When to Move From Tier 5/6 to Tier 7?

[Seika 7]

I've hit a bit of a wall in my progress coming back to the game after a long break. I can handle T5 and 6 games well, and consistently walk out with !st or 2nd class mastery badges when I don't over-extend and play with calculated aggression, rather than straight up un-controlled aggression. I'm finding though, that T7/8 battles tend to get me rekt, whether because I don't know weakspots as well, the armor is a lot better, or something else.. I can't trade nearly as well unless I load gold ammo.. ¬.¬;

I was just gifted a Thunderbolt VII Ult. pack, so I now have 1.88m credits and 2.8k gold and am unsure what to spend it on.. As fun as the playstyles of the Russian/US/German heavy lines are, I find myself trying to flank often and wishing I was faster, which is more the realm of medium tanks.. As a result, I can't decide how to best proceed!

Current Tanks: VK36.01H, KV-1, M3 Lee, HT No. 6, Thunderbolt VII

Researched Tanks: Tiger I, KV1S w/ 13.5k KV-1 pts towards the KV-2, M4, T1-Heavy, and I free-exp'd my way to T-80 on the Russian Medium line

I'm mainly concerned with bridging the skill gap and making more credits. I know T8 premiums are best for credit-earning and intend to grab either the Löwe or the T-54 mod 1 soon, but I also know that T7+ tanks won't magically make me better. I enjoy the playstyles of all 3 heavy lines I'm currently playing, but I want to have a plan going forward since it's getting a lot more grindy. Should I grab the Tiger and then shift to other heavies? Maybe grab some of the other T5/6 heavies for now instead? Or should I get the M4 , retrain my Thunderbolt VII crew to it, and run around in T5 battles until my fundamentals are good enough that I've become a proper seal-clubber?

I would love the insight of more-experienced players!

[Canadian_Reaper 90]

As someone who made the jump to 10 way to early (and I'm still trying to fix the poor showing I have on most of my tanks) I'd suggest playing T6 until you are good enough to influence pretty much any game at T6. and some T7. 

It's probably not a huge deal to go to T7, but they will face a lot of T9 tanks, and T9 tanks are a lot tougher than T8. (The jump from 6-7 isn't that big, the jump from 7-8 is bigger, but there's a huge difference between T8 and T9)

If I did it again (and decided to reroll to become a light blue) I'd wait until I was winning 55% or so of my games before moving up a tier.

[Shifty_101st 1,144]

At your current skill level, I personally think you should stay at tier 5/6 a bit longer so you feel a bit more comfortable in them.  When you start seeing 1st class and Ace tankers on the regular, then I would up it a notch to tier 7/8 and you'll still be very comfortable there as the skill increase won't be huge.  You'll be moving from 90% comfort to about 60%-70% comfort if I could numerically assign it.

Tank lines.  I HIGHLY recommend heavy tanks for a newer player such as yourself.  They have high HP pools, big guns, and lots of armor and if used correctly, can easily influence the outcome of a game.  Yeah everyone wants to jump in a medium and go zipping around but mediums are not amazing when they come face to face with most heavy tanks in this game. 
-So you have the KV1-s and Tiger 1 researched.  PERSONALLY I would go down the KV1s line as that leads to the IS7 which is still a pretty decent tier 10 heavy tank in the game.  Also, the entire line is fun.  The IS is a great tier 7, the IS3 is just legendary, and the T10 is super comfy (probably the best tank at tier 9 in the game ATM).
-The Tiger 1 is nice but the armor is awkward and honestly not that great anymore.  On top of which the Tiger 2 isn't amazing as well, but the E75 and E100 are fucking pub stompers and are essential to have in this game.

So TL;DR

Stay at tier 5/6 to get more comfortable, when you start seeing more 1st class/Ace tanker games make the jump to 7/8 and you'll be comfortable there too.  Go for the IS7 first, then get the E100.  Play heavy tanks primarily (doesn't mean don't play mediums but don't exclusively play meds).

[CraBeatOff 5,741]

Stay down a bit longer, get yourself a T-34 and Easy8. Learn HT and MT differences and how to handle the other class. I personally didn't progress past tier 6 until I was able to solo 60% in the Easy 8. Caveat that was a very very different era. I'd judge that once you're able to solo 57% and 850-900xp/game for a protracted session (over 2 weeks, 150 games) then you're ready to rock. Take it from someone who took 10,000 games before purchasing a tier 10, there is no rush. If you're playing for you, then the best use of your time is on your own skills.

Grinding is really easy when you've got boosters and you average 1100xpg. I power ground out the T-54LW recently. A conservative 1100xpg, plus boosters and platoon bonus - 1100 + 1100 + 165 = 2365 average. That's 115 games to grind 270,000 xp, less when you factor in doubles  and it's one of the bigger grinds in the game.

Plus, good crews are as big bonus and low tiers are more forgiving of less skills. I still tend to seed my new crews in mid tier tanks. 

So, take it slow, develop yourself, watch streamers (the good ones) and read guides (the good ones) and search this forum. If you're having fun and focusing on your skills you might wake up one day with 33,000 battles, 4 skill crews in every good tank in every tier 6+, some obscene wn8 and people might read your advice. (Wondering where your free time for the last 5 years went)

[Seika 7]

Thank you for taking the time to write out your replies, so informatively at that! I've been busy playing WoT or I'd have responded sooner. XD;

Canadian Reaper: You sort of bring up my main concern, that my skills just aren't good enough to jump tiers yet and perform well. I don't want to have to still be learning the threat levels and specific weakspots for T6/7 tanks while also trying to learn the ones for T8/T9 tanks. I don't want to have to think about fundamentals before I do them, I just want to do them.

Shifty 101st: Hm, alright.. I figured consistent 1st/2nd class mastery badges (not that I'm even quite there yet) would be a good sign since Ace is top 1% but it makes sense that you'd want to consistently be in the top 5% or so before moving on. And I aim high anyway... ¬.¬

That's kinda what I've been hearing, that the Tiger takes consistent skill to do well in. I've had some amazing side-scraping moments (coming out of a 1v3 with same-tier heavies victoriously and bouncing every shot in my HT No. 6, and 4.3k bounced damage in the KV-2) but they're not the average. Right now I'd honestly like to go after whatever gives me the safest way to practice fundamentals and gives me the most return for the least effort. It sounds like that's the IS line, though I will admit that the fearsome reputation of the E-75/100 was one of the big reasons why I started with the German line first. After doing a couple rounds in the M4 and Thunderbolt, which were really fun to play, I definitely want to play mediums more often, but I'll stick primarily to heavies for now while I sharpen my skills.

CraBeatOff - Nice name. XP  I know at the end of the day you're really only fighting yourself not other people, when your main goal is improving your skills. I don't mind spending more time where I'm at if it makes me significantly better for it. I'll keep those numbers in mind, though I may very well grab a T10 before 10k battles, if only to play around in it at times!

It feels like getting my crew skill levels up will make a large difference in being able to execute the way I want to when i want to. Like not missing shots that really should have hit.. ¬.¬; So perhaps I'll make it a point to get a 2-skill crew for each line I'm playing in each nation before I move up to Tier 7..

I definitely would love to average 1100xpg base, currently I'm lucky if I see that total after premium account/tank/platoon bonuses.  I already did read through a lot of this forum and the official NA WG one (the guides anyway) and while I watched QuickyBaby and Zeven back in the day, I've been watching a few of the other more well-known youtubers/streamers too, since I got back into the game a couple weeks ago. I really want to make sure my efforts are properly directed going forward so that nothing is holding me back as I do my best to improve quickly.

Thanks again for sharing your insight! I really, really appreciate it~

 

[MacusFlash 2,270]

Fast tips:

Keep your gun singing. Look for opportunities to shot and pen; do not give your enemies time to regroup.

Detrack as much as you can. It may help your allies and will burn his repair kit for 90sec.

Look for smoke after shot so you may say which enemy just fired. Use this knowledge.

In a single battle do NOT focus on getting better. DO better. The more you think about performance instead of what to do in battle the more you are distracted. Relax, play your game.

Make sure your tanks have proper modules (like gun rammer, optics, vstab).

[robosapieo 142]

1. As others have said, I'd recommend going down the IS-7 line. Though, you might want to stop at the T-10, since the IS-7 is a massive credit sink and a bit trash-tier IMO.
2. DO NOT purchase a T8 prem until you've grinded out a standard T8 tank and have played atleast 100 battles in it. I would recommend getting the Lowe as it's quite simple to use from what I've seen.
3. Get the ez8 Sherman and play it to death if you want to learn the medium playstyle
4. One general rule of thumb I've come up with is that all the odd-numbered tiers in this game (3, 5, 7 and 9) are mechanically the most challenging as compared to the tiers before them and after them. It feels like you have to learn a new skill when you get to one of these tiers or else you'll get rekt, (e.g armor angling at T5, general map positioning and situational awareness as well as weakspots at T7, and then the more advanced stuff such as vision mechanics etc. at T9). These are the tiers you should spend the most time in.
5. Watch your replays and see if you can spot any mistakes you made. If you can, then learn from them, and if you can't, then show the replays to other people (there are some youtubers out there who do replay reviews. You can also use the "tape study" section on this site)

[Shifty_101st 1,144]

BTW OP, no one has really mentioned this but you are literally LEAGUES ahead of people your skill level at the moment just because you want to learn how to improve at the game.  MY view of you is a lot higher as well just because of that.  This game isn't easy to learn it's very different from most games out there

[Seika 7]

18 hours ago, CraBeatOff said:

Plus, good crews are as big bonus and low tiers are more forgiving of less skills. I still tend to seed my new crews in mid tier tanks.

I totally get why you seed new crews in mid tier tanks.. I just died to an O-I Exp. in my KV-1 because what should've been a kill shot missed because of micro-terrain and I took a derp-gun to the side. Perhaps I was too hasty, but I also feel like Snapshot would've helped immensely... :/ Almost makes me wanna suck it up and skill my crews in T3/4 and just consider the credits spent to re-buy tanks an investment...

MacusFlash - Glad to know I at least have my equipment layouts right. *laughs*  I already look to see who fired...more-so my trouble is getting a general feeling for reload times - I can be a little impatient and rush out again too soon.. >.>;; I do my best to save the self-criticism for after the battle, not during it~

Robosapieo - Definitely going down the IS line first now and holding off on the IS7 - I'd honestly like a few million's worth of credits saved up before I even think about buying T10s. Now that I'm angling without thinking about it and side-scraping very well, I'm hoping I don't start trying to side-scrape with the angled armor later down the IS line.. *chuckles* After all this discussion, I think I'm gonna wait til 1200+ WN8 before I go for a T8 premium. It's not like I'm going to be magically OP cause I bought a Löwe! XD;

Shift 101st - Thank you!! ^///^;; You aren't the first to say that sort of thing to me regarding a skillset I'm trying to learn, but it always makes me really happy to hear~ The amount of information there is to absorb in order to become good at this game was really intimidating in the beginning but that's also what makes it exciting for me. I love high skill-ceiling games and tanks....I just need to stay away from the latter until my fundamentals are on-point. I hear the Obj. 416 and the later tanks are some of those, sadly..

[Necrophore 143]

19 minutes ago, Seika said:

I totally get why you seed new crews in mid tier tanks.. I just died to an O-I Exp. in my KV-1 because what should've been a kill shot missed because of micro-terrain and I took a derp-gun to the side. Perhaps I was too hasty, but I also feel like Snapshot would've helped immensely... :/ Almost makes me wanna suck it up and skill my crews in T3/4 and just consider the credits spent to re-buy tanks an investment...

I used to keep several of the 4's and 5's around as casual crew trainers. Gathering just daily doubles for a year will stock them with decent 2-skill crews - 6th, BIA, repairs - and I can move that crew to a freshly unlocked high tier tank that would otherwise be stuck with an freshly-purchased crew. This is especially useful when a line splits, and suddenly you have more tanks than crews if you haven't been planning ahead.

[Seika 7]

12 minutes ago, Necrophore said:

I used to keep several of the 4's and 5's around as casual crew trainers. Gathering just daily doubles for a year will easily build a usable 2 skill crew - 6th, BIA, repairs - and I can move that crew to a freshly unlocked high tier tank that would otherwise be stuck with an freshly-purchased crew. This is especially useful when a line splits, and suddenly you have more tanks than crews if you haven't been planning ahead.

That thought came to mind, yeah - have stored crews with skills sitting around, especially as I'm running into, as you've noted, line splits. KV-1 splits into KV-2 and KV-1S, Russian Medium line splits pretty early, US Heavy line splits at the M3Lee... I clearly just picked all the best lines. ¬.¬;; I'm debating buying back the T-28 and training up a KV1-S crew in that, rather than retraining the KV-1 crew and instead save that for either the KV-2 or the IS..

[DeItacu 9]

With IS line, I would reccomend stopping at KV-1, and grinding through the IS faster and stopping at the IS-3, As the IS-3 Is a much better tank to learn how to deal with higher tiers/ How to angle better, When to use turret armor, How to hid your LFP, The KV-1 is a good tank for guiding you through the stalin bricks.

 

Sorry for bad formatting I'm trying to do it on a work break

[garryallen 136]

8 hours ago, Shifty_101st said:

BTW OP, no one has really mentioned this but you are literally LEAGUES ahead of people your skill level at the moment just because you want to learn how to improve at the game.  MY view of you is a lot higher as well just because of that.  This game isn't easy to learn it's very different from most games out there

Yeah nice work @Seika wanting to improve is the first step to huge improvements. i came here with 4k battles and a pretty good recent (1500) but in another 2k battles I had climbed up the percentiles hugely to over 2000 recent, simply because i focused on improving. its going to be different with every player, but its good to see you here

 

I would have suggested yolo through the tiers to the is3 but then i got shut down by everyone else- i guess everyone improves in different ways- i made my big improvements in tier 7 8 and 9 but i was comfortable with tier 5 and 6 by then.

So i guess play what you are comfortable with (though id suggest more mid tier russian heavies as the htno 6 and vk3601h are very meh and don't teach you much) but the russians teach  lots of useful base level skills like trading (medium to high damage per shot from the kv1 to the is7) armor angling (kv1 and wiggling in is3), and poking whereas the Germans only teach you things like side scraping which is basically pointless if you dont do it right.

[Seika 7]

Deltacu - Thanks for replying, on your work break, of all things. :3; I already have the KV-1S bought, I'm just dreading the stock grind, oh wait just free-exp'd the 85mm. So when I jump into that I'll have fun. I definitely want to play the IS but I'd rather have a proper skillset for the tier to make the most use of a good tank, y'know?

 GarryAllen - I'm hoping over the next 2k battles I can at least reach light green wn8. :x I found the VK (which I've since sold as it has elite status and it's trash..) and the HTNo.6 required side-scraping to win, at least...

I'm trying to learn wiggling now that I have side-scraping down. I need to learn to trade and poke better, though, definitely..

 

 

[robosapieo 142]

7 hours ago, Seika said:

I'm trying to learn wiggling now that I have side-scraping down. I need to learn to trade and poke better, though, definitely..

Would you mind showing us some of your replays where you try and do these things? Would be a lot easier to tell what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong that way.

[Seika 7]

8 hours ago, robosapieo said:

Would you mind showing us some of your replays where you try and do these things? Would be a lot easier to tell what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong that way.

Hah, I came back to do exactly that! I'm performing really badly solo (who'd've thought lol), particularly when low-tier in a match. I refuse to believe in the mindsets of "oh I'm a low-tier heavy, I can't have an impact on the game" or "fail pubbies, we can't come back from being 5 tanks down this early", as I know if I can figure out how to do well in those circumstances, it will increase my performance dramatically. 

I uploaded my 3 most recent losses in my KV-1 here, with my thoughts on each in the descriptions. Using 85mm, top modules, Rammer/GLD/Optics, repair kit/first aid kit/fire extinguisher. Of note is that crew is 98%. >.<;; I may just start reviewing every single loss at the end of each session.

http://wotreplays.com/site/3596072#tundra-seika_sama-kv-1

http://wotreplays.com/site/3596094#redshire-seika_sama-kv-1

http://wotreplays.com/site/3596129#cliff-seika_sama-kv-1

[Egospartan 13]

There is zero I mean zero rush to move up in tiers.  Take your time you have barely 1800 games in.  At 1800 games I was still working out which key made my tank move forward! I wish I would have waited till 6-8k games to move to t8 vs going up and then back down to relearn everything I should have learned the 1st time.  At 18k games, I just now feel really comfortable playing t8 and barely hold my own in most t10 games.  Do not rush up the lines!

 

So now I am just a shitty seal clubber, pushing people back to lower tiers

 

 

 

 

[robosapieo 142]

2 hours ago, Seika said:

Hah, I came back to do exactly that! I'm performing really badly solo (who'd've thought lol), particularly when low-tier in a match. I refuse to believe in the mindsets of "oh I'm a low-tier heavy, I can't have an impact on the game" or "fail pubbies, we can't come back from being 5 tanks down this early", as I know if I can figure out how to do well in those circumstances, it will increase my performance dramatically. 

I uploaded my 3 most recent losses in my KV-1 here, with my thoughts on each in the descriptions. Using 85mm, top modules, Rammer/GLD/Optics, repair kit/first aid kit/fire extinguisher. Of note is that crew is 98%. >.<;; I may just start reviewing every single loss at the end of each session.

I'm really bad at this whole replay review thing, but here goes.....

Replay 1:  First thing I noticed is that you're not carrying enough premium APCR rounds in your tank. You should have atleast 15, preferably 20 in the KV-1. I usually wouldn't advise a beginner to carry so much prem, since it makes one..... complacent (for lack of a better word) but it's with all of the ridiculously armored tanks that have been added to the game, I think it's necessary. As for your initial positioning on the map, I think it was fine. An argument could be made that you should've gone to the left of the hill where the ELC got spotted and you could've had more of an impact there, but that would've probably put you in a crossfire. The big problem is saw here was just how complacent you were. You should've kept pushing forward and gone hull-down behind the little mound (what the enemy M4 was doing). The KV-1's turret armor is quite trollish. The PZ. IV and Sherman would've had trouble penning you with their standard ammo. The next mistake you made was that you didn't immediately load APCR as soon as you spotted the O-I. You have 120mm of pen, and that thing has, at minimum 150mm of frontal armor. You can use sites like http://tanks.gg/    to view the armor models of tanks, though it does take a lot of time, as well as trial and error to learn everything (You have trouble penning something in battle, so you go look at its armor model). The last mistake was that you didn't immediately repair your tracks after taking that shot from the O-I. It has a 20 second reload if its using the big HE gun (which I think it was). You can fire nearly 5 shots in that time (not that they would've done anything, since you were firing standard xD). All in all, I don't think you could've influenced the outcome of this game no matter what. The team melted far too quick. Though, you might have gotten some more damage if you'd been a bit more aggressive.

Replay 2: I really like what you do at the start of this match (not sure if it was intentional or just by accident tho ), and that is; waiting at the start of the match to see how your team deploys on the map, and which positions they go to. It's a shame that you didn't utilize this information though. You went to the eastern flank even though there was NO backup there. Always look at the minimap to see what your teammates are doing, and try to play around them ( you can use the + and - keys on your keyboard to increase or decrease the size of the minimap. I'd recommend using the size of one increment below the max i.e hold down the + (plus) key till the map doesn't get any bigger, and then press - (minus) once). The ability to read the minimap and make decisions according to the positions of the enemy and your teammates, is the key to winning in this game. Pretty much 60% of your time in a match should be spent looking at the minimap. Getting back to the replay itself, you were a bit too aggressive this time around xD. The title of your replay suggests that you were surprised by the positioning of your teammates ( "Heavies go middle?!). One lesson you have to learn VERY QUICK in this game, is that your teammates will do dumb shit all the freaking time. You just have to work around it. While their positioning wasn't exactly optimal, it actually wasn't too bad either. New players seem to have this misconception that certain tank types should only go to certain places.Truth is, it's not as black and white as that. There are some heavy tanks which are better at sniping than TDs, and there are some TDs which can do a medium's job better than most mediums. The eastern flank on Redshire is actually not all that important. The middle is the most dominant position, which easily allows you to defend your own base as well as put pressure on the enemy's. The match actually seemed quite close. I think you could have tipped the balance in your team's favor if you'd followed them instead of going on a Rambo mission by yourself in a bottom tier tank 

Replay 3: You went wide around the cliff to the rock on the far side. This is a bad idea IMO. You should stick close to the hill as it provides you arty cover, and allows you to sidescrape easily.It also prevents you from getting shot by tanks that are on the cliff itself, which is what got you killed in this match (more on that later) You again had the issue of not being aggressive enough at the start. Looking at the enemy's team comp, they didn't have any top tier heavies. You should just poke around the corner of the cliff to spot some targets and then pull back. Though, in this case, there wasn't even anything there to spot so I guess it's fine. You did the right thing by killing the thunderbolt, but this is where you would have significantly benefitted from sticking close to the cliff. You wouldn't have take that shot from the Pz. IV on top of the cliff. This is also the point where you become extremely indecisive about what you want to do. You drive forward, further into the line of fire of the Pz. IV and the enemy arty, instead of getting under the Pz's gun, and into arty cover (close to the cliff). Quote from your description of this replay; "I know it did NOT help that the Churchill 3 and OI Exp went into TD alley without support from our own TDs.. ¬.¬;" Again, it's not just a black and white case of "They're heavies so they shouldn't go there". The enemy only had two TDs, one of whom (the IKV) died almost instantly, and the T67 which is actually the best tier 5 medium tank. I think they expected the T67 to go the middle of the map, instead of down the western alley( That's what I would expect a T67 driver to do).The people who went to that flank were actually the first ones to kill anything, and your team was up 3-0 at that point. Contrary to what you believe, those guys actually contributed to the team a lot. As for what YOU could've done to win that game, it all comes down to just staying alive for longer (Stick close to the cliff. The cliff is your friend). One of the best general tips: don't expose yourself to more than 1 enemy when firing( only if possible ofc). Try and make a 1v3 into 3 1v1s. 

Notes: Please remember that I'm not the best player (far from it actually xD ) and you shouldn't treat my words as the end all be all. Though, I did try my best to explain how to do better in these situations, from what I've seen and experienced. I also apologize if I went into unnecessary detail. I'm tired AF right now and this is the best I could do

Extra tips:

1. You can hold down the right mouse button (if your cursor isn't over an enemy) to lock your turret in place and move the camera freely. This is extremely helpful and allows you to be more situationally aware. Get into the habbit of holding down RMB and doing a quick 360 around your tank every so often (took me more than 2k battles to figure this out. FeelsBadMan )
2. Remember to adjust your graphics settings and turn off "grass in sniper mode", and if possible, turn your overall graphics down a bit. This will help improve your framerate (which seemed a bit low in the replays) and also reduce visual clutter. 
3. Make sure you have the right aim sensitivities. Your sniper mode sens. should be relatively low for precise shooting, and the arcade sensitivity should be a balance between comfortably being able to look around, while also maintaining some aiming precision.

EDIT: Holy shit I just realized how much of a massive wall of text this is. I'm really sorry but I can't do any better.

 

 

 

[Seika 7]

1 hour ago, robosapieo said:

Replay reviews

^ Says he's bad at reviewing replays, proceeds to leave me enough text to rival the Great Wall of China on how to improve my gameplay. >.>

Thank you so much! I'm busy for the next few hours but I will absolutely be sitting down to read through this tonight. I look forward to reading~ ^__^

[Seika 7]

Egospartan -  I want all the shiny tanks with high alpha though!! ;___; A lot of the higher Russian mediums look sexy, too~ Obj. 907 pls. But yeah, that's why I'm asking for help now - when I DO get to the higher tiers I don't want to be lacking in basic fundamental skills.

FWIW, a good 1600+ of those 1800 battles are from before my break like, 2 years ago.. I literally came back to the game and only had up the VK36.01H, Stug III G, Chafee, Chi-Ha, and the M2 Medium bought and with top modules, and the HT No. 6. Everything else (including a lot of complex/premium equipment) has been acquired since I've come back to the game. 

You're one of those assholes in KV-2's who derp gun me for 700 damage, aren't you? >.>;

7 hours ago, robosapieo said:

Replay reviews

Alright, so it's time now to actually read this over. Thanks again for taking the time!

R1 - Concerns about losing motivation to learn weakspots is exactly why I don't carry more than 10 shots of premium ammo but I do find that I need it with T8 tanks... I'll carry more though, as it certainly is frustrating bouncing a lot of my shots against flat-angled armor. >:/ 

Y'know, I looked up KV-1 weakspots (since I figured it'd be a good idea to know my own, right? lol ) and I realized I could play hull-down pretty decently...but I still haven't gone out of the way to do so. -_-;; I've been trying to look up weakspots on the top-tier enemy heavies while the 20-30 seconds before the match counts down (I figure that getting to put the info to use right away might help me remember it faster than looking it up after the battle), but I guess I'll just load premium ammo for T8 or heavily-armored T7 heavies with the KV-1, since it's got such low pen..

R2 - It actually was just by accident that time.  That used to be normal behaviour for me, but I think I stopped doing it regularly in the process of trying re-learn the maps. Ironically I was watching a video by Lemimingrush not 3 days ago that explained that it was better to go with the train and ensure that flank succeeds than try to hold a flank that's already lost. ¬.¬.;; People really DO do dumb shit all the time but I guess I want to think better of people than that...and pay the appropriate price for it. I'll learn to stop trusting my pubbie teammates soon, I hope.  

 I keep the mini-map at 2 steps down from max but I'll have to try one step up from that..  Heh. I have noticed that a lot of German heavies are built to be snipers...though I never imagined that meant being 200+m behind the frontline heavies. I'm trying to work my way back into a tactical mindset rather than a strategic one. Perhaps all my success with side-scraping recently made me think I could hold that flank...and made me forget they had arty. >.>;;

R3 - Normally I do stick to the cliff, I swear! XD; I actually joined my teammates because I was bottom-tier and didn't want to get shot up in the front-lines or take friendly fire from a KV-2 in the ass. >.>;; I was indecisive because I didn't actually realize where I was being hit from, and that's probably where map awareness comes in, since, looking at it again, mediums were last-seen on the hill, so it'd make sense that they'd still be up there looking to fire down on enemy tanks below.. I'll keep that fighting/trading advice in mind!

You're still far better than me and I really appreciate you taking the time to review those replays. ^__^ I know about the RMB free-camera thing from remapping some controls but I'll start to do that quick 360 instead of just zooming out after my shots!

I keep grass in sniper mode off and recently turned down my graphics, I just reset to medium but I'll drop to low (reluctantly) if I need to... I think one of my RAM sticks died. ;__; Supposedly have 8GB but it feels more like half sometimes.. Adjusted my aim sensitives a bit, too.. We'll see if that doesn't help some. Thank you again for the reviews!

[garryallen 136]

2 hours ago, Seika said:

R1 - Concerns about losing motivation to learn weakspots is exactly why I don't carry more than 10 shots of premium ammo but I do find that I need it with T8 tanks... I'll carry more though, as it certainly is frustrating bouncing a lot of my shots against flat-angled armor. >:/ 

Y'know, I looked up KV-1 weakspots (since I figured it'd be a good idea to know my own, right? lol ) and I realized I could play hull-down pretty decently...but I still haven't gone out of the way to do so. -_-;; I've been trying to look up weakspots on the top-tier enemy heavies while the 20-30 seconds before the match counts down (I figure that getting to put the info to use right away might help me remember it faster than looking it up after the battle), but I guess I'll just load premium ammo for T8 or heavily-armored T7 heavies with the KV-1, since it's got such low pen..

You can fire premium and still look up weakspots, premium allows you to have greater flexibilty and trade better. more intelligent use of apcr is one of the big things that led to my improvement (i still aim like a potato and suck with heat bc im Dumb).

Anyways, with the new tanks introduced like patriot, defender, and the new chrysler wtf are wg doing k weakspots only exist with apcr. oh wait you in a german tier 6 heavy with 178 or 192 apcr pen or something really low. ehh i guess they are a good exercise in knowing when the heck to run away????
 

But on a more serious note, its great you are looking up weakspots, just remember that nothing is ever flat, its always angled a little at least (no perfect angle) and that pen differs by 25% so a 160 pen apcr shell from a kv1 can roll as low as 120 pen or as high as 200. And to go go hulldown in a tank without gun depression (like the kv1) you can:

1. use rubble to hide your hull

2. use a small ridge to hide your hull

3. this is a more nadvanced tactic, but you can poke up a ridge in such a way that your tank is tilted to one side. this points your gun down a little over that side so you *add* gun depression on.

I don't think i explained this well so here's rocketbrainsurgeon doing it for me

 

[robosapieo 142]

TFW you re-read your text after getting some sleep and notice all the mistakes you made 

[Seika 7]

Garryallen - I tried not to use premium ammo more-so to force myself to learn weakspots because if I didn't, I wouldn't pen. It kinda doesn't make sense though now that I stop to think about it, as I'm gimping my damage potential, and ability to contribute to the team, if I don't load premium ammo when it's called for...

I really hope they don't make the Chrysler K a trend or anything. It's fucking insane, even someone like me can see that.. It seems to be designed as an arty magnet though to force them to be team players, since the top of the hull is low-armor to the extreme...

I knew damage was +/- 25% but I didn't know penetration was, too.. That's bullshit. Definitely not holding back from using APCR as needed now that I know that, thanks so much for that info. I'll just make sure I farm credits my Thunderbolt/HT6.... Thanks for that video link! I actually have experienced my enemies doing that and I think I've done it myself without thinking...and thought about doing it. I'd probably make a significant improvement even in the short-term if I just trusted my instincts/ideas more.. ¬.¬;;

Robosapieo - What mistakes are you talking about? XD;



 

[Egospartan 13]

On 5/20/2017 at 0:41 AM, Seika said:

Egospartan -  I want all the shiny tanks with high alpha though!! ;___; A lot of the higher Russian mediums look sexy, too~ Obj. 907 pls. But yeah, that's why I'm asking for help now - when I DO get to the higher tiers I don't want to be lacking in basic fundamental skills.

FWIW, a good 1600+ of those 1800 battles are from before my break like, 2 years ago.. I literally came back to the game and only had up the VK36.01H, Stug III G, Chafee, Chi-Ha, and the M2 Medium bought and with top modules, and the HT No. 6. Everything else (including a lot of complex/premium equipment) has been acquired since I've come back to the game. 

You're one of those assholes in KV-2's who derp gun me for 700 damage, aren't you? >.>;

Alright, so it's time now to actually read this over. Thanks again for taking the time!

 

3

On I get wanting all the shiny tanks, but getting owned in your shiny new tank is no fun. 

 

No, I am one of those assholes in the E-25 platoon or any t6-7 light. peaking and snap shooting you!

[Seika 7]

14 hours ago, Egospartan said:

On I get wanting all the shiny tanks, but getting owned in your shiny new tank is no fun. 

 

No, I am one of those assholes in the E-25 platoon or any t6-7 light. peaking and snap shooting you!

Exxxxactly my point. X3 I want to have earned the shiny tanks and be able to use them to the fullest~

Oh. I've run into you before, I think. Must've been on one of your alt accounts.