Recently, there has been a discussion on the performance of IS2 on Warthunder’s Chinese forum Baidu Tieba, and most people believe that the performance of IS2 is insufficient. Therefore, I believe that in the current environment, IS2 is suffering from mistreatment
At present, IS2 currently faces many limitations. If lucky enough to encounter tigers and leopards, the 20 second loading speed of the 122mm cannon greatly limits its firepower and efficiency. Not to mention the IS2’s average mobility and poor protection, especially the front of the turret and the commander’s tower of the IS2 (1943), which only have a 100mm protection level, and the crotch only has a 130mm protection level. Anyone can easily penetrate these weaknesses. The IS2 (1944) has better protection, but the crotch still cannot block the direct shooting of the Tiger King H, and the problem of the huge commander tower has not been solved. These shortcomings make the IS2 easy to cause fatal injuries in any environment
On the other hand, the weakest tower on the front of Tiger King H has a 165mm protection level, and the projected area of the tower is very small, making it difficult to hit. In other places, such as the vehicle body with 320mm protection level and the turret front with 190mm protection level,
So what does it mean to use is2 (1943) to shoot Tiger King H? The tiger king H turret with a slight angle can defend against direct fire from the BR471B of the IS2 (1943), and the Tiger King H can easily defeat it with a firing rate three times faster than the IS2 (1943). Even the IS21944 has to face the problem of being slowly tortured by the Tiger King H after firing errors, so the IS21944 is simply not worthy of being in the same BR as the Tiger King H
Finally, there is a problem that no one can avoid with the USSR vehicle’s handling. The IS2 only has a -3 ° depression angle, which makes it difficult for it to move on complex terrains such as mountains and hills. On the other hand, the Tiger King has a -10 ° depression angle, which makes the IS2 even less adaptable to terrain
6.7 IS-2 definitely could drop down to 6.3. It basically little to no pros over KT and the cons it has are pretty crippling and are playstyle defining.
They need to remove the post war shell and smoke grenades. Then move it back to 6.3 and put the 1943 version to 6.0 Then they can add the IS-2M at 6.7, give it the post war shell and smoke grenades. It also has an improved fire control system and engine. Also they could add the IS-2M with the 100mm at 7.0
a tiger is a box, angled to have optimal armour is only in a very special circumstance, the IS2 has that armour angle and thickness (with favourable damage models compared to most) all the time.
The turret cheeks damage model is extremely wonky to the point I’ve had L23 APFSDS non pen on the flatter parts of it.
this goes for almost every tank in game and is a low skill exploit from the overperformance of APHE.
Id mostly be on the side of it going lower if the damage models pot luck to if your shell does anything was cleaned up to be as consistent as other vehicles
The armor difference between the Tiger E and the IS-2 is marginal.
The Tiger has more armor on the mantlet that covers the entire turret front, the IS-2 has overall more armor, yet the lower plate and turret front are always an easy target for practically any gun at 5.0 and above.
And to encounter a Tiger with the front not directly pointed at you would be the special circumstance.
You have to be basically blind to tun into an enemy directly from the front.
That still doesn’t address the much better firepower of the Tiger, due to having much better RoF.
The only advantage of the IS-2 is armor penetration of the gun, which allows it to take out higher BR tanks more easily but at higher BR the armor also means less, so it becomes a glorified tank destroyer.
The only reason the IS-2s went up in BR is probably that 6.0 always got into 6.7 battles, where the IS-2 had the advantage in killing 6.7 heavy tanks.
id say Tiger E armor is weak at 6.0 you can never perfectly angle cause any tank with 150mm of pen will pen Even angle now that they removed volumetric on turret its a weak spot around the barrel
so every 76 sherman every T34-85 can pen you , tiger E does not desreve BR of 6.0 should go back to 5.7 But no cause everyone complained it had to get raised germany always gets overtiered
Problem is, Realism, Best tank in WW2 but worse tank in War thunder, The IS-2 had a Number ratio towards tigers of 2.5-1 and the main reason of it greatest weakness is because it took part in longer range tank fights which Projectile mass was key, Problem is in War thunder theres no such as Long range tank engagements and if there are, There just Tank destroyer fights, The main reason it isn’t down is the oppisite reason why the long barreled panzer IV is higher, Skill issue, We can all agree here that the Everage IS-2 user is smarter then the King tiger user, Also did you know in emergencies the reload man could up the rate of fire to 3-4? (per minute)
No, I just said it handles uptiers better in terms of fighting 6.7 vehicles.
That doesn’t mean it’s automatically better.
You have to be mental to think that a tank with a 20.8 second reload is going to have as much of an impact as a tank with 7.4s that can penetrate 80% of the same targets with ease.
The Tigers weakspot is just a 40cm tall flat plate on the front compared to double the size of the IS-2s lower plate.
Good luck hitting that from 500m and more.
Any tank can penetrate an IS-2 turret from the front and kill the tank in one shot, while you need a US 90mm to even be able to penetrate the Tigers mantlet reliably.
The Tiger E is simply a better vehicle at 6.0 than the IS-2 is at 6.3.
And at 6.0 both have equal strengths and weaknesses.
