rocketbrainsurgeon

Original article by @rocketbrainsurgeon A lot of people wonder: how can I get into that top clan? I have a little experience, but I wanted to see how other people got into their good clans too. I'm not interested in what people say to do to get into a good clan, I'm interested in what they actually did. People often give the advice of "get good and then good clans will want you", but there are so few people that actually do it that way! WHAT IS "TOP-TIER"? My definition for "top-tier" or "good" is: Clan is frequently holding land in Clan Wars, receiving gold inco

Original article by @rocketbrainsurgeon Obviously no one agrees on the best way to rank people or activities, but WN8? The things you need to about it: deal more damage and pick the right tanks. WHAT IS WN8 WN8 is the latest rating system trying to measure that ethereal factor: skill. It's a complex formula that measures performance on a tank-to-tank basis against the general population, so people aren't punished for playing tanks that might not be the best. WN8 DOES A LOT OF THINGS RIGHT One of the goals of WN8 and why it has been established as the [currently] best

Original article by @rocketbrainsurgeon In a game where the goal is to put more damage into the enemy than they put into you, the rammer equipment has to be a no-brainer choice... right? The enemy of "great" is "good": when there's something that brings success, we do more of it and tend to stop learning as we think we've already solved the problem. But sometimes that success can be correlation instead of causation, or that small success can hold us back from larger success. Like the sports player who has a routine before games because it's "lucky", our minds try to create ca

Original article by @rocketbrainsurgeon I'm all about bringing the fun back to World of Tanks with a brawling guide. No vision system tricks, scouting, or camping. See enemy, shoot enemy. What is brawling? Brawling in World of Tanks is close combat fighting within 100m, and typically involves: Snap shotting - little to no aiming Encircling - driving around an opponent faster than they can turn to avoid fire Face hugging - touching tanks front to front to force the enemy to fire into your turret Here's what brawling looks like - with tips, tricks,

Original article by @rocketbrainsurgeon I rarely rage at people, except for this ONE thing... Lakeville. Specifically, lakeville valley pushes. There's no reason to go there, ever. Here's a map of lakeville with some modifications I'll explain: Blue = marsh terrain, Red = choke points, Orange = completely open space Blue is where there is swampy terrain. The tanks will sink into the moist ground, greatly slowing speed. Red are choke points, or points where tanks will have to gather and expose themselves fully to the enemy. Orange are

Original article by @rocketbrainsurgeon Tired of invisible tanks shooting you? It's not a hack: Using the vision system in World of Tanks. The vision system is complicated, but I'm going to simplify it. Sure, you could read the wiki and memorize a ton of information or watch the official video which doesn't go over strategy, but what do you need to know and how do you actually use it? I'll show you! [DISCLAIMER: I'm deliberately leaving some things out or greatly simplifying the situations for clarity, so please don't nitpick when this is 95% correct] THE BASICS

Original article by @rocketbrainsurgeon This is patch 8.9 nearing 8.10. I'll tell you why HEAT premium rounds are terrible. HEAT ROUND MECHANICS If you want, read up on the penetration mechanics from the wiki, and my post about angling armor. You don't have to read them; I'll give the simple versions. Here are the main points, greatly simplified: AP gets a bonus against angled armor The steeper the angle, the better this bonus performs APCR gets a bonus against angled armor, but half as much as AP HEAT/HE does not get a bonus against angled armor

Original article by @rocketbrainsurgeon A lot of players ask: What is gun depression and how do you use it? I'll show you! WHAT IS GUN DEPRESSION Gun depression is the amount a tank can lower its' barrel, usually measured in degrees. Basically, how well a tank can point down. Good gun depression is usually 8 degrees or more, OK gun depression is 6-7 degrees, and bad gun depression is anything less than that. Examples of good gun depression tanks: US mediums/heavies/turreted tank destroyers Examples of OK gun depression tanks: T62A, Tiger II Examples of bad gun

Original article by @rocketbrainsurgeon Armor armor armor makes up a tanks' defense, right? Not entirely. TAKING DAMAGE For your tank to take damage, the following have to happen: Be spotted Be in line of sight Enemy turns tank/turret onto you, aims Shell has to hit tank Shell has to hit non-auto-bounce angle Armor Check Each one of these steps is a chance to avoid damage! Notice that armor doesn't come into play until the very last step. There are so many things that can prevent armor from ever coming into play, and I highly recommen

Original article by @rocketbrainsurgeon It's possible to get super in depth about angling armor, but here's all you really need to know. BASICS OF HOW ANGLES HELP ARMOR Here is the wiki entry on the specifics of armor angling, but I'll try to simplify it here since it contains some things which aren't as useful to know. Angle of Impact (degrees) - Increase in Armor 0 - 100% 10 - 101% 20 - 106% 30 - 115% 40 - 130% 50 - 155% 60 - 200% 70 - 292% 71+ - Auto bounce According to the above chart, just by angling your tank 30-40 degrees you can increase yo

Original article by @rocketbrainsurgeon "OMG YOU HACK!!!onE!1!!" is shouted practically every game, but if people knew these tricks they'd think a bit differently. SHOOT EVEN IF HE'S NOT ON RADAR, BUT WAS LAST SEEN IN THAT LOCATION If the enemy isn't moving and goes off of radar when stationary, take another shot or three. There's a large chance the enemy is still there. REDUCING RETICLE BLOOM "Bloom" is when the reticle gets larger through movement, but it gets larger in two ways: turret movement and track movement. Try to keep your turret stationary when moving your tr

Original article by @rocketbrainsurgeon Every game, there will be someone saying the following: "Let them come to us!" "Let's ambush them." "GUISE, just wait here" Yes, sometimes this "works": the opponents will blindly walk in front of your teams' guns and explode. But what happens when they don't suicide? Well, then you're stuck. While the mechanics of many games favors defensive positions a little more than offensive ones simply due to being pre-aimed on the exact spot the enemy will appear, this doesn't mean that defending is the way to go. There's a much be

Original article by @rocketbrainsurgeon I've grown up playing console games: Zelda, Mario, and Madden games of many systems and decades. Transitioning to computer games, I was top 20 worldwide in Starcraft and top 100 worldwide in Starcraft 2. Playing chess for awhile took me to the top 5% of tournament players in the US. In Magic: the Gathering, I was in the top thousand or so players by composite Standard/Limited rating. I started playing poker on the side, and after awhile I was good enough to spend several years as a professional online poker player. Ov

Original article by @rocketbrainsurgeon Guys, we're losing. DEFEND HERE! *pings the map* *watches as your team speeds to defeat, when all it took was one person to take 10 seconds to fix the problem* GAME OVER We've all been there: having a great individual game, only to lose because the team just folded like laundry. If only they responded to your instructions! Here's some advice on how to get your teammates, in any game, to be more receptive to you. YOU take the risk. Don't ask your teammates to take the risk Human beings are risk averse: we biologically and fundamen

Original article by @rocketbrainsurgeon We hear it all the time: "THIS TEAM SUCKS SO BAD" "I can't win with you clowns" "Why do I always get the bad teams?!" The people saying these things are typically, but not always, poor players. Better players do cry out in frustration sometimes, but more often than not they are doing what they do best: carrying the team to victory despite the efforts of their teammates. Let's meet a typical teammate, BOB: BOB works pretty hard at failing and according to his win percentage, he "succeeds" at it most of the time. He