The Best Tier for Tier tech tree Vehicles in World of Tanks
By global win rating

Introduction

Every World of Tanks player has his favorite vehicles on each tier and his types for the best ones. Some people prefer Over Powered tanks while some like strange or terrible ones (it's about you Tog II fans). More often than not it is our performance in a vehicle and against it, that determines our own opinion about its power level. And opinions differ greatly from one person to another. To be as objective as possible I will exclude premium and reward vehicles from this list, and rely on global win rate as the main criterium. Why the global win rate you might ask... in short: because it shows what an "average" player can achieve in a certain tank, but of course it is A LOT more complicated than that. I will do my best to explain why I chose this stat over WN8 for example (which will not stop me from writing down average global WN8 as well).

My reasoning is: Team-based games are meant to be played to win. When you're in a World of Tanks random battle, your main goal should be to help your team in beating the enemy and you shouldn't resort to playing for WN8 if the outcome of the game isn't already decided. Your average win rate should reflect the impact your tank has on the outcome of a battle, and it should be higher in more powerful vehicles. WN8 rating doesn't always reflect that, because it encourages selfish play and so-called stat padding. You may point out that stat padding win rating is as, if not more, common than padding WN8, and you would be right, but... stat padders usually use overpowered, low tier, premium tanks, like Pz 2 J (this is one of the reasons why premium tanks are excluded from this list) to raise their win rate, and even if a tech tree tank is used for stat padding, its overall statistics will be diluted because of the sheer amount of casual players playing at the lower tiers; its a matter of proportion really - low tier op premium tanks are played almost exclusively by stat padders, while overpowered tanks that are available in the tech tree are played mostly by casuals, because casuals are the largest part of WoT community. There were and still are some exceptions, most notable of them being, of course, the T 67 which isn't even on this list (spoiler), but these exceptions usually get nerfed sooner or later (does anyone remember the "old" Marder II or Hellcat?). So if we assume that lower tier tech tree tanks are played mostly by casuals, we can state that the global win rate shows how easy it is for an AVERAGE player to perform well in a tank. In other words, this list will feature tanks that community as a whole does the best in, and not necessarily most overpowered ones Tier for Tier.

Disclaimer: I will not go too deeply into stats like mobility, armor, firepower and gun handling, and try to keep it simple while still informative, and entertaining. I"ll point out the best and worst (in my opinion) features of each tank, and analyze why it performs well in the hands of mythical "average" WoT player. And yes, everyone could just simply look into global statistics and make this list by themselves, but not everyone has knowledge and game experience necessary to analyze why statistics are what they are. I will also do a more in-depth analysis in future articles featuring the top 5 best tanks of each tier.

With all this out of the way, let us get straight to the list.

BEST WORLD OF TANKS VEHICLES FROM TIER I TO TIER X

Tier	I
Tank name	Leichttraktor
Global win percentage	50,7%
Global WN8	564
Best feature(s)	View range, stock gun
Worst feature(s)	Somewhat weak armor
Performance analysis - Leichttraktor has the best stock gun of any Tier I tanks and is, therefore, the easiest to do well in from the get-go. Its armor is nothing to boast about, even at tier I, but it can bounce some stray autocannon shells. Mobility is good enough to get around, and the view range is the best in the tier ( it has 30 more than any other tier I tank, for some reason). Thanks to these features "Loltraktor" is the most well-rounded vehicle of its tier, and that is enough to also be the best by win rate.

Tier	II
Tank name	Renault R35
Global win percentage	52,0%
Global WN8	592
Best feature(s)	Very strong all-around armor, good gun depression
Worst feature(s)	Mobility, somewhat low DPM
Performance analysis- This tank has armor that favorably to the armor of "Micromaus", and one does not get a nickname "Micromaus" for no reason. Its gun has adequate penetration (although it will struggle to penetrate another R35 from the front), as well as good depression and elevation values. The only weak spot of the R35 is its butt, and it is still 32mm thick which is more than most of tier II tanks have in the front. Two main things that are holding it back are low mobility and horrible DPM. Despite this R35 is an unstoppable, lumbering monster when it is top tier (people at low tiers just don't get the conception of "flanking maneuvers", I guess).

Tier	III
Tank name	Somua S35
Global win percentage	51,8%
Global WN8	629
Best feature(s)	Strong Armor, Good Gun Handling, Good Gun Depression
Worst feature(s)	Low DPM, Very Bad Mobility
Performance analysis - Somua S35 relays on its opponents' inexperience to stay alive, because of some obvious weak spots that it has. Good gun handling compared with VERY bad mobility mean that you don't really need to stop when shooting (which really helps, because it takes a loooong time to get anywhere in this tank). Penetration is good enough to reliably damage all tier III and many Tier IV tanks, but alpha damage is somewhat low. All in all this tank is great against new players (just like the R35) and will get easily taken apart by someone who knows what he's doing.

Tier	IV
Tank name	Matilda
Global win percentage	51,8%
Global WN8	685
Best feature(s)	Almost Godlike Armor, Great Penetration
Worst feature(s)	Really Bad Mobility, Low Alpha Damage
Performance analysis -  Matilda, at tier IV has an armor profile comparable to KV 1, and KV 1 is regarded as one of the best-armored tier V heavy tanks! Its gun is arguably the best of any tier IV medium, with T 28s ZiS-4 being the only other contestant. Matildas mobility is, however, nothing to write home about (let's just say that if Matilda was a postman your letter would not arrive at its destination before Christmas). Despite this lack of leg power, a sight of Matilda reaping whole enemy team apart is a pretty common one. Just load the gold when you see one of them, or run and hide in a corner; it will be a while before it gets to you...

Tier	V
Tank name	AT 2
Global win percentage	52,5%
Global WN8	920
Best feature(s)	Great frontal armor (even after the nerf), High HP Pool
Worst feature(s)	Almost Unexistant Mobility
Performance analysis - Before the December 2017's nerf AT 2s armor was almost unpenetrable (with exception of commanders cupola) for most tier IV, V, and even VI tanks. Now, while being a mere shadow of its former glory (it was nerfed by over 50mm), it still holds up very well in top tier matchup. The 6 pounder gun is good enough to pull its weight, and it can shred most of tier VII tanks with its 180mm of gold penetration. Again, the mobility is really bad, and you'll feel your hair growing while your AT 2 lumbers towards the frontline. As with previous tanks on this list, this one is about its strong armor and inexperience of enemy players.

Tier	VI
Tank name	KV-2
Global win percentage	51,7%
Global WN8	964
Best feature(s)	Almighty 152mm Derp Gun, Fear Factor
Worst feature(s)	The existence of Japanese OI...
Performance analysis - Not much to say here really... just looking at the KV 2 that is aiming in your general direction says it all. Its gun can one-shot most of the tanks up to tier VI, and even some tier VIIs. Being a fan favorite, a KV 2 is considered by many experienced players as a cure for their irritation. Because of that, its stats are a bit inflated, but come on! Its KV 2, it SHOULD be on this list. If you face it on a battlefield, remember that it has very a long reload time, and weak armor (it is a KV I hull at tier VI after all). Just wait until it wrecks one of your teammates and takes it apart when it reloads.

Tier	VII
Tank name	AT 7
Global win percentage	52,9%
Global WN8	1254
Best feature(s)	Great Gun, Good Armor, Very High HP Pool
Worst feature(s)	VERY Low Mobility, "Obvious" Weak Spots
Performance analysis - Very slow, very sluggish, and almost unstoppable, it is just like AT 2 on tier VII. The main difference between AT 2 and AT 7 is that AT 7 has an exceptional gun for its tier, with great penetration, respectable DPM, and pinpoint accuracy. At 7s armor, while not as strong Tier for Tier as its predecessors, still holds up very well in top tier matchups. This combined with very high HP pool (comparable to tier VII heavy tanks) results in a tank that can shrug of heavy punishment while racking up damage. At tier VII people usually start to know what they're doing, but that doesn't stop AT 7 from doing well, which clearly shows that it is simply a strong tier VII TD.

Tier	VIII
Tank name	Emil I
Global win percentage	51,4%
Global WN8	1385
Best feature(s)	Godlike Turret Armor, Autoloading Gun
Worst feature(s)	Overmatchable Sides, Weak Hull Armor, Lowish Penetration
Performance analysis -  Emil I is a real ridgeline monster. When it's using 12° degrees its gun depression, the effective armor value of its turret reaches 315mm (good luck penetrating that with standard ammunition of ANY tank). Emil's sides, however, are paper-thin and can be overmatched by all 60+ mm caliber guns. Its gun is adequate and has good DPM for an autoloader. Mobility is also fine, Emil will have no problems getting around the battlefield. One thing to keep in mind is that it weights only just about 30 tons which makes ramming a bad idea. When Emil is hull down, just give up and let Artillery dig him out... or try to flank it when it's alone, but remember that it has autoloader with 1280 burst damage. Overall it is really strong, autoloading ridgeline heavy, that should not be underestimated.

Tier	IX
Tank name	AMX M4 mle. 51
Global win percentage	53,8%
Global WN8	1675
Best feature(s)	Great 120mm Gun, Very Strong Frontal Armor, Good Mobility
Worst feature(s)	It Leads to Mediacore AMX M4 mle. 54
Performance analysis - AMX M4 mle . 51 combines great frontal armor (although with some small weak spots) with a very strong gun (120mm is a generally better choice), and above average mobility. Called by many a "French Conqueror" it is actually stronger than its British counterpart in many respects. Easy stock grind makes for very nice play experience from the start, and the biggest let down is, weirdly enough, its bigger brother, the AMX M4 mle . 54 which is just not enough of an upgrade (or maybe 51 is just too strong?). AMX M4 mle . 51 might just be the best tier IX tank in the game, not only by win rate but overall.

Tier	X
Tank name	Object 268 Version 4
Global win percentage	54,0%
Global WN8	1521
Best feature(s)	Monstrous Frontal Armor, Great Mobility
Worst feature(s)	Community Will Hate You For Playing It
Performance analysis - "Why don't You just die?!" Thought every WoT community member after it turned out that the v4 nerf was not enough to put in in line with other tier X TDs. It still remains the most overpowered tank in the game, combining almost unpenetrable frontal armor with great all around mobility and, after the nerf, somewhat mediocre gun. v4s only weakness is the thin upper front deck, so the best way to damage it is to splash HE at its superstructure. You can also try your luck and aim at the lower, lower plate or the center of the top viewport (which is difficult, because the "Bobject" is still VERY mobile for its size).

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Wargaming Group Limited.