World of Tanks

[WayAbvPar]

We do get this little baby on sale though-

Victory!
Battle: Prokhorovka Saturday, August 24, 2013 12:58:05 PM
Vehicle: FCM 36 Pak 40
Experience received: 2,762 (x2)
Credits received: 30,628
Battle Achievements: Top Gun, Sharpshooter, Master Gunner, Mastery Badge: "1st Class"

Only 425 gold. I highly suggest picking one up if you want to pad your k/d ratio 

8 kills in this one..Marder on my team had 6. Our team was along for the ride apparently. I saw they were on sale and hadn't started the French TD line, so now I have a crew trainer!

[Sir T]

Another good Tier 3 medium is this little beauty http://wiki.worldoftanks.com/Pz.Kpfw._S35_739_%28f%29 While it might not look that brilliant on paper, in tier 3 matches it utterly stomps across the map. The armour is very well sloped and with a bit of angling, or even better sitting with a camo net and binos in a bush the only thing that can stop it is enemy TDs. This is what I use for a little relaxation and newbie smashing. In tier 5 matches its probably not the best tier 3 you can have but you can still run around scouting and jumping on weak targets.

Another one to look at at tier 6 is the http://wiki.worldoftanks.com/Pz.Kpfw._IV_Schmalturm. From a sniper position that thing's gun will rip things apart. You wont last long in a brawl, but from a distance that gun fires rapidly and painfully.

[Ginaz]

Another one to look at at tier 6 is the http://wiki.worldoftanks.com/Pz.Kpfw._IV_Schmalturm. From a sniper position that thing's gun will rip things apart. You wont last long in a brawl, but from a distance that gun fires rapidly and painfully.

You would be better off getting the E-25.  Same gun but with a ROF over 20.  With mine, its reload is around 2.7 secs.  It is an absolute terror against tier 7's and below.

[Furiously]

We do get this little baby on sale though-

Victory!
Battle: Prokhorovka Saturday, August 24, 2013 12:58:05 PM
Vehicle: FCM 36 Pak 40
Experience received: 2,762 (x2)
Credits received: 30,628
Battle Achievements: Top Gun, Sharpshooter, Master Gunner, Mastery Badge: "1st Class"

Only 425 gold. I highly suggest picking one up if you want to pad your k/d ratio 

8 kills in this one..Marder on my team had 6. Our team was along for the ride apparently. I saw they were on sale and hadn't started the French TD line, so now I have a crew trainer!

I grabbed one... It is a tier 3 murder machine.

[angry.bob]

You would be better off getting the E-25.  Same gun but with a ROF over 20.  With mine, its reload is around 2.7 secs.  It is an absolute terror against tier 7's and below.

I bought my smugturm when they took the gun away from the regular IV and made the premium version so I've forgotten what it cost me. The E25 looks like it costs about a billion dollars more though.

[Sir T]

Pz IV S - 3750 Gold

E-75 - 6500 Gold

Just for interest;

8.8 pak 43 Jagtiger - 10000 gold

Lowe - 12500 Gold

Oh and I had one of the Silliest games I've had today. It was on cliff and I was caught in my Lowe angled in a position where they repeatedly shot my tracks down

40 hits received, 22 penetrations (the vast majority of which blew off my tracks so I could not move) 9500 potential damage received. I felt like a freaking KV5.

[WayAbvPar]

How does this happen? Not ONE FUCKING TANK went north despite my cajoling, pleading, and swearing. Guess what happened?  

Also of note- an entire team with no one but me who can even win half their fucking games. Jesus wept.

[snowwy]

We do get this little baby on sale though-

Victory!
Battle: Prokhorovka Saturday, August 24, 2013 12:58:05 PM
Vehicle: FCM 36 Pak 40
Experience received: 2,762 (x2)
Credits received: 30,628
Battle Achievements: Top Gun, Sharpshooter, Master Gunner, Mastery Badge: "1st Class"

Only 425 gold. I highly suggest picking one up if you want to pad your k/d ratio  

8 kills in this one..Marder on my team had 6. Our team was along for the ride apparently. I saw they were on sale and hadn't started the French TD line, so now I have a crew trainer!

I've had some insane results in it also, but it is very map-dependant. Have to move more than 100 meters? You're screwed. Ensk? You're screwed.
Hard to slog around at 14kph when everything you encounter whizz around at 60. But the gun is a killer.

edit: Never ever buy the Schmalturm shitcan. That is all

[Tmon]

We do get this little baby on sale though-

Victory!
Battle: Prokhorovka Saturday, August 24, 2013 12:58:05 PM
Vehicle: FCM 36 Pak 40
Experience received: 2,762 (x2)
Credits received: 30,628
Battle Achievements: Top Gun, Sharpshooter, Master Gunner, Mastery Badge: "1st Class"

Only 425 gold. I highly suggest picking one up if you want to pad your k/d ratio  

8 kills in this one..Marder on my team had 6. Our team was along for the ride apparently. I saw they were on sale and hadn't started the French TD line, so now I have a crew trainer!

I've had some insane results in it also, but it is very map-dependant. Have to move more than 100 meters? You're screwed. Ensk? You're screwed.
Hard to slog around at 14kph when everything you encounter whizz around at 60. But the gun is a killer.

edit: Never ever buy the Schmalturm shitcan. That is all

I've had some insane games in mine as well, most recently top gun, sniper and scout on the province map.  I sat in one spot and people just kept driving out in the open and letting me kill them.  I have something like a 67% win rate in it. 

[Sir T]

Also of note- an entire team with no one but me who can even win half their fucking games. Jesus wept.

Same thing on the other team, if you notice.

In fact I would speculate that 90% of players are below "50% win rate."

Since my "win rate" is now stuck on 47.6% no matter what I've long since stopped caring. It would probably take something 2000 straight wins to for me to correct it to join elite PVPers, and its pretty hard to do that when you have to grind through stock tanks and shit crews, unless you want to play the same tank forever.

Amusingly, my win rate has been constantly tracking down while all the other graphs of my character on www.Noobmeter.com has been going up. So I'm doing better and better in the matches, while winning less and less matches. You figure that one out.

[Ginaz]

Also of note- an entire team with no one but me who can even win half their fucking games. Jesus wept.

Same thing on the other team, if you notice.

In fact I would speculate that 90% of players are below "50% win rate."

Since my "win rate" is now stuck on 47.6% no matter what I've long since stopped caring. It would probably take something 2000 straight wins to for me to correct it to join elite PVPers, and its pretty hard to do that when you have to grind through stock tanks and shit crews, unless you want to play the same tank forever.

Amusingly, my win rate has been constantly tracking down while all the other graphs of my character on www.Noobmeter.com has been going up. So I'm doing better and better in the matches, while winning less and less matches. You figure that one out.

I know what you mean.  I've been playing better recently but I'm stuck at 53%.  http://www.noobmeter.com/player/na/Ginaz/1000381928/

There's been some truly awful players lately.  Maybe all the arty people gave up on it and are now trying to play with real tanks.

[Merusk]

That's part of it, but they're also advertising all over Cartoon Network too.  Lower quality and younger gamers coming in cant help.

What makes me rage is you say something useful and get shit on, so I've stopped trying.  Go ahead and all rush one side, charge a column one at a time, rush that cap circle on encounters!   I've stopped caring about wins because they aren't going to come because of the stupid forced loss algorithm.   Now I only care about kills and damage done.

[Tmon]

I platoon with a friend before going in to work several mornings a week and losing 5 or 6 of the 10 games we have time for just kills him.  Since I'm kind of just marking time until Hex and have pretty much everything in my garage that I really care about I don't mind as much, although watching your team throw away a sure win gets old after a while.  The change in 8.8 that gives people on the losing side who earn a medal full xp and credits will help some.  Hopefully it's the first step towards rewarding the top players in the match regardless of side.

[Sir T]

I know what you mean.  I've been playing better recently but I'm stuck at 53%.  http://www.noobmeter.com/player/na/Ginaz/1000381928/

There's been some truly awful players lately.  Maybe all the arty people gave up on it and are now trying to play with real tanks.

Here's mine if you want to take a look http://www.noobmeter.com/player/eu/Suranis1/504442441/

[Nebu]

Here's me: http://www.noobmeter.com/player/na/Nebu_f13/1001529646/

If anyone ever wants to platoon, shoot me a PM here or in game.  I'm currently trying to overcome the 45% WR I had 6 months ago.

[Merusk]

Know what's awesome about that site? That I can see the exact dip in wins related to the big patch where we all started bitching.   Which coincides with my last 1k battles. 

Good to see my getting fed-up and just going for kills has increased my stats over the last week.

http://www.noobmeter.com/player/na/merusk/1001292585/

[Nebu]

Good to see my getting fed-up and just going for kills has increased my stats over the last week.

My stats started to improve most when I focused on doing as much damage per match as possible.  I avoided trading shots with harder hitting tanks and stopped moving into areas where I was unsure of enemy locations.  Funny thing was that my kills improved without even trying.  It was the result of focusing on damage.

[Amarr HM]

Here's me: http://www.noobmeter.com/player/na/Nebu_f13/1001529646/

If anyone ever wants to platoon, shoot me a PM here or in game.  I'm currently trying to overcome the 45% WR I had 6 months ago.

Impressive efficiency over the last 1k battles 

[satael]

Maybe I should install this once again if MWO's community warfare doesn't bring something interesting to that game in the near future (http://www.noobmeter.com/player/eu/satael)

[Pennilenko]

Oh god, I just looked up my name on that stat site. I am one of those terrible players that vex you guys so much. 

[Ginaz]

Oh god, I just looked up my name on that stat site. I am one of those terrible players that vex you guys so much. 

 

[WayAbvPar]

Oh god, I just looked up my name on that stat site. I am one of those terrible players that vex you guys so much. 

Having bad stats is one thing. Having bad stats and refusing to try to improve or do anything to help your team is quite another.

[CaptainNapkin]

Never played this before and decided to give it a shot last night. Played 12 matches, I sucked but the game doesn't. Fun stuff, much to learn, I'm reading and watching all the 'beginner guide' type stuff I can. I definitely need to get back to my Americas Army Operations mindset where I have patience and can squash any run and gun tendencies.

Fully upgraded my little light T1 tank and decided to have 1 last battle before bed, it was not until after I started the match that I realized I had no ammo loaded  Wish I ended on a better note but I was tired.

Would you folk recommend sticking in T1 while I learn the ropes more (which is my current plan), or would T2 be better? It seems a lot of folks just rush across the map in the majority of T1 matches I was in last night. So far I've upgraded and mostly used the US T1 light tank, but plan to play around with the German version today.

[Merusk]

Low tiers are all rush and die, it doesn't start getting more strategic until T4 at least.  That same sort of impatient play is slowly wending its ways up the tiers, however.

[WayAbvPar]

I would suggest hopping around all the different lines and work them all to tier 3 or 4 (maybe skip the SPGs until you know the game better). That way once you learn more about the game (and your playstyle) you will have a bit of a head start. This weekend is 3x experience for the first victory, so it would be a good time to get started. My chat ban is over (for now  ), so feel free to msg me if you have any questions. I have a couple of tier 2s I can run with you (and a fucking murderous tier 3) if you want to platoon for a bit and watch someone mediocre play 

[Nebu]

Low tiers are all rush and die, it doesn't start getting more strategic until T4 at least.  That same sort of impatient play is slowly wending its ways up the tiers, however.

Use other people as meat shields.  I play very patiently in the first 5 mins.  Let my teammates light people up and draw fire and then I return fire.  My goal is to have as much health as I can late in the match to mop up for the win.  I think this has helped improve my win rate more than anything.

I'm also a fan of tiers 6-8.  They're the most fun and about the best balanced.

[WayAbvPar]

Indeed. Teammates are just there to soak up shots meant for you.

[Nebu]

Indeed. Teammates are just there to soak up shots meant for you.

Yes... occasionally platoon mates too! 

[Merusk]

All correct, but I was answering his question about the general feel from other players, though.  Yes, it is all rush and die stupidly at low tiers.  No, don't expect smart or intelligent or even non-drool-worthy play from teammates at those tiers.  Yes, if you get a good tank and play smart you can clean-up because of this, but clubbing seals gets boring after a while.

I bought that T3 French TD and agree, it's a damn murder machine.  I just wish I could get more open maps with it instead of Himmelsdorf, Ensk and Lakefield so goddamn much.

[WayAbvPar]

So far I have a pair of 8 kill games on Prokhorovka‎. Mines is my other one IIRC. Anything where spotting distance and quick, accurate shooting is king. It is great to use for the 30 kills/$300k mission!

[Nebu]

You're a better man than I.  I have 2 Radley Walters in almost 11k battles.  I tend to be the guy that gets Confederate often.

[Merusk]

Yeah I've got more far more Confeds than Top Guns. (14 vs 9 and Confed is newer by far.)

Though something seems wrong on WoT's site.  It only lists me with one reaper achieve and I get that fairly regularly when I'm on my game with TDs.  (note my 8 Kamakazies.  That's because the Type 59 seems to be at a perfect height to ram the fuck out of Russian IS-series.)

http://worldoftanks.com/community/accounts/1001292585-Merusk/

[WayAbvPar]

I don't think I have a Radley-Walters...there is a tier limit on it, and all my truly murderous games have been in low tiers. I think the most kills I have in tier 6+ is like 7.

e- Reaper is broken for me as well. I should have dozens of them after all my KV-2 derping and Pak40 newbie clubbing. There are several I will NEVER get, like surviving 20 battles (or even 5) in a row in the same vehicle, killing 5 SPGs in one game, etc. Doubt I will ever get another Raider either. That was pure dumb luck.

[Amarr HM]

I managed to get reaper up to 15 with the derp KV. Probably my only outstanding medal stat. My raider was a bugged 1v1 arty game, we both got one.

[Sir T]

One important thing to learn as well is angling. What it means is turn your tank slightly to the side to increase your armour. Put simply, the game adds the degree of the shot to your effective armour, so if you say have 60 armour and you are angled 30 degrees at the place the shot hits, your effective armor is 85 milimeters (60 MMs of armor +30 degrees of angle - 5 for shell normalization)

AP is your general purpose ammo, but you use high explosive at stuff you cant penetrate or if theres a huge amount of High explosive damage in the gun. Basicly high EX takes the effective armour away from the damage you will score if it hits, but it will almost always cause some damage whereas AP will bounce if your pen is not enough, and HE does not lose any pen over long distance. You can get away with High Ex in low tiers, but you will be using AP mostly.