Hi all, here's a few quick thoughts on World of Tanks for July 4th, 2021.
Fourth of July Tank Discounts
As you probably know I tend to buy tech tree tanks when they're on sale from an On Track. However...right now all tanks are on sale and the discounts are the same (or BETTER) than the discounts you get from an On Track. So if you've unlocked something but have been waiting to buy it...you should go for it.
I bought a pair of Tier IXs - the 50TP and the Conqueror this morning. I know the 50TP is about to be the On Track...but the discount is exactly the same and this let me get a small jump on the On Track and take advantage of the x5 bonuses.
Blueprints for the win!
Got a nice surprise when I bought the Conqueror...I had totally forgotten that I already had the S. Conq unlocked thanks to blueprints! I don't quite have enough credits for it at the moment, but great to see I'm ready to buy it before I even play a single battle in the Conqueror.
But are Blueprints Part of the Problem?
One of the issues in World of Tanks these days is the matchmaker and lopsided battles. People are frustrated with what Skill likes to call the "15-5 simulator". I have to admit that it feels like battles are more lopsided today than they used to be - it seems rare to have a game closer than 15-6 and the battles are often over in just a few minutes.
I've started looking a bit more closely at the teams when a stomp like that happens, and I've noticed that pretty often the losing team has players in their top tier tanks (and I usually play Tier 8-9, so these are Tier 10-8 matches) who are relative noobs.
I talked about it a bit in this post: Snap Shot: New kids in the tank? (wotguy.blogspot.com) where I had a battle where the IS-7 and FV4005 on my team (in a 10-9-8 battle) combined for ZERO damage. The interesting thing was that neither of them had more than 12,000 battles on their account and yet they're both playing Tier X tanks already.
Increasingly I'm seeing players with 6K, 8K, or 10K battles playing tier IX/X tech tree tanks. Not to mention all the 3K battle players trundling around in tier VIII premiums.
Now it's ok that they're choosing to do that - it's a game, they can play what they want. But I didn't even GET my first Tier X until I had about 17,000 battles I think, and even today (with about 25,000 battles) I rarely play Tier X. These folks playing Tier X/IX when they're still learning what the W key does...well, I wonder if that's contributing to the seemingly increase in stomps? If you're in a 3-5-7 matchmaking and a couple of your three top tier tanks are inexperienced noobs, but their top tier tanks are experienced players...the battle could tip quickly, and snowball into a stomp.
Can't do anything about premiums, but I wonder if the blueprints, and the x5 missions, and other little boosts like that are creating an environment where it's super easy to grind up the line. When I first started World of Tanks the grind really was a grind. Unless you burned a ton of free XP it was going to take some time for you to get up the line to the high tiers.
Today, you can grind thru a tier in a dozen games or less if you're not totally helpless and you have enough blueprints, boosters, and x5 bonuses. It's relatively easy to get even to Tier X in just a couple hundred games if you're focused. The biggest obstacle may be credit grinding, but you can buy credits if you have to.
Or have a garage sale.
The 53TP
In anticipation of the 60TP On Track I ground thru the 53TP, the Tier 8 Polish "heavy" tank. I put "heavy" in quotes there because it's really more of a heavium. There are Tier 8 MTs that have better armor. And most same tier tanks can just pen the front of your turret (210mm), even with standard ammo. With 80mm of side hull armor it's not a great side-scraper either.
It does have 8 degrees of gun depression, which isn't bad, but again...210mm on the front of the turret. The Pershing or T-44 might struggle to pen that, but the Cent I, Indien Panzer, or even the STA-1 will pen it often.
That made it all the funnier the other day, in a Tier IX battle, when post-battle our AE Phase I private messaged me to complain that I didn't take the 53TP to the heavy line to brawl their 777 (with its 258 pen and 258mm turret that a 53TP can't reliably pen frontally even after pressing 2) and their T54E1...which the 53TP *CAN* pen...but which can readily clip out a full health 53TP without much difficulty.
Maybe that's why that AE Phase I driver has a 46% WR in his 53TP, while I have a 63% WR in mine. Because I understand that when you're not top tier, and sometimes even when you are, it's not smart to play it as a heavy tank - at least not a front line one. You'll just get wrecked by guys who don't even have to press 2 to pen you.
In some circumstances you can play it as a second line support heavy...but I didn't think that game was one of those times. I actually did ok on the other flank, until I made a bad decision and pushed into a wounded Char Futur prematurely. Had I been a bit more patient I'd have probably gotten 2-3 more shots of damage.
Happy 4th of July Americans. And well, better luck next time to our King George enthusiasts. ;-)
GLHF!
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