5081

It is indeed a prerequisite for the BL-10. Sold.

5082

I’ve concluded that Tier VIII mediums is the sweet spot for me. You tend to get placed in matches were you can make a big difference. You can usually penetrate most of the enemy tanks, although same-tier heavies and some high-tier enemies you’ll need to flank. You can see a good mix of vehicles in the matches.

I really enjoy playing the lower tiers as well. But with say my Sherman M4, you’re far more likely to end up in matches where you’re the low guy on the totem pole with only limited ability to contribute. Whereas the Pershing is always powerful enough to make a difference.

I love my Tier IX T-54. It looks great, and handles great. With the top gun it can do damage against most enemies. But it rarely seems like a playmaker which can make a big difference in a match. It tends to get placed in matches with lots and lots of big high-tier enemy tanks. It’s fast enough to do a bit of scouting and it does reasonable damage, so it can help double or triple team the big guys. But somehow I can’t seem to make as much of a contribution in matches as I want – it could be my gameplay and tactics though.

In contrast, my Pershing is my new favorite (probably I’d feel the same about my T-44, which I loved, if I still had it). I feel like there’s a lot of games where my Pershing has made a big contribution. The gun is solid – has good penetration and accuracy, decent damage, and reasonable rate of fire. Speed is decent, although it’s neither as fast or as maneuverable as the T-54. It is powerful enough and quick enough to move across the battlefield and make a good difference where extra firepower is really needed.

I did use to hate the Pershing, so I assume that’s the standard upgrade blues. I still think it’s a rather boring looking tank. But with all the ugprades it does seem quite the solid performer. I’m not sure if I’ll upgrade to the Patton or not.

Or it could be I’m just having a very good run of good luck. The new WoT iPhone assistant claims in the last 24-hours I’ve won 32 of my last 48 matches, most of those have been on my Pershing. I may sour on it when the law of statistics brings me back to earth …

I haven’t decided on the Panther II yet. I think I’ve finally got everything upgraded now. I’ve only got 3-4 matches with the top turret, so probably too early to evaluate.

5083

I have the T-44, Pershing, and Panther II, and yeah, they (along with the Type 59) are also among my favorites. The Pershing is very well balanced. The Panther II is a tough little bugger with a good gun, if a bit pokey. The Russian I have the most trouble winning with. It’s agile but I tend to get plastered easily.

5084

Personally I’ve decided to work up both the Russian and German TDs. I just love playing TDs. Tonight I’ll be running the SU-152 with the improved 122 I just bought.

5085

We had a nice run in CW tonight, though we lost the battle for the land. Our TDs–a T95 and some Objects–did great work on Mines. With Fog of War in effect they’re more useful I think. And yeah, I like them too, but I rarely get to use one in CW.

5086

My win/loss is 49/50 for the longest time now. So I’m guessing that it would take a really long string of total wins to change it. I have 1835 total games, 49% wins and 50% losses with a sad 23% survival rate.

For the more mathematic of you, how many wins in a string would I need to get to 50/50?

5087

Personally, I just don’t really like to play tier 9 and 10 tanks. I have 2 tier 10 tanks and 5 tier 9 tanks and what do I play now? Easy Eight and Slugger. :) And not because of the silver either, I just like trying new tanks. :)

Just bought the Slugger today and really like it - have 80% win ratio after 35 fights. :) I just finished upgrading it, can’t wait for 100% crew (currently at 89%).

Although I do agree, tier 8 is the sweet spot, the most comfortable tier.

BTW, they’ve made a pretty cool iPhone app, it’s interesting to see one’s progress. It turns out I am 851st by win ratio and 593rd by average exp. :)

[edit] RichVR - about 18-19. But it doesn’t need to be a string of wins. As long as you win more than you lose, those wins will accumulate and you will eventually get your per cent.

5088

After a long string of wins today my total win average just bumped up to 55%, which i felt pretty good about - but somehow seeing that i’m ranked 11000 and change just diminishes it…

…and that’s probably just on the US server :P

Actually, it’s funny, the one stat i’ve been paying attention to and kinda chasing right now is a 1:1 bkr (battles to kill ratio?), I’m about 44 kills behind…

5089

My overall win/loss ratio is also rather poor – 51/47 (it’s actually worse if you go down to the decimal points, and with 4,336 matches it only ever moves by decimal points – 50.84 / 46.75). I’m particularly sad given my win/loss at the end of closed beta was 54/43. My hope is that the difference is closed beta didn’t require all those leveling losses where you drive unupgraded tanks (since the beta win/loss was reset mid-way through but xp gain wasn’t) and therefore hopefully my current win/loss will ultimately end up where my beta win/loss was.

However, the joy of the The Tank Tracker webpage and the new Official Tank Tracker App is that it doesn’t matter what your overall percentage looks like, instead you can focus on your win/loss over the past 24-hours, 1 week, or 2 weeks (or with with the Tracker webpage last hour or last 30 days).

So you can ignore all those painful growing pain losses and focus on how you’re doing today!

5090

Well that was a new one. I was driving my Panther II and it caught on fire. Usually I’m not fast enough with my fire extinguisher and serious damage gets done, but this time I was on the ball and extinguished it with only about 10% loss of health. Then about a minute later I caught on fire again! No extinguisher left. I died.

Are Panther II’s prone to fire, or was I just unlucky?

5091

Pretty much all German tanks are prone to fire. One problem is the transmission in the front, where the hitbox for it counts as an engine hit and therefore a higher fire chance, or so it seems.

5092

I’m sort of on the fence. I like playing some of the high tier tanks–the IS-4, the big TDs, big arty, for instance–but the IS-7 I only use in Clan Wars. I ground up through a lot of the tanks over the past year, and I don’t usually have the gold to buy new slots, or the silver to avoid selling the old tanks, so I’ve gotten myself into a position where all I have is tier VIII-X most of the time. I’m trying to diversify and go back and grab a few mid tier tanks when I can, because I agree, the Tier V-VII stuff can be a hoot. But until I unlock everything at the top I still have that carrot on a stick mentality of wanting every match to bring me closer to…something, in true MMO fashion.

5093

I just played a game on Malinovka. My team starts in the North-West corner (the side without the buildings). One of my teammates takes his Lowe and parks it in the forward trench hull down. Every tank on the defensive line on the other side lights up.

I’ve always presumed the game wasn’t hackable, and maybe this isn’t a hack. But dang talk about easy mode. We just all lined up and blew them all away.

Is it really possible to see the far-side of the field with the right tank?

5094

Plus the lower glacis is the weak spot on all German tanks. So anything that pens has a pretty good chance of hitting said transmission.

Still they aren’t any worse than anything else barring a few exceptions like the Lowe, which bursts into flame pretty easily.

Any tank with far enough view range can do it. A Lowe is actually fairly risky since it doesnt’ have very good camo and the odds of the other side seeing it are pretty good. Plus its so slow you’ll probably get spotted trying it and killed. I’ve done it before with an AMX, which is glorious at it since you’re invisible getting there if you do it right. The big field is less than 500m across.

5095

What does “doing it right” with an AMX involve?

Is it just a matter of the right equipment (binoculars, Camo net, maybe coated optics?) and a crew wtih camo skill?

Or do you need to move in a certain way or direction? (maybe creep up at a slow speed, 10-15km/h or so?)

5096

My brand new Tiger II straight out of the tank barn and gets two-shotted :-(

Have to say this thing does not seem very tough, certainly not the feared tank from WW2 legends. Probably doesn’t help that most of the games I’ve been in I’ve been somewhere around middle tier, with one game having 6 Tiger IIs, and IIRC we were two tiers below the top.

5097

I expected a lot of my Tiger II given how everyone says its so much better than the Tiger, but I am very underwhelmed with it. Basically it seems like everyone can penetrate it. From the front - just shoot at the lower glacis. Anywhere else, it’s easysauce. I much prefer my IS-3 for a tier 8 heavy, which is why I kept it even after unlocking and buying an IS-4.

5098

Since 7.0, coated optics do not work at the same timer with binoculars. It’s optics when you move and binoculars when you are stationary.

Slow speed does not affect how visible you are. For stealth calculations, you are either moving or standing, even if you are just spinning in one place, you are counted as moving. One exception is light tanks, whose visibility while moving is the same as if they were standing (which doesn’t mean they can spin in the bushes, since bush’s (and camo net’s) stealth bonus applies only if you are stationary).

As for “doing it right”, it probably involves getting into position very fast, before the enemies get to their positions and not moving (and not shooting) once there. It’s called “passive scouting”. Higher tier tanks can see enemies from the trench (with binocs), lower levels have to get closer, I’ve seen a few getting into the bushes in the field there. But it’s very risky. Although, if you are a low level in a tier 9-10 fight, maybe it’s worth trying. But it all depends on how quickly you can get there.

And for the love of God, in Malinovka, if you are on the buildings’ side and have an enemy parked on the other side of your buildng, DO NOT try to go around the building and kill it. It’s amazingly stupid and it’s unbelievable how many people are still doing this, even at high levels. Just go to the right flank, across the pond and you can safely kill the bugger from there. Just make sure they can’t see you from their side, as sometimes (depending on the bugger) you might become visible.

BTW, near that position (on the right), on top of that little hill beside the pond, there are bushes that create a perfect position for passive scouting on this side of the fight. Every enemy going uphill to the mill will get lighten up.

5099

Wait, that’s only if you’ve got both right? I assume my coated optics work fine when stationary if I don’t have binoculars? They just won’t add if I have both?

5100

IS-3’s lower glacis gets penetrated just as fine, if you just stand there. Any tank’s really. The point is to not allow the enemy to shoot there or make it counter productive for them to do so.

Both IS-3 and Tiger 2 have their advantages and disadvantages. I already posted some tips on how to play Tiger 2 a few pages back. Its main advantage, comparing to IS-3, is the ability to come out around the corner in a diamond position towards the enemy. When done right, your front will be at steep angle, your front wheel (the closest to the enemy one) will be still behind the wall and you will be able to shoot. Doesn’t matter where they try to shoot you, nothing lower then tier 9 can penetrate you and even tier 9-10 will bounce every other round.

IS-3 can’t do that, they have to stand straight towards the enemy (and hope the enemy misses their lower glacis and wiggle to help him with that), otherwise their angled higher glacis is positioned at perfect 90 degree angle. On the other hand, IS-3’s sides are much more resilient.

So they both are good, depends how you play them. :)