@RutgerS I think that no matter your skill level you can not go wrong with the Scharnhorst. Furthermore it's entertaining to play, which is a truely nice feature on a premium. Honorable mentions to the Belfast and tier 8 prem's.
Well best premium ships will depend a bit on what you like to play. Best cruisers are probably the Belfast, Mikhail Kutazov and the Atago. The Tirpitz and Scharnhorst are pretty strong BBs. I only have the Kamikaze and Anshan for DDs so don't really know about the other commonly available DDs.
As far as premium consumables I would probably go case by case. BBs tend to benefit a lot from premium repair and damage control. Radar and hydro acoustic search are other good candidates.
Currently at 68% W/R 200 Battles and 4006 DPG.
The King of Gimmicks has arrived to the live servers. And with it has come many extremes and some entirely new playstyles. And no I'm not talking about how this tank is a camper's dream, In order to win games in this tank it's alot more complicated than what many of us are used to in a paper TD and a paper tank in general. No this tank is a breath of fresh air from the Grille 15 and unlike the Grille it's a much higher skill ceiling tank to play. Quite frankly I'm sure that if you straight up used free xp to get the thing day 1 with no prior experience in siege mode from the test server; that you're going to be in for a rough ride.
I'm here to ask and answer the question: Is the tank worth it? And while I might say "HOLY SHIT YES" therein lies the problem with this tank in general. It's a very niche tank for the player base. It requires alot of patience, map awareness, reading the flow of battle, picking the engagement, and lastly selfishness. If you go into battle without a single one of these then you're going to have a bad time. There are the one off battles where you can throw these ideas to the wind and still come out pretty well, but for consistency's sake I'm going to say that you need all of these to manage over 3800+ dpg.
I'll write a guide later, but this a review. So I'm going to give a list of Pros and Cons regarding the tank and a model of its armor viewer
Pros:
4225 MAX DPM (Tortoise has 4270, but it's a shit platform and the 103B actually beats its reload by .08 seconds) Imho this tank really has the highest DPM in the game because it isnt held back by a shitty platform.
Mobility and Finesse is fantastic. So I did some digging on tanks.gg and I found that the STRV 103B while it's overall HP/Ton isn't that great looking; It has the same terrain resistances than the leopard 1 and basically moves like the old 4202 at tier 10. And for those of you who are fairly new to the game It's a fucking rocket forward and reverse.
Speaking of reverse, It goes fucking 45 in reverse (50 forward) allowing it's bullshit gimmick armor to bear the punishment as you run away.
With Clutch Breaking (driver crew skill) It rotates at 43 deg/s
The gun itself has great DPM, but for the first time in WoT isn't hampered by shitty gun handling or penetration. There is no way to see the stats within siege mode regarding the accuracy, but WG did say somewhere that it was .25 shortly before release. Even in the garage it stands out with .27 accuracy.
Inside of siegemode when rotating the hull the gun has 0 dispersion making it the best snap shotter in the game in this situation.
Gun depression: 11 degrees is fucking stupid on a TD.
Base APCR penetration: 308 base pen with 1500 m/s shell speed is retarded xd.
Camo/Binocs dont deactivate while rotating in siege mode (Not limited to only this tank UDES and 103-0 share this trait).
Slim profile and E25 camo at tier 10: The tank can hide behind the smallest depressions and cover not to mention its 49.5% camo with a full camo crew.
Neutral:
The armor profile itself; I'll go into depth in a bit.
Cons:
Absolutely useless outside of siege mode. The gun is locked to the hull so of course it would be.
Siege mode is really only handy at mid to long range. If you dont have a wall to back into you're fucked.
It's light weight (37 tons) means anything can bully you. When you raise the rear of your hull to get better depression brain dead retards think its funny to push you around and make you flip.
Frontal engine makes you burst into flames more than California's forest fires.
3 crew, the fucking radioman is the loader.
Armor is useless against calibers of 150mm or higher due to overmatch mechanics.
Huge tracks make getting tracked very easy
Very prone to module damage from HE
Only 1800 HP
For people who arent up to the level of doing 3-4k+ avg dpg, city maps you are nearly useless in city maps without adequate skill.
Fuck artillery (Self explanatory)
360 base VR
Temporary Con:
Right now it is extremely difficult to 2 mark let alone 3 mark due to low amounts of people actually having the damned thing. (Took me 4400 raw dpg to do).
So if a 103B is looking directly at you like this you can try to shoot the beak if you have a 122mm caliber gun or greater, but it wont be reliable unless you're very close. Your only option is above the gun or the cupolas really. And HEAT wont work because those blue/purple colored boxes are spaced armor which will eat your heat rounds. If you're a caliber of 100mm 105mm or 120mm your only option is the cupolas. If you're a 122, 128, 130 or 140mm cupolas or above the gun. 150mm+ shoot anywhere because LOLXD OVERMATCH HEHE.
TLDR of this review: This is a VERY difficult tank to use and get used to no matter the skill of the player. The skill ceiling is sitting in the stratosphere for this tank, but for those of us who have a semblance of what we're doing; we're playing a god tier machine capable of easily soaring over 7k damage games consistently regardless of map. My best games so far have been on Paris for example.
The only undeniable fact here is that you literally said that all you cared for was damage and kills. Yet there are people who surpass you in both regards.
Fact is: someone is better than you at it. Mind = blown
There is someone better at almost everything, it's not undeniable unless you can prove it, which you have not. Your opinions are apparently facts but no one elses is. Facts need to have proof and opinions need reasoning. Yours provide neither because you just call yourself the best, post a picture of a sad trainwreck of a character and leave it there as if it'd be valid at all
max build incl. GTX1080:
TFT: 27" 2560x1440p IPS + 144 Hz + G-Sync http://geizhals.de/aoc-agon-ag271qg-a1472102.html?hloc=de 700€
Seasonic G-Series G-550 550W PCGH-Edition ATX 2.3 - 95€
1300€ for the rest
->>>2100€
saner build:
replace the 1080 with 1070 or 980Ti (only 400€ and as fast as a 1070 but higher power draw) and either keep the 6600K or swap for 6700K
http://de.pcpartpicker.com/user/F0lterknecht/saved/LZgXLk 1130€
+800€ for PSU and TFT
and you ll reach 1900 or 1800€ depending on the CPU.
And I would build it myself - that way you ll learn what is what and can fix simple problems yourself. There are dozens of good (YT) guides out there to study for free. If you want me to walk you through the building process via Skype/TS (takes a few hours - 2 step process, over night test run outside case) contact me via PM for pricing.
You really have to do something dumb to fuck it up tbh. Earth yourself or get a strap, don't work on nylon carpet. Sensible precautions. I've not killed one yet and I'm relatively 'green' at PC building with no where near Folterknechts expertise.
Preface
I recently hit purple stats on both my recent WN8 and WR so I thought it was about time to take stock of my progression and the things I've been doing to improve – I hope it helps someone. It's quite long and isn't intended for reading once; rather it's more a reference of tips to come back to when things go wrong. If people find it useful then I'll look at recompiling it and structuring the content in a way that's easier to digest.
– Rawkes
Disclaimer
I use the term unicum as a literal definition for someone with WN8 over 2,450
My recent statistics at the time of writing put me within the purple spectrum, specifically my past 1,000+ solo games (WN8 2,487 – WR 60.16%), which is the measure WoTLabs uses an indication of current skill
You can find out more about me on my WoT profile
I do not claim to be a great player, nor do I claim to know better than others
In fact, I make mistakes all the time (though hopefully less of them now) and I’m always looking to improve
My aim is to give the advice that I wish I was given when I started out, in the hope that new players can have a smoother start
All advice given is based on proven personal experience and doesn’t guarantee that you’ll reach unicum status – your mileage may vary
I’ve provided links to further resources where I can
This advice is live, meaning that it will be updated as I progress and learn new things
Advice (in no particular order)
General things I wish I knew when I started
You can hold down the mouse button to fire immediately when reloaded, rather than constatly clicking
You can force a reload by pressing the C key – very useful in an auto-loader with half a clip remaining
Enabling dynamic camera and horizontal stablisation make it much easier to aim while moving
There’s less chance to be spotted if you make sure a bush stops being transparent before firing
You can move crews between tanks (for a cost)
Premium tanks can use any crew of the same nation and type without retraining
That the xx/xx/xx penetration stats referred to shell types (eg. AP/Premium/HE) and not location on a tank (eg. Front/Sides/Back)
You’re able to paint camoflague on your tanks for an added camo bonus
Angling increases the chances of bouncing enemy shots
That bouncing was even a thing that could happen!
Accelerated crew training only applies to a single crew-member at a time
You can right-click on tanks in the garage and set them as primary so they appear first in the list
Key mods
XVM (with predicted WR removed) – mainly for the minimap extras, damage log and spotted icons on the player list
Autoaim Indicator + Snapping – prevents you having to frantically click around trying to auto-aim on an enemy tank
ServerCross2 – gives you a much better idea on where your shots will actually go based on latency
Overall, I’d recommend installing your mods using something like the Odem Mortis or Solo’s modpacks
Pick the right tanks for your playstyle
This requires a lot of experimentation
Try out all the different tank types and see which ones feel the most enjoyable for you
It’s impossible to get a true feel for a tank until you’ve played a good number of battles in it without playing other tanks in between
For me, I find mediums and lights most enjoyable – particularly something with quick acceleration and the ability to flex (change position) at short notice
I’m working on a tool that allows you to find other tanks that are similar to ones you already enjoy
Focus one tank or type at a time
Ideally, keep playing one particular tank over and over again until you’re comfortable with its nuances – become one with the tank
If you split your time over multiple tanks then the differences in play style will throw you off and prevent you from learning
This also makes the grind pass a lot sooner than if you split your time
By doing this you’ll either become really good with the tank or you’ll learn why you hate it and never play it again
It’s worth keeping a similar tank on stand-by for those moments when you die and have to wait for the tank to be available
If you do want to play a few different tanks, at least stay within the same play style and ideally the same type – don’t switch from speedy medium to lumbering heavy (eg. I often flip between the Cromwell B, M7 and T-34)
I noticed my stats increase dramatically after focussing on one tank for a week
Categorise your tanks
Have a selection of tanks to play from depending on how you’re feeling
Credit-making tanks
These are tanks you play predominantly for making credits or farming Free XP for other grinds
For me, these are usually premium tanks like the T34, Jg.Tiger 88 and T-54 Mod. 1
Comfort tanks
These are tanks you can effectively auto-pilot in and still play well in (good WR and WN8)
You enjoy them even if you have a bad game
These are your bread and butter tanks, consisting of most of your games
For me, these include tanks like the T-34, M7 and Cromwell B
Fun tanks
These are for letting your hair down – something you enjoy and that doesn’t require effort
You play these tanks not for stats and purely to let off a bit of steam
For me, this is often the IS-2, Pz. II J or Churchill III
Tanks you just don’t get on with but need to play
Not everyone plays in the same way – some tanks just don’t seem to work out
These tanks are often even more frustrating because you need to grind through them (or spend lots of precious Free XP)
For me, I play horribly in popular tanks like the IS-3 and Comet – we just don’t get on right now
It happens, just be aware of them and either improve in them or play them less often
Only move up tiers when you’re ready – don’t try to run before you can walk
When I started, all I wanted to do was get a tier 10 tank so I rushed as fast as I could
I bought some tier 8 tanks to get the credits in and ignored the fact I didn’t play very well in them
I got to tier 9 in about 1,000 games and proudly purchased a T-54 ready to cause trouble
Boy was that a mistake; not because the T-54 is bad, rather I just wasn’t prepared for the change in gameplay at tier 9
I also wasn’t prepared more generally – my crews, my awareness, my mindset – I was still new to the game and making lots of mistakes
After loss after loss, frustration after frustration, I decided to move back down all the way to tier 3 and work my way up once I felt comfortable at each tier
What do I mean by comfortable? To me, being comfortable is when you feel like you can handle yourself in any situation; whether you are bottom tier, the best of a crappy team, alone against 5 enemies, whatever the game can throw at you
Once you aren’t afraid to carry a game if needed, not only will your stats improve drastically, but you’ll start enjoying the game a lot more because you aren’t being punished so much for making simple mistakes
It’s important to eventually move up the tiers though, otherwise you’ll stagnate and get bored – there’s only so many times you get Kolobanov’s and Radley Walter’s medals at tier 5 before it gets a bit boring
Challenge yourself and try a higher tier every so often – I still use my tier 8 premiums every so often to test the water – just take it slowly and make sure you don’t overestimate your abilities
Don’t do daily doubles on lots of different tanks
When I started I always completed the daily doubles on every single tank before doing anything else
This got incredibly time-consuming when I started owning more than 10 tanks – often I’d spend all evening doing the doubles and not doing anything else (eg. not grinding)
You’ll enjoy the game a lot more if you only do the doubles on the tanks you are actively playing and grinding – I’d say 4 or 5 maximum in a session
You’ll often find that doing the daily doubles on every tank doesn’t actually give you more XP over the evening than if you consistently played one or two tanks half-decently over the same amount of time – it’s easy to forget about all the low-XP losses involved in trying to get the doubles (likely between 40–50% of attempts)
Turning off predicted win-rate
Seriously, turn that shit off – it screws with your head
I currently have it only display after the game on the post-battle results screen
It’s a great feeling to have an awesome game and see afterward that you were only predicted a 30% WR
You’d be surprised how many games I win now that have a sub-40% WR, compared to when I saw the stat pre-battle
Tracking progress
There are a number of websites out there that track your progress
The main things to track are your individual tank stats, WN8 and WR
WoTLabs is a great resource for tracking those three areas
vBAddict tracks even more
Your crew progress
Your Marks of Excellence (MoE) progress
Your aggregate performance on each map
Detailed statistics and performance for each of your tanks
Comparison with other players – eg. seeing what equipment most other people use
Learn how tanks work
I can’t stress how important it is to at least learn about the tank you’re driving
Ideally, you also want to be learning about the tanks you’re up against too
Get a general overview on the WoT Wiki
Compare them using Tank Compare
Study armour, penetration angles and soft-stats using Tanks.gg or Tank Inspector
Learn general reload times – even the terms fast, not-so-fast and slow will do to start
Learn the best general places to penetrate a tank – the lower-front plate, cupola, sides and rear
Learn where not to shoot tanks, in general – upper-front plate, turret mantlet, tracks
Do research when you come across a tank that you found hard to penetrate – don’t repeat the same mistakes
Accept and use premium ammo
People will use premium ammo against you, fact
It’s a game mechanic just like any other, so use it to your advantage
If you don’t like the idea of using premium ammo then you’re giving yourself a significant handicap
Learn when you need to use premium ammo and when you don’t so you can make it last longer
Spamming premium ammo will not gaurantee better stats, in fact it will likely just make you broke
It is entirely possible to play without using premium ammo (eg. like Taugrim), though you will have a hard and frustrating time in many matches
Don’t chastise other players for using premium ammo
Keep a little HE for key moments
It’s worth keeping a small amount of HE shells (at least 3) to gaurantee a cap reset – it’s not worth the risk with 5 seconds remaining
Remember that HE almost always does damage, so use it against tanks with really low health – it’s not worth risking a non-penetration
This generally isn’t practical for auto-loaders as it’s too much effort to load a HE clip for just one or 2 shots
Consistency is key
Having a few good games is far less important than having consistent results
External factors and RNG will deliver the occasional game with amazing stats – it doesn’t mean you’re good
Once you start seeing consistent results then you have a baseline for improvement
Only use your consistent results as an indication of progress (eg. WoTLabs uses your previous 1,000 matches)
On the flip-side, don’t get demotivated when you have (and you will most definitely have) the occasional game from hell – they feel like the end of the world but actually have little effect on your overall results
If you find that your results are fluctuating dramatically then you need to think about what might be the cause – use my advice on noticing mistakes as a starting point
Solo vs. platoon
I found platooning detrimental to finding my own playstyle and working through my own mistakes
Going solo allowed me the time and space to make mistakes and experiment without the added pressure of factoring in the potentially-conflicting playstyles of other people
Going solo also allowed me to play more games in a shorter time as I didn’t need to wait on anyone when I died
Bear in mind that platooning is known to artificially inflate statistics – chance are you’ll play worse solo
Don’t get me wrong, platooning has a place, but don’t get too used to it if you want to improve yourself as an individual player
Finding the best time to play
Something I realised recently was that the time I play makes a big difference on both my performance and my enjoyment
The best time for me to play seems to be between early evening to about 10pm on weekdays
The worst times seem to be late night (after 10pm) and weekends
Some days won’t fit these expectations, though I’ve found it to be fairly consistent over time
What I’ve seen is that, on the whole, teams seem to be far more predictable during normal after-work hours
More experienced players who know about team-work and have a rough idea of what to do
Even though you shouldn’t, you can rely on them a little more to hold or push a flank
It’s a lot easier to get a consistent WR and WN8 during these times
Once you get into late night or weekends you delve into the world of unpredictability
Mostly due to the seemingly larger proportion of inexperienced players and bots
You absolutely cannot rely on them in any way to shoot the enemy, let alone hold a flank
You’ll often end up being the last one alive if you’re half-decent
While WN8 will probably not fluctuate much (it may even increase!), it’s unlikely to get a consistent WR during these times without platooning
Make sure you change your tactics if you decide to play outside of the best times
Accept that you cannot rely on your team in any way during these times
Be on guard for bizarre moves – it’s easy to get taken out due to the unpredictability of inexperienced players
Assume that might become the only player left on your team so have a plan of action for when that happens
Abuse advanced tactics that inexperienced players won’t consider (eg. strict bushwork, angling, etc)
Blaming matchmaking or your team
Yes, matchmaking can suck at times
Yes, sometimes your team is full of complete idiots
No, matchmaking wasn’t the reason you did badly
No, your team isn’t the sole reason why you lost
There’s only one constant in every single game – that's you
You are the only thing you can control and improve upon
If you had a bad game, you definitely had something to do with it – blame others and you’ll never improve yourself
Focus on your game, not other peoples – I’ve made this mistake many times
Instead of blaming someone else, think about what you did wrong and how you can avoid it again
Did you place too much trust in your team?
Did you blindly follow your heavies assuming they weren’t going to panic at the sight of a single enemy light tank?
Did you sit still while berating your team in chat, giving the enemy arty an easy one-shot on you?
Did you play too passively and let your team melt away around you?
Did you play too agressively and ultimately end up dying alone?
Worry about who to blame (you) after the game, not during – stay focussed
Reviewing replays
Keep copies of replays from all parts of the spectrum; good games, bad games and mediocre games
Review them to look for things you missed mid-game – I haven’t been doing this, but I should
I’m currently working on a tool to take all my replays and aggregate my movement, actions as well as the places I shot people from and the places where others shot me from
Learning from others
Learn from experienced players – they’re often happy to give advice
Everyone plays differently so don’t expect to get the same results even if you follow advice from a unicum
The grass is always greener on the other side – you usually don’t see the bad results from other players
Don’t be afraid to come up with your own approach using a hybrid of personal experience and advice from others
Recommendations
QuickyBaby
Zeven
4TankersAndDog
Taugrim
WoTLabs guides and forums
/r/WorldofTanks
Simply Googling “WoT …”
Game settings and controls
Enable Dynamic Camera
This prevents camera movement while moving in sniper mode
You’ll notice that it’s a lot easier to aim while moving with this enabled
Enable Horizontal Stabilisation (requires Dynamic Camera)
This keeps the camera on target whilst traversing the hull of your tank in sniper mode (rather than moving the gun with the hull)
It ultimately makes it a lot easier to keep your sights on a tank whilst wriggle your hull, even turning a full 180 if needs be
Experiment with disabling some of the game modes for a week or so
I’ve found that disabling the Assault mode had increased the consistency of my WR
I still have Encounter enabled
Use the reticle penetration indicator
This is the little coloured marker in the middle of your reticle
It tells you the chance of penetrating the tank in a specific location
Red = no chance, orange = possibly, green = probably
It doesn’t take angle into account so only use it as a rough guide
Learn the highlight target key (default: T) and use it to communicate priority targets to your team
Press the C key to manually reload
This is super useful when you’re in an auto-loader and you want a full clip for the next fight
Use crews to their full potential
Learning how to manage crews makes a huge difference to performance at higher tiers
Don’t train a new crew for each tank, at least not to start with and never unless you plan to keep the tank forever
Take the same crew with you as you move up the tiers
Use Tanknumbers.com to calculate how long it’ll take to train up each crew skill for specific tanks
Select the right skills and perks for the tank type and your play style
Select skills first, then reset once you get to 100% on the first skill and select a perk instead
You don’t benefit from perks until they reach 100%, which can take a long time
This means you can benefit from a skill during the journey from 0 to 100%
You will have to spend some Gold (ideally) or Credits to change the skills into perks
Whatever you do, make sure you focus sixth sense on every new crew – it’s such an important skill and it’s easy to forget you don’t have it on new crews
I usually train the commander in Repairs or Camoflague and immediately retrain to Sixth Sense once they get to 100%
Use premium tanks to train up crews
Premium tanks don’t require a special crew – you can put the crew of any tank of the same nation and type in them without retraining
Premium tanks give you an XP boost which the crew will benefit from
Premium tanks have the option of Accelerated Crew training, giving a further XP boost to the crew-member with the lowest XP each game
If you make a mistake, or want to change your skills, I prefer to use Gold over Credits and keep all my Crew XP – it takes ages to earn Crew XP so don’t throw it away if you can afford not to
Crew retraining discounts occur every so often so it’s worth waiting to retrain if you’re tight on Gold and it’s not urgent
Use consumables and equipment
They make a huge difference to how a tank plays
Look on vBAddict to see what most people use for each tank
Use your experience to tweak what you use – eg. switch out the extinguisher if you rarely set on fire
Don’t underestimate the power of provisions (eg. food, cola, tea) – they’re expensive but can mean the difference between life and death
Apply camoflague – it makes a difference, plus it looks cool
Gameplay and technique
In general, understand and abuse every game mechanic and tactic at your disposal to outplay the opposing players
If you don’t, someone else will – don’t be stubborn, otherwise you will be the one who gets outplayed
Learn map positioning
This is something that’s easy to research but hard to put into practice
My advice would be to look at positioning from other people and combine that with your own experience
Remember places that worked really well, as well as those which didn’t work at all
Remember places that give you solid cover, even if you don’t need them right now – these are useful for fallback positions when you need them
Experiment with new places when you get a chance
Before you know it, you’ll have played all the maps enough to feel comfortable with where you need to go
QuickyBaby and 4TankersAndDog have great videos on this
The micro-positioning thread by Kolni is also a good resource for specific locations
Make sure you understand the general game mechanics
Read the wiki post from start to finish, then read it again
How matchmaking works
Penetration mechanics (eg. shell normalisation, over-penetration, etc)
Accelerated training
XP and Credit calculations
Use Premium benefits
If you’re clever with Premium then you can save a whole bunch of time with grinding and crew training
Generally, a Premium account gives you 1.5x XP and 1.5x Credits
Understand visibility and spotting mechanics
Particularly how bushes work
At the least, make sure you pull back 15m behind a bush (so it stops being transparent) before firing so you’re less likely to be spotted
Learn about view ranges and render distances
Angling and vehicle positioning (hull down, etc)
I knew about this early on but I never deliberately did it in-game
Angling doesn’t always work but it’s worth doing for the occasional bounce that’ll save your arse
Going hull down is incredibly powerful, particularly in tanks with strong turrets like the T34
As with most of the advice here, practice makes perfect
Flanking, peek-a-boom, etc
Again, something I knew about but rarely implemented deliberately early on
Learning when to pull back and flank can often result in easy, free damage at absolutely zero risk to your own tank
Peek-a-boom takes time to get right so you don’t take a shot every time you show yourself
Keep moving so you’re hard to predict and pin down – especially if you fire your gun or get spotted
Don’t suicide to save a team-mate, unless they’re really worth it
Don’t show yourself unless you’re ready to fire – hide when you’re reloading
Choose a weakpoint over taking a random shot – wasted shots won’t kill things any faster
Don’t panic – you’ll make mistakes and get yourself killed
You are not a one-man-army – work with your team, even if they aren’t doing what you want
I often make the mistake of charging off on my own, thinking I know better
Before I know it, I’m surrounded, outgunned and my team are no where to be seen (because I left them behind)
Learn when to stick with your team and when to do a hero run
If anything, staying nearby others in the early stages of a game will lower the chances of you being singled out and killed
You can start making bold moves once you know where everyone is and how the game is flowing
Awareness of surroundings and game flow
Keeping an eye on what’s going on around you
Predicting when a flank is going to fail
Predicting enemy movement based on experience and flow
Listening to your natural sixth-sense (your gut) for a few extra seconds reaction-time when spotted
Retreating and re-evaluating the situation if you’re not being effective
Often I would find myself in a head-to-head battle with another tank
I always looked at these as a fight to a death – I couldn’t comprehend leaving without that tank being destroyed, or mine
Many times this resulted in me flinging shots harmlessly at the front of a heavily armoured tank and doing nothing to improve the situation until I eventually, predictable got annihilated
I still struggle with this one, though I’m getting better at learning when I’m not being effective and re-positioning until I am, or retreating somewhere safe
Don’t trade shots unless you can afford to
It’s tempting to keep taking easy shots at an enemy without realising quite how much health you’re losing in return
Before you know it, you’ve killed the enemy tank (yay) but you now only have 10 HP left over (crap)
This is particularly important to remember in a lightly armoured or bottom-tier tank
An ideal engagement is one where you take absolutely no damage in return (eg. through positioning or bushwork)
In heated situations you should aim to give no more than 25% of your HP for each kill
Whatever you do, never trade shots with non-priority tanks (eg. bottom-tiers or lights) when you have the opportunity to trade with a priority target (eg. top-tiers, auto-loaders, heavies or TDs)
I’m much better at this now but I still find myself trading health when I don't need to
Take out an enemy gun when you have the chance
An enemy left on 1 HP is just as dangerous as an enemy on full health
If you see an easy kill, take it if it’s safe to do so
You may not get as much damage but you’ll greatly increase your chances of winning the game
Accept your role in the game and do something about it
When you’re a bottom-tier light, or arguably any light, you should focus on staying alive and spotting for your team
When you’re a top-tier heavy you should focus on taking out other top-tier heavies and generally defending other tanks around you
When you’re an arty you should focus on taking out high-priority targets over easy kills (eg. anything that’s an immediate threat to your team)
Of course, you can deviate from these roles when you want (eg. rampaging in your light tank at the end) but always keep your purpose in the back of your mind
Patience and calculated aggression
If an enemy sees that you’re eager to push, they’ll let you and punish you – people aren’t as stupid as you think
You should be controlling the pace of an engagement, not someone else
This is arguably the most important skill to hone (I’m still bad at this one)
Instead of seeing their turret turning toward you yet you still attempting an extra shot, getting yourself hit and perhaps killed, hold back and ensure that you have the HP to spare later on
More often than not, you’ll get many more opportunities later on in the game if you’re patient and careful about your plays
Patience does not mean camping, it means biding your time and knowing when not to make a move
This is by far one of the most common traits I’ve noticed when watching good players – they aren’t afraid to wait things out
Always having a plan
At least know what you’re planning to do and where you’re going to fall back if things turn bad
Chances are, things won’t go to plan when you’re starting out so it’s incredibly important to know where you’re going to fall back to – there’s no humiliation in retreating to consider your next move
Willingness to learn and actively improve
If you don’t want to learn and improve then you can forget about getting good stats, it’s as simple as that
You have to have the right mindset if you’re going to accept the hard truths before getting better (eg. you’re not as good as you think you are)
Progress takes time and you shouldn’t expect immediate results, especially if you already have a lot of battles – this is just how averages work
You’ll often feel like you're banging your head against a wall – persevere and you will most definitely see improvement eventually
Noticing mistakes and keeping a record of their frequency
I write down my most common mistakes on a piece of paper
I add a tick every time I make that mistake in-game
After a while it’s clear to see which are the areas I need to improve on the most
Never stop doing this
Listening to your gut
Your gut is cleverer than you and can see into the future – ignore it at your peril
Seriously, get the hell out of there if you suddenly get a feeling that what you’re doing doesn’t feel right
You can work out if that was the right or wrong call later – from my experience it's the right call more often than not
Dealing with and expecting failure
No one is perfect – even the best players have crappy games
You will have bad games
You will lose 10 games in a row for what feels like no apparent reason (there is always a reason)
Shit happens and it’s easy to blame something or someone else in those situations
People tend to remember the bad moments more than they remember the good – you remember when you lost multiple games in a row but not when you won 10 in a row
Accept that you have bad moments and either move on or take a break
Hot and cold anger
Cold anger is when you control the anger and direct it into something constructive
Whether that’s giving you focus for annihilating the enemy, or simply taking that anger and applying it to personal improvement (eg. by writing notes on what went wrong, why, etc)
For example, the enemy arty might be taking potshots at you – use that frustration to focus clearly on what you need to do to remove that threat
Hot anger is when the anger controls you
This is the type of anger that results in outbursts and a deep-seated feeling that takes a while to subside
This is never good as it ultimately leads you to making more mistakes and getting even more frustrated
When this happens (and it will), it’s usually time to take a break and take stock of what went wrong
if you keep playing when you’re experiencing hot anger then you’ll likely drive your enjoyment and stats into the ground, frustrating you even further
Never play “just one more game” under the illusion that things will get better – they might, but your mind will still be in the wrong place for thinking clearly and you’ll make more mistakes eventually
I’m still working out how to handle hot-anger situations, though I have a much better idea on common causes now – it’s almost always frustration at my own mistakes when I went against my gut instinct
In both situations, make sure you take note of what caused the anger so you can avoid it or use it next time
Making the most of your time and money
Use Premium vehicles for the reasons mentioned previously (XP boosts, etc)
Use a Premium account for the reasons mentioned previously (XP boosts, etc)
Capitalising on specials and missions
Buy equipment, consumables and camoflague in bulk during discounts
Use the personal missions to gain relatively easy credits
Use personal reserves to milk extra XP from your games
Wait for conversion specials before converting your Free XP in bulk
Use Free XP to Crew XP specials to your advantage (eg. quickly training up sixth sense on new crews)
Learn which Gold deals are best value for money – this changes every week
Your stats mean nothing when you first start out
Your stats will flucuate widely during your first month or two
This is because each game can have a big impact on your average results when you’ve played so few games
This is why you may see new players with incredible statistics – they’ve either re-rolled (they created a new account after becoming experienced) or they just got lucky with their first few matches
Your stats will stabilise as you play more games – for me this was around the 1,000 games mark
This is also why places like WoTLabs use 1,000 games as an indicator of recent progress – it’s a large-enough sample to average out fluctuations
Don’t sacrifice win-rate for WN8
Just don’t, there’s nothing worse than a player who’s purely interested in damage and not helping the team
If you have a chance to win and the game could go either way, or relies too much on you carrying, take it
WN8 alone only tells you that a player is efficient at causing damage
WN8 and WR combined tell you that a player is both efficient and a good team player (or really lucky)
Don’t pad your stats for the sake of getting better stats
This is a controversial one as it’s hard to define what is and isn’t padding – everyone looks at it differently
My definition is as follows…
If you only play low-tiers (4 and below) because they’re easy then you’re padding
If you only play one tank because you get good stats in it then you’re padding (eg. over 50% of your games) – it’s ok to have a favourite tank, but you’re not a good player if you can’t do well in anything else
If you only play platoons then you’re padding, even if it’s not deliberate – it’s fact that platooning gives you a higher WR on average
All in all, you should appreciate being challenged and stop being afraid of not being so amazing in a new tank or new tier
Genuinely good players will adapt and find a way to improve while padders will flounder out of their comfort zone
Your stats don’t give you privilege
So you’ve got better stats than the other players in your game? Awesome, but don’t be an arsehole about it
In fact, your stats are arguably a badge of experience and you should be setting a good example to other players
Don’t take things out on other players
Don’t insult new players
If you want respect then you need to earn it
If you’re polite then people will likely listen to you and follow your requests
We all make mistakes at times (I find it hard not to make a comment in chat sometimes), but try and bear this in mind when you next think about taking things out in chat or venting on Reddit
Set your expectations at the right level
Don’t set your expectations too high – aim for reasonable goals and re-evaluate once you reach them
When I was yellow (WN8 ~800) I aimed to turn green (+100 WN8)
When I was green I aimed to be dark green (+300 WN8)
When I was dark green I aimed to be blue (+400 WN8)
And so on…
It’s much easier to aim for +400 WN8 each time than it is to be a yellow player and think in terms of needing +1,700 WN8 to get all the way to purple – you’ll paralyse yourself with the pressure
Be realistic about how much you can change your WR – you can improve it but it relies on more than your personal skill so it’s hard to control
Take a moment to appreciate the occasion after you meet each goal
General enjoyment vs. focussing on stats
At the end of the day, you’re started playing World of Tanks to enjoy yourself and have fun – don’t forget that
Often it can feel like the constant fight to improve stats can negatively affect your enjoyment
Try and find a balance where you’re enjoying the tanks you play but also get good stats in them
Take a break if you feel like you’re only playing for stats, otherwise you’ll likely burn out and end up hating the game
Once I catch up, we'll wreck shit together
Hahahaha, I just noticed the 4M GAZ AAA, the first USSR AA, basically has 4 ancient Maxim machine guns XD
Too awesome, I bought it. Can't pen shit though.
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