Tank Review - The T-44

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The T-44 is the Soviet, tier 8, medium tank and it's a pretty important one in the game. The reason for that is that it leads to two of the best high tier Medium lines in the game - the T-54 and the Object 430.


Fortunately I found the T-44 to be extremely comfortable to play. It's pretty decent in every aspect, especially when you have it configured with the top equipment. Let's take a deeper look:

Equipment

Remember, if you're grinding to both the T-54 AND the Object 430 (and you'll want to) you're going to be in this tank a while. Takes about 140,000 XP to unlock either of those tanks; so you'll be in this tank for more than 280K XP, most likely. For me that's reason enough to spend some time and effort on the equipment - you want those battles to go well.

Guns

There are a lot of gun options for the T-44, but the top gun (the 100mm LB-1) is clearly the best choice. The rest all have pretty lackluster DPM or pen.

The 122mm is probably the second best choice. It's got 390 alpha, and ok pen, but rate of fire is very poor so you'd better hit those shots. It's also a bit derpy with .42 accuracy.

BONUS: The LB-1 is the second gun on the T-54, so when you get there you'll already have the second gun.

Turrets

The turret choice is pretty easy. The top turret, which costs 20,400 XP to research, has much better armor and adds 10m to the view range.

Engines & Tracks

It's well worth upgrading the engine on this tank. The top engine gives you 35% more power with less weight and the same chance of fire (a respectably low 12%).

The tracks don't make a huge difference, but they're cheap and help ensure you can mount all the equipment you want. I'd recommend waiting on the tracks (though they do, slightly, improve tank traverse) and get the gun, turret, and engine first. If at some point you're blocked because of weight then you can spend the 13,365 XP to unlock the upgraded tracks.

Gun Handling

The T-44's top gun is extremely comfortable in my opinion. 250 alpha, and the 8 rpm rate of fire doesn't keep you waiting too long for a reload. 190 silver pen isn't great, but I don't have a lot of trouble penning things because I tend to flank a lot and look for side shots.

If you have to you can tap the 2 key and get 247mm of pen, which is usually enough at tier 8, unless you're challenging the top HT turrets.

Accuracy, aim time, dispersion...all of them feel pretty good. With BIA and vents I get about 2200 DPM, and of course Russian guns have a tendancy to get the benefit of the RNG in the heat of battle. Just be sure to yell "RAHSHA!" as you shoot.

One area it suffers in, like most Russian tanks, is the gun depression is pretty poor.

Mobility

The mobility on the T-44 is quite good, it feels responsive, and the top speed of  51 is fine. Ground resistence is better than the Pershing, but not as good as the Type 59. Power to Weight is among the better ones at its tier. All that adds up to a tank that feels pretty good to drive. It's not a Ferrari tank, but you can generally get where you want to when you want to.

Survivability

The hull armor is ok, but not special. The front of the turret though has a very bouncy 190mm though and if you can hide your hull you'll be able to brawl a bit. 

That said I rarely brawl with this tank. I generally use the mobility to flex around, try to get to the side or rear of enemies, and see if I can turn 1 v 1s into 2 v 1s. In that role the T-44's small profile means that enemies will often have trouble hitting you, especially if they're frontally engaged with one of your teammates and have to try and snapshot you. 

1300 hit points is fine, though not best-in-class. One tip: it does seem to get ammo racked a lot so you might want to bring a large repair kit.

Crew

T-44 carries a crew of four and the loader is also the radio operator. I'm currently running my 2nd USSR MT crew in it (my prime crew is in the Obj430).

For my crew I've got them all on BIA, my female commander also has Sixth Sense, Camo, and is finishing Recon. She'll get Repairs next.

My gunner is finishing Snap Shot in addition to BIA. His next skill will be Camo.

Driver is finishing Smooth Ride in addition to BIA and will get either Off-Road Driving or Camo next.

My Loader has BIA and is finishing Camo, but when he does finish Camo I'll probably reset it to "Safe Stowage" to help with the ammo rack problem, and restart camo.

Worth noting that when I finish the T-54 grind this crew will move to the T-54 and I'll bring my 3rd USSR MT crew into the T-44.

Frequently Asked Questions About the T-44

Q: Will I keep it?
A: Yes, I think this is one of the tech tree tanks I'll keep, once I finish grinding it. It might be my favorite tier 8 tech tree medium. I enjoy it.

Q: Does it have good view range?
A: Base view range is a typical 380. With this crew (no Situational Awareness, 61% recon), running vents and optics I get 442m view range, which I bump to 447m with a vent purge directive. As the crew improves I should comfortably get to 445m without the directive.

Q: How's the camo rating?
A: On mine, even with a crew that has relatively little camo training, I've got 20% while moving. 25.71% while stationary. That's decent for an MT and it's helped by the relatively small size of the tank. It's smaller than a Revalorise, or a T69. The camo vanishes when you fire though, down to about 5%.

Q: You didn't mention the radio choices in the equipment section?!
A: Yeah, the only reason I ever upgrade the radio is if the upgraded radio is lighter, which then can benefit my mobility. Radio range is essentially irrelevent in WoT. I will eventually research the upgraded radios, just to elite the tank, but I'll rarely buy or mount them unless they're lighter than the stock radio. On the T-44 the upgraded radio is the same weight...and for some reason I bought and mounted it, though I can't recall why now.

Useful Links

Want a T-44 model kit? Here's one from Amazon!


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