Panacea for the Poor WoT PzV Panther

If you are reading this, I shouldn't need to explain the legacy of the PzV Panther medium tank of the Nazi Wehrmacht, but here's a little history about the legendary tank anyway.

The Panzerkampfwagen V "Panther" was a medium tank designed in 1942 and brought into service in mid-1943. The tank was designed as a counter to the Soviet T-34 medium tank, and did its designated purpose exceedingly well. The overall design of the tank was advanced for the time, and it caught both the Soviets and Allies off-guard. It's excellent combination of mobility, durability and firepower from its 7.5cm KwK 42 L/70 cannon made it a force to be reckoned with. It was widely feared, and instigated a whole branch of new designs for all nations in terms of tank development.

But I'm sure you knew all that. If you're not a fan of reading, skip to the bottom of this post to get the overall summary of what I am talking about.

Now, we look at the legendary tank in World of Tanks. Many people have become disappointed at the state of the tank in-game, but why? Have the developers not done justice for this icon of a tank?

The PzV Panther is a Tier 7 Medium Tank that can find itself in Tier 9 Matchmaking. It has a selection of guns ranging from its trademark 7.5cm L/70 to the 8.8cm L/56 and the absurdly designed 7.5cm L/100. It has 85mm sloped armor on the front with 40mm at the sides and rears. 45mm all-round for its default turret, and its upgraded turret has 120mm at the front with 60mm on its size and rear. It can equip an engine up to 750hp, and has a speed limit of roughly 48km/h.

Again, sure you knew all that, but just recapping for those who don't wish to check.

The World of Tanks PzV

Now, why is it so much of a disappointment? Simply put, the poor PzV is at the wrong tier. The in-game example is an accurate representation of the real-life tank, but it's been slapped in the middle of a tier which puts it on the same level as tanks that were developed to outright steamroll over it (including the T29 and IS). It was used on the frontlines in the war, but in-game its role has been reduced to a specialized sniper and at times, if you're lucky, a flanker. Let's get a closer look at the equipment.

The trademark L/70 deals 135 damage with AP shells and has 150mm of penetration. Such penetration at Tier 7 is considered mediocre, and the damage? Downright laughable. Most tanks at this tier will have 1000+ HP, so you'll be working a lot to hammer them down repeatedly with this gun. It's firerate is okay, nothing spectacular though. It does retain that german-engineered accuracy, but what's the point of accuracy if you don't have penetration/damage to go with it?

So, knocking aside that inadequate gun, let's look at the L/56. This gun is higher caliber, so it deals more damage. 220 damage is a more generous amount, but it has even less penetration than the L/70, so good luck dealing that damage consistently. It also has an average reload time, horrid accuracy at long range and aim time isn't too great either (spoiler, it ain't great on any of these guns).

Finally, let's look at the "absurd" L/100. Aside from looking absolutely preposterous with its amazing length, this gun is a mounted joke of a weapon. It is classified as Tier 8 equipment, and deals the same damage as the L/70. Excuse me? Yes, this thing deals the same damage as the L/70 which had, I quote myself, "laughable" damage. The main quirk about this gun compared to the L/70 is that it has marginally higher penetration at 198mm. So with this gun, you're pretty much guaranteed to be dealing damage to most enemies you face. But...being guaranteed such damage is hard to work with. It's pretty darn accurate, yeah, so it kind of helps with the sniping role. But the main irk about this gun is that it seems like the attempt by the devs to justify the Panther being a Tier 7 tank. As far as I know, the tank never equipped such a device in reality (I'll be damned if it did).

Now, let's examine the armor. 85mm at Tier 7 is pretty darn poor. Even if it is sloped, most guns around your tier will be able to penetrate it half the time if you don't angle. But wait, most of the time you'll be facing foes that are Tier 8/9. So really, you have to pretend you're stark freaking naked in this thing, cause the armor won't save you like it did for countless Nazi soldiers during the war. Again, the tier inconsistency leaves this tank in a sore spot, since it was equipped to battle lower tier foes it usually never sees. It has guns fitted for brawling when it can't take hits and isn't really mobile enough to dodge shots either, and the guns it has for sniping are extremely lacking. Now, I am well aware that many people have probably played decently in this tank; I recall a match where I actually managed to get top gun with the 8.8cm L/56, which was a Tier 7 match. But, overall the tank is severely lacking for the tier it is in because of what it was designed for.

The Panther's Panacea

If you read my history lesson above, you'll see that the Panther was designed to counter T-34s and M4s. So you could make the argument that it belongs in Tier 7 because it would be overpowered against aforementioned tanks. But aren't we forgetting something? Yes, there is indeed a tier between 5 and 7, and it's called 6. Round of applause if you would?

Okay, enough theatrics. This is where my suggested remedy to the situation comes in. I've seen a few people talk about how the devs should move the Panther to Tier 6, but they haven't gone into much detail as to how they should do it. It's one thing to put the legendary tank in its place, but one must think about how it affects your overall picture. The main issue you'll be presented is the gap it will leave in the tech tree, and the equipment it will have. So why don't we go over what I recommend the devs to consider.

So, the idea is moving the Panther to Tier 6. First, let's address the issue about equipment. The L/100 would be way too much for this tier, but it's kind of useless in the tier above it. So what to do? Scrap it. This fictional device should be removed from existence, so we can leave the Panther with 3 guns that can serve well in a Tier 6 environment. This would leave the Schmalturm turret to serve entirely for fitting the 8.8cm. At Tier 6, the Panther will fair much better in close quarters, so equipping this turret and gun could serve to do it justice in such scenarios. Otherwise, the L/70 on the stock turret should be the preferred choice of equipment. The sloped 85mm armor will provide much more of its renowned security in this tier as well, but you will still be susceptible to damage via being flanked. In terms of raw stats, knocking down the HP to more Tier 6 Medium tank standards (around 750-850) would be ideal, since 1200 is absurd at this tier. That should about do it for the conversion in terms of equipment, since now the Panther fits neatly into Tier 6. But what about the tech tree?

This is something I have contemplated for a while, and I have developed an idea that can keep the tech tree together and functional, as well as make it less confusing for players. At the moment, we have 3 different Tier 6 Medium tanks (disregarding Premiums) in the German tech tree: The VK-3001(H), the VK-3001(P) and the VK-3601(H). All 3 tanks have distinct paths they go into (Henschel Heavies, Porsche Heavies and German Mediums). 

Now, if we move the Panther to Tier 6, we would have 4 Medium tanks at this tier which seems a bit much. It means that to justify things, we would need to remove one of the tanks. Some people may be enraged at what I'm about to say, but I strongly believe that the VK-3001(H) should be removed from the tree and replaced with the Panther. The justification behind this is:

1: The VK-3001(H) is the medium tank choice for going into the German Medium path in the higher tiers.
2: The VK-3001(H) is renowned for being a tank with an inconsistent role: It has light-tank armor and speed, but size and guns that promote brawling gameplay which it cannot do due to lack of survivability.
3: Overall, people generally only tend to get the VK-3001(H) to get the later tanks.

My personal experience with the tank wasn't great, so this change seems adequate in my mind. Perhaps moving it into a Light-oriented path would do it justice, or just removing it completely, but as it is, it is an odd tank that leads into something that should be on the same tier.

So, we have the Panther replacing the VK-3001(H). What about this void between the Panther and the Panther II? The Panther II, unlike its cousin, is actually a decent tank on its current tier and is ideal for it. So how do we address the situation of this void in the tech tree? Well, take a close look.

 What is this? This is the VK3002DB. Uh, what's the point of this being here?

Enough talking to myself. But seriously, why is this thing here? I always pondered why this random Tier 7 medium tank was put here. I pondered it till someone told it straight to me. The purpose of the VK3002DB is to act as bridge from the VK3601H to the Panther. Wait, what? A bridge to grind for the Panther by using tanks that aren't the crappy VK-3001(H)? So, basically, it's for people who don't want to use the VK-3001(H) (or just wanted to get an early start towards the Panther after already claiming their Tiger).

But with my idea.....There is no VK-3001(H)! So this bridge is unnecessary! But then....What do we do with the VK3002DB? Wait, what's this? A Tier 7 German Medium tank vacancy is available in the tech tree? Who's a lucky ol' tank! That's right, if we piece the puzzle together, the tech tree that will come out from my ideas will be something like this (excuse my poor photoshopping skills):

Now, personally, this doesn't look so bad. In fact, this looks much better than what it was like before: A heaping mess of lines and tanks. So why haven't they done this change? Well, don't ask me. I was the one who came up with this, and find it adequate to please the playerbase as it is. The only issue I can see is the devs' reluctance to remove the VK-3001(H), but such an issue is meager compared to the amount of impact this change could introduce. It would divert a lot of the laughable acclaim the German tech tree is getting at the moment, and invites people to grind through the Medium tank line of the tree more effectively, without the painful grinding of not only the VK-3001(H), but also the Panther at Tier 7. So it fixes a lot of redundancy and introduces more practicality.

So that's my in-depth analysis of the Panther and its placement in Tier 7, and my proposed plan for moving it down to Tier 6. Now I wonder what others think of this, and what other ideas, if you would, impose into this. What are your thoughts reader? Will this do justice for the Panther and the entire German tech tree, or will it not?

---

TL;DR: Remove the VK-3001(H), replace it with Panther, move VK3002DB to bridge between Panther and Panther II.