World of Tanks

[Sir T]

I'm shocked that the use of gold ammo makes armour irrelevant at high tiers. 

[angry.bob]

I'm shocked that the use of gold ammo makes armour irrelevant at high tiers. 

What the fuck Wargaming, they're taking my beloved 4502b and giving me some shitty maus-lite but people with FV215's get to keep them and get the replacement tank.

[Sir T]

I found a table with the new values on a blog. Its in russian but you should be able to get the idea

[Nebu]

I wish they had simply nerfed premium ammo and left the standard ammo pen values alone.  It really would have done more to help decrease the auto pens.

[Sir T]

And reduce Wargaming's income??? 

[angry.bob]

And reduce Wargaming's income??? 

No one, and I mean no one, uses actual gold they paid money for on gold ammo.

[Sir T]

And where do you think they get the money to convert to gold ammo?

Premium accounts, Premium Tanks, all that good stuff.

The fact is that the gold flying around in high tier matches is the reason why there is no bouncing on Higher tiers. And by reducing the Pen of the basic ammo Wargaming is forcing people to go premium and buy more silver generating shit. Or be a tomato.

I mean this is freaking obvious. Its not even fucking subtle.

[Strazos]

You can just use credits to buy those rounds...

[Nebu]

WGN has outright stated that they will not change premium ammo due to the large amount of indirect income they make from its existence.  I can still dream though.

[Nebu]

You can just use credits to buy those rounds...

Yes, but how do you get credits faster?  Premium time, premium tanks, etc.  It's a brilliant way to get people to spend money.

[Ginaz]

This must be South America week or something.  They're everywhere the past few days and they are universally God awful.

[angry.bob]

This must be South America week or something.  They're everywhere the past few days and they are universally God awful.

It has been my long time rule in online games that the first team to Spanish loses. I often get called racist because of it, but I don't think it is. Most of the time they just sit at the spawn or cruise control into stuff all the while chatting in Spanish. ANd what drives me nuts is the guys speaking spanish almost always speak english, but won't because they won't. Except when they wan't to argue about something, like what a racist you are for telling them to play or go cyber in an AOL chatroom. They also generally don't give two shits about what's going on in the game. I'm pretty sure I've even complained about it in this thread before.

[Trippy]

What are some of the good newbie-friendly tank lines to work across? I'm looking for at least a couple of recommendations in each type except maybe SPG where I'll probably just concentrate on one line for now.

Currently I've played 228 battles and have almost exclusively been playing Tier II games. I tried some Tier III games a couple of weeks ago (my second weekend of playing) and got matched 3 times in a row in Tier III - V games on 3 different new maps so I said fuck that shit and went back to playing Tier II. I've now unlocked all of the Tier III tank lines except for Japan and have gotten almost all of the Tier II tanks to Elite status (for the extra practice) and now think I'm ready to move to Tier III and beyond.

From reading and watching I'm currently thinking of something like this for some of my choices:

SPG: UK
Light/Medium: France -> B-C 25 t
Medium: USSR -> Obj 430? Not sure about mediums
Heavy: USSR -> IS 7
Heavy: USA -> T110E5
TD: USSR -> Obj 268
Light/Medium/Heavy: USA -> T57 Heavy

From what I've seen and read it seems like the German lines don't compare well to the other countries' lines which is unfortunate cause the Panther is like my favoritest tank evar. I'll probably still do that one just because or maybe I'll just buy the Panther 8,8.

[Nebu]

Best new player tank lines:

US heavies (T1, M1, T29, to the 110E5)

Russian Mediums (T44 --> T62)

Russian Heavies (KV-85 --> IS7)

These will teach you the basics.  I'd say to try the US medium line next to learn about turret depression and terrain abuse.

TDs and SPGs really won't teach you much about core game play and are safe play choices when you're having a rough day.

[angry.bob]

SPG: UK
Light/Medium: France -> B-C 25 t

From what I've seen and read it seems like the German lines don't compare well to the other countries' lines which is unfortunate cause the Panther is like my favoritest tank evar.

UGHghghggsdshadahsdjhg.

I'd really suggest holding off on UK SPG's and French tanks past tier III for a while.

The British SPG line has big spot in it where you'll have less range than the tanks you're fighting and if you don't know the maps really well you'll end up dead before you get even one shot off. The Birch gun is fun though and is pretty low level. If you want to do SPG's French is probably best. They do the least damage on a hit but they're accurate, fast firing, and generally on good vehicles.

French Tank lines are packed with weird, fragile tanks that take a certain playstyle to use well. If you can play without getting shot more than once give them a try though.

The german lines are fine, they just have that unrealistically vulnerable lower glacis. the Jagdpanzer E 100 TD line doesn't have a bad TD in it from what I recall. Great guns, good to great armor, and accurate. The waffletosser line is eh, and sufffers from the same thing that makes the french tanks iffy. I'f you're just looking for "easy to use" the turreted American TD line is as easy as it gets.

Also, give the new domination mode a try. It's really fun and suits my inability to be patient and not play really aggressively. You'll make some good money doing it too.

[Sir T]

Also be very aware that light tanks are classed as "scout Tanks" and are gifted with the Unique fcknoob ability to be placed in a game at much higher tiers than their own tier as they are "scouting". SO the tier 3 light tank that you are using as a newb and you have to grind through, and which no-one told you this little fact, will be suddenly up against T7 tanks that will detonate you by blinking.

Fun eh?

[Engels]

I can recommend the British TD line. The whole thing is solid, and then you get the 183 'death star' TD. The German line is very cool, but both the JP E100 and the Waffen E100 are kinda odd ball TDs.

As an arty player, please ignore Nebu's embittered warblings. I recommend the German line as the most fun to get through, although in the end game for clan wars the prevailing thought is British and American.

[Nebu]

As an arty player, please ignore Nebu's embittered warblings.

What's bitter about stating that medium/heavy play will help him learn mechanics?

TD's and SPG's generally promote a passive play style.  While fine after you've learned the game, I don't think they really help a player develop the skills needed to carry games.

[Merusk]

As an arty player, please ignore Nebu's embittered warblings. I recommend the German line as the most fun to get through, although in the end game for clan wars the prevailing thought is British and American.

Because of the American reload times and splash? Because it sure as shit isn't their accuracy, unless things change after the M44 & M12. Those are where I finally hit the "fuck this" wall after 4 games of never hitting anything.

[Sir T]

I think for Idiot proofness and forgiving play you can go with the Russians or the Chinese. Lots of lovely armour, damaging if somewhat inaccurate guns that somewhat lack Penetration, reasonable speed.

The US lines are all about the turret. Hard well armoured turrets, powerful guns, lesser armour in the body.

Germans are about accurate and powerful guns, generally like being behind other tanks as their armour can be suspect as they didn't believe in the angling the inferiour races liked.

[WayAbvPar]

If you want to play grossly overpowered light tanks, go up the American Chaffee-T37-M41 line. The last one (T49) is probably the worst of the bunch, but it is still decent, and has an absolutely rage-inducing gun (for both shooter and target   ).

Brit arty is very good at tier 6, horrible at 7, decent at 8. I am only on the tier 9 and haven't unlocked the big gun yet, but so far I love the incredibly wide traverse allowed. Russian and German arty are especially awful for this; the firing arc is a few degrees wide. The FV3805 has an arc similar to the M53 55 (my fav arty and one of my favorite tanks to play).


The M6-T29-T32-M103-T110E5 line for American heavies are all very solid. I think the E5 will regain some of its lost luster when the tier 10 medium pen nerfs hit. The other American line that ends in a heavy goes from light to med to med to heavy, so it is not as consistent an experience. It does have some awesome tanks in though (I love the T54E1 and the T57 Heavy).

Stay away from French heavies until you have more experience. They are extremely unforgiving and can get you killed in a nano-second.

[Trippy]

As an arty player, please ignore Nebu's embittered warblings.

What's bitter about stating that medium/heavy play will help him learn mechanics?

I think he's referring to your corpus of artillery-related posts

[Engels]

I won't deny that arty is a -different- game than horizontally challenged tanks, but I am appalled that you think its as simple as all that. Initial firing position, knowing map angles well enough, knowing the enemy tank approach patterns, what SPGs can go over a hill and hit behind it and which can't, relocating to hit other areas, etc,  are not something that one learns in a week. There are superb arty players out there that when you see them you know, as the enemy tank, that you are going to have to be extra careful where you set up because they will reign death on you if you faf about in the usual places.

[Ginaz]

What are some of the good newbie-friendly tank lines to work across? I'm looking for at least a couple of recommendations in each type except maybe SPG where I'll probably just concentrate on one line for now.

Currently I've played 228 battles and have almost exclusively been playing Tier II games. I tried some Tier III games a couple of weeks ago (my second weekend of playing) and got matched 3 times in a row in Tier III - V games on 3 different new maps so I said fuck that shit and went back to playing Tier II. I've now unlocked all of the Tier III tank lines except for Japan and have gotten almost all of the Tier II tanks to Elite status (for the extra practice) and now think I'm ready to move to Tier III and beyond.

From reading and watching I'm currently thinking of something like this for some of my choices:

SPG: UK
Light/Medium: France -> B-C 25 t
Medium: USSR -> Obj 430? Not sure about mediums
Heavy: USSR -> IS 7
Heavy: USA -> T110E5
TD: USSR -> Obj 268
Light/Medium/Heavy: USA -> T57 Heavy

From what I've seen and read it seems like the German lines don't compare well to the other countries' lines which is unfortunate cause the Panther is like my favoritest tank evar. I'll probably still do that one just because or maybe I'll just buy the Panther 8,8.

If you want easy mode from start to finish, pick any branch on the Soviet tree and go.  There might be "better" tanks at each tier but I'd argue no other nation enjoys as solid a line up from tier 1 to 10 on all types of vehicles.  Russian bias!

[Sir T]

Stay away from French heavies until you have more experience. They are extremely unforgiving and can get you killed in a nano-second.

Lies! The B1 is the best tank in the game! 

In all serious the BDR-G1-B http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Tank:BDR_G1B is utter crap till you get the top gun on it... then it turns into a monster at its tier and is known as one of the best non Premium Moneymaking Tanks in the game. One should definitely consider grinding to that tank. After that it gets very dodgy as the real French weaknesses kick in.

[Trippy]

Thanks for the advice everybody.

The British SPG line has big spot in it where you'll have less range than the tanks you're fighting and if you don't know the maps really well you'll end up dead before you get even one shot off. The Birch gun is fun though and is pretty low level. If you want to do SPG's French is probably best. They do the least damage on a hit but they're accurate, fast firing, and generally on good vehicles.

I don't like the SPGs with low firing arcs but maybe the mobility of the French SPGs will offset that. I will take a look at those.

French Tank lines are packed with weird, fragile tanks that take a certain playstyle to use well. If you can play without getting shot more than once give them a try though.

Yeah I know they are bit strange with their autoloaders, paper thin armor and rear mounted turrets on some but their mobility and harassment ability is impressive.

Also be very aware that light tanks are classed as "scout Tanks" and are gifted with the Unique fcknoob ability to be placed in a game at much higher tiers than their own tier as they are "scouting". SO the tier 3 light tank that you are using as a newb and you have to grind through, and which no-one told you this little fact, will be suddenly up against T7 tanks that will detonate you by blinking.

Yeah I know about that oddity in matchmaking where there's an extra tier for light tank matchmaking. I'm fine, though, with spotting for my team and practicing firing from behind non-transparent cover.

[WayAbvPar]

The problem with light tanks is that at least half the maps (more like 75%) are set up to make scouting/passive spotting impossible. Then you are just a fast medium with no armor and less hit points. And often a shittier gun. It makes the overall grind really shitty.

But when you get the right map in the right tank with the right team supporting you...it can be magic. I was on Redshire playing with Aba the other night in my Ru 251 (I think..may have been my T49). Got into THE spotting bush and just sat there for the first 5 or 6 minutes of the match while tank after tank wandered into my spotting range and was promptly shot to ribbons by my teammates on the hill. When that dried up I moved into the hills and started active spotting and shooting the infestation there. Ended up doing about 1200 damage (not bad, but not exceptional by any means), but had almost 6k spotting damage! I wish the WN8 formula accounted for that 

[Trippy]

Yeah I'm aware they have been removing bushes and trees from maps to cut down on camping TDs which usually ends up hurting light tanks more cause TDs will just camp further back.

[Nebu]

I won't deny that arty is a -different- game than horizontally challenged tanks, but I am appalled that you think its as simple as all that.

I didn't say it was simple in my last post.  I stated that it didn't teach mechanics key for carrying matches as well as a medium. 

On a side note, I think that SPG's are poorly designed in the game and far too dependent on the RNG.  I think the mechanic needs a rework to better reward skill and stop rewarding poor, but lucky players.   

[Abagadro]

IMO arty should be much more accurate but have longer reload.  Cut down on the slot-machine mechanics and frustration of playing it.  Or get rid of it. The current meta in the game is so balls-out aggressive (or retarded depending on how you look at it) that the old strategic camp-fests are really rare these days.

[WayAbvPar]

IMO arty should be much more accurate but have longer reload.  Cut down on the slot-machine mechanics and frustration of playing it.  Or get rid of it. The current meta in the game is so balls-out aggressive (or retarded depending on how you look at it) that the old strategic camp-fests are really rare these days.

I wonder how much that will change if all the proposed nerfs to medium tanks go through. They are what is driving the hyper-aggression, I would wager.

[Trippy]

Some medium tanks are getting buffed. It seems like they want Medium tanks to be more mobile and able to fire more effectively on the move.

[WayAbvPar]

They are nerfing the everloving shit out of their long range penetration (and pen overall), so at the very least they will be required to be in spotting range in order to pen most same tier heavies.

[Trippy]

Hence the buffs to firing on the move.

[WayAbvPar]

Yep. Which is more what a medium tank is supposed to be doing.