A general review of what tiers have to offer and a guide to the general balance of the game after 1k hours of play.


~1.0: Unfortunately for new players, this is where most seal-clubbing occurs. At 1.0 you see the prevalence of the 20mm autocannon meta, with the German tree starting off the grind with some especially powerful vehicles. Some notable examples of this would be the Pz IIC, Sdkfz 234/1, Sdkfz 140/1 and the Flakpz. IC. Though many would consider the aforementioned tanks broken, this rank is in a good place by War Thunder standards, and most tanks are pretty fun to play.

~2.0: At this point, you will start to face the pre-war or early-war tanks fielded by most nations. Again, most players would consider this a tier that is more than bearable to play, and most trees offer unique tanks, such as the zis-30 and the t-50, just to name ones in the soviet tree.

3.0 - 3.7: This is the point where the iconic vehicles, such as the pz. IV F2, T-34 and M4 Sherman, show up. In my opinion, the balance between the big 3 nations is pretty decent, and the most iconic vehicles of the second world war offer their own unique flavour. However, clubbing at this tier should still be addressed, since vehicles like the pz. IV and the pak puma offer amazing firepower for this tier. Many players who have reached higher tiers often play this tier to make SL or simply experience a better, more balanced tier.



~4.0-5.0: This is where the armour meta starts to develop; tanks like the KV- series and the heavier shermans start to carry massive impact potential if used correctly. Still, a well-placed side-shot will be able to knock out every tank at the tier. Vigilance and awareness are key at this point in the game, since Hellcats (5.3) are often spammed out by players from both the chinese and american tree.

5.0-5.7: The speed meta reigns supreme at this tier, with two trees sporting the hellcat and the T-34-85s being able to rush caps and spawns. High-pen and velocity guns also start to be mounted on tanks, thus making them resemble MBTs, with the Centurion mk.1 being one of the best tanks at this tier imo, with it being able to fire APDS rounds and having decent armour for its tier.


The late war tanks are an amazing experience to play, especially considering the fact that this is pretty much the final point in the grind where the game can be fun for all nations for most of the time. The diversity of tank design is great and the overall balance is pretty good. Sometimes 7.0s can get dragged into 8.0 uptiers, but it isn't much of a struggle to combat the tanks you face.


Oh god, where do I begin...? Tanks at this BR essentially rely on downtiers to make SL and provide a fun experience. You're in an IS-3? You better be in a downtier or you're gonna get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ by AUBL/74 HVGs. You're in an M48? I hope you don't face the hoardes of Obj. 120 players who can snipe you across the map! This process of praying for a downtier carries on the whole time you're in this BR range, because gayjin has made it so that every 1.0 BR increase approx. is equal to a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ decade in tank engineering. This is hell for Ground Forces players, purely because of the unbalanced nature of the tier. Oh, by the way, did I even mention the premiums? The rank 5 premiums always ensure that you will be delivered a daily dose of cancer when playing this game. They never stop pissing you off, and they never will.


Welcome to top tier, the place where it is practically impossible for you to make any net profit of SL if you have your tank spaded. This tier sucks so much penis that it could be the symbol of the LGBT community. Game balance and design has flown out the window by now, and you surely must have noticed that on your slow, painful way up to this point. ♥♥♥♥♥♥, small maps favouring one spawn over the other dominate the vast majority of games you will play, with the odd Kursk, Maginot or Sinai thrown in there. No NVDs? Here, have a 20% night battle rate! Good luck trying to navigate the map, let alone survive the writhing mass of tanks who spawn-rush with thermal sights. One more thing - helicopters will rape you. Granted, it's not as bad as in the last patch, but still, it ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sucks to be 1-shotted by some ♥♥♥♥♥♥ sitting 7-10km away from the battlefield in their gay apache or Ka-50.

♥♥♥♥ Sweden

This nation deserves a rant by itself. WHY does APDS exist at low-tier? WHO THE ♥♥♥♥ thought it would be a good idea to add a 200 rpm 40mm autocannon that can penetrate any top-tier MBT FRONTALLY? WHO THE ♥♥♥♥ from the gayjin dev team proposed an up-armoured Leopard 2A5 to be added at 10.3? Seriously, the single ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ balanced vehicle at top tier for Sweden is the CV90120, and that thing is pretty strong for its tier. NERF THIS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ TREE.

Conclusion and TL;DR:

Low to mid tier = good
High tier = bad
♥♥♥♥ top tier, it isn't worth the hundreds of hours spent grinding for it.