World of Tanks

[Amarr HM]

On a side note, my new E-50 is like electric sex with the top gun I just upgraded to.   Much better than the Patton I have IMO.

E-50 looks pretty nice alright, bounces a hell of a lot of shots. What's the gun depression like?

[Dark_MadMax]

E-50 looks pretty nice alright, bounces a hell of a lot of shots. What's the gun depression like?

Complete shit. Just like most german tanks . It still a  great tank.

[Engels]

Ya, I have the Patton and the E50, and by and large, the E50 is just a hair better in terms of accuracy but the gun depression is very useful on some maps, such as Sand River. However, on something like Campinovka, I like the E50 best.

[Amarr HM]

I just got in a T54 again (post beta) & it's gun depression makes me want to ride in my Patton. But a medium sniping boat would definitely tickle my fancy.

[Merusk]

The mention of turret depression sparked a light and I've suddenly become a killing machine in the Lee.  Dominated the games I played in it tonight.  5 kills first game 5 kills the next game and almost took out the remaining 2 arty but they point-blanked me as I went around a corner.

Awesome, but the tank still sucks. 

[apocrypha]

Turns out our EU special is slightly different from the US one this time:

    Double credits income earned from the following vehicles:

    PzKpfw III
    PzKpfw IV
    Marder II
    Sturmpanzer II
    M3 Lee
    M3 Stuart
    M4 Sherman
    M7 Priest
    Valentine
    Churchill

    Double rates for crew training
    Premium Consumables half-price reduction

And I sold my PzIV yesterday too 

When the servers are back up I'll give the Lee a go. It's not like I haven't played some shitty tanks already, and I do like the look of the high tier US tanks. The poor gun depression of the German (and some Russian, hello T-34) tanks is pissing me off regularly!

[Merusk]

I'd much rather be driving around in the Shermans than the Lee.  That blows. 

I should go up the German line sometime.  All my tanks have been Russian and US.

[apocrypha]

Yeah, I'll be in a Sherman sometime tomorrow probably.

I've been going up the German & Russian lines and I think I find the Russian tanks easier to play, but the German ones more satisfying when I don't fuck it up and play like a nutter. The German ones are much more squishy (on in my case, explody & burny) but they pack a serious punch if I actually manage to get any shots off.

[Merusk]

I keep seeing people say that, but my Russian guns bounce of the fucking Germans all the time.  USA guns seem to rip through anything but their tanks feel like they're made out of paper and have tracks made out of rubber bands.

*t-45 hits Merusk's Lee with one of a 5-shot spread*    "The Tracks' disabled!"   

[Engels]

Its hard to make too many generalizations. By and large, the german tanks are more boxy, hence less slope, hence more penetration. That said, a frontal attack on an E75 or a VK3002DB for that matter, is difficult due to their armor and slope (particularly the latter).

The russians, while less armored, have serious slopage. Try autoaiming the front of a IS3 sometime.

Russian guns tend to be more powerful, but far less accurate than the german counterparts. Ask anyone who's played a ISU-152 and a Object 704 about the 1600 credit shells flailing into the void like a thrown wet sock.

[Merusk]

Ah I think I see the disconnect now.  You're mentioning a lot of upper-tier tanks and I'm still slumming in my FIRST EVAR T5.

At T2 particularly the Russian stuff feels sub-par to Germans. 

And Auto-Aim? People use that? It always fucks up my shots so I stopped and my accuracy is back up at 45% (and only so low because I love the semi-autos on the light tanks.)   I get what you mean about bouncing shots off the IS, though.   Fucking thing.

[Engels]

Ah I think I see the disconnect now.  You're mentioning a lot of upper-tier tanks and I'm still slumming in my FIRST EVAR T5.

At T2 particularly the Russian stuff feels sub-par to Germans. 

And Auto-Aim? People use that? It always fucks up my shots so I stopped and my accuracy is back up at 45% (and only so low because I love the semi-autos on the light tanks.)   I get what you mean about bouncing shots off the IS, though.   Fucking thing.

I can't comment on tier 5 or below, since its been ages since I've played in the lower tiers. I still take out my SU-85 from time to time, since its hilariously over-powered, but by and large, its tier 6 and above for me.

Autoaim has its place in certain situations, particularly if you're in the middle of rapid dodging, but ya, its no good in those fights among similarly tiered tanks.

[apocrypha]

Yeah it's tier 6 where I'm finding the "character" of the nations tanks seems most pronounced. I'm driving VK3001 and KV-3 and regularly facing tier 9 & 10 tanks, which I can't touch.

The matchmaking changes they implemented yesterday seem to be working pretty well though. New tanks have a much lower tier spread - I was getting 2 tiers spread on the M3, which made for really good matches. I think that the old spread kicks in again at about 20 matches played in a tank though, cos late last night it was back up to 3-4 tier spreads.

Edit: just checked my M3 stats and I've got 47 matches in it, so it might be more than 20 for the MM switch. 66% win ratio in it too! I've actually found it quite a fun tank, once I got my head around the retarded gun position... 

[apocrypha]

If you go the Russian heavy line I highly recommend the KV-1S over the KV-3. Really easy to play it like a medium and overall much closer in play style to the IS then the KV-3 is. It can kind of suck until you get the 122 but once you do it's a ton of fun. One of the few tanks I keep just to play for fun. You can also go from there straight to the KV-13 which is also very fun and use that to unlock the IS and T-43.

Playing the KV-1S now. Hate it. Hate hate hate hate hate it. Every shot bounces, I can't even damage a tier 5 medium, I die in 1 shot every game.

13 games in it now, 13 losses, 13 deaths, 1 kill (a PzIII). Under 200 xp average per game, under 200 damage average per game, 65% hit ratio. Every single game has me up against Lowes, T59s, Ferdis, IS-3s.

Got to endure another 30+ battles to get the 122mm at this rate.... not fun.

However, the M4 Sherman and the M6 are much more fun! My 2nd game in the M6 I got 5 kills and Sharpshooter, Master Gunner, Invader, Reaper and Sniper medals!    Not sure if that or my 7 kill, Top Gun, Boelter's Medal VK3001(P) game counts as my best.

[Merusk]

Yeah, I find myself playing the M4 Patton a lot more than the KV or even T-50. (Still no Germans...) Decent balance of speed, survivability and gun power.  The KV is just slow fodder at this point, as I'm always in matches against VI to VIII tanks.  One shot and done. The T-50 is fun to play zippy zippy scout but after the game I had where I got behind a tier VII tank and blasted away to 0 effect as he calmly destroyed my allies on the hill I decided it's not worth playing. Seriously, all shots bounced at point-blank in his rear. I pounded at least 8 shells into him.. not even a single % drop or a blown track. 


Meanwhile on the US side, even the Lee has gotten to be a little more fun since I figured out it's role is to sit at the bottom of hills and slag folks through the bottom armor. Took out a T6 doing that yesterday on the east side choke point of the Laketown map. Buahaha.  Had the lone TD who followed me been worth a damn we could have bottled-up their whole team there alone.. but instead he decided to charge over the hill after seeing my little IV ass score a big kill. 

[veredus]

It can be really rough until it's fully upgraded but once there it's one of my favorites. It is massively different to play then the KV-3. You have to pretty much treat it like a medium.

[Bandit]

Playing the KV-1S now. Hate it. Hate hate hate hate hate it. Every shot bounces, I can't even damage a tier 5 medium, I die in 1 shot every game.

13 games in it now, 13 losses, 13 deaths, 1 kill (a PzIII). Under 200 xp average per game, under 200 damage average per game, 65% hit ratio. Every single game has me up against Lowes, T59s, Ferdis, IS-3s.

Got to endure another 30+ battles to get the 122mm at this rate.... not fun.

I am not sure you are going to like the 122mm on it either, I believe it is like a 4.5 r/m and a slow aim time.  I actually went back to the 85 mm after being ineffective with the 122.

[apocrypha]

Well shit, it's not like I'm short of tanks, it can sit in the garage gathering spider webs for all I care. Of course I fully accept that I may just suck at playing it! I did finally get a victory in it today, after 19 games! 

Playing the M6 & the VK3001(H) quite a lot, and playing those is inching me towards a T-29 and a Panther.

[Ginaz]

Well shit, it's not like I'm short of tanks, it can sit in the garage gathering spider webs for all I care. Of course I fully accept that I may just suck at playing it! I did finally get a victory in it today, after 19 games! 

Playing the M6 & the VK3001(H) quite a lot, and playing those is inching me towards a T-29 and a Panther.

The KV-1S takes some getting used to and it sucks until you get the top gun (highly recommend getting a rammer and gun laying drive for equipment with that gun).  The KV-3 is much more forgiving to newer players and plays more like the KV.  The trick with the 1S is to treat it like a medium and not lead the charge since your armour is crap and it takes forever to load the top gun.  That being said, I love it.  I seem to get favourable matchmaking and when you're the top tank, you can one shot almost everything the other team has.  Even in matches with higher tiered tanks, you can still do some damage.  So far in 61 games I have a 52% win rate (about average for me), 30% survival, 85 destroyed, 76% hit ratio and an average of 663 xp.

I also have the T-29 and Panther and both tanks are excellent.  The T-29 can take and dish out punishment while the Panther really shines once you get L/100 gun.

[Ginaz]

Speaking of my T-29, I seem to get into more matches with horrible teammates in that tank than in any other.  Thirty matches so far with only 10 wins but 42 destroyed, 73% hit ratio and 645 average xp.  Last match, a VK3601 who was behind me for over a min while we peek-a-booed with enemy tanks around a corner hit me from behind and knocked out my gun and tracked me.  Theres been many other matches where we lose, killing only 5 or 6 of the other team, and I'll have 4 or 5 of the kills myself.  One match, we lost and the other team was down 6 tanks.  Five of those tanks I killed almost alone and the 6th...was killed by one of their own arty.

Edit: Another game with the T-29, another fail team.  Total enemy killed was 5, with 4 of those being from me all on my own.   I got over 1000xp and 45k credits for that loss, so not a total waste I guess.

[Merusk]

I hate games like that.  I get them a lot on the weekends.

[apocrypha]

Yeah, the KV-1S feels like one I need to learn better. Unfortunately for my KV-1S crew I have also just got into a Panther, which I am liking quite a lot more. And a VK3601(H) which is a beast of a medium. I love the choice of guns... 10.5cm for derpage, 8.8cm for general use & sniping or 7.5cm konisch for plinky plinky machine gun of doom!

Probably 2-3 days off a T-29, but might not be able to afford one just yet. Hoping for another special weekend soon since I've spent quite a lot of credits on tanks over the last few days.

[Brolan]

Speaking of my T-29, I seem to get into more matches with horrible teammates in that tank than in any other.  Thirty matches so far with only 10 wins but 42 destroyed, 73% hit ratio and 645 average xp.  Last match, a VK3601 who was behind me for over a min while we peek-a-booed with enemy tanks around a corner hit me from behind and knocked out my gun and tracked me.  Theres been many other matches where we lose, killing only 5 or 6 of the other team, and I'll have 4 or 5 of the kills myself.  One match, we lost and the other team was down 6 tanks.  Five of those tanks I killed almost alone and the 6th...was killed by one of their own arty.

Edit: Another game with the T-29, another fail team.  Total enemy killed was 5, with 4 of those being from me all on my own.   I got over 1000xp and 45k credits for that loss, so not a total waste I guess.

I've noticed that too in the middle tiers.  When teams have the T-29 on their side they figure they can't lose and get lazy or stupid.  Another tank I've seen this happen to is the KV.

[Merusk]

In their defense.. when I come up against teams with more than one T-29 the usually win.

Though I had a match just yesterday where the highest tank on our side was a KV-3 and their side had 3 or 4 T-29s.  We shat ourselves during the countdown, and when I was knocked out in 2 shots within the two minutes (in my KV) I quit game expecting a loss.  After I finished the next match I got the pop-up that  - miracle of miracles - they won somehow.   I now regret quitting out instead of watching what had to be an epic match.

[apocrypha]

Gotta love the derp gun eh! 

Talking of which, I finally got the 122mm for the KV-1S and you were right - suddenly the tank works for me. I quite like the high-calibre playstyle, slow, careful, careful... BOOM hahaha! 

[Ginaz]

Gotta love the derp gun eh! 

Talking of which, I finally got the 122mm for the KV-1S and you were right - suddenly the tank works for me. I quite like the high-calibre playstyle, slow, careful, careful... BOOM hahaha! 

Make sure to get a rammer and gun laying drive for it.  Both make a huge difference with that gun.

[Furiously]

T-29 is decent but the T-32 is amazing. Probably my favorite tank. Has great armor and a decent gun. Unlike the t-34 and T-30 which are no armor and good guns.

[apocrypha]

Make sure to get a rammer and gun laying drive for it.  Both make a huge difference with that gun.

I'm not that flush unfortunately! I think I've leveled too many tank lines too fast which has left me a bit skint atm - I've got one tier 7 tank, eight tier 6's and four tier 5's. I tend to swap camo net, binocs and toolbox out between tanks cos they're the removable ones.

If I find myself favouring a particular tier 6 or 7 then I'll invest in some permanent equipment for them next time I have a spare million or two. ATM if I was to pick one tank it'd probably be the VK3601(H), that thing is great fun.

[Merusk]

I've found the T-5s are worth investing equipment in.  It helps their performance a LOT and you're in those T5 tanks for a LONG time.   Just remember to demount them when you decide to rid yourself of the tank and keep a small stockpile of gold for the ones that cost cash to demount.  It's only 10g per demount so its not too bad, but it does keep you from swapping them around between matches.

I just stocked-up on cash during the previous 2 mega-money weekends and running T5 matches pays pretty damn well in the right tank.  Hell, even the Lee pays well if I'm on my game and in a match with a few T5 and 6's.

[apocrypha]

Well I'm currently spending most of my time in the Panther and the M6, so I'll probably fit some stuff to them. Still working on getting the L/100 on the Panther so it's not a full sniper tank yet, I might get vents and a gun laying drive, seem reasonable?

The M6 has really grown on me. I've learned about hull-down positioning which made a big difference to my survivability in that giant brick! Definitely a rammer for the M6 - the 90mm is great but it's slow!

[Engels]

Vents and gun laying drive makes sense for a panther, and you can reequip it all the way to the E50.

Also, the M6 is a great tank fully upgraded, with all the stupid caveats about battle level, etc.

[Merusk]

I'm about to beat my head in over the idiots I keep getting matched with and treat this game like a FPS instead of - y'know - TANKS.

V formation?  Covering Fire? Lines of sight?

FUCK NO! TANKRUSH!  *Merusk an Arty at the base and a TD who was *trying* to set up a concealed FOF are now the only guys alive.  The rush has killed 4 enemy tanks*


 

[Strazos]

So, is it even worth experimenting with the game at this point? Never played it before.

[Der Helm]

So, is it even worth experimenting with the game at this point? Never played it before.

Very much so.

[apocrypha]

So, is it even worth experimenting with the game at this point? Never played it before.

Totally. I started, what, 4-5 weeks ago? Loving it.

And Merusk - totally feel your pain. I'm a complete newb and yet I often feel like I have better tactical knowledge than 90% of the people in randoms. It's making me think about joining a *gulp* clan. Of strangers.