Jesse_the_Scout

Woah, gamemodels3d actually has all the tanks with their armor models AND entire upgrade trees! Walkure https://gamemodels3d.com/games/worldoftanks/vehicles/g171 Arlequin https://gamemodels3d.com/games/worldoftanks/vehicles/f52 Harbringer Mk IV https://gamemodels3d.com/games/worldoftanks/vehicles/b162 Raven https://gamemodels3d.com/games/worldoftanks/vehicles/a167 Varyag https://gamemodels3d.com/games/worldoftanks/vehicles/r51 (inb4 one tank has stupidly better soft stats than all the others) Ya'll are on your own, I only need one more point thingy to get my AE Phase I.

This mode is hot garbage. Pen and armor mechanics are pants-on-head. The HEAT is basically useless and bounces on everything. The balance between tanks makes no sense, the American tank seems to shit on everything else. Winning is as much luck as anything. Getting lucky and nailing some boxes early so you can drive over lower tier tanks, getting lucky to not get ganged up on, getting lucky to run into two players fighting, getting good drops. The optimal strategy just seems to be to run away as long as you can. I've seen sub 45%ers come out #1. So basically, it's a battle royale game.

New equipment has definitely salvaged this tank. Turbo/IRM/Binocs and I'd almost even say it's good now. Way faster and more agile, cut some of the brutal bloom numbers, and I don't even miss the rammer since it rarely mattered. Now that I can bail out when things get bad it's a lot more enjoyable, and you can even fill in as a passive scout (once yours dies yoloing 45 seconds into the game) thanks to the good camo and small size.

The extra top speed from Turbo helps too. This did what, 72 back in the day? Now it's 60. Turbo gets you to 64, which is nice. Something this small becomes absurd to hit on the move as the speed starts hitting 60s. While the 75mm is basically pathetic, I'm finding with 50% camo I can get behind or to the side of people at 200m-400m and take my time to fully aim. I can sit in the open at times and be lighting 1-2 enemies just chilling and thinking about what to do. It's a unique experience, since very few tanks have this kind of camo and at higher tier the view ranges are high enough to counter it.

Turbo charger finally makes this thing work again. Still stalls out when you run over stuff but it's fast otherwise. Slap on LNES for 50% camo on the move and this is going to be the most hilarious scout in the game. Firepower is a joke, but when you can be 51m away in a bush and nothing can see you...

I'm too stingy to start shelling out 200k-600k until there's an equipment sale, so I went down to tier 2-4 to do a lot of testing where everything is only 50k a piece. The selection is a lot smaller too. But thus far my impression is that mobility helps e v e r y t h i n g . Some tanks, one piece is a no-brainer because there's a particular limit in the way. For example, the T-80 has always been an interesting but lackluster tier 4 light tank. It has very good agility, but the top speed and horsepower have always capped it. Slap on a turbocharger and it just smooths out the tank's flaws and balances it out. The BT-SV is a good tank but awkward because its hull traverse is low compared to its speed. Put on grousers and it's noticeably easier to handle, while still getting to speed faster. On other tanks, both pieces becomes really worthwhile. I haven't played the Pak40 in years because it's absurdly slow, but adding both pieces makes it playable again, blazing around the map at a pulse-pounding 25 kph. A guy on foot could barely even outrun you now. Mobility really is always a win too, because I know when I'm low tier the last thing I want is a fast top tier coming at me, and when you get stuck as the fodder extra speed lets you pick your battles a lot more.

Kind of debated whether to explain this nuance, but might as well. My earlier post I said the game is better than it's been in eons, but it's not across the board. In fact, all tiers up to 7 are better to play than they've ever been right now. But once you hit 6 it starts to degrade and by the time you hit 8 I think the game is literally the worst it's been since the days of 5+ arty per side. This is largely because WG leaves lower tiers the fuck alone. High tier is the competitive e-donger tier where every one turns into an insufferable tryhard. As a result WG aims the bulk of its monetization at those higher tiers and the gameplay is an absolute shitshow because of it. Gold ammo is a joke at high tier. At lower tiers it's a noticeable advantage, at high tier if you aren't spamming it you're basically hamstringing yourself. Too many tanks have monster armor with "weak" spots where 20% of your AP rounds will still bounce and are useless otherwise. The big shift to pay to win premiums is absolutely asinine. Premiums of the past 2-3 years completely shit all over everything else, and went straight cash only. It's shameless and broken. Low tier premiums are mostly hilariously bad. WG keeps making new gimmick branches that only get their obnoxious properties at tier 8+. So as soon as you hit 8 you suddenly have wheeled vehicles with auto aim and zoom mode, Swede TDs with press x for cancer time, etc. These gimmicks are interesting, but often really screw with game balance. Artillery is still peak influence at high tier. The blast radius is huge, everything is big, slow and super easy to hit. At lower tiers arty rarely even hits you in contrast, with tiny blast radii and horrible accuracy. High tier is non-stop power creep now as a cover for the premium tank power creep. As a result, being low tier is a complete joke, and the flavor of the month tanks are game-breaking ridiculous at times. In comparison low tier finally saw a nerf wave which clipped all the abominations like the T67, 38t, and Luchs. Everything at high tiers is pointless 5-15 blowouts. Who knows why exactly. I've never liked high tier much, the only time I actually thought it was good was right after the first arty nerf. Right now? I have no idea how any one has the patience for playing all their games in 8+.

This is the most WG thing I've ever heard.

I'm talking specifically about the effect on acceleration. Increasing HP/ton and reducing ground resistance both increase it, but the wild variance means there's likely differences based on the tank. For instance, Japanese tanks often have modest HP/ton and low ground resist. In that case I suspect increasing HP/ton would be better. In contrast, something like the IS-7 has decent HP/ton but atrocious ground resistances. I suspect in that case grousers would give you more bang for your buck. But without being able to decode the formulas I can only speculate. In any case whether you need increased max speed or better turn speed is still probably the deciding factor.

Big question for me is turbo charger vs. grousers because I pretty much guarantee differing soft stats will determine which is better on a tank by tank basis, but the formula given for acceleration was just giving me gibberish results. WG has to use some overly complex, counter-intuitive formula for everything in the game.

If there's not an equipment sale soon I'm gonna pop like a balloon. I have 400 tanks and ~80 mil in credits without even selling off half my old equipment yet. I NEED THIS, WG

Maybe unconventional: The game has actually been improving for about two years now. Basically early this year the actions of the past two years are just now starting to accumulate to the point where it's not awful anymore like 2015-2019. Well, before COVID hit, all the kids started playing, and ran it into the ground, but that should end eventually. If you have a life or self-respect and haven't been playing for a while, this is the main stuff: Scaled back the dreadful 3/5/7 which turned out to be a disaster. MM is now the best it's ever been, although there's still never going to be an excuse for three tier spread games. No more team damage (F.F.S.) Anonymizer, which turned out even more useful than I expected. I hoped to just tone down the arty focus, I never fully realized how much grief gets thrown your way because hurr durr uniscum. I actually even keep chat turned on most of the time now because I don't have to deal with the Lord of Flies crap that used to go on. Way faster progression. I didn't realize how demotivating it was to get so little experience every game. Now with premium and other bonuses as well as blueprints you can plow through horror grinds and advance crews much faster. I've finally been grinding up tier 8+ tanks that I never wanted to bother with before. More generous credits. I think even a free to play player might be able to scrape by these days because of the daily missions. The HP scaling of tier 1-6 tanks was way overdue, at least if you play lower tiers. I think it made things a bit easier for new players too. I feel maps are a bit better now than in the past, with a few new maps actually even being good. Although holy shit, Province again. They're actually adjusting tanks again, something they didn't do for years. I don't think WG realized how stale things get without constant changes. Training books are great, and make for a good credit sink. And of course, the new equipment. There are some new problems of course, pay to win premiums are the big thing and wheeled tanks are asinine, but the trend has been largely positive. Before COVID I even had days I played 20 games, a quantity my sanity couldn't endure since 2015 turf.

That first Unconventional Opinion topic is so old Garbad's posts are still sane.