chemical rounds, which isn’t the case against other heavies. That also implies that nobody is covering him.
The rear ? First good luck going there and second, what’s the point of shooting there except ruining the engine ?
For the sides, the penetration is very inconsistent as the angle is weird and your shot often diseapears.
What’s an assault tank ? Also in the game it’s way easier to engage it with a light tank than with a TD as the TD will most likely bounce and get ruined.
The soviet lineup at 7.0 is one of the best I ever saw. For germany, the only heavy you get is a poorly protected Tiger II and some other nations like France you get nothing.
But once again, that implies the fact that it cannot reverse with it’s great reverse speed and that no one is covering him.
Of course you can deal with a tank alone, the hard thing is doing the same while there are other people around.
Depends on the heavy and the tank you’re using.
The back side of the turret.
Jumbo Sherman, IS-3, MAUS
Big, fat, more armor than necessary. Generally not the best gun of the tier.
Breakthrough → assault
Germany doesn’t have a 7.0 lineup nor should you play its 6.7 lineup if you want to play efficiently.
6.3 offers you the JPz and the M41 bulldog combine that with the Tiger 2 (P) you’ll get some downtiers some uptiers but you’ll have a good time. Grind up to 7.7 and suffer less.
It has tracks you can damage from all angles.
Yes it’s generally hard to attack 2-3 tanks as a single tank. There’s not really a discussion of balance to be had when discussing 1v[X] X being >1
Of course it’s a matter of balance and that’s exactly my point. In real combat, you very rarely have a 1v1 situation because there’s always someone shooting from a distance or coming to reinforce, which means you h ave to act quick.
And that’s what’s making the IS-3 so good, you cannot take him out frontally so you have to go around or take a very long time by destroying it’s tracks and so on. By the time you’re ready to actually kill it, his team is back and you’re dead.
The tank itself might not be OP but it’s its value to the team that’s important here. An IS-3 covered by a T-44 can do way more for their team than 3 or 4 players individually.
BTW, winning a duel against 2-3 tanks is a very common thing and you have multiple instance where a player alone holds a capture zone for a very long time.
I just showed you tanks with which you can frontally penetrate him even in a full downtier. If you refuse to use the tanks available to you that is not the game’s fault / Gaijin’s problem to balance.
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You do realise that it’s a dumb statement yes ?
“just use HEAT”, yeah sure, I’ll just wait in a corner for that specific moment where an IS-3 will come out.
You could simply say “just bomb it” cuz after all, all nations got planes right ?
Having all the heavies, most of the TDs and half of the mediums not being able to pen it frontally isn’t balance and it’s also something that’s unique to it in the game with the T26E5.
Hell, the B1 ter got nerfed because it had too much armour, even though a lot of tanks could pen it, so why not this tank ?
Discussing specific situations when discussing balance isn’t good.
Most tank destroyers of its BR range can penetrate it frontally. Most light tanks of its BR range also gain access to HEAT-FS with which they can penetrate it frontally.
Medium tanks and heavy tanks of its BR range are extremely difficult to balance because of the post WW2 era producing so many prototypes that Gaijin has chosen to model in the game.
The IS-3 has the same gun as the IS-2 with 30 more mm of penetration. If it is uptiered it faces ATGMs and APDS which can penetrate it. If it is at its BR range it faces HEAT-FS. In a full downtier there are still vehicles with access to HEAT-FS to penetrate it but the medium / heavy tanks in a downtier struggle against it frontally.
The Jumbo Sherman at 5.3 can’t penetrate the Tiger 2 (P) frontally easily yet the Tiger 2 (P) is balanced where it is, why?
Because it can have its tracks shot and it can be flanked.
That’s the balancing factor of heavy tanks at this BR range. Can the side armor be penetrated?
In the case of the IS-3 that is a yes. It’s armor is trolly due to Gaijin’s modeling of volumetric but it can still be penetrated by tanks of its BR range.
The IS-3’s gun is its weakest factor and is what relegates it to 7.0, a 20 second reload aced shooting a WW2 round facing Cold War tanks. Its fire power is subaverage.
It does, just aim for the turret cheeks and you can disable gunner, loader and have a chance of blowing up the ammo. And even if the jumbo did have problems penetrating it, it has the worst penetration on it’s BR so the comparison isn’t fair.
And so is the one of the B1 ter. Yet, it’s BR was raised even though it has tracks, weak side and all the things you’re saying.
The IS-3 is indeed in a complex situation with all the ATGMs and HEATs but so does the IS-4 and it’s sitting higher while also having a weakspot on the front for AP shells.
That’s my main problem with the IS-3. All heavies in the game have at least one weakspot on the front, even the most heavily armoured ones.
The only two that don’t have one are the IS-3 and the T26E5
The EBR disagrees.
Inconsistent at best and really only possible with APCR which doesn’t have major post pen damage.
I don’t really have any opinions on pre-war tanks and their balance. I don’t think it’s useful to discuss them in terms of balance for mid tier / high tier as the tier is mostly for curb stomping noobs.
The MAUS can be downtiered to 6.7
You continue to ignore tanks which have access to HEAT-FS
Your argument begins and ends with “The Tiger 2 (H) struggles at 6.7” so why did you create a thread discussing the IS-3?
It has the exact same and i know that you can pen the Tiger II cheeks easily with it.
Sure, or people that simply like WW2 stuff.
Sure, except everything at this BR can pen it’s massive and slow turret
Yes cuz they’re still a minority and can be dismissed with the IS-3 MG.
I didn’t.