Original date of blog: February 19th, 2016
As of last Tuesday, I have a new tier X. The IS7. I’ve been grinding the line for quite a bit, and haven’t been focusing on it all that much. I only decided to go down it after the E100, and turned out to almost be at tier VI of the line.
The MS1, like all my tier I’s, has been getting some love. It’s my favourite tier I after the Loltractor, and when I’m on a lowest tier sealclubbing spree, that’s the one I take when I die in the Loltractor and don’t want to wait for the battle to end. It’s fast, has a funny gun, and it’s so tiny and cute.
Tiers II and III are fun, but not altogether my favourites in their respective tiers. In fact, they’ve left such an impression on me that I had to look up what they actually look like again. And the tier IV isn’t that much better – I remember it mostly because the armour on that is so non-existent that if someone sneezes near you, you get penned.
When I got to tier V, and got the KV-1, and that managed to be yet another tank I didn’t like, I gave up on it. I’d sometimes do the double, just to get that bit of xp needed to advance, but that’s it. I’m not sure why, but this line really didn’t suit me so far, and though I didn’t necessarily do horrible in the tanks, I really didn’t like them. Either they had too little armour, and died really fast, or they had lots of armour but lacked speed and mobility.
When I got the E100 and had to decide what to go for next, I chose this one mostly because I was already halfway there, “so I might as well”. I’ve heard such stories about the IS7 and how magnificent it is and all, and I know they can be hard to beat, so, by lack of a tank that I actually wanted to get, I continued where I left off.
I only needed two or three battles in the KV-1 to get the needed XP for the KV1S. I figured that it would be like the KV1, but then a tier higher, really. This tank turned out to be about the biggest frustration of the line. You can either pick a gun that does a lot of damage, but has an epic long reload, or a gun that allows you to shoot more, but does a lot less damage. I’ve switched back and forth between the guns several times, and really, I don’t like either of them. It really doesn’t fit my play-style.
The gun-problem you have with the KV1S, you get back with the next tank in line as well – the IS. Only, this tank is more mobile, and a lot less annoying. So, once I decided to stick with the smaller-but-faster-reload gun, it and I got along decently enough. I solo’d quite a lot in it, and aced it quite a lot, too. People often underestimate it, I’ve found, and that allows you to do massive damage. I’ve had pretty fun games where tier IX’s would ignore me in favour of bigger targets, and I’d blast them to hell. It was also more bouncy than I’d give it credit for, and in a way, it reminded me of the E5. It was the first tank, aside from the MS1, in this line, that I liked. And I was actually sorry to see the end of the grind.
And not just because the IS was fun. Mostly because the next tank in the line is the IS3, which I’ve nicknamed the Drivable Ammorack. It’s the one tank that I’ve found that’s easiest to ammorack, and I mentally prepared myself to be blasted into oblivion again and again, up unto the point that I’d throw my ipad against the wall. Only, that didn’t happen. The full grind to the IS8, I didn’t get ammoracked once.
More than that, I absolutely adore the IS3. It’s fast, it’s mobile, the armour isn’t all that bad, and the gun is just lovely. It’s low in profile, and it’s sneaky. It’s wicked. After 100 games exactly, it’s one of my best tanks around, and I’m quite sure I’ll keep driving it. So, just like with the IS, I was actually a little sorry for the grind to end. With no ammorack having happened yet, it stood to reason to assume that the IS8 would then get all the ammoracks that I had missed in the IS3. Murphy’s law and all that.
But it didn’t. I’m 83 games into it, and I absolutely adore it. Compared to the IS3, it has less effective armour against the tanks you meet, but it’s faster, and it is an epic peek-a-boomer. But, after the IS3, it’s a bit more of the same, and I actually got bored with it. I solo’d quite a bit in the IS8, but it makes for smooth games. I’ve heard from quite a few people that they don’t like this tank. I don’t get that.
It sometimes has similarities to the IS – namely, you get ignored in favour of tougher tanks, or tanks that are easier to hit position-wise. Because this beauty is so mobile, it’s easy to make full use of whatever cover you have. I also found similarities to the T43 I was grinding at the same time. I still prefer grinding just one tank at a time, tactics I’ve used in one tank, I start adopting in others. But overall, that actually worked out quite well in this combination, because med-tactics can work just fine with the IS8. In its own way, the grind reminded me a lot of the M103, which is also a very decent heavium, just a lot taller, really. Heaviums and I get along very well.
But last Tuesday, I was done with it. Though I adore the IS8, I didn’t have the patience to grind it for another 120k XP to get to the IS7. It wasn’t a matter of wanting to leave the IS8 behind, but more a matter of just wanting the tier X beast sooner. I wanted it, and I wanted it right then and there rather than later. With WG’s more free XP on conversion-offer not too long ago, I actually have a crapload of free XP. So I figured I might as well use it.
And so, as of last Tuesday, I drive the IS7. The first two games were absolutely horrible. It’s a tank unlike the other tier X’s I have, and it requires its own style. You can’t angle like you should in the E100, and you’re not as fast as the E5 when it comes to peek-a-booming. But after those two horrors, I started to figure out what this tank requires of me, the driver.
As per usual, it’s currently my best tier X. This is always the case when I get a tier X, until I start using them in ICE. Usually when I get a new tank, I won’t use them the first ICE afterwards. I want to see how I do in them first, before I give over and let any rating I have go to hell. In the end, I don’t quite care for what stats I have in what tank, but I like to have a general idea at first, which will show me if I’m doing okay, or if I need to change something about my playstyle in order to fit in better with the tank.
The IS7, like all tier X tanks, is quite the monster, in it’s own way. The armour is superb, and if you find a hull down position, you can be pretty invincible. As Filip puts it, it’s a very noob-friendly tank, so it’s perfect for me. The biggest challenge is meeting players that know how to use their ammo’s properly. But even then, it has a tendency to bounce quite a bit. I still have a long way to go to properly learn how to drive the IS7, but I see the potential, and it’s one of those tiers X’s you can comfortably solo in.
Overall, this line wasn’t what I expected. The tanks I supposed I’d like, I hated, those I thought I’d hate, I absolutely love. I’m happy the high tiers weren’t the disappointment I feared they’d be, and I’m thinking I’ll revisit them a lot more than I have done with the tanks in other lines, both in a toon, and solo.
The next tier X to get will be the Object 140. That’ll be a very fun line to write about. I’m at the T44 right now, so I don’t think it’ll be too long before I can write about it. It’ll depend on my play-time, and how patient I can be with grinding the T54.
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