Blitzkrieg is a new regular column devoted to the very popular MMO World of Tanks. If you’ve got a topic you’d like our resident expert Matthew “Scope” Pearce to cover, drop him a line!
G’day again folks, this week I’m going to take a look at some of the new British tanks coming out in the upcoming World of Tanks 8.1 patch that is currently on the test server.
Patch 8.1 brings the long awaited British tank tree that includes the medium and heavy tank lines to World of Tanks. Artillery and Tank Destroyers are being added in a later patch much like the French line was.
Today, let’s take a look at the new tier X British heavy tanks that the WoT team are bringing into the arena shall we?
The FV215b
The FV215b was a proposed plan for a heavy tank on the basis of the Conqueror Mk II, but unlike the Conqueror the FV215b featured a fear placement of the fighting compartment.
Ok, so let’s talk about the most important part of this tank the Gun
The FV215b comes equipped with the 120mm L1A1 – the same as the American T110E5 but with better accuracy aim time. The most important aspect of all is its insane ROF (rate of fire).
The 120mm L1A1 on the FV215b can shoot 8 rounds a minute – this means the British FV215b is now the new king of DPM (damage per minute) in World of Tanks. Its DPM with 100% crew is sitting at 3300 dpm and going up to 3840 with gun rammer, vents and brothers in arms all equipped.
The 120mm L1A1 has 269mm of penetration as well as an accuracy of 0.32 at 100m with an amazing aiming time of only 1.7 seconds, along with the 410m view range that makes this tank an excellent sniper / support platform.
The FV215b has decent acceleration and at a top speed of 34 km with a vertical stabilizer equipped along with the snap shot and smooth ride perks, you can easily shoot accurately while on the move.
What about the armour?
The armour is where the FV215b lets us down with only 130mm of frontal hull armour as well as the poor 51mm of side and rear hull armour.
The turret is not that much better either with only 152mm of frontal turret armour with the side being 89mm and rear 70mm
The FV215b is a squishy tank but you have 2600 hit points help make up for it and with patch 8.1 making gold rounds purchasable with credits, soon everyone’s armour will feel squishy but it sure would not hurt to be able to bounce a shot or two.
Is this tank Clan Wars worthy?
While the FV215b’s DPM and accuracy would be a great asset in Clan Wars I still believe that most clans will still choose other tanks over the FV215b due to its low armour which will be easily penetrated in 8.1 due to everyone and their dog slinging gold rounds around the place.
I think some clans may still use the FV215b as a Tank Destroyer replacement due to its high view range, accuracy, dpm and high health pool instead of trying to force it into the T110E5’s role. I guess we will have to wait and see after 8.1 hits the live servers to see if they are being used in Clan Wars.
Summary
After spending a few days trying this tank out on the test server it leaves me with a weird feeling of uncertainty. On one hand the accuracy and dpm is amazing but on the other hand there’s the lack of any meaningful armour – this could be because everyone on the test server is using gold rounds. Even with gold rounds being acquirable with credits come patch 8.1, the FV215b still has me questioning if it is really worth the grind to get or is it worth waiting until patch 8.2 to see if they nerf / buff it.
Another part of me is thinking that I should just wait until the next German medium line comes out with the Leopard 1 MBT so I could compare the two and pick the one I like more – but that’s because I would love to see some newer German tanks in the game like the other factions.
If I was forced to pick one thing about the FV215b that really makes the tank stand out I would have to say the 120mm L1A1 gun will 90% of the time seal the deal with people interested in a new tank. Even if it is just going to be used for pub stomping and not clan wars, the FV215b will be a beast to deal with in game.
Over to you: do you intend on getting a FV215b come patch 8.1 or are you thinking of saving your free experience for something else?
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I plan on getting it, but I’ll be grinding up the entire line since I only use my free xp to avoid stock tanks at higher tiers.
I will get it, but I will be going up the medium line first. The higher tier mediums share a lot of radios and guns with the heavies, so that will make the heavy grind easier.