World of Tanks - Free to play Panzer MMO

[rajpoot]

Sigurd what is the order in which you pick specializations for your heavy tank crew?

[Sigurd]

Sigurd what is the order in which you pick specializations for your heavy tank crew?

Usually in the order of Repair, Cammo and Firefighting. The Soviet diesels don't catch fire that often
With the french, I might do firefighting before cammo.. Repair as a priority skill is a must.

[rajpoot]

All right thanks.
This solves my dilemma. I was leaning more towards cammo since I read that Russian heavies are smaller so cammo is more effective, but I guess I'll go with repair.

[Veho Nex]

always go repair first.

[Graphic]

Next person who parks behind me when I'm popping in and out of cover is getting hunted down and killed in real life.

[rajpoot]

They always do that. And surprisingly it's not just people with lower tier vehicles. Even experienced players who must've been playing for ages, can act like idiots.
The other day a Panther II parked behind my IS and wouldn't move even when I asked him to, in chat. I was nearly shot to pieces by some TD, and I finally had to turn my turret and shoot the panther to make him back up.

[Sigurd]

I just noticed that they have announced that they are removing the Type 59 from the store... It will no longer be available for purchase from the 16th of January 2012

[rajpoot]

Wise decision IMO.

[Ja'chyra]

I just noticed that they have announced that they are removing the Type 59 from the store... It will no longer be available for purchase from the 16th of January 2012

A carefully worded announcement, sounds like a ploy to sell some, remove it for a while and bring it back as a series of one time specials at a higher price, but that might just be me being cynical.

[Graphic]

Though I'm a bit bummed I won't have money to get one for myself before they take it out of the store, I agree that it's the right move. The game was quickly turning into World of Chinese Copy Tanks where you see 5 T-59s for every Panther II or T-44.

[Ja'chyra]

The French tanks are slow but they can take a bit of damage

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[rajpoot]

After twenty days of grinding my KV (which actually started as a way to make money to pay of my IS losses) I was finally able to buy the S-51.
This was the tank I had my eye on when I first started playing this game, and picked up that little MS-1. Somewhere along the way I got lost in lower tier SPGs, and then heavy tanks.

Played a few matches, scored just a single kill until now. A IS7 at 23 %. But I've been bleeding IS4s and E100s. Plus everyone is saying it's going to get a lot better with the 203 mm gun. I cannot wait.

On the downside, up until now S-51 has been an even bigger money waster than the IS.....with each shot costing more than a thousand creds, I shudder to think what'll be the cost of the 203 mm shot. Furthermore the reload times are very long. Both these things together mean that guesswork and blind shooting, more often than not, don't pay.

[Sigurd]

Someone told me about this site: PlanetWoT
Register (not with your game logon credentials) and it will keep track of your progress.

[Husar]

Yes, note my completely different pie charts.

[rajpoot]

I feel like bashing myself on the head right now....

Last game a PzIV in the enemy team scored 12 kills.
I was at the top of my team in KV with two BDRs. They didn't do much. I managed to get 3 kills and reached the enemy base, harried by a M7 Priest. Then I missed two shots at a StugIII, and this Pz4 which had been camping near the Stug, helped him make short work of me. It was just the two of them against a more than two thirds of my team then.
Somehow, everyone died......They managed to get the Stug, but the PzIV killed them one by one. One of the mediums chose that time to go AFK. The arty instead of trying direct fire, turned tail and fled, and was hunted down. The TD instead of standing and sniping, decided to chase around after the PzIV and got flanked and killed.
I looked on cursing as to how I could've easily sent them ahead as fodder instead of taking point myself, and won the game.

Worst thing is, it was his luck, that helped him score, not skill. The dude was simply camping till the time I reached his base.

[Ja'chyra]

Sometimes this game really annoys me, why do most the team always rush down one flank leaving only 1 or 2 defenders to hold off the other team who have similarly rushed the opposite flank, it takes it from a challenge to a race. I also don't know why people complain about camping, surely preparing a decent defensive position and waiting for the enemy to approach on your terms is a valid tactic?

I had a game last night where the highest tank in our team was t7 heavy, I was in a KV, after he was killed he balmed everyone else for not supporting him, even though he rushed off to the left when no-one else followed. After I told him to stop crying he called me a noob, and a piss-ant, then proceeded to carry on complaining until the end of the game. If he hadn't already died I would have shot him myself.

The other thing that annoys me is spamming the chat with locations or "Follow Me", I have to admit I did shoot one of my own team when they wouldn't stop doing it, cue the tears from the now dead tanker.

All of that aside I still find myself playing it almost every night but I think I'll have to cut down on the number of tanks I have as I've got about 20 in my garage and am trying to level 10 of those at the same time, I think the KV is my favourite so far, that's why my highest is still only T6 :P.

[Husar]

I noticed the teams rushing in opposite directions on the map, happens quite often. Sometimes I tell them they should come to the other flank. If noone listens I either retreat elsewhere and leave the flank open or go rush in and die, leaving them scrambling to get back in time. It's usually a lost game anyway so I don't even feel bad about it.

As for the support, that depends a lot on the situation. Sometimes a lone tank rushing really is dumb, and sometimes standing around in the base while your team dies out there when you could offer some serious help is just as dumb.Depends a lot on the map and matching of tanks etc. IMO.

You're an evil person, nothing justifies killing a teammate, there's a report function for spam and the authorities will handle it.

I'm also trying to level up several tanks, but I do choose priorities and ones I play only now and then or just to get the daily 2x XP.

[Sigurd]

I also play this game nearly every night... It is the "fun" of the day before turning in.
But lately I have experienced serious unplayability. fps can suddenly drop and the ping increase. I try to find out what is using up resources and reset my router, but nothing helps.
It all started with the .7.0 test which had horrible ping rates. I suspect that there is something going on with their multicluster technology that are not compatible with my system. Either that or their current server location is horrible with regards to routing to Norway.
My win rate is currently suffering - esp in fast tanks.

The IS4 is doable with server aim. It is a long way to Is7 though... but it is finally all upgraded (researched the suspension just to get it elited when I finally get it to IS7). The IS4 is a grind to play without the S70/Rammer. I have also mounted the Ventilation. What would be your third equipment for a heavy like the IS4?

[rajpoot]

The S-51 with the 203 mm is awesome. Really.

For the first time ever playing as arty I feel powerful.
And despite the cost of shells (more than 1500 per HE shell) being more than that of stock gun, I'm actually making money, because the splash damage is enough to damage something, even if I miss.

In my first game, the only thing I actually hit was an AMX 13 90 at 25 % health. he died ofcourse.
But I also shaved off 20 % health off a E75, without even hitting him.
Finished off a KV at full health. Again without hitting him.

This gun is great. I don't even want to get that Obj 261 now....

[Sigurd]

The S-51 with the 203 mm is awesome. Really.

For the first time ever playing as arty I feel powerful.
And despite the cost of shells (more than 1500 per HE shell) being more than that of stock gun, I'm actually making money, because the splash damage is enough to damage something, even if I miss.

This gun is great. I don't even want to get that Obj 261 now....

I haven't played Soviet Arty, but if it is similar to the German 210mm, then yes, it is a great gun.
I don't know too much about the difference between the S-51 and later SPGs, but in the German line, it is definitely worth moving from the GW Panther (tier 6) to GW Tiger (tier 7) and GW Type E (tier 8).
The 2nd 150mm on the GW Panther has an average of 1200 damage, but the Panther has a half revolving turret making the field of attack wide. You basically just park your arty somewhere with the front towards the enemy's general direction and lock your tracks. Moving up to the GW Tiger gets you a stock 170mm with 1400 damage, but the great 2nd gun is the 21cm Morser. Man, that can crush enemies with its 2000 damage gun. Both the top German SPGs have the option of using AP rounds in addition of the normal HE - they are not gold ammo and has 303mm penetration. The gold ammo is a HE with a larger splash damage circle.
Both the top Germans have a very narrow field of attack, and that worried me a little when I moved up. But what I didn't know is that both the GW Tiger and the GW Type E are near ready aimed when shifting to the "arty view". While the Hummel and GW Panther has very large aim circles, the GW Tiger and GW Type E have very small ones.

It would be interesting to know the difference of the Soviet ones... noticing that the object 261 only has one gun; the 180mm B-1-P 1700 damage (HE). It does have 360mm penetration AP rounds.

[rajpoot]

Actually the main difference between Soviet and German arty is that, the stats you specify for GW Tiger are nearly all available in S-51's 203 mm gun. Damage ~1800, a maximum penetration of 260 mm and HE and AP rounds, with High Explosive Anti Tank rounds available for gold (never used them, don't plan to).
Plus it's quite fast. Moves at around 26 kmph and has a nice turning speed.
The Obj 212 gets the same guns, is slower, but has a larger ammo capacity, which does not matter much due to the reload time.
The Obj 261 is an entirely different deal. It's much more accurate (more that GW Type E), fast as a Hummel, but with a 180 mm gun.

Thing is I don't care for precise arty. In my mind artillery should have shells of devastating damage. Quite often I've wished I'd started on the American line, instead of the Russian. Reason being that I find hitting tanks rather hard, with the dice throwing mechanism in the game.

With a 100 % crew and some equipment, S-51 can become as good as any tier 7 arty. And like I said, I really don't want to downgrade the gun. If I want a tier 8 arty, I'll be starting again on the American line.

Check this out.

[Sigurd]

Plus it's quite fast. Moves at around 26 kmph and has a nice turning speed.

It is a tad slower than the American M12...
I went up against one in my Hummel. That was a blast. I did the Medium dance with it, circling around it while it franticly tried to keep up. It died horribly and shamefully.

Check this out.

That the S-51 has more Armour than the GW Panther is a joke... just look at it.
It is the most exposed arty out there. It's basically a KV wheel set with a large open gun on top. I bet the guard rail around it has a magical force field to protect the gunner/loaders from shrapnel/HE blasts.

[rajpoot]

Thing is armour is not so important in an arty anyway now, is it...
I mean the only time it's actually useful is when the enemy arty shoots at you, using tracers/blind fire. And TBH that does not happen many times. Most people I've met on NA server playing arty don't care about enemy arty unless it starts shooting at them, because looking for tracers is time consuming, and if one makes a habit of moving to and fro after each shot, it becomes even harder.
The other scenario where one might run into light tanks; Well 9 times out of 10 arty will die whatever be the armour.
I'd rather they took away the armour and gave a 210 mm gun!

Speaking of GW Panther, I played a game last evening where one managed to outflank a lone last Ferdi of our team (the GW Panther was the last one on enemy team) and shot him in the back while moving at a very high speed. We lost, but we all lold. That arty looked like a T50 moving at that speed.

[PanzerJaeger]

Just got this game. I held off for a long time because I thought having tanks of different nationalities on the same team would ruin the immersion for me. It kind of does, but it's not meant to be realistic and it is still fun. I went for the German TD line and absolutely loved the Marder II. The Hetzer, on the other hand, has not be particularly enjoyable, which is a shame because I'm a big fan of the real version and was looking forward to it. Hopefully things will get better.

[scottishranger]

Just got this game. I held off for a long time because I thought having tanks of different nationalities on the same team would ruin the immersion for me. It kind of does, but it's not meant to be realistic and it is still fun. I went for the German TD line and absolutely loved the Marder II. The Hetzer, on the other hand, has not be particularly enjoyable, which is a shame because I'm a big fan of the real version and was looking forward to it. Hopefully things will get better.

Wait till you get the 105 gun. Thats a very fun gun for the Hetzer because you can one shot kill all the pesky lights running around. Then the Stug III is a very fun TD also.

[Husar]

Today I learned that the BL-9 can actually be somewhat useful, killed an ISU and IS-4 almost on my own (hit the driver's hatch several times, when allies finally distracted him I finished him with a nice shot to the back of his turret), then set an E-100 on fire (frontal shot, lower glacis) that was already quite hurt, turns out it was enough to kill it and I got a nice x3:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

And then I got an opportunity to add another picture to my world famous series "Fabienne rolling through a tank graveyard":

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Sigurd]

I am posting this from 25 000 feet. no I'm not playing wowp...

I am on a plane going home. I will be playing on the european server from 20:00

[Husar]

I am posting this from 25 000 feet. no I'm not playing wowp...

Good one.

I'll be on later this evening, probably not around 20:00 though.

[PanzerJaeger]

I'm wondering if I should abandon the German TD line. I chose it because the real vehicles interest me, but I've read a lot of comments essentially claiming that the Marder II is as fun as it gets and the rest of the line is disappointing in comparison to those of other nations in their tier.

[scottishranger]

Nein! The Stugg is great fun. Im on the jagdpnzIV and its a very good tank, and Iv heard great things about Jagdpanther. If you were goin to switch, I would go to the Soviet TD line. Very good mobility wise with a great guns also. Just bad armour but that is the price you pay!