Personal Experience: The STA-2 is a fantastic tank, for 2015. Unfortunately it's 2021 (WoT 1.15), and even post-buffs it's aggressively below-average. It's not even enjoyably off-tempo like the 122 TM, it's just obsolescent in today's WoT.
These were the most memorable aspects of this experience;
Platform survivability: While module placement is good with the fuel tanks on the very rear of the vehicle and the ammo rack being off on the side and small or in the rear of the turret. These boons are less useful due to a lack of any meaningful armor – All our misplays invite incredible punishment, do not expect our armor to make any successful saving throws against enemy shells. The only reliable way of mitigating damage is clever use of -10 of gun depression or clever positioning. In straight up fights, the STA-2 might win through sheer DPM, but afterwards we'll be wounded and easy to clean up.
DPM: Theoretically this is a positive, but in my experience when coupled with the platform's fragility this has ended up being more of a detriment in actual gameplay. Because our reload is so quick were poking more often and exposing ourselves more to enemy fire – Thus giving the enemy more opportunities to tag us with a shell. Even if we adjust our playstyle to be more cautious, fall off enemy detection first and then re-poke – We'll be loaded well before that happens giving up DPM. This leaves our strength of DPM being situational at best and a liability at worst.
The STA-2 is a flawed tank who's time has long past. It's a low alpha pop gun with good gun handling tied to a fragile platform at tier 8. While on the surface its straightforward – One wrong poke or misplay and were vaporized from the map. This makes for an incredibly high skill floor for low in-game impact – The exact opposite of what we want.
Main Build: The generic bread and butter setup, arguably dropping vents for Pink IAU would be more combat focused – We'll still have 450 view range and good reload. I opted for vents as its a safe if boring choice most of the time.
Spotter Build: This is the setup if our light tanks are unreliable, we pull Malinovka or Prokhorovka or if were on Karelia assault. Our view range is increased to 506, which slices through most enemies camo in the open at 400 meters.
Ensk: With no armor, no alpha, no terrain to play with and most of the enemy HP clustered in a close quarters fight on the 1/2/3 line – Ensk is a map ill-suited for the STA-2.
Airfield: While its possible to have decent games on Airfield by playing a little more passively and unspotted. The map is too oriented towards SPGs and Tank Destroyers – One bad poke and we've lost 1k HP. Strangely, I had more success on Himmelsdorf either by going hill from North side or operating along the G-file from the South because I had more or less an idea of what was out there, with Airfield its harder to properly gauge risk levels at different points in the game.
Standard: The pen is weaker, but the better shell velocity can't be ignored – It's much comfier shooting at range with 1k+ velocity. Keep a few around when engaging enemies at 400+ meters.
Premium: Our bread and butter round, the majority of our ammuniton should be HEAT rounds. While HEAT ammo is finicky and will frequently get caught up on tracks and spaced armor its better than standard most of the time.
HE: 47 pen isn't amazing, but our DPM is buffed against soft targets and is useful for knocking out the doors on Pilsen to shoot heavies during their cross. Keep it <6 for general utility, any more increases the risk of running out of ammo in extended games.
Crew: Due to platform fragility, camouflage, sixth sense, sound detection and repairs are important skills. Anything that will help us stay concealed or warn us to potential danger are important for the STA-2.
Once the essentials are taken care of, intuition is an enjoyable luxury – 1.09s to switch between shells. Rapidly switching from HEAT to HE to DPM down an Rhm that just fired is good fun for us.
- Light-Alloy Mounting Points – No downsides as ammo rack module placement is good
- Improved Sight – Slight increase in final accuracy is worth it
- Anti-Reflective Headlights Coating – Worth it, we'll still have good reverse of 21 (km/h)
- Second equipment specialization – Scouting
Good luck and good hunting fellow markers!
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/WorldofTanks/comments/rroiew/my_sta2_three_mark_experience/
