For the last few days I've been trying to grind out some of the campaign missions in World of Tanks - specifically the T 55A and Excalibur missions.
For the Excalibur missions on both Bloc (Germany and Japan) and Union (USSR and China) I'm on "Block 2x damage" missions. But I think I'm done with those.
I spent a few days taking out my Defender, and the O-I, and the IS-M, and the Lowe, and the E 75 TS...and I haven't managed to block 2x damage even once. I should add here that, other than the O-I, I don't really own any super heavies like the Maus so that's not an option for me. But still...the Defender in particular has great armor, and I've gotten excellent matchmaking with it. Surely that would work.
It hasn't.
I get close, I can block 1500 or 2000 damage pretty regularly, but I need to block 3K in most of those (like the Defender) and it just hasn't happened.
Why hasn't it? Because I can't get anybody to bounce more than 2 or 3 shots off me. After 2 or 3 bounces they either stop shooting at me, or they press 2 (or 3) and start hitting me with premium or HE.
The other problem with the block damage missions is that they promote bad gameplay. Rather than poking, shooting, pulling back into cover, I find myself deliberately sticking my turret out for people to shoot - and if they're not shooting AP, they can sometimes pen it. I find myself deliberately holding kill shots because I don't want to kill that Panther that has generously bounced 850 damage off me so far, in hopes he'll keep doing that.
For the Excalibur missions on both Bloc (Germany and Japan) and Union (USSR and China) I'm on "Block 2x damage" missions. But I think I'm done with those.
I spent a few days taking out my Defender, and the O-I, and the IS-M, and the Lowe, and the E 75 TS...and I haven't managed to block 2x damage even once. I should add here that, other than the O-I, I don't really own any super heavies like the Maus so that's not an option for me. But still...the Defender in particular has great armor, and I've gotten excellent matchmaking with it. Surely that would work.
It hasn't.
I get close, I can block 1500 or 2000 damage pretty regularly, but I need to block 3K in most of those (like the Defender) and it just hasn't happened.
Why hasn't it? Because I can't get anybody to bounce more than 2 or 3 shots off me. After 2 or 3 bounces they either stop shooting at me, or they press 2 (or 3) and start hitting me with premium or HE.
The other problem with the block damage missions is that they promote bad gameplay. Rather than poking, shooting, pulling back into cover, I find myself deliberately sticking my turret out for people to shoot - and if they're not shooting AP, they can sometimes pen it. I find myself deliberately holding kill shots because I don't want to kill that Panther that has generously bounced 850 damage off me so far, in hopes he'll keep doing that.
How Wargaming Could Fix This
Rather than having missions where the sole goal is to "Block [this much] Damage" they could convert those to the combined missions where the goal is to "Block/Absorb/Do [this much] Damage". For example the missions where you have to block, absorb, and do a combined total of 5K or 10K damage. That way there IS motivation to use your armor effectively and block shots, but you can also make progress by doing damage, and if somebody pens you that still helps a bit.
Surviving the battle, so you can't just throw away all of your HP for the mission, could be a condition for honors.
What am I going to do?
Fortunately, at the moment, the Block Damage missions are just for the Excalibur, and the T 55A is more of my priority. So I'm going to refocus on doing the T 55A missions (my current HT mission there is to kill 4 enemies in 3 different types of vehicles) and if I happen to block 2x damage then that's great.
By going back to trying to play well, and not just sticking my jaw out and begging people to take a swing, I hope to get back to good gameplay, winning, and...most importantly....
...fun.
GLHF!
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