Ahh, a Chaffee then - or not, I’ve seen the research cost - ouch! Never mind, I enjoy the light tanks, quite quick games, good ROI.
Heh, despite the snark, some good ideas here. The King Tiger is good all-around, though; it doesn’t have to hide, nor do the tier IX and X German tanks.
And arty…well, probably my favorite tanks are arties. I think they require an intriguing mix of patience, skill, and nerve to use successfully. For every game you have where you obliterate things from afar, you have two where you’re overrun by lights or mediums because your team failed to defend, or where you survive with no hits or kills because your scouts all died and the enemy was never in a good spot for you to fire on. Arty is vulnerable to everything, takes an eternity to load and aim, and has inherently awful accuracy, especially the American arties which is where I’ve spent most of my time (currently grinding up my M40/43 to the T92).
I particularly love seeing people in game chat lambaste artillery players for not shooting this target or not hitting that tank, without having any clue as to what they’re talking about. When I go look them up on the stats, time and again these jokers have zero matches in arty, or maybe less than ten (wholly unsuccessful) tries before they gave up.
Without arty, the game would be horribly boring I think. Arty makes people think, and while the games with a half-dozen or more arty per side are ludicrous, having two or three per side really changes the dynamics in a good way, and gives under-powered sides a way to counter heavies effectively. And even if a match starts out more or less “even,” as the matchmaker decides at least, as time goes on you’re often faced with an unbalanced situation. That’s where arty can really make the stronger side be a bit more cautious, and give the underdogs a shot at a draw or even a win.
Most high-tier arty players are pretty good, because it takes a long time to get there; it’s not surprising that a lot of griping arises from higher-tier players getting nailed by skilled artillerists. But most arty players overall are awful…though then again, so are most tank drivers in general…
I’ve been less than thrilled with my Chaffee, though it’s a quick, maneuverable, and hard-hitting little bugger. Trouble is, it’s not as fast as the T-50-2, and not as tough or sneaky as the VK2801 (which also can carry that German mini-derp and wreak havoc). The Chaffee excels at killing other light tanks, and at playing arty defense, but as a scout it takes a lot more care and feeding I’ve found to make it work. That upgraded monstrosity of a turret is designed more to enhance fighting than to help either sneaking or scouting, and really, in a light, you shouldn’t be fighting much anyhow. I’ve had some good games in the Chaffee but mostly I’ve actually lost money on it.
Of course, I’m nowhere NEAR a great scout tanker, so you might have a lot more luck. It’s a very maneuverable and quick tank, with a great little gun, but is it worth the cost of researching it? I’d have to say no, stick with a Leopard and move on unless you want to be a professional scout tanker.
Talorc
4704
Yeah, I am taking a hiatus from playing at the moment (Skyrim, Batman, Saints Row 3 and the back log etc are calling…) but Tier 6 was the highest tier I am up to.
Plenty of fun stuff in Tier 5/6. I’d probably nominate as decent targets:
[ul]
[li]KV - Archetypal Heavy Tank. KV-3 is more of the same basically.[/li][li]KV - 1s, Acquired taste, but the muscle car version of the KV[/li][li]PzIV - Sniper heaven[/li][li]VK 3601(H) - For me, probably the best Tier 6 tank. Manoeuvrable enough, decent armour, decent gun, lots of fun. Prototype to the German heavy line.[/li][li]Sherman M4A3E8 - very fast firing gun, manoeuvrable. MUST flank though to really shine[/li][li]StuG III - Just a mean little bastard - manoeuvrable with a good gun. The JagdPz IV afterwards is somewhat underwhelming though.[/li][li]Su-85. Eventually gets given the one shot kill - fist of god gun. Pretty good up to then as well (have not played Su-100)[/li][li]Wolverine - TD with a turret. Pretty slow moving, but gun packs a kick and reloads fast. (have not played Slugger)[/li][/ul]
T-34 is OK, but nothing to write home about. it gets a lot of hate and disdain but I actually enjoyed the T1 Heavy. Pz III/IV is a bit meh, similar to T-34.
Sherman M4 is supposed to be good as well, but I never played one, went through the M7. I cant really recommend the M7.
My MMO lowbie / altoholic issues seems to extend to a gotta try/catch em all mentality in World of Tanks as well :-) I have a lot of the Tier 5 tanks, save artillery, the M4 and some premiums.
Taranis
4705
You should give the M4 a try! I hadn’t until recently and found it to be a blast. The 105mm mini derp is fantastic and more accurate than the stats states in my opinion. Also the the M4A3E2 (Jumbo Sherman) is my new favorite tier 6 tank. It has terrific amour, decent mobility, the 105mm derp gun and like most American tanks good gun depression…lots of fun!
I’ve been playing this game since the EU beta and before the American tanks where even in the game and had never tried the American medium line. Now my goal is the M46 Patton; I hope I like it as much as my E-50.
The M5 with 75mm howitzer is really quite fun. Drive past people, turn to get in close, BOOM, drive off laughing. It is like playing Quake with only the shotgun.
The E-50 is a beast, and I loved driving it. Extremely good gun, excellent armor and mobility, plus the bonus of severely harming or outright killing things by smashing into them.
But the Patton I liked even slightly more. It’s the tank for the true medium specialist, mainly because of what that gun depression allows you to do. Plus the stunts you can pull off with that view range + coated optics. On Lakeside, Prohorovka and other maps, I often spotted half the enemy team just as they were leaving their base - allied arties loved my Patton. :-)
Enemy arties hated my Patton for exactly the same reason, I’d often nail a couple of them just as they are pulling out of the base (or setting up in it), then disappearing. The bigger the arties, the slower they are, and the easier they are to hit from ~400 meters, so a quick Patton that gets into that range ASAP can get some nearly free kills. Allied arties finished the job.
And with the crazy US-style gun depression properly utilized, it’s nearly impossible to effectively return fire at the Patton.
The short version: E-50 is an excellent medium tank, but it’s the easy to play version that achieves ~90% of what a tier 9 medium is capable of doing. The Patton is much more difficult to master, but is the true king among medium tanks. The T-54, in comparison, is mediocre, and is there for people who don’t understand how to properly play medium tanks and use them as glorified heavies.
Taranis
4708
It sounds like the Patton will be fun, cant wait! I agree with your assessment of the T-54 as being mediocre, I never driven one (stopped at the T-44 in Beta) but I’ve never been impressed by the tactics most T-54 drivers use in matches and the tank appears to be a one trick pony. The E-50 and Patton on the other hand are well-rounded medium tanks making them more valuable to a team than the T-54, hence more fun to play IMO.
The T-54’s trick is really, really important; often it’s durability, low profile and speed makes it the top pick for being the sole clan wars scout tank in our A-team, even over a Patton. The T-54 trades spotting range for the ability to not die easily, and that’s a great trade for important fights.
The T-54’s general reputation means there are a lot of bad drivers who ground out the tank expecting to ownzone everything in it, and those are the guys you see in random matches all the time.
That said, Pattons are really cool and I chose that line over the Russian mediums because I loved my Pershing in beta. Probably the most fun tank to drive next to the T32.
You guys are making me want to delve into the US mediums now, except I don’t think I could handle the Lee, godawful box of junk!
You could always go the other route via the stuarts
Good point! Now I just need to earn the cash… :(
is there any way to send silver to players? I could help out.
Taranis
4714
The M3 Lee isn’t that bad, it has good armor and gun for its tier and does really well when matched up with other tier 4’s and lower. Also I think the match-making for tier 4 tanks has improved, I believe it was addressed in the last patch.
Personally I hated the M7, didn’t match my play style very well and I abandoned it and went the M3 Lee route. Another thing to consider is that the M4 Sherman (with the 105mm) is one of the best Credit farming tanks in the game, its worth keeping just for that purpose after you’ve moved on to bigger tanks.
Talorc
4715
Yeah, Lee only took me about 25ish matched to get the necessary XP to unlock T1 Heavy and it is not really that bad.
ShivaX
4716
If you really enjoy the lower tiers then stop around Tier 3ish. Once you hit 4 you start getting into the bigger matches fairly often.
And the Patton is awesome as is everything leading up to it really. T20 on is just fast, agile medium sexy time.
Love the M5, another 5 kill game tonight (both against equal/lower tier I think). The howitzer is loltastic.
I have unlocked the M7 and as I don’t want to go up the medium route right now I will probably play it and the other tanks that branch from it. Or I will wander up the TD route some more. Decisions, decisions!
RichVR
4718
Just got into the SU-100 and had enough xp to get the 100 gun. This seems to be a fun ride. :)
Taranis
4719
I loved the SU-100! Its has a great combination of speed, stealth and firepower. It held my kill record of 8 for the longest time, until last week when my M4A3E2 tied it. I got a little bored with the SU-152 and sold it after I researched everything but the ISU; I do plan on going back at some point though and grind through it, the Object 704 looks like a really fun tank to play!
The Object 704 is a hoot. The BL-10 is great, and the TD looks like some futuristic beetle. Good times.
