World of Tanks

[Amarr HM]

Also, tier 6 is as high as I have.  Perhaps this is part of my problem.  I'm constantly up against 8's and 9's and I feel completely ineffective.

That's cool, I have a VK3601 which I need to do some serious grinding with.

[Merusk]

Yeah I run in to that a lot myself, Nebu.  I only recently got my first legit non-premium T7 tank and had the same problem in the T6 matches.  Even the T7 is useless in matches against 9 and 10s.

The way I handled it was I started learning all the weak spots (youtube) and even then I was mostly ineffective but at least I wasn't bouncing every anymore.   When I died I just quit out and run a new tank now.  I have a stable of 8 or 9 I keep around so I'm never waited on a match to end unless I really felt I could learn something.

[Nebu]

The most useful information I'd like to learn is the best way to approach each map.  Playing in pugs, I'm learning things... but also picking up some bad habits. I'm reading a few strategy guides on the forums, but they get a bit too detailed in their approach.  I need a "Maps for dummies" level tutorial.

[angry.bob]

The number one rule that everyone should follow is avoid the big hills. High ground in real life wars is awesome and gives some very tangible benefits. Hills in WoT are deathtraps for morons. Other than in the Mine map, the hills everyone rushes to capture give no benefit whatsoever as they're too far from anything important to benefit from the improved firing position. In a lot of ways having the high ground is worse because then you have people driving over the edge of cliffs to shoot at people below them, exposing their topside to people farther away with a shallower firing angle. The big hills are just clusterfucks of people dying for no real benefit, and the team that "captures" the hill? They get to drive down the other side of the hill a minute later with a third of the tanks they went there with and the ones they have left are beat to hell. I've noticed a lot of online strategy guides say they're critical to take and whatnot, but frankly they're wrong.

Hills are like the cornucopia in Hunger Games, except instead of useful items there's nothing there but hives of angry bees. Except for Mines. That central hill is worth it as it lets you fire on the entire map from pretty good cover.

And abouth the credits.... I know you earn based on damage not kills, it's just easier to use kills as a metric - or at least it was until the awesone new little damage numbers.

[Nebu]

The number one rule that everyone should follow is avoid the big hills.

This... is helpful.  Thank you!

[kildorn]

Taking a hill with a tank or two can be useful fire support. Especially if they're US tanks.

Everyone else lacks the gun depression needed to use them, and just winds up cresting the ridge with their whole tank, getting tracked by a sniper and being unable to return fire because they can't aim down that far.

[apocrypha]

The most useful information I'd like to learn is the best way to approach each map.  Playing in pugs, I'm learning things... but also picking up some bad habits. I'm reading a few strategy guides on the forums, but they get a bit too detailed in their approach.  I need a "Maps for dummies" level tutorial.

I found this forum post very useful. However it's outdated, missing several maps and needs to be taken with a big, big pinch of salt. Some of the stuff it says is just wrong, some of it is impossible in random games since there's no way to get people cooperating properly.

It's a starting point though and it made me think about some of the maps differently.

I've now spent some days playing with both the IS4 and the T-32. The IS4 is really not growing on me, but I suspect that it's partly because I researched it too quickly so I don't even have the BL-9 and partly because I suck bollocks with it. I've got to the point where I usually break even with it, but not always. The T-32 however I like a lot more. Of course I only need the turret for that to be fully upgraded so it's much better performing at it's tier than my near-stock IS4.

[Engels]

Nebu, remember, you're also in Evil Chickens. That's Bravado, Katiri, Abagadro and myself, along with any number of folks that are decent players and would be happy to toon up with you. We'll also spot you the new TS info, since I think its changed since you were last on.

[Tmon]

IS4 with stock gun is pure ass and really until you get the top gun it just isn't that great.  On the up side, it will be transformed into a tier x as soon as 7.3 comes out.  I'd just put it on the shelf till the patch and focus on the T32.

[angry.bob]

Taking a hill with a tank or two can be useful fire support. Especially if they're US tanks.

Everyone else lacks the gun depression needed to use them, and just winds up cresting the ridge with their whole tank, getting tracked by a sniper and being unable to return fire because they can't aim down that far.

This is true... you can't just completely ignore the hills. But the number of tanks that have any business going to them is pretty small. Ideally I'd say only French stuff, especially Batchats. None of them have the declination to really use the hill to fire from, but they'd beat everyone else to the top and put out enough hurt even in small numbers to keep anyone else off it. It's things like seing 8-10 people taking off for the northwest corner of El Hallouf or the northeast of Malinovka that I cry inside. Everything from t-50-2s to KVs and Lowes, insuring they all get there one or two at a time.

[apocrypha]

IS4 with stock gun is pure ass and really until you get the top gun it just isn't that great.  On the up side, it will be transformed into a tier x as soon as 7.3 comes out.  I'd just put it on the shelf till the patch and focus on the T32.

Yeah, that's exactly the reason I powered up the XP for it. I missed out on the revamp of the US heavies so I was determined to get there for the Russian bonus tanks. I now have a KV, KV-3 and IS4 in my garage! Bonus! 

It's things like seing 8-10 people taking off for the northwest corner of El Hallouf

What kind of positioning do you recommend for El Hallouf out of interest? I often head for the NW corner, or more specifically the cover between the two sides, down in the valley. If you start at the North base then it's very easy to get trapped on that NW corner, pinned by arty fire and cover from the SW side, so if I'm too slow then I try to avoid that. However starting from the South base you can almost always get to the up slope just below that NW plateau, which enables you to put pressure on those trapped on that plateau and also snipe out across the central field.

I rarely just take up a sniping camp on either ridge (except briefly at the start to pick off reckless scouts  ) and only sometimes, depending on my vehicle, attempt the scouting positions in the bay on the East.

[Abagadro]

The number one rule that everyone should follow is avoid the big hills.

This... is helpful.  Thank you!

It's completely wrong.  Hills are key points on several maps depending on your tank and also grant you good snipe and hull-down opportunities.  The problem in pubs is that teams will over or under-commit to them so I usually wait until I see the spread of tanks to know whether to go that route.

Here are my basic keys to success:

1) Know your tank.  Know its weaknesses and its strengths and play to those. If its fast, use maneuverability.  If it has crap side and low armor but a good turret, always try to play hull down or face-hug in a pinch. Is it tough all the way around, close and brawl.  Caveat: know all other tanks so you know weaknesses. Knowing how to adjust your play style to a given tank and the tank you are up against is key.

2) Knowing #1, know where to go on the maps. Each map will have 2 or maybe 3 spots that any given vehicle will do well in, but they are different for each one. Taking a Maus up a hill is stupid, but taking a t-54 up will generally be a good idea.

3) Know arty angles and stay arty-safe.   Get to know where arty sets up on maps and where they can hit stuff. The best way to actually learn this is by playing arty and getting frustrated trying to hit tanks in cover.  If you can't be in cover, NEVER STOP MOVING. Even if it stutter-stating and stopping randomly, this makes you much harder to hit. The tendency is to stop and try to get your reticle down while trying to hit someone (I do this myself sometimes) but if you are in open territory, you are vulnerable.

4) Don't worry about it too much. I generally play quite loaded and over-aggro but the next battle is just ahead.  Playing a lot (and losing a lot) will teach you the above.


I'd be happy to toon up or go into a training room if I am ever on.

[Furiously]

Also some nights you will just get kicked in the balls non-stop.

[angry.bob]

It's completely wrong.  Hills are key points on several maps depending on your tank and also grant you good snipe and hull-down opportunities.  The problem in pubs is that teams will over or under-commit to them so I usually wait until I see the spread of tanks to know whether to go that route.

I disagree. Perhaps you'd care to name which hills these are and what exactly makes them "key points". Otherwise I'll just have to assume this is just more of your unhealthy obsession with contradicting whatever I say.

Frankly, Nebu is smart enough to analyze the costs/benefits of trying to cap the hills himself. But I still want some examples of these vital hills.

[Abagadro]

Who's obsessed with whom?

Malinovka: Windmill is key to advancing down into the forest on either side.
Prokhorovka: Hill is key to sniping down on the town and holding east side of map.
Province: Is two hills.
Mountain Pass: Doesn't have much in the way of hills but you can use the slopes on the glacier side and the ravine to key advantage.
Mines: Controlling center is an absolute must (even the alternative strats of taking the island, that's a hill)
Fjords: Controlling the center of the map (which is a hill) allows sniping into town, coverage of the corner of the 9 line and the corner in the 1 line.
Cliff: You need to control both the cliff (to cover the valley) and the central ridge.
Himmelsdorf: If you don't at least defend the hill you will get flanked on the 8 line or they will get into your cap. The converse is true offensively.
Westfield: Taking the A-D, 2-4 hill allows you to flank the city. On the 9-0 line taking that hill allows you to control the valley and then entry into their cap to hit their arty.
Swamp: Even taking the dinky little hill at D-4 allows you to control half the map.
Sand River: Both the north and south ridges are the key battleground points of the maps as they provide arty-safe areas.
Redshire: South side snipes from the houses on the west and east hills. North spawn controls their approaches from the central hill.
Murovanka: The 3 line ridge is the key defensive aspect for the entire South spawn and the north side push around the D3 corner. The mini ridge at F9 is key to the eastern push both direcitons
Komarin: The dual hills near each cap are the primary defensive/offensive positions relative to the caps.
Karelia: The "donut" hill is an aboslute must to either capture or deny as it facilitates the southeastern push, sniping to the middle and even hitting the north push.
Erlenberg: The C/D 3/4 hill is the primary battleground on the north push while the F9 hill is the key area for the eastern push. Both teams also take primary defensive positions on their respective hills covering the caps (castle on one side, houses on the other)
El Halluf: This map is 2 and a 1/2 hills that dictate the whole game, the two caps and the A2 approach.

Saying hills aren't important in WoT is fucking moronic. The only maps where the hills aren't important are the maps that don't have hills.

[Ginaz]

Who's obsessed with whom?

Malinovka: Windmill is key to advancing down into the forest on either side.
Prokhorovka: Hill is key to sniping down on the town and holding east side of map.
Province: Is two hills.
Mountain Pass: Doesn't have much in the way of hills but you can use the slopes on the glacier side and the ravine to key advantage.
Mines: Controlling center is an absolute must (even the alternative strats of taking the island, that's a hill)
Fjords: Controlling the center of the map (which is a hill) allows sniping into town, coverage of the corner of the 9 line and the corner in the 1 line.
Cliff: You need to control both the cliff (to cover the valley) and the central ridge.
Himmelsdorf: If you don't at least defend the hill you will get flanked on the 8 line or they will get into your cap. The converse is true offensively.
Westfield: Taking the A-D, 2-4 hill allows you to flank the city. On the 9-0 line taking that hill allows you to control the valley and then entry into their cap to hit their arty.
Swamp: Even taking the dinky little hill at D-4 allows you to control half the map.
Sand River: Both the north and south ridges are the key battleground points of the maps as they provide arty-safe areas.
Redshire: South side snipes from the houses on the west and east hills. North spawn controls their approaches from the central hill.
Murovanka: The 3 line ridge is the key defensive aspect for the entire South spawn and the north side push around the D3 corner. The mini ridge at F9 is key to the eastern push both direcitons
Komarin: The dual hills near each cap are the primary defensive/offensive positions relative to the caps.
Karelia: The "donut" hill is an aboslute must to either capture or deny as it facilitates the southeastern push, sniping to the middle and even hitting the north push.
Erlenberg: The C/D 3/4 hill is the primary battleground on the north push while the F9 hill is the key area for the eastern push. Both teams also take primary defensive positions on their respective hills covering the caps (castle on one side, houses on the other)
El Halluf: This map is 2 and a 1/2 hills that dictate the whole game, the two caps and the A2 approach.

Saying hills aren't important in WoT is fucking moronic. The only maps where the hills aren't important are the maps that don't have hills.

Hills are important, esp. when there is little or no arty.  Often, however, people take the wrong tanks up the hill.  Meds and lights are usually good for hills, as are fast TDs and SOME heavies like the KV-1S or the M103.  The problem with hills is that things can get bogged down up top or people are reluctant to leave and go down and try and cap.

On a side note, I'm loving T30 TD.  In 70 matches, I have a 60% win rate and averaging almost 2300 damage, which is not bad considering my crew isn't at 100% yet and is similar to the win rate and average damage I do with my E-75 and T110E5, my other tier 9/10 tanks (M103 has stats combined with old T34 so I'm not sure about that one).

[Abagadro]

For some reason I am having a tough time adjusting to the change to it being a TD. I had a marginal 49 percent win rate in it as a T10 heavy but have stunk with it since the change. I can't seem to adjust to the reload time on the 155 or something.   I am kicking ass and taking names in my Jagtiger though. Love that thing. Held off a 4 heavy push (including an IS4 and Lowe) by myself on Redshire killing all of them. The fast reload, insane penetration and pinpoint accuracy of that long 128 are making up for the low alpha damage.

[apocrypha]

I get so frustrated with people in randoms doing hills wrong.

Going over a ridge, one at a time, into enemy fire is very, very wrong. The map I see this most on is Lakeville, on the Western passage, at about E2. Time and again I say "Don't go over the ridge one at a time, you will die!" and get completely ignored and watch 5 tanks in a row crest the hill and disintegrate.

Nine times out of ten if you wait and tease you can get the enemy team to poke their heads over and suffer the same fate, especially if there's decent pressure on the other flanks.

[Abagadro]

With the new stats mod you can see the bell curve in action. It's hilarious as the reds just go "POP" as they run out into fields of fire and you see it whittle down to the greens and purples.

[Amarr HM]

Nice rundown of the hills Abagadro and I nearly chimed in with a very similar post. Hills can be a key to victory, knowing how to use them & getting the right balance is also important. Sometimes people overcommit to hills, Himmelsdorf for example. But there are certain maps where they are absolutely key, none moreso than mines because they can be used to spot enemy arty and you can snipe on nearly every part of the map to some degree.

[Bandit]

Nice rundown of the hills Abagadro and I nearly chimed in with a very similar post. Hills can be a key to victory, knowing how to use them & getting the right balance is also important. Sometimes people overcommit to hills, Himmelsdorf for example. But there are certain maps where they are absolutely key, none moreso than mines because they can be used to spot enemy arty and you can snipe on nearly every part of the map to some degree.

I cringe every time when you start Himmelsdorf and someone indicates that everyone should take the hill.  I have very rarely seen that strategy work.  The hill serves very little strategic advantage and is mostly a long and convoluted way to take half your team away from main battle.  Obviously the hill needs to be defended and at the very least scouted.

Just really getting back into WoT and getting my addiction back.  I have noticed that either my skills have degraded or the skill level as a whole has improved.  Not sure if most people are using hitbox mods or what either.  Also, it seems the chatter is a bit more mean-spirited as a whole - I have seen lots of "noob" comments and plenty of bashing from dead players.  Obviously it happened before, but seems more common.

I am bit of a nut and I believe I am some where in the neighbourhood of 50+ tanks in my garage. 

[apocrypha]

I am bit of a nut and I believe I am some where in the neighbourhood of 50+ tanks in my garage. 

Thank you. I don't feel so bad about my 29 tank garage now! 

[Merusk]

Good lord.. I was feeling a bit crazy with 9 tanks I was cycling through on a regular basis.  I've enjoyed my time in some of the older ones but no way I was keeping them around once I got a newer one.  The only tank I've felt bad about selling was the Easy-8.

The bashing has gotten worse in the last few months, I'm not certain why.  I attribute at least part of it to the stats mod because that seems to be what prompts most of what I've seen.  i.e. one guy calls someone a noob but then gets plastered for doing something stupid, so he proceeds to get laughed at and in turn spends the rest of the match smack-talking.

At the same time I'm seeing a lot of bad, stupid players lately.  I don't know if my internal rating is sticking me on shitty teams or it's just poor luck, but my win ratio is dropping significantly.  I'm not a great player (at best I'd say passable) but I keep finding I'm one of the last few alive after only 3-4 minutes in a match, while the other team has >70% remaining.   Whereupon I get raped and lose yet another 5k on my T-29.   Am I the only one seeing this?

[Nebu]

My win rate went from 54% to 47% recently and my frustration level is increasing daily.  I can peak around the corner of something for a nanosecond and get 1-shot.  If not 1-shot, I find that nearly everyone's first shot either tracks me, kills my driver, or kills my engine.  It's really killing my desire to log on and play. 

[Engels]

There's a very noticeable hump for newer players when they reach tier 6 tanks. They get tossed into tier 8 fights, and tier 8 tanks are a regular feature in tier 10 fights, so they can absolutely slaughter tier 6 tanks, while tier 6 tanks struggle desperately against IS3s, T32s and KTs.

Its the mechanics of scaling; I'm not sure there's something the devs can do about it.

[Bandit]

I collect tanks as I am a bit of a Tank enthusiast IRL.  Attended a couple of live demonstrations (Chaffee & M4 Sherman this year) and became a regular at a nearby tank museum.  I am actually making a pilgrimage to the saumur tank museum in France (as part of a wedding trip) this year which is one of the largest tank/armoured vehicle displays in the world including 2 Panthers (only like 20 left in world) and the only operable King Tiger tank.  Tank Nerd.

In the short time I have been back, I would say that I am at about a 50/50 win-rate and just mostly rotate daily double tanks.  Tier 5/6 continues to be brutal - it is definitely frustrating to be in a tank that can do very little to affect the outcome.  I had a showdown in with a Tiger in my Ram II last night,  mostly I could only keep him tracked around the corner with my machine-gun firepower.  He must have been frustrated though, as I tracked him for like 3 minutes straight while my team capped and otherwise annoyed him with 1 penetrating shot out of 10.

[Amarr HM]

There's a very noticeable hump for newer players when they reach tier 6 tanks. They get tossed into tier 8 fights, and tier 8 tanks are a regular feature in tier 10 fights, so they can absolutely slaughter tier 6 tanks, while tier 6 tanks struggle desperately against IS3s, T32s and KTs.

I think it's worse at Tier 4 and 5.

I tried to play the T-50, 60% time I was put in games with T6-T10 and expected to scout, this was especially frustrating if there was no arty.
T-50 is a shitty scout, not enough speed to evade multiple shots and too bloody big. I sold it am going to free XP the T-50-2.

Once you get to the KV or VK3601 you can start doing some shit in most games.

[Furiously]

My win rate went from 54% to 47% recently and my frustration level is increasing daily.  I can peak around the corner of something for a nanosecond and get 1-shot.  If not 1-shot, I find that nearly everyone's first shot either tracks me, kills my driver, or kills my engine.  It's really killing my desire to log on and play. 

Yea. I tend to have a lot of nights like that recently. It really feels like the game has your number some nights.

[Ginaz]

I've been losing a lot more recently as well, and my overall win percent dropped from 53% to 52% for a bit.  My individual performance has been the same or has even marginally improved whcih makes the losing even more frustrating.  All the tanks I play on a regualr basis has a mastery badge of some level and my average xp and damage done has gone up.  I guess its just shitty luck being stuck on so many bad teams.

[apocrypha]

What I'm finding is that there seem to be very few close games. Most of the time one team gets slaughtered, 15 to 3/4/5 kind of scores.

I'm playing a lot of tier 7-10 games and I keep seeing large imbalances in the 2nd tier tank numbers, e.g. each side may have 2 tier 10's but one side will have 2 tier 9's vs 6+ tier 9's on the other side. Guess which side wins most often.

I also think the ubiquity of hitzone skins magnifies differences - tanks die *fast* because so many people know where to hit. After constant bounces I tried some out and it made such a huge difference to my damage rate I have carried on using them. I consider this a game design fault. The difference between hitting a weak spot (large damage) and a strong spot (zero damage and a wasted 1000 Cr shell) is too great. There are too many tanks with too varied a range of weakspots to memorize easily. Therefore hitzone skins make a huge difference to many people, me included.

[Amarr HM]

I tried using hitbox skins but found them too ugly, anyhow they're all pretty obvious, engine, sides or flat bit of frontal hull. A new one I found (without hitboxes) is the big bulge on top of the T1110s, I love rocking those smarmy hull down guys with that one. It's on the T95 too but it's smaller and harder to hit from range.

[Furiously]

What I'm finding is that there seem to be very few close games. Most of the time one team gets slaughtered, 15 to 3/4/5 kind of scores.

I'm playing a lot of tier 7-10 games and I keep seeing large imbalances in the 2nd tier tank numbers, e.g. each side may have 2 tier 10's but one side will have 2 tier 9's vs 6+ tier 9's on the other side. Guess which side wins most often.

I also think the ubiquity of hitzone skins magnifies differences - tanks die *fast* because so many people know where to hit. After constant bounces I tried some out and it made such a huge difference to my damage rate I have carried on using them. I consider this a game design fault. The difference between hitting a weak spot (large damage) and a strong spot (zero damage and a wasted 1000 Cr shell) is too great. There are too many tanks with too varied a range of weakspots to memorize easily. Therefore hitzone skins make a huge difference to many people, me included.

I am wondering how many people are running around with the "less" foliage mods.

[Amarr HM]

I used to run with that, in fact I didn't mind the game looking like minecraft, just didn't like the gaudy hitbox skins. I can't find any for the new patch & it also be great to switch off particles, they're the worst for fps drop.

[Engels]

Honestly, I loved the T-50, even if it had no gun to speak of. It is SO agile, by far the most agile tank in the game. Takes off on a dime.

The key to enjoying the T-50 is to have Yakety Sax (the Benny Hill theme) music playing in the background while scooting about.

[Amarr HM]

Did you have the top engine? maybe that's the difference.