IS-3 Defender

IS-3 Defender is a tier 8 USSR heavy tank. Its essentially an IS-3 with improved mobility, strengthened armour, and a 3 shell autoloading gun. It lacks accuracy and gun handling but makes up for it with pure damage output.

1. Armour
2. Gun
3. Mobility
4. Equipment, provisions, & consumables
5. Gameplay advice
6. Tank gameplay
7. Is it worth getting?
8. Most recently sold for:

(The IS-3 Defender in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Armour

Drag slider right -> to view 225mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 265mm APCR

Armour when flat & facing head-on:
Upper plate 235-260mm
Lower plate 213mm
Turret 290-500mm+

Due to having a pike-nose armour layout, the IS-3 Defender is strongest when the hull is faced directly towards the enemy. Angling it to the side makes the closest upper plate to the enemy very weak.

Note that due to normalization, the upper plate’s effectiveness is reduced for AP & APCR type shells (normalization essentially “removes” armour angling, hence reducing the armour’s thickness). This is why the upper plates are so penetrable to the 225mm AP shell.

Armour vs tier 7 enemies:
Tier 7 enemies will be unable to penetrate the IS-3 Defender frontally. Only the highest penetration tanks (such as USA or German HT) can penetrate the lower plate with standard ammo, other tier 7s will need premium ammo.

If enemies tanks don’t have over 235mm of penetration on their premium ammo, they will struggle to penetrate an un-angled IS-3 Defender.

If the IS-3 Defender is angled, enemies will be able to penetrate the upper plates much easier.

Armour vs tier 8 enemies:
Against tier 8 enemies, the hull is strong against tanks with below ~215mm standard penetration, when un-angled (if using enhanced armour, then its strong up to ~225mm).

This means that the hull is very effective against the majority of medium tanks and some heavy tanks, but higher penetration tanks (with 220-230mm AP penetration) will be able to penetrate the hull without much issue.

(If using enhanced armour, then the hull is effective against the majority of tier 8 tanks, since not many have over 225mm standard penetration. Some exceptions would be heavy tank autoloaders, or tanks such as the T34 with exceptional penetration.)

If using gun depression, then no tanks can penetrate the hull, other than TDs using premium ammunition.

Armour vs tier 9 enemies:
Tier 9 heavies will be able to penetrate the upper plates of the IS-3 Defender with no issue, even if un-angled. 

Tier 9 mediums & lights may struggle more due to their lower penetration (200-225mm), but some mediums have up to 255mm, so its still best not to rely on the hull armour.

When using gun depression, the hull is very strong, and tier 9 enemies will need premium ammo to penetrate it.

Gun

The IS-3 Defender mounts a 122mm gun

-Alpha damage is 400 on APCR, 340 on HEAT, and 500 on HE
-It has a 7.5s intra-clip reload, with a 23.1s magazine reload, giving it 1888 DPM
-The gun has 3 shells, so in 15s it can deal a 1200 damage burst.
-Penetration is 221mm on APCR, 270mm on HEAT, and 61mm on HE
–Estimated aim time is 5.9/6.3s
–Base aim time is 3.4s, but it can get down to 2.77s
-Dispersion is 0.389/0.350
–Gun handling is 024/0.24/0.14, or 0.2/0.2/0.12 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -7 degrees

For a Russian 122mm heavy tank, this gun is average, having the same penetration, dispersion, and gun handling as most 122mm guns. The gun depression is better than all of its competing 122mm counterparts, but aim time is worse. 

Mobility

-Top speed is 40km/h, reverse speed is -15km/h.
-Acceleration is 14.8hp/t on hard terrain, and 12.3hp/t on medium terrain.
-Traverse speed is 36.7 deg/s on hard terrain and 30.6 deg/s on medium terrain.
–Ground resistances are 1/1.2/2.1

Due to having such good ground resistances, the IS-3 Defender hardly loses any mobility when going off road. Coupled with a great top speed and good acceleration and traverse, it makes the IS-3 Defender one of the most mobile tier 8 heavy tanks.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

IS-3 Defender has no special provisions/consumables.

Improved Ventilation:
IS-3 Defender does actually have good enough penetration for it to not need to use calibrated shells; though, as this tank is an autoloader, using calibrated shells will not cripple its DPM as much as on other tanks.

Improved ventilation is a very valid choice on the IS-3 Defender, due to its terrible gun accuracy, aim time, low DPM, and long magazine reload time. However, improving the penetration would technically allow you to “aim less” against strongly armoured enemies.

Enhanced Gun Laying Drive:
As stated above, the IS-3 Defender has horrendous aim time, so you cannot afford to take supercharger on this tank.
The gun laying drive gives 0.5s faster aiming speed.

Enhanced Armour:
Enhanced armour is the best choice on this tank, it takes the upper plate from being penetrable to 225mm AP shells, to being just over the amount that 225mm can penetrate.

This 225mm number is important, as the vast majority of tier 8 tanks have 225mm or less on their standard ammo penetration.
Enhanced armour would improve:
-Upper plate from 235mm to 245mm
-Lower plate from 213mm to 222mm

Note that a single extra shot that you bounce is already worth more HP than the amount you would gain from improved assembly.

Drag slider right -> to view improved assembly (default armour)
Drag slider <- left to view enhanced armour

Vertical Stabilizer:
The IS-3 Defender, along with bad aim time and dispersion, also has bad gun handling; so use vertical stabilizer to improve it. Using vertical stabilizer makes the IS-3 Defender much more comfortable to play and more accurate in close-quarters battles.

Gameplay advice

Play the IS-3 Defender in the same way you would play an IS-3. In most aspects its very similar, and it plays the same way, the Defender just has slightly more hull armour, gun depression, and mobility.

You have to think of this as being a tank with increased rate-of-fire, and not an autoloader. This tank is not meant to burst damage out quickly, its meant to have a quick reload for its alpha.

While you are unloading, you have a 7.5s “reload” and 3200 DPM for 400 alpha, but then you have a cooldown period of 23s where you have 0 DPM.

Don’t try to only focus on one tank when you shoot your clip, and also don’t expose yourself during the intra-clip reload. Unlike other “true autoloaders”, it has to hide between its shots until 7.5s have passed and it can shoot again.

Having to hide after each shot can actually be viewed as an advantage. For one, you don’t take any unnecessary damage as you only expose the tank for a second to shoot a shot.
Secondly, it makes it much harder for enemies to know when you are on your long reload. When you have fired all 3 shells and have to wait 22.3s for a reload, don’t retreat or back away obviously. Make it seem like you still have shells in the clip, and you are ready to shoot enemies if they push you; you could even slightly push forward to intimidate enemies into not pushing on you.

Due to the long 7.5s intra-clip reload on the IS-3 Defender, its harder for players to know whether or not you are reloading, and this tactic of faking your reload does actually work.

Tank gameplay

Is it worth getting?

To most players, IS-3 Defender will be harder to play than the other Defender tanks as it has quite an awkward gun due to its terrible aim time and long reload time.
However, its still a great tank due to its great mobility and very strong hull-down capacity; and when the gun does hit, its quite a formidable opponent. Experienced players will be able to do very well in this tank, though newer players will probably not find it enjoyable.

IS- 3 Defender is worth around 8,000 gold, as its still a very good tank, just requires some patience with the poor accuracy and long reload time.

Most recently sold for:

7,500 gold (tank only) – September 2022
7,500 gold (tank only) – July 2024

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