Hey Tankers,
With the recent release of World of Tanks on the Steam platform, we recognise this will bring many fresh and eager Panzerphiliacs who are seeing this game for the first time or at the very least the first time in a while!
As a World of Tanks veteran with over 28,000 games, I take this opportunity to welcome new players and impart some unsolicited advice, mostly articulating the stupid things I did as a developing player and inviting you not to repeat the same mistakes...
From the outset it must be said that World of Tanks is a very tactically nuanced game and can be quite fiddly in terms of setting up your vehicles and crews. While it lacks the complexity of controls of a tank simulator it still cannot be treated like a run-and-gun shooter. Sound knowledge of the games mechanics and the patience to learn them are required to succeed beyond the entry-level tiers.
Image credit: https://imgur.com/user/emwheezie
Mistake #1 - Not being a "Joiner"
Not everyone's a "joiner" and certainly neither was I when I started playing World of Tanks. After working long hours as a construction industry professional where everyone wanted a piece of my time, the last thing I wanted to do was socialise in the gaming time that granted me a moment of peace... I shunned the very idea of clans, and I was determined to learn the game my own way. In hindsight this was a mistake that cost me valuable time, and stunted my player development by 10,000 "wasted" battles.
One day I saw a recruitment message in the general chat and thought, "Why not?" My first clan [A2AR] was a predominantly social outfit with a casual but growing interest in Tier VI Skirmish. Interacting with other players in a group environment afforded opportunities to hear simple comments like "The Churchills are really good sidescrapers". This prompted me to wonder what does sidescraping mean? After five minutes of research, suddenly the floodgates of absent game knowledge were opened!
If joining a clan still sounds like too much of a commitment for you, there are many other World of Tanks communities out there! A few of my favourites: Facebook - World of Tanks - Australia and New Zealand (Community-run Page)
Facebook - World of Tanks - International (Community-run Page) Facebook - WoT Noobs (Community-run Page) Facebook - WoT Arty Noobs (Community-run Page - SPG players/content only) Discord - World of Tanks Asia Official Discord (Official Discord for WG Asia)
Like gaming, the social media user experience may vary. For the most part, someone genuinely looking for advice is likely to get it in spades since you can be confident that everyone on the Internet has an opinion! The Facebook pages above are closed groups, so if you're sensitive about your non-tanker friends and colleagues knowing you're a geeky online gamer then have no fear - They won't see your posts!
Actual image of my attitude towards social gaming dated ~10K battles
Mistake #2 - Being Stingy
Prior to playing World of Tanks, my gaming indulgences were predominantly in a single-player environment where a player on "Normal" mode can be reasonably expected to survive the story without having to dig too far into their bag of potions or consumables. As an avid explorer, my characters were generally sufficiently levelled before they entered an environment they couldn't handle without buffs or consumables... but I learned far too late that this is not so in World of Tanks.
World of Tanks is an unforgiving gaming environment, where buffs to vehicle characteristics and consumables are essential to survival. Relying on the baseline statistics of the vehicle alone puts players at a significant competitive disadvantage that skill alone can rarely overcome. Equipment will improve key performance characteristics such as reload time, mobility, aiming time and viewrange depending on the type of equipment selected and how that fits with the role of the vehicle on the battlefield. Fortunately since I started, the cost of equipment has been stratified such that low-tier vehicles need only spend ~50,000 credits on compatible equipment instead of the ~500,000 credits that used to apply across the board. New players without a slew of credits to their name can get to a competitive setup much earlier.
Consumables should also not be shunned. Even Small Repair Kits or Small First Aid Kits can make your mistakes far more forgivable. Hits to the tracks leave your tank highly exposed and prone to fatal compounding damage, while damage to other modules or crew members can significantly impair your gun handling. More often than not, these 3,000-credit consumables will be able to keep you in the fight long enough to make the cost back and then some!
Lastly, and one of my biggest pet peeves with new players in World of Tanks, please put camoflague on your tank. Even using the rental camouflage at 75,000 credits for 100 battles, the 3% boost to your concealment is well worth the piddly expense of 750 credits per battle especially in light tanks, tank destroyers and medium tanks who rely on concealment.
Mistake #3 - Neglecting the Crew
It's not until a player experiences a trained crew and reverts to an untrained crew that they realise the critical impairment of running a bad one. Consider the below comparison of the Tier V Soviet Medium Tank T-34 in its top module configuration.
While tank configurations are identical, it can be seen that players recruiting a free Rapid-Course crew (50% Basic) are playing an entirely different game to those players who spend 80,000 credits getting the Regimental-School Crew (75% Basic). The latter enjoys a 15% increase in damage output, 12% reduction in shell dispersion and can see 13% further.
Those players who have spent gold to start off with a Tank-Academy Crew (100% Basic) enjoy greater advantages again, with a further 13% increase on damage output, 11% reduction in shell dispersion and 12% increase in viewrange against the Regimental Crew school.
Once the crew has reached its 100% Basic Qualification (either through grinding or paying gold), they can be trained for Skills and Perks which further enhance battlefield performance in specific areas. One such perk is "Brothers in Arms" or BiA for short, which improves crew performance characteristics across the board. Coupled with role-appropriate equipment, the BiA T-34 is at a distinct advantage against untrained and poorly-trained crews or vehicles without suitable equipment.
It is important that once 100% Basic Qualification has been reached, players begin training for appropriate skills to suit the class and role of the vehicle rather than letting Crew Experience accumulate without benefit to the player.
Mistake #4 - Ignoring Stats
Whether you're the hardcore competitive gamer or just playing for fun, your ingame statistics generally don't lie. According to wotlabs.net, an average player will have a winrate in Random Battles between 48-49% which accounts for drawn matches being in the mix.
It's important to remember that World of Tanks is a team game, and as such there are 14 other tanks on your team (plus 15 on the enemy team) that have the ability to influence the outcome of a match in their own way. Therefore even a unicum player comprising the Top 0.1% of gamers cannot carry a match in their favour more than 60% of the time.
Over a sample of hundreds, thousands or tens-of-thousands of battles the winrates start to speak to a players abilities as they diverge from the 48-49% average winrate. Where a players average winrate dips below 47% in the long term, it is indicative of a fundamental misunderstandings of either game mechanics or how to play a particular class or model of tank. It is at this point where a player should seek constructive advice from their clan or community as to how to improve their play for the benefit of their team. No statistical position is beyond redemption, and no turd unpolishable provided a player is willing to learn and adapt. Attention to stats need not be a toxic enterprise, and can become a matter of wholesome pride, builder of self-confidence and a marker of consistent improvement for those who seek it.
Mistake #5 - Shunning the Prammo
Even to this day, I don't pull out the Premium Ammunition in random battles as often as I should and often land myself in situations where I'm left at a distinct disadvantage by bleeding HP in an unfair trade with an enemy vehicle that I can't seem to damage with conventional shells.
Premium ammunition (a.k.a. "Special Shells") are one of the more obvious Pay-to-Win aspects that players come across in World of Tanks. These shells typically cost 4-5 times as much as regular ammunition and are generally characterised by increased penetration or occasionally damage. Increased chances to cause damage will improve the prospects of your team, certainly more so than fecklessly plinking off otherwise impenetrable enemy armour.
While most enemy tanks will have a weakspot or two, an experienced player will know how to move or orient to conceal these weakspots. By carrying as much as ~20% premium ammunition load, players will give themselves half a chance to cause damage to enemy vehicles in those situations where flanking or pushing in strength is not possible, or the vehicle lacks the precision to hit known weakspots.
In Conclusion
By avoiding these fundamental mistakes, new players can enjoy significantly accelerated development of their basic skills, battlefield performance and general understanding of the game.
Chances are by finding this article in the first place, you're already in contact with a supportive World of Tanks community and taken your first step to becoming a positive influence on every battle you step into.
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