World of Tanks

[xthetenth]

Oh jeez. They just released some stats for 7.5 Performance on the Russian Server, where it's been out a week.

The M48 is cleaning house horrifically, and is going to be nerfed into the ground. Same with the T110E4 and T110E3.

I'd act surprised but it'd be unconvincing.

[Sea Skimmer]

M103 is in, and isnt conqueror basically the same thing? Very similar gun.

Exact same gun in fact, the Conqueror had the US M58 120mm gun. The main difference in real life between the two vehicles is the electrical system on the M103 worked, while that of the Conqueror did not. As far as it would matter for the game since tank wiring being eaten by rats and catching fire is not represented, M103 had much thicker armor on the gun mantle and a little better armor on the sides of the turret, while the Conqueror had a thicker frontal turret plate. Most armor might as well be the exact same, some in fact is exactly the same.

Now what is really needed, and who knows, might appear, is the tank destroyer variant of Conqueror with 7.2in gun in a limited traverse turret.

[Simon_Jester]

Oh jeez. They just released some stats for 7.5 Performance on the Russian Server, where it's been out a week.

The M48 is cleaning house horrifically, and is going to be nerfed into the ground. Same with the T110E4 and T110E3.

I believe you, but where'd you hear that?

I just hope they don't screw the armor on the Super Pershing, I actually went and bought one which I would not have done were it anything but an American medium. Having a nigh-invulnerable frontal arc really is part of the point of the tank, if you ask me.

EDIT: I bet the first thing they nerf on the M48 is the rate of fire on the gun.

[Alkaloid]

So, I'm thinking about buying a premium tank because I'm kicking around tier 7 now and need some way to pay for shells and buy new modules. Any advice on a good moneymaker. I'm keen on the Churchill at the moment, but I'm worried that because it's tier 5 its going to struggle against a lot of the tanks it could come up against, but the Lowe, the KV-5 I don't like because they seem to just be armour built around weak points. I'm not buying a type because fuck them. That leaves me with the T5 heavies, the T34 and the Super Pershing, as far as I can tell. None of those are what people say when they bring up good moneymakers. So which is the least bad option?

[weemadando]

Holy shit, the ELC AMX's gun puts holes in things real good. I think I'm just going to play this as a fast TD. Speed in, set up in cover, take a shot, speed off, set up in cover...

It's so low-profile as well, closest thing to a S-tank we'll ever get probably.

[Hawkwings]

I was playing that the other day and I COULD NOT put holes in a T-34 from the side. That signalled quitting time.

[Gervasius]

The funniest example of someone driving noob tanks constantly is this guy. Yes, that's 23k battles. Yes, that's more than half of them in the T-26. Yes, he has amazing stats despite as far as I can tell being terrible in the higher tier stuff. I mean just look at that kill count.

Marxist is actually good in both T-26 and trolling the hell out of players. My hat's off to you, sir Marxist.

On the other hand there is this shining example of a terrible player that plays mostly low-tier tanks. After almost 40k battles you would have thought that he learned something.

[AniThyng]

It's wield but it does feel like my panther is doing better damage per game. Probably just because the new mm has me targeting more tanks I can really hurt though. It's hilarious to read complaints from people who don't realize the match tier list is sorted alphabetically...or that they dislike the new mm because it's too easy now that they aren't pitted against superior tanks, or qq because they are no longer ale to be big bullies. Can't please everyone, eh.

[xthetenth]

Marxist is actually good in both T-26 and trolling the hell out of players. My hat's off to you, sir Marxist.

Oh, Marxist is a good guy from what I've seen with a really good sense of humor, he just can't drive a high tier tank. From what I've seen of him in his IS-7 he earned that 40% win rate in it. Only one tank over 50% win rate of all the reasonably high tier tanks. He just doesn't seem to be used to the way high tier tanks work.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Ironically enough Ando, that's what I thought about the ELC too...a French S-Tank.

As for my tanks...the T1 is a slow lumbering beast, but that's what I expected, so not much news there. It is oh so nice to finally be able to bounce shells from things bigger than scouts though. As for the ELC...I think that tank is the one I get the most victories in. Plus with the low profile its easy to sneak by people. One time while both the teams were busy killing each other, I snuck past their pickets and wiped out the arty, and a III/IV that hadn't moved at all the whole match. Of course a PzIV came out of knowhere and one-shot me, but it was oh so worth it.

On the subject of the III/IV, I find it funny that people say it sucks, but it has better side and rear armor than the PzIV, and the front armor, while thinner, has a nice slope to it. Plus I haven't heard good things about the stock IV gun, but the III/IV starts out with a good length '75. Too bad I'm almost done with it, and moving on to the 3601 soon.

[Simon_Jester]

Marxist is actually good in both T-26 and trolling the hell out of players. My hat's off to you, sir Marxist.

Oh, Marxist is a good guy from what I've seen with a really good sense of humor, he just can't drive a high tier tank. From what I've seen of him in his IS-7 he earned that 40% win rate in it. Only one tank over 50% win rate of all the reasonably high tier tanks. He just doesn't seem to be used to the way high tier tanks work.

Could you expand on that?

[Agent Sorchus]

I don't like win/lose as a measure of competence, because of things like clan wars. I'd be at 50% or better in my IS-3 if I had never played a CW battle in it, and in fact that was why I dropped my clan. The only way to actually judge someone is to play with them several battles. There are just too many ways to be helpful in a tank, but some times even driving competently isn't enough.

Hit ratio is the only thing that can partially judge actual competence, in that the only random factor is your gun spread and skill of shot versus your opponents skill of dodging.

[xthetenth]

Really low tier tanks have much shorter range and penetration usually doesn't play much role, so even brawling is about dodging. High tier tanks, especially tens or so, have very long range and penetration and armor play a huge role. When I saw him in an IS-7 he didn't know how to handle its armor at all, he wasn't getting any bounces.

Hit rate doesn't mean much, since sniping lowers it naturally and some people just won't take long shots despite it helping the team. Damage per game is probably the best except for scouts.

[Vanas]

Given that the influx of lolmeds and lolTDs has rather sapped my enthusiasm for playing my T8s and the E-75, I've been messing around with the lower-tier things.

I'm quite enjoying the T29 now. It's not really killing many tanks, given that I need to wait for a new geological epoch to dawn before the loaders manage to jam another round into the damned thing, but it's nice to feel like you can hold things off and contribute by... well, tanking round after endless round into the turret.

After hearing xthetenth talk about his new soothing voice pack, I decided to take a look and see what was available in order to assist me in my general pootling about. As such, I've revamped the in-game music with this pack, which contains a mere 140-odd tracks from the Ace Combat series to tank to. The actual voices, I've replaced with a bunch of guys well known for just cocking about in expensive machines for the sheer fun of it.

The combination is glorious. Often times, the match starts to an Ace Combat track with the jets spooling up and being marshalled with a serious briefing... and then the timer expires, there's an exuberant cry of 'HERE WE GO!' and I drive to battle with a tank crew who's taking it as seriously as I am.

[xthetenth]

So, I'm thinking about buying a premium tank because I'm kicking around tier 7 now and need some way to pay for shells and buy new modules. Any advice on a good moneymaker. I'm keen on the Churchill at the moment, but I'm worried that because it's tier 5 its going to struggle against a lot of the tanks it could come up against, but the Lowe, the KV-5 I don't like because they seem to just be armour built around weak points. I'm not buying a type because fuck them. That leaves me with the T5 heavies, the T34 and the Super Pershing, as far as I can tell. None of those are what people say when they bring up good moneymakers. So which is the least bad option?

Sorry I missed this earlier. If the Löwe's out for bad armor, then the T34 is. The T34 doesn't have a weak spot as much as a weak hull. Sure, it's about the same height as the Löwe's lower glacis, but it's the entire hull. The gun hits hard but the damnable thing aims like a Soviet tank and the fire rate makes it feel like a T30 a tier lower that does half the damage. I'd say they couldn't give me one but they did and I did accept it. I then proceeded to drive my Type like a champ because I don't want to fight against my tank. If I have to put that much work into getting a shot on target, 400 damage isn't enough. I'm taking it's crew for my T110E4, actually. The Type is great but you don't like it and you can't use it for crew training.

Which tank line are you most interested in? Tier 5 or lower premiums are generally not that much better than their regular peers, although I am very fond of my Churchill, which has a machine gun and a lot of armor that people don't know the weakness on (the turret). I'd say the Löwe, super Pershing, Dicker Max or Church is your best bet depending on how much you want to pay and how much you want to make. If you have a serious interest in the German heavies, US mediums, German TDs, consider using your premium for crew training in that line seriously. If you want recommendations on how to play one or to know how one plays, just ask.

[CaptHawkeye]

I'm actually sort of hoping they take the evolution of tank development in the game to its logical conclusion and feature modern armor. Tier 20 M1 Abrams and Leclerc anyone?

[weemadando]

Only if you let me take a Wiesel with ATGMs.

[xthetenth]

Well, I feel cheated. We were playing our round for Ural Steel, and I kind of slightly went 6 kills and won our game. But it's effectively run in a training room so I didn't get my top gun. Then again two of the kills were T1s. Then again it was a 7v7.

Replay here:
https://rapidshare.com/files/3356876191 ... .wotreplay

[Simon_Jester]

Trying to collect impressions on the Super Pershing. Hull front is a big slab of impenetrable kabongium, turret front appears to be two slabs of impenetrable kabongium. Keep getting nailed by artillery strikes to the sides, though; obviously need to work on that. I've had to deal with unfortunately many fail teams in my limited experience with the tank so far.

[Vanas]

It's frontal armour is very good, although it's sideal and backal armour are medicore. I can't really comment on the gun; I tend not to use the cheat-mode scope that doesn't bounce around when you're shot so the sheer amount of gunfire smacking into the front tends to throw my aim off.

A1 tip for fighting them: Driving something like the fully armed and operational T29 or Tigger, the lower glacis is penetrable from the front. I tend to aim near the sides, by the tracks. I'm sure the whole thing is, but I've gotten more success that way.

[xthetenth]

So I've been playing the Super Pershing more, and I'm going to have to recommend it as my main choice for a moneymaking premium. I finally lost in it. After 16 games. It brought my average xp per match down from 1239. The Type teaches some very useful skills, but the super persh teaches pretty much everything and it's utterly rapetastic. You can take any shell in the game and have a chance to bounce. Be warned the middle of the hull is the only extremely strong bit. The rest is iffy against tier nines and tens but will usually bounce tier eights and lower if you angle. You need to learn to plan ahead a bit and all that, but when you do you can absorb shells like little else. 20+ hits to kill me aren't unusual. I thought the credit gains were mediocre compared to a Type, but then again I thought the xp earnings were abnormally high. If you're just after pure credits, get a Löwe, but otherwise, this thing wins at xp for crew on a great line of tanks, and gets buckets of money.

Have a replay where a friend and I hold off a very large everything: https://rapidshare.com/files/2576590871 ... .wotreplay

[Simon_Jester]

The only problem with this is that it suggests the tank will be nerfed extensively in the next upgrade, if it really does outperform everything else.

[CaptHawkeye]

Well that's generally how testing works, shitty testing anyway. I remember Relic talked about how they beta test balance changes awhile ago and admitted that when they felt a weapon was either under or overpowered, they intentionally blew its stats waaaaay in the other direction. That would give them an idea of a region they had to fall inside. They figured that it was better to balance via a process of elimination than come to a more precise stat through a little more effort. Probably explains why all their games are totally broken too.

[xthetenth]

The only problem with this is that it suggests the tank will be nerfed extensively in the next upgrade, if it really does outperform everything else.

It's hard to drive well, you need to plan a good bit ahead to get much use out of that armor and gun combo. There's a lot of people getting sidesniped and dying miserably because they don't show the tiny bit of forethought to go somewhere where they can protect their flanks. All of them bring the tank's stats down. Same thing with the Type, they've got it balanced down to being pretty much fair for sure and I still get over 900 xp a match. There's ways to fight the Super Pershing frontally and they're quite easy to outflank.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Okay...just watched the 8.0 preview video and all I can say is:

The new rendering and lighting are just stunning. The older graphics just don't compare in the slightest to the new ones. It is amazing to see the changes.