World of Tanks

[Nebu]

So, the 57mm is a better choice than the 76mm? I was going to save the xp and go straight to the T34-85 as I heard it was a fun tank.  Should I rethink that?

Now I'm starting to think that I'm just terrible at this game.  I've had no luck with this tank at all.

[WayAbvPar]

I fucking HATED the T-34. Way too squishy, too big, not fast enough, doesn't do enough damage. Get through it any way you can and move to the T-34-85 (which I LOVE).

[Bungee]

So, the 57mm is a better choice than the 76mm? I was going to save the xp and go straight to the T34-85 as I heard it was a fun tank.  Should I rethink that?

Now I'm starting to think that I'm just terrible at this game.  I've had no luck with this tank at all.

Depends on your playstyle, but it has better DPM and accuracy and aim time. So try the 57mm an see if you get rolling then. The T34-85 only gets fun once you got the second 85mm.

[angry.bob]

Now I'm starting to think that I'm just terrible at this game.  I've had no luck with this tank at all.

What level of experience is your crew? Having a 100%+ crew makes an aweful lot of difference, especially with the lower tier tanks. Also, the aim faster thingy and the rammer helps a lot. The bonuses to things like loading and aiming time don't sound all that big, but considering the number of times that surviving depends on loading a shell half a second faster than the other guy it's a pretty big deal.

[Bungee]

Now I'm starting to think that I'm just terrible at this game.  I've had no luck with this tank at all.

What level of experience is your crew? Having a 100%+ crew makes an aweful lot of difference, especially with the lower tier tanks. Also, the aim faster thingy and the rammer helps a lot. The bonuses to things like loading and aiming time don't sound all that big, but considering the number of times that surviving depends on loading a shell half a second than the other guy it's a pretty big deal.

It's also 900,000 credits.

[angry.bob]

It's also 900,000 credits.

And? If it's more than someone wants to spend, wait and buy the equipment during a half off event. Or pay the 20 gold to switch it from one of your other tanks you don't use much. You guys do keep all your tanks and crews, right?

[Merusk]

I didn't until I hit tier 5. I wasn't willing to spend real cash every time I bought a new tank to keep them at 100%.   It's been very nice having Tier 8s hitting their first perk or 100% in a skill since then, though.

As for 900k credits, it's a pittance later on.  My tier 9 tanks are going to cost 2-3 million so I'm going to be grinding for cash anyway (part of the reason I have 2 high-end premiums).  The rammers make it a LOT easier on you when doing so and, as bob points out, you can transfer them from tank to tank for very little money.   Wait for the next special and buy them then.

[Bungee]

It's also 900,000 credits.

And? If it's more than someone wants to spend, wait and buy the equipment during a half off event. Or pay the 20 gold to switch it from one of your other tanks you don't use much. You guys do keep all your tanks and crews, right?

Just saying, as I'm under the impression that Nebu isn't that far down the trees yet, hence he won't have that many credits available let alone have the equipment to transfer in the first place. T-34 gets insanely fun with the rammer, though.

I do keep tanks and crews from tanks I actually enjoyed. Otherwise the crew gets transferred to the next higher tier or stored if there's a light-medium or medium-heavy switch.

[Nebu]

Just saying, as I'm under the impression that Nebu isn't that far down the trees yet, hence he won't have that many credits available let alone have the equipment to transfer in the first place. T-34 gets insanely fun with the rammer, though.

I have several 7's and one 8 open (that I didn't buy yet).  I just don't fully understand the performance difference in crew yet.  I'm also pretty stingy when it comes to cash and usually only buy expensive gear/tanks when there is a sale going on. 

On a brighter note, buying the faster, high pen gun had a huge impact on my play.  I had a couple of 3 and 4 kill matches and even soloed a T1 on my T34.  It's an adrenaline rush to solo heavies by out-flanking them.  The higher pen on that fast and accurate gun (57mm?) makes it so much easier. 

[Tmon]

Same gun is on the t50-2, which moves faster, handles better and bounces more shots.  I highly recommend getting one before they remove it from the game.

[Nebu]

Same gun is on the t50-2, which moves faster, handles better and bounces more shots.  I highly recommend getting one before they remove it from the game.

I'm 47k into the T50.  I'll try to grind out the 50-2.  I just don't enjoy playing scouts against tier 8's and 9's.

[Kageru]

The tier-V scouts will still cause you to bleed money I assume... not my idea of fun.

[Merusk]

I certainly don't make any on my 50-2 unless I've spotted everyone, which has a lower chance of happening on the newer maps.

Thing is drifty as hell with Physics, too.  You really can't go all-out on speed without fishtailing or sliding in to/ off of shit you don't want to do that with. (Oh HAI cliff!)

[Tmon]

I run mine mostly as a palate cleanser after long matches with big slow tanks.  It's fun to just jump in something that I can drive like a crack addled spider monkey.  Sometimes I only live for a couple minutes, sometimes I have an epic match but either way is fine with me.  The most fun is when I can run it with one or two folks from the clan and coordinate on TS.  So long as we don't ram each other we can usually circle strafe just about anything to death.

[WayAbvPar]

It can be a hell of a lot of fun to go careening through a fledgling attack and just utterly destroy it simply through your sudden presence. EVERYONE stops to turn and shoot at you, the arty is wetting their pants and can't get set up to shoot, and your team gets a great look at how the enemy is planning to set up. Bonus points if you dump a few rounds into the sides or asses of them as you blow by. If you can finish off by killing an arty or two before you die, it is well worth it. If you somehow manage to survive, you completely take the starch out of the other team- they KNOW you are coming back at some point, so no one can relax. A good scout is a fucking nightmare for opponents.

[Merusk]

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong I love the damn thing which is why I still own it.   It just slides about which I do the same thing, Tmon.  Or if I have a string of losses.. out comes the 50-2 to just have some fun! It's the closest thing to a pure FPS experience I've seen in the game and it's just a joy.

Honestly the only problem I have is trying to figure out which gun to run with it.  The low-pen high-damage or the OK-pen low-damage.  I can't seem to blow the shit out of Priests or better with either so I've gone with the fastest reload for now.

And my goal if I've decided "fuck it, suicide run!" is to see just how many enemy tanks I can get chasing me, then mocking them for it.   Best so far: I had a 103, two Lowes and a Tiger II along with an M26 chase me on the highway.  It was 5 of the top 7 tanks on that map and I couldn't stop laughing at how out of place they were because I'd made it to their flag and they just *HAD* to kill that scout!

[Tmon]

There is nothing better than leading the conga line of death a merry chase around the map, well except maybe goading someone into shooting his own arty.  My 50-2's theme music is Ace of Spades, I sometimes feel a little dorky hunting through my tank music playlist to queue it up but the two go together so well that it's kind of a waste not to do it. 

[angry.bob]

I have several 7's and one 8 open (that I didn't buy yet).  I just don't fully understand the performance difference in crew yet. 

There's a pretty good explanation of skills here here. Short version is that it makes a pretty big difference. The medium rammer is only $200,000 and a pretty big difference. since half off only saves $100,000 I'll usually buy those whenever. The aim faster thingy is another $500,000 though. Those I only buy when they're half price

[Sheepherder]

On a brighter note, buying the faster, high pen gun had a huge impact on my play.  I had a couple of 3 and 4 kill matches and even soloed a T1 on my T34.  It's an adrenaline rush to solo heavies by out-flanking them.  The higher pen on that fast and accurate gun (57mm?) makes it so much easier.

I got a 7 kill game with the T-34/57mm.  Before I got the 57mm I was convinced the tank was a pile of shit.

[Nebu]

There's a pretty good explanation of skills here here. Short version is that it makes a pretty big difference. The medium rammer is only $200,000 and a pretty big difference. since half off only saves $100,000 I'll usually buy those whenever. The aim faster thingy is another $500,000 though. Those I only buy when they're half price

Bought the loader for my tier 7 german TD and it was a game changer.  I'm still not up to the level of proficiency that many of you guys are, but I think I'm getting better.  I really need to follow Ab or Garga around more.  The way those guys look at the maps is a pretty eye-opening experience.

[Engels]

Nebu,

Garga explicitly has asked us to take newer players under our wing. All ya have to do is log into TS and if Garga, Way, Aba or I are on, we'll grind our Tier 6-7s with you, no problem. We're all working on tanks in that level range, so you'd not be any sort of inconvenience. The same goes for any of you, not just Nebu. Aba is particularly good to learn from, since he's got a good mind for the development cycle of a fight on various maps.

This weekend in Clan Wars, Chickens heroically took Brittany region after 4 fabulous fights on Friday, and then quickly got curb stomped by Havok and some Canadian clan on Saturday, in large part due to the fact that we just didn't have the numbers on Saturday that we had on Friday and the minor detail that some twits in our clan didn't follow instructions :P Still, it was a blast.

[Nebu]

I am a bit ashamed to admit this, but I've played like 3000 matches and I still don't know the best way to approach a few of the maps.  I also don't get into TS most nights because I am usually in ventrillo with friends playing tanks.  Abagadro was kind enough to give me some of his time in a private channel and that helped a lot.  Seems my overall strategy isn't terrible, I just need to work on the finer points.

I have a tier 8 medium opened, but decided not to purchase it.  I think going up the American heavy line will ultimately be more useful for clan stuff.  I hope that I'm proficient enough at playing by the time I get to tier 9 with that tank that I won't embarrass myself in a clan battle.  

[Strazos]

Shoot, I don't mind making a fool of myself in a clan scrim...or for that matter, having my connection have an ill-timed bout of packet loss and make me look a fool.

Unfortunately, I am just now getting towards tier 6 tanks, so it will be quite some time before I matter.

[Nebu]

Odd question:  Anyone else getting booted from game during matches?  It has happened to me about twice a day over the last week.  When I reconnect, I'm usually in a lake. 

[Merusk]

Odd question:  Anyone else getting booted from game during matches?  It has happened to me about twice a day over the last week.  When I reconnect, I'm usually in a lake. 

I was just about to ask this myself.  I had 2 disconnects over the weekend on different maps and I've been getting them intermittently since the last patch.  Only once have I been able to recover when I reconnect. (Oddly enough on that map it was my offline "push" that got my guys out of camping spots and actually took out the opfor.  Made up at least a little for coming back to "the track is gone" and "allright, everyone get out!" in succession before I'd fully reloaded.

[kildorn]

I haven't been disconnected, but I've been getting random massive lag spikes for 20-30 seconds of nothing happening, then everything resolves per normal.

[Merusk]

Probably the same problem, only you don't wind-up disconnected where others are.  I've seen others complain about lag spikes, too. Maybe their servers are choking under the popularity.

[Strazos]

I get lag spikes all the time, but...

Well, you know - African Internets. 

[Abagadro]

I had a weird crash for the first time in forever this week.

[WayAbvPar]

I have heard a lot of that recently. Haven't seen it myself yet.

[Amarr HM]

I also had a weird crash yesterday.

[Tmon]

I've been pretty solid, did have a crash to desktop on exiting a match the other day but that's about it.  I'm looking forward to the patch coming out since it is supposed to fix the problem with your sites jerking around in sniper view.  It doesn't happen often but when it does it just destroys the fun.

[WayAbvPar]

I usually get that when some asshat on my team runs into me right as I am shooting 

[Merusk]

Yeah what the fuck is up with that lately?  I had a KV1S ram my Pershing last night so he could take a shot.  I had a tier 9 push my T32 out in to enemy fire and I've had all sorts of random idiots jumping in front of my barrel after I do a pop-out at a corner.  It's getting maddening.

[Nebu]

I had a tier 8 heavy push my tier 7 TD off a hill from behind because he wanted my cover spot.   Have I mentioned that I love random pvp gamers?