T-44-85 – short review

Hello everyone,

today, we are going to talk about the upcoming (allegedly in 8.11) Soviet tier 7 medium premium tank. But – you might ask: how can we talk about the vehicle noone has ever seen in combat? We have no idea, what it will do in random battle! Well… now we do:

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That’s right, the T-44-85 appears on the press account in its latest and most updated version (with buffed penetration). A little history first though: many of you remember that the T-44-85 was scheduled to appear as early as in patch 8.9 along with the German tank destroyers some months ago. It was present during the common test (where I wrote a brief review about it, praising its mobility) – it wasn’t a bad tank back then, but suffered badly from its poor penetration (on tier 7, it basically had a 126 PEN gun (167 with gold ammo)). This led to some negative reviews and criticism, making Wargaming pull it out of the test for re-work and that was the end of it. Next the vehicle was probably scheduled to appear in patch 8.10, but it didn’t make it again, but they didn’t manage to rebalance in time and now it’s scheduled for 8.11. In case you are interested, this is how it look in patch 8.9 and this is what got changed in patch 8.10.

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This is how its modules currently look:

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When I discovered this vehicle was available on the press account, I simply HAD to take it for a spin to a few random battles to see, if there is a chance I’d actually buy this tank in the future. And guess what: it’s amazing.

For one, it plays a lot like the T-54. And I don’t mean the current T-54. I mean the overpowered, pre-nerf T-54. But why is that? Well, at first glance, it’s somewhat unassuming. The armor is not exactly top notch (sloped 75mm, giving you some 110-120mm of effective protection, depending on the point of view due to its favourable slope). The frontal turret is 115mm thick and the mantlet itself is cca 120mm thick. The gun is the upgraded 85mm S-53 (this gun was mounted to the T-34/85 tanks), with – “thanks to newly discovered better ammo” – improved penetration: 147/210/43 (200 DAM!). This gun has decent ROF (9,52), but is not very accurate (0.42) and it has only average aiming time (2,3s). Depression is not stellar, but sufficient (-6). As for mobility, the vehicle weighs 31 tons and has a 520hp engine.

So, what makes it so special?

Well, two things. First is, this tank, even though it does NOT accelerate very well (again, imagine T-54) is VERY agile, possibly (apart from the light tanks) the most agile vehicle of its tier. On flat surface, it literally dances around the opponent, an ultimate brawler. You won’t be bothered by an inaccurate gun, when you run around a Tiger in circles. But of course, there’s a price for such agility – as I said, the acceleration is not very good and the 520hp engine will allow you to go only as fast as 45km/h on flat surface (maximum speed can be reached only when going downhill). When maneuvering around an enemy tank, you have to be careful not to start climbing uphill or to get on a soft surface, because you WILL get stuck, slowed down and killed. The agility helps you in this case not by necesserily outturning your opponents, but by having enough time to turn the hull, shielding yourself with your frontal armor.

As I mentioned before, this vehicle is a pure-bred brawler. You won’t be able to snipe too much, but the frontal armor is (for its tier) excellent and you will dish out a lot of damage to softer targets. And there will be plenty of soft targets, because this is probably the most ridiculous feature of this tank: it has limited MM. That’s right, you will definitely see no tier 9 tanks with T-44-85 and (as far as I could tell) not even tier 8′s! Now, let it sink in. A 147 pen 200 dam gun with heavily sloped frontal armor and an amazing agility, fighting only tier 5, 6 and 7 tanks.

Yes, it is hilariously overpowered like this. Tier 5′s can’t even scratch it and you don’t even have to pretend to think about flanking, you just stand there, bounce everything and kill one tier 5 and 6 after another. When dealing damage, the only tanks you can’t simply take on frontally are the Russian heavies. I am pretty sure this however is not intended and in the end, this vehicle will see tier 8 tanks, perhaps even 9, but right now, it’s just broken. There was a situation when I was standing in that twisted Ruinberg corridor, holding off 4 or 5 enemy tier 5 and 6 tanks, they all were shooting and everything bounced (apart from detracking shots) and I picked them off one by one – the developers probably didn’t intend for this to happen. And the result of such a battle? Well:

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As you can see, this tank can make a lot of money too.

Conclusion

I think I will buy it. I will wait for the test obviously with any decisions, but even with regular matchmaking, if they don’t nerf the gun or the agility too much (they still might), it’s a really good preparation for the T-54. I actually think this vehicle will be even more successful on Russian server, because it requires some aggressive gameplay and that’s how they play out there, but even on EU it’ll IMHO be a good purchase. What I like about it that it isn’t a one-trick pony. Doesn’t require some special tactics to be really great (E-25 comes to mind), it does a lot of things well, maybe even too well.

64 thoughts on “T-44-85 – short review

  1. Great tank, but I think (and also hope) that it will NOT hit the live-servers with these characteristics. We don’t need another “Type 59 style” flood.

      • lol.. that’s the answer of bad players..
        the new penetration is more than enough for an agile tank..

        this tank will be the new type 59 for good players.. u will see

      • Premium Panther has very similar pen – 150. It has better accuracy but worse damage though and trades mobility for armour and hit points. Overall it works on a very similar basis. And with it’s limited MM it does work.

    • just see how many russian med players are there, even if it’ll be nerfed and will not be overpowered this is their (and my) choice for crew training other than matilda. mind you there are 3 russian tier 10 meds now and i want 2 prem tanks to train those consistently

  2. I can guarantee that it is gonna be a clone of the T7 prem SU and share its fate of T9 battles.

    While the SU murders everything on same tier, it lacks against T8 and hugely struggles even with gold in T9 games. I was also extremely hyped by the SU, but then a very cold shower followed of continuing T9 battles all over again… And sadly spoting role is not really effective on alot of maps…

    If it will meet max T8 then it might be worth it.

    • Well, the obvious difference is that even with a 147 PEN gun that sucks against tier 8-9, you can circle and flank and shoot the back of such vehicles, while the SU has to just shoot from the bushes and hope for RNG miracle.

    • With a limited MM; this tank will be obviously OP, with a regular MM, it will be fine for a premium tank.
      Pay2Win is a very bad idea.

    • This tank should surely get regular MM with these stats. moreover, the premium ammo has too much penetration and should be nerfed to 198 or something.

  3. I fear that we’ll see the “new Type-59 invasion”..

    Anyway this time i’m not going to be late get one T-44-85…

      • Then whining whining whining bla bla bla

        so..

        we will get a superior nerf…”If u dont like dont play it” ehehehehe :)

      • They wont for sure. The pen tho seems to me like they will put it in T8 max games same way as the E25 due to the gun. Both are T6 guns.

        • 147 pen on a Tier 7 Medium is far far better than 150 on a Tier 7 TD.

          You can’t compare the gun of a Medium and a TD and say that the Medium has a weak pen gun for tier because of its pen being the same as a TD. For its tier 147 is average on a Medium while 150 is extremely low on a TD.

      • Actually I would like it. The reason: it’s roughly the same as t-43 and I do like when people drive t-43 since it’s giving you a slight advantage (in the hands of a typical player t-43 is underperforming). What it means is that with the flow of these things, a typical 7th tier player will be easier to handle if you play a heavy. Or am I wrong?

        • OMG Russian bias!!1 GTFO. Check the statistics of every tanks of all nations if you wish. After that you will never again think russian tanks are overpowered. The truth is they are mostly just medicore, luckluster or good in good players hands.

          • The reason why the commie tanks are considered to be overpowered is the game favors brawling over long range engagements (inadequate zoom, a lot of obstacles and hillocks obstructing the view, few (usualy obvious) firing lanes per map noone sane goes into).

          • ofc they are mediocre when driven by siemkas like you…they are easy mode tanks(well most of them) and daathcz explained perfectly why

    • Whats there to LOLOLOL about? Thats enough for reliably penning anything on T7 and gold pen is enough to pen T8 from front which ofc is not how these “T-44″ alike tank should be used…

  4. Always was against buffing its penetration, it was fine with 128mm and the tier 8 max MM. Maybe an accuracy buff with the 128 pen gun, but no further then that. Looks too strong when compared to the other tier 7 mediums now, even more so if it keeps the limited MM.

    • The big problem I had with the 8.9 TS one was the god awful accuracy on the move, if they’d have just buffed that it would’ve been fine.

  5. Guys, you all know very well what is going to happen.
    They will release OP prem tank so everyone buys it (from Gift shop) and then when they get enough money they will nerf it bad and it will be ok again. So what?? You will have one OP tank for 1 -2 months at tier 7. Big deal – like there are not other OP tanks there that just massacre the rest. And almost every tank is OP when its on top and has a good driver. I want to see this OP tank is tier 8 battles (they will include tier 8 for sure, this limited MM was from back when it had 127 mm pen gun). Obviously it is not in the shop yet so all conclusions are premature.

  6. I must say that this baby is promising as this line very much suits me. I need more info: what is the pricetag and is it going to be available thru game shop for gold or premium shop for money at first? Then how long till it appear in-game shop.

    • Gift Shop only until 9.0 then available in game its how all new premiums are going to be handled.

  7. “It’s OP”

    Until you meet someone with at least half a brain driving a Tiger I or T29 and get obliterated. Not to mention with a low top speed that it won’t even reach unless going downhill other meds of the same tier can easily stay at distance while sniping it.

    I’m pretty sure once it goes live it will have no pref mm whatsoever though considering the gun is similar to the T43 and Comet.

  8. Any idea what the gold price will be at launch? Can you do the math with the credits you get for selling it? (CreditsX2\400=gold price)

  9. It will probably get t7-t8 limited MM. That is just like the Panther M10. It has a 150 mm pen gun. It will not be OP. It will be shredded by all tier 7 heavies and most T6 heavies, most T6+ TD’s, and is on par with most T7 med’s. If it has only T7 MM, then it will be OP.

    • thank god somone with half a brain here.

      WG wont make the same mistake what they did with the Type59 first time where they gave it same tier MM maximum.

      Thats the reason why we saw the “flood”, was first and foremost a MM fail. back then when there was +2 MM the type only had T8 max not to mention we had 3 times less players then we have now.

      Not to mention all the other things like premium shells for credits, alot more tanks with higher penetration at lower levels (ARL, Tiger P, Panther)

      Hell I bet even when it will come with T7 max MM you wont see any flood at all. Noobs want to buy the highest tier possible, so they wont touch it, especial if its expensive like all the recent premiums.

      The T59 is a one time story, wonder why people never will realize this.

      • Iirc Type 59 never had T8 limited MM. It had T9 max, then after some time they increased it to see T10s i think and then again limited it to T9 because it kind of sucked against T10s. Reason why it was OP was it’s armor was incredibly bouncy. Nowadays with gold ammo everywhere and ninjanerfed armor(they never officially confirmed armor nerf) it’s mediocre tank.

        • Type 59 armor nerf? Thats bs it armor hasnt been nerfed since they have nerfed AP ammos normalization effect it has become better. Only reason why type 59 armor might be feel weaker for you is that people have learned where to shoot it or gold ammo.

        • No first when it was released it was T8 maximum, shortly after it was put to T10 when people cried about Type invasion and then later reduced to T9 again.

          Armor was never really nerfed, it was just that stronger guns where introduced at lower levels and none gold premium ammo.

          The only thing that got nerfed was normalization which is a buff to armor in general.

    • “on par ” Yea, sure, its faster, more agile, has more DPM and better armor than T-43 and Panther M10, PLUS it has a limited MM. It can out DPM an IS tank in 1v1 shoot-off pretty easily, not to mention that it can circle it with ease.

      Don’t sell me this crap.

  10. T-43 is shit compared to this, and with its lower pen it sees T9s. This has got to change.

  11. IMO they should nerf the frontal armor (new discovered weaker plates) and nerf the gold ammo pen. Make tier 6 tanks and tier 7 mediums able to pen its front and problem solved, no new Type59.

    • I mean what can you do to prevent it soloing 2-3 lower tier tanks, right?

      Its only good at brawling, but like this its too good. So nerf its ability to brawl against lower tier tanks?

  12. This Thing is too Overpowered. It makes Elite T-43 and the Panther M10 cry in the corner and cut their veins.
    If this thing hits live servers like that then this game will become fully Pay 2 Win

  13. “I actually think this vehicle will be even more successful on Russian server, because it requires some aggressive gameplay and that’s how they play out there”

    No, they don’t. I play out there. I’ve played 8,000 battles there and 4,000 on NA (including beta).
    Are you really just thinking of the test server and assuming that RU plays the same?

  14. Leave it with T8 MM. I’ll be first in line. I would have bought it wih the crappy pen before. I have so many commie meds that need help with crews. Ofc I need credits too. I have to support my gold spamming T54 habit.

  15. I think its time the T43 got its 100MM back then problem solved there’s no reason to play or keep the T43 i sold mines after the grind 59% win rate in it. Its a poor tank, not fun to play, ammo racks easy, catches fire easy I could go on