World of Tanks: Catch All

Robear wrote:

Had some good runs last night, the new Korea map is fun and interesting. I think the recent patch changes have been very good; I didn't see a lot of inappropriately fast kills. At a guess, gold ammo usage is back down towards what it was a few months ago.

Maybe it was a blip as people got through the novelty of being able to buy it whenever they want.

I can't speak for others, but personally I replaced HE ammo in my higher tiered tanks with APCR. Most often it's 5 APCR shells I have with me. In E-75, I'm sporting 10, but it also has room for 30+ AP shells, so space is not an issue. I'm still using the second best gun though, so penetration on tier 10 opponents is an issue.

I'm nowhere near T10 lol.

You gonna play this weekend, Moon? I should be on at some point, I'll look for you.

Even if you're in tier 8s, you'll see tier 10 tanks a good bit of the time. I'd swear I wind up in T10 matches half the time in my T32 and T28 Proto.

Very late edit for a very late and different thought: Malinovka: Bad map, or worst map in the game?

Malinovka is a great map, I love to see it come up. I think Dragon Ridge, Ensk and Wide Park are the worst of the maps.

I like Malinovka because it gives you opportunities to operate at your favorite distances and in the terrain you like; well, it doesn't have a city, but it does have small agricultural settlements. But it's almost always a good fight.

Must be a product of tiering. Anything past Tier 7, and Malinovka turns into a camp fest with a few tanks poking about on the hill. Dragon Ridge isn't in the game currently(thank goodness; that was my second least favorite map), and I don't have much of an opinion of Ensk or Wide Park, although there are certain tanks I don't like running in those.

That would explain it. I thought I had a T8, but my highest tanks are actually T7, so I have not hit that stage yet.

Man, I had some frustrating times last night. Once I had a TOG, in the map with the hill town/castle in the middle. I drove the TOG slowly but surely to the middle-left path, and there were three tanks there, taking fire from one heavy that kept popping in and out. So I kept going, and pushed him all the way back around the corner. There was another tank backstopping him, but I opened up the path. I wait, losing a track and taking more fire, nearly killed the heavy. And then I blow up.

And guess what? There were the three tanks I passed, sitting right where they were, like the enemy was going to magically regroup and attack them. The enemy heavy went right back to his pop-out tactics and it was like I had done nothing.

I see that so often. People set up to go with you, and then when the moment comes, they don't attack (or even defend, sometimes, when ambushed), but instead they just hang back and hope they won't get killed. And they end up getting attacked sequentially, 1 against 3 sometimes, when if they stood together it would have been a fair fight. It's like even basic tactics don't exist.

Incidentally, I have found that people who put USMC in their names tend to - not always, but tend to - have the ability to work with someone. Worth looking for. And I live for accounts named in the form "2ID_G4" or "3MEFJAP" or something like that. Follow those guys around, they usually know what they are about.

I think I need to find a clan.

Yea, I see stuff like that all the time. It's bloody maddening, but you learn from it. One of the things that's helped me figure out whether or not someone's going to push with me is XVM; it's not fool proof, but generally speaking, if someone's at/around 50% WR or better, and has decent other stats, I can count on em to help me push up. I'd wager all three of those dudes were 45% WR at best, and constantly gripe and moan about losing all the time.

What's average, these days? I'm at 48%.

Server average is 48%, but it goes up with number of battles. If you look at the average WR at 10k battles, it's something like 53%.

Guess I"m behind the curve, then. Sigh.

Eh, it's not a a huge deal. I spent probably my first 2k games just derping around, and wound up ~48%. I've been working on bringing that up, but am nowhere near 53% average, having just passed 4k games.

I love tanks. I just finished replaying Company of heroes and I feel the need to jump in on this finally.

What's the best way for a newbie to get started? Anything that is must buy? I did the tutorial and barely hit the moving tank.

There's a tutorial now?

Jump in and start shooting at people, and you'll be good. The tanks are arranged by country, and somewhat loosely into types. So you've got light, medium and heavy tanks; tank destroyers; self-propelled guns and artillery. Pick a tank type that looks interesting - do you like to zip around and plink things, or stomp around slowly but mow down whatever you see? Artillery has an alternate targeting mode that let's you view the map from above, that's about the most complicated thing in the game.

Bushes and trees provide concealment; buildings, rocks, bridges, etc. provide cover. Water can be crossed, but if it's deep enough, you can see a ten second drowning timer come up - get out! You can go hull-down, and revealing only a part of your tank to fire is an effective way to protect it - the game models ballistic flight for shells, so it's not a magic "to-hit" number that determines whether the shell impacts. You'll often find yourself saved by a shell that hit a nearby corner or a rise in the ground. I believe it is possible to be hit by a ricochet, but that's rare. Remember that it's necessary to lead tanks beyond a certain distance, which will vary based on a gun's shell velocity. There's a key to detach the auto-targeting if you want to hit someone a long way off. Also, it's common to hit and not penetrate. Shoot from the rear or the sides, and remember that the turret is usually heavily armored and well-sloped. Top shots and bottom shots (like when a tank comes over a dune) are godsends; take them at every opportunity. Artillery can often mess up very heavily armored tanks because it's top armor sucks.

Tanks have several types of possible ammo - various types of AP; various HE; and a high-end projectile commonly called "gold" because it used to require actual money to buy the "gold currency" to buy it. Now you can get all of them for in-game currency. Use AP for most shots, and HE for trying to kill tanks that you can't actually penetrate with your AP. Use gold in clan combat, or for when you feel like ruining someone's game with a few hammer-blows.

Tanks have various systems which can be damaged, and they affect play. Lose a track and you're stuck till it "heals". Optics go down? Hard to hit stuff. And so forth. You can buy various kits to carry in your tank to fix these issues, using in-game currency. I usually have one to heal a crewman, one to heal mechanical stuff, and a fire extinguisher.

You have crewmembers who can be assigned useful skills. They gain experience in each battle, and you can buy a tank with more or less trained crewmen depending on your budget. After they get to 100% in their role, they can get a special skill which you pick for them; things like an extra chance for a gunner to score a critical hit, or the ability of a tank commander to take over another crewman's job.

Tanks also have a few slots at the bottom of their display for a number of widgets which confer bigger bonuses than usual. Don't mess with these at first; they are expensive and you need to coordinate them with crew skills. They (along with camouflage) are for tanks you'll be using for a long time; most tanks you'll use a while and then trade in if you don't want to play that tier with that tank any more.

When you finish a battle, you'll get experience and in-game currency (which is NOT gold). Experience is used to open up the various guns, suspension, engines, turrets, etc. that a particular tank has, and the currency is used to buy the researched items and mount them on your tank. It's also used to buy ammo and supplies. And xp also "opens up" the next tier of tanks in the research path that your current tank occupies, while currency buys it. So a new gun might be 1500 xp and 20,000 currency, while a new tank might be 15,000 xp and 200,000 currency (or lots more). Tier one tanks are little unstabilized firetrap peashooters, which tier ten tanks are post-war behemoths with auto-loaders, fancy armor and expensive ammo.

Most people find that they can get to Tier 5 in a path pretty quickly; after that, it gets a bit grindy. So don't feel that if you try American SPGs that you have to do all the other arty in the game. Pick a tank that leads to one that looks cool and follow that path for a while.

You can decide how many garage slots you want - they cost real money. And you can upgrade your garage; I recommend it, even though it costs money, because it gives you xp and money bonuses for each battle, which reduces the grind. And it looks nicer.

Hope that helps.

Balthezor wrote:

I love tanks. I just finished replaying Company of heroes and I feel the need to jump in on this finally.

What's the best way for a newbie to get started? Anything that is must buy? I did the tutorial and barely hit the moving tank.

I'd suggest either the US or USSR trees to start; Heavies or Mediums for USSR, and probably Mediums for the US. With shooting moving tanks, there's two things to keep in mind; your muzzle velocity and the speed of the tank you're shooting at; both will give you an idea of how much to lead the tank; I've one-shotted ELCs(one of the fastest tanks in the game) with a Lowe; occasionally I get congrats, but usually get accused of hacking.

Beyond that, learn general weakspots on tanks. Things like the CC Cupola on the turret, machine gun ports, driver's view ports, and where to hit on the tracks to de-track vehicles(this varies by country; US engines are generally rear mounted, so shoot the rear most sprocket; german tanks generally drive from the front etc). Along with this, angling can play into whether or not you can penetrate by effectively increasing the value on armor plate. This video makes a very effective demonstration of that:

To expand on crew skills, there are certain skills that you want to get earlier on; repair is one that most tanks are going to want to get first. Sixth Sense on the commander is another really good skill to pick up early. If you find you like playing TDs and light tanks, Camo is another good skill to pick up early.

As for gold, spending it on premium account time is probably the best use for it. Once you get into higher tiers(8 or so) and have a really good idea of what kind of tanks you like playing, then looking into a premium tank(these can be rather expensive) for a combination of increasing credit earnings and training tank crews of similar tanks(they can take crews from other hulls of the same nation, for example, the Lowe can accept a crew trained to any german heavy tank without retraining) is worth looking into. But don't every convert gold to credits, it's a major bloody waste. You can earn more from a day of premium than you can converting that much gold to credits. As for garage slots, I wouldn't worry about it early on. Oh, one other thing about gold; you need gold to convert leftover experience on tanks that you completely research, including the child tanks from locked XP to free XP.

That last bit about Free XP is important because of this: never, ever spend free XP to unlock a tank hull. The reason you don't want to do this is because as a rule, stock tanks are garbage. But by taking some of the leftover XP from the previous tank and converting it to free XP along with the pool of free XP you build up over time, as 5% of the experience you earn per battle is added as free experience. So if you have a game where you earn 1k XP(including daily bonus and premium account bonus), 100% of your experience(1k) is added to the tank's XP total and 5% of that(50) is added to your Free XP total. So it's slow, but it can add up over time and become a fairly substantial amount(I've pulled some 10k free XP on my T32 between obtaining it and eliting it). Anyway, the reason you don't want to use it to unlock the hull is so that you can take it and buy some of the equipment upgrades for the next tank in line rather than having to grind them all from stock. This can be especially important in later tiers.

Thanks guys, appreciate it.

Oh, one more thing I forgot: get familiar with how MM works. In general, tanks will see tanks +/- 2 tiers, but certain light tanks can see up to 4 tiers higher. So if you platoon with someone else, try to be in tanks that are the same tier and same type of tank.

Or like... you know... jump into the game and have fun.

I had far less fun as a clueless newbie derping about losing and dying frequently than I do now having taken the advice I posted from other folks.

AnimeJ wrote:

I had far less fun as a clueless newbie derping about losing and dying frequently than I do now having taken the advice I posted from other folks.

Well, it seems we have a few more people playing now and most of the newer or returning guys are more than welcome anytime to hit me up certainly for a little platooning. My in-game name is Biacksheep, and that is with an 'i' and not an 'l' in the name. I've got tanks in almost every tier and can always find something to play with anyone interested.

Yep, especially with the platoon restrictions lifted for non-premium accounts.

Super P awesome sauce! (this did include event bonus, base was around 131K)

IMAGE(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/631911119457564915/325C1B0D1BF91DBEE4617F38ADDA29CA515AFA28/)

For those interested in that level of credit earnings, but who don't have a Super Pershing, the JagdTiger 8.8 offers more potential earnings; I've heard from folks clearing 200k under the previous mission.

I... feel so inadequate. My highest tank so far is my Grille, which got bumped up to T6 with the last update. I think I earn like, 4k-6k on a good match with it.

Premium tanks are designed to be credit earners. I've pulled upwards of 100k in my Lowe without any sort of special going on; not frequently, but I have.

I *gotta* get a Lion.

While it's not a horrible tank by any means, unless you're working the German heavy lines, I'd recommend a T34 over it as far as tier 8 heavies goes. It's got solid penetration, but the alpha feels lacking a lot of the time to me.

AnimeJ wrote:

While it's not a horrible tank by any means, unless you're working the German heavy lines, I'd recommend a T34 over it as far as tier 8 heavies goes. It's got solid penetration, but the alpha feels lacking a lot of the time to me.

T34 or IS-6 are probably the two best, T34 has better alpha damage and awesome turret armor - hull is crap. IS-6 can only pull Tier 9 (like 8.8 JagdTiger), better armor because of slop.

AnimeJ wrote:

Premium tanks are designed to be credit earners. I've pulled upwards of 100k in my Lowe without any sort of special going on; not frequently, but I have.

I recommend a Premium if you plan going past Tier 5 and stick with the game. My premium tanks are what keep my Tier 9+ tanks rolling.

armedbushido wrote:
AnimeJ wrote:

Premium tanks are designed to be credit earners. I've pulled upwards of 100k in my Lowe without any sort of special going on; not frequently, but I have.

I recommend a Premium if you plan going past Tier 5 and stick with the game. My premium tanks are what keep my Tier 9+ tanks rolling. :)

I'm considering it. I've unlocked a few T6 tanks, but am not even remotely close to being able to buy them. I just don't want to drop real cash on a tank, and end up hating it, regardless of whether or not it earns more creds. Are any of the lower end premiums any good?

PurEvil wrote:
armedbushido wrote:
AnimeJ wrote:

Premium tanks are designed to be credit earners. I've pulled upwards of 100k in my Lowe without any sort of special going on; not frequently, but I have.

I recommend a Premium if you plan going past Tier 5 and stick with the game. My premium tanks are what keep my Tier 9+ tanks rolling. :)

I'm considering it. I've unlocked a few T6 tanks, but am not even remotely close to being able to buy them. I just don't want to drop real cash on a tank, and end up hating it, regardless of whether or not it earns more creds. Are any of the lower end premiums any good?

IMAGE(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/631911119457564915/325C1B0D1BF91DBEE4617F38ADDA29CA515AFA28/)

Well that is tough, really if your in it for the long haul I would get either a T34 or IS-6. Now I have several premium tanks D.Max, SuperP, IS-6, Russian Matilda, T14, T1E6,TOG II. Now all these do well based on the tier there for, but that depends on play style and knowing the tank. Example is SuperP, it can cost me money if I have a bad round. SuperP is a medium tank that is used like a heavy because of the extra spaced armor. However, it is really slow because of the extra weight and the gun is garbage so I have to use the "golden bb" a lot. Still on a good round like my screen above it can bring in some serious cash (that was also event bonus) (screen above was 21/24 all expense rounds). So out of 171K I only go 59K after expenses. With the IS-6 I have to just to really horrid to lose money. The D.Max is another one of my favorites, it does well if you know how to play it. The main gun just destroys tanks for its tier and above. However, unlike most TD's it has just no front armor at all.