The mighty Lowe (review after 125 games)

[GehakteMolen 2,063]

Lowe

The mighty (s)Lowe, on EU server a very common sight and one of the most popular tier 8 tanks of all times (IS3, KT and T34 are more played). The tank used to be quite shitty and many (good) players considered it a worthless kitty. But WG decided to give the lowe some love and buffed it, more side armor, more gun depression, higher ammo count and tiny weight reduction.

While more ammo, so you can carry 80 rounds, is obvious extremely important, the gun depression buff was also not ``un-needed``.

 

So the Lowe turned from a trash tank, into a potential interesting premium, and i decided to buy it (i always wanted a Lowe, so why not?)

 

The armor:

The lowe has a 120mm front plate, 100m side armor above tracks and 80mm side armor behind tracks, hull roof is 40mm while the turret is 80, except the front which is thicker and highly sloped.

 

The above means the Lowe lacks effective hull armor, the UFP is about 180mm eff while the lfp will be ~140mm.

The thick side armor allows for excellent sidescraping though, and will even stop high pen HEAT shells. All in all the hull armor will protect you from low pen guns and when angled carefull protect from most of the big guns, but only if you side scrape proper, otherwise your like a tiger, a big grey exp pinata.

 

The real strength lies in the turret armor, the mantle is very thick while the areas around it are highly sloped. When hull down a lowe is a very, very though nut to crack, almost as though as a T34.

 

However the moment you angle your turret, you loose a lot of strenght and you can be penetrated by almost anything (same for IS6 and St-1 for example)

TL:DR: a very strong turret, a capable sidescraper, and for the rest cardboard

 

Firepower

The main selling point of the Lowe is the gun and it is in many ways an extreme gun

- second highest base AP pen of all tier 8 tanks

- second highest gold shell pen, 295, capable of penetrating almost any tank head on,

including tier 10 heavys and TDs

- very good accuracy (only caern has better)

- very low dpm, almost lowest in tier

 

The aim time is actually quite bad and comparable with a KV5, KV4 and 110 the bloom is also not that good, but the slowness + good base accuracy give it all in all a good gunhandling, not as good as KT, but still very good.

 

It has firepower wise basically only 1 weakness (dpm) while having 2 strengths, accuracy and penetration, this combined with the highest (in tier) shell speed and good gun handling make the gun very reliable.

It allows the Lowe to engage almost any target even on long range.

 

Make no mistake however to combined 1+1+1=3 and think:

+ bad dpm

+ avg alpha dmg

+ very good accuracy

-------

= long range camper

 

Because that means you win short term and loose long term, see below for the reasoning

TL:DR: the gun is very, very good, except for one ``tiny detail``, the dpm is horrible…

 

Mobility

Bad.

 

Lowe is slow, it turns slow, it climbs slow, it accelerates slow, its slow in every possible way except for one thing (2 actually)

The top speed is quite good, so once it rolls and you dont steer it can get from A to B reasonable well.

The catch is however, it has very good reverse speed, both when on flat ground (15km/h) and when going in reverse downhill, a high reverse top speed is an often overlooked but very important stat, it can (and will) safe you countless times.

TL:DR: The (s)Lowe is slow as a snail, but once it rolls, its ok, the high reverse speed is a very nice extra

 

Miscellaneous

Lowe has for the rest no real problems, apart from the module dmg (including the famous frontal gearbox). The Lowe does however have:

-          8 deg gun depression, one of the main strengths of the Lowe

-          Very large ammo count, you can take plenty of ammo form everything and spam as much as you wish, you will never run out of ammo

-          Very steep gun elevation, your almost an AA gun

-          High viewrange, unlike T34 you can actually spot tanks, even if they have some camo

TL:DR: AA-gun elevation, good gun depression, high ammo count and good viewrange, no other problems

 

How to play:

The lowe is thus a tank with:

+ strong turret armor

+ good accuracy and pen

+ good sidescraper

- bad dpm

- sluggish

 

So it seems that in the optimal situation you are hull down sniping on long range, making use of your strengths and covering your weaknesses.

 

This however has one serious flaw, if your team fails, and they will over and over, you will be attacked by a bunch of tanks. And if the lowe is bad in one thing, its fighting close range against multiple enemys. Your armor is worth nothing when flanked, you have no mobility to turn, you take a lot of module dmg, and you have poor dpm, so very little chance to kill them before they kill you. A lowe fighting close range 1 vs 2 is a dead lowe!!

 

It is thus essential that you always have allies nearby, doesnt matter what, you need support!

 

This is so important, that you should often give up your hull down camping spot and instead follow the main blob, it is even better to fight frontline with allies, as use your strength and die in the end. Your priority is getting

into to the fight and play as anchor.

 

TL:DR: while a lowe is an excellent sniper, this is not your main task, your main task is playing anchor role!

 

Your support your team in 2 ways:

1: Sidescrape or hull down close behind or in front of friendlies, bouncing some shots, perhaps taking the occasional hit, and dealing dmg. Play as an anchor and hope your team will deal more dmg as the other team.

Think of himmelsdorf alley of dead or kharkkov mid street brawl, lots of tanks slugging it out, your 1650 hp and though (side/turret)armor can swing the tide here and depending on the flow of the game, you can go turtle mode or play more aggresive.

 

2: Use your very good penetration and accuracy to nail though tanks you are very good in destroying though tds, Ferdinands, T28s, KV4`s, tier 9 heavys you have the penetration power to simply kill them, due to your low dpm it will take some time, but nothing in tier 8 or 9 can bounce 234 AP / 295 APCR.

 

TL:DR: use your high penetration to target the thoughest tanks you can still reliable hit (ofc

dont forget kill shots and WTF-E100`s) and if there are not high pen guns around, dont hesitate to even engage E75`s or E100`s head on.

 

The playstyle can thus be summarized as following:

- Lowe plays vastly different as KT, it plays much more like a KV4 x T34

- Use your powerfull gun to target strong targets where possible, dont shoot a Tiger when you can also hit a Ferdinand.

- Play it like a us heavy tank, and go as much hull down as possible

- When you cant go hull down, sidescrape and angle

- Dont hang back, you better go to the front, a lone Lowe is a dead Lowe

- You are a support tank, but not in terms of dmg dealing, but in terms of taking some agro, shooting though targets and taking dmg.

 

 

TL:DR: the Lowe combines the hull down playstyle of a T34 with the sidescraping of a KV3/4 and the accurate, high penetration gun of a King Tiger

 

The Lowe is thus in practice a sort of crossover between T34, KV4 and KT, combining the strengths of these 3 tanks (sidescraping, turret armor, powerfull gun) and the weaknesses, slow, low dpm and vulnerable to flanking.

 

BONUS: The Lowe is by far the best credit maker of the game (havent played Jt-88) the gross income is very high and due to minimal gold amom costs, the netto gain is massive, earning +60k credits 10 games in a row is not strange, same earning more as 100k profit is not rare. Dont be fooled by KV5 owners or people who never played a Lowe, Lowe earns far more as either the IS6 or KV5.

 

My crew (E100) and equipment, V-Stab, Rammer and Vents, fairly standard for a heavy, ammo 50-20-10, pure due to the huge ammo acount, and all prem consumables, since Lowe earns enough credits anyway, and the passive bonuses are always good

 

My stats after 125 games:

 

 

EDIT: replays, not all 125 games i think (due to laptop-gaming), and a whole bunch are from ``old`` versions (9.4 for example) it also contains some rage, bad trolling, asking for maus or IS7 as next tier 10 etc, but thats the way i roll ^^

http://www.mediafire.com/download/j6fyih54jd4avvl/Lowe_replays_pc.zip

Edited May 13, 2015 by GehakteMolen

[Medjed 2,619]

Great review. Everything is on point. I haven't drove mine in a long time strictly for one thing. Speed. It's atrocious and it's pretty much the only thing that keeps me away from it. Second one is DPM, but even that would be bearable, if it wasn't fucking slow piece of shit and i can't stand that slow tanks. Slow tank=no fun  and if i don't have any fun while playing the tank i won't play it.

[Chiefofops 95]

And don't overlook that shell speed. Those shells get to the target quick, esp the apcr rounds. Pretty helpful when shooting moving targets from distance. 

[kolni 69,670,872]

confirmed Löwe_Jesus

[Ollie Tabooger 614]

It may not be great, but playing it on derpy's account, I liked it.

The speed didn't bother me so much like on the KV-4 because the Lowe can actually get to the fight, and the combo of armor plus a reliable gun was nice.

It's survivable enough and deals enough damage while it slowly gets chewed away at that I did pretty decently on the games I played in it.

It could use some more DPM, but doesn't have any other huge pitfalls. I say it's a fine tank.

[furrystrawberry 51]

i find the turent to be quite weak, its cheeks are pretty weak to 190+ pen guns, at least i think so.

[RealBattousai 248]

Now you're going to get me to play this POS again with this review...let me tell you the tale of my Lowe...first prem I bought when I was even worse than I am now, sucked in it, rage sold it (yes sold a prem and this was before you could get them back) later was convinced to give it another shot...bought it back (yes I are dumb) (soon after we get the 'hey get your premium back with a support ticket' business...I tried, they give SerB laugh and say so sorry tovarisch you are already buy back we can do nothing...rip) and I still hated it, and so it now sits unused...so lets see if the third time is the charm, not sure I played it after the buff...

[SgtKnispel23 30]

i find the turent to be quite weak, its cheeks are pretty weak to 190+ pen guns, at least i think so.

cheeks got buffed when lowe went HD

[SchnitzelTruck 3,600]

I liked the armor layout, i just wish it had Tiger2 mobility.

[1n_Soviet_Russia 1,299]

look for TAN TAN TANK GOD's replays he showcases it the best

[GehakteMolen 2,063]

i find the turent to be quite weak, its cheeks are pretty weak to 190+ pen guns, at least i think so.

 

it got a small buff when it was turned into HD, but also before that, the main weakspot seemed to be the hatch, it got hit suprising much (considering how small the target is)

I liked the armor layout, i just wish it had Tiger2 mobility.

 

yeah, the mobility is really letting it down, and the main different KT is better (the extra dpm and gun handling of the KT ofc also dont hurt)

 

edit: added replay pack to OP, replays will be from the beginning of this year, so patch 9.4, - 9.6 (i think)

 

http://www.mediafire.com/download/j6fyih54jd4avvl/Lowe_replays_pc.zip

Edited May 13, 2015 by GehakteMolen

[Sabocat 123]

Gorramnit. You've convinced me to poke at it again. But then, I've been improving slowly but steadily, maybe it'll be a better experience this time around. And I do need moneys. 

[EchelonIII 1,255]

My stages of playing the lowe

 

1. I've not played the lowe in a bit, let's try it.

 

2. Fuck this slow tank shit shit shit

 

3. Chaisnipe while trying to push up

 

4. 60% solopub anyway

 

5. Never again.

[Nekommando 386]

Does shooting all gold net profit on Lowe?

[GehakteMolen 2,063]

Does shooting all gold net profit on Lowe?

 

yeah, it does, i shoot 12 shells / game, gold is 4k a shot, so thats 48k of ammo, say 12k repair, and thats 60k, shooting 12 gold shells will bare some extreme games always be (muc) more as 60k income

 

and with 235 base pen, there is not much need to shoot full gold, even a game with say 100k income means with a lowe 80k profit or so, since even most tier 9 tanks can be penetrated over and over without gold ammo

 

(an KV5 or IS6 will simply be forced to shoot gold, or die)

[Sabocat 123]

So I did take it out again last night. And I do make better decisions in it then the last time I played it. However, I'm also aware of how it wants to be played since I now have experience with the Kv4 under my belt. These are just (doubtless Nubby) things I noticed taking it out last night.

It really wants to have a buddy with it. That is how it felt to me. It holds corners really well but it needs time to work. The best games I had in it, I had a buddy with me. And it doesn't need to be much of a buddy but it needs someone. Which is a huge problem if your team is feeling timid. Because you can't spearhead in it like the Kv4. Unlike the KV4 which can in emergencies brawl some, the Löwe just can't. The reload just too long to peel off a flanker. I could get damage in consistently but once an enemy appeared outside of my front arc, it was only a matter of time before they whittled me down..

It is a really odd tank that doesn't sit very well in any particular role and is more team dDependant then most.

Then again this could just be my scrubbiness showing and I haven't figured out the joy yet.

[Hally 126]

Tried the lowe again, just can't get it to work, at all. 30 solo battles: 21 tier 10 matches, 7 tier 9 matches, top tier only twice.

--------------

I literally don't know where to go on most tier 10 fights.

- Using gun depression on a ridge? arty will erase you without second thought.

- Sidescrape in a city? People yolo up and kill you, or they simply shoot your turret cheeks. You ain't got the dpm to do anything about it. All those 183s, FV4005s, and HE E-100s certainly doesn't help.

- Chai snipe? Sure, that's great for farming dmg and credits; but it isn't gonna win you battles with that dpm.

- Being a priority target is just agonizing. People will hold fire, ignore that 50b or grille 15, just to shoot your poor lowe. When that 50b/grille can't hit the broad side of a barn... you won't be winning that match.

I feel the lowe simply has no business being in tier 10 battles. And considering the vast majority of my battles happens to be tier 10... it really didn't work out well.

---------------

In tier 9 battles, I had more success in the vk4503 than the lowe.

- Most battles I'm in are lopsided roflstomps that are determined in 2 - 3 mins, the lowe doesn't even reach the battlefield on time on a lot of maps, the vk can actually get there to make an impact.

- If things go bad, the vk can relocate to provide support from another angle or position. The lowe is stuck waiting for it's death.

- I'm not getting focus fired upon as much in the vk. In the lowe, everyone will shoot me, even if means taking unnecessary damage to yolo me. I rarely get into an engagement where I deal more damage than loosing hp in the lowe.

- The vk can snapshot snapshot people, and not suffer too much for a missed/bounced shot. A missed or badly aimed shot from the lowe invites heavy punishment from all those trigger happy lowe killers.

---------------

The lowe does perform extremely well in tier 8 battles, but since I see those once in a blue moon..... welp.