[Megathread] World of Tanks

[PizzaSHARK]

An MMO site that doesn't mention World of Tanks. Kind of weird, time to fix that. Most recent thread was from early this year (well, nearly last year I guess.)

World of Tanks is a F2P MMO focused on, you guessed it, tank combat using tanks - both tanks that were in production as well as just prototypes and design stages - from the early 1930s to the early 1950s. Currently, Germany, USSR, America, and France are all fully-represented. Britain has a limited selection of tanks available, and China is slated to appear before too long.

There are ten tiers of tank, with each tear becoming progressively more powerful and expensive, and matchmaking is mostly done via tank tier to help ensure you're only going to be playing against tanks that will be appropriately challenging for your tank. Tank varieties include light tanks (mostly used for scouting and flanking), medium tanks (the Mario of the game), heavy tanks (very tough, very slow), tank destroyers (basically snipers) and self-propelled guns (SPGs; artillery so generally just referred to as arty.) Each nation has its own style of tank, and each individual tank is different. You can check the World of Tanks Wiki for more detailed information on each tank.

The game is surprisingly detailed and fairly realistic in a sense. Tanks are all more heavily armored on the front than on the sides, back, top, or underside, and armor slope and attack angle are extremely important. You can "bounce" (ricochet) shots off a lightly armored tank if you're attacking from a poor angle, and can blast right through even the rolling fortress Maus if you hit a 90 degree angle on its weaker armor sections.

This results in the game being a little bit unfriendly to newbies, and one of the most frequent complaints are about shooting a tank and doing no damage. This can be for a multitude of reasons, with armor slope being the most frequent - again, the farther way from a direct 90-degree angle you are, the less likely you are to penetrate their armor. On top of that, you can cause damage to modules (such as tracks, engine, ammo rack, radio, etc) or crew members (dead crew members mean the job they're responsible for takes much longer and is less effective) without causing damage to the actual tank. In fact, this is a pretty important part of playing at higher tiers and especially when you're playing a tank and can't penetrate an enemy tank's armor. Tracking a tank (destroying its tracks, rendering it immobile until the crew fixes them, which takes several seconds) leaves it a sitting duck for your team's arty and heavies and can often mean certain death for the enemy tank. Likewise, landing a good hit on the ammo rack can cause it to explode, causing enormous damage to the tank, and hits to the engine can destroy it (leaving the tank completely paralyzed until it's fixed) or cause it to catch fire, causing damage over time.



Admittedly, as a F2P game, World of Tanks is definitely pretty grindy. Buying gold (cash shop currency) allows you to buy premium account status, which increases the XP and credits (game currency) you earn from battles, but it's still pretty grindy. You can expect about 300-500 XP for a good game, and maybe double that for a really great game, and you get double XP for your first win of the day... but it still quickly becomes somewhat grindy, with tanks beginning to cost 15,000 and 25,000 and even more XP; many tier 10 tanks cost millions of XP. This is intentional, but it can still become annoying. Unfortunately, there are no XP or credit boosters you can buy (which are present in most other F2P games), so after you upgrade your account to premium status, that's about it.

Otherwise, not much of the game is play-to-win. You can spend gold on special ammo which is better than the basic rounds, but you can also buy those special rounds with credits. Gold can also be used to convert "Free Experience" (XP which can be used to unlock things for any tank), which is primarily earned by playing and winning games with premium tanks. Premium tanks are tanks which can only be acquired by spending gold, and there's a wide variety of tank types and tiers that they occupy. If you can afford it, buying a high-tier premium tank (which cost around $30-$50 USD in gold) can earn you a lot of Free Experience and especially credits (premium tanks earn considerably more credits than regular tanks) to help you power through the early tiers. Keep in mind that it costs gold (1 gold per 25 XP) to convert XP from your premium tanks into Free Experience that any tank can use, though.

[Lagwin]

The game is good when you are in the lowest or highest tiers, everything in between is a massive bore that tries to force you to pay your way forward.
As stated i have started several times tier 1 and 2 are good you get some nice matches in there...after that though you start getting matched against tanks several tiers above you and if they have more money than sense, the paid for ammo... you which makes it virtually impossible to level unless you pay real money which is rather disappointing...if they could just limit the match making to tanks that are in the tier just above or below you it would make for a much more pleasant game.

[PizzaSHARK]

The game is good when you are in the lowest or highest tiers, everything in between is a massive bore that tries to force you to pay your way forward.
As stated i have started several times tier 1 and 2 are good you get some nice matches in there...after that though you start getting matched against tanks several tiers above you and if they have more money than sense, the paid for ammo... you which makes it virtually impossible to level unless you pay real money which is rather disappointing...if they could just limit the match making to tanks that are in the tier just above or below you it would make for a much more pleasant game.

I dunno, all of my tanks are tier 3-5 and I'm having plenty of fun. You can't "pay your way forward," regardless - best you can do is buy some gold to upgrade your account to premium status, which isn't really any different than a traditional subscription fee for MMOs.

Honestly, people complain about "pay to win," and I'm convinced it's just them not knowing how to play. It's pretty rare to get matched against tanks where you'll be completely useless. I've had my tier 4 light tank in a game against tier 8 heavies, and you can still be useful - use HE rounds to track the heavies and scout for your arty and you can still be useful. You'll probably die since a tier 8 heavy will probably kill you in one shot regardless of where they hit, but you're fast and nimble, and heavies are meat for arty and TDs once they're tracked.

Most games, I'm matched against tanks at most two tiers ahead of me, which isn't an issue. Arty might be matched against tanks up to four tiers ahead of them (since arty tiers are basically tier+3), but a tier 2 arty can pen tier 5 and tier 6 tanks without many problems. It's an issue with the player not understanding the game, and nothing more. You can't expect to shoot tanks from the front and win. The game is as realistic as it can be without sacrificing fun, so all tanks are heavily armored in the front, and much more vulnerable in the sides and rear. You can't just sit there and trade shots, you need to use your head. If you're faster than they are, circle around them and try to track them so you can easily pound their backside. If you're a heavy tank, keep yourself positioned so that you're protected from arty and so that tanks can't easily sweep around to hit your flanks.

If you're being shot at, back away while constantly adjusting your facing so that you aren't presenting a flat angle to the enemy - again, if they can hit you at a 90 degree angle, your heavy frontal armor ain't gonna matter for squat. The weapons aren't hitscan, so you have to lead your shots. And the shells have weight, so you need to factor drag into the equation if you're shooting at long distances, too.

All the griping about special ammo and consumables is completely unfounded as well - literally all of it can be purchased with credits, and it's very rare to see premium ammo being used before the higher tiers. I can assure you, people aren't using APCR or HEAT rounds in tier 2 games, you're getting owned because you're not using your head. You might see people using things like repair kits and camouflage nets in low tier games, but these are items purchased using plain credits, so it's not even "pay to win."

[Lagwin]

They have made it slightly less pay to win when they added the British tanks by making the previously gold only ammo available for silver...whhich you wont buy because you need all your silver to get the next tier of tanks.
Where it's pay to win is having tanks only available via gold and those tanks gathering tech points those tech points can then be converted to free tech points usable on any tank...then theres the additions to your tanks like camo nets and better optics and such...all of which are available but damn expensive and in some cases bind on use unless you pay cash to unbind them.

I am aware of how to play effectively...surviving isn't the problem as i'm usualy one of the last to go down, it's taking a shot and doing next to no damage because they are tiers higher than you(and i've had 4 tiers above me as a medium tank) even using artillery i've had perfect shots do no damage allowing for the aiming rectile to zero in and hitting them on their large flat surfaces.

[PizzaSHARK]

They have made it slightly less pay to win when they added the British tanks by making the previously gold only ammo available for silver...whhich you wont buy because you need all your silver to get the next tier of tanks.
Where it's pay to win is having tanks only available via gold and those tanks gathering tech points those tech points can then be converted to free tech points usable on any tank...then theres the additions to your tanks like camo nets and better optics and such...all of which are available but damn expensive and in some cases bind on use unless you pay cash to unbind them.

I am aware of how to play effectively...surviving isn't the problem as i'm usualy one of the last to go down, it's taking a shot and doing next to no damage because they are tiers higher than you(and i've had 4 tiers above me as a medium tank) even using artillery i've had perfect shots do no damage allowing for the aiming rectile to zero in and hitting them on their large flat surfaces.

You aren't aiming right, then. I've had no issues causing damage to tier 7 tanks as a Pz38 (tier 3 light tank.) I can't do much HP damage but I can easily switch to HE rounds and go for modules, and I spend most of my time scouting and spotting, anyway.

Remember, just because the dot is green doesn't mean you'll pen their armor, it relies on angle as well and that isn't displayed. Also remember that you can pen their armor without doing much HP damage ("it went right through!") It's just practice, man. It takes a long time to figure things out.

As far as credits... meh, I haven't had much issue. The T1E6 everyone got for Christmas is a kind of crappy tank compared to last year's Tetrarch, and you can sell it for a free 150k credits if you'd like. Camo Nets are only 100k, so there's a free camo net there if you want it.

As far as APCR/HEAT ammo goes, I'm just shy of tier 5 and I've never bought a single round and have gotten Ace Tanker on three different tanks so far. You don't need premium ammo to do damage, it just makes it a little easier. I'll grant you that progression is faster if you have some gold to convert Free XP with, but it's not significantly faster unless you play a lot of games with premium tanks or elite tanks.

[Dezerte]

The game felt too repetitive for me. It could really use a lot of new game modes.

[PizzaSHARK]

Unlocked the AMX 105AM today. Nimble little thing for arty, makes repositioning a snap... can easily get 40 kmh+ on level, hard terrain with 100% driver. Also been derping on my Hetzer, and it's a lot more fun than I expected it to be.

Makes the Hetzer a lot slower, topping out at like 24 kmh now, but it's very rewarding to get a good hit on a target and doing a few hundred damage and killing crew, and it seems to be a lot more successful than the regular AP gun for pubbing, maybe because it's easier to do major damage and thereby gain more XP. I guess I'll continue derping on the Stug once I unlock it, until I can access the Stug's amazing top gun.

Also unlocked the M5 Stuart today. So begins the enormous grind to the Chaffee... from 4k for the Stuart to 55k for the Chaffee. Ugh.

[Deleted]

World of tanks is an amazing game.

All tiers have fun to play, at least those that i played with or against.

It has 10 tiers of tanks & tank destroyers and 8 tiers of artillery.

Now in order to access the game you can absolutely do so without spending a dime.
It will be slower though, much slower, and you will be unable to be a worthy oponet for longer period of times, when you research and purchase a new tank, since with stock equipment its very weak even against tanks of its tier.

My advise to non premium gamers is to stick with experimenting all tanks up to tier 4, but really when going further up make sure that your tank is fight worthy as soon as possible.
And to do so, you need to reduce spending credits to silly things, and keep your shared (as oposed to the individual tank's) experience ready for those tanks that matter to you.

From tier 6 repairs and resupply of ammo in a battle can really cost more than your income from that battle in credits if your account is not premium. And from Tier 8 and up the only way to make profit from a battle is to perfom outstandingly in a victorious encounter(very rare i reassure you 1 out of 5 if you re an ace, up to 1 out of 20 if you know what, noob), making the premium account pretty much mandatory in practise.

No reason to go for it though. Game in middle tiers is amazing, queue is neglidgible, models and graphics are visually appealling.

You need in game gold purchasable through euroes/dollars only to expand your garage slots (making you able to have more tanks at the same time) your barracks slots (making you able to host more crew members that are not in a tank currently).
Thats the only limitation. You start out with 6 garage slots and up to 42 crew slot members. What i found really important is that i need more space in garage, but definately not in barracks.

Premium Ammo is also available for an (insane!) amount of in game currency. So no, you dont only spent real money to access them, but it is virtually impossible to shoot only premium ammo since the cost is sky high! 1-2 of them is usually your entrire profit from a mid tier battle!


Now though it was holiday season, and those guys launched massive offers.
For all the real currency services a 50% discount was involved.
I used this oportunity to expand my garage slots.

As for all the "ftp" games things can easily go out of hand if you re reckless. But you can enjoy the game pretty much for ever with as much as 10 euroes, that you should use to expand your garage slots period, if you restrain yourself from playing at top tier, and trying to aquire every tank available in the game!
Dont be greedy/needy, check all the tanks, see what you really would like to drive--->go for it.

See you in game?
Who knows

[PetersenIII]

Tier 1 is best tier. :firm nod:

[Deleted]

My highest tier tank right now is a tier 6 t-150, unfortunately that thing is just so shit while stock it's not even funny, especially as you get thrown against tiers 7 and 8 90% of the time. Even if you don't, a moderately upgraded lower tier tank will still fuck you up because you're so slow and your gun is so terribad And all the upgrades are hellishly expensive already, you can't kill people, you can't scout, you can't do much of anything, so making it better or rushing to get the next one is very, very tedious.

HOWEVER, playing my fully upgraded KV-1 feels like god-mode and games are very, very fun.

[Deleted]

My highest tier tank right now is a tier 6 t-150, unfortunately that thing is just so shit while stock it's not even funny, especially as you get thrown against tiers 7 and 8 90% of the time. Even if you don't, a moderately upgraded lower tier tank will still fuck you up because you're so slow and your gun is so terribad And all the upgrades are hellishly expensive already, you can't kill people, you can't scout, you can't do much of anything, so making it better or rushing to get the next one is very, very tedious.

HOWEVER, playing my fully upgraded KV-1 feels like god-mode and games are very, very fun.

T-150 is a very good tank once fully upgraded, and moves in a similar manner to Tier 5 KV-1.
However KV-1 is the king of tier 5. There is virtually nothing that can confront it alone. T-150 will always have powerfull competition, even on matches where Tier 6 is the top tier.
KV-1S and KV-2 are two of the most formidable enemies.

Don't use the 85mm cannon, but the High explosive U-122mm till you grind enough XP for the new turret and the amazing 107mm final cannon.
Have a toolbox equipped. Your tracks will break all the times.
Get also the rammer for faster loading times.
Start upgrades with tracks and engine. Your monster cant even move without final engine if you get the upgraded turret, and cant equip the turret without new tracks.

Once all pieces are together T-150 is a very solid heavy, with good armor/firepower. Tracks however will always be its weakness, and standing defensless in the middle of a road or country side aint fun at all .

[Slaughty8]

It is, sadly, a "pay to win" game + "pay to play". Premium ammo destroys whole fun and sometimes gives unmatched power and that grind after 5th tier is horrible. Besides of that, the game is very good, but I agree, that lower tiers are fun to play, highers are not. I have like 30 machines, besides of Object (russian TD) I am not using any of +8 tier tank because of credit earned changes they made shortly after beta. It is sad how they manipulate numbers to make ppl buy new premium tanks...I will never accept this.

[PizzaSHARK]

It is, sadly, a "pay to win" game + "pay to play". Premium ammo destroys whole fun and sometimes gives unmatched power and that grind after 5th tier is horrible. Besides of that, the game is very good, but I agree, that lower tiers are fun to play, highers are not. I have like 30 machines, besides of Object (russian TD) I am not using any of +8 tier tank because of credit earned changes they made shortly after beta. It is sad how they manipulate numbers to make ppl buy new premium tanks...I will never accept this.

I still don't see it as being pay to win. Premium ammo will not change anything; if you are angling your armor properly, you're still going to bounce their shots regularly.

[Slaughty8]

I still don't see it as being pay to win. Premium ammo will not change anything; if you are angling your armor properly, you're still going to bounce their shots regularly.

Compare penetration on tiers up to 7th normal ammo vs premium. Sometimes difference is shockingly high, like 2-3 times better penetration on premium, which is alot. The same goes for all TD's, for instance my Object on premium ammo one-shoots Tigers...gl hf with such fun.
Churchill (premium one) on premium ammo masacres his enemies, especially because he is matched against tier 3-5.

[PizzaSHARK]

Compare penetration on tiers up to 7th normal ammo vs premium. Sometimes difference is shockingly high, like 2-3 times more which is alot. The same goes for all TD's, for instance my Object on premium ammo one-shoots Tigers...gl hf with such fun.

That's because USSR TDs sacrifice everything for raw power. If the Tiger is angling his armor correctly, you'll still bounce even if you're using premium ammo.

[Deleted]

Just tried World of Tanks today and so far seems like a quite fun game. Though, admittedly, I'm a bit lost of what to do or research.

[PizzaSHARK]

Just tried World of Tanks today and so far seems like a quite fun game. Though, admittedly, I'm a bit lost of what to do or research.

It depends on tank, but most of the time you'll be pretty safe to upgrade your suspension (tracks) and engine before anything else. Stock equipment tends to be slow as molasses, and that tends to result in you dying horribly against upgraded tanks.

After that, upgrade your gun. Radio upgrades are really only important for arty (SPGs) and scouts (light tanks in later-tier games, usually like tier 5+); for most other roles, you'll be close enough to other friendly tanks that you don't NEED that huge range.

Keep in mind that after you unlock ALL available upgrades for your tank (including the next tanks in the tech tree lines; they don't have to be purchased, just unlocked), your tank will achieve "Elite" status, meaning all XP gained (and any left over from when it hit Elite) will remain on the tank and can be converted to Free Experience (XP that can be spent on ANY tank in ANY tech tree and ANY line... at ANY time) with a little bit of Gold.

As far as guns go, there tend to be three main types. You've got autocannons/autoloaders, which have a magazine of several shots that can be fired in quick succession followed by a lengthy reload (tend to be inaccurate but very dangerous up close; the T1E6 and PzII are good examples of tanks that have these kinds of guns); "derp guns", which tend to fire HE ammunition exclusively and do enormous damage but pay for it with long reload times and horrible accuracy (if you hit your target and it's at your tier or below, you quite possibly kill it in one shot, or cripple several modules if you don't); and then your regular guns, which run from all sizes, damages, penetrations, and accuracies.

Derp guns are pretty fun, but I don't think you get access to any until tier 4 tanks (Hetzer and M4 both have them, I believe, and the KV-2 USSR heavy tank is notorious for its derp gun.) Generally, you can tell a derp gun by the fact that it will have a shell size MUCH larger than other sizes available for your tank - the Hetzer's derp gun is a 10.5cm howitzer compared to its other options being 7.5cm, for example.

[Deleted]

I see. Thanks!

Btw, I suppose I should focus on one country's research first, yea?

I've been a WWI aficionado for a few years and I've always been fascinated by German and Soviet tanks so I've been playing with those mostly. :P

[PizzaSHARK]

I see. Thanks!

Btw, I suppose I should focus on one country's research first, yea?

I've been a WWI aficionado for a few years and I've always been fascinated by German and Soviet tanks so I've been playing with those mostly. :P

Well, it depends. By far the best way to get to tier 10 quickly is to focus on a single tank line within a single nation, but that's not going to give you much of an experience!

I have one tank of each type, with each type being a different nation. So I'm working on French arty, British heavy tanks, Soviet medium tanks, American light tanks, and German tank destroyers

This means I only have five tanks per day that I "need" to play (for the daily x2 XP bonus for the first win of the day), and that can easily be accomplished in 30-60 minutes. I also have two premium tanks (Tetrarch and T1E6) and one Elite tank (PzII) that I keep around for fun and for an easy source of Free XP, but I don't prioritize those tanks.

For what it's worth, tier 4-6 games are where the fun really starts, IMO. All tank types are represented and each nation is really starting to show its particular flavors. For example, German TDs are known for being the "sniper" TDs, and the Stug III with its best gun absolutely exemplifies that characteristic with its laser accuracy even from extreme distances.

Also, keep in mind that premium tanks earn a great deal more credits per battle than regular or elite tanks do. If you have some extra cash burning a hole in your pocket, it's a much better investment to buy a premium tank (preferably at least tier 5; the Lowe in tier 8 is considered the best credit earner in the game) with gold rather than buy gold to convert into credits.

[Deleted]

I see. I've been working towards a Panzerkampfwagen IV mostly because I've always loved that tank (got a bunch of models) but I guess I'll give a try on the German TDs then!

Also, I've found a friend that also plays WoT and he, like you, also is working on French Artillery... Guess I gotta try those too ^^.