I will shake several trees with this post, but you have to believe me, that my intentions are good. If you visit these pages, I suppose, you are willing to improve your knowledge and gameplay in World of Tanks. The last poll of ours has been the closest. In the last days, the E-100 took the lead over the VK 4502 (P) Ausf. B. This Tier10 tank is disliked by many, but I think, the real problem are the players who drive it. Now, before I have to dodge rotten tomatoes flying, just hear me out.
Update: The rangefinder above the turret has very weak armor. During additional tests, it managed to achieve seven shot protection for only 132 average penetration. 144 avg did ~50 percent. The “ears” outside the front turret profile do not take damage, but the part above the turret does.
Well, thanks a lot, History Channel…
During over ten thousand battles people can see most things. I don’t use XVM-mod, but my personal impression is, that the first german heavy tank line (the Henschel) has the poorest drivers at average in the game. Don’t get me wrong, there is a plausible explanation for that, and it has not much to do with the putative or real superiority of Russian armor in World of Tanks. We are talking about Europe, the supremacy of German engineering has a strong cult here. The same can be said about the armed forces of the Third Reich, especially the Panzerwaffe.
World of Tanks, the game, where you can slaughter countless Wittmans and Rommels
Novice players usually go on the german heavy tank route first, because they expect to kick ass in a Tiger tank. The first slap in their face is, that in the extended timeframe of WoT the basic Tiger is nothing extraordinary. In fact, it’s a frail, hard to play tank, and at this point, the “combat socialization” of the umpteenth MWittman88 or Rommelblitzkrieg goes wrong. American tanks force you to read the terrain, Russians drive you in the first line of the battle. However, the “sniper” style of the Tigers leads to idle gameplay, poor situational awareness and lack of real map knowledge. For a novice player, the US medium tank line might be a better school in WoT, but they have a bad historical reputation.
The E-100 in real life. Unfinished like the training of many. Picture from achtungpanzer.com
I will get better in a bigger tank. No, you won’t…
It doesn’t work this way. Countless Tiger drivers sit through countless battles cussed behind the same rock or building. The higher the tier is, the more likely they will camp, because they are afraid of SPGs (who doesn’t) and the repair costs. Time and again they score some this way, but this will just reaffirm their stubbornness. This is bad, because they will gain to few experience at offensive gameplay, and WoT is about map-control. With enough persistence and bitching about the Russian bias these players can reach the high tiers. The next slap in their face on this course is inevitable. The E-100 demands a different style of play, and these players will simply lack the tactical competence to make it work.
Personally, I have nothing against the “German Cult” or the new players. IS- or US tank drivers can be just as “veggie”, but the poor masses in Tigers, E-75s and E-100s are noticeable. However, it’s not a real problem, this is just a game, and if you are still here with us, you did the first but the most important step to become a badass tanker.
WOT Armory 
Great report, I love the picture of the fighting angle in a city battle. I think with the release of 7.5 we will see a resurgence of heavy german tanks in the meta game. Right now the more agile aspects of the t110 and is7 seem to have a grip on clan wars and company battles. Keep up the good work!
With all due respect, I think you’re wrong in several instances:
-by far the worst T10 drivers I see on the battlefield (and I -do- use XVM) are soviet tier 10s. Crappy IS7s are very common, and absolutely woeful IS4 drivers are everywhere (maybe because the soviet patch that bumped it from T9 to T10). The relatively few E100 I see on battles are usually driven by guys “on the green” (meaning XVM efficiency at 1200 or more). Of course you find a good deal of crappy low efficiency E100 drivers here and there, but nowhere as common as the absolutely horrid amount of retard IS4 drivers that power-leveled their way through the soviet line to get the tank before it got bumped to tier 10.
-Each time I see a face to face fight between a good player in an E100 vs any other Tier 10 tank with a decently skilled driver, the E100 goes down no matter what.
-Size might be good for angling purposes but means every joe with a SPG will absolutely, utterly, rape any E100 he has a clear sight to because it’s actually so hard to miss.
-yes, the 150mm is a terror for lower tier tanks, but any IS7 will laugh like a maniac at that low penetration. Sure, IS7 has weakspots but aren’t really big and the 150mm accuracy (or lack thereof) is absolutely laughable. Low penetration values will mean that even shooting at weakspots on a -static- enemy, one out of each two shots will bounce on the frontal of most enemy T10 tanks. Enter a good enemy driver that knows how to move forward and aft and make himself a hard target to hit, and you’ll be bouncing all day long.
-To compound what I said avobe, the E100 has an absurd reload rate. Once you’re bounced, you’re open to retaliaton because other T10s can shoot you two times and then pop back into cover before you can bounc…I mean…shoot again.
I’m not goint to discuss your analysis of the protection values of the E100 because your tests are exceptionally thorough. Yes, the E100 has decent protection, even good in some areas. The main problem though is that the rest of the tank (accuracy, reload, penetration, mobility, and size) is just totally out of whack, and also means it’s totally outclassed by the rest of the T10 tanks in the game right now.
The E100 really can’t tank as well as a Maus does. In fact it can’t tank at all against a determined enemy that decides to kill you even exposing himself to your fire. E100’s DPM is just outrageously low even while having big alpha. Even one bounce will mean you’re sold out against a determined T110A5 that’s going all out for you. And given the 150mm low alpha and pen that bounce IS GOING TO HAPPEN no matter what you do. And I said T110 as I could say IS7 or IS4. Against a Maus you’re going down no matter what. And against a wise AMX50B, there’s absolutely nothing you can do.
The E100 can’t really stand a fair fight against a good player in another T10 tank. It’s as easy as that. I won’t go as far as say it’s defenceless because in some situations the E100 is a real threat and a dangerous foe. But having a T10 tank that’s so situational, and that only shines when just so many factors click in (being totally sold out in so many other scenarios) just mean the tank is pure crap.
Sorry, but it’s that way. I know you’ve meant well with this article, but I really think that you’re plain wrong in the conclussions you extracted from it.
all the best.
It’s all right, but I think you are missing the point, but maybe I wasn’t straightforward enough.
The E-100 needs and will have some buff, but it’s not that bad as many players describe it, and far from useless. I know people like our testers Szpecnyaz or Eagle18 who play it nicely both on CW and in public and have good opinion on it. We have talked this through. Have you seen an agressively played 3 player E-100 platoon? Murderous steamroll.
Now I don’t know much about the Maus, yet. It’s rare, but I fear the E-100 even in my T110, because if it forces me to fight close quarters, I’m often toast. Simply put, some situations work well for the E-100. Same as I told in the article.
It’s an ok support heavy without gold ammo, just the oppositon got stronger.
I think that point is pretty clear in your analysis. Yes, the tank is far from useless. In good hands can be very hard to bring down. Three platooned well driven E100s can cause havoc in enemy teams. However, three platooned well driven IS7s will cause even more havoc. And that’s the point.
No, the tank is, even then, not competitive enough, because an equally competitive player will do much much better in any other T10 tank just because they offer so much more than this one does. The E100 is exceptionally unflexible and situational and is at a disadvantage with other T10s. It even struggles atainst some T9 heavies in frontal fights (well driven M103 and E75 come to mind).
Ergo, it’s not balanced when compared with other T10 tanks. And it does not need a -small- buff…should be several small buffs in several stats, or an overall at least moderate buff in just one department to give it any meaningful advantage over other T10 tanks. Currently…it has none.
“And given the 150mm low alpha and pen that bounce IS GOING TO HAPPEN no matter what you do”
meant ” low accuracy and pen. Of course, the alpha is monstrous. However the DPM is just miserable.
DPM is actually pretty damn good. ROF is horrible. If by DPM you mean “effecitve DPM” (taking into account the huge number of random misses and bounces) then yes, it’s horrible indeed.
yes, is what I try to explain in my post. Long reload, horrible accuracy and laughable penetration means lots of bounces and meaningless DPM against enemy T10 tanks. Who cares if you try to aim at weakspots, with that “accuracy” the shot will go elsewhere most of the times, and with that penetration trying to achieve frontal pens vs another T10 that isn’t french is just blind pure luck (and lots of enraging bounces).
This tank CAN’T brawl with other T10s, period. It ain’t have the mobility, it ain’t got the gun. It barely has the armor, but what is that good for if you can’t reliably hit back, and you have a terrible reload??. Not to mention front pen fires, which is another wholly different can of worms, of course.
The E100 is just a sorry excuse for a T10 tank, plain and simple.
>”On the other hand, repair and clutch brakes skills are not mandatory, a to slow turning/tracked heavy tank is easy prey for the artillery and the marauding lights and mediums. ”
Do you mean they are mandatory? Those skills prevent the exact stuff you mention 🙂
Right, corrected…
E100 might have been good or on par with the other tier X tanks on random games + with Gold ammo(!) prior the 7.3 patch, but after that it has been deemed the worst tier X tank due to it’s penetration failures and long reload times, don’t trust me, read the reviews: http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php?/topic/117517-un-official-e-100-impressions-after-73/
I agree, soviet drivers are the worst driving IS7 and IS4, with that gun and armor you should do better as they do in average.
Sold my E100 and grinding for T110, no regrets – unless they really buff the E100.
That was a serious mistake, to give away free Tier10s with D-25 stock guns.
i started up the German heavy line and got as far as the E75 but likethe review says the Russian and American high tier heavys are just better.
Your comments on HE are not correct. The low damage (~900) gets automatically divided by 2 for non-penetration, so its now 450. Minus armor from that, if you hit IS4/7 in the turret/gun, they take ~200 dmg or even bounce (IS-7 turret will bounce 15cm HE, i’ve had it happen to me heaps). If you hit any other tank on their hard spot (which is why you are using HE, if u can shoot at soft spots, why bother), the damage is pretty bad. The same is not true for these tanks vs the E-100’s turret, you can wiggle, but anytime its flat, the new guns with >260 pen have no trouble.
Just think about it logically, here we have these much faster tanks that have turrets that offer better protection. Their hull while not as strong as the upper glacis, is sufficient to bounce non- close range shots and their weakspots are small.
What advantage does the E-100 gain for being much slower and a huge target? None armorwise. Nobody besides noobs shoots the E-100 or E-75 on the upper glacis. To hide the lower hull, you have to go hull-down and sadly all these other tanks hull-down better due to their superior turret armor.
The only reason this tank is not totally bad is because its 15cm gun can punish lower tiers like none other, and WoT is all about the wide tier spread. As long as there are tier 8 and 9s for it to stomp, it’s going to contribute very nicely to the battle. E-100’s biggest problem is the low penetration on its gun, making fights vs tier 10 highly RNG/luck based and frustrating.
I regularly do 200-300 damage on IS-7 turret with KV-2. Only the mantlet area is bouncy.
Exactly you already do 200-300 (300 is pretty damn rare considering pretty thick armor you are hitting) in a KV-2, its a tier 5 now 6 tank. It’s a complete failure for a tier 10 HT to be putting out DPM thats comparable to tier 6, this is why resorting to HE spam because of the terrible penetration on the gun is a sacrifice, not a gain. E-100 stomps all over lower tiers but itself gets stomped on by its peers, especially the T110 and IS-7. But luckily, most battles there are few tier 10 and a lot of lower tiers.
300 is not rare against german or american tanks, and it’s pretty easy to achieve against the IS-7 if you hit the turret ring area or the frontal part of the side turret.
For long range fire against tricky targets or as finishing move I often use HE in T30. It’s a mistake to underestimate the potential effect.
Better than nothing.
Do you think its okay for a top tier tank to have less than 50% chance to penetrate the IS-7 on it’s WEAK-spot?
Likewise, T110’s tumor isn’t even a guaranteed penetration at point blank range, let alone long range.
Now look at it the other way, what are the odds of these tanks penetrating the E-100’s weakspot? Not to mention the weak area is massive in comparison and frontal fire prone.
As i’ve said, the tank is fine vs lower tiers, but its pathetic vs tier 10s. The 15cm normal non-gold AP shell needs a penetration buff.
I think less whining and more determination does more. Team up with another T10, act as a support, do what you can do better. Anything better than iddle play and avoiding the other T10s and this is most solo E-100s with low EF do on EU.
I did play the T30 in Tier10, and that was a strictly niche tank, more than an E-100. Literally anything could turn it into swiss cheese during reload time. The gun lived its own life, the dispersion was horrible, the performance was unreliable.
Now that was BAD.
My job is here to give ideas for better gameplay. I have even stated in the article, that the penetration escalation made the E-100 obsolescent, and it needs some buff.
BUT if you turn these pages into another wall of tears like novice german drivers do on EU-subforum, I will goddamn disable the comment option.
Also the claim of poor drivers going for the German HT line is utterly rubbish. You have no basis for making that statement.
For the record, I drive every nation’s tank lines up to tier 9 and 10. I know bad tanks when i play it. E-100 is bad, but it doesn’t mean that skilled play can’t make it perform well. All it means is that it requires more tactical effort to perform compared to other tanks. Sure, it’s got potential, all tanks do. How often its potential is reflected into real performance is what counts. Global stats of millions of matches do not lie, E-100 isn’t as good, clearly.
I play in EUm you are from US-server. I have no idea what’s going on there.
Well, for me (I play only with US tank on EU server) E-100 is one of the hardest opponents. It is specially difficult to penetrate him from distance. And I am talking about 269 and 276 mm penetration guns. Maus is easier to pen because he has many flat plates, so it is not bouncing so often.
E-100 is most popular X tier heavy on EU (there is now more is-4’s, but it is effect of changes in Ru heavy tree). E-100 attracts many inexperienced players, who drag his stats down. For example on RU server Henschel line has much better win ratios then on EU.
That’s only because russians play better than eu folks