STA-2 Characteristics by Wargaming

Hello everyone,

patch 9.6 introduced two premium tanks to World of Tanks: AMX CDC and STA-2. Wargaming (RU) made an introductory post to both – the CDC was posted previously (translated by FTR) and here’s the second one, based on the article on Russian portal.

The characteristics of the vehicle in the article are presented as such:

Hitpoints: 1420
Maximum load: 37 tons
Hull traverse: 44 deg/s
Maximum speed: 45 km/h
Engine: 500 hp
Engine fire chance: 15 percent
Power-to-weight: 14,7 hp/t
Hull armor: 45/35/25
Turret armor: 70/60/35

DPM: 2028
Gun: 90mm Rifled Gun
ROF: 8,45 RPM
Penetration: 185/275/45
Damage: 240/240/320
Accuracy: 0,37
Aimtime: 2,2s
Elevation: -10/+13

Turret traverse: 44 deg/s
Viewrange: 380 meters
Radio range: 720 meters

Armor:

tankinfosta2-2.1

tankinfosta2-2.2

tankinfosta2-2.3

Crew: 4 (commander, gunner, driver, loader)
Recommended skills by WG:
Commander – sixth sense, repair, recon
Gunner – repair, deadeye, snapshot
Driver – repair, clutch braking, smooth ride
Loader – repair, intuition, safe storage

Recommended equipment by WG: stabilizer, coated optics, rammer

(please note that the equipment and crew skills, recommended by Wargaming, are identical to both STA-2 and AMX CDC, which is… odd)

Vehicle characteristics per Wargaming

- DPM is one of the highest of its tier and class
- penetration (185mm) is sufficient for its class and tier and allows you to penetrate other tanks of your tier and class from the front without many problems. Wargaming recommends using gold shells against heavily armored targets (or to carefully aim at weakspots)
- good depression (-10) makes this vehicle very comfortable to play
- excellent stabilization (accuracy on the move), Wargaming however doesn’t recommend quick raids behind enemy lines
- good camouflage factor
- poor armor, the vehicle should stay as far from the enemy as possible

Tactical Role per Wargaming

- sniper, using the good depression and positioning yourself properly with the use of high DPM – but you should relocate a lot
- support on the battlefield (supporting your allies as they advance, taking cover behind tanks with more armor, but avoid fighting head to head, you won’t survive a direct fight due to your low armor)

If you think you’ve read the same thing before, you’d be right. The “advices” of Wargaming for STA-2 and CDC are practically identical.

45 thoughts on “STA-2 Characteristics by Wargaming

  1. Gotta love WG:
    ‘the vehicle should stay as far from the enemy as possible’
    - doesn’t take camo
    - 185 pen
    - 0,37 accuracy

    I sometimes wonder if they play their own game at all.

    • I do belive that the devs themselfes do play, so does the balancing department,
      but the PR people, the ones that have the point of view that the customer should give all their money to WG don’t play, they are to busy trying to grab our money..
      mfg eX

  2. That’s fine and all.

    Any chance of a AW second test impressions/review? Or are you waiting until it is over in a few days?

  3. Yeah, 185 pen at tier VIII with normal mm and shit max speed – really capable tank.

    Sniper with shit accuracy and relocating a lot with shit max speed. I would also suggest using it in a fighter-bomber role, it has equal capabilities to do that.

    I’ve had more penetration on STA-1 and it still was crap due to shit speed.

    Of course they recommend gold.

      • Guys, don’t forget, that T-44, Pershing and T-34-2 all have Maus armor and the same or better mobility compared to STA-2, which is a MAJOR difference. Also, you can use gold rounds in those tanks with poker face, as those tanks are not supposed to earn silver.

        But anyway, I think that people will praise and love the STA-2, when T-54 Proto will be introduced in the game. That pile of crap will have even worse pen and mobility and only marginally better armor, keeping the awesome Tier10 MM.

        • …T-54 Proto has absurdly good armour. Hull is even tougher than Type 59 and the turret is 180mm with rounded front and practically no cupola last I checked.

      • Played T-44.

        T-44 is fast. Fast to get firing position, fast to retreat, fast to change flank and to exploit the opportunity to use gun effectively.

        STA with any number is not fast, even going down from the hill.

    • T44 has 175 and pershing 181 and t-34-2 180. Stop complain this is a premium tier 8 medium. You cant all have T34 and löwes with more pen than their regular tier 8 tanks.

      • I don’t think anyone in their right mind would call T-44 or pershing as ‘sniper’ tanks though.

        While you are right generally that it’s a premium – but it’s also a product which must be bought with real money. Unlike those tanks that you mentioned.

        The guide WG should make to premiums is just one data – net credits earned/min. That’s all you want to know about premiums. You don’t know how the shitty performance of this tank combined with the higher credit ratio will effect your earnings.

        Yet WG continues to try to sell these tanks based on their battle performance. It is logical then that we compare this tank on that basis to other tanks.

        • Product you buy and? People pay for many things like prem account and gold, does that mean we should get what ever imaginary benefits we demand? Players know what they get before they buy the tanks, just read the stats of the tanks and make up your mind. Prem tanks can be as bad as possible because WGs policy is that they should be worse than regular elited tanks.

          Right now looking at some tier 8 regular mediums, everything must be done to avoid a type 59 situation where the prem tank with pref MM outperforms regular elited tier 8 mediums.

          • With premium acc I perfectly know what I will get – 50% more income.

            With this? Not so much. I don’t know the credit coefficient of the tank and I can only judge its performance and deicide on that alone. And that performance is going to be bad and the tank generally unfun to play. Would you buy it if it earns 10% net/min? I wouldn’t. I would bear its crapiness for double earnings or so though. That’s why I said WG should tell net/min in case of premiums.

            • With prem tanks you also get increased XP and credits compared to regular tanks. They cant tell net/min, it wouldnt be viable for them because the majority of players are bad and numbers would be very low.

              Prem tanks do exactly what is stated.

              • They could tell it generally like – it earns 18% net more than a regular t8.

                If a prem earns 1% more than a normal tank it still earns more yet I would feel cheated due to the piss-poor gameplay. With 10% I would feel bad. With 100% I would feel okay.

                That’s what I’m talking about – in order to make a decision about purchasing a premium tank you must know the general income level. It can earn ‘more’ than a regular tank but how much more is that more is important (obviously in conjuction with its ‘normal’ stats).

                So for example in case of an FCM50 (which is fun to play) you can be okay with lower earnings since the tank is fun. In case of this however you would expect higher earnings as there’s no way in hell this will be ‘fun’.

                • FCM50 is one of the powercreep tanks as well, look the global WR, hurr durr 54.2% overall global WR.

                  Prem tanks make more credits and xp if you perform as good in them as the regulars, but also they can be used with crews without retraining as well as bought without grinding. I dont see you issue, just get a regular tier 8 mediums if you want “the best”.

        • These new premium tier 8 tanks are way cheaper (~7.5k gold compared to 11-12k) than the old ones. This should make up because they dont have preferential matchmaking and in they make less credits. I like the new WG premium tank policy – no preferential matchmaking and cheaper tanks.
          Pershing with 180 average penetration and normal matchmaking is the best tier 8 medium tank. STA-2 is very good for a premium tank.

          LE: 3Form is right. You scrubs got spoiled too much by WG with power creep tanks. Of course when they want to introduce more balanced tanks you whine.

  4. Does sta-2 has limited MM? And can we expect it in the store available for gold? And what’s the policy anyway about new premiums being introduced into the game? As in, are they going to be introduced in the game shop or just be buyable through the gift shop?

    • No, it doesn’t
      Yes, it will be available for gold the next patch.
      The policy has been for about half a year already, that new premiums go into the gift store for a patch, then the next patch they appear in game shop.

    • No limited MM anymore.
      WG said that they will introduce premiums to the cash shop first then they will come for gold. I’m not so sure about the latter though – it would be a bad move for them financially – you can earn just too much money from CW. It’s better for them if you can only buy premium and free xp from it and the crappy low tier prems which are worthless anyway.

    • don’t be lazy, all your questions have been answered in this blog (and many other places) numerous times…

      but since I’m a nice guy:
      - no
      - yes
      - exclusively in the shop when introduced and one patch later they are added to the in-game store

  5. On test server i liked this tank more than CDC. Sure the speed is limited but it’s quite nimble. The gun is pretty good and that HEAT pen is more than enough. It’s also smaller than CDC so better camo too. And it looks damn sweet.

    CDC is way too big.

        • That’s just noobness.

          However buying a prem – which is worse than normal tanks since it earns more silver – then compensating for its shortcomings by spamming expensive gold ammo negating the extra earnings is stupid.

          You basically pay for – nothing.

          • Well im not a gold spammer but STA2 could use one or two shells against solid T9′s and 10. 1 mighty HEAT round to finish the enemy.

            I have no problem penning T7-8 tanks with normal ammo.

          • Except an extra first win per day for your crew. Not to mention enhanced crew exp.

            People who have all the tanks they need don’t need credits that much.

  6. penetration (185mm) is sufficient for its class and tier and allows you to penetrate other tanks of your tier and class from the front without many problems. Wargaming recommends using gold shells against heavily armored targets (or to carefully aim at weakspots)

    T26E4 says hi (with 170 pen)

    • 185mm can pen all tier 8 tanks frontaly except the KV4. And 185mm is still better than t44, m26, t34-2 etc.

      I still argue that some prem tanks have too much pen like löwe (235) and T34 (248). Why the fuck would you need +10-25mm more pen than all other elited tier 8 heavys?

        • And? They are premiums they suppose to be worse in all aspects compared to their counterparts what about this dont you fucking understand? They can have 1mm armor it still doesnt matter. What matter is that they neglect the role of armor on their tier.

          • No.. they are not supposed to be worse in ALL ASPECTS. THey are supposed to be GENERALLY WORSE. That is COMPLETELY different.

            And they match that description. No one in their right mind would bring any of these 2 to a tier 8 team fight for example.

  7. As a Japanese Crew Trainer the “Type3″ Chi-Nu-Kai should actually suffice – i trained my “future” STB-1 crew back on that certain Weekend when this Tier5 Premium was released – deep into 3rd Skill in about 200 Battles (was kinda 3x Crew XP that WE).

    First i thought, what a Garbage this Tank is (Chi-Nu-Kai) but after some 50 or even 100 Battles i started to feel really comfortable and found its Niche in the Games.

    I can imagine the STA-2 can also work pretty well, once you got adopted to it – but isn’t that the Case with every Tank in the Game?

    Overall i’d say, the Tank is NOT worth the Money – if you want to train your Japan Crew, take the Tier5.. If you are a dedicated Collector of every Premium Tank – there you have…

    But it’s certainly a Tank that is a little Underpowered (take CDC – and make almost all Parameters worse – remodel it, and call it STA-2… the RoF advantage of the STA-2 over the CDC is worth a laugh, cos it gets quickly negated by a single bounce you will have far more often with these 20mm less pen)

    It’s certainly no Well of fun…

    my 2 centz

      • Crew training.

        When you have played along time (I started early 2011), you will have unlocked most (if not all) tanks, and begun to decide which suits your playstyle, which you like and want to keep, and then you want to boost the crews on those “keepers”, thats when you turn to premium tanks, to get the added crew exp for a keeper crew each day.

        Players with elited keepers are generally rolling in millions of silver credits, and don’t mind taking a one third load out of premium shells for when they met a tank two tiers above them.

        I also really like my Chi-Nu-Ki

  8. I was gifted an STA-2 the other day and honestly, its not that bad of a tier 8 tank, its damage output is reasonable, the penetration is mediocre but if you actually pick out your targets and firing positions, that 240 av damage every 6.21 seconds (Modules but no skills) can be devastating. It doesnt have the armor to trade shots with anything, I think I have had one bounce in it, which was a very lucky rng roll when a T30 shot me.

    Its slow, but not too slow. average speed im getting on solid ground is about 40 give or take a few kmph, which is average for a tier 8 medium, I’ve seen slower and faster. The real gem of this tank though is its turning speed… its an average speed but it FEELS quick on turning, rotating, even pulling back and poking up feels very quick to response. You out turn almost anything in the STA-2.

    I’ve had decent games in it, and I havent even changed the standard ammo load out, which means not one round of HEAT has left the barrel. There are many, many worse prem tanks.

    • Nice to read that,but.. Its not really funny to play way like that You need full focus in battles to do something and to say this is a good game in nothing special premium tank So no Rambo moves,dont try that ;) ”Only for experienced players” is what missing from WG description

    • Yeah, I bought the STA-2 over the AMX CDC as a last second decision, now I’m not saying that it’s a better tank than the CDC, but it certainly isn’t a bad tank, and I’m already really enjoying it.
      Infact, it’s convinced me to start grinding further down the Japanese tree, or to finally buy the Pershing :D

  9. I played the STA-2 on the test server when it was up. It really wasn’t a bad machine, not great, but would be a solid crew trainer for someone who is working Japanese mediums. Sure, it will suffer in tier ten games, but nearly every tier eight tank suffers in tier ten games. My only real complaint about it was the lack of mobility, which is pretty bad, considering that it doesn’t have armor to slow it down.

    My favorite tier 8 medium is still the Pershing (honorable mention to the Object 416). It makes due with 180 pen. However, it does two things the STA-2 doesn’t; first it has an extremely bouncy turret, bouncing tier 10 TD shells is not uncommon for a hull down Pershing. Second, its premium ammo is 268 pen APCR, much faster flight times and more reliable penetration than the STA-2s 275 pen HEAT.

    I probably won’t buy the STA-2, well unless there is a good sale, simply because there are not that many Japanese keeper tanks that I need to train crews for. I already have the Chi-Nu-Kai for the limited crew training I need. Still, for someone looking to run the Japanese line, it wouldn’t be a bad choice, one just has to understand its limitations.

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