Is the t80ud still good? and is this thing not beginner friendly because of thermal lack?
For a battle rating 10.7 vehicle is pretty good, best option for USSR at this battle rating range. Lacking thermal imaging device doesn’t mean losing a arm, is a situational tool that is required in very few situations, situations which you’ll hardly put yourself in, unless you really want like sniping, maps in War Thunder and Gaijin themselves doesn’t praise static gameplay, so it’s not a downside the lack of thermal imaging device.
You’d need to worry about other things that aren’t really beginner friendly, thermals shouldn’t be that big of a deal.
Its obviously not without caveats but out of the big three 10.7 premium MBTs, its the one that works really well on urban and semiurban maps and less so on open maps.
Cant go wrong with it as long as you respect its limitations.