Another Lunar New Year Marathon is upon us, and with it the second Tier IX vehicle to enter the Premium Tank lineup - The Chinese Assault Heavy Tank WZ-114. Players have the opportunity to grind this out for free, or at least discount the vehicle by 10% for every stage of the marathon they complete. This article discusses the relative merits of the vehicle to prepare you to either play or counter it effectively, as well as review the the way Tier IX Premium Tanks fit into the World of Tanks game economy.
TLDR Section (but please do read on and catch the gameplay video at the end of this article!)
Having the Assault role specialisation, WZ-114 is intended for close-range firefights where they can be blocking damage or trading HP lost for bigger and meatier hits in return.
Pros:
- 530HP AP/HEAT alpha with good penetration and velocity on standard and premium shells - Accurate gun when fully aimed - 10° Gun Depression
- Good frontal armour profile (except for rather large and obvious cupola weakspot)
- High HP pool
- Earns Bonds without costing credits
- Crew compatibility with entire Chinese Heavy Tank lineup
Cons: - Long reload significantly impacts damage per minute
- Long aim time and high dynamic dispersion values
- Cupola weakspot limits utility in hull-down play
- Thin side armour means reverse sidescraping ineffective except with very shallow angles
- Poor mobility and hull/turret traverse rates
Premium Tier IX Vehicles
First, let's recap on Tier IX Premiums in World of Tanks! Those Tier IX vehicles redeemable for Battle Pass Tokens such as Kunze Panzer or AE Phase 1 or the Concept 1b available from the Ranked Items store are not Premium Tanks but Reward Tanks. Like other Reward Tanks such as T95/FV4201 Cheiftain from Clan Campaigns, T28-HTC from Personal Missions Campaigns or even Well-Deserved Reward vehicles VK 28.01 105, the other Tier IX Reward Tanks will grant additional Combat and Crew Experience but do not provide any bonus to credit yield.
Unlike their Reward Tank brethren, the Tier IX Premium Vehicles WZ-114 and Strv K not only provide increased credit yield, but also have the ability to earn 100 bonds per week in the same way Tier X vehicles do. Traditionally the ability to earn bonds at Tier X has been associated with an anticipation of credit losses playing at that tier, but the credit-earning ability of Tier IX Premium vehicles will now offset this.
Economically-speaking, this will make a Tier IX Premium vehicle a powerful addition to a players arsenal but what it will cost you to obtain remains unclear at this stage. While the opening cost of the WZ-114 in the "Hunt for xxxx" marathon is around $125AUD, this should not be relied upon as representative of the future sticker price. Consider that Tier VIII vehicles in a marathon start out at the $100AUD mark, but their actual sale price wanders between $35-$65AUD. Given that Strv K has not come on public sale since the "Spirit of War" marathon last September, we don't yet have a cost-comparison within World of Tanks so it's difficult to estimate. We can possibly look to World of Warships as a point of reference where Tier IX Premium Ships are valued at $105AUD while Tier VIII Premium Ships are valued at $45-$75AUD. To this end, we can probably expect little change out of $95AUD for WZ-114 in the ordinary sales cycle.
Returning to the question of whether this spells the end of the Tier VIII Premium tank, I personally don't think it does. This is particularly so for players running a Standard Account. By way of example, here are the results from a session of playtesting on the demo account that the good folks at WarGaming gave me to test the vehicle...
A couple of notes on the above for context... - I won 7/8 games, which is probably going to jinx me now, but also significantly raise income - I hadn't activated Premium Account on the demo account, which would've raised the session income to 561,552 Credits for a 162,334 Credit Profit, or ~20K per game.
- I had predominantly fired Premium Ammunition in the session
- I hadn't used any Directives, but typically run Large Repair, Large First Aid and Small Repair
- All consumables needed to be paid for post-battle, as the demo account Depot is empty
During last years testing of Strv K in conjunction with other vehicles such as Centurion 5/1 RAAC, I had found that the Tier VIII Premium vehicles seem to achieve ~50% better net credit yield for similar effect on the battlefield, however Tier IX Premium vehicles such as Strv K or WZ-114 allow a player to actively grind for bonds without the deficit of credits that you would reasonably expect at Tier X. This ultimately makes the accrual of items from the Bond Shop, Ranked Items store or Campaign Auctions that much more accessible for Premium Tier IX vehicle owners.
Firepower
Although not the most wieldy of weapons, WZ-114's 130mm main armament brings tremendous potential to out-trade its opponents. Shells released from the WZ-114 land and penetrate with these characteristics: Standard AP 530HP Alpha 266mm Penetration 1,271m/s Velocity 1,659DPM
Premium HEAT 530HP Alpha 311mm Penetration 960m/s Velocity 1,659DPM
Standard HE 660HP Alpha 65mm Penetration 930m/s Velocity 2,066DPM
While Chinese tanks are traditionally characterised by poor gun handling, high damage per minute and shallow gun depression, WZ-114 represents a significant departure from the norm. Its Damage per Minute is noticeably low, where other Tier IX heavies with similar role will average closer to 2,200HP/min output. This is largely down to the reload time, which starts out at 19.2 seconds before any improvements to crew or equipment are made. To this end, like the other recent addition to the Premium Chinese vehicle pool, 122 TM, it is highly inadvisable to play this vehicle solo or enemies will figure out that they can rush and damage you without risk or consequence.
Gun handling is a topic of contradictions with WZ-114. It has a rather precise base dispersion of 0.32m/100m, however you'll probably never realise it since your aim time is a 3.74sec marathon while dynamic dispersion from movement, hull and turret traverse are 0.33/0.33/0.33 respectively. It's like they've taken a master-crafted hunting rifle and slapped on a wobbly bipod that was tossed against the armory wall a few times for good measure. Fortunately, relatively high muzzle velocities mean leading the target become less of a variable in whether you land on the intended target.
Survivability
WZ-114's characteristics are quite adequate in allowing it to live up to its role, particularly blocking incoming damage or tanking it if necessary. A HP pool of 2,300HP is only matched at tier by the German Mauschen however the Chinese heavy bears a significantly more favourable armour profile, at least from the front.
Fighting on the flat, a 300mm thick armour plate effectively protects the well-rounded turret face from most shells packing <325mm penetration, however hull-down play can be rendered ineffective by the rather large and obvious cupola weakspot that very few Tier VII's will have trouble punching through. With only 150mm of armour protection, hiding it behind hard cover is essential to staying in the fight.
The upper frontal plate is most effectively played as an M18 Claymore, i.e."Front Towards Enemy" since angling the hull will normalise the chamfered plates that sit at either side and erode the 260mm effective protection offered by the well-angled 140mm plate.
Unlike many Chinese vehicles that characteristically lack gun depression, WZ-114 welcomes some upward angling with 10° of gun depression keeping the main armament in the fight while providing around 375mm effective protection to most of the turret and 500mm to the upper frontal plate. Again, the cupola minimises the effectiveness of hull-down play so the armour may be better utilised by using battlefield obstacles such rubble to up-angle the tank while using something solid to hide the cupola.
Forward pokes to bait and bounce shots remains a viable tactic, and is likely to be more effective than a reverse sidescrape. With just 60mm of side armour, WZ-114 needs to maintain an unforgivingly shallow reverse angle to bait and bounce shots. This may not reveal enough tank for an opponent to confidently take the the shot in the first place, in fact players may wish to use the 175mm of turret side armour to wave the red flag at the bull.
Mobility
Among Heavy Tanks, mobility is more the realms of those with the Breakthrough or Versatile role assignment. WZ-114's locomotion isn't the worst among the Tier IX Assault Heavies, but certainly isn't the best. 30km/h forward speed leaves it the fourth-slowest of all Tier IX heavy tanks, and players may find the 10km/h reverse speed frustrating while they're pulling back on the reload. Turret traverse and tank traverse are also among the worst in show, which begs the question as to how the dynamic disperson characteristics could be so gosh darn awful.
Effectively playing the WZ-114 requires a clear plan of attack and escape, as changes of direction to engage an unexpected threat will cost you significant amount of time to reorient the vehicle and lay the gun on-target. This is time that the enemy will happily use to get away at best or put a hole in your tank at worst.
Crew & Equipment
Although it is tempting to improve the general mobility of this vehicle, there are two characteristics of WZ-114 that demand every bit of attention: Reload and Dynamic Dispersion.
We've dropped 750,000 EXP on the crew and rolled out with these Skills and Perks: - Brothers in Arms - Sixth Sense - Deadeye - Smooth Ride - Intuition - Snap Shot (62%) - Clutch Braking (62%) - Repairs (31%)
Intuition cannot be recommended strongly enough for this vehicle, as this crew can switch shells in about 4.6 seconds and keep your gameplay as efficient and cost-effective as possible. With the benefit of hindsight however, I would recommend pushing Snap Shot to 100% in lieu of seizing the opportunity to activate a second Perk (Note: Perks require 100% training to work, and are usually prioritised once a skill slot is 100% available - Not this time)
Equipment selection also focussed on the minimisation of dynamic dispersion and improving the rate of fire, and altogether we were able to achieve the following improvements in key performance areas over the base statistics:
Characteristic Base Stat Modified Stat
Damage per Minute 1,658HP/min > 1,935HP/min
Reload Time 19.18 seconds > 16.44 seconds
Aim Time 3.74 seconds > 3.56 seconds
Dispersion 0.32m/100m > 0.30m/100m
Moving Dispersion +0.33m/100m > +0.25m/100m
Tank Traverse Dispersion +0.33m/100m > +0.26m/100m
Turret Traverse Dispersion +0.33m/100m > +0.24m/100m
While the residual dynamic dispersion values still remain well above WZ-114's peers, these are far more palatable figures with which to go into combat and are likely to bear far greater utility than improvements to mobility or taking on durability enhancements.
Gameplay
Note: Skip to ~13:50 if you just want to go straight to the gameplay, as the front end of the video is mostly reviewing and discussing the content of this article you've already read!
See Also
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