The IS-3 is a tank capable of many things.
It’s durable, powerful, and beautiful.
It’s a pleasant stop on the way to the IS-7.
Many who have reached Tier X come back to the IS-3 and consider it their main tank.
It can meet any challenge that World of Tanks gameplay can offer.
It can bounce shots, maneuver boldly, and deliver powerful hits of its own.
The IS-3 does it all.
So if you play this tank, you’ll never lose, right?
No, it can’t win by itself.
To get the most out of the IS-3, you have to truly master it.
The first limitation you’ll notice is the view range.
It’s only 350 meters.
For Tier VIII, that’s considered legally blind.
German, American, French, Chinese, British…
and Japanese vehicles can shoot at the IS-3 and get away with it!
But that doesn’t mean that you should mount Coated Optics.
Learn to fight a different way.
If you’re brawling, who cares about view range?
And the IS-3 can close in on its target rapidly.
It’s got 14 horsepower per ton and a maximum speed of 38 km/h.
The IS-3 accelerates so fast that even some medium tanks start looking around nervously.
And some will even end up eating dust behind its tracks.
Of course, it can’t fly like a French heavy tank.
But this isn’t a racing game.
When the French tank speeds off, it’s usually to look for a covered spot it can shoot from
without getting its thin armor dirty.
Shade and sea view are highly preferable.
When the IS-3 drives, it’s heading right into the thick of the action.
And it likes to get dirty!
This tank has decent speed, and it needs it—to carry its gun as close to the enemy as possible.
The IS-3 has trouble fighting from distance, and not just because of its low view range.
You can blame it on Soviet tradition: the IS-3 has an aiming circle as big as the Russian soul.
It gets even wider when you accelerate.
And the IS-3’s aim time is so long that the AMX 50 100 can shoot twice
while that reticle is shrinking.
Accuracy is below average amongst Tier VIII heavy tanks.
But all this isn’t as bad as it sounds.
First, the Enhanced Laying Drive, Gun Rammer, and Vertical Stabilizer
compensate for the drawbacks a bit.
Secondly, you forget about these problems in close-quarters combat.
And there are compensations: great armor penetration and alpha damage.
The IS-3’s top gun can penetrate 225 mm of armor with an AP shell.
The strongest Tier VIII heavies start wiggling their hulls and turrets in fear when they see those numbers.
Even Tier X vehicles better be careful in front of the IS-3.
Its APCR shells can penetrate 265 mm of armor.
This means it can penetrate the E100’s front, the T57 Heavy’s front, the FV215b’s front, the 113’s front.
Who’s next?
In theory, you can cause almost 500 damage per shot.
This doesn’t depend on you, of course,
but you’ll almost always knock 400 hit points off the target.
And if the target has paper-thin armor,
the IS-3’s HE shell can absolutely knock the stuffing out of it.
A salvo from three IS-3 guns can cause almost 2000 damage.
This is what happens to those who let the “blind” IS-3 get close.
The IS-3 is most at home in an urban environment.
It feels safe in these confined spaces.
Remember that, in addition to the gun of mass destruction,
the tank also has some serious weak spots in its armor.
When facehugging or fighting through windows, when only the turret can be seen,
enemies will aim at the turret roof if possible.
The top armor is very thin.
Even the complex shape won’t save it.
If the shell caliber is three times higher than the armor thickness,
there can be no ricochet, no matter the angle.
But that spot isn’t easy to hit.
It’s much more common to take a shell in the pike nose.
The shape looks so intricate that you may think the armor is always sloped in any hull position.
In reality, if you roll around a corner with your nose first, you are very vulnerable.
There’s the other way of soaking up damage in the IS-3: sidescraping.
The sides hide the titanium belts and the portable black hole generators.
Enemy shells vanish!
There are several “strongest things” in Tier VIII:
the layered front of the SuperPershing, the T32’s gun mantlet, and the IS-3’s sides.
And the ISU-152 is the Destroyer of the strongest Tier VIII things.
Let’s see who wins.
The American tanks hang in quite well.
They are protected not only by their armor, but also by luck.
Eventually, the shell will find a soft spot.
The IS-3 hasn’t been penetrated so far either.
Let’s speed up the process.
The IS-3’s side appears to be stronger than we expected.
That’s OK, we’ll wait.
It’s time to use the most powerful thing in the game.
And now the icing on the cake.
Although the IS-3 can’t be penetrated in that kind of hull position, it can’t respond.
This move is called “reverse sidescraping.”
The front-mounted turret becomes an advantage.
While the enemy blasts away ineffectively, you can coolly take aim.
This way the IS-3 becomes both a shield and a sword.
It strikes its enemy without taking damage.
The IS-3 is effective on any map.
It has speed, armor, and high damage, and everything works together.
Some call it the most versatile tank in the game.
And that’s why it’s so popular in Random Battles, in eSports, and on the Global Map.
The IS-3: truly irreplaceable!