World of Tanks II: Fighting, Bragging, Raging Edition - All aboard the Lemming Train!

[Dada]

Thanks for the tips everyone! I think I might look into the American TDs and if they don't catch my interest, I'll probably go for some heavy-hitting Russians. Why are the American tanks less beginner friendly, and what do I need to learn to use the efficiently?

[darksolitaire]

Thanks for the tips everyone! I think I might look into the American TDs and if they don't catch my interest, I'll probably go for some heavy-hitting Russians. Why are the American tanks less beginner friendly, and what do I need to learn to use the efficiently?

Welcome to the game. I'll share some of my thoughts, seeing that there aren't other answers yet

All TD's have less hit points and weaker armor compared to their tank counterparts, but have improved weapons for it. Turretless TD's should hang back in a bush, letting others spot targets for them and concentrate on causing as much damage as possible. Camo net is good investment, and can be removed to other vehicles as needed.

Second line of American TD's are also very fast moving, so they can be used more offensively. They still can't go toe to toe with tanks. last week I destroyed T49 with my A13 MK2 who tried just that; they turn slowly and can't keep up with tanks that get close.

American TD's have HE-shooting hovitzers quickly available to them. With these weapons you only need to hit enemy tank to cause massive damage. They are quite inaccurate and fire slowly, so you need to aim long to ensure hit.

If you're playing american with a turret, you probably have good gun depression, meaning you can go to hilly terrain to hull down, peek behind cover so that only your turret and gun are visible. This presents very small target to enemies.

Russians are the nation to go if you're looking for heavy tanks. They have more heavies then others, and their lines have different play styles as well.

Marder 2 is considered to be one of the best things in tier 3. Many experienced players keep it around for fun. It has good gun and almost 3 times as wide turning arc for i then Jagdpanzer (-32°/+25° vs -10°/+10°) and has great view range, so I can suggest trying it before abandoning German td line.

---

So, Cromwell today, Churchill in weekend. I need to find AMX 50 Foch 155 to get my French expert, but they always seem to end up in my team

[Leon]

Marder 2 is considered to be one of the best things in tier 3. Many experienced players keep it around for fun. It has good gun and almost 3 times as wide turning arc for i then Jagdpanzer (-32°/+25° vs -10°/+10°) and has great view range, so I can suggest trying it before abandoning German td line.

Its glory days a now long past but it still can be a potent lil thing.
Being new to it you won thave the downside of knowing how far it has fallen every-time you play it

[Borgh]

Marder is a decent thing for the reasons speciefied.
Then comes the Hetzer, which is slow and weak in the beginning but quickly gains speed and with the 10.5 an OHGODSWHEREDIDTHATTANKGO cannon. I still play it quite often.

Then comes the stug which starts out decent and ends as a racing machine made of speed and a unholy precise gun.

The comes the JagdpzIV. It becomes half-decent with all the upgrades and I've recently started to greatly enjoy it but the grind there just hurt.

[darksolitaire]

Okay, the next patch will be Chinese and Americans only...which is weird, since last time Germany received new line was summer 2011 with the three tanks of E-series. American tanks are nicely squeesed into single line. Good thing they don't have as much content as speculated.

Its glory days a now long past but it still can be a potent lil thing.
Being new to it you won thave the downside of knowing how far it has fallen every-time you play it

That...thing was not a tank destroyer, but a farming implement. it was probably my first tier 3 tank so I managed to play poorly with it Got to knock out KV's crossing open fields few times. At least neutered Marder ends up against tier 2s these days, so there is a silver lining.

[Grif]

American TD's have HE-shooting hovitzers quickly available to them. With these weapons you only need to hit enemy tank to cause massive damage. They are quite inaccurate and fire slowly, so you need to aim long to ensure hit.

To be honest, I never understood the appeal of howitzers on American TDs.

The T82 is best equipped with the 57mm machinegun of death.

In other news, I'm enjoying my Jadgtiger 8.8cm. Worth every penny spent. It might be a Jadgpanther on a Jadgtiger chassis but that just means you can actually spearhead charges for lulz.

[Leon]

Hope this patch doesn't arrive for a couple of months, last thing it needs is another line so soon after the Brits have hardly arrived (whom as the progenitors of armoured warfare should have been in the initial release...)

The Second German Line of TDs is long over due.
Not that there is much in the Chinese tree that is actually new and original

[otakuryoga]

with so many new vehicles just added and more coming they REALLY need to make xp exchangeable for credits

would let me take 4-5 elites off xtra crew training status to farm xp instead

[GloatingSwine]

with so many new vehicles just added and more coming they REALLY need to make xp exchangeable for credits

would let me take 4-5 elites off xtra crew training status to farm xp instead

But then people wouldn't buy premium credit farmers any more. And considering they'll charge you out the ass for those (seriously, a Lowe is like £35 or so even if you get your gold the most efficient way), and they're seriously popular at higher tiers it would cut into their business model too much.

I mean I'm willing to bet that the reason they put premium ammo up for credit purchase is because no-one was buying it.

[Eldariel]

I mean I'm willing to bet that the reason they put premium ammo up for credit purchase is because no-one was buying it.

It was because premium ammo was almost required for clan wars and the like and it was a huge inhibiting factor for participation for any people not already in successful clans (you get free gold as rewards which enables running gold economy). The ability to credit buy premium ammo was mostly so that the game can actually be marketed as F2P.

[otakuryoga]

But then people wouldn't buy premium credit farmers any more. And considering they'll charge you out the ass for those (seriously, a Lowe is like £35 or so even if you get your gold the most efficient way), and they're seriously popular at higher tiers it would cut into their business model too much.

I mean I'm willing to bet that the reason they put premium ammo up for credit purchase is because no-one was buying it.

seriously...i know far more that have bought ammo with gold than have converted xp
2 days of farmin xp and you could blow a $100 gold purchase to convert it... its just too expensive to use gold to convert xp
which would make MORE people want to buy the credit farmers actually if they allowed credit xfer of xp...because it would be at the same 400 to 1 rate of credit to gold for ammo

[Dada]

This talk about premium shells and premium tanks confuse me slightly.

I've seen it mentioned several places that it recently became possible to buy premium shells with silver instead of gold. I don't seem to be able to that, though - are there some prerequisites, or am I misunderstanding something?

With regards to premium tanks, why do they farm credits so efficiently? Are they really so much better than normal tanks? Or is there some other reason?

Thank you to whoever recommended giving the Marder II a go. The additional turning arch really makes a difference, and I am enjoying it much more than the PanzerJäger so far. I've also spent some time fooling around with the british Cruiser mk. I and A13 mk. I, and I have to admit that they feel very similar to me. Which of these two lines would you recommend me following?

[Jonzac]

When you go into the garage and click on the "service" button, you will see the option to buy or adjust your shell loadout.

The "premium" or "gold" shells are usually the second one and if you look to the right they will have a drop down menu with either gold or credits. Make sure it's on credits and BAM you have the high-penetrating shells.

As for premium tanks, they have a Credit Generation Bonus built in. I think its something like 30 or 50% more than a similar Tiered Tank.

[Eldariel]

This talk about premium shells and premium tanks confuse me slightly.

I've seen it mentioned several places that it recently became possible to buy premium shells with silver instead of gold. I don't seem to be able to that, though - are there some prerequisites, or am I misunderstanding something?

If you try to buy 'em you can choose between paying with gold and with credits. You can select with which in a sort of a dropdown menu.

With regards to premium tanks, why do they farm credits so efficiently? Are they really so much better than normal tanks? Or is there some other reason?

They have a vastly higher result-to-credit income rate. Basically, a good game with my Type will earn me 50k whereas a good game with my KV-3 will earn me 20k. A great game with my Type under Premium will earn me 80k (counting for repair and ammo costs) whereas it'll earn me ~30k in a KV-3. And even a terrible game in the worst case scenario where I do absolutely nothing and get picked off by that blind S-51 shot before the game really starts, I tend to break even whereas I'd be paying upwards to 10k in my KV-3.

Basically, every tank has a multiplier on how much credit you receive for everything you do in-game and premium tanks have tons higher multipliers than the normal tanks. Premium tanks also have altered matchmaking so they're higher tier tanks more often giving you more chances to carry games and make massive money.

Make no mistake, normal tanks with the best equipment are usually better than equivalent level Premium tanks (some premium tanks have special nichés in their tier such as Churchill, T34 or Löwe); Premiums tend to have one major weakness in one of the three areas compared to other tanks of their type in the tier - mobility, armor, firepower.

[Erloas]

The game really has been pissing me off this last week or so. I've went from about +110 wins to about +80 or so wins in that time, so I've lost about 30 games more then what I have won. What is even worse is that it was all during the event so with the premium account bonuses and the 5x multiplier bonuses. I'm seeing almost no games where I end up as the top tier tank, I'm usually in the bottom. It also doesn't seem to matter which tanks I'm choosing.
It also seems like I'm dieing a lot faster, maybe everyone is running around with HEAT rounds now, but if that is the case then its ruining the game (and doesn't explain how I always end up on the loosing teams).

[Eldariel]

The game really has been pissing me off this last week or so. I've went from about +110 wins to about +80 or so wins in that time, so I've lost about 30 games more then what I have won. What is even worse is that it was all during the event so with the premium account bonuses and the 5x multiplier bonuses. I'm seeing almost no games where I end up as the top tier tank, I'm usually in the bottom. It also doesn't seem to matter which tanks I'm choosing.
It also seems like I'm dieing a lot faster, maybe everyone is running around with HEAT rounds now, but if that is the case then its ruining the game (and doesn't explain how I always end up on the loosing teams).

I know the feeling. I've been on a losing streak for months now with the odd good day and then proceed to play 6 games/tank just to get my WotDs. Nuked my overall winrate down to 53% from almost 55% (~4000 games in total), and nowadays I'm only playing the game with 5x specials.

I'm not thinking your average player uses gold shells; it massively cuts into your profit especially in the lower tiers and in many vehicles the difference isn't really that significant.


As for a losing spree, those just happen as you must know. The random factor in the game is massive with 15 random players from a very large pool and imbalanced vehicles on each side creating random strike forces with random compositions for random missions with no inherent leadership; yeah, losing sprees are going to happen unless you literally kill 15 people on average per game.

It really sucks and at least in my case my reaction to it is simply taking an extended break from the game but it's really written into the nature of a game with so many random variables. Worst part is, a losing spree is much more impactful and memorable than a winning spree.

[Jimorian]

On the other hand, since slightly before the event, I've gone about +40 to raise my +/- to +125. And I've also just reached over 50% actual win rate if you count draws, with 3603 wins out of 7200 games.

But yeah, I'd say at least 80% of the games, you're just along for the ride and you simply have no effect on whether you win or lose. Its those remaining 20% where sometimes you can nudge things in the right direction with perhaps an early kill that tilts the advantage on your flank, or hit a nice counter arty shot, etc. And then sometimes it really is just you that makes the difference between a loss and a win.

But when you have streaks where you look up from your individual engagement and see half your team dead already and the only dead guy on their side is the one you just toasted.... ugh....

Edit: Oh, and I had another max-kill match with my T82, where I reached 8 kills to go with the same number from my T49. Ironically, it's one of my worst vehicles for overall record, with 39% and -23.

And for a new brag topic, which tanks have you achieved the Ace Tanker Badge with? So far I have 15.

T1 Heavy, M5, SU-8, Tetrarch, KV-2, T82, T18, SU-85, PzIV, Bison, D1, ELC AMX, B1, T49, and Vickers Medium Mk.III

[mistformsquirrl]

Lets see... Ace Tanker badges eh?

M4 Sherman, Pz III/IV, Lend-Lease Churchill, T29, VK3001H, M18 Hellcat, M6, T1 Heavy, M3 Lee, A-20*, M37, M8A1, A13 Mk II, Medium Mk 1

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Also just realized I just hit 5,001 battles - woohoo! I'm at +156 battles at the moment, so 51% W/L rate. Not too shabby <._.>b Not stellar either, but I'm happy with it.

*That's a shocker.

[Grif]

3789 battles so far, with 55% WR.

Ace Tankers:
M18 Hellcat
SU-8
T25/2
SU-14
SU-26
T-34
T28 Prot
SuperPershing
KV-3
T-50
T-43
T49
Jagdtiger PaK 43 8.8 cm
KV-2
RenaultFT AC (Out of the 7 match I played, I won only one. That match I also happened to murder six tanks. Go figure.)

[Erloas]

Ace Tankers, in order of which ones I have the most games in because thats how they are listed.

M41
M4 Sherman
M4A3E2
Leopard
AMX 13 75
Tiger
StuG III
T40
RAM-II
ELC AMX
M18 Hellcat
T-46
Hetzer
PKz II
Leichttraktor

[Leon]

I'm a Tank Ace in the following:

SU-26
KV-1
Marder II
Tiger H
SU-85 (Retired)
T57 (Retired)
S-51
M18 Hellcat
M2 Light Tank
M8A1
Mk7 Tetrach
KV-3
SU-100

In order of Most played to least (From 1086 to 54)

[Yana]

Here's my list of Ace Tankers:

VK 3601 (H), 1076 games played
PzKpfw IV, 1003 games played (retired)
E-75, 338 games played
Stug III, 281 games played
SU-26, 209 games played
Panther II, 201 games played (temporarily retired)
PzKpfw V "Panther", 196 games played (temporarily retired)
M18 Hellcat, 189 games played
M8A1, 171 games played
Hetzer, 138 games played
T49, 76 games played (retired)
M4 Sherman, 32 games played

There are also a few tanks like the Tiger I and Tiger II with which I would have had the Ace tanker medal if it had been around when I was grinding through them at the time. Same thing goes for the KV-1. For the life of me though, I can't seem to get the Ace Tanker with the KV-1S

[darksolitaire]

Comer appears to be bad omen not unlike it's namesake, I'm trying to kill one for future expert badge but so far I haven't had any success. Met one in Redshire with Churchill 7, but there was no hope in getting anywhere close with 20 kmp/h top speed. Then I met two with my Type 59 in Serene Coast, but they had better support and were shooting gold. AMX 50 foch 155 and Object 263 are both still eluding me, being very rare in the servers.

To be honest, I never understood the appeal of howitzers on American TDs.

The T82 is best equipped with the 57mm machinegun of death.

Machineguns are Undoubtly good, I'm just thinking in terms of 3.5 D&D PrC's, Yankees have early entry in Howitzers. Pz3 is blasting around with 75mm he in tier 4 and M18 has it in tier 2. Likewise, tier 3 with 105mm when it's still in use for some tier 5's.

And for a new brag topic, which tanks have you achieved the Ace Tanker Badge with? So far I have 15.

35 atm. I'm strolling around with winrate of 53%, which is good for WoT player, but on the bad side for someone who has as much games played as me.

I just realized I'm going to have fun with Chinese mediums. My type crew is at 64% of their third skill because I have used accelerated crew training instead of converting free experience.

[Jonzac]

I decided to outfit my A13 with the howitzer and man that was a lot of fun. First, its the only HE shooting gun with a rate of fire at 17 rounds per minute. Unlike the American or others you don't have to wait an age for it to reload...which is a godsend against other light tanks.

Another reason is watching the shell arc up and away in the sniper mode...I find that totally made of awesome!

[Leon]

35 atm. I'm strolling around with winrate of 53%, which is good for WoT player, but on the bad side for someone who has as much games played as me.

Win ratio is what you make of it, if you are having fun it doesn't matter what your ratio is. Way to much stock is put on In game stats ~ having better stats does not automatically make a better player. A players Win ration maybe high but if they are a Arrogant ass because due to that then they are not as good as they like to think they are.

The player who i consider to be the Top player (Via the hall of fame lists) has a Win ratio of 52%, they are in 6 of the 11 Lists.

I pointed this out on the WoT forums to someone and they claimed the Lists are the who's who of bad players, so i checked - 110 Names (some are in multiple lists) Of that there were only 10 who were Under 50% W/L (the Average apparently is 48%) and of those only 5 were below the Average

Hardly a lot of bad players (everyone is on those lists and if you not that good your not going to be at the top)

[Eldariel]

To be honest, I never understood the appeal of howitzers on American TDs.

I used Howitzers all the way to M10 just for the joy of one-shotting Shermans. Makes me feel like in the old SU-85 even if it doesn't stack up as well against high armor targets (still, it does ~100 to KV-1 per shot so it's not that bad).

My Ace Tankers:
T-34-85 (430 games)
KV-2 (202 games)
Hummel (184 games)
KV-3 (166 games)
PzIV (143 games)
T-150 (85 games)
StuG III (81 games)
MS-1 (48 games)
Pz II Luchs (20 games)


I haven't gotten a single ace tankers since starting all these new trees (then again, I have been on a losing spree; and I have a ton of 1st rank badges). I've also never gotten Grille, T-34 or GwPanther ace tanker in spite of playing them a ton though I know I've been close (few games we lost that, if won, woulda prolly gotten it and my max experience is higher than a friend's who does have ace tanker in Grille & T-34 so I was just on an unlucky week).

[mistformsquirrl]

Woot! Finally out of the Matilda and into the Churchill Mk I - so far I've really been enjoying it; which isn't a big surprise given how much I enjoy the premium version.

Second game in it I made 4 kills in about 2 minutes. >_>

[Aragehaor]

Sorry for the late reply.

Thanks for the recommendations,
but i got to say, that VK3001 P was a nightmare until i got its 'sniper gun' now its the easiest thing in the world to grind and it should be breeze to get the XP For the Tiger (P) - only real problem is that since i decided to go down like nine* different tank lines at once (British heavies, German heavies, French lights, Soviet heavies, German Artillery, American heavies, French heavies, Soviet TDs, and American TDs) its going to take me quite some time just grinding credits after i get the experience to research one of them.

(For example, I researched the IS early thanks to the 5x experience days and now im... pretty much the entire price short! )



*Though i despise playing the French B1, Soviet SU-85 And the Amercian M10 wolverine so those lines have stalled somewhat in comparison.

[darksolitaire]

One does not simple receive 1st class mastery badge with British tanks.

Victory!
Battle: Murovanka 13. marraskuuta 2012 15:04:21
Vehicle: Churchill VII
Experience received: 1*719
Credits received: 39*474
Battle Achievements: Steel Wall

Victory!
Battle: Malinovka 13. marraskuuta 2012 15:29:10
Vehicle: Cromwell
Experience received: 1*600
Credits received: 37*920
Battle Achievements: Confederate, Master Gunner

All with 2nd class mastery badges. For some reason WoT gives battle date in Finnish even though I use English version. Must grab it from computer or something...

Edit: woohoo, got it!

Victory!
Battle: Erlenberg 14. marraskuuta 2012 18:56:59
Vehicle: Cromwell
Experience received: 2*265
Credits received: 48*306
Battle Achievements: Radley-Walters's medal, Top Gun, Mastery Badge: "Ace Tanker"

And today I even fragged that bothersome Comet. Now I'll only need tier 9 and 10 brits.

[Deadmeat.GW]

I have had much fun with my Stug and was more then a little anoyed too...

Played a game where I got 9 kills and then the game disconnected me while I was lining up a shot on a 3% KV1 rear...

In the end I got Radley-Walters medal...and nothing else.
No top gun, and no the enemy team did not have anyone kill 10 on my team, no sniper, no nothing...

A bit peculiar but meh...

I also managed to get in tank company battles 5 kills with my Stug and pinned a Batchat in place by ramming it while my team came up to help.

I killed 2 tier 7 light French, a tier 8 Tiger 2 and tier 8 Lowe...and a IS-8 :).

After those kills I was out of ammo so I rammed the Batchat and knocked it down from 5% life to 3% .

These kills were all mine, and just mine (ok, well, the Tiger 2 was mostly mine as I took it down to 45% before an arty shell put it down to 1% and I got the killing shot in the end ).

They sat still shooting at the exposed team mates while my Stug in some bushes sniped their rear without being spotted once.

I love silly people sitting still when they are getting shelled for a couple hundred damage a pop...
They tend to keep ignoring you in favour of the real big guys.
The IS-8 guy was screaming bloody murder since I was hacking him...
3 rear shots, 2 fires and one dead IS-8 later...
Over 70% of his hp loss was from fires.

51% win rate on my Stug, lately I do really badly most of the time with only one or two absolute grand games in the mix of losses.
19% survival rate.

I tend to play very agressively so I end up killed quite often.


The opposing team