Why Top Tier Is Broken

In War Thunder, top tier of the game's tank realistic battles mode is always the center of a lot of debate. Recently, that debate has escalated. Russian teams now sit at an average win rate of around 70 percent or so, making the game less fun for pretty much everyone who doesn't get paired with them. But why are things like this? Many will say that Russian main battle tanks aren't good, they simply have a lot of them. I don't entirely agree.

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#warthunder​​​​​​​​​​​​ #tanks​​​​​​​​​​​​ #tankhistory

[SilentButDudley]

The main issue with Top tier has been and still is Repair costs. Russian repair costs are half that of any other top tier tank.

[maplearrow]

You forgot that it’s impossible to win a match when there are 4+ ka-50s flying simultaneously. I can take them out one by one at the same time, but if there’s more of them you’re guaranteed to die, and your team will start getting killed not even right off, but inside the spawn.

[TheMrTapani]

Also what doesnt help: The absolute worst map design in human history

Most of the maps work fantastic or medicore with vehicles between 1.0-6.7 but once you start to get rounds that go 1600m/s and horsepower to weight ratios at modern mbt levels the maps dont work as well anymore

[blackegret]

Yeah Top Tier with all the fancy MBTs and fighterjets and choppers, it is pretty unbalanced and considering that several tanks between 7.0 and 8.3 aren't top of the line MBTs or IFVs (one example: Superheavies) makes the descrepency even larger.

[Blanket-guy]

I just reached top tier after 4 y in 4 nations, so i grind them all to fullest, rn i do US, and is insane, i am fighting with basically lego tanks my Heatfs, 20k for a f mod, btw, ofc i run prem account, for 3 y now...

[ODST_Parker]

As someone whose main tech tree is Italy, I feel the top-tier imbalance more than most. We currently have one of the worst, if not THE worst top-tier MBT in the game. Like the F-104S in the air tree, they're not even top-tier, they just get up-tiered into it almost every game. We have two MBTs, one light vehicle, and arguably two AAs in the form of the OTOMATIC and the SIDAM 25 with missiles. Then we have a Dardo you can easily up-tier to 10.7, and mediocre CAS options in the form of the F-104S with dumb bombs or the A129CBT with Hellfires. We are so behind in terms of 11.3 fighting capability that I don't think Italy will ever be a popular nation again.

[snazzydazzy]

Don't forget that Russia can spawn multiple times thanks to their lower repair cost. From what I've heard, America, Sweden and Britain have high repair cost compared to such.

[pablosarmiento]

Russian tank armor: 90%
Allied tank weak spots: 90%

real nice logic gaijin

[gelatinoussire]

Gaijin: "There is no such thing as Russian bias."

Also Gaijin: *Keeps adding loads of top tier Russian vehicles.*

[vizender]

I think a good start to rebalance some stuff would be to stop artificially nerfing some tanks. The Leclerc does not even have the French motorisation. In war thunder, only the Diesel engine is counted, but in reality there’s also a secondary turbine that offers extra power.
Also, they keep adding new stuff to even already existing USSR tanks, like APFSDS, while forgetting that the Leclerc S2 and XXI could be fitted with an armor kit and a much better APFSDS in the form of the OFL 120 F1B or OFL 120 F2.

[nostradamusofgames]

Most easiest way to explain why the game is broken can be said in one word- Gaijin.

[zacharyhoman]

For me, the biggest annoyance are the Russian helis (vickors specifically). They can completely prevent spaas from being able to shoot them down if the pilot is paying any attention, forcing the opposing team to get into jets to shoot them down, which takes significant time and a lot of sp, and with the high repair cost of many jets, the player will stay in it and try to support rather than get back in a vehicle (if they have any left as most nato nations only have 2 good spawns).

[TexasWarbird]

I think you missed an opportunity to mention the fact that Gaijin essentially encourages players to play Russia top tier because of its low repair cost.

I've been playing for a long time and would like to say I'm average - I have US top tier, Russia Top Tier and UK. And reason I revert to playing as Russia all the time, is the cheap repair cost.

I constantly feel punished by losing SL playing any other faction except for Russia. Where I can have 1 or 2 bad matches and not go bankrupt.

[NotSanakan]

i somewhat amazed of the fact that repair costs of some nato tanks almost quadruple of russian mbts.

[Insanerobert]

You forgot the Mig-27 spam where they fly above the enemy spawn, camp around there and you can't even see them in air or radar but they can spot you and kill you with guided bombs/ATGMs while you're blind of their location. Even if you try to counteract them with a jet - there's always a Tunguska waiting to kill you if you try to get close to combat zone.

[Mrdark]

You are missing two points in this why Russia is also overperforming. All top tier NATO tanks are underperforming in various ways, from nerfs, legacy choices carrying over, and inaccuracies Gajin acknowledges and doesn't intend to change b/c lack of published info. The primary opponent of the Russians the M1 is particularly plagued by this. Secondarily, the NATO players are conditioned to be overly cautious of shot placement on the Russian MBTs. This give the reaction time advantage to the Russians and makes NATO players less confident fighting Russian MBTs. This comes from players being espoused to these tanks using HEAT then 105 APFSDS both rounds quite literally made to be defeated by the Russian MBTs. This behavior is carried over to the 120s from the stock HEAT experience at top tier. This further reinforced by the number of Russian MBTs with ERA that makes the window in Russian armor even smaller, and can completely negate even 120 HEAT from the side at best making HEAT inconsistent. The moving turret bug "especially at top tier" and ghost shells further compounds this and erodes confidence. The lack of confidence is a self fulfilling prophecy and needs to be trained out of. Plus a un-honorable mention to overpressure weirdness and strange post pentation effects and spalling at their peak in top tier.

[master]

"some American tanks still got gen1 thermals". Correction there Spook, All Abrams tanks have only gen1. Say what u want but looking thru soup is neither effective nor fun. Bradley and Striker got gen2 and then everything above that (9.7) is gen1. In a meta where acquisition to shot time is super low, having potential bad acquisition is dropping US win rates itself by a percent point or two.

[ross.l]

The rng factor on the additonal side ERA protection of the T72B3 and T80BVM is abusolutely busted. Several times I have my M900 hitting them at 90 degree but do zero damage.

[joeyjo-jojuniorshabadoo]

Yes pressing w and bouncing shots because frontal weak spots are much smaller than other nations' tanks is highly skillful.

[BENKYism]

The M1A2 entered service in the early 90's. The T-80BVM entered service in 2019. The T-72B3 entered service in 2016. The T-90A (it sucks, I know) entered service in 2006. Gaijin should at least give the US the M1A2 SEP v1 from 1999.

Also, if Russia gets the 3BM60 round from 2002, the US should get the M829A3 round from 2003.