4101

I never used any premium tanks either (well, except for the beta gift Sherman, the M3 Stuart gift and the pre-order A-32, all of which I sold in the first week of release). I don’t have any issues with someone buying a Lowe, I haven’t bought any premium tank myself because I wouldn’t enjoy driving them - either too slow or the guns are too weak.

But I really don’t understand the “tier 6” limitation. Stopping short of tier 7 heavies and TDs I can understand, again due to high ammo costs, but not tier 7 mediums.
The tier 7 T20 is my current money maker, for example. Even if I die, with the tank completely destroyed, it costs me a mere 8k to repair. Another 4-5k for ammo, if I died late, 1-2k if I died early. The tank earns 30-60k per battle with premium, which is 20-40k without premium.
Even with a full repair cost and very high ammo expenditures, you’re still left with 7-23k profit without premium. Minus any consumable expenditures, which usually run me 3k per battle, even on a bad to mediocre game, you’re still breaking even at the very least. On a decent to good game, you’re earning a good amount of credits.

My Pershing would break even in the same mediocre games and turn a profit in decent to good ones. It cost 14k to repair when fully destroyed, which happens infrequently. Mostly my repair costs were in the 6-10k range, with ammo costs slightly higher than the T20 (due to higher ROF on its 90mm, so more shots taken).
Driving a T-44/122, on the other hand, is guaranteed to make very little money on a good game or lose money on a bad one, if you don’t run premium, due to 1k ammo cost.

On the other hand, there are tier 6 vehicles that will readily lose you money. SU-100 with the 122mm gun uses 1k ammo. KV-1S uses 1k ammo as well. And I see plenty of people in a KV-3 that use the 122mm guns.

But tier 6 tanks like the VK series, the US M6 heavy or the T-34/85, etc, these make good money, again due to low ammo cost for their best guns, not necessarily due to their tier. After all, one can run a T29 with the 90mm gun or an IS-2 with a 100mm gun (and many do) and turn a profit even on a bad game, because the ammo is so cost effective.
The Tiger, though I hated it, was still very cost effective due to low ammo costs for its guns (though constantly taking penetrating hits did eat into its profit margins). I’ve even seen JagdPanthers run with the 88mm L71 gun for monetary reasons.

The tanks in WoT also all have different “earning coefficients”. Meaning how much of the damage they do translates into credits. Some are higher (Sherman M4 and T20 standout at 1.05 and 0.90 respectively), some lower. Premium tanks usually have a coefficient far above 1.0. This also contributes to which tank make a good earner.

So, I’m not really sure why I’m supposed to be smoking something, when my experience (which, between the beta and release clocks in at over 11,000 battles) taught me that the primary factor in earning potential is ammo cost as compared to damage dealt. The secondary factor is repair cost (shouldn’t be too high, which is why tier 9 mediums are hard to run without premium). And the third factor is mobility, as you can’t do damage, and thus can’t earn money, if you constantly miss opportunities to do so by virtue of being too bloody slow.

Medium tanks excel in all these factors, which is why they are possible to operate without premium quite comfortably up to tier 8.

As for the people that have to run low tier vehicles to support their higher tier ones, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were driving heavies, TDs or tier 9 mediums. Yes, in such a case, it makes perfect sense, as one cannot comfortably run these vehicles without premium or low tier earners. But as I keep trying to point out, that isn’t the case for medium tanks, which can be run without premium quite comfortably in tiers 1-8. It’s only tier 9s that are trouble, again, because the ammo cost jumps from 250 credits a shot to 1000 credits a shot. While maximum repair cost goes from 14k to 18k.

4102

Do you have a Premium Account, Supper’s Ready?

4103

Right now, yes. In beta, no. I’ve run tier 7-8 mediums in beta without premium quite comfortably.

I can do so now as well. In fact I will do so, once my premium runs out, since I already unlocked and bought all the vehicles I care about.

But as I pointed out in the previous post, the tier 7 medium T20 still earns money without premium. The Pershing earns money without premium as well. It’s easy enough to calculate, as premium only gives you +50%.

4104

T20 is an awesome money maker. While I don’t have one, my friend (who has probably all T1-8 tanks in the game and a bunch of T9-10, yes, he plays a lot, hehe) swears the T20 is his best money making machine (he doesn’t have premium tanks).

the primary factor in earning potential is ammo cost as compared to damage dealt.

To this I would only add accuracy as a major primary factor. Both the gun’s accuracy and, more importantly, the human being’s behind it. The “damage dealt” portion directly depends on how many of your shots penetrate the target.

It’s a HUGE factor. And that’s another reason why mediums are easier (comparing to TT’s and TD’s) to maintain - they mostly shoot at closer distances and from good angles. A shot at enemie’s butt or side will deal more damage and bring more credits than the front shot (even if the front one penetrates).

It’s all personal though. Different people play better with different tanks. If a medium tank is just not your playstyle, you won’t make big credits with it no matter what. Having said that, all mediums are quite different as well - T20 plays differently from the Panther.

For whatever reason, Ferdi is the vehicle I am the best with and I could easily turn profit with it even without premium (and with the 1K ammo cost). I just don’t miss with it. It’s my farming tank now.

4105

Then you must have a much better Win/Loss ratio and more kills than I do. All I know is I won’t be running any vehicles other than my tier 6s and below until I set aside enough credits to risk running my higher tiered vehicles again.

4106

Is the 105 on the VK3601 (H) a viable gun until I unlock the 88?

4107

This is very true. We all eventually fall into our preferred play style, so seeking out money-earners that fit that play style is the best way to go about it.

Which is why you’ll never catch me dead in a TD these days, even if I played the hell out of them in beta (including the Ferdie, which I liked a lot, but these days find too slow and the lack of a turret annoys me). Or in something as slow as a Lowe.

But, anyway, you’re absolutely right, compatibility with the individual vehicle or the class as a whole matters a great deal.

4108

It’s better for pekaboo fights (until the 88mm), but not as good as the 75mm for sniping. It’s still going to get some (surprising) hits at long range, but your hit rate is going to take a dive.

But since you shouldn’t be with it long, until you unlock the 88mm, it’s not that big a deal. You’ll also have fun one-shot killing tier 5 TD and almost doing the same to tier 5 mediums’ side armor.

4109

I <3 the 75mm. its so freakin accurate and it penetrates real well for its tier. also fast firing to compensate for the low damage bullet. it might even have better DPS than the short 88.

4110

I have enjoyed both of them. When I first started using the 88 it didn’t seem to be nearly as accurate, but I guess I have gotten used to it because my hit ratio still hovers around 75% now. When I first got the 3601 I played around with the konisch because I had some gold. That was very entertaining, but after a match where I fired 28 rounds (26 hits) I decided that was enough of that experiment. If you have a bottomless pit of gold though that thing is deadly.

4111

And the L100 is that on steroids. Though to be honest, in higher tiers that low damage does have some issues.

4112

Ugh, I hate it, against higher tiers, even if you do get a penetrating shot, you do something pathetic like less than 10% of their health, while they are likely to cripple you in 1-3 shots. Not to mention you get stuck with it on every stock german medium even at the later tiers. It was good when it was on the PzIV. It sucks arse on the Panther.

4113

Which is sad, because IRL that gun was da bomb.

4114

Yeah, this is where I’ll again bitch about the hitpoint-tier system. I’d love to see a hardcore mode where they strip out hp, and don’t count a tank as dead until it takes a set amount of module damage. (or just give every tank HP based upon chassis, and not tier.)

4115

Don’t forget hit points.

In real life a Tiger didn’t have extra hit points to make it tougher. If a Sherman76 shot it and penetrated it, he probably killed it with one shot. Think of something like WW2OL. Tigers are tough, but they easily die to single shot from something that can penetrate them. Likewise they’re scary because of the same reason and their ability to lob 88 shells from huge ranges, but their size doesn’t make them magically tougher against a penetrating shell.

4116

True, but they were scary because their disproportionately heavy armor meant that, during their prime operational years, most opponents couldn’t penetrate at normal engagement ranges. You had to get close or get a flanking shot if you weren’t a Sherman Firefly. The shorter-barreled Shermans were not much of a threat one-on-one. Unfortunately for the Germans, Shermans usually outnumbered their tanks 5:1.

According to this Penetration table, a Tiger could kill an A2 (75mm medium) Sherman from any angle at 1,800m or closer, and the Sherman couldn’t kill the Tiger unless it had a flanking shot at the hull at 900m or closer - turret shots, shots to the front or rear hull wouldn’t penetrate until point blank (100m), if then.

4117

Of course part of the reason why the Tiger isn’t scary is it gets matched up against lots of prototypes and tanks that didn’t exist during its era. Tanks that can penetrate it with greater ease.

4118

Maybe on the same Tier as Tigers, you could control 5 Shermans at once to make it even.

4119

It would be entertaining to have a game where you have like two or three tier Eights versus like fifteen tier Threes.

4120

It would be like that mode in Combat for the Atari 2600 where you had the three little jets against the one big jet!

… maybe a little prettier