Tier 8 tech tree Premiums – the good, the bad, and the expensive

A topic that comes up frequently on the WoT sub-Reddit is “what tier 8 premium should I buy.” It comes up so often that it can be annoying (3 times in 1 hour) and depending on who answers, the responses vary from post to post. My goal here is to provide some helpful information including the pros and cons of each tank (if applicable) to allow a new tanker to make a more informed purchasing decision. Keep in mind, this information is going to be based on opinions from random players reflect their personal opinions. The onus is on you to review the available YouTube tank reviews before you make a purchase.

This is going to have to be ‘part 1’ as it’s taking a lot longer to work through the submissions and filter the comments. I’ll post an update for the ‘least recommended’ tanks later.

My long-term plan is to put together lists of tier 8 premium tanks starting with tech tree premiums that can be purchased in game with gold. Then I’ll look at premium shop tanks and finally reward/event special tanks.

Tech tree premiums available all the time for gold.

There are currently twenty tier 8 tech tree premium tanks that can be purchased for gold: 4 German, 4 French, 3 Russian, 3 Chinese, 3 American, and one each from the UK and Sweden.

Three countries are still missing tier 8 tech tree tanks: Poland, Italy, and Czechoslovakia. (I would love an auto-loading tier 8 Czech premium)

The list, below, (in no particular order) includes all premium tanks currently available on the tech tree for gold as of January 2019.

• USA: T34 (Heavy), T26E4 SuperPershing (Med), M46 Patton KR (Med)
• RUS: IS-6 (Heavy), T-54 Mod 1 (Med), STG (Med)
• CHINA: 112 (Heavy), 59-Patton (Med), WZ-120-1G FT (TD)
• GER: Panther mit 8,8cm (Med), Panzer 58 Mutz (Med), 8,8cm Pak 43 Jagdtiger (TD), Löwe (Heavy)
• France: AMX CDC (Med), M4A1 Revalorisé (Med), AMX M4 49 (Heavy), AMX Cda 105 (TD)
• UK: FV4202
• Japan: STA-2 (Med)
• Sweden: STRV S1 (TD)

A couple days ago I posted a google survey requesting input from the WoT Reddit community. The response was great, I got over 300 replies in just two days.

I know this is not a scientifically accurate way to gather data; however, I do believe it’s going to provide a reasonable cross section of the community (with input from folks playing on the NA, EU, RUS, Asia, and Australian servers) and should be ‘good enough’ to be a reasonably guide for players to help them make a more informed choice when looking at their options.

First, I’ll share the results of the survey… some people like to see the raw numbers and won’t care too much about comments. Then I’ll provide the pros and cons of the top 6 tanks and the bottom 5 tanks. I’m choosing the top 6 as the voting was very close.

Survey methodology (completely non scientific-like): I posed two main questions: of the 20 available tanks, pick the tanks you would recommend for purchase (max 3). Followed by: pick the tanks you would not recommend (max 3).

Responses: 329 (as of Friday, 11 Jan at 11PM CDT)
Respondents were required to have a google account which would limit an individual to voting once (unless they used multiple google accounts, I have two accounts but found it would be a pain in the ass to switch accounts to vote twice). I felt that this would also help to limit malicious voting (people trying to intentionally skew the results). At least that was my hope. Since about 65% of the participants chose to provide detailed responses, my guess is that most people who participated did so with the intention of voting legitimately, which I sincerely appreciate.

The majority of people who replied put their In-game-name and server on the form though no real form of identification or authentication was required to participate. Sixty-nine out of 329 did not identify themselves (and a couple people indicated that they did not want to get a loot box).

Of those who did put their name/server, 79 identified as EU players, 53 from NA, 5 from Asia, 1 from Australia and 1 from Russia. These numbers are approximated as some folks abbreviated their server differently and it did not filter properly in excel. In hindsight, it may have been better to put a checkbox or radio button to allow a player to select their primary server.

I had 8 invalid submissions which were discarded.

I can share the raw numbers today but the detailed responses to the optional questions will take some additional time to parse. The optional questions were:

1. Briefly tell me which is your top pick and why (214 responses)
2. Tell me which is your least favorite and why (216 responses)
3. If you could recommend *any* single tier 8 premium (whether it’s available on the tech tree for gold or not) which tank would you pick
4. If you answered the write in question above, please briefly say why you picked that tan

RESULTS: Pick up to 3 tanks you would recommend from the tech tree premium

As you can see in chart 1, above, the top recommended tier 8 tech tree premium is the Löwe with 184 votes, “winning” by a wide margin over the rest of the tanks. The next highest recommended tank is the Chinese tank destroyer WZ-120-1G FT followed closely by the T26E4 SuperPershing, the T-54 Mod 1 and the STRV S1.

The French M4A1 Revalorisé came in a very close 6th but, honestly, could easily be in the top 5 if even a few more votes were collected. Since the 2nd through 6th place tanks all received nearly the same number of votes, I decided to provide detailed pros and cons of the top 6 tanks submitted by the survey participants.

As far as ‘least’ recommended, on the opposite end of the spectrum, the French medium AMX CDC picked up the most votes at 175 followed by the German Panther mit 8,8cm (145 votes) and the German 8,8cm Pak 43 Jagdtiger TD (97 votes). The Russian IS-6 got 83 ‘no votes’ and the Chinese 59-Patton took the fifth spot with 76 ‘no votes’. The Japanese STA-2 medium tank came in sixth with 50 ‘no votes’.

I made a couple more charts for the top and bottom 6 tanks (my excel skills are about as good as my tanking skills). Overall, aside from the Lowe, the next 5 tanks on the list all received roughly 100 or so votes. I have had all of these tanks and except for the T-54 Mod 1, agree with all of these being in the top 5, though my number one pick would be the STRV S1.

I do not have the AMX CDC, the 8,8cm Pak 43, the IS-6, the 59-Patton, or the STA-2, so I can’t say much about these tanks but it’s clear that the vast majority of participants do not recommend them. I do have the Panther 8,8 and, aside from one awesome game, have never really enjoyed it. My choice for least favorite tier 8 tech tree premium – that I own – would be the Chinese heavy 112.

I also want to look at the gold cost vs recommended tanks to see which one is the best value for the money. At first glance it would look like the SuperPershing would be an easy winner in this category at 7,200 gold, it’s among the ‘cheapest’ on the top 6 and it has the benefit of preferred match making (only meeting tier 9 on the high end). After it’s recent penetration and speed buffs, it’s really a good buy for a player wanting their first tier 8 premium tank at 7,200 gold. The next ‘best value’ would be the M4A1
Revalorisé, it is also listed at 7,200 gold. Both tanks are good credit earners, as are most tier 8 premium tanks, but that’s a whole other article in itself (and it’s been addressed by several community contributors on YouTube in the last few months).

It’s interesting to note that the tank that received the most recommendations, the German Löwe is also the most expensive on the list at 12,500 gold. Wargaming obviously knows the value of this tank. Hopefully they won’t see the results of the survey and increase the gold cost of the top 6 picks (or maybe they’ll see these results and lower the cost of the ‘least’ recommended tanks, making them slightly more attractive?)

Update: I have actually decided to include some of the ‘better’ comments in this article because I feel like it’s not really useful to just post raw numbers without giving at least some critique of the tanks that were voted on. So this article is going to be even longer than I planned, which may turn some folks off, for which I apologize. Initially, I was planning two separate posts.

Top 6 recommended tanks

#1) German Heavy tank: Löwe (12,500 gold)

Löwe = Pros

• The Löwe is simultaneously the most balanced and most forgiving of noob mistakes at tier 8.
• Solid armor, decent maneuverability for its class, amazing accuracy, decent punch and alpha.
• Lowe is best for beginners. It will teach them about hull down and side-scraping techniques which will help them in the long run. It is also less forgiving to play.
• Löwe. Good for new players to teach armor use. A good credit maker because of the high pen. It’s difficult to make plays and influence the battle because of the poor mobility, though.
• Lowe. Decent armour and accuracy, high enough penetration both rounds to be competitive even in tier 10 games, without the need to camp red line like STRV for example.
• The Lowe is very handy for training a German heavy crew and there are multiple heavy branches. It’s also a very capable tank with tough armor and an accurate gun.
• Lowe – great gun with amazing gun handling and accuracy, has decent armor and bouncy turret, it handles T10 MM better than a lot of other T8 premiums
• Lowe, being the tank with good armor and great gun. Not hard to get the idea of it on the battlefield and is pretty competitive vs tier 8 and 9 vehicles. Good supporting tank vs tier 10 even without premium ammo. Farms well!
• The tank has a bad reputation because of so many bad or new players driving it, but its a really great tank. The gun is good, the reload is great and the mobility is alright for a tank that weights 70 tonnes. Generally speaking, the Lowe is a pretty good tank, but not necessarily a forgiving one. It is a very large tank, getting hit by artillery is something that often happens, and don’t expect to be able to hide. The armor fine, but the turret is weak unless you look straight at the opponent. The upper-plate is not too well angled and is sometimes penned and the lower plate is huge.
• The Lowe, although slow it’s got a lot going for it, and I think the armor is really good for a newer player. It allows for mistakes and doesn’t need super skilled play to be good. \For new players? Probably the Lowe as ironic as that is. It’s slower so you won’t Seperate yourself from the team. The gun is very good. It’s a good tank to learn basics with(hull down +side-scrape) when it’s bottom tier you can play a pseudo-td and not be useless.
• Lowe, it has useful armor at all tiers, accurate high pen gun allows for less gold to be needed, and it is see enough for new players to not get overextended
• Lowe. Good armor, good gun, print money. It’s a beast when top tier, but still useful against tier 10s. Strong hull/side amor and 10 degree gun depression give you flexibility in all kinds of maps. Most importantly, you learn how to play heavies from playing this tank – hull down & sides-crape. The Lowe is the tank I enjoyed/played most in 2018.
• Top pick is the Lowe. Competitive gun stats and some armor makes it still favorable in the current meta and it makes quite a lot of credits. It is a good crew training for up to the pz 7 and the e75.
• Lowe. It doesn’t have any glaring weaknesses other than its speed but it is a heavy after all. It has a reasonably accurate gun that allows it to snipe from range when bottom tier. Good penetration values means that it’s a great credit earner. The turret is strong for the most part when mid or top tier and the upper plate is good unless confronted by big guns. Gun depression is also great and allows for decent ridge peeking. It’s been power-creeped and doesn’t have pref MM but still good enough in most areas to keep it competitive, even if it isn’t OP like the newer tanks.
• The Lowe may be slow, and its alpha and DPM may not be good, but it has usable armor, good penetration and good gun depression. It’ll just print credits if you’re good at playing German HTs.

Löwe = Cons

• No one posted any negative comments about the Löwe

#2) Chinese TD: WZ-120-1G FT (10,200g)

WZ-120-1G FT Pros

• WZ-120-G1 FT. Very good jack of all trades, monster gun and DPM, reliable armor, turns quickly.
• Chinese TD. Great mobility and gun. Traverse speed is great
• WZ-120 TD, amazing gun, dpm, hull traverse. Good armor vs same tiers and good mobility.
• WZ-120-1G FT – TD because it has great camouflage, a good gun and good mobility
• WZ-120G 1FT – because over 3000 dpm, 250 base pen, good armor (frontally) and is overall very fun to play
• WZ-12-1G FT, I think it’s the most easy to use premium TD available with awesome DPM, armor and decent camo. This thing fits everyone!
• WZ 120 FT – Medium view range, excellent camo and traverse and a punchy gun. What’s not to like?
• WZ-120-1G FT – great DPM, armor and mobility. Very flexible in any match-up.
• WZ-120-1G FT = my favorite tech premium. You can use it effectively in every map which cannot be said for example for S1. It’s good at defending, but you can play agro as well. Very flexible, good RoF. Armor can bounce.
• Wz has mobility, good gun (dpm, pen, accuracy). Great armor when top tier. When bottom tier the gun still works fine. If it had a turret it would have to be a t10.
• WZ-120-1G FT has a lovely gun and has rather troll armor, Can bounce quite a few shots, Also has decent mobility
• Actually i would go with the WZ 120-1G FT-TD i did play it myself really much and i like the tank on its a versatile all-rounder characteristics. It has a good alpha with great dpm. Also the Armor lets you bounce of shots. Hell you can even side scrape in it ! My go to tank when it comes to credit printing.
• The Chinese TD is basically an up-tiered SU-122-44 and basically has everything other than gun dispersion.
• WZ-120-1G FT, View range is high and DPM is astronomically high. Front armour is also reliable. Reaches 45 kph easily and traverse speed is great.

WZ-120-1G FT Cons

• WZ-120-1G FT. On paper it looks great but in my opinion, TDs that lack turrets suffer if the gun is mounted on the front of the superstructure. There are obviously exclusions to the rule such as the ISU-152 and Tortoise/T95, etc but those vehicles have at least one exceptional attribute such as alpha or armor. The WZ excels at nothing. It can’t sidescrape at all and is suited only for long distance hull down play. The upper plate is unreliable at best and the gun is crippled by typical Chinese accuracy. The gun is mounted low on the superstructure and the top is often penned before the gun can peek over a ridge to fire.

#3) American medium: T26E4 SuperPershing (7,200g)

T26E4 Pros

• Super Pershing, pref mm and the new buffs make it a credit earning best and a pubstomper.
• T26E4 – it’s got a good ROF and somewhat forgiving armor, without a ton of speed – it’s a good blend between heavy play (represented here by the IS6 and my pick, the Lowe), and the faster medium play of the Mutz. The lack of speed helps ‘train’ a player to think more like a heavy, and the accurate gun (and pref MM) give that player a chance to contribute even if they are out-gunned via perma-tracking or even tanking some shots that other mediums mightn’t be able to survive.
• superpershing. pref mm and good gun, with decent armor. it is also a good choice for new players.
• 1 If I were to recommend a new player a tank it would be the T26E4 why? well this tank was recently buffed making the armor gun and speed more reliable playing against tier X is something a new player wont do good against “Even in a 252U Defender”. So giving them the benefit of good penetration (202) good point front towards the enemy armor as a first premium with pref MM would be the best price to performance at 7200 gold while being able to get a good amount of credits
• I really like my super Pershing, especially after the buffs it received. It is somewhat slow, so a newer player will find it more difficult to over-commit and die, but it is fast enough to get where it needs to be. Furthermore, it has some usable armor and preferential matchmaking (which is less of an advantage nowadays than it was years ago, but still avoids tier X battles).
• Superpershing: Pref MM helps a lot. Tier 10 battles can be rough and not dealing with them at all is a nice thing. Slow, so they cant really rush themselves in positions fast and die instantly. Armour, you don’t need to angle your armor at all, just wiggle a bit to try to avoid shots on your weak spots. Players can learn common weak spots by how they get penned in the SP (cupola, machine gun port, weak sides, places without spaced armor.
• Considering tech tree only it hast to be the SuperPershing. Okay gun, fairly good speed, trollish enough armor to bounce the occasional shot. It also never sees T10 which is a massive plus for newer players.
• t26e4, preff MM and noob friendly (can bounce alot of stuff, doesn’t see tier 10s, not too fast for noobs to get too far to the front)
• T26E4 Superpershing.. it’s matching means you don’t face Tier 10 unless you us it in a platoon. The Armour means you can take hits and survive.
• Super Pershing. Now buffed so its viable now. Pref mm. Spaced armor to resist heat spam.
• T26E4 SuperPershing just makes alot of credits imo and is really fun to play at the same time even tho it lacks mobility a bit.
• SuperPershing is best all around. Great armor profile.
• T26E4: Preferntial mm. Great armor. And the gun isn’t lacking in dpm or pen. Mobility isn’t horrible either.
• Super Pershing, all around good tank. Definitely one of the easier premiums to learn for a new player

T26E4 Cons

• None posted

#4) Russian medium: T-54 Mod 1 (8,750g)

T-54 Mod. 1 – Pros

• For the situation I’m torn between the T-54 Mod 1 & IS-6 as these are key gold premiums that offer usability among many tank crews. There are plentiful competent Russian mediums & heavy Tier 8-10s, and by having a premium to work on their respective crews, earn credits & free experience, these are by far the best choices available.
• The T-54 Mod 1, decent armor, decent mobility, decent pen, good ammo capacity. Enough armor to side-scrape when necessary, and the crew layout suits the higher tier Russian mediums.
• t54 mod 1 plays like the t44. So players in the med line have an easy transition. It has good armor, and can side-scrape, and even bounce frontal shots from lower tier. It’s a great tank to bully lower tiers in.
• overall t54 mod1 cause Russian mediums will always be meta
• T54 mod 1, there are many Russian meds deserved to be kept, top pick for the mere crew training value unless you’ve got obj 907.
• t-54 mod 1: the only actually useful tank in strongholds
• T-54 Mod 1 … decent gun and decent armor great camo, buffs RU med crews
• T54 mod: fast, hard armor, good gun
• Mod 1: Good all-round t8 medium, decent mobility, decent turrent, decent gun. Ok in T10 battles.
• T54 mod1 because its agile and good armor
• T-54 Mod. 1 – great armor, mobility and gun are good, great money maker
• Mod 1, all of my picks are very forgiving to new players but the Mod 1 has some speed.
• T54 mod 1. Troll armor. Fits object 140/430 crews for training, credit farming.
• T-54 mod.1, I know it’s out of meta but it’s sexy af. And if you know to work it it’s great little tank. When they change MM it’s gonna be in meta again.
• T-54 Mod.1 – perfect crew trainer for OP Russian mediums while also being a good T8 medium in terms of gun, armor and mobility.
• T54 mod 1. DPM, gun handling, armor, decent (not great) mobility, very useful crew trainer for meta MT’s.
• T54 Mod 1. It has all around great stats. Perfect for a medium tank at it’s tier and does well in almost any match up.

T-54 Mod. 1 Cons: None provided

#5) Swedish TD: STRV S1 (10,900g)

STRV S1 Pros

• STRV S1 because the high amount of concealment and ability to pen any tank of any tier.
• Strv s1 is mobile and has an incredible gun, though it is handicapped by lack of turret and siege mode. Having a gun that hits and pens is amazing though
• I chose the STRV because it is fun and quirky and powerful.
• Strv S1: 288mm of standard pen means profitibility is high due to not needing to shoot gold ammo, high shell velocity is more forgiving for players who haven’t gotten used to leading shots. The siege mode mechanic teaches the value of good positioning and when and when not to engage siege mode to fire at targets. Combine mobility, amazing gun handling in siege mode with good camo and DPM and you have a very good tank that’s easy to pick up and play and very rewarding to master.
• S1, great credit grinder, great crew trainer, huge DPM and camo. Highest skill cap T8 premium, rewards skill the best
• Definitely the S1. The 288mm of pen means that you can still get lots of shots to penetrate tier X vehicles that you will encounter half the time in the current match maker. This makes playing tier 8 much less frustrating, and for accruing free XP and credits having a pleasant grind is absolutely essential to enjoying the game.
• I really enjoy the STRV S1 (Bush camper I know) It suits my style of play and I enjoy the siege mode and it brings variety to the game.
• Strv S1, it has good base pen, which equals less gold spam and more credits earned… You can get away with using camo net/binos and a rammer, which is a cheap investment for good future value, which scales even better when you get your crew going.
• Strv S1. best in class pen and accuracy means you need 0 gold and always make good money. great credit maker. it is not however good for a new player as it needs detailed knowledge of maps and the mechanics to exploit fully.
• STRV-S1 Red line sniper, easy to play hard to master. Rarely needs to load the gold so it always makes money even running food.
• The Strv S1. It has E-25-like camouflage, a laser-accurate gun with good DPM and amazing penetration values, good armor against low caliber guns and sort of good mobility. It can rack up tons of damage in minutes.
• Strv 1; highly mobile, some bouncy-ness from the front, good camo and a very precise and fun gun + fun and efficient Swedish TD mechanic.
• Strv S1: novel game mechanics (siege mode), good mobility, great camo, great gun stats, awesome standard pen so no need to fire prem shells -> great earning potential

STRV S1 Cons: None provided

#6) French medium: M4A1 Revalorisé (7,200g)

M4A1 Rev – Pros

• REV because its the only I have and that’s because I like high alpha with good gun handling. It also has cheap shells.
• M4A1 Rev is super fun and a reliable all rounder.
• Probably the Ravioli. The gun is so nice on it, and coupled with gun depression, it’s really comfortable to play. I only recommend it for experienced players, though.
• M4A1 Rev, it is a good punchy medium and does it’s job well. Good crew trainer for either of the french meds and doesn’t suck nearly as hard as the CDC.
• The m4 Rev. I don’t know why, I just have a ton of fun with its gun. It’s so snappy.
• French M4A1 – Very good profit, good gun, more fun to play than the skorpion G which is also great for profit.
• Ravioli cause its cheap n fun
• M4A1 Rev; Imo it has a great gun but it’s thin armor and relatively bad mobility forces you to plan and think 2 steps ahead when playing. Learning when it’s time to relocate, fall back or push with the team. Things that are great to know when playing all tanks – but are especially important in tanks that simply cannot brawl their way out of trouble after making a mistake.
• M4A1 Rev, affordable premium with a great gun and credit making potential. APCR with decent pen makes the gun easy to use. And the great alpha is very satisfying to put out.
• M4 Rev is a strong contender. Decent gun, acceptable mobility, and an occasionally troll turret allows for ridge poking
• m4a1 rev fun to play and doesn’t feel completely useless against t10 tanks like most t8 do
• M4A1. The fact that you just aim at a flat surface and the shell is extremely fast teaches newbies how to lead your shot a bitter better.
• M4A1 Revalorisé – While I enjoy other tanks like the Lowe (reliable gun) and pref MM tanks like Super Pershing and 112, the Revalorisé has a monster gun, decent mobility, and great camo/vision. Thanks to it’s effective gun it can usually participate in some extent to high tier gameplay and still pound lower tiers. Camo and vision as I said are excellent with a good crew and allow me to move undetected and put in good shots. Finally, these shots allow me to trade effectively if needed since it has 390 alpha and the gun depression/handling allows me to get these shots off.

M4A1 Rev Cons

• The M4 would be the next one, it is so easy to kill. I have one, it can’t be a TD but you can’t play it like a medium or like a firefly either.
• M4a1 Rev. Call it bias, but I find its a massive pile of shit, as a medium it is too slow and has awful dpm and as a sniper the gun never hits where you aim, the 200mm pen seems nice on paper but in the sniping role it is awful. At least with the CDC you get to flank and can easily reposition
• M4A1 rev. Because it is a tank with a high profile and terrible armor. The mobility is not good enough to compare that. The only positive about the tank is the gun (in close range) but in close range u are dead within an minute

Remember, these are opinions submitted from survey participants and may or may not be factual or accurate.

Please, if you find any factual errors, call me out. I’m trying to help folks out, not confuse them.