why are german tank destroyer so bad

[Stellar Fox]

just started out on the german tree. went for tank destroyers first, currently at the stuh 42 g. everything in that line of tank destroyers is absolute trash. the tank is slow at everything, moving, turning, you can barely move the turret in any direction and you have probably 30 degrees in front of you to fire. if they stop you from moving they istantly killed you, they can hit everywhere and it will incapacitate you since you can't fight back if they hit tracks/driver/transmission/engine or anywhere in the turret. and if you don't get shot first, you need 10 seconds to align a shot and you better hope it doesn't ricochet because it has a 10 second reload time. it can barely penetrate the front armor of medium tanks of its own ranks and heavy tanks are completely immune to this piece of trash. the only thing it's good at is one shotting light tanks and thats it.

[gaming]

They're not bad wtf

[Illusionyary]

The StuH is probably one of the hardest to use in the line, that being said it has immense front armour for the BR, especially once you unlock the addon armour module, and when angled is near invulnerable frontally. Don't try and snipe with it, you can't due to the poor velocity. Play it aggressively and get close to your opponents and derp them with the howitzer.

[Stellar Fox]

Originally posted by TheGamesGamer:

They're not bad wtf

tell me how to use them cuz i'm dumb as ♥♥♥♥

[Stellar Fox]

Originally posted by Illusionyary:

The StuH is probably one of the hardest to use in the line, that being said it has immense front armour for the BR, especially once you unlock the addon armour module, and when angled is near invulnerable frontally. Don't try and snipe with it, you can't due to the poor velocity. Play it aggressively and get close to your opponents and derp them with the howitzer.

yeah i saw that it has 80mm armor, which is extremely good. i always try to play it aggressively, but as i said in the post the enemy tank can always manage to pen the 80mm front armor even if i try to angle myself. i win the battle when i get the first hit, but it's the same thing for the enemy. really wish it could be used at long range though. i researched everything for the stug III A and it's a beast at sniping. you can adjust the aiming really quickly because the reload time is really short and with the heat shells you can destroy the enemy before he even sees you. i'm gonna try your advice

[ulzgoroth]

So you've discovered the basic nature of casemate SPGs, yes. They're pretty helpless when immobilized.

The other lesson you're on the edge of learning is that not all guns are alike. The StuH 42 G has a howitzer rather than a high-velocity anti-tank gun. With large caliber and low velocity, its AP shell penetration is relatively weak, though extremely powerful if it penetrates. Against targets where penetration is a problem, though, you may need to use other ammo.

The straightforward solution is HEAT rounds, which have respectable penetration values. You'll have to unlock those, though. And they may be disappointingly prone to not do sufficient behind-armor damage, or to bounce against highly sloped armor.

The less simple solution is to use the large and powerful HE rounds to hit people where they aren't protected. HE can't blast through a lot of armor, but it can breach armor at angles that would be impossible to hit directly. If you hit in the right place, the explosion can smack into the turret, explode, and blow a hole through the thinly armored hull top next to the turret. Or shoot underneath the tank and blow through its thin bottom. Explosions don't care about sloping, and HE is the least likely shell to glance off. It's been a long time since I drove one of these, so I make no guarantees about how well it will work now. The wiki recommends it, but the wiki is sometimes out of date too.

[Stellar Fox]

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

So you've discovered the basic nature of casemate SPGs, yes. They're pretty helpless when immobilized.

The other lesson you're on the edge of learning is that not all guns are alike. The StuH 42 G has a howitzer rather than a high-velocity anti-tank gun. With large caliber and low velocity, its AP shell penetration is relatively weak, though extremely powerful if it penetrates. Against targets where penetration is a problem, though, you may need to use other ammo.

The straightforward solution is HEAT rounds, which have respectable penetration values. You'll have to unlock those, though. And they may be disappointingly prone to not do sufficient behind-armor damage, or to bounce against highly sloped armor.

The less simple solution is to use the large and powerful HE rounds to hit people where they aren't protected. HE can't blast through a lot of armor, but it can breach armor at angles that would be impossible to hit directly. If you hit in the right place, the explosion can smack into the turret, explode, and blow a hole through the thinly armored hull top next to the turret. Or shoot underneath the tank and blow through its thin bottom. It's been a long time since I drove one of these, so I make no guarantees about how well it will work now. The wiki recommends it, but the wiki is sometimes out of date too.

i always use the high penetration HEAT ammo (the second one you can unlock) it works great until you get to heavy tanks that have sloped armor and then its just costant ricoches until you die. not sure if HE is good at all, i can pretty much kill everyone with the shrapnel the HEAT round creates

[ulzgoroth]

Oh, sorry...do you know which tanks are giving you trouble? There are very few heavy tanks of BR 4.0 or less, so I'd guess the KV-1 is your most likely villain. But the good HEAT shells ought to be able to defeat the upper front glacis and many parts of the turret front on that.

[Arizona Ranger]

Dude the Stuh is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ OP, I grinded to 5.7 using that with a 5/6 kill average

[Legion]

Lmao German TD's bad....make me laugh some more.....

[Scheneighnay]

StuH 42 is an assault gun, and the worst vehicle in the German tree.

The rest of them are still viable at worst. I'm finally getting through the pain of the Italian Semovente line there the only ones that are any good are the 105, and the long 75 I just recently started that's functionally an Italian Jagdpanzer IV.

[Ponto]

I smell another L2P issue.

[Scheneighnay]

Originally posted by Ponto:

I smell another L2P issue.

it is pretty trash, at least years ago when I played it last. Just they shouldn't use it as the reference for every German TD because it's an outlier in the line.

[jaxjace]

Welcome to german TDs where you dont fit the meta or the map ever and american TDs with turrets wreck you.

Stuh sucks
Stug is just a casemate panzer
hetzer is great for reasons
jp4 is ok
jp4/5 is good
jagpanther is good
ferdi is too expensive to play
jagtiger is the best
jp 4-5 is trash and should feel bad for being in the game
rktjp are meh
Flak 88 is okay
VFW is great for reasons Buy now for low low price of 20$ and it will be money well spent
Waffentrager is meh
Nashorn is meh
marder III is meh
dicker max is okay
stuer emil is okay
pakwagon with pz4 gun is worth 200$ and is that good, really.
pakwagon with short pz4 gun is also very good, not worth as much but still worth it.
baby pakwagon with anti tank rifle is fun, not good but fun.
Brumbar is niche, mostly ♥♥♥♥
Sturmpanzer is derp and niche, mostly ♥♥♥♥

[Marcus]

I guess it depends on which mode you play, and how you choose to play tank destroyer.
But if you play it a bit slow and try to avoid confrontations within 50 meters, they are actually very rewarding. Specially if you play simulator, you dont want to get so close that you have to move your tank if the enemy just move a meter or two.
You are a hunter, and tho some of them got some nasty guns, try and think like one.
Move from a to b with patience, you ain't busy.
And as the time goes by, and you get more experience on the maps. The often used routes and such.
You closely move by, youre the hunter. But you dont wanna rush to much so your prey can sniff you out, nice and silent. Take your time, so you can give it a shot to the heart.
Instead of rushing and puttin yourself in easy avoided, dumb situations :)

[Legion]

Originally posted by jaxjace:

Welcome to german TDs where you dont fit the meta or the map ever and american TDs with turrets wreck you.

Nashorn is meh
dicker max is okay
stuer emil is okay

All 3 of those will ruin whatever the hell you hit, obviously you don't play them to think they are 'meh', sure in arcade they would be pretty meh due to open tops and everything havign a 'shoot here dumb ass' maker on them but in RB they are deadly.