The Strv 74 currently sits at 5.7, which is far too high for what it offers. It’s slow for a light tank, with 340 horsepower and a top speed of 45 km/h. Its armor is mediocre at best, with 55mm of slightly angled armor max. It is comically tall, at 3.3 meters. For reference, the tallest sherman variants, the ones with HVSS are 2.97 meters. The gun, while good, is not enough to make up for its flaws at this BR. At 5.0 you get a very similar cannon, except its autoloaded cutting it’s reload speed in half, with the only major difference being slightly lower pen and no sabot. At 5.3 you have the m18, which is obscenely mobile and has a decent cannon. At it’s BR of 5.7, you have the panther D, which has a better power to weight ratio, better top speed, slightly worse cannon, no sabot, but has obscenely good frontal armor. The Strv 74 really should not be at 5.7, as unless im missing something it is more suitable for 5.0-5.3 alongside the delat torn and m/43 (1963)
Well its mostly because it used to have better mobility when the spaghetti coded transmission broke it became the equivalent of a Panzer IV in terms of mobility. So it used to be very mobile, nearly always reaching its top-speed and climbing steep hills. I personally think its 5.7 because of the natural -15 degrees of depression on fully rotatable turret, with a great APHE round. Back in 2022 i had lots of fun with the APHE now its acting weird though for some odd reason. it refuses to pen the slightest angle.
i had an ARL 44 pass me yesterday. thats when i realized how slow that thing is. -15 is a nice perk, but the turret is so tall beyond the breach that you still put up a big profile above a hill line. You can’t M10 or M18 where your breach is the only thing above the hill.
158 pen APHE or 240 pen short rod APDS isn’t 5.7 worthy. In its current state, 5.0 would be fine. Much like the reserve tanks, big pen, small postpen, no armor, rather slow.
Agreed, could easily see it 5.0 with the DT.
I find it quite good as is, but that is likely because i find its play-style enjoyable. I could see it going down to 5.3, but no lower.
I’ve never had any problems with it at 5.7 so i cant really say if it should go down or not, but its not like id complain if it was so sure go ahead.
If they put it at 5.0, there’d be no reason to play the Pvkv 1963, which has the same gun and similar mobility but is a casemate. You could put it at 5.3, but that orphans the T-34-85.
Honestly, it’s not a great tank, but it’s not awful. That sabot is 17 pounder level in terms of pen and damage, but you also have the option for APHE which the British don’t get. The absurdly good gun depression lets it work great as a second line sniper/flanker. You also get scouting, for some reason. You definitely have to play it passively, but it does work.
Strv 74 does the job at 5.7
Bit of a pain to use, but does the job.
Optics? That series has bonkers optics, plus better mobility.
The sights are nice, but it’s not like 6x on the 74 is unusable. I often found 8x to be too much as a minimum.
And the mobility is borderline identical, the p/w ratios are 13 for the Pvkv and 13.1 for the Strv 74. The only real difference is that the Pvkv as a 2kph higher top speed and a 1kph better reverse.
The optics make the Pvkv better as a pure sniper, but the turret makes the 74 infinitely more flexible, while not being much worse at sniping.
That is it’s battle rating in Arcade battles, so I’m assuming you base your observations mostly/entirely around that game mode?
Lightly armored tanks, those who rely on mobility & not being seen, perform worse in AB due to the spotting system. So if you have a rough time there in the Strv74, I understand completely.
I find the Strv 74 is alright in RB. The height is a drawback, but it can be offset with skillful play, as positioning is more important. You have -15° depression, so hills are your friend. I find the gun and ammunition good for it’s BR.
Good gun depression, scouting ability, decent ammo (Be it APHE or APDS), and formerly good mobility, it makes sense, not to mention the high angles of the armor can make some shots ricochet. You can also turn your engine off and still have the same rotation speed while being silent, even after the battery dies.
Its a meme tank at best
the strv 74 is just never going to be a good tank no matter where you put it.
better higher and a bit crap then lower, a bit crap, and also makes armor useless
We already have the same gun ~.7 lower, it would be fine there.
True. The thing is quite massive though, and honestly even at 5.0 it wouldnt be that good compared to stuff like the DT imo. APDS is good, but ngl 90% of the time aphe is king.
The pvkv also has actual armor too, which is a big help, and considering the optics on that thing go from 8x to 16x…
Should be fine at 5.0 imo. It just seems way too high rn for a slow LT that really lacks armor.
Not sure I would say that. It has 70mm almost flat over the casemate, which even at the best possible angle doesn’t go much over 85mm effective. Even 4.0s can rip through that pretty easily, even at range.
The Strv isn’t well armored either, but it’s all pretty heavily sloped, meaning occasionally someone with take a snapshot and get trolled by hitting a near horizontal plate. It’s not consistent, but it bailed me out a few times.
The LT classification is bizaare and shouldnt be given much thought, it’s a holdover from the time it was up over 6.0 BR somewhere (I forget exactly where), and Gaijin gave it scouting in the vague attempt to keep it at such a high BR.
IRL, it was a medium tank (Well, MBT more accurately) and it plays like a support sniper more than an LT, but is still more flexible than the Pvkv. You can be more aggressive and work ridgelines more proactively since you have the turret, and you’re substantially less vulnerable to being outpositioned or flanked.
I can’t really underscore what an advantage having a turret is in game. On maps that don’t allow the super long range sniping the Pvkv excels in (IE most of them), trading that zoom for a turret is always worth it, IMO.
It is accurate, they did call it a LT.
Lago hull moment. I still think they are roughly equal in capability, and the DTs better then both imo- so it should be 5.0.
Huh, so they did. I remembered differently.
That’s a harder comparison. It’s the lack of APDS that gives me the biggest pause, sure APHE is often better but the APDS is a very useful option at longer ranges and against tougher tanks. Not having it limits the Delat quite severely.
The turret is also quite slow on it, and it’s not got that amazing 15 degrees of gun depression that makes the 74 so flexible in positioning. I’ll admit, the 3.5 second reload is a great asset, but it’s hard to compare it to a sniper like the 74.
Pvkv has some advantages, including DRASTICALLY improved armor, especially when angled, more gun elevation (5 extra degrees), a smaller less “tanky” profile, and it does not have to worry about a ready rack (while still having the same reload speed).
Lots of small things, but it does add up imo. I also think it looks much better but thats just me.