[Tank Guide] The T-34-3

Tank Commanders!

It's rare to find a medium tank with as powerful a gun as that of the VIII T-34-3 . But of course, to compensate for its excellent firepower, it must surely have weaknesses in other areas, so you will need to operate the tank in a different style from other medium tanks.

Here's how to play it to its strengths!

This tank benefits from preferential matchmaking, which prevents you from seeing Tier X vehicles in battle, unless your platoon mate plays a vehicle with normal matchmaking.

Strengths

High damage potential: Large gun for a Tier VIII medium
Low profile makes it hard to hit
Strong turret armour. Get up close and personal with your opponents or go hull-down and watch incoming rounds bounce
Good camo values
Decent mobility, but has drawbacks

Weaknesses

Poor accuracy at long ranges. Close- to mid-range fights work best for this vehicle
Low AP penetration
Poor gun depression
Slow acceleration. Can reach where it needs to be quickly when it reaches its top speed of 50km/hr, but needs time to get started

Gameplay

The T-34-3 shares the same hull and turret armour as the famous Type 59, so you can already guess that this vehicle is quite tough against same and lower-tier tanks. Side-scraping also works to a certain extent, but be careful: show too much of your side, and you'll risk receiving damage where your ammo rack is located.

Another thing is that your gun depression is not great; a common disadvantage for Chinese vehicles. When peeking over hills, you'll have to expose most of your tank to be able to land a shot, and it's very likely that you'll always get damaged in return. Try different positioning – on lower ground you won't have as many issues with gun depression.

As the 122 mm gun is rather powerful in terms of damage, it comes at the price of accuracy, aiming time, and reload speed. This means that your armament is only effective at close range, and you can't count on reliably hitting anything further than 200–300 metres away. Your amazing damage per shot, paired with long reload time, means that you are more likely to win encounters if you trade shots with your opponents.

Always make sure that you have cover between you and your opponent. Because of your low damage per minute, things can get very grim for you if there's nowhere to hide from the enemy during reload.

Equipment

Recommended Equipment

Considering its long reload time, aiming time and huge dispersion, this set of equipment is absolutely perfect for the T-34-3. Improved Ventilation may improve the overall performance of the tank, but its effects are not as noticeable as with these pieces of equipment.

Crew Skills

Commander
Gunner
Driver
Loader

While the T-34-3 is not your standard medium tank, the recommended choice of crew skills and perks is still similar. In fact, Snap Shot, Smooth Ride, and Safe Stowage have an even bigger effect on this vehicle, because of its massive dispersion and weak ammo rack.

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