Löwe 9.17 Armor Changes

Upcoming armor changes for the Tier 8 German heavy tank.

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Löwe 9.17 Armor Changes

42 thoughts on “Löwe 9.17 Armor Changes

  1. Interesting, turret top changes mean the tank is more durable from arty fire, and the better slopping means that penning the tank while hull down will be a good challenge. Then the increase in armor under the mantlet might help prevent shot trap problems/turret jams at least against lower tiered heavies. The biggest improvement is that the flat bar on the hull of the tank is finally no longer a fatal weak point and only the lower plate is a weak point! hurah! well, anything with gold can still bust through the armor but that’s the same for any premium tank getting hit by gold spam. The slight increase on the upper front plate is much appreciated even if it doesn’t make too much of a difference. Finally, now that the side armor is a solid 100mm all over, this tank can do some serious side scraping ^^

    Thanks for releasing these posts in smaller pieces, it’ll make sorting through comments a lot easier!

    1. Robert says:

      I think this tank need 1000 Hp engine to. It slow to the point of pain. Abysmall. And new Tier VIII tanks are simply to fast and armored.

      1. From an 800 hp engine that propels the 92.5 ton tank at 8.7 hp/ton to a 1000 hp engine that propels the tank to 10.8 hp/ton mind you what you are saying is to make it faster than a tiger II that only has 9.9 hp/ton. It certainly would be interesting to see the Lowe shift around the battlefield but that’s not the Lowe’s playstyle. Kind of like the British heavies or Japanese heavies, you go to a choke point, get hull down or side scrape. I really wouldn’t recommend the Lowe for anyone who can’t stand the japanese super heavy play style so play a few from that line before picking it up.

  2. Dalibor says:

    Wow… what a great change…:D Lower plate still big and shit, upper plate also crap… Why to change anything at all? It’s totally pointless.

    1. Anonymous says:

      The front turret gets a change making it stronger, and the front is at a differnt angle now
      making it alot stronger. And the conjoining plate between the bottom and the upper front is way stronger, meaning the low can angle its front and bounce stuff easier now

  3. Bricktop says:

    Such an meaningless buff. Who cares about flat bar when tier 6s punch trough the lower plate bigger than their tanks 99% of time

    1. You obviously never heard of side scrapping or covering your lower plate with rubble, a smaller lower weak point is always welcome especially one that is 150mm instead of the previous 120mm thick and angled, really only heavy tanks like the ARL 44 with the 90mm and churchill gun carrier at tier 6 have enough standard pen to reliably go through that 😛

      Bricktop, you must not know how to read diagrams when you’re too busy playing your Tier 1’s

      1. oopsie, look who plays too much t1’s haha (me) but I misread the diagram myself and it’s 150mm effective armor directly from the front which is weird because the current model has 143 mm from the front http://tanks.gg/wot/tank/lwe#tab:model

        the difference is slight but cromwells won’t pen you from the front anymore, this value grows exponentially when you put the tank at a 45 degree angle and at fight at 100+ meters where enemy tanks start to have some noticeable shell penetration drop off so you can probably bounce 175mm pen guns a little easier but you really shouldn’t give any tank your lower plate in the first place.

      2. Bricktop says:

        Why would I bother with frontal armor buff when I can sidescrape? But I guess I’m gonna go back and play my tier I tanks some more.
        kappa

  4. SpeedyCraft51 says:

    My favorite premium getting some love 🙂
    The armor can already hold well against tanks of lower and equal tiers. And Lowe is not a frontline tank, and at medium to long range its armor is well enough. What matters is its gun.

    So the buff is welcome for toptier games, but overall the tank is still a really good vehicle driven mostly by noobs with 10 battles but with mommy’s wallet who still dont know about the shift key. Its not the tank which is bad, its the players driving it…

    1. bbmoose says:

      I’m not a bad player, last ~1000 games are 2300+ wn8, but I can’t agree with you on this. I can make a lot of tanks work, but the Löwe is just weaker then the rest of it’s tier. It only has accuracy and handling over the rest of the tanks, but in the current meta that is just not going to cut it. Engagement distances are decreasing and an IS3 doesn’t even have to aim to do 390 damage. DPM sucks, mobility sucks and there is nothing that really makes up for it.

  5. Rombat says:

    Wallet boys keep this game running so you can rejoice of it. If you are not pay to wg for premium account or premium tanks leave along wallet boys to spend their money…just shut-up and kill them if you are good at this game…

  6. Anonymous says:

    This be interesting….on direct plate when alwaise i get shot 120-225 wow thats nice…and around gun from 120mm to 170mm… thats f**n nice

  7. VikingNorth says:

    Damn,,, that buff looks good!
    Maybe a little to good to be frankly, as the tank is drove mostly by morons and with one who know these advance terms like: “Hull down”, “side scrape-ing” and “Weakspots” it could be a game changer.

    1. Teknokraatti says:

      It isn’t that special as far as armour buffs go. It’s a buff, definitely, but Löwe sitll doesn’t have extremely strong armour. Let’s look at it in some detail:

      The turret ring and lower side armour buffs are the most important, and the side armour buff is actually pretty good. However, the turret ring is still only 175mm thick, and while it is technically rounded, it is so wide that the rounding does little to help it bounce stuff. It’s now immune to the D-25T, but that hasn’t been a go-to aiming spot for the soviet heavies anyways.

      The middle bar in the hull got very thick, and it will now produce occasional bounces, but it isn’t very useful in the grand scheme of things. The upper glacis got a 15mm buff, but it is hardly very important. Almost all round that used to pen it are going to do so in the future as well.

      Finally, the turret roof buff. Almost useless, as Löwe wasn’t routinely penned by arties anyways and the reduction in splash dmg is pretty much unnoticeable. It doesn’t even help against Japanese heavies, as the Löwe is a big tank already, and not likely to be shot down on.

      Still, the buffs are very welcome and the gun depression buff will be very nice as well. I’d just have hoped for a bit of mobility or DPM, but a buff is a buff.

  8. i dont have this tank but dam id love to tank in it, looks awesome and ive always had my ass handed to me by the good players who drive it. although ive rarely seen it in play now. would you guys recommended this tank or a diff t8?

    1. SpeedyCraft51 says:

      If its your first tier 8 premium, and you dont spend a lot in the game, then I recomment that you go on a common test server and try it out so you can see if it fits you. And on other tests try other premiums aswell.

      Lowe is an amazing tank, but its not easy to play (unlike IS-6), doesnt get you as much money as some other tanks (Rhm Skorpion), and is really slow and has poor dpm (~10s reload for 320dmg).

      If this is your kind of gameplay you will love it. If not, you should go for a premium that suits you better.

      Also wait for december and all the offers in premium shop and reductions on existing premiums, thus either you’ll get it for cheaper, either you’ll get another rarer premium tank.

      And avoid replays on youtube. Because they only show the good games : average games are not interesting and can be desastrous.
      If youtube replay channels uploaded replays of average arty games where every shot is missed and direct hit on paper tanks to no damages, people would think its not as op as they though. But people base their opinion on what they see, and on youtube they can only see crazy games with many dmg and oneshots and all of that because its more entertaining than average shitty games.

      The best way is to make multiple accounts and try tanks by yourself on common tests 🙂

    1. SpeedyCraft51 says:

      Yeah but it isnt supposed to have any of those ; unlike with armor.

      Its like when I hear the devs talking about making T95 faster. No. Its meant to be slow. Buff other stats like damages or accuracy or reload instead.
      Well lowe is meant to be slow and have bad dpm. What they can do is give it good armor and better accuracy becquse this is what the tank is supposed to have.

      1. Patata Caliente says:

        Actually, buffing the reload time would (!) mean an increase of DPM, so please make up your mind. Also, improving the accuracy would not change anything; a lack of accuracy has never been the Lowe’s problem. Improving the armour will help, of course, but it won’t change much in those high-tier matches, either – the tank can hold its own pretty well against its own tier as it is because it is a respectable sidescraper, but if you meet a Tier X you’re f…ed regardless. The best change is probably the buff for the gun depression, but then, you hardly ever get in good positions in a Lowe in the first place because the tank is so painfully slow, especially when going uphill. I for one wish they had made it just a little more mobile by tweaking the ground resistances.

  9. DeanoGTO says:

    look im gonna sound like a dick but this is nowhere near enough. effectively the is3 still has twice as much overall front armor while being double the speed. the upper plate must be at least 150mm base thick not taking in to account angling the lower plate should be 150 as well because itd still be weak enough for 175 pen guns to go through. 185 effective front armor on the best angled part of the tank is not enough.

    1. Patata Caliente says:

      True. And now they are working to remove the weakspot on the IS-3’s turret on top of it all. Makes you wonder why they ever bothered to include other nations in the game when they apparently expect us all to play nothing but Russian tanks.

  10. A Slappy Bass says:

    Replace that 175mm strip of armor that extends from cheek to cheek to 200mm.
    With 200mm of armor the Lowe could be immune when side scraping and hull down.

  11. Amrael87 says:

    The -10 gun depression and improved turret armor are a good buff for hulldown, and this thing has always been a good sidescraper so now it’ll be even better. Still not enough for it to be truly competitive, but hey better a half full glass than a half empty one.

  12. Honcho says:

    The AMX M4 49 Liberte is the better Lowe. Its gun is not quite as accurate but its better in every other way that is important.

      1. Patata Caliente says:

        If he got you frontally, then he either got your cupola repeatedly, which has only 40mm of armour, or he spammed gold – the HVP M304 has a whopping 243 mm of PEN. He could actually reliably pen many Tier X tanks with that. Doesn’t change the fact that the Liberté is much better than most other Tier VIII heavies, let alone the premium heavies.

  13. still shit says:

    The MM is still shit, and this tank is still slow as hell…armor is 0…I had three matches with it in 9.17 and I had enough….this tank is maybe worst than before.

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