Guide to 3 Marks of Excellence

[kolni 69,670,872]

goddammit forum why won't you let me spoiler -__________- mods pls fix

 

 

I decided to write something up since I haven't done it in so long. Anyway, today I hit 100 Marks of Excellence obtained (78 on my own account as of now) so I've got some experience in doing this. I'm not CarbonWard but I'll do my best to explain it. 

 

So first off to how they actually work (somewhat): https://console.worldoftanks.com/en/content/about/game-guides/marks-of-excellence/

The formula is not released anywhere (speculation in another thread here but nothing conclusive) but the console forums did release an explanation of an EMA:

 

"The damage/assist damage you earn after each battle will be compared against the average for that tank across all battles from the past 14 days. If your average is higher the required percentage of the global average, you'll earn a mark! For example:

Suppose the top damage + assist damage for the IS-6 per match is 7,000 points. To get the first Mark of Excellence, you need higher than 65% of that, which would be 4,550. 85% is 5,950 and 95% is 6,650.

Remember, it's the average of damage dealt + assisted damage!

Marks of Excellence are calculated by using an EMA (Exponential Moving Average), and each tank has its own EMA. We compare your EMA against the highest average damage for all players using that same tank during the time period to determine if you qualify for a Mark.

Here are some examples of how your performance will affect your EMA. We used a 100-battle period so you can get a better idea of how your EMA will increase/decrease. Let's see how these players' performances determine how many games it takes for them to reach an EMA of 1,000.

• Example 1: A player who is not very consistent; their performance is all over the place. It took them around 87 games. 
• Example 2: A player who is consistently putting up average Damage+Assist Damage games. It took them ~67 games. 
• Example 3: A player who is consistently playing high Damage+Assist Damage games. It took them ~33 games.           

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Using an EMA prevents players from earning Marks just by buying a new tank and playing one or two good games. If we allowed that to happen, Marks would have little meaning. As you can see, players start out with a low EMA and must build it up over time by performing well. The better you perform on a consistent basis, the faster your EMA will go up and the quicker you get a Mark. If you perform poorly, your EMA drops. However, poor games do not affect your EMA as much as a good game will improve it.

Depending on your skill level, at some point your EMA will be equal to your average Damage+Assist Damage. For example, if your EMA is 1,200, at 80% in the Damage Standings, and you continue to do an average Damage+Assist Damage of 1,200, your EMA and Damage standing will not increase or decrease. So if you want to get to that 85% level to earn your second MoE, you will need to start doing more than 1,200 Damage+Assist Damage in order to keep raising your score. "

 

^ This is all actual information published regarding the marks. And as previously debated it's weighted against an average and not against other players "good games", or "2 games removes 1 bad game" that's been mentioned a lot everywhere.

I've also done some rough testing since I've 3marked several of the same tanks (7 E 50s) and three of them were from 0 games. What I managed to gather was that the EMA seems to favour consistency over spikes in damage output. At 60 games two of the E 50s were at 87% with rougly the same damage outputs but one had 257 more spotting on average, but also a lower survival rate (higher derp ratio) which leads me to believe it's been less consistent. While a difference of 257 combined doesn't seem like much it's still simply a higher damage output per game and I can't think of anything else but consistency actually being a very relevant factor. (I don't have permission to post screenshots from the accounts played so if anyone can find someone with similar stats to yours beneath 100 games or simply test this for yourself it'd be great)

 

With that out of the way we can proceed to the actual 3 marking.

 

I won't go into how to achieve consistency because that's just extremely hard to put into words besides the vague terms as "playing safe" etc but there are things I generally do to maximize my combined outputs:

In general:

 

• HP conservation: This is the same old same old really. In 9/10 games for most people there was more damage to be farmed if you simply had more HP to work with, and cleanup damage requires less HP than normal so simply surviving until the endgame is a good place to start. The next step is probably to start micromanaging for HP conservation. It does wonders and really helps you make use of armour to start negating HP taken.  

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/58998835

Here's a pretty good example of X3N4 fighting 4-5 tanks at once with 540 HP (due to a certain balanced game mechanic) simply by micromanaging very well and he doesn't actually take any damage from any of the tanks he's fighting. It's a very good example in general of pushing your game level up. What's also worth noting here is that in micromanaging you also want to minimize guns that can shoot at you. If you can make a 1v5 engagement into 5 1v1s it's a lot easier to keep your angles and the enemy at bay. 

Doing this simply leads to more HP later on and lets you push in harder than the rest of your team which brings me to the next point. 

• Getting outrunned: A problem for a lot of players (and tanks for that matter) is that a single misplay in judging progression can leave you behind so leaving engagements early to start farming the next one is always the better option if given to you if you think there is more damage there. This is also very good for winning in general. I'll give an example: 

An E 100 at full HP on the enemy team is getting pushed by 5 tanks on your team in city of Windstorm. In the middle there are 3 enemy mediums with a considerably higher HP amount than that one E 100. WYD?

Of course you go for the 3 mediums. The E 100 is getting swarmed in seconds and while he looks healthy there are 4-5 more guns that'll shoot him so you will get 2 shots in max in a standard NATO T10 medium. It's simply not worth it. If he's in the open I would only stick around until just before my team can shoot him to track him, and then run away and farm some assisted along the way. I will be ahead of the other tanks on my team and can impact it earlier so the enemy tanks can do less, and I can do more before the rest of my team arrives. It's really important and merges very well with an aggressive playstyle (one you will have to adopt for sure if you are trying reward tanks or some of the harder tanks in the game)

 

For damage: 

 

• Identifying tank lineups and determining where they will go: When maximizing your damage output you really need to do this. You weigh risk vs reward and deploy accordingly. For me it usually means going to a favourable map position close to the biggest block of enemy HP possible. But there are of course exceptions if the enemy lineup simply will roll over there, then I will go where I at least will have a reasonable chance of a positive outcome from that specific engagement and then taking it from there instead. Little is surely better than nothing and you simply have to weigh risk and reward against eachother and determine what is most likely to happen before it happens. Reading the game is key. 

The way of damage also differs a lot between different tanks. For tanks with higher alpha I will simply not go for low HP oneshots unless they will kill me if I don't. If I can max out my damage dealt per minute (If I can shoot another tank for full alpha damage or more than the oneshot at least within my reload time) I will. Oneshots are the most annoying thing when it comes to marks, they need to die but in chokepoint engagements it really sucks to have to waste a 750 alpha shell for a 12HP AMX 13 90 just because he'll yolo you on your reload otherwise. Lower alpha tanks don't really get affected as much by this as much, which is good since they're generally more fragile as well. A russian tier 10 med has another shot coming so fast that you if you're aggressive enough of a player, those 5 seconds won't make a significant impact on your final damage when the game is over, compared to a 14 second reload of an E 100 that has much more trouble repositioning and catching up on cleanup. 

This basically means that the slower your tank is, and the bigger your gun is, the more general of a playstyle you'll have to implement. You simply can't be everywhere you want to be and you'll have to cut corners to make it work. HP becomes a tool for damage dealt rather than autoloader yolo protection like other meds. You'll ideally want to pick crowded lanes that play slow but that's simply not possible all the time so leaving won engagements early for more endgame damage is really important. 

• Meatshielding: This is and will always be a dick move but Marks are you playing for yourself and the occasion of your game being worse because your teammate took a hit that you should have is so rare it's not even worth considering. Just play with teammates and you'll spot situations where they poke, and then you poke with them. Preferably behind them, so when they eat the shot you can poke out further and shoot, and pull back before they reload. Easy as that. Use them as cover for a yoloing tank. Whatever really, if you have a teammate nearby, make sure to make some use of him since half the playerbase are more useful meatshielding for you than they'd be anywhere else anyway. 
• Liberal HEAT usage: Some people won't like it but it's relevant simply because it allows you to fight the enemy heavies in a better way with both micromanagement and penratio. You can move to entirely different positions based on your loadouts in a tank. Running 45/3/2 in an Object 140 means that you simply won't be able to fight frontal heavies as well as a 24/24/2 loaded one if the opportunity presents itself. Just do it man, being cheap is not an excuse for lack of marks  
• Early damage: Go aggressive until the point you start risking HP and then you simply back off, easy as that. Most maps offer spots where you won't need other teammates to get early shots in, and also with plenty of ways out (Sand River middle is a nice and easy example)

 

For assisted:

 

Assisted in general requires an aggressive playstyle. At least spotting does. Increasing your viewrange as much as possible really helps with both damage and assisted so I suggest this:

• Optics - It's better than vents even in slow turds simply because it allows you to cross open areas without running the risk of getting absolutely fucked over for nothing in return. You spot more so you will be able to shoot more, and your teammates will as well. You can play exactly the same as you would with vents, but almost always with better results. An E5 with optics can cross Redshire middle and one with vents run the risk of getting fucked over because the sweet spot is 400m and you won't spot camoed out tanks and the second you start taking damage while being blind your game gets massively screwed over.
• Trackspam - This is super easy and really helps with marks, it's simply to shoot a track of tanks that are about to get swarmed. On two Mice you can go for either shots of damage with a swarm incoming or you can spend time tracking both of them making sure you get that dank 6000 assisted because no matter how you put, that number will be higher than doing damage on them will. Always shoot tracks of tanks poking you, you blow repair kits and their mobility along with it, it allows for permatracks in DPM-y meds and if your teammates capitalize on it you don't lose out like you would on doing flat damage. I have a replay to show what I mean: http://wotreplays.com/site/3291219#teams This is a game of mediocre damage, but I spammed tracks of the enemy team to farm an extra 3000 in track assist for a combined of 5500 instead of a possible 3300 on pure damage.  

 

This is really all there's to it on marks in general. Consistency is key but I've tried as well as I can to put words to what I try to achieve when 3marking a tank. Autoloaders and light tanks are a thing I forgot to add but will do soon.

TL;DR Do enough damage and assisted damage consistently by making smart decisions and making use of whatever mechanics and options available to you  

 

[creator31 182]

yung  

[MacusFlash 2,270]

I have one question about assisted dmg - what counts: spot and/or detrack and how? Both of them in the same time (that would be lame) or the higher value or does it work in the other way?

[Sapros 348]

1 hour ago, creator31 said:

yung  

 

making WoTLabs great again

[aaveq 899]

1 hour ago, MacusFlash said:

I have one question about assisted dmg - what counts: spot and/or detrack and how? Both of them in the same time (that would be lame) or the higher value or does it work in the other way?

Both have same weight and work as assisted in formula.

 

 

+ important for subhuman haters, i mean arty haters

dont be J0n4s, teamkilling lowers your marks

 

[MacusFlash 2,270]

44 minutes ago, Sapros said:

 

making WoTLabs great again

And make Mexico pay for server? 

6 minutes ago, aaveq said:

Both have same weight and work as assisted in formula.

 

 

+ important for subhuman haters, i mean arty haters

dont be J0n4s, teamkilling lowers your marks

 

So everything from assisted dmg line in post battle info counts for MoE. Sounds too easy to be a truth 

[breeeze 446]

Some additions and corrections to the math part since I've been playing around with moe data for a bit:

The "speculative" formula you mentioned is actually correct, it reproduces the numbers accurately every time (feel free to check for yourself). This means the EMA works like this: Each tank starts with EMA=0 and after each game about 1/50th (2/101 to be exact) of the difference between combined damage of that game and the current EMA are added to the EMA. The correct formula is (taken from Crabs thread):

EMAi = EMAi-1 + K*(DAMAGEi – EMAi-1)

• DAMAGEi = (Dealt by player in battle) + ( maximum damage by tracking or by spotting) - (team-damage caused to allies in battle)

• k = 2 / (N +1)

• N = 100

Some examples: Say you have an EMA of 1000 and get a 2000 combined game, your EMA after that game will be 1000+(2000-1000)*2/101=1019.8=~1020. Or you have an EMA of 4000 and get clicked before getting a shot off, your new EMA will be 4000+(0-4000)*2/101=3920.8=~3921.

Your current EMA can be checked with Aimdrol's Replay Analyzer, just make sure the "Moving average damage" column is active in the settings and load in your replays. That way you'll know exactly how much you need to do to improve your percentage

The article also gets one thing very wrong, it says that the moe percentage is just the percentage of that top damage value, but per my findings it actually isn't! There should be a straight line when comparing EMA with MoE percentage, but there isn't. Here's my data for the Skoda T 24

As you can see it gets a lot flatter above about 80% which is why it's so much slower to improve in the higher percentages.

 

Another small tip is to keep track of your spotting and tracking damage throughout the game. If you have 3k spotting and no tracking it will be worth going for the damaging shot after all since the tracking won't help your EMA unless you get it above 3k.

[HemanathanRX7 136]

Thanks for guide @Kolni 

Hope to slowly start 3 marking from low tiers before i get gud enough to 3 mark t8 and above non LT Kappa

[Siimcy 3,522]

5 hours ago, Kolni said:

• Liberal HEAT usage: Some people won't like it but it's relevant simply because it allows you to fight the enemy heavies in a better way with both micromanagement and penratio. You can move to entirely different positions based on your loadouts in a tank. Running 45/3/2 in an Object 140 means that you simply won't be able to fight frontal heavies as well as a 24/24/2 loaded one if the opportunity presents itself. Just do it man, being cheap is not an excuse for lack of marks  

Great material for the official forums to farm some tears.  

[dualmaster333 3,324]

Yeah, still doesn't seem to be a consensus on whether assisted is highest of tracking/spotting or if it is tracking+spotting. I've seen claims of both by people who three mark a lot of tanks.

[Shifty_101st 1,144]

9 hours ago, MacusFlash said:

I have one question about assisted dmg - what counts: spot and/or detrack and how? Both of them in the same time (that would be lame) or the higher value or does it work in the other way?

Important to point out here that only the HIGHEST assisted damage counts toward your mark.

If you do 6k damage and 6k assisted (4k spotting and 2k tracking), it is NOT a 12k combined game it is 10k combined.  Daki, Akula, and recently Skill have said this to be the case.

If marks counted both assisted damages 3 marking would be so much easier I bet

[Rspctd 296]

56 minutes ago, dualmaster333 said:

Yeah, still doesn't seem to be a consensus on whether assisted is highest of tracking/spotting or if it is tracking+spotting. I've seen claims of both by people who three mark a lot of tanks.

 

I have zero math knowledge but I recently did my 140 3 Moe and had a few games toward the end that had massive amounts of combined but were split between tracking and spotting. Going into it I knew about the conversation of whether they both count or the higher counts and it definitely seemed like or. 6k pure dpg was raising the mark higher then say 6k split between all three. Then again though I have no way to know with the way EMA works and how the average is rolling. 

Note: I don't really understand this all that much, but 3 MOE tanks look dope. 

[MacusFlash 2,270]

4 hours ago, Shifty_101st said:

Important to point out here that only the HIGHEST assisted damage counts toward your mark.

If you do 6k damage and 6k assisted (4k spotting and 2k tracking), it is NOT a 12k combined game it is 10k combined.  Daki, Akula, and recently Skill have said this to be the case.

If marks counted both assisted damages 3 marking would be so much easier I bet

Silly question: who are they? I mean Daki, Akula and Skill.

[Sapros 348]

2 minutes ago, MacusFlash said:

Silly question: who are they? I mean Daki, Akula and Skill.

https://www.twitch.tv/dakillzor

https://www.twitch.tv/akulav_na

https://www.twitch.tv/skill4ltu

 

[MacusFlash 2,270]

Thanks. I don't watch any streams so I don't know people (except dakillzor - a leader of clan full of super cheaters ).

[mati_14 129]

8 hours ago, Shifty_101st said:

Important to point out here that only the HIGHEST assisted damage counts toward your mark.

If you do 6k damage and 6k assisted (4k spotting and 2k tracking), it is NOT a 12k combined game it is 10k combined.  Daki, Akula, and recently Skill have said this to be the case.

If marks counted both assisted damages 3 marking would be so much easier I bet

25 tanks marked and i never knew this...

[breeeze 446]

13 hours ago, dualmaster333 said:

Yeah, still doesn't seem to be a consensus on whether assisted is highest of tracking/spotting or if it is tracking+spotting. I've seen claims of both by people who three mark a lot of tanks.

There isn't? Well, feel free to do the math for yourself, the only version that is gonna fit the formula is max(tracking,spotting)

[SlyMeerkat 1]

Very handy read, thank you for the information as this is something i need to work on to improve most certainly