IS-5 (Object 730)

IS-5 is the level 10 clan supply reward tank, it only costs 1,500 gold. The tank is decently mobile, with a strong turret, but a gun with very poor handling.

Armour

(The IS-5 in the images is using Improved Assembly)

vs 225mm AP (left image), 265mm APCR (right image)
When facing head on:
Upper plate 260-280mm
Lower plate 195-200mm
Turret 400-700mm
Left hatch 120mm, right hatch 70mm

vs 225mm AP
This is the typical pike nose problem. If you turn even slightly, one of the two plated will just go grey.

Note that this is with standard ammo, not premium.

VS tier 7:
The IS-5 is very challenging for tier 7 tanks to penetrate, regardless of if its angled or not.

Its lower plate is strong, its frontal armour is strong, and its still strong even when turned to the side. This is just due to most tier 7 tanks having very low penetration. Most tanks will need premium ammo to go through the IS-5, even if its angled. The only exceptions are TDs, and the German, USA, and French heavy tanks (these have 198-203 standard penetration)

VS tier 8:
Generally against tier 8 tanks, the IS-5 has weak hull armour. As much as you may try to keep your hull straight to the enemy gun, you can’t perfectly predict their movements.

Expect most shells from enemy tanks to easily penetrate the IS-5. This does not mean the tank won’t get bounces though, sometimes enemies may hit the upper plate edge (the closer to the front canter, the weaker, if they hit the edge its fairly strong), miss and accidentally bounce off the other upper plate, or they may just be a lower penetration medium tank.

All tier 8 tanks can easily penetrate the IS-5 with premium ammo (the STG may struggle, but thats the only tank).
Don’t be reliant on getting bounces.

VS tier 9:
The same as tier 8, the hull is weak, don’t rely on bounces from the hull, as they probably won’t happen too often.

Though the turret is extremely strong, so if the hull is hidden, you can still put the turret to good use. Nothing in tier 7-9 can penetrate the turret, unless they overmatch the 30mm roof.

Look at the hatches in game vs the hatches actual armour model on BlitzHangar.
Note how the bigger hatch is actually the left hatch, even though the in-game model of the right hatch looks bigger.

Gun

IS-5 mounts a 122mm gun

-Alpha damage is 400 on APCR, 340 on HEAT, and 500 on HE
-It has a 11.8s reload giving it 2036 DPM
-Penetration on APCR is 221mm, HEAT is 270mm, and HE is 61mm.
-Aim time is 5.7s/6.1s
-Dispersion is 0.389/0.350
–Gun handling is 0.26/0.26/0.12, or 0.22/0.22/0.1 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -5 degrees

Overall this gun is very poor. Its accuracy is bad, aim time is terrible, and gun handling is the worst of any tank with under 500 alpha damage. Its only decent aspects are penetration DPM, and alpha damage, which are the same as other 122mm guns.
This -5 gun depression is worse than the -5 on the WZ-111 (the other -5 premium tank). The IS-5’s hull is slightly taller, and the turret is mounted slightly further back. Its a small difference but it does make it harder to use the gun depression on ridges and really on any terrain. -5 gun depression is poor, but its still bearable as this tank is fairly low profile.

The APCR shell has an amazing 1,400m/s shell velocity, the best of any standard ammo in tier 8 heavy tanks.
Though it loses 12.67% penetration over distance, so at 500m it only has 193mm of penetration.

Basically this gun has no redeeming features, and is by far the worst 122mm gun on a tier 8 heavy (along with the guns of the WZ-112-2 and Glacial 112).

Mobility

-Top speed is a extremely good 42km/h forwards, and -15km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 36 deg/s on hard terrain, and 28.8 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 16.7 hp/t, it has a fairly strong 819hp engine for its 49 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 13.9 hp/t on hard terrain, and 11.1 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are average for a heavy, at 1.2/1.5/1.9

Overall the IS-5 is a pretty quick tank, however, due to its fairly average traverse speeds and terrain resistances, it cant stay at 42km/h easily unless its going along flat ground and not turning. Its acceleration is still quite good on medium terrain though, so it can fairly easily get up to speed.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The IS-5 has no special consumables or provisions.

Engine power boost consumable:
The special feature of this tank really is its mobility. 42km/h is the 2nd highest of any heavy tank, and it can give quite and advantage in battles. Though this tank does not accelerate slowly this consumable does make a very noticeable difference and can allow the IS-5 to relocate very quickly.

Gun Rammer:
The IS-5 does not struggle with penetration, its standard ammo is good and it has great HEAT penetration of 270mm. Its far better to use gun rammer, as the penetration does not need to be improved.
Gun rammer gives this tank an 11.8s reload with 400 alpha, giving it 2036 DPM. This is just average DPM for such a tank, but it cannot afford to be lower than this.

Improved Assembly.:
The IS-5 has poor armour as the tank is always in close range fights due to it being a brawling heavy and having an inaccurate gun. It means that its very hard for the tank to always keep its armour just faced to one enemy, and always angled 100% correctly. If you want to get bounces in this tank, you can’t even afford to be 5 degrees off of the perfect 90 degree angle. Its armour relies on this far too much, and even the slightest turn makes it an easy penetration.

So the armour is not worth enhancing. Use improved assembly instead, and it will improve the IS-5’s HP from 1800 up to 1908.

Vertical Stabilizer:
Due to the atrocious gun handling of the IS-5, also the fact that its quite fast and plays in a close-quarters environment, it needs to have improved gun handling. Refined gun will not benefit this tank, it often does not have the time to fully aim in due to its playstyle (but also the fact that you have to sit still for roughly 6 seconds), so its better to use the vertical stabilizer.
It will allow the tank to be more accurate even when it does not have the time to aim in fully.

Gameplay advice

The IS-5 plays a little differently to the other 122mm heavy tanks. Its more similar to the IS-3 and IS-3 Defender, as they both have similar armour to this (though, both are actually weaker in terms of armour).

IS-5 plays as a frontline brawling heavy, but instead of using its armour to block hits, it has to leverage its HP or just try and stay away from enemies until its reloaded.

The IS-5 can sometimes push with the medium tanks, especially if you see the enemy team has “proper heavies” (as in, they have strong armour and you, comparatively, don’t). Its fast enough to keep up with the mediums, and often times, the last thing enemies expect is a full HP IS-5 barrelling towards them with 500 more HP than them and a big alpha 400 damage gun. Due to this the IS-5 can act as a spearhead for pushing through a flank (though, make sure your mediums are ready to support you).

Go hulldown. The turret of the IS-5 is one of the most robust in tier 8. If its able to hide the hull , enemies don’t have much chance of penetrating the tank. Most players don’t know about the weakpoints, the 30mm roof, the “real” hatch on the left, and the “fake” hatch on the right that looks bigger than it actually is.
The hull is by far the weakest area of armour, so if its hidden you can actually be very confident in the armour of the tank. Being hulldown can actually allow your gun to aim in for those full 5.7-6.1s of its aim time.

Use gun depression. -5 degrees is not much, and the armour of the hull does not help, however there is a way to use ridgelines with such a tank. There is a full guide here.

Do not sidescrape. IS-5 is one of the “typical” pike nose tanks, as in it isn’t well armoured. This means when you turn your hull to sidescrape, the far edge of the closest upper plate sticks out over the side of the tank before you can even aim your gun around the corner onto the enemy. That angled upper plate is weak as well, enemies would only need 190-200mm on AP to penetrate a sidescraping IS-5.

Aim your shots. Even though vertical stabilizer helps with its gun handling, IS-5 still has a very long aim time and poor accuracy, along with bad handling it makes it a recipe for missing shots. You have to stop and aim each shot if you want it to actually hit, if you don’t then your best chance is good RNG, because every stat on this gun is trying to make your shots miss.

Trade shots, not DPM. Do your best to avoid head-on fights with lower alpha heavy tanks, as usually they have more DPM. Often these tanks may try to push on you to put in 2 or even 3 shots while you reload. Use your armour and hard cover to avoid them until you have a shot ready.

If you trade shot-for-shot with enemies, generally you will come out on top as your 400 alpha is quite high, or at least the same as most other heavies in tier 8.

Play the IS-5 fairly cautiously when on the heavy flank, as your gun is inaccurate and you hull is fairly weak. Be ready to push with allies if needed as your mobility is a big advantage, and you can flank around enemies to cause a distraction if your team is willing to support and push.
On the medium flank you can play the tank quite aggressively, btu be aware of its gun depression and traverse speed limitations. If you go to the medium flank, generally its best to push and win it quickly, as usually it means that your heavy flank is at a disadvantage for missing a heavy tank
(This is subjecive to the battle, you may take your IS-5 to the MT flank, but a MT goes to the HT flank in your place; or maybe the enemy team just had 1 less HT than your team anyway, and you are able to go the MT side without putting your HT under extra pressure).

Overall

Overall, the IS-5 is an okay tank. Its not that great as it doesn’t really offer anything that other tanks cant do better than it, but its also not a weak tank that’s just useless in battle.

It can be quite hard to play correctly, as unlike the other 122mm heavies, this has -5 gun depression, and quite poor hull armour, along with the typically inaccurate gun. The mobility can actually get you killed easily if you use it too aggressively over-extending into positions which are not covered by your allies early in the battle.

Is it worth getting?

The IS-5 is not worth getting for various reasons.
1 – It does not earn good credits. The IS-5 has the worst credit coefficient of all tier 8 premium tanks at 165%, only the IS-3 Defender has the same, all other tanks are generally 5-10% higher. It also has a very low sell price of 300k credits, all other tier 8 tanks are 1.5m+
2- It offers nothing that can’t be found in other 122mm heavy tanks, this is one of the weakest 122mm tier 8 heavies.
3- Its quite hard to play and feels very awkward with poor gun depression, poor armour, and a poor gun.

-If you really like the look of that mobility on the IS-5 and think its impressive, consider getting a WZ-122TM instead, its very similar to this but as a MT, with better mobility, armour, and gun.
-If you want an actual HT than consider the WZ-111, which is basically an IS-5 but with far better armour, far better gun, and far better mobility; the only thing on the WZ-111 that’s not better is the top speed.

The IS-5 is worth 5,000 gold. The tank is decent, it can perform well in battles, but its not too impressive and can frustrate the player quite a bit with its awkward stats. Luckily for players, IS-5 is never sold for any price higher than this.

How to get IS-5?

IS-5 is a permanent clan reward. It unlocks after you reach Personal Supply level 10, and are in a clan with Clan Supply Level 10 unlocked.
If these criteria are met, you can go to the clan tab in garage and buy the IS-5 for 1,500 gold at any time. The tank never goes on discount and can’t be earned in any other way.

Camo cost:

“Clan Guardian” camo: 2D, costs 1,450 gold

Historical info:

IS-5 and IS-8 are the same tank, the Obj. 730, or the T-10/IS-10.

The IS-5 is the T-10A
The fully upgraded IS-8 is the T-10M

The two tanks main differences are very small, other than the main gun and the rear of the hull, there are few visual differences. They use the same turret, the T-10M is just a bit more modern and better equipped for dealing with enemies at the time (Cold War tanks).

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