Forest Witch

Forest Witch is the 6th tank of WoT Blitz’s “stereotype Halloween character” tanks. Its visual design and name imply that its a witch-themed tank.
This tank has a strong frontal armour profile, good mobility, and 4 shell auto-reloader gun that has 240 alpha. This tank also features 2 special mechanics.

Click the table of contents below to access the section you want:

Armour

(The Forest Witch in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider right -> to view 180mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 220mm APCR

Armour on flat ground:
Upper plate 200-300mm (600mm at very top part)
Mid bar 120-135mm
Lower plate 180mm auto-ricochet (but overmatchable to guns that are 138.1mm or larger)
Turret front 220-250mm (top part 325mm)
Turret cheeks 200-260mm

Broken gun mount 240-285mm
Main gun mount 175-215mm
Cupola 160-260mm

Drag slider right -> to view 203mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 237mm APCR

This penetration level is one of the higher penetration levels you face in tier 7, as most MT & HT have between 145-185mm of standard penetration, or 195-225mm on premium penetration.

Side armour:
The Forest Witch’s sides are flat and 96mm thick. There is a bulge on each side for the turret ring, and this is always a weakpoint when sidescraping, as its rounded.

Other than this weakpoint, the sides are overall strong.

HE protection:
No large area of the tank is weaker than 72mm in effective thickness, meaning other than 150mm+ guns (or HESH/HEP shells), nothing can penetrate the tank with HE.

The hull rear, turret rear, and turret sides are vulnerable to 150mm+ HE, as they are all between 72-88mm thick.

Armour vs tier 6 tanks:
The frontal armour of the Forest witch is essentially impervious against tier 6 tanks.

The only area which a tier 6 tank can penetrate using standard ammo is the very narrow armoured bar above the lower plate.

Using premium ammo, most enemies will be able to penetrate the turret cheek weakpoints, or the main gun weakpoint.

Armour vs tier 7 tanks:
Tier 7 mediums/lights will face the same problems as tier 6 tanks, due to their lower penetration level than heavies (145-160mm on standard ammo).
These tanks will be unable to penetrate all areas of the tank other than that narrow mid bar on the hull front.

Tier 7 heavies and TDs will be able to penetrate the turret cheek weakpoints with standard ammo, and higher penetration level (185mm+ on AP) tanks can penetrate through the main gun weakpoint.

When using premium ammo, all tier 7 tanks can penetrate the turret cheek weakpoint, and the main gun weakpoint.

Most heavy tanks (which have 220-235mm penetration) will be able to penetrate the lower turret front, and the lower part of the upper plate using premium ammo.
Very high penetration tanks (with 240mm+ premium penetration) will be able to penetrate a larger area of the turret front and the hull upper plate.

Armour vs tier 8 tanks:
Against tier 8 standard ammo, the armour of the tank is still very strong, but enemies can penetrate the main gun weakpoint or the turret cheeks.

To penetrate the turret front or hull front, enemies would need to use premium ammunition. Most tier 8 tanks have 240mm-270mm of premium penetration, so won’t struggle at all to penetrate the Forest Witch if using premium ammo.

(Some tanks with high standard penetration won’t need to use premium ammo, such as Emil 1951, T34, AMX 50 100, or tank destroyers)

Playing against a Forest Witch

Shoot the main gun:
This is one of the main armour weakpoints which most players don’t expect, as the gun area is usually strong and armoured.

The main gun is 0mm of module armour, meaning you can hit it, and still penetrate the armour behind it. You will also sometimes damage the gun in the process (making the enemy less accurate). The gun mount itself is just around 180mm of armour, so most tanks will be able to penetrate, if not with standard ammo then with premium.

Don’t shoot the broken gun:
The broken gun’s mount is just much stronger than the main gun, and is not a weakpoint, its actually stronger than most of the turret face.

Don’t shoot the cupola:
The cupola is small, so its easy to miss, but its also well armoured. The very top part is over 300mm thick, the very bottom part is around 235mm thick, and the middle section (the largest area), has reinforced view ports, which are between 245 and 360mm thick.

Only a very small part of the cupola is penetrable, and you have to thread a needle (or just get lucky) to hit it.

Shoot the turret cheeks:
As shown with the above images, the very edge of each side of the turret is weak. These are the largest and most reliable weakpoints to go for on this tank. Most tanks in tier 6-8 can penetrate them using at least one of their ammo types, and its very hard for the Forest Witch to hide these weakpoints.

Use HEAT ammo:
If you have HEAT, and can’t be bothered to aim at the tank’s weird weakpoints, shoot the lower plate. Since the lower plate is an auto-ricochet, it means that all AP and APCR ammo types will bounce off (except from 138.1mm or larger guns, which can overmatch).

HEAT won’t bounce (as long as it has enough penetration), as it doesn’t ricochet. You need over 180mm of penetration on HEAT ammo to go through the Forest Witch’s lower plate, which most tanks with HEAT in tier 7-8 will have.

Gun

The Forest Witch mounts a 85mm “regular” auto-reloader gun.

The more shells you shoot, the longer the reload of each shell gets. It also has a “reserve shell“, the last shell you shoot out from the magazine has an extremely long reload.

All auto-reloaders have 3 firing modes (you won’t notice in battle, but it helps to understand the gun better).

Single shot mode:
(Where you shoot one shell, reload, shoot…)
-The best DPM in “single shot mode” is on shell 1*
-Shell 1* has an 8.04s reload, giving the tank 1791 DPM in this mode.

Autoloader mode:
(Where you just unload 3 shells then reload back to full, DON’T shoot the 4th shell)
-Full reload time from having only 1 (reserve) shell in the clip, to having all 4 shells back in the magazine takes 22.53s

-Intra clip is 2.61s with 3 x 240, giving the tank 1556 DPM in this mode.
(If it shoots like an autoloader would, as in: fires 3 shells, reloads fully, then fires 3 shells, etc)

Auto-reloader mode:
(A combination of the first two. Only shooting until you need, and then reloading one-by-one.)
-Reload time for each shell is:
Shell 4* – 18.11s
Shell 3* – 8.16s (+ 2.61s) = 10.77s
Shell 2* – 6.34s (+ 2.61s) = 8.95s
Shell 1* – 5.43s (+ 2.61s) = 8.04s

Gun stats:
-Alpha damage is 240 on AP, 210 on APCR, and 320 on HE
-Intra-clip reload is 2.61s, the Forest Witch has 3 “shootable” shells, so in 5.22s it can deal 720 damage. Don’t fire the 4th shell, its a reserve shell.
-Penetration on AP is 178mm, APCR is 240mm, and HE is 45mm.
–Estimated aim time is 3.8/4.2s
–Base aim time is 2.45s, but it can get down to 2.00s.
-Dispersion is 0.344/0.310
–Gun handling is 0.18/0.18/0.14, or 0.15/0.15/0.12 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -6 degrees

*Shell 1 is the first shell you shoot when the magazine is fully loaded. Its the last shell that gets loaded into the magazine. Shell 4 is the reserve shell.

Overall this is a good gun. Its worst stats are the DPM and reloading rate of the shells, with very low DPM even on the shell with the best DPM, and a very slow reload rate for the alpha damage.

Other than this, the penetration is high, alpha damage is decent, gun handling is good, accuracy is good, aim time is decent. The gun is able to hit and penetrate its shots quite reliably, it just does it slowly.

After-shot-bloom is a decent 4.000, and with the good handling and accuracy, the Forest Witch can actually burst out its shots fairly accurately in quick succession.

Mobility

-Top speed is 36km/h, reverse is -15km/h
-Traverse speed is 38.7 deg/s on hard terrain, and 25.8 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 14.6 hp/t, it has a decent 725 horsepower engine for its 50 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 14.6 hp/t on hard terrain, and 9.7 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Ground resistances are 1/1.5/2

Mobility of this tank is hit-and-miss. It has good top speed and reverse speed, and great mobility on hard terrain, however on medium terrain it both accelerates slowly and turns extremely slowly. This happens due to the large difference in terrain resistance (1 to 1.5), causing the tank to perform much worse when off road.

This means that in gameplay, it is essential to try use roads and hard ground whenever possible, as it greatly boosts the mobility of the tank.

Special Mechanics

The Forest Witch has 2 special mechanics:

–Emergency track, which lets the tank reverse at -4km/h, even when the track is broken.

–Reserve shell, not really a mechanic, but it affects how you use the gun and play the tank, as the 4th shell (or the 1st one when you start reloading) has an extremely long reload.

Emergency track is slightly useful, as it allows you to slowly pull into cover without using a repair kit. Note that this is a very slow reverse speed, and if the enemy tank is an autoloader, then its still probably worth using a repair kit to reverse at higher speeds.

Reserve shell just isn’t useful. In some situations it may help you to kill a tank, or get extra damage at the end of a battle, but this extra shell is not a big advantage over other tanks which don’t have this mechanic.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

Forest Witch has no special provisions or consumables.

Gun Rammer/Calibrated Shells:
Both equipment choices are viable on this tank. You can use vents without penalty, as the tank already has great penetration (especially on premium ammo); and calibrated shells are also a good option, as you hardly lose any DPM or accuracy for it, and gain a good amount of penetration.

Use vents if you feel that the tank really needs a small boost to its general stats. Vents will improve hull & turret traverse speed, view range, gun dispersion, aim time, and reload time of each shell.

Use calibrated shells if you want to sacrifice these small stat boosts in exchange for better penetration. Calibrated shells would improve AP from 178mm to 187mm, APCR from 240mm to 252mm, and HE from 45mm to 50mm.

Improved Assembly:
Due to having weak turret cheeks (the outer edges), and an overall very strong armour profile on other areas, the Forest Witch doesn’t benefit much from enhanced armour.

The turret cheek weakpoints don’t gain enough armour to be worth enhancing, as even when using enhanced armour, most same tier tanks can still easily penetrate these with standard ammo.

Its better to increase the HP from 1600 to 1696 by using improved assembly. This improved HP will allow you to survive longer in battle, take more hits, and trade damage better. With how low DPM this tank is, having higher HP is essential to be able to survive longer to deal more damage.

Vertical Stabilizer:
The Forest Witch is very much a frontline tank. It should never be sat at the back, not moving and just sniping. It plays actively, constantly moving and brawling on the frontline. Due to this, its better to take vertical stabilizer, not refined gun.

Vertical stabilizer improves the tank’s gun consistency when its moving, making it quicker to aim in when it stops, and retaining more of the tank’s accuracy when it starts to move again.

Stabilizer also reduces your after-shot-bloom, which is very helpful when you do decide to unload multiple shots in this tank, as it means you can keep more accurate when unloading. With the stabilizer, this bloom is reduced from 4.000 down to 3.400, and with the “soft recoil” crew skill, it be reduced even further to 3.120.

Gameplay advice

Forest Witch is well armoured and has decent mobility. In terms of armour use, positioning, pushing/retreating/defending, the tank plays similarly to other heavy tanks.

Where its gameplay differs drastically, is with how it uses its gun. Its ultra low DPM, with fairly low alpha, and its not always best to use multiple shots, even though the tank has an auto-reloading magazine.

General gameplay:
Like with other heavy tanks, the Forest Witch should be played on the heavy tank flank, it needs to use sidescraping, hulldown, and city environments to hide its large size and use armour effectively.

Against fast tanks, the Forest Witch will easily get taken down. It turns far too slowly (on medium terrain) to angle its armour, its side profile is large, and its DPM is far too low to brawl effectively with medium/light tanks.
(Note that tier 7 is a high-DPM tier. A very large amount of medium and light tanks have between 2600-2900 DPM, and even the lowest DPM MT/LT have around 2100 DPM, still much higher than the Forest Witch’s 1791).

Try to always keep hard cover close by, so that you can avoid being circled by tanks, and are able to hide your tank against hidden enemies (such as TDs).

Also try to always drive on hard terrain. These are roads, paths, concrete/paved areas, and town environments. This terrain type gives the Forest Witch very good mobility compared to medium terrain, where the tank is just very slow (the traverse speed is extremely noticeable).

Note how to use the auto-reloader gun:

Hold shots:
Despite the icons showing 4 shells on your screen, only shoot 1 shot, then fully reload. Play the tank like it has no autoloader.

Why do this?
Only shooting 1 shot, then fully reloading, gives your tank the best possible DPM, with is an 8s reload with 1791 DPM.

This means that you keep a decent level of reload and DPM, as if you shoot more than 1 shell, your DPM will just get lower and lower, and the time to reload will keep getting longer.

Only shooting 1 shot also gives you flexibility. If a situation arises where you are forced to “clip-out” an enemy by using multiple shots, your magazine will already be full, and you won’t have to wait to reload, and may even save yourself time by not using all shells in the magazine.

When to shoot 2 shots:
Shooting 2 shots is actually a very optimal way to play the tank.

Shooting 2 shots does lower your DPM even further, however, it lets you trade well, and play like a 2-shot autoloader.

As a 2 shot tank, you can deal 480 alpha damage (2×240) in 2.61s, and then fully reload in 14.4s.

480 damage is a good amount, in tier 6-8, only a few tanks have higher single-shot alpha damage, and only a few autoloaders have quicker/higher burst for 2 shots. Also note that if you are trading damage like this, there’s a pretty good chance of enemies bouncing off your armour as well.

2.61s is a fairly quick intra-clip, many other tanks will either have less alpha or a longer intra-clip; and similarly, a 14.4s reload is decent. This 14.4s is not a quick reload, especially only for a burst of 480 damage, but its not so long to the point where you’re very inflexible in battle.

If you do use the gun like a 2 shot autoloader, its DPM would be 1695, its 96 DPM less than if you play like a single-shot tank, but you can trade more effectively.

When to use the reserve shell:
Using the reserve shell would cripple your DPM to 1255 (as autoloader, where you shoot 4 shots), or 795 (as cyclic gun, where you shoot 1 then reload and shoot again).

As it just ruins your DPM, and makes you basically incapable of fighting enemy tanks, only use it in very rare situations:

-You need it to kill an enemy, and if you don’t kill this enemy, it could cause your team to lose the game.
-You know the enemy you are fighting is about to reload and has enough alpha/penetration to kill you, and killing the enemy by using the reserve shell would save you.
-The battle is ending, and you don’t think you’ll be able to get in more damage anyway.
-Securing a kill in a close Supremacy game to reduce enemy cap points and stop them from winning.
-If you are in an isolated 1v1. Its just you and 1 other enemy, there’s no one to help you, and the other enemies aren’t close enough to attack you. In 7.83s, if you burst the full magazine, you can deal 960 damage, which is a big advantage to have in a 1v1 situation; but you then need around 38s to fully reload.

The reserve shell should not be used in any other situation than these, as it just cripples your tank and causes you to be defenseless against enemies.

Useful auto-reloader times (and DPMs) to note:
1 shot reload (only when magazine is full):
-8.0 seconds
-1791 DPM
-240 alpha

“Autoloader” magazine reload for 2 shots:
-14.4 seconds
-1695 DPM
-480 alpha burst

“Autoloader” magazine reload for 3 shots:
-22.5 seconds
-1556 DPM
-720 alpha burst

Full reload of magazine from empty:
-38.0 seconds
-1255 DPM
-960 alpha burst

The Forest Witch plays like other heavy tanks when using positioning, driving, armour, or gameplay. Its very important to note how to use the gun, your reload times, and your burst damage numbers, as these will greatly affect how effective you can be in the tank.

Overall

Armour – 7.5/10
Gun – 6.5/10
Mobility – 4/10
Speed – 5.5/10

The Forest Witch is overall a great tank.

Armour is good. The upper plate, lower plate, & turret face are all strong. Multiple weakpoints on turret/hull. Good HE protection, can be angled, sidescrapes decently.
Gun is good, with good handling, accuracy, aim time, penetration, and decent alpha. DPM in every way is very low, gun depression isn’t great with -6.
Mobility is decent. Engine fairly strong, and acceleration & traverse are fast on hard terrain, but very slow on medium terrain. Reverse speed is average, turret turns fairly slowly.
Speed is just above average with 36km/h.

The Forest Witch is a tank that’s very good when its top tier, mainly due to its strong armour, but also its gun. When its bottom tier, its quite balanced, as tier 8 tanks have far less issue dealing with the armour, and can out-trade the fairly low alpha and DPM of the tank.

The tank is not OP, even though it may seem like the case when its top tier and dominating lower tier tanks.

Is it worth getting?

The Forest Witch is not worth getting for all players.

This tank has a very complicated gun, which is the case with any auto-reloader with 3-4 shells; however its especially the case with this tank, as its alpha damage is not great, and its DPM is extremely low. This just makes it very hard to use for inexperienced players, and even veterans of the game might find its low DPM quite limiting.

The tank is both very flexible and very inflexible with its gun. It has many shells and auto-reloads, so it has many ways and opportunities to use the gun; but at the same time, its DPM is so low that it just lets the tank down in some situations.

This tank is worth it if you like tanks with a different playstyle, with auto-reloading guns, or which require quite a lot of thinking/planning ahead to do well in. At the end of the day, its both a good tank and a unique tank, so it is worth considering.

The Forest Witch is worth 6,500 gold. Its a good tank with great stats in most areas, but really lacking in DPM and reload. Its a very interesting and unique tank, with no similar tanks in tier 7, though its not very easy to play.

Most recently sold for:

Forest Witch was obtainable in the 2023 Halloween event for $/£6.99.

Camo cost:

Forest Witch has a permanent appearance, and no legendary camouflages.

Halloween tanks often have special built-in features, sometimes they are intentional, sometimes they aren’t; some are visual, some are in statistics.

-Forest Witch’s intended special feature is its 4 shell auto-reloading gun, and its reserve track.

-It has no other special hidden mechanics, or special visual effects (other than the lights on the tank glow).

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