World of Tanks Mark III

[Skywalker_T-65]

I'm still looking forward to the IS-4. It was my favorite T10 last time I played on the test server.

[Vendetta]

Gah, can't edit:

If I did this right this should be a replay. Feel free to criticize my play style.

The following may sound fairly harsh, it's not intended that way.


The first thing I'm going to say is stop and aim!. You take all of your shots on the move using autoaim and thats why you hit less than 50% of them. Seriously, stop and let the aim circle close, don't use autoaim because it trains bad habits. At your level of play you should basically be stopping and letting the aim circle close all the way for every shot. Later on you'll learn when it's useful to fire on the move and when you can snap off not-fully-aimed shots (and have tanks that will support those actions), but for now. Aim those shots. It is not absolutely required to hold down the W key at all times. If you've got cover around you and enemies in sight, stop, use the cover, aim your shots.

The second is be aware of your opportunities.

I'm going to post a few pictures from your replay where you had an opportunity to shoot a target which you simply didn't take.



This T-28 is way open to you, you could easily have stopped and put a shot right into him, and the T28 has no armour so that's guaranteed damage. And that guy stays exposed for a long ass time. If you'd stopped there and opened up with accurate fire, you probably would have got enough shots to make the kill or at least leave him crying.



T-28 again. Even if you missed the first opportunity, here he is again, and he zergs right across your side of the map just after this, again a missed opportunity for damage and/or a kill.



At this point you've got autoaim locked on to the T-28 (bad move, don't use autoaim), you don't even actually fire at this point, just keep whizzing down the line, but you're also missing the opportunity to hit that Locust.



You carry on down the line and have an angle on the side of the Alecto, plus a house you can use for cover between you and him. You don't stop and fire here, instead you apparently go completely insane and do this:



From here you rush out onto the field with absolutely no cover and basically get lucky that only a Pz1c decides to respond to you. What you could have done is stay right where you were, again stop and aim at the Alecto, and if he turns around to respond to you back up into the cover of the house.

Everything after that point I'm not really addressing, because you were way off the bell curve of sane activity, if there are tanks alive at that ridge, and you're in a top tier medium, you need to have a really really good excuse for going somewhere else (saving a failing flank). You're leaving the fight half finished and smashing yourself basically alone into a nest of base campers, which basically means you get squashed for minimal output. If you fight that ridge, stay there until you've won that fight then look at your minimap and decide where the next fight you need to be in is, it's generally going to be in the city or in the woods at G/H1. Anyone still at the enemy base can be safely ignored, if they've chosen not to contribute to the fight respect that choice, kill their allies in the field, then your whole team can jump on them.

Now, some other points. Use your mouse cursor.



This is the first time you have a possible shot on the T-28. If I were playing this game, this is where my mouse cursor would go, if you can see tanks sweep your cursor over them, if you get the red outline that means that there's a possibility you have a shot. At which point stop and aim and shoot at them. Use sniper view as well, you seem to utterly ignore it in this game. If you enter sniper view and the shot turns out to be too small you can move on, but check first.

If you'd gone into sniper mode at about that point here's what you would have got:



Now, he's pretty hull down there, but you've still got his whole turret available to shoot, and as noted, it's a T-28 and basically what armour. You would probably only get one shot from there, but take it and move in, it's more damage for you.

Now, you've tagged the replay as "scouting", but you're a top tier medium, that means that what you should be looking to do is fight, you're regularly in positions in that game where you could be putting the hurt on the enemy. Here's a replay where I'm fighting the mid ridge in Fishermans Bay as you were: http://wotreplays.eu/site/356438#fisher ... swine-t-44 (It's not a great game, but it's the best I've got fighting that ridge)

You'll note a couple of things. First, I don't cross the ridge, I stay pretty well down it and move up to take shots when they're available. If the enemy hadn't come to the ridge in force I would have been peeking up more often to spot them, but then pulling back down again. (I also make a fatal mistake against the death star at the end, I should have peeked only far enough for my shot and backed up immediately, rather than letting him get that doomgun pointed at me). Your situation would be a little different given that you have a 24r/m gun not a 7r/m one and I'm mounting all sorts of optics and vertical stabilisers, but what you could ideally have done is largely what the other not-me tanks were doing, sit on the ridge using the houses for cover and keep your gun firing accurate aimed shots.

I've also put a replay up where I do a lot more actual scouting, http://wotreplays.eu/site/356434#murova ... swine-t-44. Notice especially at the start how I peek to get the spots then pull back down again, and largely keep that knot of heavies spotted and allow the rest of my team to have at them. "Scouting" very rarely means "zoom around the map at top speed", even active scouting is actually best accomplished by repeated peeking. Here's that 1700 loss I posted yesterday, what I'm doing for much of this is active scouting (prokh is a great map for this): http://wotreplays.eu/site/356441#prokho ... ine-wz-131 Notice even here though that when I need to fire at anything other than point blank I stop and aim the shot.

To do scouting your job isn't just "find the bad tanks", it's "keep the bad tanks visible so that your team can shoot them". If you get spots then basically die, or get spots but your team is still fighting enemies right in their face and can't shoot your spots, your spots aren't useful.

Now, one more thing you might notice from those screenshots. See how big the minimap is? (ignore all the extra boxes and tank names and gubbins, they'll be useful later but for now work on core skills) I keep it that big all the time. That's not just a replay thing, it's how big my minimap actually is (in fact probably a bit smaller, the replay engine doesn't remember your actual game setting). Your minimap is as useful as your gun, maybe more so, look at it often, make it nice and big so you get the best quality information from it. Maintain awareness of where the enemy tanks are and where your tanks are. This is also a good time to remember that you don't need to be holding down W for the entire battle, if you stopped once in a while you'd have time to look at where the enemies were, make a plan that let you shoot them, and go and shoot them.

[Zwinmar]

And this Is why I posted ... I really don't know jack about the game.

Game I just finished: http://wotreplays.com/site/356487#siegf ... pzkpfw_iii

[Zwinmar]

I feel like I am in a paper thin tank most of the time even in the pz III. cant do shit for damage and they insta gib me (perception)

[Darth Yoshi]

If you think your tank is made of paper, that's usually a sign to hang back and gang up on targets with people. It's why I like TDs, because I'm not confident in my ability to run around and engage at close range. Also, auto-aim targets center-mass, so if your target is peeking up over a ridge you'll just hit dirt.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Sadly, that's because the Pz. III is a paper-thin tank. Might be good armor for its tier and type, but against anything bigger than another Tier 4, it's not going to help you much. Maneuver is the name of the game with mediums like it...use your zippy speed to find good places to shoot. Get a couple (hopefully) damaging hits in, then relocate before the enemy can return fire.


Now, that's how its supposed to be done. I, however, suck at mediums so I'm not much help beyond that. I'm more of a heavy type.


EDIT: And what Yoshi said.

[Vendetta]

Basically, never rely on armour to protect you. Even really heavily armoured tanks will fight opposition that can easily penetrate them somehow. Rely instead on having obstacles between you and the enemy unless you're ready to take a shot yourself. This becomes increasingly important as you go up tiers as reload times extend significantly. If the enemy can't see you because there's a rock, house, or hill in the way they can't shoot you, and then it doesn't matter how much armour you have, only be exposed when you're ready to fire yourself.

I looked over your second replay, and yeah, that's how shooting should be, you've gone from hitting 6/13 to 15/18.

The next thing to look at, especially now you're at tier 4 and upwards, is where to aim at tanks.

These are three shots you took at the T1 Heavy:



This is the first, notice how the crosshair is red (on yours it will be the little arrow pointing up to the centre of the aim circle). Red means you will never penetrate by shooting there, the armour is thicker than the maximum penetration value of your gun (the value listed +25%). (that's actually the thickest part of that tank)



This is the second, see how the crosshair is green? Green means the armour is thinner than the minimum penetration value of your gun (the value listed -25%). Shooting whilst the crosshair is green gives you the best chance of penetration. (though this penetration indicator ignores angle of armour, which we'll talk about below)



This is the third, the crosshair is orange here, that means that the thickness of the enemy's armour is between the minimum and maximum penetration values of your gun. A shot here might go in but don't count on it, especially at an angle like this. (with this gun, the front of a T1 is basically no chance, you need to get around it)

Basically, aim at bits where the crosshair is green. If you're fighting medium vs. heavy that generally means get around the side or rear. Your best chance on a T1 Heavy, for instance, would be to aim a little higher than you were on that middle shot (at the point you were aiming, if your shell had flown low it would have hit his tracks and only done track damage. The T1 is quite well protected by those large tracks)


The other thing to consider is the angle of the armour to you. The larger the angle the higher the effective thickness of the armour. The front of a Hetzer, for instance, is 60mm thick, but the upper armour is at a 60 degree angle, whic doubles its effectiveness to work as if it were 120mm of armour. The lower armour, however, is at a much shallower angle, only 45degrees or so, so is much less effective despite being the same actual thickness. Additionally, if the angle is over 70 degrees your shot will automatically bounce. Look for ways to reduce the angle of the enemy's armour relative to you wherever possible, and increase the angle of your own armour.

The latter is incredibly important if you're playing german tanks, because a german tank is basically a steel box with no angles to speak of by itself, so you need to angle your hull to maximise its effectiveness.

[The Vortex Empire]

It's probably worth reiterating to never use autoaim. On most tanks, it'll put your shots directly into the front of their turret, the worst possible place to shoot.

[Vendetta]

My very first battle in the T-54.

I believe I may enjoy this tank....

(It even caused crying in PM from some german kiddie about how totally unfair it was for his ickle Tiger 2 to have to face T-54s, I don't often get PM crying)

[Luke Starkiller]

Using the LB-1 or lots of Free XP to get the good gun?

[The Vortex Empire]

Looks like the LB-1 in that screen. I just goldspammed with the LB-1 until I got the D-10T2C. The T-54, once you have it fully upgraded, is pretty much the perfect tank. Although I find the T54E1 more fun due to sheer burst damage.

[Vendetta]

Yeah, still using the LB-1, I have the upgraded turret now (didn't then) because I had some free XP saved up so I only needed a few matches.

Am looking forward to having the better gun for the extra pen.

[Darth Yoshi]

To sort of add onto what Vendetta said, armor is mostly only ever effective if you're against some poor schmuck 2 tiers below you, and even then they can still knock out your track and leave you vulnerable to everyone who can reliably penetrate your armor. But turning this around, this is where your teammates come in handy. While they draw fire, you can circle around and hit the target from a better angle. Once my team had a group of 4 damaged medium tanks hound a DW2 heavy to death by trapping it in an alley. They only did maybe 30-50 damage a shot, but by coming at it from both sides of the street and staying behind cover except to shoot, the DW2 could never got any shots in. Also keep in mind that while the turret is generally more armored than the main hull, the back of the turret is also generally where the ammo rack is loaded. Damaging it drastically reduces the rate of fire, and destroying it outright is an insta-kill.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Generally the only tanks that can rely on armor to any extent are hull-down American heavies (try and take on a T29 in a good spot, and it can murder you) and KV-line Russkie heavies. And the latter really rely on angling. I'm good at it myself, but it took a lot of trial and error to get to that point.


Well, and the Maus and E-100, but those are special cases in the German tree, which are generally pretty soft aside from their frontal slope (from the Tiger 2 and VK 4502 on).


EDIT: And even the best armored tanks have weak points that can be exploited by skilled players. Armor will help you get to safe spots, not win the battle unless the other team is out-tiered and made up of idiots. Which can happen.

[Zwinmar]

one of the problems I have it that it is just me, I try to work with others and most of the time, it seems, I just get murdered. Also, I didn't realize the default UI had that red/oj/green marker aspect going and I was using a mod.

Speaking of which, I deleted all mine and could use some advice on what ones to use (if any). The only program I know at this time for installing mods is Curse.

[Darth Yoshi]

Any decent crosshair mod will give you, either numerically or via colors, your penetration chances. But I use just vanilla XVM myself, as well as j1mb0's aiming circles and strategic SPG panel. Other than that, my only mods are Girls und Panzer mods, which I doubt you care about.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Still completely vanilla here, not a single mod.

[Vendetta]

You don't need to specifically install mods for WoT, just copy the files into your res_mods folder.

(I reccommend using relatively "clean" mods, not those stupid crosshairs that fill your screen with flashing nonsense that makes it look like an early ps1 mech game or something, though it's always a good idea to install a damagepanel with a nice big fire indicator not the standard tiny insignificant one, means you can react to fires much faster, I generally only take 2 ticks of fire damage even with manual extinguishers now.)

The concept of "working with others" is a nice idea, but really if you want something doing in World of Tanks you need to do it yourself.

[The Vortex Empire]

I just use Jimbos, XVM, and a sound mod.

And yeah, the key to working with pubbies isn't to work with them. It's to exploit them. Use them as meatshields and distractions and don't expect them to ever do the smart thing.

[Skywalker_T-65]

I get used as a meatshield a lot. That's what happens when you play the big heavy (and heavily armored) tanks.

[Zwinmar]

Got my m5a1 Stuart .... Interesting being in t7 and 8 battles

[Skywalker_T-65]

T-34 is half off this weekend...I might end up buying it now. Hmm...

[xthetenth]

About armor, there's really three kinds of armored. Not armored at all, armored well enough to reduce the penetrable area, and armored well enough to allow hiding the weak spots.

The first rely entirely on terrain and avoiding attention for defense, and anyone who's played those tanks know how constraining knowing that every hit will pen can be. The second are the ones that may not be able to bounce everything but can show small enough weak spots or hide their weak spots quickly enough that with use of terrain they can fight effectively even if not in optimal terrain or if people are paying attention to them. For example see the difference between the FCM 50t and Type 59. The Type isn't invulnerable but it can take massively more risks and do a lot more in the face of the enemy because when skillfully driven it can get people to bounce. The last type are exceedingly rare, it's basically the Maus and E-100 that can tuck their nose in behind cover and be invincible (although really really high pen guns can pierce them it's a bit iffy especially at long range).

For example, see how much mileage I get out of the T-54's armor in this replay even though I get into a bit of a bad position and work it like a champ because people can't reliably shoot me. 3k damage taken, 2500 damage dealt because they just can't make shots connect even though I'm not shooting well and getting bad bounces because it's my first T-54 game in over a year. http://wotreplays.com/site/359135#report

[Zinegata]

Got my m5a1 Stuart .... Interesting being in t7 and 8 battles

Call'm opportunities for "Giant-slayer actions" and focus on scouting, followed by an arty raid once 1/3 of the enemy team is down.

My best match in a M5A1 had me spotting to kill two arties, and then "killing" an ELC and a Super Pershing - both of whom chased after me into an unescapable spot and thus drowning with me.

[Zwinmar]

Might be good at AT's, might not, anyways, half drunk

http://wotreplays.com/site/362684#himme ... winmar-t18