Hello all, I'd like to begin by expressing my deepest condolences for those who felt buyers remorse towards the T34B. I understand you may feel betrayed, the description in the Black Market told you the turret could stop Thor's Hammer but it cant seem to stop a tank shell? I hope that if enough people shed light on this insanely power-crept tank, maybe something can be done about it.
Background
My account name is RussianWinter, I have played World of Tanks since December 17, 2011, but this isn't about my service record, rather my experience playing the . I do know that the T34 was one of the first premiums I ever purchased, and at first I remember loathing the tank, simply not understanding its play style. Over time I decided to push through my hatred and attempt to understand the vehicle, and I now have over 750 games in this tank. Call me a masochist, but I was on a mission. I , I have a 59% win rate with an average damage of . I'm not stating this information to brag or boast but I want to ensure you that I have experience in this vehicle, and my opinion has been formed over many frustrating games in it.
Statements
1. The T34 was the first tank to fool the WoT player base.
The T34 Heavy Tank was originally a tier 9 tech tree tank below the tier 10 T30 Heavy Tank, and after becoming a tier 8 premium tank the T30 became a tier 9 tank destroyer, while the T34 retained its heavy tank tag for… reasons? I've found that the T34 performs far better as a sniping vehicle, but it often feels wrong to do so. So much armor that could potentially help out a front but in my experience it is the least effective tier 8 heavy at fighting close range (besides Germany heavies but that is a whole other issue).
2. The T34 has the worst DPM of any premium heavy tank.
With a BIA crew, Vents, and a Rammer, the T34 Heavy Tank can achieve 1,938 DPM. To give some perspective, this is less than the DPM of the standard, unmodified, 100% no-perk/skill crew of the 50TP, which .
This is the extent of it right? The 50TP is pretty inaccurate so it gets slightly better DPM as a trade off, right? Wrong. Even with the best equipment, the T34 would only out-DPM 3 out of the 8 tanks it was compared to (all those tanks it was compared to were standard, unmodified and unskilled).
3. The T34 does not have the alpha nor the accuracy to justify its reload time.
The DPM isn't the whole issue for the T34. The alpha and accuracy are extremely overlooked on this vehicle. I decided to create a . I color-coded the table to show how the T34 is the only tank that doesn't have an amazing feature. The T34 and Defender are the only tanks to have 2 red features, aim time and reload time, but the defender has 440 alpha, making that its redeeming quality. Every single other tank has at least 1 or multiple redeeming qualities about it, the T34 does not. As for the accuracy, .34 is good on paper, but firing this weapon feels like you're using the Grille 15, and owners of that tank know exactly what i'm talking about, in experience the T34 feels like a loose cannon, with shells rarely going exactly where you aim, and hardly being consistent with a .34 dispersion value.
4. The T34's mobility issues are the most frustrating part about this vehicle.
If Wargaming could change one thing about this vehicle, it would be the mobility. Often i've wondered how this vehicle can be so slow, the specific power isn't that terrible, though not great. I compared the mobility of the T34 to the same vehicles as earlier, and found that the T34 has the worst mobility of all of them, regardless of the power/weight ratio, . Moving through marshes, bogs, or any type of wet terrain is absolutely frustrating and I question whether this tank is designed to move at all. When with friends I joke that the reason why i'm so late to the front is because I couldn't hoist the sails quickly enough. Please Wargaming, if nothing else, please change this vehicles mobility.
Conclusion
If this was a rant, i'm sorry to waste your time, but i'm passionate about this game and I like to shed light on vehicles that I used to enjoy but by changes or additions to the game I no longer can. Thank you for reading, and please let me know your thoughts and criticisms.
-RussianWinter
edit 1: added penetration to
