World of Tanks: Catch All

I like the US TD line, mostly for the turrets.

MoonDragon wrote:

I got my Tiger over the last couple of days. Unfortunately the cost of it left me with no money for the "equipment" upgrades. Still, it's very fun when I get put into T5-7 game. Not so fun in a game with 4 T10 tanks. I think yesterday, I had my first real "slugfest" moment. I think it was a KV-3 and me. Facing each other and just repeatedly bouncing our shells off of each other. I think we both bounced like 5 shots. Someone eventually snuk up on me from behind and blew me up. But it was kind of funny. I couldn't hurt him, he couldn't hurt me. Even though the penetration marker showed green, and I was not ricocheting.

When it comes to specialized tanks, for arty, which is better? Russian or German? What about TDs? I could jump from my T34 medium onto T5 TDs in the Russian line. I could also jump onto German arty from the tank line as well. It just seems that the later lines of German TDs are getting worse and worse. The tanks are bigger (and higher, so easier to shoot and spot) but the punch doesn't seem to compare to Russian ones on paper.

German Arty is beast, especially the GW Panther, which packs a good punch, shoots pretty quickly, and has a partially moveable turret. I have a GW Tiger, and I already miss the GW Panther because of its versatility. The GW Tiger does shoot AP rounds, which makes it more 'invisible,' but requires you to direct hit for damage, but when it does -- oh boy. The nice thing about the Tiger though is that you only have to be close to do massive damage. The downside is the narrow field of fire that makes it hard to line up on many maps for good shots.

It's kind of cool when you've already researched half of your tech tree. Then new parallel stuff you're working on requires only a fraction of xp to get through. I just flew up the PzkfIII/IV line. Working to switch onto the arty line now at T5. I'll sidestep from 3601H towards Panther line. I've been using 3601 to grind xp for the Tiger's engines, while Tiger xp went towards its 88mm gun. Having gotten both, the Tiger is now finally a viable tank on the battlefield. Still sucks balls when I get put up against 4 T10s and 8 T9s and a bunch of Type 59s. But at least I don't feel like rage quitting any more.

On the USSR side, I'm still working on T-34, but I think I'll use its xp to switch over to TD line and abandon German TDs. It's been downhill in fun since Hetzer.

MoonDragon wrote:

On the USSR side, I'm still working on T-34, but I think I'll use its xp to switch over to TD line and abandon German TDs. It's been downhill in fun since Hetzer.

SU-85 + derp gun = even more fun then Hetzer. IF I can actually sneak up on someone. But that HE 300+ dmg shell really packs a whollop. I can even hurt T8/9 heavies with it. Not by much, but I can actually shave off about 10% of their health with it. Super fun. I wonder how SU-100 will fare. Haven't touched my JagdPz since I gotten the SU-85.

On the other hand, I still haven't worked my way up to Hummel. Instead I got the next tier of Russian arty: SU-8. My god what a waste of credits. At least with SU-5 I could hit something. Granted, I had to be not more than half a map away, but at least I could hit things. And reload/reaim reasonably quickly. With this monster, the reload/reaim is PAINFUL. And the accuracy is total crap. I don't think my shell hit within the aiming circle once yet. It's almost like the aiming is an inverse gaussian across the aiming reticle. Bah. Wish I could get my money back for that drek.

MoonDragon wrote:
MoonDragon wrote:

On the USSR side, I'm still working on T-34, but I think I'll use its xp to switch over to TD line and abandon German TDs. It's been downhill in fun since Hetzer.

SU-85 + derp gun = even more fun then Hetzer. IF I can actually sneak up on someone. But that HE 300+ dmg shell really packs a whollop. I can even hurt T8/9 heavies with it. Not by much, but I can actually shave off about 10% of their health with it. Super fun. I wonder how SU-100 will fare. Haven't touched my JagdPz since I gotten the SU-85.

On the other hand, I still haven't worked my way up to Hummel. Instead I got the next tier of Russian arty: SU-8. My god what a waste of credits. At least with SU-5 I could hit something. Granted, I had to be not more than half a map away, but at least I could hit things. And reload/reaim reasonably quickly. With this monster, the reload/reaim is PAINFUL. And the accuracy is total crap. I don't think my shell hit within the aiming circle once yet. It's almost like the aiming is an inverse gaussian across the aiming reticle. Bah. Wish I could get my money back for that drek.

Then German arty is for what ails you my friend. The Hummel and GWPanther are some of the most rewarding artillery to play. The GW Tiger? Meh.. its far too situational and isn't as useful on as many maps as the two tiers lower than it.

Do any of you guys still play? I'm on almost daily. Pretty much split my time between this and DayZ. Would love to team up.

MoonDragon wrote:

Do any of you guys still play? I'm on almost daily. Pretty much split my time between this and DayZ. Would love to team up.

Work has kicked my ass, but I'll be off and on during the next few weeks.. I'm generally on late.

MoonDragon wrote:

Do any of you guys still play? I'm on almost daily. Pretty much split my time between this and DayZ. Would love to team up.

I do play, but I don't play quite as often as a month or two ago. I reached my goal of a Tiger II and so I don't feel an urge to grind, just an urge to play when I want to have some fun.

... I just solved the mystery of the mmo...

That and The Pile calls to me.

I do. But I'm wondering. What in the world do you have to do to get "game hero"? For example, in my last game, I played an SU-5, middle of the pack. I killed 5 tanks. I survived. We won. No one else on my side got more than 2 or 3 tanks. And yet, only one game hero - "Steel Wall" went to someone else. WTF? What do I have to do?

Grrrrr... I can get as many kills as the leader and not get an award; the other guy gets it. Frustrating...

Robear wrote:

I do. But I'm wondering. What in the world do you have to do to get "game hero"? For example, in my last game, I played an SU-5, middle of the pack. I killed 5 tanks. I survived. We won. No one else on my side got more than 2 or 3 tanks. And yet, only one game hero - "Steel Wall" went to someone else. WTF? What do I have to do?

Grrrrr... I can get as many kills as the leader and not get an award; the other guy gets it. Frustrating...

The threshold for Top Gun is 6 kills. There is another, more special, medal that you can win for killing like 9 or 10 in a game.

Findaer wrote:
Robear wrote:

I do. But I'm wondering. What in the world do you have to do to get "game hero"? For example, in my last game, I played an SU-5, middle of the pack. I killed 5 tanks. I survived. We won. No one else on my side got more than 2 or 3 tanks. And yet, only one game hero - "Steel Wall" went to someone else. WTF? What do I have to do?

Grrrrr... I can get as many kills as the leader and not get an award; the other guy gets it. Frustrating...

The threshold for Top Gun is 6 kills. There is another, more special, medal that you can win for killing like 9 or 10 in a game.

Yeah, you have to kill like 7 tier 4 or higher tanks in a match...

Robear, if you right click on the medal, or hover over it, it normally tells you the conditions for it. You can also look them up on a wiki or some such.

For ties, the game will have tie breaker conditions. Only one person can get a specific "hero" status. But a single person can get more than one "hero" status.

Speaking of heros, this weekend was awesome! Double xp for crew training. I didn't clue on to this until the last day, but I did notice unexplainable speed with which my crew was training. They also had double money on a bunch of tanks. Spent a few hours playing with my Tiger yesterday, and filling in with VK3601 when Tiger was dead. Made over 2M credits. I also ground up my VK3601 crew to 90% of Brothers in Arms (BiA) and my Tiger crew to about 75-80% of BiA. This still means about 200 games for my VK crew to hit 100%. And probably 300 games for my Tiger crew to hit it.

--Edit--

Here's the list of achievements and badges: http://wiki.worldoftanks.com/Achieve...

My most notable achievement of the day, yesterday, would have to be a Mastery Badge: Ace Tanker in the Tiger. I figure enough players play with the Tiger, that this is no small feat. 1800xp in a single round, with 95k credits. In all fairness I have premium at the moment, and it was double money weekend. But that round put a serious smile on my face.

I'm curious what other people are doing for their crew training. Are you guys focusing on a specific skill and trying to up it for the whole crew? Do you go different skill per crew? BiA?

On my other two medium tanks I've selected a multitude of skills. Basically things like increased critical chance, increased spotting range, repair skill, etc. I'm not sure if I should be diversifying or maybe focusing my skills on a single thing that then shares amongst the crew.

Finally, finally, I got a Hero status in a battle. Actually, two of them in the same battle - I got Invader and Top Gun, and made Ace Tanker with the 105mm Hetzer. It was Lost River, which I usually do terribly in, but this time I and two other tanks stopped a major incursion on the right, with just me surviving and at two kills. As the game whittled the teams down, we were outnumbered by 9 to 5, and no one was attacking. I finally went across the dry river and up the line of hills - and that's where the arty were. They were like a string of pearls. The first didn't even hear me, a T-57 I shot from the side. The next one was backing out of his firing position. The next one had turned and actually hit me, once, as I reloaded. I trundled over and popped him too. The last one also got a shot off, but missed. Then, finally, there were two of us, and two of them. Last I'd looked, they were at my base. But incredibly, one had turned back to try to nail me at a distance. I rolled into the enemy base before they got to ours, the attacker hit me once, and I killed him as he approached me. I was ten seconds ahead of the other guy in base capture when he rolled into our base. 2480 points, I think, with the first win bonus.

Quite exciting, especially with the tortoise pace of the Hetzer going uphill.

That is fantastic Robear.

I got Invader, once, last night.

How do you guys avoid spending a fortune buying fancy ammo? I purely hate it when I hit things and they don't go boom.

And how is a 105mm gun on a Hetzer fair?

I don't buy fancy ammo at all. I run with normal stuff and pick targets, swapping between AP and HE as needed, although I still haven't gotten the knack for knowing what I need. But the short version is that if I bounce a round or two, then I switch. If I bounce those too, I swap back.

AnimeJ wrote:

I don't buy fancy ammo at all. I run with normal stuff and pick targets, swapping between AP and HE as needed, although I still haven't gotten the knack for knowing what I need. But the short version is that if I bounce a round or two, then I switch. If I bounce those too, I swap back.

Open turret = HE round to the turret.

AP Rounds = almost everything else, but you need to know where to hit many tanks.

HE Rounds = for when you want to blow a track off of someone, crit them, or you have one of 'those' guns. Or if some tough-ass tank has >100 hps and you just need to finish him off and have shady penetration.

Robear wrote:

And how is a 105mm gun on a Hetzer fair?

It's a complete glee-gun, when put into a like tier battle. Reaper badges flow with it. You can conceivable hurt things a tier or two above you as well. I personally had a blast with it. Was really bummed when I upgraded.

You didn't keep it for floating xp?

I've one-shotted Tier 5's with the 105mm, and maybe higher. It's my favorite gun. I love hanging around rear areas, and when the little Stuarts come running around, BAM! and they're gone. Ruins their day. And the Arty guys love it.

I also enjoy teaching people that SPGs are far more capable than just artillery. It takes them a while to zero in in indirect mode, but you can direct fire with them with only a few seconds on target. Lots of people forget to check whether that artillery unit they are rushing towards is actually an SPG with a really fat shell aimed at their face.

I went ahead and bought the Churchill on sale this weekend. My first heavy! I felt like a giant, rolling around and crushing things while enemy tanks fled from me. Fun.

Robear wrote:

You didn't keep it for floating xp?

Well, for starters, I dind't know that the next level TD is significantly less fun. I also don't have room in my garage. VK3601H is my only "elite" fun keep. The crew training on it is at 92% of Brothers in Arms. I think of it as my mini-Tiger. Beyond that I have a currently leveling german medium tank (just finished with VK3002DB and am about to start on Panther when I get a bit more money); a heavy tank (just upgraded to Tiger 2 from Tiger); a german TD; a german SPG; russian medium to level; and russian TD (SU-100 which just got its 122mm cannon... oh-la-la-la!). That makes it a full house. Over the last couple of days, while waiting for money for Panther, I've been using that extra slot for leveling french medium line. Mainly for the fun of running around in a T2/3 tank.

Personally, I am loving my TIV US turreted TD, the M8A1 I think. I just upgraded my gun from the 57mm to the 75mm, haven't played with it enough to see if I like it though.

MoonDragon wrote:

Mainly for the fun of running around in a T2/3 tank.

The weirdest thing happened to me last night. I was fielding an AMX 38 T3 tank and ended up earning "Steel Wall" with it!!! Just to put it into perspective, the tank has 230 hp. Steel Wall is awarded for getting shot for in excess of 1000hp worth of damage. I think I had about 60% hp left at the end of the game. I was shot 20 times according to the post game stats.

That's a lot of bounced shots.

I dunno, I find the AMX 38s virtue is it's armor. It's slow and undergunned, but it's a bunker.

I'm really glad I tried this game, it's the perfect supplement to turn-based gaming.

I'd like to hear people's opinions on KV-13 (medium tank sitting all on its own at T7 between medium and the IS heavy line).

Picked this game up this weekend after talking with my next door neighbor who said he might get into the game. I can actually see enjoying the game for a while. Especially since it lets you leave a match and jump into a new one and still get your rewards from the old one. It's great for quick play like that. I jumped in for like 15 mins last night for a couple matches while waiting for dinner to finish up / cool.

Any tips for a newb who will likely not be spending any real $$ (can't right now) on this? Tier 1 seems to be not too tough.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

Picked this game up this weekend after talking with my next door neighbor who said he might get into the game. I can actually see enjoying the game for a while. Especially since it lets you leave a match and jump into a new one and still get your rewards from the old one. It's great for quick play like that. I jumped in for like 15 mins last night for a couple matches while waiting for dinner to finish up / cool.

Any tips for a newb who will likely not be spending any real $$ (can't right now) on this? Tier 1 seems to be not too tough.

Tier 1 is pretty easy, and fun; in fact, I still have a loltractor just for playing around from time to time (as well as a Pz38t). I'd pick a couple of lines if I were you once you decide what you really like and kind of go with that. The easier ones, in my opinion, to play are the heavy tanks and the SPGs. Most people I play against aren't too great at TDs, but played right, they can be brutal on certain maps. Light and medium tanks take a little more bravado to play since the overwhelming pubbies you play against will still generally suicide or peek-a-boo with them when that's not going to work. Let me know what you might want to play and I can help or jump on sometime, friend you up and we can platoon together since I have tanks from tier 1-10.

I would suggest you play up to T3 in all lines of all countries. It shouldn't be too tough. And if something is just not clicking with you, leave it be. Sell it and move on. By the time you get to T4s, you should get a sense of what you enjoy more. Fast tanks that can zip around and do circles around enemies, or slow camping TDs that have a huge punch, or maybe even artillery.

Personally, I hate artillery. Not in the game, I think they serve their purpose, but I hate playing it. So frustrating and expensive. Or maybe I just suck at it.

TDs are my poison. I'm also offsetting that playstyle, lately, by playing French lights. As of a recent patch they gave me a free elite ELC AMX and man am I having fun with that tank! There are also two medium tanks that have a permanent spot in my garage. One of them is a VK3601. This is an absolute must play tank.

The only tree I didn't touch is American. But it also seems to be one of the most popular trees. The only problem is M3 Lee. Avoid that tank for a while. It is arguably the worst tank in the game, and you don't want it to turn you off of the game.

On a completely unrelated note...

Is anybody else excited about the new 8.0 physics changes?

MoonDragon wrote:

The only tree I didn't touch is American. But it also seems to be one of the most popular trees. The only problem is M3 Lee. Avoid that tank for a while. It is arguably the worst tank in the game, and you don't want it to turn you off of the game. :)

Are you talking about the M3 Lee that absolutely destroys fools, if it's played like a TD? Also if you haven't played the Americans how did you come to the above conclusion?

I played the Americans strictly for the turreted TD's.

When does the VK3601 get good? I just unlocked it before Borderlands 2 came out and, haven't had much seat time in it. I know back in May when I started it was one of the tanks I feared going against (hence the reason I worked up to it myself).