My biggest regret in this game is that I hated Panther I so much that I sold it, switched to the US line and never got the Panther II, which sounds like a very fun tank.
In other news, 7.4 update is here! For better or for worse. :)
Dejin
5682
I’ve got a Patton, a T-54, and a Panther II. Comparing the Panther II to the T-44 and the Pershing, I prefer both the T-44 and the Pershing.
The Panther II feels the most sluggish of the three (with the T-44 the most nimble). While the Panther II has a very accurate gun, it doesn’t feel like it hits very hard. The Pershing is a bit sluggish as well, although I seem to have gotten used to it.
I think technically the Panther II is a bit tougher than the other two Tier VIII mediums, but in most high tier matches there’s so many things that can crush a medium, I haven’t found it’s better defensive abilities to be very noticeable.
I think of the three the T-44 is the fastest and most nimble. It’s main limitation is that it has a tendency to blow-up so it definitely needs a wet ammo rack. The Pershing is the best all-round tank, although it’s a bit sluggish for a medium. The Panther II feels even more sluggish and makes the best sniper, although it’s relatively low damage level means that using it as a sniper doesn’t feel like it’s making as much of a contribution as maybe it should. In contrast for example, my M18 Hellcat for the matches its in makes a huge contribution as a sniper, since it can often take over half a poor enemy tanks health out in a single chunk.
The T-44 and to a lesser extent the Pershing feel like they are more versatile and have better mobility, which are the main advantages a medium has over a heavy.
Dejin
5683
So how do these new Assault and Encounter modes work? In Assault are the tanks on each side asymmetric with the assaulting team getting better or more tanks? Otherwise I don’t get it.
I’m also a bit worried that these modes are not going to be very friendly to my poor lightly armored tank destroyers.
RichVR
5684
People are already asking for an opt out of the new game modes. In further news, sky blue, water wet.
Dave47
5685
Right, but none of us care about the opinions of posters on the official forum. (I hope!) What I am interested in is the opinion of Qt3 posters on these forums! The new game modes represent the largest change to the game since launch, so I’m excited (and a bit scared) to see how they change the game.
I haven’t had a chance to try the new patch yet, but I’m not happy with many of the new nerfs. Especially for the T30, where the changes seem designed not as much to weaken the tank as to force it to play more like how the designer’s feel a tank destroyer “should” play. Which is a backwards way to go about things, especially since the T30 isn’t really a tank destroyer in the first place.
I’ve only played a couple Assault maps, and no Encounter maps. One thing that jumps out is the weirdness of having one side attacking and one side defending–but then not adjusting the matchmaker to take this into account. So, you get 15 tanks assaulting…15 tanks, and often the side with all the TDs is, you guessed it, attacking.
What they need to do is have the match parameters changed for these battle types so you do something to adjust for the advantage the defender has, at the very least. Give the defender fewer tanks, I’d say, though I guess tier adjustments might work (but mess with that too much and the attacker would roll over the defender even with fewer tanks). Also, I’d think give the defender the TDs if possible, too. Probably not really feasible with the system they have, but right now the Assault battles seem grossly unbalanced in favor of the defender.
The new game modes are the best thing that has happened to the game since they added matchmaking at all. I wish that there were opt in buttons for each game type, because then I could play all encounter, all the time.
It’s pretty much what the panther was before they dropped it down a tier, gun included. :)
I’d say the encounter map mode is the most dynamic of the new modes. It really shifts the battle lines on maps that have typically been pretty static like El Halluf.
I like the new encounters for the fact that they prevent the same old defensive lines occurring. The very first match I had on steppes was just weird though. Starting on the south side of Steppes, almost the entire team
lemminged towards the enemy base in the west out of habit or confusion. Myself and two other heavies actually went for the cap zone. Despite a lot of uh, terse communication on our side they managed to pin down the enemy side for a win.
I also lashed out on an IS6 and it plays pretty well- 3 heavy kills and a few T32 shots bouncing off it. I also came out with 100,000 credits. It seems like a tier 8 version of the IS4, a low profile brawler.
I think it remains to be seen still.
Remember that in WoT standard battles, the side that decides to do full on defence will lose 9 times out of 10. Of course, map, matchmaker, player skill, etc. all play their role but everything else equal, the side that doesn’t play more or less active offence will most likely lose.
And that’s what I’ve experienced yesterday as well. I played Assault mode 6 times, all of them on the assaulting side for some reason and we won 5 out of 6.
Another thing is that the defending base often seems to be placed in a hard to defend position. At least on the two maps that I remember - Westfield and Malinovka. Especially Westfield.
Maybe over time people will learn that defending doesn’t actually mean “hide in the bush near the flag and wait for the enemy to surround you” and this will probably make this mode easier for the defenders. But, to be honest, I am sceptical - if playing WoT for two years taught me anything it would be the fact that general masses don’t really learn well. Average random people still make dumbest moves in Standard mode, it will be the same in the new ones.
Overall, I really liked the addition of the new modes. They spice up the game that was getting very stale for me and I enjoyed playing new modes. Don’t know if it’s just the excitement of seeing something new but I like them so far.
What I didn’t like is that “penetration with no damage” thing has not been fixed at all and possibly even made worse. When AMX 50-120 hits the AMX-90’s side with no damage it’s just wrong. Or KV-5’s butt.
And whatever they say in patch notes, they still haven’t fixed HE rounds - they still damage for like 6-20 hps per shot, making them ridiculously bad for anything but disrupting a base cap.
Stridergg, you raise valid points about the psychology of players. I hadn’t considered that. It still seems odd, though, that the defender and the attacker are handled just as in a standard battle, only with one side given what should normally be a tougher assignment. And while it doesn’t make much difference tactically, it would be really nice to have TDs be more likely on the defense, for instance. I’ve won on the attack too, and been beaten on the defense, for precisely the reasons you outline above, so it’s more a matter of impressions I guess. It doesn’t “feel” right. But I also agree the two new modes are welcome additions.
Most assault games I’ve played in have had the attacking team win. Probably 9 out of 10.
The renault ue 57 is hilariously small. It’s a go-kart with a gun.
I didn’t care much for the somua - too big of a tank, easy target.
Now, the s-35 CA? this may be a fluke, I will admit, but in my first game in it, with stock gun, I got 7 kills, 3 others damaged, 7 detected, boelter’s medal, top gun, sniper, master gunner (9), sharpshooter (15), 3200 xp (as my X2) and mastery badge M. Looking forward to seeing where that goes with bigger guns!
Most assault games I’ve played in have had the attacking team win. Probably 9 out of 10.
The renault ue 57 is hilariously small. It’s a go-kart with a gun.
I didn’t care much for the somua - too big of a tank, easy target.
Now, the s-35 CA? this may be a fluke, I will admit, but in my first game in it, with stock gun, I got 7 kills, 3 others damaged, 7 detected, boelter’s medal, top gun, sniper, master gunner (9), sharpshooter (15), 3200 xp (as my X2) and mastery badge M. This was as the attacking side in assault on campinovka, assaulting the hill. Looking forward to seeing where that goes with bigger guns!
While I understand that you don’t want to just hang out in your base, what I’ve seen when playing on defensive mode has been boggling my mind. It’s great to move out to forward positions, get good scouting and prevent any sort of surround, but good god, when there is 3 minutes left in the match and the assaulters are hanging back, why are people pushing forward? In one match on Karelia my defending team went from 4 tanks up to 3 tanks down as our heavies decided they needed to push ALL the way around to the opposing start to, finish them? or something. If you’re defending, and your opponent is content to sit behind cover, why the fuck wouldn’t you just let them waste their time?
Yeah, I agree they could (should?) have come up with a more interesting ruleset for the Assault mode but I guess they took the easier route - all defender/attacker balancing is happening during the map design. This allows them to leave alone their matchmaker, which by the way is struggling even with the old ruleset. They were talking about releasing a new matchmaker in April but somehow all those plans just disappeared.
That’s just old mentality. Actually, let me correct this, even in the old standard mode, there were plenty of situations were advancing some flank was a bad idea and people did it anyway.
New modes are IMO more tactically complicated and on the average, I think, we will see more tactical fuckups hapenning in the new modes. One could say that it’s yet another move the devs have made towards completely randomizing the game.
I like the novelty so far though.
We were defending on Prokhorovka, where the defense starts on the hill on the eastern side of the map and the attackers start on the other side of the north-south road on the western edge of the map. With a platoon of Tier IX mediums, we swung south off the hill and over the tracks into where in standard battles the enemy base would be. This flanking maneuver so unsettled their push across the field that they never recovered, and we wiped the floor with them. The worst thing we could have done with the meds is sit in bushes, that’s for sure, though we found plenty of Tigers and stuff sitting waaaay back in the bushes on the attacking side for some reason…
I especially hate it when there is a significant amount of artillery and a team decides to camp. Firstly, the enemy artillery will obliterate you and secondly, their scouts will quickly locate your artillery and they’ll be the first to die.
Add to this that my prime time involves a lot of Asian players who don’t communicate in english and it enters keyboard-breaking territory.
ShivaX
5699
That map is just completely broken in Assault. All you really have to do is get down to the RR tracks and sit there shooting anything that tries to come over and you’ll win. The only time I’ve lost on defense is because our heavies sat on the hill and let them get into the buildings.
I won a defence on malinovka, but that was mostly because the other team attacked really ineptly and my team shifted to a more offensive stance as soon as the tables were starting to turn.
Tanks are per definition by their very nature an offensive weapon. TD’s are often dubbed assault guns (sturmgeschutz). It makes sense that they perform better in the offense than defensively.
I am very VERY happy with the patch. I love the new game modes. dont mind at all to have them randomed in like the maps themselves. I love what they did to the minimap. SO much better. I like having new tanks to play with as well.
i for one welcome our new 7.4 overlords.
