Tank Guide: T-62a - World of Tanks Guru

 Russia has three tier 10 medium tanks to choose from and the T-62A not only was the first but is also the one that most people use as the “standard” to compare the other two against.  The T-62A has the typical strong Russian frontal turret armor and fights like most other Russian mediums.  It has a fast firing gun that doesn’t hit very hard but does have a good amount of damage per minute that makes it very deadly when it can sustain it’s fire on a target.  The T-62A is also very mobile and has good soft stats such as camouflage and on the move accuracy.  While the T-62A does do many things well it isn’t without it’s flaws which mostly concern it’s low alpha damage and gun depression.

Armor

Armor wise the T-62A does have a decent set up for a medium tank since it’s frontal turret is very strong unless the enemy has a very accurate gun or overwhelming penetration(tier 10 tank destroyers).  The frontal turret armor has a strong mantlet and parts of it reach 240mm thick.  This makes the T-62A very tough when it is able to hide it’s hull and stick that strong turret front out.  Hull wise the T-62A’s armor is lacking since it is 102mm in the front and 75mm on the sides.  This lack of hull armor means that tier 9/10 tanks can easily penetrate you and tier 8’s have a slight possibility to bounce if you angle heavily.

The size of the T-62A also slightly adds to it’s protection in that it is more difficult to hit, but also makes the hull armor even worse since the upper frontal glacis is often shot down into(thus negating the angle).  Overall since it is a medium the armor doesn’t make or break the tank but rather opens up options for a medium driver to exploit.

Firepower

At tier 10 the T-62A brings a smaller caliber gun to the table than most tanks with the 100mm U-8TS gun.  This gun does 320 damage per shot but has a very high base rate of fire of 9.09 seconds.  The lack of damage per shot hurts the T-62A since while it does have a massive amount of damage per minute it takes time for that DPM to overtake an enemy with a higher damage per shot gun.  This is both a blessing and a curse since you are able to fire multiple shots which can make up for a bad miss and/or finish off multiple low HP tanks.  However, you face many tanks that have 500+ damage shells which means you need to get in at least 2(and sometimes 3+) hits in to do the same amount of damage to the enemy.  This can be an issue if the enemy has cover to hide behind which will cover their reload while making you waste your higher DPM.

The penetration of the 100mm U-8TS with a 264mm APCR shell and a 330mm HEAT shell is high enough that you will be able to make most of your shots do damage.  The penetration values are high enough that when you combine the great .34 accuracy you are actually able to harness the high DPM unlike some other tanks.  There is a nice bonus of having great on-the-move accuracy which is very important since you want to use your good mobility along with your accuracy to avoid being shot while dishing out damage.

Mobility

 The T-62a isn’t slow nor is it one of the fastest mediums either.  However, it’s mobility is high enough to where it isn’t a detracting factor but you will have some issues with getting to spots early enough in some instances.  Your top speed of 50 km/h is great but you will not reach that unless if you are heading down a slight slope.  Overall, your mobility is good when you are fully accelerated but the main drawback is when you are at lower speeds where you don’t accelerate as fast as you might like.

Miscellaneous Attributes

 One factor of the T-62a which hurts it on many maps is it’s -5 degrees of gun depression.  This value is low enough that you cannot effectively use most of the smaller hills and when you do crest hills, enemies will be able to hit your hull before you can shoot back at them.  The 400m view range isn’t the highest at tier 10 but when combined with the decent camouflage values it does make the T-62a a decent spotter.  If you have good camouflage skills on your crew you can actually perform a scout role very well albeit not better than a Bat Chatillion but you bring sustained firepower to the table.

Ammunition wise you can carry 50 shells which is “just enough” to allow you to carry a diversified amount of shells to choose from.  You will want to stick with mostly APCR and then have several HEAT and a few HE shells.  Equipment wise I suggest using coated optics, a gun rammer, and a vertical stabilzer if you plan on using the T-62a as a improvised scout(needs good camo skills). Personally I use a vertical stabilzer, gun rammer, and improved ventilation since I focus more on diving into flanks and squeezing the most amount of DPM as possible and keeping good accuracy while moving.  Overall, it comes to how you want to play and choosing from improved ventilation, gun rammer, coated optics, and a vertical stabilizer gives a few viable set ups.

Camouflage Values

Stationary: 15.4%

Firing While Stationary: 3.4%

Moving: 11.7%

Firing While Moving: 2.58%

Aiming Circle Spread

After Shooting: 3.356

Turret Traversing: 0.077

Turret Traversing Full Speed: 3.68

Hull Moving: 0.096

Hull Moving Full Speed: 4.79

Hull Traversing: 0.096

Hull Traversing Full Speed: 5.37

Terrain Resistance

Hard Ground: 0.479

Medium Ground: 0.575

Soft Ground: 1.342

Tactics

 Playing the T-62a your primary goal is to avoid getting into situations where you are facing high alpha tanks with nowhere to escape to.  Due to your low damage per shot(and high DPM) you are at a disadvantage when you come across tanks with 750+ damage that can kill you before your DPM can overtake their superior upfront damage.  To do this is simple since it just requires to you always stay moving and to never dive into a fight to early.  Starting the match by getting to a good spot that you can use your DPM at range and continue to move around to utilize your damage.  This allows you to help your team but also keep your health points high for later on in the match.

Once the first few minutes unfold you can afford to take a few risks since you hopefully have most of your HP and are against weakened enemies.  This is where your rapid fire gun comes in handy since you aren’t wasting damage on low HP tanks and can tear through flanks with ease.  Keep in mind that you cannot always sit back and if the team has a lot of mobile tanks that you will be needed to help take those forward positions.

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