Each Country in War Thunder currently has an ultimate main battle tank at either 11.0 or 10.7, so lets see where all of them currently stand. Note, top tier is where stuff gets added the most, so some of this will change in the future. Also, when comparing armor it gets weird because all of these tanks start with HEAT-FS, a round type that all of them have really good protection against, and also have a weaker shell before they unlock their ultimate, stronger, shell, so a lot of the armor comparisons may be off if you're fighting with/against players still grinding out upgrades. There's also a lot of upgrades that affect automotive performance, so there will be some variation on mobility as the vehicles get upgrades. Here we go!
Number 9: Ariete (10.7) Italy
At one point, the Ariete was famous for having the "god round" a round with the highest penetration in the game. That day is pretty far gone. It's current round rates at slightly above average. It's armor is purely superficial as many enemies can simply click on it's dumb ass. The only redeeming feature in terms of protection is that all the ammo is stored in the hull, so if it is hull-down, it's very hard to one-shot, but that's situational. It's mobility isn't exceptional either with a pretty modest top speed and power-to-weight ratio. It does get both a Laser Warning system and commander's thermal sight which gives it good situational awareness, so at least it has that going for it. Overall, there's very little reason to use it right now and it probably shouldn't be at 10.7, but Italy has little else to put above it. Number 8: Challenger 2 (2F) 11.0 Great Britain
The armor penetration on it's best round lands almost perfectly on average. It has a fast base reload at 6.5s, but because it has a human loader, it can get that down to under 5 seconds with an ace crew which is pretty nutty...until you realize it only has 4 rounds of ammo in the ready rack. After you expend those, the reload rate goes up dramatically and you need pauses in the action to pull ammo from other parts of the tank and put them in the ready rack. The protection is pretty solid in the turret cheeks and some parts of the hull can be annoying depending on how good the enemies ammo options are. You can also go down to 29 rounds as your starting load which will remove all ammo from the hull which reduces how fatal that will be as a weak point. This is still more than enough ammo even if you're having a good game. Mobility is where it starts to fall down especially if you also take the add-on armor. Top tier is pretty fast and the Challenger 2 (2F) struggles to get to useful positions fast enough. It also lacks a commander's thermal or laser warning, so isn't the best in terms of situational awareness. It's great as a hull down sniper, but doesn't always get that opportunity and I wouldn't even say it's the best hull-down sniper. Maybe if the top tier meta was slower or more defensively oriented, the Challenger would fair better. Number 7: Type 90 (B) 10.7 Japan
An autoloading cannon with a 4 second reload time is pretty impressive, but the Type 90 is also tied with the worst armor penetration on this list, so it's fast firing, but requires better aim which is not the best combination. Much like the Ariete, its armor should also be considered superficial. Even the thickest armor can be punched through by most of the shells we'll be talking about. It also has to go down to 19 rounds of ammo to clear the hull of ammo which doesn't mix well with the fast firing rate. It is, however, incredibly fast with a high power-to-weight ratio. In fact, it is the fastest MBT on this list. It doesn't have a commander's thermal, but it does have laser warning and its high speed and acceleration let it react to being lased pretty reliably. Overall, it's a tank that requires good aim and positioning and is going to be very unforgiving of misplays, but the skill ceiling is pretty high. Number 6: Strv 122B PLSS 11.0 Sweden
The cannon on this tank really is its biggest drawback. It has the same fairly weak pen of the Type 90, but at almost half the rate of fire (although you can speed this up with an ace crew, it's still an underwhelming gun at 11.0). Armor-wise, this tank has more complete and consistent protection than the Leopard 2A5 it's based on, but also shares the drawback of an obvious weakpoint in the form of it's hull ammo stowage. In order to get rid of this ammo, you have to drop down to only 16 rounds which makes it hard to snipe and will start to run dry if you're having a good game. It's also worse than the 2A5 when it comes to mobility due to the add-on armor, but could still be categorized as good in this area. It does have a commander's thermal which is always good to have. If not for the underwhelming cannon, this would be higher on the list as it's pretty versatile and, if you're lining up your shots well, it is very usable. Number 5: ZTZ-99 III 10.7 China
A 7.1 second autoloader is fine and it's top tier shell lands almost dead on average. It's armor is very solid on the turret cheeks and upper hull front and, if you go down to 23 rounds, the only ammo in the tank will be in the horizontally stacked carousel under the turret, making it an annoying vehicle to kill. Mobility is where it becomes a dumpster fire. In the forward gears, it's perfectly acceptable, but in reverse, it's a painful 5km/hr which will lead to some annoying deaths. It does feature both a commanders' thermal and a laser warning receiver so it generally has good awareness. The armor and gun are reasonably forgiving, but the reverse gear is something you really have to play around, so I think this is a perfectly acceptable entry for the middle of the list. Number 4: LeClerc S2 11.0 France
An autoloader with a 6 second reload is pretty clutch and the top shell is on the high end of armor penetration, so it's both fast and forgiving on the gun. It's armor is not entirely superficial as it does have some weird geometry and parts that can bounce even really good shells, but it's not reliable and you can keep a decent 23 rounds of ammo while still removing all of the ammo from hull storage. It also rivals the Type 90 (B) for mobility in almost every area. It is lacking both a commander's thermal and a laser warning receiver, so it's awareness is reasonably poor. "What if a Type 90 fired a little slower, but had a much higher penning shell and could actually bounce incoming fire every so often?" is the best tag line for the LeClerc S2. It has the same high ceiling as the Tye 90 (B), but the floor isn't in Satan's wine cellar. Number 3: M1A2 11.0 USA
It has the second-highest penning shell out of all of these tanks and, with a good crew, can get it's reload pretty quick. The turret cheeks are pretty solid, but the rest of its armor is underwhelming and it has an obvious weakspot under the breach. However, the M1A2 does carry the vast majority of it's rounds in the back of the turret, so you can haul a whopping 36 rounds of ammo without a huge risk of ammo explosions. Because of the blowout panels, an ammo explosion will only destroy the tank if a shell both detonates the ammo and destroys the internal ammo doors. Combined with 4 crew and the M1A2 can be a hard tank to one-shot. Additionally, while it's base speed may not seem like much, the gas turbine engine gives it near-instant acceleration and with it's ridiculous reverse speed, it can often reverse away from enemies that disable it's gun faster than they can give chase. It also has a commander's thermal sight for better awareness. The gun is very forgiving and, as long as you're not putting yourself, in bad positions, you should consistently survive at least one good hit. Combined with ridiculous acceleration and the M1A2 can be very effective if played well and still pretty annoying even if played by a bot. Number 2: T-80 BVM 11.0 USSR
A 7.1 second reload on an autoloader is pretty standard in soviet designs and the penetration of it's top tier ammo is pretty solid. It's armor is really where the T-80 BVM gets nutty. It's not the strongest armor, but it is the most complete and, even angles that should make it vulnerable will still be annoying shots. It does have a vertically-stacked ammo carousel for it's autoloader, so anything that goes through it's hull armor near the middle is almost guaranteed an ammo explosion, but that's it's only real drawback in terms of protection. It's forward gear and acceleration are both pretty solid, but it's reverse gear really does let it down hard. It's a whopping 11 km/hr, for reference, the M1A2 can do nearly 40 in reverse. This will lead to some of the same annoyances that you'll find int he ZTZ-99 III. It is the only tech tree tank for the Soviets to have a commander's thermal. If you're wondering thy this is number 2, it's because the majority of players for this, much like most games, are not particularly good. This means that features like very good armor that don't need you to be good to use them are just more valuable to most players. You will get a lot of "get out of jail free cards" from the armor alone and the gun won't slow you down at all. Number 1: Leopard 2A6 11.0 Germany
The gun has stupid armor penetration. It's so high that you can practically just click center mass and get kills. The turret cheek armor is ridiculous and parts of the hull can be annoying. As we talked about with the Swedish tank, you do have to go down to 16 rounds to get ammo out of that hull ammo stowage. It is fairly mobile as well and features a commander's thermal. Anybody who has played top-tier probably isn't surprised by this as the number 1 pick. It can snipe effectively because of it's crazy turret armor and, because the gun is so forgiving, it also makes a great brawler. Just do whatever you want and the 2A6 will carry you.
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