Why do so many people like this tank? I don't get it at all. I've played it, and to be honest I thought it was going to be great before I played it.

It's my second tier 8 heavy behind the T32, so I guess my views might be quite slanted. While playing the T32 I thought the Tiger had fantastic armour. Against 200mm of penetration and below, you're going to have a hard time penning the Tiger.

When I played it however, I found that it's armor is absolutely worthless against anything with more. Which is basically all the tier 8 heavies barring the T32 and the other German heavy.

Looking in TI, with optimal angling the frontal plate only goes up to about 210. The lower plate is really good at close range but at mid distance you can only get it up to 184. Any more and you'll expose the sides, which tracks aside are very weak.

Many people say the Tiger 2 is a fantastic sidescraper. With 80mm of armour it's not going to get overmatched. But so what? What other Tier 8 heavy can't sidescrape? The Tiger 2 has to sidescrape at an autobounce angle because the armour is really that weak. I've checked it up.

At autobounce any other Tier 8 heavy can sidescrape. Even the T32 gets 76mm of side armour, but the tracks cover it in it's entirety. Meaning it can angle even more. The Caern is worse off. The ruskies are better.

Meaning it doesn't even sidescrape better than anything other the Caernarvon. Wow. Such sidescrape power.

The gun is alright. The alpha is lower than the old KV-1s, the IS and all the other Russian heavies you're likely to face barring the T-150. And it's outmatched by anything higher tier. I've heard people say it's a good gun, and yes it is. It shines on the E75 where you an afford to expose yourself and absorb fire while dishing out the dpm. You can't do that in the Tiger 2. You'll take too much damage.

I think it's a bad gun for the platform because the alpha is low, and it requires too much exposure.

No comment on the Caern here, but at this point the only heavy it looks like it's comparable to is the T32. Which has a similar (but definitely worse) gun and a similarly terrible hull armour scheme.

Worse still. The Tiger 2 scales badly with tier. It has no advantage to leverage against tier 9s and 10s. I've asked a few times, what does a Tiger 2 do against 9s and 10s? The answer is "sidescrape". Something that as I've mentioned, all the other tanks can do, and it doesn't even do very well.

The T32 can go hulldown. So can the IS-3. The kv-4's armour holds up better, even the Caern can go hulldown. The Amx 50 100 has a huge burst.

The Tiger 2 is never used in a competitive situation and I can see why. I simply do not understand why so many people like it. Am I missing something?

Edit: I'm done with the grind ( I threw away 20k free exp, I hated it that much) not looking for help, looking for objective reasoning from those who defend the tank. Or simply your views on it.