Centurion 7/1 Review/Guide

[Serene_Potato 211]

Hello folks

My first attempt at writing a review, so please be kind :3

This is an updated review/guide to the Centurion 7/1 (post 9.0).

 

Pros and Cons: (For TL;DR people)

+ Great pen and accuracy on 105mm

+ Excellent view range

+ Good gun depression

+ Very Good soft terrain resistance

+ Climbs hills and accelerates quickly

+ Uses HESH instead of HE, can easily pen high tier artillery and one shot them, e.g. GW E100

+Easy stock grind, can be enjoyable.

- Suffers from frequent crew kills and module damage

- Unreliable turret

- Slow reload and surprisingly bad aim bloom on 105mm

- Uses HESH as premium ammo, no HEAT or even better APCR, etc.

- Big, and...um...huge. (Bigger and taller than some heavies)

- 20 pounder lacks alpha

 

Hitpoints

The 7/1 has very nice hit point count, more than the M46 and the T-54, the other two popular tier 9 mediums. It has slightly less than the E-50 though, but still, quite a lot of hit points for a tier 9 medium.

 

Mobility

When talking about the mobility of the tank, it's just one thing that stands out. The 950 engine horsepower. It has more horsepower than the E-50 and the Patton, and way more than the T-54, which allows you to do some absolutely crazy maneuvers on hills that would get you killed in other tanks. It has a 34 degree traverse, which makes the tank feel sluggish after the Mk.1 Centurion, but once you get the top engine, all that doesn't matter The top speed is only 40km/h, which makes it a bit frustrating when you need to run around the battlefield to carry, but it is enough, in my opinion. It has worse terrain resistance on hard and medium terrain than the M46 and the T-54, but better soft terrain resistance.

 

Protection

The armor on this tank is unreliable at best. The turret is now unreliable since the armor strip behind the mantlet got removed after 9.0. Nowadays, you can get penned in the center of the mantlet by anything over 160mm of penetration, even a Comet can penetrate you straight through the mantlet, given a high penetration roll (It has happened to me). The edges of the mantlet are quite strong, the strongest part is up to 260mm, which can allow some bounces, but don't really rely on it to save you. The sloped part of the turret can be easily penned by anything with over 200mm of penetration and/or with a 105mm or more caliber gun, due to overmatching. The Centurion's turret, once the specialty of the tank(before 9.0 HD nerfs), is no longer that good, and is unreliable at best.

The hull is quite nicely sloped, and also has some handy spaced armor at the side that won't stop much AP, but is quite nice for HEAT. In close quarters engagements, given that you keep wiggling the hull rapidly, you can use your wide tracks, spaced armor, and upper plate to eat shots. The upper plate can bounce 220mm pen guns straight on, given some luck, and with a bit of angling, you can bounce E-75s. Funny thing to note, is that T-54s firing HEAT seem to tend to bounce off your upper plate, while one firing AP tends to go through. Luck? Maybe I was just lucky. Yup, lets put it down to luck Lower glacis is nothing good, almost always gets overmatched.

The spaced armor and decent side allows you to sidescrape quite nicely, bouncing even 155mm guns. Unlike the Mk.1, which had its side overmatched by 122mm guns, the 7/1 doesn't have that issue ^^. Did I mention the side skirts of the tank bouncing HEAT well? One thing to note when side scraping is that more experienced players will just aim just to the side of the turret, before you can shoot at them.

Bad rear turret and hull armor (of course).

 

Gun(s)

The Centurion 7/1 has two competitive guns. One is the 20 pounder type B barrel and the other is the 105mm L7.

20 pounder:

This gun is excellent for a tier 9 medium, only lacking in damage. The penetration is better than the M46 Patton's, the accuracy is good, at 0.32, and the dpm is simply mad. Fitted with a gun rammer, vents, food, BIA, you can reach a reload time of 4.51 seconds. Even without the food and BIA, its a reload time of 4.81 seconds. This places its DPM at around 2900-3100 damage per minute. This allows you to out DPM a T-54 (given the food and BIA), or just have 30 less DPM (Without food and BIA). Recommended gun by me, reliable damage output. ^^ Though the damage is a bit lacking, so you might want to use the 105mm.

105mm gun:

This gun is also quite nice for a tier 9 medium. The 105mm is a tier 10 gun, so it has excellent pen, at 268, and good damage, on par with the E-50 and the M46. The accuracy is also great when fully aimed. However, the only things that ruin it is the poor dpm and the seemingly poor accuracy when not fully aimed. The reload is just over 10 seconds, even with vents and rammer. The 105mm's poor dpm doesn't really work on this tank because of the low speed, it doesn't have the speed of the others to rush around the battlefield, flanking enemy tanks. The high pen and good accuracy allows you to be a sniper and opportunist, but it really doesn't allow much damage to be done. Also, the 105mm seems to have a random nature, it bounces shots and misses, and you cannot afford to miss because of the long reload. Not recommended for inexperienced players. It makes the tank unique though, so if the 20 pounder is not for you, by all means go for the the 105, it can be fun.

 

View range and gun depression:

410m, excellent, the only other tier 9 medium with as much view range is the M46 Patton.

Good gun depression, -10. Makes the tank comfortable to play.

 

Crew skills:

Assuming that you transferred the crew from one tank to the next, starting from tier 5, then you should have at least one crew skill to 100% by the time you get to this tank. By the time you finish, you should have 2 crew skills to 100%.

In list form, for the common "I just wanna grind through dis tank" player

Commander: Sixth Sense, Jack of All trades, Repairs. (Recon, camo)

Gunner: Snap shot, designated target, repairs (deadeye, camo)

Driver: Smooth ride, Clutch breaking, repairs (off road driving, controlled impact)

Loader: safe stowage, adrenaline rush, repairs (intuition, camo)

 

For the keeper dude:

Commander: BIA, Sixth Sense, Repairs, Recon, Camo

Gunner: BIA, Deadeye, Snapshot, Repairs, camo

Driver: BIA, Smooth ride, repairs, camo, clutch breaking

Loader: BIA, Safe stowage, repairs, situational awareness, camo

 

Skill explanation:

Commander needs sixth sense (obvious reasons). Jack of all trades, because the gunner and driver gets knocked out often, if it happens twice, as it does usually...you need this skill. Recon, because you need to maximize your view range just that little bit, as much as possible. It gives 21m extra max view range, and if you have optics, you can exploit that 21m (recon extends MAXIMUM view range). Repairs, because as I mentioned, you regularly get tracked. Gunner needs snap shot, especially if you use the 105mm, which needs that bit to aim quicker. Designated target, because you find yourself spotting a lot with your handy view range. Repairs, for obvious reasons. Deadeye would be a nice to have given the 20 pounder . Driver, smooth ride because the 20 pounder is quite good at firing on the move, Clutch breaking to increase the average traverse, off road driving, to make that ground resistance even better, controlled impact because of the good engine power and decent weight of the tank. You will find yourself ramming quite a lot of scouts and enemy tracked mediums, so this is very useful for brawling against, say T-54s. Loader, safe stowage because of the ammo rack, since it is handily located right behind your clan icon at the side of your tank. Adrenaline rush, to squeeze out that extra bit of dpm in low health situations, I found it quite nice. Repairs (again), and intuition if you're going to use the 105mm, to switch between HESH and AP...Camo for the gunner and the loader because, scouting. That extra camo is useful in maps like Lakeville and Malinovka. There was a match where my platoon mate in the 7/1 next to me got spotted and I didn't, just because I put camo crew on my tank. BIA for obvious reasons.

 

Equipment and Consumables

Vents, rammer, and optics. If you use the 105mm, give up the vents or optics for vert stabs. Consumables, use auto fire extinguisher, you get set on fire from almost every shot to your engine. Small repair kit, small health kit, though I use large, because your crew tends to be killed in pairs when you get artilleried.

 

Unique Quirks:

The seemingly quite random 105mm, see QB tank review for proof (he shook his camera in rage ^^)

(Rage at 12:40)

The ammo rack behind the clan logos. (Yup, its true, you can go in the training rooms to test it)

The exceptionally fat front. This makes you unable to peek-a-boom around city corners. They will be able to shoot you and your ammo rack long before you can even point your gun at them. Only peek-a-boom when you are sure they have fired, don't play aiming games with Russian 122mm guns.

Gunner tends to get knocked out from artillery hits. That's pretty much it

 

Playstyle:

You will find it hard to rush for aggressive positions because of the low speed, for example the middle of Ruinberg...Stay hull down at all times, sidescrape whenever you get into a city. 

20 pounder:

Check the enemy team list. Go wherever you think least tanks will go. When possible, find isolated heavies and gun them down with your dpm. The 20 pounder can give you an advantage against players who think you are using the 105mm, I have seen players who sat in front of my gun, thinking I was using the 105mm, which allowed me to get in two shots. The 20 pounder can perma track any tank, even with 100% repairs and toolbox. I once permatracked a IS-7 and took off almost all his health with my DPM: http://wotreplays.com/site/1520086#ensk-serene_potato-centurion_mk_7_1

105mm:

At the start of the game, stay back and snipe, don't go forward, or you'll get rushed and killed before you can reload.

During mid-late game, be an opportunist, wait for your heavies to take the hits, come out, and shoot them before they reload. As previously noted, the 105mm gun feels very inaccurate when unaimed, and seems to have a mind of its own. Replay: http://wotreplays.com/site/1147422#northwest-roycemingyu-centurion_mk_7_1

 

Stock grind:

Absolutely painless, with the Type A 20 pounder, you only have less accuracy and dpm, and a slightly longer aim time. Second engine and top radio carries over from the Mk.1 Centurion, so mount them immediately. Unlock tracks first, improves your mobility all round (terrain resistance is a must on this tank). Then go straight for the turret, unlocking the Type B on the way, because you need the extra view range. If you find the gun's damage unacceptable, get the 105mm first. If you find the 20 pounder to be fun, then get the top engine first. I got my Mastery Ace Tanker on the Centurion 7/1 when stock. Will add the replay later.

 

Hope someone found this review helpful ^^ I look at this tank from a green-blue player perspective, where many players are, so this review isn't perfect.

Tell me if I got something wrong, how I can improve (e.g. too long ). If feedback is positive, will write more in the future

[Overlord_Prime 63]

A few disagreements from someone who just recently got the Cent. 7/1:
 

From:

Gun(s)

The Centurion 7/1 has two competitive guns. One is the 20 pounder type B barrel and the other is the 105mm L7.

 

Crew skills:

Assuming that you transferred the crew from one tank to the next, starting from tier 5, then you should have at least one crew skill to 100% by the time you get to this tank. By the time you finish, you should have 2 crew skills to 100%. In list form, in brackets is for folks with 4-5 skills:

Commander: Sixth Sense, Jack of All trades, Repairs. (Recon, camo)

Gunner: Snap shot, designated target, repairs (deadeye, camo)

Driver: Smooth ride, Clutch breaking, repairs (off road driving, controlled impact)

Loader: safe stowage, adrenaline rush, repairs (intuition, camo)

 

Gun:
The only competitive gun as of right now is the 105mm L7, I do see the validity and use of the 20 pounder but the issue becomes prolonged exposure to utilize DPM. As you had said earlier, the turret armor is terrible after the nerf - unless you can aggressively get on top of everyone you face and DPM them down, I find it difficult to justify the 20. This is especially important when taking into account the newer/revamped city/corridor changes to maps where you will usually only get 1 shot off before someone ducks into cover.

While I do agree that the DPM is great on the 20, it's also difficult in some scenarios when you have to fire gold rounds to fight typical armored tier 10 tanks (e100s, e5s, e50ms, etc.) and some tier 9s frontally; again, to trade evenly will force you to stay out in the open for extended periods of time. The 105 shines in this area due to 268mm (??) standard APCR pen and 390 alpha. And in the scenario that you have to DPM the enemy down, HESH does quite well; boosting the DPM to the same levels as the 20 pounder and adding crippling module/crew damage.

Crew skills:
You're completely forgetting about BiA and putting view range skills ahead of camo.

5 skill dream crew:
Com: BiA, Sixth Sense, repairs, camo, recon
Gnr: BiA, Dead Eye, repairs, camo, snapshot
Drv: BiA, Preventative M., repairs, camo, smooth ride
Ldr: BiA, Safe stowage, repairs, camo, Sit. Awareness

Brothers in Arms is pretty much a must have skill at either 3rd or 4th skill (depending on tank). Past that are perks that you would want; sixth sense is mandatory, safe stowage is decent, preventative maintenance is for less fires when running food, and dead eye or designated target for the gunner. Repairs and camo are standard skills that are pretty good since you'll be getting tracked a lot and poking out to shoot over ridges/sniping. And the last set of skills are the ones that are useful but not quite as useful as repairs/camo.

Currently my 3 skill crew is:
Com: BiA, Sixth Sense, camo
Gnr: BiA, repairs, camo
Drv: BiA, repairs, camo
Ldr: BiA, repairs, camo

I still don't quite understand picking out view range skills before camo skills on decently camo'd tanks with high view range; the benefits that you get from the extended view range is trumped by the increase to camo in almost every situation; more so when you already have ~450m view range with optics.

[kolni 69,670,872]

I love this tank, it makes the E 50 feel sluggish and as long as you don't expect the turret to actually bounce anything at all, you can still abuse hulldown and the small exposure. The pen is awesome and I honestly feel like this tank has heatseeking shells, the shells seem to go incredibly straight despite the aim reticle being big, making it almost as good on snapshots as the E 50. The only reason the E 50 trumps it in any way is the overall armour, the Cent 7/1 seems awfully fragile and using anything but the L7 will make you have expose yourself even more.

 

And I went in skills:

Com: Sixth, Camo( retrain to BIA), Camo, Repair

Gnr: Snap Shot, BIA, Camo, Repair

Drv: Smooth Ride, BIA, Camo, Offroad

Ldr: Safe Stowage, BIA, Camo, Repair

[Serene_Potato 211]

Wouldn't be able to pull off a result like this in the 105mm:

http://wotreplays.com/site/1520086#ensk-serene_potato-centurion_mk_7_1

Nor this one (my learning account for wot)

http://replays.quickybaby.com/result.php?id=47953

Though the crew skills is quite nice, gonna edit it ASAP.

 

Oh, and "You cannot use anymore emoticons for this post"

Oops.

[Jammore 76]

I'd take E 50 any time over Cent 7/1. E 50 is faster, better armored, with higher dpm and more accurate gun. 7/1 is also pretty huge and suffers from arty greatly. And E50 leads to better tier X.

T54 is faster, smaller profile, much better camo and dpm with kind of worse gun and slightly lower view range (but camo makes up for it). And leads to two best medium tier X tanks. If you spam heat, there is not much Cent 7/1 can offer (gun depression and alpha only).

 

Imho structuring your review a bit differently would improve it. Focus on strong points, weak points. You tend to mix them a bit together. I'd rate mobility as poor due to bad speed. But its agility is great.

1720 hps is not bad, but without reliable armor. T-54 is more durable due to its strong armor (not speaking about E 50).

As for vents, VStab is preferred imo --> VStab, rammer, optics.

Also you should mention lack of high penetration premium round. Basic 268 pen is not enough in some situations. And HESH is unreliable at best.

[Serene_Potato 211]

I got the Centurion 7/1 so that I could get the FV4202 as a premium. ^^

Yup, I'm that cheap.

[OOPMan 1,266]

Strongly agree with Overlord_Prime wrt to the 20pdr vs 105mm.

 

The problem with high-DPM, low-damage weapons like the 20-pounder is that they're hard to get optimal usage out of and thus a lot of that DPM ends up wasted as you maneuver to avoid being shot. The end result is often low-DPM, low-damage.

 

The 105mm, on the other hand, is extremely tasty due to a combination of great accuracy, decent aim-time and good penetration. The HESH shells can also be useful if you manage to sneak up on someone from behind...

[Pocktio 730]

I see you mentioned wiggling, angling and sidescraping infront of 128mm+ guns.

I do not recommend this, and would love to see some replays where it is done effectively. I just do not think these things are possible in the 7/1.

[Tedster59 989]

OP is on the SEA server, and if player skill is anything like the horror stories I've heard, those things are probably possible.

[Inciatus 1,124]

I agree with overlord that the l7 is a better gun for the tank given that it is hard to make full use of that dpm, even more so with map and meta changes.

As for some of your armor comments I disagree. The turret is not super reliable, but it is still fairly bouncy, especially against lower tier machines. The hull is garbage. One in a while I will get troll bounces or absorb shots with my tracks, but that isnt very often. I have never experienced bouncing of HEAT shells off the side of my tank, and if you are noticing enough that you bounce those shells off your side you may be doing something wrong with your positioning. As for sidescraping, that just sounds like you are begging to lose your tracks and ammo rack at the same time. I have never seen sidescraping work in that tank and certainly not against German 128s.

[Serene_Potato 211]

Replays...soon. Once I get home, got em all saved.

[Serene_Potato 211]

Added Pros and Cons section

[prolix 355]

I've recently gotten the FV4202 as my first Tier X. After around 380 games in the Cent 7/1, here are my thoughts on some of the weaknesses:

 

• Like you mentioned, the turret is very unreliable. It's basically the same turret but a tier higher. One spot on the mantlet is particularly weak, and it's to the right of the gun when an opponent faces you. Otherwise, the mantlet itself is decent and will troll bounce a lot of high pen guns. Cheeks are fairly weak, and expect anything that is 250 and above to just cut through it. Forehead is vulnerable too, but it's mitigated by the fact that most of the time when you hull down, the angle will be auto-bounce. 
• Hull armour in my experience has a little below 50% chance of bouncing tier 8 heavies (225 pen). Assuming it's optimally angled, some spots can reach 230 mm and with a low pen roll from the enemy, you get rare troll bounces when an E 75 shoots you. But all in all, the hull is only slightly stronger than that of the Cent 1 (which was shit to begin with). 
• Bloom of the L7A1 is quite terrible. This is the single factor that kills the tank. When close to fully aimed, the gun is very accurate but that means sitting still for around 4s at least. Bad bloom --> Longer aim --> Longer exposure time --> Turret gets penned. 
• Reload is cripplingly long. Not ideal for clean-up and pressuring opponents. Need to mop up a low tier Comet? Too bad, it's gonna take you at least 21s on average to bring him down (assuming no troll bounces). 
• Avoid sidescraping unless you absolutely must. Your ammo rack gets damaged easily and anything that's < 70 deg against AP will have no chance of bouncing. Your lower hull is huge and your turret cheeks and forehead are cheese. Hell, even tier 7 meds have no problem penning your lower hull. 

 

Conclusion: Too much of a niche tank, and that's putting it nicely. It's a good sniper, nothing more and nothing less. Bring it to mid range combat (even hull down) and your weak armour starts rearing its ugly head. Bad bloom and long reload makes snapshotting and pressuring opponents a chore.

 

6.5/10 at best in my book.

 

I'm enjoying the FV4202 a lot more though. 

[Serene_Potato 211]

I've recently gotten the FV4202 as my first Tier X. After around 380 games in the Cent 7/1, here are my thoughts on some of the weaknesses:

 

• Like you mentioned, the turret is very unreliable. It's basically the same turret but a tier higher. One spot on the mantlet is particularly weak, and it's to the right of the gun when an opponent faces you. Otherwise, the mantlet itself is decent and will troll bounce a lot of high pen guns. Cheeks are fairly weak, and expect anything that is 250 and above to just cut through it. Forehead is vulnerable too, but it's mitigated by the fact that most of the time when you hull down, the angle will be auto-bounce. 
• Hull armour in my experience has a little below 50% chance of bouncing tier 8 heavies (225 pen). Assuming it's optimally angled, some spots can reach 230 mm and with a low pen roll from the enemy, you get rare troll bounces when an E 75 shoots you. But all in all, the hull is only slightly stronger than that of the Cent 1 (which was shit to begin with). 
• Bloom of the L7A1 is quite terrible. This is the single factor that kills the tank. When close to fully aimed, the gun is very accurate but that means sitting still for around 4s at least. Bad bloom --> Longer aim --> Longer exposure time --> Turret gets penned. 
• Reload is cripplingly long. Not ideal for clean-up and pressuring opponents. Need to mop up a low tier Comet? Too bad, it's gonna take you at least 21s on average to bring him down (assuming no troll bounces). 
• Avoid sidescraping unless you absolutely must. Your ammo rack gets damaged easily and anything that's < 70 deg against AP will have no chance of bouncing. Your lower hull is huge and your turret cheeks and forehead are cheese. Hell, even tier 7 meds have no problem penning your lower hull. 

 

Conclusion: Too much of a niche tank, and that's putting it nicely. It's a good sniper, nothing more and nothing less. Bring it to mid range combat (even hull down) and your weak armour starts rearing its ugly head. Bad bloom and long reload makes snapshotting and pressuring opponents a chore.

 

6.5/10 at best in my book.

 

I'm enjoying the FV4202 a lot more though. 

Hehe, I found it more of a 8/10 once I managed to compensate for the weaknesses. Imo, I just can't make the 105mm work. The bad bloom kills it for me as well. DPM is great on the 20 though, check replay above, pen is enough to pen and perm track an IS-7, so I'm perfectly happy with 20 pounder

[prolix 355]

Hehe, I found it more of a 8/10 once I managed to compensate for the weaknesses. Imo, I just can't make the 105mm work. The bad bloom kills it for me as well. DPM is great on the 20 though, check replay above, pen is enough to pen and perm track an IS-7, so I'm perfectly happy with 20 pounder

 

The 20 pounder is not a bad gun. It's just very suboptimal. The 20 pounder demands long exposure times and assuming you can only get off one shot (which is common in this brawly-meta), 230 alpha is a joke at tier 9. Also, 225 pen means you are absolutely useless in anything but side/rear engagements against heavies like the IS-7, E100 and many other heavily armoured targets since your pen is insufficient even if you target weakspots perfectly.

 

For side shots, 225 is by no means a reliable penetration. Like many have said, DPM is only useful if you can utilise it. 

 

The tank is too big, unarmoured and slow to brawl. Play a T-54 if you are looking for a high DPM, brawl-oriented medium. The L7A1 is what makes the Cent 7/1 a good, hard-hitting but low DPM long-range harasser.  

[_Assad 3,538]

I wanted to like this tank I really did, but that absolute trash dispersion with the turret rotation and tank movement (On the 105) killed it for me. By no means was I shooting on the move, but I found the aim time and the incredible accuracy were only fleshed out fully aiming in which can cost you HP or damage depending on the situation because the tank is the size of the E50 the camo is non existent. 2.3 isn't a long aim time and the accuracy of .32 should be very similar to that of the E50, but it simply isn't. The closest comparable gun is the E50's with the APCR gold round and it falls behind in many respects the gun just fails to properly behave. I had wonderful results on maps like prok and steppes, but other maps made it clear how situational it was because of the lack of speed and armor. As well as a huge factor on gun selection. The gun should behave much better than it does currently imo. I had too many random shots that would fly off into space or the ground where a .35 acc gun would just aim true 80% of the time and this .32 acc didn't.

[tajj7 560]

First off for me, it's top 3 tier 9 medium and tier for tier it's better than the FV4202. The E50 and T54 are a bit better but rely on premium ammo a lot IMO. Plus the E50 is a bit sluggish. 

 

One thing you don't mention HESH at all, correct use of this tank needs correct use of premium HESH, it brings the 105s DPM right up on par with others in tier, it can save you in one v situations and is able to demolish lower tier opponents with ease, not to mention other tier 9 mediums, especially things like Pattons and Leopard PTAs. Basically soft targets, tier 8s, and flat sides and rear are all prime HESH targets. 

 

When you roll 550 on the side of an E75 turret is when premium HESH shows it's worth, also allows easier target finishing. Like being able to two shot a JagdTiger 88 from 400ms by hitting it's lower front plate, that is what this tank can do. 

 

The gun trolls of course, but you need a good crew and then it's fine because of base 0.32 accuracy and 2.3 second aim time.

 

I currently have Food (no need for extinguisher as IMO as it rarely gets set on fire and you spend most of your time hull down) + BIA + Snap Shot + Smooth Ride, now my view range is creeping up to about 470 without optics I am going to try switching to vents as well. 

 

I also think you underestimate the turret armour, sure some parts of the mantlet are weak, but they are also tiny, it's RNG if a shot goes in here, some parts are 400 plus effective, I've bounced JagdE100s off the turret.

 

When you use the gun depression the roof is also autobounce, so the turret will bounce it's fair share of shots and with 105 you can keep the exposure times down. 

 

IIRC UFP is actually as good as the T-54's. helps in hull down spots and can bounce it's fair share as well, though rest of the armour is paper. 

 

Not had an ammo rack issues, it's certainly not as bad as the T54, Obj.140 for that and again gun depression means hiding that hull more often than not. 

 

Basically bad bloom, bad top speed, and low DPM are the tanks weaknesses.

 

A good crew/equipment/consumables can offset a lot of that and HESH can up the DPM. 

 

Gun depression, high penetration, good alpha, HESH, troll turret and solid agility are the tanks strengths. 

[stagnate 513]

One thing you don't mention HESH at all, correct use of this tank needs correct use of premium HESH, it brings the 105s DPM right up on par with others in tier, it can save you in one v situations and is able to demolish lower tier opponents with ease, not to mention other tier 9 mediums, especially things like Pattons and Leopard PTAs. Basically soft targets, tier 8s, and flat sides and rear are all prime HESH targets.

I really want to see an actual assessment of HESH viability from a DPM standpoint. Changing ammo is a no-go, and it only takes one or two non-pen shots to lose any DPM advantage that you might have had.

I understand that it's fun to slap around tanks with the extra damage, but I am not at all convinced that it is usable (aka reliable) in enough situations to increase the effectiveness of the tank compared to peers.

That said I enjoyed the grind even without much HESH usage.

[tajj7 560]

I really want to see an actual assessment of HESH viability from a DPM standpoint. Changing ammo is a no-go, and it only takes one or two non-pen shots to lose any DPM advantage that you might have had.

I understand that it's fun to slap around tanks with the extra damage, but I am not at all convinced that it is usable (aka reliable) in enough situations to increase the effectiveness of the tank compared to peers.

That said I enjoyed the grind even without much HESH usage.

 

Well it's essentially HEAT or HE, you fire it places where HEAT wouldn't get absorbed, so no tracks or spaced armour. Then it's reliable enough. 

 

So you need to know vaguely what you are fighting and what you will be aiming at, so using it in a brawl against something small and wriggly is a no go because it's too risky that you will hit tracks, but shooting at a PTA or a dopey IS3 from the front or a 50100 from medium ranges it will make short work of them, whilst also slowly them down with module hits.  

 

That's why I said you need to use the tank a lot because after a while you get a feel for when to HESH and when not to HESH. 

[Serene_Potato 211]

I really want to see an actual assessment of HESH viability from a DPM standpoint. Changing ammo is a no-go, and it only takes one or two non-pen shots to lose any DPM advantage that you might have had.

I understand that it's fun to slap around tanks with the extra damage, but I am not at all convinced that it is usable (aka reliable) in enough situations to increase the effectiveness of the tank compared to peers.

That said I enjoyed the grind even without much HESH usage.

Will be playing some games on the 105 with HESH today Will add HESH area later.