★★★ WT auf E-100 Review: Usually Friendly Neighborhood Waffle Truck ★★★

[Scorpiany]

Yes, I'd like four large chocolate chip waffles please. No, no sugar. Strawberry syrup please. Extra blueberries on top. It will be 56 seconds? O.K. What's that? I get a 5th waffle for free? Whole meal has 560 calories without the syrup, 750 with? That's what I get for ordering so many sweets at once.

 

In this guide, I shall cover all of the various Pros and Cons of the WT auf E-100, explain the gun choices and/or performance, equipment choices, give you a general overview of its gameplay style and compare it to other Tier 10 Tank Destroyers. Let's get started, shall we?

 

***Please note that from this point on in the guide, I shall refer to the WT auf E-100 as the "waffle", or some variation of the sort; it's easier to type than "WT auf E-100".***

 

Table of Contents:

• General overview (Pros and Cons)
• Equipment, ammo and consumable layout
• Gun choices and / or performance
• Gameplay style
• Comparison to other same-class tanks of its Tier
• Overall Rating

 

General Overview:

 

Pros:

• Very good mobility considering the size and weight of the vehicle; you'll get to where you need to go
• Strong hull armor, shells that do occasionally hit the hull will typically bounce off.
• Very high damage output in a very short period of time (2,800 in 8 seconds after 5 shells with one gun; 3,000 in 9 seconds after 4 shells with the other)
• Very quick aiming times on both guns (1.5 or 1.9; depending on the gun)
• Great accuracy, 128mm is the most accurate gun in the game at .29 accuracy (other gun has .34)
• Good alpha damage per shell, 560 or 750 depending on which gun you use.
• Good gun handling combined with great aiming stats allows for very quickly selection and engagement of targets. Don't shoot on the move though, it's not quite good enough for that; you do want to actually aim the gun in.
• Very high ammo capacity, you likely won't ever find yourself running out of shells
• Decent enough hitpoint count at 2,000. It's actually pretty good for a TD, but you don't have any armor to go along with it
• Good rammer, a 101 ton tank going 40km/h with 200mm of hull armor will really bring the hurt to the enemy if you collide. Only ram out of necessity however, you want to avoid taking any kind of fire
• Has a turret. It actually turns fairly quickly for a turreted TD too, at 22 deg/sec
• Very good shell velocities (with the 128mm)
• Has a decent fear factor to it, when you're loaded

 

Neutrals:

• Survivable gun depression of 5 degrees. It's not great, but in most cases the waffle doesn't really find itself needing much more. Gun elevation is also enough at 15 degrees
• 26 deg/sec hull traverse. Since you have a turret, you're usually safe from being circled, but there are cases when you just won't be able to swing around quickly enough.
• View Range of 380m. It's not great by any means, but with Binoculars it's usually enough. The waffle isn't the kind of tank that wants to rely on view range in general, but if it has to, you still have enough to make things work
• Expensive shells, but you usually do enough damage to cover their costs.
• Decent enough reverse speed of 15km/h; it will get you out of trouble as necessary. Sometimes feels as though you need more though, simply due to the size of the tank and lack of hull traverse speed
• Penetration is good, but somewhat low for a TD, at 276/352/65 with the 128mm
• Doesn't start off as elite, as you need to actually research the 15cm (for a very expensive 68k XP). You'll be fine with the 128mm though, and most people think of the 128mm as a better gun anyways.

 

Cons:

• Huge, absolutely gigantic turret on a giant hull. A KV-2 with a damaged gun and dead gunner could hit this thing from across the map...
• The turret has no armor to speak of, the most you get is... 20mm. 20mm. Tier 1's shooting HE can pen that half of the time. Anything and everything the waffle will ever see can load HE shells and wreck the turret
• The entire turret is the gun. What this means is that any shell you take to the turret kills your gun, every single time. If you're unfortunate enough to get shot at after you've used your repair kit, you lose your entire accuracy advantage
• The gunner and loader love to die, especially if you're hit by HE
• The tank is a massive arty target, and despite the decent mobility, simply cannot avoid it. If you're on an open map and get spotted with arty aiming anywhere within the same postal code as you... may as well as say your last words.
• Horrendously long reload of 56 seconds, and that's with a 100% crew. If you lose one of your loaders, just hope you have a good form of anger relief.
• Very tall vehicle, cannot hide in any kind of bush or tree, and some low profile tanks can actually drive underneath its gun at close ranges
• Zero camo value to speak of. Legend has it that the WT auf E-100's camo value is so bad, that it hit the negative scale, and now provides a camo penalty to any vehicle within a square mile of your tank
• Appallingly one-dimensional gameplay. You sit around for 1 minute munching on a bag of chips. You then wait around for another minute waiting for something to be spotted, or for an enemy to actually shoot their gun. Then you finally can move out, dump your clip and repeat the process.
• Accuracy "advantage", as though it wasn't crippled enough with the horribly weak gun module HP and prone-to-dying gunner, is only further reduced with the fact that the gameplay of the waffle either forces you to be so far back that RNGesus will begin making at least 2 shells in each clip miss or bounce, or so close that you will be shot at = dead gun and dead gunner
• Very subpar penetration with the 15cm for a TD, at only 235/334/85
• Very team dependent vehicle. You can't really do anything yourself unless you're engaging a single lone enemy when you're reloaded. In general, you rely on your team to take hits, to spot the tanks and keep them lit, to draw vehicles out, etc. etc. There's very little you as a tank actually have to do other than shoot the gun when an optimal situation presents itself
• Can often find itself in the "To reload or not" dilemma with only 1-3 shells left in a clip after shooting a bit. If you make the wrong decision, it could be the end of you.
• Hull armor advantage is almost entirely negated with the huge turret
• If your team folds, unless your clip of damage is enough to turn things around, you can essentially accept not being able to carry. The tank wins by doing large amounts of damage every now and then throughout the battle, but it can't actually carry by any means
• Actually is prone to being circled by some vehicles. If the enemy knows what they're doing, they could actually keep your gun permanently destroyed and leave you entirely helpless
• Very poor shell velocity on the 15cm
• To the enemy, you're like free money as soon as you go for a reload; and everyone who was once trembling in fear of you, is now poking fun at you with a stick, and the stick is laughing at you in unison.

 

 

Equipment:

 

Personally, I mount Super Heavy Spall Liner, Camo Net & Binoculars on the Waffle. Most of the equipment on this tank other than the Binoculars are really pointless though, it can't really mount anything that will help it.

 

Recommended:

 

Super Heavy Spall Liner: Anything and everything, their dogs, plants and houseflies will shoot HE at you. Then, the shell casings will also come to life and begin throwing more HE at you. Arty loves seeing your tank, as you're just an easy pool of 2k damage if they're even remotely unsatisfied with their order of waffles. Occasionally, the Super Heavy Spall Liner will somewhat, vaguely remotely protect you from some splash from a close call arty shell. The primary reason for using the Super Heavy Spall Liner is to protect your Gunner and Loader (especially the Gunner, who appears to really just be a bunch of sticks held together with a few marshmallows). They'll still die every other shell, but it's better than every shell, right?

 

Camo Net: Because why not, really. It will provide you with somewhat of a camo bonus, but most of the time you'll still be spotted. Only towards the very verge of the 445m mark will it sometimes help keep you hidden.

 

Binoculars: The Binoculars are the only piece of consistently useful equipment on the Waffle. 380m View Range isn't great, but when you use Binoculars, you'll reach 475m, which is actually a fairly good number. Other TD's don't usually mount Binocs, so you will keep up with them most of the time or surpass them, but that's at the cost of having no camo value and no other useful equipment...

 

Optional:

 

Anything: Toolbox, Optics, GLD, or whatever else you want to mount if you find the above layout useless, do whatever. Honestly, none of the other equipment is of much use.

 

Nothing: The mystical piece of equipment available to only the Waffle Truck. It provides you with a 0% camo bonus, 0% reload bonus and even a 0% usefulness bonus! Incredible! Seriously, the equipment on the waffle is... more often than not useless.

 

 

Ammo:

 

My ammo layout on the Waffle is 35 AP, 25 APCR. (With the 128mm)

 

The penetration on the gun is good at 276mm with AP, but it is lacking behind other TD's. However, you do have 2,800 damage in a clip, which is an advantage. Load as much or little APCR as you want to, it really doesn't matter all that much. I would still keep a clip or two around though, in case you need to fight E-100's, Maus's, etc. who know what they're doing, as they may still give you some trouble.

 

If you're fighting at close range, so long as your gun and gunner are still functional, then you can more than easily hit weakpoints. In most other cases, you're either sniping or regret going down the waffle line because your marshmallow gunner just jammed the firing mechanism, rendering the accuracy far less useful than you'd hope it to be.

 

 

Consumables:

 

For Consumables on the Waffle, I (would) use a Small Repair Kit, Large Repair Kit and Large First Aid Kit. I say "would" simply because I don't have the Credits to run that comp, so I'm just running the standard Small med / repair kit with an Auto Extinguisher

 

Small Repair Kit: Your gun has less armor than an LolTraktor, and less HP than one. You need a repair kit to put it into action as soon as possible once it goes out.

 

Large Repair Kit: What's that? You repaired your gun? Don't worry, my MS-1 will put a single shell into your turret and knock it out yet again. You definitely want two repair kits if you want to be useful during the entirety of the battle (especially in situations where you can't CHAI snipe beyond 445m, but actually have to risk getting spotted and shot at, which is never fun).

 

Large Med Kit: With mashed potato Gunner and allergic-to-HE loader, that 20% boost to crew survivability will be rather nice, especially when combined with a Super Heavy Spall Liner. They'll still die very often, but at least not every single time someone on Earth takes a breath of fresh air.

 

Don't show your rear and you won't be set on fire, it's (usually) as simple as that. Food won't really help you, as the gun is already incredibly accurate (until it dies), the tank won't benefit from any extra mobility that food could provide, and the reload speed increase will be just pointless, as you'll still be sitting around for an entire minute either way.

 

Guns:

 

The waffle has two guns; a 128mm and a 15cm. One is better for sniping, one is better for closer ranged mini-nuke launching. 128mm can go without Premium rounds, 15cm often times needs them.

 

Essentially, do you want an autoloading Tier 9 waffle at Tier 10, or do you want a paper yet auto-loading version of the E-100? A comparison of the two guns is below. The 128mm is on the left, the 15cm is on the right. The blue value is the superior one, a green number is essentially tied (within a small margin). Values are with a 100% crew, so they may be slightly better than the "stock" values you see in the Garage.

 

Rate of Fire:         4.72                          (4.21)   
Aiming time:        1.44                          (1.82)
Accuracy:             .28                            (.33)
DPM:                   2,640.83                   (3,160.93)
Penetration:         276/352/65             (235/334/85)
Damage:              560/560/700          (750/750/950)     

Shell Velocity:      1,200/1,500/1,200  (757/606/757)

Soft Stats:           .2/.2/.25                  (.2/.2/.14)    
Ammo capacity:   60                             (60)

 

 

One is a higher alpha, higher DPM gun for closer ranged engagements, the other is high shell velocity, high pen gun for sniping roles. Depending on how you play the waffle, pick the gun of your choice.

 

12,8 cm Kanone L/61:

 

The 12,8 cm Kanone L/61 is the name of the "stock" gun on the Waffle. It's primarily meant for sniping, as it lacks DPM, but boasts exceptional accuracy, aiming time and especially shell velocity. It's truly a sniping gun. If you take it to a closer range engagement, so long as you can safely dump the clip, you should be fine, but it doesn't pack as much alpha and over a span of time simply won't be as effective as the 15cm.

 

As a whole however, I would have to say that the 128mm is a superior gun over the 15cm, as it brings some kind of flexibility; as you can now actually snipe, whereas the 15cm simply doesn't enjoy doing that very much.

 

15 cm Pak L/38:

 

The 15 cm Pak L/38 is the "upgraded" gun on the Waffle. It's definitely meant for more brawling and / or peek-a-boom engagements. It lacks penetration and shell velocity, but it certainly packs a punch. Do expect to use quite a few Premium rounds with it however.

 

What it brings to the table over the 128mm is really the DPM and alpha, which gives it more gun flexibility to some extent. Ultimately however, it lacks tank flexibility, as that shell velocity and pen very highly limits it from a sniping role. The higher alpha is nice, but compared to 560, it really depends on the situation. Sometimes that 750 is just what you needed to get the kill, whereas the 128mm may have to waste two shells on the same target. Alternatively, 560 may be just enough, and you end up spending one out of your only 4 shells in the clip on something with low HP. Double edged sword in that behalf.

 

You'll be more than fine using the 128mm, and it does give the tank some more flexibility, which is nice considering how inflexible the vehicle is as a whole. If you do want to use the 15cm, prepare yourself for a 68,000 XP and 340,000 Credit grind.

 

 

How to play it:

 

Earlier on in the "Pros and Cons" section, I mentioned that one of the Cons is the Waffle's extremely poor flexibility, lack of carry potential and one-dimensional gameplay. Let me clarify on what I mean by that.

 

When playing the waffle, you want to avoid being spotted, avoid arty, avoid any kind of gun, avoid being left alone or away from allies, avoid being forced to spot for yourself, avoid having to try to scramble for cover, etc. There's actually very little you can do other than shoot. The tank is the gun. What you really want to do when playing the Waffle is avoid taking any kind of fire, and dishing out an entire clip of hurt onto your enemy whenever possible, preferably once every 56 seconds.

 

Because the only thing that the waffle brings to the table is the gun however, you lack any kind of actual carry potential. Sure, that 2,800 or 3,000 damage in a single clip may sometimes be devastating and even flank-changing, but you have to realize that's the only thing the waffle can do. In addition, that's if it gets to do so. If the Gun or Gunner are out of action, if you're reloading, if your Loader is dead, if allies aren't spotting for you, etc.; if anything goes wrong, you're actually rather useless.

 

In end-game situations, especially "solo-carrying", unless the enemy has less HP and tanks than you have clip damage and shells, there's no realistic way for you to actually win unless the enemy does something monumentally moronic. Most of the time, you'll be spotted far before you spot anything yourself, and you'll immediately be entirely shot up. Even if you do escape, you likely won't be able to out-spot the enemy, you'll certainly be spotted once you fire, and you're likely to have lost your Gun, Gunner and perhaps even Loader. The only realistic way in which you can carry is if the enemy is very isolated, and you're able to clip one small group of enemies, cross the entirety of the map without the enemies capping, and then find another small isolated group of enemies. It would have to be a city map however, the chances of you being able to do something on an open map is actually very slim, simply because you are more than likely to be spotted and shot at from anywhere and everywhere.

 

The tank as a whole is actually rather frustrating to play. More often than not, you feel beyond useless. Sure, it's fun during the 10 seconds that you're actually shooting the gun... but most of the time, there's little for you to do; and during those extended periods of time when you're not actually able to accomplish anything, you're doing your team no good; and they're usually short a tank. You can technically make up for this by putting in a massive clip worth of damage once you're finally reloaded, but if you fail to do so, your team is going to have a very bad day. At the end of the day, the tank lacks flexibility and lacks carry potential.

Comparison to same-Tier Tank Destroyers:

Mobility: Good. The tank is actually decently mobile, especially considering it's a 100 ton behemoth. You'll be able to relocate as necessary, so long as you're not shot up before you can do so. The lack of turret armor justifies the mobility, but even then, other TD's at this Tier which are faster still have more armor than you.
Alpha damage: Bad. If you're using the 128mm, 560 alpha is the second-lowest alpha damage out of all of the Tier 10 TD's. Even with the 15cm, your alpha damage is only "average" at 750. The waffle does somewhat make up for this with the fact that you have an autoloader, but if you're engaging a (properly) side-scraping heavy tank (who knows what they're doing), they're much more likely to peek against your 560 damage to put in an HE shell into you which usually will do similar or greater damage, than they would against any other TD at Tier 10.
Armor: Worst in class. Armor? What's that? Sure, you have that hull... but no one actually shoots at the hull, considering they have an E-100 sized turret with 20/10/8 mm of armor to shoot at. There are Tier 1's with more armor than you.

HP: Good. 2,000 HP is a very healthy amount, and is more than a handful of other TD's. The downside to your HP pool however, is that you have no armor or camo; meaning when you're being shot at, you'll take far more punishment than any other TD at this Tier (even compared to the FV4005, as its Gun / Gunner / Loader don't die every shot it takes)
Penetration: Worst in class. 276/352/65 penetration with the 128mm isn't bad, but it is statistically the worst out of any Tier 10 TD. When it comes to the 15cm, you're even worse off.
View Range: Very Bad. 380m of View Range is one of the worst values out of all of the Tier 10 TD's. Only the Obj. 268 has less at 370m. The Foch 155 ties you at 380m. Everything else has 400. You are one of the only TD's which will consistently mount Binocs, but that comes at the cost of having no other useful equipment, and also at the cost of any kind of armor or camo; ultimately making that a downside regardless.

Camo Value: Worst in class. Or second worst in game. Whatever you'd like to call it. The Type 5 Heavy is the only tank in the game with worse camo than you. Welcome to hell, comrades.
Accuracy: Best in class. .29 accuracy is statistically the best value in the game. However, when it comes to practical effectiveness on the Waffle, it's not so. The Gun and Gunner die far too often for it always be useful, and the typical necessity of extremely long-ranged sniping only further reduces the effectiveness of the .29 accuracy. As for the 15cm, the accuracy is still decent at .34, but the poor shell velocity and penetration will be a pain in the rear.
Aiming Speed: Best in class. 1.5 second aiming time is incredible, and one of the best in the game (not the instant-aim of the Pz. S35, but close enough). Even with the 15cm, 1.9 second aiming time will get the gun on target very quickly indeed. You won't find yourself having many issues aiming at all (until the Gun or Gunner die).

Shell Velocity: Depends. With the 128mm, it's one of the best in class. With the 15cm, it's the worst in class. Simple as that. 128mm can snipe at moving targets easily, 15cm can't hit a wounded slug at 5 feet if it's moving.
Battle effectiveness: Very situational. During the 10 seconds when you get to shoot the gun, it (usually) can make a great impact. As soon as you go for a reload however, you're as useless as a tank could be to your team. So useless that an AFK E-100 would be more useful, as it can still bounce shells and get spotted, whereas you'd be hiding in a corner with no potential for any kind of influence. You can't even spot unless you have an entire forest concealing you, as you have such poor camo. Throughout the battle, if you're able to put in fairly full clips worth of damage fairly often, you can actually make a huge impact simply because of the amount of raw damage you dish out. However, whenever you're reloading, or if your clips are somewhat failing you, if the situation isn't right for you to shoot the enemy, or if you have to get shot in return, then you lose almost (if not all) effectiveness.

 

Overall Rating:

 

5.5/10 (O.K., leaning towards bad)

 

Most people say the tank is ridiculously OP or broken, but that's only true during the few seconds you get to shoot. The tank has downside upon downside, has zero flexibility, and only has any sort of carry potential if the enemy team has no idea what they're doing, and your team is doing enough to let you actually put the gun to work. Otherwise, the tank leaves so much to be desired.

 

The incredible accuracy and gun handling is very often mitigated by losing the Gun, Gunner and Loader every other shot you take, and not taking fire is also typically hard as you're a huge target with no camo and sub-par view range. The tank can dish out a lot of damage with a fully functional gun, but that's only once every minute at the very best. You leave a huge, but very temporary impact when you fire the gun. During the reload however, the impact you created begins to become mitigated with your idleness, until nothing really special has been done, at which point you're finally ready for another go of shooting.

 

It's a very situational vehicle. Only under perfect circumstances is it truly "OP". When it comes to damage output, yes it disproportionately is capable of dishing out unusually large numbers of damage by the end of the battle than a handful of other vehicles. However, unlike almost every other tank in the game, damage is really the only thing the Waffle can do. It's very one-dimensional, situational & team-dependent. It lacks carry potential in any sort of end-game situation.

 

Ultimately, the tank is broken, but not in the typical "It's a god tank" that far too many people think of it as. In fact, it's broken in the sense that it can essentially one-clip a Tier 10 in a matter of seconds, and then do absolutely nothing for at least one minute, but more often than not longer than that. The tank has absolutely nothing to realistically offer to the user other than that clip potential. Also however, many times you won't be able to one-clip a Tier 10, and you'll be put into far less than ideal circumstances. How many times have there been waffles on the enemy team? How many times have you been clipped by them? There are Waffles in battle all the time, but very rarely are they actually a huge issue to the player. Only in perfectly ideal circumstances for the waffle is it a huge threat, and even then, it's only temporarily so.

 

It's broken, inconsistent, lacks dynamic, lacks carry potential and is extremely team-dependent. It is also extremely unforgiving as a tank, both to the user and the receiver. All of these reasons mean that it's actually not a very good choice of a TD. In any kind of competitive environment, I simply would not ever want to risk bringing a Waffle, as it is so inconsistent and would be more than likely to simply shrivel up and die. Other TD's are better choices as a whole, as they can provide a far more dynamic and continuous impact to the battlefield than the Waffle could ever dream of. The autoloader is the only thing keeping the rating at 5.5. Other than that, it's truly a terrible vehicle. Hopefully the replacement to it will be more dynamic; not useless 90% of the time, and not ridiculously OP as can be the other 10% of the time; but rather a dynamic, consistent and independent vehicle.

 

Thanks for reading! I hope this guide was helpful! I genuinely wish all of you the very best of luck and fun, both in real life and on the battlefield.

 

(Waffle Truck is offering a sale on a Waffle Breakfast Buffet!)