Lowe buff in following patches + bugfix

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Source: http://world-of-kwg.livejournal.com/255593.html

Storm wrote another post on the developer blog. In one of the following patches, Lowe will be changed for historical reasons (based on data from H.Doyle – WG wrote him a letter) so:

Weight will be reduced from 92,55 to 90 tons
Depression and elevation will change from -6/+17 to -8/+38 (-5/+38 when the gun is facing back)
Ammo capacity will increase from 40 to 80 shells
Upper part of the side armor will increase from 80mm to 100mm

Furthermore, tomorrow an urgent hotfix will came out, fixing following bugs:
- crashes and freezes in the Missions window
- crashes and freezes in 7/42 battles

From the discussion to this post, Storm answers:

- Lowe won’t get any more expensive
- there were no penetration system changes in 0.8.9
- the bug where the shells fly thru a tank is not fixed yet on the main server
- the developers know about a bug with disappearing medals/mastery badges/combat results, they are working on a fix
- there will be no Lowe nerfs to compensate the abovementioned buffs
- Jagdtiger 88 won’t rebalanced for now (LFP from 120 to 100mm), it’s not even planned
- the “-8″ depression for Lowe applies when the gun is facing forward and to the sides
- SU-26 ROF won’t be buffed apparently
- VK7201 and E-100 guns won’t be buffed in penetration it seems
- there are some UI bugs when showing average crew XP and average XP gained, the XP gains themselves are not affected
- Storm states that vehicles are made historical wherever WG can
- Lowe turret sides thickness won’t be buffed
- KV-5 won’t be buffed like this

157 thoughts on “Lowe buff in following patches + bugfix”

  2. Still unsure if the Löwe is worth it, crew training aside…

    I bet 2 tons less don’t do a lot with improving mobility…depression buff on other hand is nice

    • It’s worth it if you know how to play it. To get an idea how it performs, try out the Tiger II; the Lowe is like a Tiger II, with worse hull armor but a better turret. Also, since 7/42 battles are limited to tiers 4 through 8, that means a Lowe in those battles will always be top tier, in which case it’s quite capable of carrying a team.

  3. …and still no word on the 1,000hp engine that the Löwe was supposedly proposed to use – which would certainly improve the tank’s traverse speeds and acceleration, which has been one of its achilles heels.

    • There was no such thing. Lowe is a 1942 design – back then the “proposed 1000hp engine” was really developed and it turned out to have 800hp (and I think it was even HL230 and not HL234, that came later). For all intents and purposes, Lowe has a historical engine.

      • While the engine buff would be welcome, I am happy with the increased armor and weight reduction, also with the increased ammo capacity.

        • I think I would have preferred a rate of fire buff compared to the buffs they decided on.

          • The buffs they applied are based on historical data found by Doyle. ROF is a balance parameter and is not historical.

        • Well this thing did need some sort of buff one way or another(don’t own one) but I remember while being low level that I really wasn’t that scared when seeing one of this things on the battlefield. Yeah the gun is good but it got penned by everything frontally and set on fire ;).

      • That’s fine and all… and I’d even go as far as to say I’d trade a few km/h’s of top speed for better overall acceleration and hull traverse due to better transaxle gearing.

      • Hi SS,

        but Löwe has got an HL234 engine which should normaly provide 900 horse power like the other HL234 engines, shouldnt it ?

        Luke

          • Not sure if that was in response to my suggestion to buff the rate of fire. If so, I didn’t say it but I still would keep the rate slightly below the Tiger II’s rate. I only mentioned it because its rate of fire is horribly slow.

            • I find the rate of fire to be adequate in most situations (unless your team is full of idiots, the flank you’re on is getting overrun and you just get bumrushed by the enemy team, that is). What I’d like buffed on the gun is the aiming time, which while not BAD is what I’ve found to be the most annoying thing about the gun, if not the tank as a whole.

        • The 900 hp HL 234 engine actually only provided 900 hp with no accessorys on the engine. Actual hp is more like 890 or less. The “900″ hp is obtained through the use of fuel injection and the “900″ hp was what the planned output was and not what might have been actually obtained.

          As to the Schnellboot engines (Maus was to have one)you are looking at a Daimler Benz twenty-cylinder diesel engine (MB 501) producing 1200 hp to up to 3k hp each. depending upon if a super charger and or turbocharger is equipped, the year of build, etc.

  4. I’m probably gonna get a butt ton of hate for saying this:

    I actually didn’t like the Lowe, since I wasn’t going for German heavies, I decided to sell it for AMX 50B. I just hated that thing, it’s absolutely awful

    • You sir are a dumbass. Why would anyone ever want to sell a premium tank, especially such expensive one? You can’t sell them for gold, even 50%…

        • Also forgot to mention, I got the tank for free from eSports, and I already have a tier 8 premium, T34 and SU-122-44 at tier 7

          • Its funny how most people gt butthurt if somebody sells a premium tank. Sure it’s expensive but why do they even care?

            Not to mention in this case it’s just e-money.

            I wouldnt have done it, but to each his own.

            • Not to mention in this case it’s just e-money.
              __________
              Looks like Viktor wasn’t the brightest kid in the school.

      • I sold my Lowe when the nerf hammer came down on it hard and immediately I did the biggest facepalm of my life.

        • I have sold the T34 twice, the FCM twice, the M6A2E1 twice, the Lowe once and the KV5 once. In addition, I have sold Panther/M10 twice and the SU-122 once.

        • Becouse some people like to be punished.
          As the tank became buffed they have less pleasure.

        • I’d sell mine in 2 seconds flat regardless of any buffs. I just fucking hate that tank with all my might!!!

          • I hate the Lowe as well. It just sits in my hangar mocking me. I will never sell it for credits, but I’d sell it back for half the gold price. However, this is a pointless hypothetical that will never happen.

      • The Depression-Buff is a huge thing for this tank, because its turret is pretty strong, -8 is really good indeed..
        And his sidescrap-abilities are huge now, 100mm sidearmor is extremly good at T8

        In my opinion the real Löwe is back now.. (Ofc tests will show :)..)

        So why you want to be compensated with gold?? Because you dont like this buff?

        • Yup, the improvement in depression is the key thing here – opens up a lot more hull down sniping options ;)

          • It really should significantly increase the effectiveness. The Lowe has a pretty tough turret and this depression buff could give it something that it excels at. And considering how the Tiger 2 now has 8 degrees of gun depression as well, this seems only fair.

        • I like Lowe even though the tank is lacking, but this should be expected as it should be less stellar than Tiger2. The buff w/ no nerf to compensate is a huge thing, this will improve more on it’s gameplay like sniping, sidescrape, hulldown, and I think a little speed or mobility because of reduced weight? This is a good buff and maybe the value of this tank will be closer to its price.

  6. The Löwe has been in need of a serious buff for a long time now. It was great when it was first introduced but it has been increasingly outclassed by other tanks in its tier as WG piled on new tanks with each release.

    Love how WG hasn’t reduced the price for it accordingly though. The buff may make it semi-worthwhile having again… ;-)

  8. > Jagdtiger 88 won’t rebalanced for now (LFP from 120 to 100mm), it’s not even planned
    How does this work? Super Pershing had wrong angle and it got fixed, Jagdtiger 88 has wrong armour thickness and you just leave it like that, without even planning to fix it? German bias much?

    • here is a better idea, low get a button where each time you press it, you win and ends a battle at the cost of 100 gold

      • lol WG would make so much money if they implement this. There is one thing WoT servers never run low on – abundant of terribad players with fat wallets

    • Buffing one of the shittiest(not only premium) tanks in the game doesn’t negate the fact above mentioned stereotype doesn’t exist. :looks at KV-1s: Paranoia mucho? Uozbilji se retko.

      • So the idea of bias is based on one tank being imbalanced?

        Like i said, russian bias retard mob…

        • KV-1S, IS-3, ISU-152, Object 268, T-62A, T-54, SU-122-44, SU-26, KV-1 – take your pick, I have more.

          • ISU, T-54, SU-122-44 and probably SU-26 (not sure) are NOT OP.
            In the slightest.

            It is, however, possible you don`t know how to deal with them.

  11. So this buff comes in a few days in a minipatch? Not in a major update if I understood correctly?

    • I think it’s gonna be buffed in 9.0, which means they’re gonna test its performance on the test server. The only problem: on the test server it’ll always get terrible matchmaking (due to everyone playing tier 10s) and the armor’s effectiveness will be significantly reduced because everyone spams gold, so it’s not a good way to test a tank that relies on its armor for survival (read: any German heavy tank)

    • SU-26 as it stands is only good for chipping the paintwork of any tank it is going to meet because it can do fuck all else. It was such a fun money maker because so many of the games were so quickly over and it could one shot at least two tanks in every game and hit and track scouts at full tilt you could share in the booty. You had a chance against scouts and thats what the arty haters wanted to do away with so fuck them. I would be embarrassed taking one out now because I could not support my team properly – it is now only a stepping stone tank.

      • I had an SU-26 and I have to say it was TOO good. Besides the annoying tendency to run out of ammo if you managed to survive more than seven minutes, it was probably THE best arty in the game until you got up to tier 6 or 7 simply because it had a turret and that 122 mm howitzer. Why else was it THE arty of choice for medium TCs? (Come to think of it, medium TCs seem to be where all the imbalanced tanks are, because everyone played either a KV-1S, M18 Hellcat or SU-26, with the occasional VK 36.01 H thrown into the mix.)

  14. From all the 310 tanks for which the unofficial server stats got data for, the JagdTiger 8.8 is number 297 in terms of winrate. Put in other words, is the 13th worst performing tank currently in the game. There are only tier 1-4 tanks performing worse than it. No wonder no nerfs are planned for it.

  15. I do NOT understand why i bought such tank. :( despite considering about crew training i still dont think its worth the gold

  16. It would be nice to get a little dmg buff on the Lowe so it could at least deal decent damage for the ROF. Like average dmg being 350 instead of 320. Only a 150 DPM increase based on stats but it would give it something. Or as stated above a 5.5 ROF(buff of .5) would lead to a similar increase in DPM.

    • HUUUURRRRRRRRR DUUUUURRRRRRR
      I THINK LOWE SHOULD GET TO FIRE NUKES THAT DO INFINITE DAMAGE BECAUSE IT HAS BAD DPM.
      HUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRR DUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRR
      OR SHOULD HAVE INFINITE ROF WHERE IT WILL KILL ANY TONKS JUST BY POINTING THE GUN AT THEM
      HUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRR DUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRR

  17. Depression buff alone will be a big help. Lowe is not supposed to be better than all the other heavies. Now if WG can nerf the crap out of the Russian premiums, premium tanks would be where they should be.

        • KV-5 is in no need of nerf… anyone who thinks it needs a nerf is a retard IMO.
          On the other hand, SU-122-44 should get nefed

          • please leave my Su122 be, having paid real money for it, I don’t want it to become the next Lowe.

    • KV-5 doesn’t need a nerf, IS-6 doesn’t need a nerf, SU-122-44…yeah it could use one (and this is coming from somebody who has one and does VERY well with it), SU-100Y…I don’t know – probably not since it’s relatively easy to kill if you can survive a few hits from its gun.

  19. “Lowe ammo capacity will increase from 40 to 80 shells”

    Well thats a joke, right? Totally useless buff. I`ve never ran out of shells in my Lowe.
    To fire all 80 shells you can almost shoot non stop the whole 15 minutes.
    So that seems pretty pointless buff, but at the end of the day I`m not gonna complain, a buff is a buff, good thing they didnt reduce the ammo capacity!!!

    Other than that, the rest of it is fine especially the gun depression buff is nice, while the weight decrease probably wont make much of a difference.

    Jagtiger 8.8 LFP is already like paper, so if its 100 or 120 wouldnt make much of a difference, most tanks pen it anyway. If you play it right, you hide it and dont care if its 100 or 120 anyway!

    • The ammo change is not meant to be a buff per se…..it’s simply the historical value as found in new research by Doyle. Same with all the other buffs.

      It’s similar to how the SPershing got nerfed because it’s armor was un historical.

    • I’ve run out of shells in mine after having to carry a fail team (I still won the game by RAMMING the enemy’s arty after I ran out of ammo).

    • this will allow for more versatility, you can now carry Ap + HE + APCR in better numbers if you want to.
      this will allow me to carry more HE to finish off low health enemies or arties. and for its size it carried very little ammo-stocks

    • Yes. The Kv-5′s 107 gun will be replaced with the IS-7′s 130mm gun and the 107 will be put in the radioman turret and the armor values of the turret will be buffed to 300mm. The KV-5′ radioman’s plight has now turned into a crazed vengeance, may he extract his revenge on all who killed him

      /true fax brah

  23. The Lowe buff was done for historical reasons. WG isn’t going to buff a premium tank simply to make it better so I am surprised how everyone is acting like the fact its not getting the buff they want is some how a bad thing.

    Its German and its getting buffed accept your buff or ask WG to remove it if you don’t like having tanks buffed.

  25. My main issue with Lowe was always that it drives like a pregnant whale . Hopefully 2 tonn weight reduction will make it less ponderous. I’d have preferred a bigger engine than armour. I think if they let us a lot of people would sell 8.8 and they don’t want that so they didn’t change lower plate when they should have.

    • That’s a ~3% weight loss and at 90t you still have a p/w ratio of 8.89. You’re not gonna notice any difference. That 2 degree of depression however is a major buff. You’ll be able to hull down at more locations that you can’t before.

  27. Weight will be reduced from 92,55 to 90 tons
    Depression and elevation will change from -6/+17 to -8/+38 (-5/+38 when the gun is facing back)
    Ammo capacity will increase from 40 to 80 shells
    Upper part of the side armor will increase from 80mm to 100mm

    The most SHIT buff i ever saw.

    1. It’s a fucking slow whale. I swear that 99% of forum complaints about Lowe it’s about the godawful mobility. -2 tons wont dont jackshit. One worthless “buff”.
    2. An almost worthless buff.. IS-6 gun can pen hulldown Lowe turret cheeks.T9+ guns have no trouble blasting a hulldown Lowe.
    3. Ammo capacity will increase from 40 to 80 shells…………so a tank with ultra shit rof and laughable medium tank like alpha gets extra 80 shells! wow! no comment.
    4. Wortheless again. A sidescrapping Lowe can easily be shot under it’s mantle. There’s a big ass flat weakspot right there.

    Overall these buffs are a complete joke. Lowe doesnt need 40extra shells, the already shit rof and pathetic alpha is enough. It doesnt need armor increase in worthless areas! it doesnt eed depression!! sLOWE NEEDS MOBILITY BUFF!!

    • Sorry but shit rof and pathetic alpha? The tiger II has 320 in alpha and only 225mm pen, and 5.5 rof. So no, the gun is more than good on the Löwe.

    • On some really good rounds I’ve actually managed to burn through the full 40. Doesn’t happen often time but it can happen. But I’ll take the extra 40 shells at least gives me an option to load some extras of other types.

    • 1) I never had a problem with the speed, because I usually play it defensively.

      2) Surprisingly enough not many people seem to notice this; most of the time when I get my turret hit I’m hit in the mantlet.

      3) I’ve run out of ammo in my Lowe before from having to carry bad teams.

      4) You have no idea how many Steel Walls I’ve gotten in a Lowe by sidescraping behind buildings. Also, again, obscure weakspots that nobody seems to know to shoot at.

      Checkmate.

  28. this will be a good buff. pitty there was no rof buff though. when is this change being made ? i already play this the most of any of my tanks in the game

    • yeah, when the read the shell count buff, I was so excited thinking they had buffed the ROF.

  29. Awww yes, Lowe buff. Best moneymaker for my playstyle and it gets buffed, awesome! This better then that T7 gift we get with 8.9

    • It’s still only the 4th best moneymaker in the game. I forgot what the third was but statistically the second is the Jagdtiger 88 (surprisingly enough), and the first is the Type 59 (which can’t be purchased anyway).

      • Last I checked JT88 was third, T34 heavy was second. Probably switched now so T34 is third.

  32. Finally the Lowe get a buff!
    Quite surprised myself actually, Even I thinks it work just fine at current state
    but every little bit help. Especially that depression buff
    more ammo? Good I will have that as well
    and the tank got lighter a bit

    all would be perfect if they throw in engine buff to 900 h.p. but I doubt it gona happened

    Good news :)

    • Its a premium tank, IMO it should get nerfed, like damage 300, penentration 218mm, rof 4.8. No fucking way a premium tank should have better gun than the regular tiger II in terms of damage and penentration.

      • I think it’s similar to the D-Max, it’s got an awesome gun, but the hull it’s in is the falling back point.

  34. Dont see why löwe should be buffed at all. Beeing a premium tank it has similar gun performance as regular tier 8 german heavys. Thats is fucking good damage and penentration.

  35. Woohoo! I don’t know how many times I have despaired of my Lowe’s gun depression, and that elevation boost won’t hurt, either. Fire UP at those guys on the cliff and get THEM in the LFP. Yeah! Maybe my Lowe won’t sit gathering dust in the corner so much now.

    • Listen, the Löwe has like 320 alpha and 234mm pen, thats better than the tiger II for fuck sake. I dont see why a premium tank should be buffed at all? The löwe almost have TD like penentration to beginn with. Also 100mm sides? Isnt that kinda retarded sompared to the other tanks?

      • Maybe they buffed it because it’s the weakest tier 8 premium at the moment and severely gimps whatever team it gets put on.

          • “Weak? How is it weak with that monster gun and ARMOR?”

            ROFL, that little tidbit there shows you OBVIOUSLY have not played the Lowe.

            *Checks* Yup.

            Armor? XD Don’t make me laugh. Let me guess you “test servered” it and found it to have MONSTER ARMOR right? xD

  36. So you can load 40 more shells, get 20mm on the upper part of the side armor and the lowe loses ~ 2,5 tons …. makes sense to me that a tank gets lighter with more shells and more armour. Probably they have done something like that to the Vk2801, but the other way around.

    I mean they put stuff away, that should make the tank lighter, but it gained magical weight .
    The historical correctness is just a joke that someone did at WGN HQ and all believe in it when they say it. Oh wait did they just buffed the Lowe ?

    WGN = Chaos in Warhammer40k , they just make no sense at all

  37. Depression and elevation will change from -6/+17 to -8/+38 (-5/+38 when the gun is facing back)

    Was that elevation a typo, or are we going to be shooting airplanes?

  39. hp is not only way noobs :P …if they change tracks values can make a good solution and with correct engine.

  40. - KV-5 won’t be buffed like this

    Yea, right. Probably, will add +180 hp, +2 traverse speed, and will balance it AGAIN with +1MM (will meet tier 10s). Yey!… That fucking type-59 can tank KV-5 from medium distance easily – its just absurd. 167 pen…Dat acc, aiming speed…

  41. Lame for the Lowe to be buffed only with armor in head and the gun depresion and elevation that he had 2y agoo. He needs to have 140 armor in frontal hull 100 sides and 1000 HP like the hysotrical data commands.. I rest my case.

  42. Then why dont u put 15 cm cannon in it because that was historical too.

    There is no reason to give 1000 hp engine because its not historical and if we are keeping up to historical designs with this tank then why this “up” was not implemented?