XM551 Sheridan - Tubby Leopard

[Gatortribe 35]

If you loved the Leopard but wish it had soft stats closer to the M48, you'll probably enjoy playing this tank. It even has the base view range to be a light tank, something that sadly needs to be mentioned. Here's my take on it-

Upsides of the Tank:

• Really good mobility. It's the same terrain resistance as the Leopard 1, however it has double the HP/ton.
• Incredibly good soft stats. Moving/traverse bloom are only .01 worse than the M48, but turret bloom is 0.03.
• Great aim time. Combined with the soft stats, the peak-a-boom potential is godly. It aims faster than both the Leopard/M48.
• Spaced armor on left/right side baits shots from bad players

Downsides of the Tank:

• Low top speed. I couldn't pass a Lorraine 40t and something about that bothered me. 
• It has less DPM than the 90mm T49, so in situations where you can abuse your camo the damage potential is much less. I'd love to see it have 390 again- it'd only be an increase of 200 DPM but it'd be enough. 
• The accuracy is bad. It's the same as the 90mm T49's, however it doesn't have the 4.68s reload of the T49 and feels much less forgiving.
• The penetration is low. 235mm APCR pen will only get you a 30-36% chance to penetrate the IS-7s LFP. 280 HEAT pen also isn't very good. 
• It's the size of a fucking boat. 
• 152mm is useless. Don't be that guy. 
• Ammo racks seem to be to the left and right side of the driver (if it's historical). You will learn to really appreciate repair kit cooldowns.  

All in all while the tank is fun to play, like all tier 10 lights it is not very competitive. You're still better off scouting in the new Rhm Pzw, and at the end of the day a medium tank can do well in a much wider range of situations. Tier for tier it's less powerful than the 90mm T49 is, but hitting for 360 instead of 240 is, in my opinion, much more satisfying. 

[Matross 145]

Reshiki farmed me in his, dat bastard *sigh.

[Tankthief 44]

Leopard>XM551

T49>Leopard PT (tier9)

Sad but true

[Copeyhagen 41]

Keep t49 with the 152mm and use the x55 with the 105mm, best of both worlds.

I would like to have both, one with each gun. Maybe the t49 with the 90mm and the x55 with the derp  would be better?..

 

[CraBeatOff 5,741]

2 hours ago, Copeyhagen said:

Keep t49 with the 152mm and use the x55 with the 105mm, best of both worlds.

I would like to have both, one with each gun. Maybe the t49 with the 90mm and the x55 with the derp  would be better?..

 

Stats on the 152 are much better on the Sheridan. I'll need to give it another try now that the madness of the first week has settled out. The 105 is just so much better in my first tests. They just need to drop the turret dispersion by about 0.08 and improve accuracy by about 0.05 and maybe 2 tenths off aimtime. It'd still be less reliable than the normal guns. Besides, arty got those buffs...

[Gatortribe 35]

5 hours ago, CraBeatOff said:

improve accuracy by about 0.05

Hell I'd love to see an accuracy buff for the 105mm too. Having played some more games in it, the accuracy has really started bothering me. When your DPM is trash compared to same tier mediums, it really hurts to miss shots. 

[PlanetaryGenocide 676]

On 4/21/2017 at 11:05 AM, Gatortribe said:

 

• 152mm is useless. Don't be that guy. 

Fuck you, I'm that guy 

 

In seriousness, the spaced armor on this thing is hilarious - I've bounced at least two JPE 420blazeitHEAT rounds so far.  I might give it a go with the 105 and I'll probably do way better, but I bought it for the derp and it's going to fucking stay that way

[Copeyhagen 41]

Right on. Can we refer to it as the derpidan from now on?

[Rspctd 296]

Got mine last night and I agree with the Leo thoughts. This is what the Leo gun should be imo. (While retaining the accuracy.)

[Gryphon_ 541]

I'm thinking about picking this up while its discounted, but keeping the lol-49 to run the DERP and use the 105 on this. Given the gun stats, I'd run optics/rammer/vents (no vstab) to exploit the godly view range and tighten up that dispersion, among other things. I was concerned about the size of the Sheridan but if its mostly spaced armor that should be a big payback. Anyone knocking the ball out the park using it as a scout? Interested to see if the game can be broken on open maps with viewrange of 510 on a light...

[Copeyhagen 41]

Unlocked it today.  If I buy it I'll probably put the 105 on it and put the derp back on the t49.  Tried the t49 today with the derp again and just wasn't feeling it now... 

[Gryphon_ 541]

I'm liking it so far. Getting lots of early damage and often stay unspotted when sniping. I ran binos/optics/vents before pulling a large rammer off some shite TD, and the spots with 565 VR were something else. Gets 2000 spotting damage by just being anywhere near the enemy. Can swap flanks in just over a minute.

But - easily penned by anything. Useless in any brawl. Don't ram anything. High skill floor.

20 battles in, 15 wins, just over 2000 dpg, best was just over 4000. need to try and retain that positioning for winrate thing, and increase dmg.

[woe2you 367]

On 21/04/2017 at 4:05 PM, Gatortribe said:

152mm is useless. Don't be that guy. 

Fuck sensible. You play high tier US lights when you want a KV-2 that can teleport, if not you're doing fun wrong.

[Sidus_Preclarum 381]

 

KV-2 that can teleport : an allegory

 

[Copeyhagen 41]

T49 and Sheridan share the same derp,  so you don't need to rebuy it for Sheridan.  Just switch between the two and save 250k credits.  Yes,  I'm cheap

[Gryphon_ 541]

100 battles in, and the honeymoon is over. You have to work real hard to stay alive. Every all-10 battle you feel like a tier 9, and any error while scouting in an all-10 battle is death. Assisted damage nowhere near as high as I thought it would be, and I work hard on scouting. 105 gun is decent but the slow reload means that any other non-light 10 will easily beat you one on one. Premium pen is so poor and results so unreliable with it I'm not going to carry any (if they buff anything, it has to be the premium ammo)

I see lots of other Sheridans being played as camo snipers, not really scouting much at all. Not working as intended. T49 is more fun, and far easier credit-wise.

Bottom line - not worth buying as it doesn't perform as a 10, more like a 9.5.

[Copeyhagen 41]

I'm having a lot of fun in it,  about 40 battles in and just peaking 2k damage now.  Fast,  big,  but accuracy and gun handling are lovely

*edit-this thing is a dream for. Me.  2200 damage which is decent enough for a tier 10 light for me.  Accuracy is v good.  Loving it

[Gryphon_ 541]

Note that the 105 guns' standard APCR loses 20% of its pen by 500m. Thats way more than usual. For comparison, the Fatton loses 4%. No wonder those long range snipes are so often non-pens.

[dualmaster333 3,324]

Well, I sold it. With the 152mm the tank is a complete dumpster fire, not really any better than a T49 but always stuck in tier 10 battles. With the 105mm it's a mediocre gun on a giant wet cardboard box. I just couldn't justify driving the thing when I have a T-100LT. 

[CraBeatOff 5,741]

On 7/6/2017 at 7:36 AM, woe2you said:

Fuck sensible. You play high tier US lights when you want a KV-2 that can teleport, if not you're doing fun wrong.

That's what got me to buy it eventually buy it. I know enough from WG not to expect them to return these to good form anytime soon, even in their new incremental model. And as it's been said elsewhere there are fundamental problems with balancing a class with camo and view range.

So yes fuck sensible. If you want something faster than a Leo1 to snipe the 30B certainly works nicely now. The Sheridan is for derp!

On 8/15/2017 at 2:12 PM, dualmaster333 said:

Well, I sold it. With the 152mm the tank is a complete dumpster fire, not really any better than a T49 but always stuck in tier 10 battles. With the 105mm it's a mediocre gun on a giant wet cardboard box. I just couldn't justify driving the thing when I have a T-100LT. 

But you've got it back now! Chode$tarz ride together. Solo it is indeed a dumpster fire. LTs work better when paired though, and the power law you outlined describes the power of the butts seekers. The Sheridan GOES FAST pretty well.

I bought this for two reasons, first to earn bonds and second to have something to play when the T49 is stuck in battle. But I'm enjoying it more than I expected..and for exactly the same reasons I dislike playing tier X in other tanks. Since MM 2.0 platooning Xs and especially LTs 90%+ of games are straight Xs. This is awful for the other LTs - well covered elsewhere. But the Derpidan doesn't give a shit about pen values or 280 HEAT rounds! The T-100LT scouts better, but the Derpidan trolls best.

So far I've settled on optics, vstab and rammer. The reload of 16.16 is surprisingly helpful. The T49 can't really get below 18s, and has to give up handling, accuracy, VR to get it. The Derpidan has good hard stats that let it use a rammer without hurting badly on accuracy, handling and VR. And its simply better in "direct fire arty" mode. This mode isn't great in the T49 because of the poor accuracy, reload and handling. But since all X battles are slow paced frontal grindfests the same reasons the Type 5 is "good" are why a rammer equipped Sheridan are good - HE always does damage right?

[nabucodonsor 461]

18 hours ago, CraBeatOff said:

TThat's what got me to buy it eventually buy it. I know enough from WG not to expect them to return these to good form anytime soon, even in their new incremental model. And as it's been said elsewhere there are fundamental problems with balancing a class with camo and view range.

So yes fuck sensible. If you want something faster than a Leo1 to snipe the 30B certainly works nicely now. The Sheridan is for derp!

But you've got it back now! Chode$tarz ride together. Solo it is indeed a dumpster fire. LTs work better when paired though, and the power law you outlined describes the power of the butts seekers. The Sheridan GOES FAST pretty well.

I bought this for two reasons, first to earn bonds and second to have something to play when the T49 is stuck in battle. But I'm enjoying it more than I expected..and for exactly the same reasons I dislike playing tier X in other tanks. Since MM 2.0 platooning Xs and especially LTs 90%+ of games are straight Xs. This is awful for the other LTs - well covered elsewhere. But the Derpidan doesn't give a shit about pen values or 280 HEAT rounds! The T-100LT scouts better, but the Derpidan trolls best.

So far I've settled on optics, vstab and rammer. The reload of 16.16 is surprisingly helpful. The T49 can't really get below 18s, and has to give up handling, accuracy, VR to get it. The Derpidan has good hard stats that let it use a rammer without hurting badly on accuracy, handling and VR. And its simply better in "direct fire arty" mode. This mode isn't great in the T49 because of the poor accuracy, reload and handling. But since all X battles are slow paced frontal grindfests the same reasons the Type 5 is "good" are why a rammer equipped Sheridan are good - HE always does damage right?

Plus it gets view range. Now imagine guys you are driving a kv2 at 65 on prok or mali with 512 view range and camo... even more if manage to get recon (520). 

And note that .09 of hull/track dispersion (if you block the turret) and 2,9 aim time is golden. 

@CraBeatOff shouldnt you get sub 16sec reload?

https://tanks.gg/tank/sheridan?e=46.22.30&k=0.8.9.1&c=-1.-1.20

[CraBeatOff 5,741]

3 hours ago, nabucodonsor said:

Plus it gets view range. Now imagine guys you are driving a kv2 at 65 on prok or mali with 512 view range and camo... even more if manage to get recon (520). 

And note that .09 of hull/track dispersion (if you block the turret) and 2,9 aim time is golden. 

@CraBeatOff shouldnt you get sub 16sec reload?

https://tanks.gg/tank/sheridan?e=46.22.30&k=0.8.9.1&c=-1.-1.20

Tanks.gg stats are slightly off. Its 16.16 in garage with that set up.

[nabucodonsor 461]

31 minutes ago, CraBeatOff said:

Tanks.gg stats are slightly off. Its 16.16 in garage with that set up.

Ah strange. I wonder why. Well it makes little to no difference. 

About the view range how and what can you spot/outspot? I have never played with anything with such view range so mine is just a theoretical guess.

And what about the spaced armour? How well does it work?  

[CraBeatOff 5,741]

2 hours ago, nabucodonsor said:

Ah strange. I wonder why. Well it makes little to no difference. 

About the view range how and what can you spot/outspot? I have never played with anything with such view range so mine is just a theoretical guess.

And what about the spaced armour? How well does it work?  

Both dualmaster and I pulled 5 skill commanders into this tank to run BiA, 6th, camo, situational awareness and recon. I think my VR is 518 with recon training, his is full 520 (which a T49 with vents reaches). This amount of VR means anything under 14% camouflage gets seen at 445m, which happens more than you think. I highly suggest you try out 500+ VR on any decently camouflaged LT or MT, as it really gives you some options, and strong dominance on vision maps and burning quite a bit of enemy camo. T-100LT still is absurd at 42% on the move. With a proper position you sure can outspot most of the mediums - even the stealthy ones get seen around 380m.

Spaced armor is nice for tangling with other derps, not being 1 shot by Type 5s and the occasional HEAT spammer. I know that at some point this week dualmaster ate a 0 damage Foch 155 HEAT...but it's not really anything to count on. Probably helps with arty 1 shots also

[CraBeatOff 5,741]

Here are some things you can do with a Sheridan in direct fire arty mode http://wotreplays.eu/site/3816506#winterberg-crabeatoff-xm551_sheridan Basically 3k damage to JpE-100s on deck splashes. 

And this game..well the first shot lets you know how its gonna go. http://wotreplays.eu/site/3816520#westfield-crabeatoff-xm551_sheridan