From Green To Purple

[PacificMaelstrom 12]

The goal of this post is to share what I have learned since I started playing WOT, and the factors that I think were most responsible for my improvement. While my stats don’t reflect it yet, I have reached the point where I can consistently average 2500-3000 WN8 in a session, provided I follow the method outlined below. When I play on Wi-Fi or when tired or distracted, things don’t go as well.

 

For my first 8000 battles or so, I learned primarily through trial and error. For example, no one told me how to go “Hull down”… I learned it the hard way. I don’t recommend that method of learning the basics. I’m going to mostly focus on how a “good player” with a WN8 of about 1200 and above can quickly become “Great”, so I won’t talk about basics like aiming and maneuvering, instead I will talk about more “meta level” decisions that can improve one’s play.

 

 

Rule 1: Have Patience.

WOT is a slow game. Slow tanks make it even slower, and fast tanks make it easy to rush in too quickly. If you want to play well, you absolutely must exercise patience as all times.

In every battle, take the time to do the following:

·        Aim. (You don’t have to wait for the reticle to fully close, but you should wait until you have a good chance of hitting)

o   If you can’t safely aim a shot because you know you will get hit if you do, you probably shouldn’t be trying to take the shot.

o   Don’t immediately shoot if the tank you are aiming at shoots at you. If his shot is going to kill you, it is already too late, and if it won’t, then you are needlessly wasting your shot.

o   Don’t immediately shoot if the tank you are aiming at is about to get behind cover. Sometimes you will hit, but most of the time you will miss and he will pop back out and hit you while you are reloading. This is especially important if you have a long reload time. (On the flip side, you can take advantage of the fact that many players do this in order to get them to waste their shot)

·        Angle your armor/Go hull down/Side scrape

o   It takes a few extra seconds to set up a hull down or well angled position, but it is worth it, especially in tanks that heavily rely on it. For example, the T34 is beast when properly side scraping, but without it, it is quickly burnt toast.

o   This is a key part of what it means to “play smart”. If you need to round a corner, don’t just drive straight into enemy guns… angle your armor and side scape around the corner. (or let someone else go first)

·        Look at the map.

o   Situational awareness is very important. Don’t rely on the “tank spotted” sound to alert you to the tank that is trying to sneak up behind you. If you look at the map you can often see where the enemy is likely to pop up and be ready for them when they do.

o   How many games are lost because the other team fast-caps and no one was paying attention? Too many. If you see a fast cap is imminent, go back towards base immediately, no matter how slow your tank is.

·        Wait for the right time to make a move.

o   Don’t rush in anywhere without support. Wait for your teammates to catch up to you. (If there are no teammates coming to cover you, then you shouldn’t be there in the first place… retreat ASAP.)

 

Rule 2: Play under optimal conditions.

Often you may find that even if you are trying to play smart, it just isn't happening. You will play better when you are:

·        Relaxed.

o   Don’t play when stressed, rushed for time, or feeling like you feel you must try really, really hard to do well or your life is meaningless.

o   It is a game. If you aren't having fun, your play will suffer. You will be more likely to YOLO out of frustration or camp in fear, ruining games that you could have done very well in.

o   If you aren't relaxed, you will get increasingly frustrated if you play bad… compounding the problem and making you play even worse.

·        Well Rested.

o   Don’t underestimate this one. I personally notice a session difference of about 1000 WN8 points if I am tired.

o   Being tired will make you more prone to acting on impulses to YOLO, and more prone to making other bad decisions.

·        Engaged

o   Take it one game at a time. You should be fully engaged in each game for its own sake. View each game as a unique challenge, and a chance to do your best.

o   If you are just trying to get through a grind, performance will suffer greatly.

·        Connected.

o   Get off Wi-Fi, upgrade your internet, do what it takes to lower your ping. (Bad ping is rarely WG’s fault.) This may not be possible for everyone, but it is a big limit to your performance.

o   If you MUST play with bad ping:

§  Check the ping meter on the top left of the screen every few seconds

§  Check the ping meter immediately before each shot you take.

§  Play high-alpha TD’s or arty as they rely less on making precise maneuvers and taking many shots.

 

Rule 3: Choose your tanks wisely.

While the best players can excel in any tank, everyone has tanks they enjoy more than others. The simplest way to increase your stats quickly is to focus on tanks you enjoy and do well in. This isn’t any sort of cheating or padding, rather it is simply acknowledging and taking advantage of your personal strengths.

·        Play tanks you like

o   You will be more engaged and have more fun, even if you don’t win all the time. As long as you enjoy playing a tank, you will be engaged and you are likely to play better than in tanks you dislike.

·        Play tanks you like AND do well in.

o   Many of you have that one tank that gets a 60% win rate. Play that tank more often and your stats will increase. Simple. Over time, you can figure out why you are good in that tank and apply it to your other tanks.

o   There are many tanks with similar play-styles. For example, if you like the JPE-100, you may also like the FV215b 183. Get as many tanks as you can that fit your playstyle(s), and avoid tanks you know you will do poorly in. WOT is supposed to be fun. No reason to torture yourself.

o   Try the “OP” tanks. If you find you often get bested by a certain tank (Other than arty) you may want to try that tank yourself. If you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em. You will probably find out the tank isn’t quite as OP as you thought, but you may also find that you really enjoy playing it.

 

Rule 4: Don’t make the same mistakes over and over.

·        Did a certain position work for you once upon a time but fail every other time since?

o   If so, don’t go there anymore. Remember which positions work almost every time, and go to those positions all the time. If a position only works sometimes, don’t take the risk.

·        If you know that making a certain maneuver frequently results in you taking hits or getting killed, don’t do it.

o   Adjust your play so that you don’t rely on maneuvers that expose you to enemy fire. Try to use cover whenever possible, even if it means going the “long way” to your destination.

o   Shortcuts are often really a shortcut back to the garage.

·        Remember what tank you are in.

o   Don’t take a heavy up the hill on Mines because it worked so well in your light tank. Don’t take your light tank to tank alley on Himmelsdorf. Pretty basic, but be sure to take your tank into account when thinking up your strategy.

·        Take advantage of common mistakes.

o   If you often make a certain mistake, often you will find that other players make the same mistakes too. Imagine that you are on the other team. Think about where you would go. Now go obliterate the tanks on the other team that do what you would have done.

§  For example, if you like to go up the hill on mines, instead of going up, find a spot where you can shoot the tanks that try to go up.

§  If you got caught in a certain part of a map, next time you are on the other side of that map, try to catch others in the same spot. Often times you will.

o   Once you identify a mistake that you commonly make, you will be able to identify and punish others who still make that same mistake!

 

Golden Rule of WOT: Put your tank first.

Imagine that the Field Commander is in your tank. As a result, your tank is the most important one, and you are not allowed to sacrifice your tank for anyone else.

·        Sacrificing your tank for the good of your team is NOT good for you or your team.

o   Is some jerk telling you to do something that will probably get you killed? Don’t do it.

o   Is someone raging at you and telling you to scout? Tell him to get his camping butt off the red line and find his own targets. WN8 does not take spotting damage into account so if you are in a light tank, you should focus on doing damage, not on scouting.

§  Lest you disagree with that, remember that most scouts die at the beginning of the game after doing almost no damage. As a result, a scout that stays alive and does the damage of a heavy tank is like having a whole extra heavy tank on your team. Pure profit for the team.

·        Don’t position yourself between the enemy and the cap on a weak flank.

o   What if the team all goes to one side of the map? You, being the one responsible player on the team decide to go to the empty side and do your best to hold it alone, whilst raging at the team for being stupid and leaving a flank open. Sounds good? NO.

o   When you and a few token tanks go to the empty side:

§  You can’t hold the flank alone so you invariably get steamrolled.

§  You die doing almost no damage.

§  You immediately put your team down a few tanks, leaving the rest of the team at a disadvantage.

o   In other words, if you go to defend a flank alone, YOU ARE CAUSING YOUR TEAM TO LOOSE BY WASTING YOUR TANK. (Ironic, because you were trying to help.)

o   So instead of reenacting the Alamo:

§  If you are fast, go the same way as everyone else to secure a decisive victory on that flank. Keep your eye on the map and be ready to drop everything and rush back to defend at the first sign of trouble.

§  If you are slow, start going the way everyone else is going, but find a spot to defend the cap from that side. Then wait until the enemy rushes through to the cap. Once they are capping, you can start shooting them from a position of strength because you chose a good spot with lots of cover. The cap siren will likely send part of your team rushing back to help you, and they come up behind you and give you support.

§  The enemy is often reluctant to push past cap, so once they are on cap they will often sit and let you shoot them.

o   This will probably eliminate many of your bad games.

§  You still defend, but from a position of strength and on your own terms.

§  You might actually get help because your team hears the siren and comes back.

§  You get to farm damage from enemies trying to cap with no cover.

·        Remember that you can’t influence the battle when you are dead.

o   A good player will influence the battle as much as they can. If you die, you leave your destiny up to your teammates. They will usually let you down.

o   Don’t ever rely on anyone but yourself. Expect that you will have to carry your team to victory, and then do it.

 

Bonus Rule: Don’t take crap from anyone.

·        If they are a good player, they are following the Golden rule. As a result, they are probably telling you that you suck because they screwed up and you didn’t cover for them.

o   If you go on to win anyway, be sure to respectfully let them know that they are an idiot.

o   If you lose, that’s on you. Evaluate your own performance and learn from it. What they think you should have done is probably not what you really should have done.

·        If a good player/unicum rages at you, challenge them to a 1v1 honor duel in the public battle chat.

o   They will probably accept because it is a matter of personal ego for them to prove that they are better than you. (Of course if they don’t accept you can imply they are chicken.)

o   When you duel them, calmly play your best and treat it as a learning experience. You will probably loose, but it matters not. Tips for putting up a good fight:

§  Don’t be the attacker. Don’t camp, but don’t rush in. Let them come to you. They will assume you suck so they may be over aggressive.

§  Use all the 1v1 techniques you know of. (i.e. side scrape, hull down, etc.)

§  Position yourself so that you are ready no matter what direction they come from.

§  Use your favorite tank. This will make you feel more comfortable. If they have it, insist they use it too.

 

That’s all I have. Cheers and good luck out there. 

[Kiwi. 637]

+1

 

Sounds kinda like me. Trial and error is how I learned. I remember  my first 300 games I streamed on twitch, and people were all like "do you know anything about sidescraping?" At that time I was lazy... I thought sidescraping meant rub your tank on another tank (I know it sounds kinda weird....) But anyone good luck and I hope you make it to purple! 

[Kristoffon 53]

Thank you, I believe this deserves to be pinned.

[Rayboy 3]

+1 But I missed the mentioning of snap shots :-/

 

@Hello If that's how you fuck arty... 261 here I come!!!

[Ollie Tabooger 614]

The way I got to purple recent was via the Kewei way: play Tier 10 a LOT until I had the defensive technique habits and knowledge of when to make moves necessary to really succeed, since mistakes are punished much more harshly (make the wrong move, and you get a barrage of pin-point accurate fire from 6 invisi-tanks). The basic premise is that everything that works at high Tiers can be applied as well, if not better, to lower Tiers, but not vice versa.

 

It basically brought me up 9% in recent winrate and 1100 recent WN8, and I could still stand to benefit from it if I could stand to continue to take this game seriously.

[KillerTiger 476]

This formatting is gorgeous. 

[TriggrHPY 262]

My number one rule in wot: Chill Vibes > Salt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I often break my own rule :3.

[PacificMaelstrom 12]

Salt?

[kolni 69,670,872]

<--- smokes the ganja and plays for fun instead

[TriggrHPY 262]

Salt?

Being salty. As in, going on tilt/getting mad when playing bad. 

[Teslarod 558]

The way I got to purple recent was via the Kewei way: play Tier 10 a LOT until I had the defensive technique habits and knowledge of when to make moves necessary to really succeed, since mistakes are punished much more harshly (make the wrong move, and you get a barrage of pin-point accurate fire from 6 invisi-tanks). The basic premise is that everything that works at high Tiers can be applied as well, if not better, to lower Tiers, but not vice versa.

 

It basically brought me up 9% in recent winrate and 1100 recent WN8, and I could still stand to benefit from it if I could stand to continue to take this game seriously.

 

This worked for me. As a Yellow I played a lot of T8s then went back to lower tiers for grinding other lines where my winrates Kill to death and DPG reached new levels while simultaneously teaching me how to carry a game against inexperienced players.Then finally reached tier 10 memorized all weakspots and learned the basics of 1v1 in T10. Went back to lower tiers with improved knowledge of weakspots and started to give more though to individual maps and team composition. Everytime I improved it was at highertiers where it didn't really show, but once you drop down a couple tiers it will immediately show.

 

The biggest problem I can't figure out is the flux in between sessions (1800 to 3k WN8 with winrates in between of 43% and 70% for the last month) the main goal is now is to hammer down some consistency.

[PacificMaelstrom 12]

The way I got to purple recent was via the Kewei way: play Tier 10 a LOT until I had the defensive technique habits and knowledge of when to make moves necessary to really succeed, since mistakes are punished much more harshly (make the wrong move, and you get a barrage of pin-point accurate fire from 6 invisi-tanks). The basic premise is that everything that works at high Tiers can be applied as well, if not better, to lower Tiers, but not vice versa.

 

It basically brought me up 9% in recent winrate and 1100 recent WN8, and I could still stand to benefit from it if I could stand to continue to take this game seriously.

 

Playing lots of games at high tiers definitively helped me improve at high tiers. My first tier 10's were pretty bad, but I learned.

 

The only thing I question about that is that I'm not sure how well it really translates to lower tiers. One thing I noticed is that playing lower tiers can feel painful because the high tier tanks handle so nicely in comparison. Going down you loose speed, accuracy, alpha etc... and I find it easy to loose patience with the limitations of the tanks. 

 

For example, a good game in my T110E5 means I'm soaring through the map. The T34 is much slower, even in a good game. It turns slower, reloads slower, aims slower, etc.  

 

So playing high tiers teaches you positioning, strategy, etc, but the tanks themselves are actually easier to drive, which is something to consider when you actually decide to try seal clubbing

 

If I had unlimited cash and wanted to do a re-roll, I would buy a premium tank, and free xp a tier 10, and then free XP all other tier 10's using those tanks, never playing anything other than tier 8 9 and 10. 

[stagnate 513]

Was pretty decent until the 1v1 crap. Seriously 1v1 skill has almost 0 bearing on effective 15v15 play.

Also scout need to scout. That doesn't mean forgo damage and doesn't mean suicide, but they have the mobility, speed, camo and profile to work vision especially in the later stages of a match.

Advocating ignoring spotting assists because it isn't in WN is retarded.

[PacificMaelstrom 12]

The last part is called humor. But actually there are plenty of times 1v1 skills will help you in games. Some games come down to 1v1, and there are many 1v1 situations.

And as for scouting, you are entitled to your opinion. Scouting involves relying on your team, which is a huge risk that rarely pays off in my experience.

Im not saying dont scout at all, but rather to focus on dammage. I find that its best to rely on your team as little as possible.

That includes not relying on light tanks to scout. If bad scouts hurt your play, you should play differently.

[climbinguy 6]

The last part is called humor. But actually there are plenty of times 1v1 skills will help you in games. Some games come down to 1v1, and there are many 1v1 situations.

And as for scouting, you are entitled to your opinion. Scouting involves relying on your team, which is a huge risk that rarely pays off in my experience.

Im not saying dont scout at all, but rather to focus on dammage. I find that its best to rely on your team as little as possible.

That includes not relying on light tanks to scout. If bad scouts hurt your play, you should play differently.

The thing I find hardest with scouts, and I'm sure a lot of people will agree, is that without a good crew (especially one with 6th sense) your survivability is going to be much lower. If youre active scouting this isnt as much of a concern but when passive scouting, its always nice to get that alert that youre not behind cover properly or youre being counter-scouted and you need to leg it. Maybe its this opinion that sets me below the blue-purple players, but eventually I'll get it right, and when I get it right, Ill work on getting it consistent, then once that finally happens, then I can contribute the most possible as a scout.

[EchelonIII 1,255]

·        If a good player/unicum rages at you, challenge them to a 1v1 honor duel in the public battle chat.

o   They will probably accept because it is a matter of personal ego for them to prove that they are better than you. (Of course if they don’t accept you can imply they are chicken.)

o   When you duel them, calmly play your best and treat it as a learning experience. You will probably loose, but it matters not. Tips for putting up a good fight:

§  Don’t be the attacker. Don’t camp, but don’t rush in. Let them come to you. They will assume you suck so they may be over aggressive.

§  Use all the 1v1 techniques you know of. (i.e. side scrape, hull down, etc.)

§  Position yourself so that you are ready no matter what direction they come from.

§  Use your favorite tank. This will make you feel more comfortable. If they have it, insist they use it too.

If a shitlord chalenges you, don't curbstomp him, let him bounce several hundred thousand worth of credits BEFORE trashing him.

[KenadianCSJ 666]

My number one rule in wot: Chill Vibes > Salt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I often break my own rule :3.

What you ask is impossible a lot of the time. Common causes include things falling from the sky, massive things falling from the sky, and several massive things falling from the sky at once.

[PacificMaelstrom 12]

If a shitlord chalenges you, don't curbstomp him, let him bounce several hundred thousand worth of credits BEFORE trashing him.

Thats the spirit.

[EchelonIII 1,255]

Thats the spirit.

 

I've actually done that before.

[General_Fault 115]

I make no claims that I am an exceptional player, but my stats are lower than they could be primarily due to ignoring several of these meta strategies.  I am a serial grinder.  Once a tank is elite, I stop playing it.  My tanks sessions are just going through getting doubles on my 12 grind tanks, many of which are stock and/or crap.  Also, I don't really have any other games I like playing as much as Tanks, so I spend a lot of time gaming in very poor emotional states, simply because I just want to kill time and have nothing better to do. :/

[InconnuGlitterBoy 22]

Nice write-up.

 

On the WiFi, I lose 3-4 ms with it, there is hardware by now out that doesn't have latency problems.

On the aiming, I am rather a "aim more"-guy, but only recently (*cough*) after watching Sela's streaming, I've started to auto aim a lot and to increase the volume of shots I do through a match. I think it's very helpful.

[capt-jay 405]

@ general fault, you should learn to play guitar or something

[PacificMaelstrom 12]

@Inconnu, thats a good point about the aiming. Especially in tanks with high expected WN8 values, doing lotsandlotsandlots of shooting is a must.