My good deed of the day, back to the basics guide for all those noobs buying into high tiers......
So you just signed up and blew $30 on up on that fancy new Premium medium or heavy tank. After buying into a tier you never earned your way into, you are thinking:
"I'm ready, man. Check it out! I am the ultimate unicum! State of the unicum art! You do not want to screw with me. Check it out! Hey,T71, don't worry. Me and my ultimate Lowe will protect you! Check it out. Manually targetingKwK46 L/70. BOOM! Crush half a village with this puppy. I got AP Composite-Rigid Pzgr 40 L1,Armor-Piercing Pzgr 39 L1 , High-Explosive Sprgr L1. I got 800 HP, 35 km/h of ramming ability! I got binocs, I got rammer, and spall liner."
But then you have your butt handed to you by a KV-3, or even a KV-1S, let alone a Black Prince, and wonder what the hell happened before leveling haxor and cheater claims against the enemy, then rage quitting and swearing off this game for good after a couple hundred battles, saying how terrible and unfun it is.....
Basically you went from this:
to this:
If you put the time in to learn how to brawl, snipe, use cover, side scrap (with tanks that can do so really well, not all can), angle armor, and aim for weak spots it can be pretty fun yeah. But it takes an open mind. You have to check the know it all ego at the door. Some tips?
1. Armor angling. If you sit directly straight in front of a enemy tank and they fire the odds are better their shot will penetrate your armor. If you angle your tank you increase the armor thickness, which means the shot fired has a harder time penetrating depending on the gun/ammo used. There is a excellent guide about angling and side scraping for beginners found here:
http://taugrim.com/2013/04/27/guide-to-angling-in-world-of-tanks/
2. Belly shots are key in brawls. Many higher tier heavy tanks have weak bellies on the hull. If their tank is angled, you will stand a better chance of damaging their lower belly then the upper hull of the front of the tank. If they are angled and they have a thick upper hull then it is more likely to bounce your shots. If you bounce one or two off the upper hull then go right for the belly and try your luck if at all possible.
3. Hull down tactics. Due to lower hulls being prone to more damage from belly shots it is ideal to learn how to hull down, that is use small hills/inclines and the such to hide your lower areas so only your strongest upper armor is exposed. When going turret down make sure to remember to go down far enough to hide your commander hatch on the turret also.
Hull down tactics are best for tanks and tank destroyers with great upper armor and great gun depression. In the upper tiers the American heavy tanks and also the Russians heavies tend to be great at hull down tactics. This was a key tactic for me when using the Russian ST-1 Tier 9 heavy tank.
4. Group tactics in close quarters and using cover. In alleys it is key when pulling off ambushes that turn into brawls on city blocks to use a solid formation and be patient and take turns. Not doing so will lead to missed shots and lots of team damage.
When fighting in valleys/open fields with only rocks for solid cover or brush for hiding, use whatever you can while preparing to fire. Always be mindful of finding and using objects for cover. Many tank destroyers can sit far back and will be invisible due to high cammo values, and they will pick off exposed tanks.
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5. Weak spots are key. Most tanks have the same obvious weak spots in general. Some though do not have typical ones, like certain tank destroyers like the T95. Due to this as you advance up the tiers in World of tanks it is best to check the stats of the other tanks you will be facing, and also google for the tanks weak spots, and also your own, or go here to find many for a lot of the major heavy hitters in the game: http://wotguru.com/weak-spot-guides/
In general though you can go by this as a common rule set concerning damaging obvious weak spots other then the front lower hull (the rear of most tanks is a given):
6. Letting your aim circle lock in fully and going for mainly shots indicated to pen fully. Better to do this even if you have to soak a hit then to just keep firing off random shots. Also, concerning server side reticle. I don't use it. It may help others though so I say to try it and if it is too laggy to use then ditch it.
7. Firing in spawn area at start of battle. Don't do it. Its retarded, it waste ammo/credits, and on certain maps like Malinovka you are just begging to give away your position right from the start. It also risk team damage. Also, when starting out with a new tank, resist all temptations to aim at and fire on friendly tanks.
I get it, you got that fancy new gun and you want to test it out so bad, but the only nearest tanks are ally tanks. Still, you don't go out in public and hit the first people you run into to see how great and effective your meat hooks are against someones face. You save it for when you are threatened. Trial by fire. Many rules of life can just as easily be applied to this game.
8. Treat all ally tanks as friendly up until the last min that they prove otherwise. Just because that player is playing in what appears to be sloppy game play does not mean he is doing it on purpose. Just because that tank in a alley took the advance in front of you suddenly doesn't mean he is trying to slow you down or keep you from doing damage, trying to steal your ****. He may have a better maxed out tank, as opposed to your stock one. If this is the case then his tank will take precedence as he can inflict more damage.
Good ally players will look at your tank and know how equiped it is, watch what you do, and try to pick up your slack, take hits for you as you are exposed and reloading, and finish off enemies for you so you don't take damage during reloads. It's called teamwork, giving the best effort to keep everyone's gun in play as long as possible. Learn to recognize it, accept it, and be gracious when better players or more powerful tanks are trying to assist you.
If anyone cares to add to this, please feel free to do so.
