ISU-122S

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Amazing DPM, among the best in the game

• Fairly good gun stats for a 122mm gun

• Good camouflage values

• Good top speed, fast in a straight line

• Crew layout matches high tier soviet TD's

Cons:

• Low muzzle velocity

• Narrow gun traverse

• Turns sluggishly

• Only the gun mantlet provides any real protection

• No preferential matchmaking

Performance

Equipped with a quick-firing variant of the common 122 mm D-25, the ISU-122S can be a terror on the battlefield. With a fantastic rate of fire of 8.11 rounds per minute, the ISU-22S fires almost twice as fast as the IS and IS-2. The fantastic rate of fire of the gun allows the ISU-122S to potentially rip apart any same tier vehicle in less than half a minute of sustained fire while casually blowing up any lesser tanks . The ISU-12S can drill through the enemy team with impunity.

However, the ISU-122S is far from perfect. The armor is rather inadequate for a Tier VII vehicle and most of the same tier tanks can penetrate it with ease from any direction. It is also a large target with a 30mm roof, leaving it an extremely juicy target for artillery which can wreak havoc on its rather puny 870 hit points pool. The lack of turret accompanied by a mediocre traverse both in hull and gun leave it weak to flanking maneuvers. The layout of the vehicle also causes it to take module damage quite often. Your gun takes about half of the hull and is often damaged, and the rest of the shots seem to home on the gunner who has the life expectancy of a KV-5 radioman. These two can be highly irritating due to the accuracy of 0.41.

In Tier VIII and IX matches that the ISU-122S faces due to the lack of preferential matchmaking the D-25 isn't nearly as scary as before, forcing you to play much more cautiously. Less than ideal accuracy coupled with 175 mm of penetration will make it difficult to hit weak spots when required. However you still have your massive damage per minute, turning flanking shots and thinly armored medium tanks into smoking wrecks.

As far as crew training is concerned, the five man crew layout with two loaders matches the "Alpha Damage" line from Tier VII onwards starting with the SU-152 and the "Mobility / DPM line" from Tier IX onwards starting with the SU-122-54. This saves you the trouble of having to switch loaders in comparison to the SU-122-44 plus all of your crew members get trained at the same time, which will speed up progression. If one of those vehicles is your designated target of choice the ISU-122S makes for an excellent crew trainer, especially since this vehicle up to this point was always offered with a 100% zero experience Brothers in Arms perk crew, essentially receiving it for free.

All in all the ISU-122S is surprisingly fast vehicle with a good gun that allows it to manhandle any opposition in capable hands, RNG willing.

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