T-34-85

Modules

Tier	Gun	Penetration (mm)	Damage (HP)	Rate of fire (rounds/minute)	Dispersion (m/100m)	Aiming time (s)		Weight (kg)	Price ()
	<value_unset_error>			0	0	0			0

Tier	Engine	Engine Power (hp)	Chance of Fire on Impact (%)		Weight (kg)	Price ()
	<value_unset_error>		0			0

Tier	Suspension	Load Limit (т)	Traverse Speed (gr/sec)	Rmin		Weight (kg)	Price ()
	<value_unset_error>	0					0

Tier	Radio	Signal Range (m)		Weight (kg)	Price ()
	<value_unset_error>				0

Compatible Equipment

Compatible Consumables

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• 85mm D5T-85BM is well-rounded gun with good aim time, damage, penetration, and accuracy
• Very good mobility: good top speed and maneuverability
• Fairly well-armored and well-rounded turret front
• Hard-hitting HE rounds at 300 damage
• Very high muzzle-velocity for the upgraded 85mm gun

Cons:

• Weak hull armor for its tier.
• Below average HP and DPM. Often out-gunned in prolonged trades
• Mediocre gun depression, which limits hull-down opportunities.
• Terrain resistance is rather high for medium and hard surfaces, resulting in somewhat slow acceleration.
• Awful when stock along with a long grind to top gun & engines.

Performance

The T-34-85 is a fairly well-rounded and versatile medium tank, capable of adapting to most situations on the battlefield. In terms of mobility, the T-34-85 is good enough to perform its job adequately, but it is outclassed by the M4A3E8 Sherman and Cromwell.

The turret armor is good by Tier 6 standards, but the hull armor is very weak (only 45 mm thick, though it is well-sloped). Going hull-down is a good idea in the T-34-85, since the turret armor is quite good and capable of bouncing a lot of shots. Be mindful of the turret ring—unfortunately the shape of the turret and hull create a shot trap in this area. By no means is the T-34-85 a 'heavy' medium like the M4A3E2 Sherman Jumbo, and it should never under any circumstances make itself the center of attention of the enemy team.

To start with, the T-34-85 receives the 76 mm S-54 which was previously available on the T-34. Unfortunately, it is lacking in penetration and damage by Tier 6 standards, and is not very accurate. The 122 mm U-11 is a decent option for grinding, featuring a fairly powerful HE round and a HEAT round with good penetration, but at the cost of terrible accuracy. The 85 mm ZiS-S-53 is a more versatile option, with fairly good penetration, rate-of-fire, and damage, but has slightly worse accuracy than the S-54.

The top 85 mm D5T-85BM is a good gun for Tier 6. It is accurate enough, with sufficiently short aim time, to allow the T-34-85 to act as a sniper if needed, though in that respect it is outclassed by the German Tier 6 mediums with the 7.5 cm KwK 42 L/70. The damage output is also reasonably good, though not quite as good as the 8.8 cm KwK 36 L/56 on German tanks, the 17-pdr Mk V on the Firefly, or the 76 mm M1A2 on the American medium tanks, which have better alpha damage, armor penetration and reload times respectively. 144 mm of penetration using AP is excellent by Tier 6 medium tank standards, inferior only to the Cromwell's 75 mm Vickers HV (145 mm), the Chi-To's 7.5 cm Tank Gun Type 5 Model I, the Sherman Firefly's 17-pdr Mk V, and the 7.5 cm KwK 42 L/70 (150 mm) available to all the German Tier 6 medium tanks, balanced by the D5T-85BM's higher alpha damage. An often overlooked quality of this gun is the HE damage. It deals 300 or more damage if it fully penetrates. It is perhaps the highest damaging HE round of the "proper" medium tank guns at Tier VI. The D5T-85BM's HE rounds can devastate poorly armored tanks. Bringing a few HE rounds on this tank is never a bad decision.

The T-34-85's biggest strength, like the T-34's, lies in its adaptability. Knowledge of the tank's and its enemies' capabilities is essential to do well in the T-34-85, since it does not have any particular features that it can reliably abuse.

Crew Skills

• Repair as the first skill for all the crew members is a solid choice, allowing broken tracks or other damaged modules to be brought to operational condition as quickly as possible. The T-34-85 tends to get tracked fairly often or have its turret traverse mechanism damaged due to the shot trap the turret and hull create. Camouflage is also viable, but the T-34-85 has worse camouflage values than its predecessor, making it somewhat less useful.
• A more specialized set of first skills would be Recon (Commander), Snap Shot (Gunner), Smooth Ride (Driver), Situational Awareness (Radio Operator). The loader only has perks available, which are not useful until they have reached 100%, Repair or Camouflage are viable options for the loader, which may later be swapped out for his perks. The combination of Snap Shot and Smooth Ride act like a Vertical Stabilizer (which the T-34-85 does not have access to), reducing the accuracy penalties while moving or turning the turret, and by extension, allowing the T-34-85 to get an accurate shot off faster after stopping. Recon and Situational Awareness increase the tank's decent 360 m view range further. Mentor may also be used instead of Recon if the emphasis is on getting the other crew members' skills up faster. Smooth Ride may be substituted with Off-Road Driving for improved overall mobility, if a more close combat-oriented playstyle is preferred.
• Upon reaching 100% on the first skills, dropping the commander's skill for Sixth Sense is a good option. The loader's skill may be dropped in favor of Safe Stowage or Adrenaline Rush. However, the T-34-85 does not have a particularly vulnerable ammunition rack, while Adrenaline Rush is highly situational, so neither of these perks are particularly essential.
• Brothers-in-Arms is a good perk to have on any tank, but requires all crew members to have it at 100% before it works. The bonus to crew skills is particularly noticeable when combined with Improved Ventilation.

Early Research

• The 9RM radio is the only module that carries over from the T-34. The 122 mm U-11 can be researched on the KV-1.
• The 85 mm ZiS-S-53 is required to unlock the second turret, the D5T-85BM, as well as the T-43.
• The T-34-85 extended turret is needed to unlock the 85 mm D5T-85BM, the T-34-85's best gun. They are not needed to unlock anything but are highly recommended to be researched.
• The V-2-34M is required to unlock the final V-54 engine, which provides a significant increase in mobility.
• Both the 85 mm D5T-85BM and V-54K engine are used on the next tank, the Tier 7 T-43, and are in fact its top gun and engine as well. The other Soviet Tier 7 medium tank, the KV-13, also uses the D5T-85BM as its top gun, and it is one of two guns available to the Tier 7 LTTB light tank, Tier 7 IS heavy tank, and Tier 8 T-44 medium at the start of their grinds. Unlocking these modules on the T-34-85 first is highly recommended.
• All upgraded modules can be equipped with the stock T-34-85 suspension, so the T-34-85-60 suspension can be saved for last. It does provide a small bonus to the hull traverse speed.
• If the U-11 has not been researched, it may be skipped entirely unless eliting the T-34-85 is the goal.

Suggested Equipment