Ranked Battles 2020–2021: Season 1 Meta Guide

Commanders!

Ranked Battles are back, and they’ve undergone some revisions. You can find a complete overview with detailed information about the updates in the Season 1 announcement on our portal, but for many players, one of the biggest changes is the exclusion of a number of reward tanks from the event! For this Season, only researchable and Collectors' Vehicles are able to enter Ranked Battles.

Vehicle Restrictions

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Below is a list of tanks whose participation in the upcoming three Seasons of Ranked Battles will not be permitted.

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We know that many of the tanks that are no longer permitted were quite popular and part of the previous Ranked Battle meta, but based on your feedback and the data that we’ve collected throughout the last Season, it was evident that they created an imbalance and a lot of players weren’t happy to face them in the mode.

Taking them out levels the playing field and will surely reignite the competitive spirit of the mode.

In order to give you some guidance for the upcoming Season and to predict what the top tanks in 20/21 might be, we’ve looked at past data and pulled out the best performing Standard and Collectors' Vehicles in each class*.

Some popular tanks didn’t make the cut. A prime example would be the German tank destroyer Grille 15, which saw a lot of action last Season, but its performance was surpassed by quite a number of other standard tank destroyers.

Tanks were selected based on various criteria such as win rate, Role XP earned, the ratio of chevrons earned to lost, and more.


Light Tanks

  • Panhard EBR 105
  • T-100 LT

It’s fast, and sometimes that’s all you need to be.

Role Performance: Wheeled Scout

  • Outstanding speed for active scouting
  • Great as a support scout

Favorite Opponents:

  • Turretless TDs
  • Slow heavies

Biggest Weaknesses:

  • Subpar view range, paper-thin armor

A sturdy scout with a stable gun.

Role Performance: Tracked Scout

  • Great camouflage values for passive scouting
  • Use the 100 mm gun to stop enemies in their tracks

Favorite Opponents:

  • Slow targets like immobile tanks destroyers or heavy tanks
  • Enemies with a low camouflage value in open ground

Biggest Weaknesses:

  • Lack of firepower for maps without great spotting opportunities
  • Low alpha damage to trade shots with enemies

Medium Tanks

  • Object 430U
  • STB-1
  • Progetto M40 mod. 65

A medium made for brawling.

Role Performance: Versatile Attack Vehicle

  • Deal damage
  • Take damage

Favorite Opponents:

  • Other medium tanks with less armor and less alpha

Biggest Weaknesses:

  • Hide the lower frontal plate, as it is your biggest weak spot
  • Get close or miss

Take them out fast and roll on to the next.

Role Performance: Light Attack Vehicle

  • High rate of fire to bite off enemy HP
  • A hydropneumatic suspension system for enhanced gun depression angles and a hidden hull

Favorite Opponents:

  • Vehicles with low mobility
  • Tanks without decent gun depression won't be able to reach your weak spots

Biggest Weaknesses:

  • Only if luck is on your side, will you bounce a shell or two
  • The armor is not the most sturdy
  • The enemy arty

A flexible autoreloader.

Role Performance: Fire Cover

  • Single-shot mode: Shines in extended fights
  • Autoloader mode: Great for burst damage

Favorite Opponents:

  • Any tank not looking in its direction

Biggest Weaknesses:

  • Long reload time when magazine is empty
  • Paper armor, but can bounce shots when stars are aligned

Heavy Tanks

  • 60TP Lewandowskiego
  • Object 277
  • Kranvagn

Firepower and survivability in one heavy package.

Role Performance: Defender

  • Hide your hull, take damage with the strong turret
  • Hit them once and hit them hard

Favorite Opponents:

  • Opponents with high gun dispersion, as they will miss your weak cupola
  • Lightly armored enemies that will eat up your HE shells
  • Anyone who won't survive trading shots

Biggest Weaknesses:

  • The frontal weak spots are hard to hide
  • Your mobility can leave you in a pickle that you won't get out of

An all-round reliable heavy with good mobility.

Role Performance: Breakthrough Tank

  • 490 alpha with good penetration is no joke
  • A heavy with the mobility of a medium tank

Favorite Opponents:

  • Use your superior turret armor to take on weaker mediums that can't match your damage

Biggest Weaknesses:

  • Your gun depression won't allow hull-down positions
  • Your hull armor is on the weaker side, so keep that in mind if you want to use side-scraping

The king of the ridgeline.

Role Performance: Heavy Destroyer

  • 12 degrees of gun depression allows it to use positions that no other tanks can
  • Sloped turret armor can bounce enemy heavies and mediums

Favorite Opponents:

  • Tanks with no gun depression trying to fight on the ridgeline

Biggest Weakness:

  • Turret armor is sloped but not thick enough, so it's quite weak to HE shells
  • Thin hull armor

Tank Destroyers

  • Object 268 Version 4
  • T110E3

A speedy and well-armored vehicle for all occasions.

Role Performance: Heavy Destroyer

  • Find them, hit them, destroy them
  • Rely on your armor but not too much

Favorite Opponents:

  • Trade shots with anyone who has less armor and can't handle 650 alpha damage
  • If they are too slow to run away, get up close and personal

Biggest Weaknesses:

  • If the ground isn’t flat, it isn’t for you, due to sub-par depression values
  • A shotgun, not a sniper
  • It's not safe to go it alone

High DPM and high alpha damage? Seems like you can have it all.

Role Performance: Heavy Destroyer

  • Slow and sturdy wins the battle
  • A boomstick that penetrates even the thickest armor plate

Favorite Opponents:

  • Take slow heavies head-on—they won't make it through your gun mantlet

Biggest Weaknesses:

  • Don’t get caught alone or they will dance circles around you and send you home
  • Keep your enemies in front of you

We hope this little guide will help you with the changed format. Which tank will be your Ranked Battle choice?

Roll Out!

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