[MMO] World of Tanks

[Possessed Freak]

My first impressions... HE on non howitzer weapons is USELESS. Load some HE on your 88 to finish off that 2% target, NO!

Derpy KV seems okay probably because of its very large splash range.

Random UI changes for no reason is screwing with me. Yes in a week I should be okay, but why change things? I have to hunt for tanks in my inventory now.

Why the hell can't the player list options remain saved between games, it always defaults to the expanded list that takes up a lot of real estate.

All of the effects are cool but I get major FPS drops when it happens. I also experience a good half second of lag when I switch from sniper to normal view (something I do a LOT).

Having played 8 or so company battles at the new tiers, those are fun but the map rotation seems to be pretty crappy (unless it was just luck that all I got was campinova, dorf, and swamp).

Speaking of swamp, I absolutely hate the map and it feels like Komarin 2.0 with a splash of campinova thrown in. I played Fjords once and it seems very unique with some amazing chokepoints.

All in all, I really do not like the new patch but that is just first impressions. A week from now I may be used to it and embrace some changes.

 

[Genx87]

Poop, sounds like my KV derping days are over?

 

[stag3]

the kv derp is still ok, i was able to put the hurt down.
it's HE on other tanks that does absolutely nothing so far from what i've seen.

 

[Nintendesert]

I need to test more, but from what I hear I'm glad these changes were made to HE. It's dumb that a small 75mm round with HE can do anything at all to a Maus, IS-7 or E-100. There's simply not enough explosive power to do anything. The fact that a T-95 or a big tank can be critical swarmed to death by little tanks was silly.

Before the patch I annihilated a T-95 from across the map in a Ferdi with HE on the 128mm gun. That kind of stuff completely negated any advantage having thick armor should grant you.

 

[Possessed Freak]

I need to test more, but from what I hear I'm glad these changes were made to HE. It's dumb that a small 75mm round with HE can do anything at all to a Maus, IS-7 or E-100. There's simply not enough explosive power to do anything. The fact that a T-95 or a big tank can be critical swarmed to death by little tanks was silly.

Before the patch I annihilated a T-95 from across the map in a Ferdi with HE on the 128mm gun. That kind of stuff completely negated any advantage having thick armor should grant you.

The fact that this is a game and not a simulation and the developers refuse to restrict the tier ranges means that little POS tanks are FORCED into battle with big baddies. These little tanks need some way to possibly win against the big boys and that way was HE spam.

 

[eLiu]

yea i noticed that too, i fired 5 rounds directly at the side of an is-4 from my 4502 A and they all bounced.
im guessing HE is almost useless now? at least give me 1% damage please :\

lol yeah I'm really, really hesitant to load HE in my short88 now. I used to do it any time the enemy had like less than ~100hp left (and definitely less than 40) b/c i was all but gauranteed a kill at that level.

Nintendesert is basically right though. In real life, firing HE at thick armor plate does absolutely nothing. It probably rattles the people inside a bit but not likely to damage the tank (except for external stuff like tracks). I was reading an article about one of the first battles btwn US/German forces in North Africa. A US light brigade of light stuart type tanks came under attack from a german column of pz ii/ii/iv tanks. US mobile artillery fired first at range but the HE did no damage. Then they laid down smoke & pulled out. Germans rolled up, didn't see the Stuarts hiding, and they killed some panzers with side/rear shots before pulling back.

Nonetheless, it took me a while ot start actively rotating btwn HE & AP shells. Like if I was supporting some heavies playing peekaboo around a choke, I'd load HE and aim for hatches/viewports. 100-150 damage per shot was still nothing to laugh at. So it feels like I'm losing "a lot" of offensive power here.

But the old HE model was pretty ridiculous--if there was ANY weak armor within the blast-sphere of the HE hit, you took full damage. Doesn't make any sense.

 

[Skott]

To be honest I haven't tested it enough yet to know what I think about the HE changes. However going by what people here are saying they may have to redo the tier matchings again.

 

[PowerYoga]

Hm, I may have missed some of the new minimap options. Regardless, the rest of my points stand. Despite the options being on the right track, they really need to work on the implementation.

The panels showing the various tanks in the matchup should not take up a 1/3 of my screen combined just to show what tank everybody is using. And the coloring on the chat... why?

The chat coloring doesn't bother me, but I also noticed the stupid setting/quit game changes. Opened it up 3/3 games last night, who thought it was a good idea to just shift that???

And it really is annoying to have to keep shrinking your tank info tab. Also they renamed some of the tanks on the tab (pershing to M36, slugger to something i dunno). With so much freaking real-estate space on the team tab why did they feel it was necessary to change that as well?

But the HE change is nice... since I'm past the point of the short 88. Has anyone tried to nail a hulled down T-32 or t-34 with HE yet? If the armor thickness affects the HE hits to the turret then US tanks just got a huge buff...

 

[eLiu]

To be honest I haven't tested it enough yet to know what I think about the HE changes. However going by what people here are saying they may have to redo the tier matchings again.

lol I think there are about 101 reasons even before patch 7.0 for them to redo the matchmaking. But it hasn't happened. And I'm sure it'll continue to not happen.

 

[Possessed Freak]

Oh and final tidbit I remember from last night. While the IS 4 armor was supposed to decrease, this sucker glances EVERYTHING. When fighting them in my E50, I am basically reduced to tracking them and hitting them in the ass... sides still glance (and I don't mean top armor side, I mean high on the tracks). While I was in my IS4, I was just pissing off enemies by being impenetrable. E75's with the big gun, no worries. IS4's with the big gun... a little threat. It seems to be ridiculous. They were resorting to HE spam and hitting me for 50 damage each shot. Whatever!

 

[Nintendesert]

Oh and final tidbit I remember from last night. While the IS 4 armor was supposed to decrease, this sucker glances EVERYTHING. When fighting them in my E50, I am basically reduced to tracking them and hitting them in the ass... sides still glance (and I don't mean top armor side, I mean high on the tracks). While I was in my IS4, I was just pissing off enemies by being impenetrable. E75's with the big gun, no worries. IS4's with the big gun... a little threat. It seems to be ridiculous. They were resorting to HE spam and hitting me for 50 damage each shot. Whatever!

I shot an IS-3 with my E-75 at less than 25 meters, it glanced off. Normally the frontal armor of the IS-3 against that 128mm gun isn't thick enough to glance stuff off so I was a bit surprised. It just means I need to aim more, but these russian tanks are pretty mean.


And for the HE changes, what I read on the forums the only thing changed is that sphere vs. rays on how damage is applied. HE spam simply needs to aim for weak armor instead of any armor. I think it fair, big tanks are still susceptible to it, but you can't just lob and forget and know you'll do insane damage to them.

 

[PowerYoga]

That concerns me, because when I'm fighting a hulled down T34 there is nowhere I can hit with an HE shell that will do significant damage to it unless I flank it. And when you're flanking it usually means there are 5 other tanks behind the t34 to fill you with holes.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Hey guys you might like this -

http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/12/15/on-the-third-day-of-giveaways-wargaming-net-gave-to-me/

One year of premium up for grabs!

 

[PowerYoga]

that's a lot of premium! In for one.

 

[Genx87]

Played 1 game last night just to see what the derp could do. Unfortunately didnt have a whole lot of targets. I shot a Fernidand for 400 from a good distance on its from armor. Then I died to arty lol. But that sounds about right too me. So hopefully my derping days arent over

 

[PowerYoga]

I have seen a lot less arty on all sides so hopefully that's good. Still got hit for 800 damage in my lowe last night by an SU-8 though, but could've been armor piercing because it's a russian piece.

The game's much more fun when you have teammates that know what they're doing... me (panther 2) and an IS-4 plowed through another IS-4, lowe, 2 tigers and a t-29 while I only took 2 hits and the IS-4 came out at 96% (someone must've HE'd him once). That was the flank the whole team left open as well... and thankfully they didn't ALL die this time and managed to wipe out the other half of the team.

Also the new 88 change is pretty nice. I find myself finishing tanks that normally would be left at 1%-2%.

 

[eLiu]

I have seen a lot less arty on all sides so hopefully that's good. Still got hit for 800 damage in my lowe last night by an SU-8 though, but could've been armor piercing because it's a russian piece.

The game's much more fun when you have teammates that know what they're doing... me (panther 2) and an IS-4 plowed through another IS-4, lowe, 2 tigers and a t-29 while I only took 2 hits and the IS-4 came out at 96% (someone must've HE'd him once). That was the flank the whole team left open as well... and thankfully they didn't ALL die this time and managed to wipe out the other half of the team.

Also the new 88 change is pretty nice. I find myself finishing tanks that normally would be left at 1%-2%.

But finding good teams is soooo rare

Still it's really epic/awesome when shit falls into place. Like yesterday my vk3601 and an E8 followed an IS-4. We'd stay between him and the enemy, peeking out to take pot shots or track them. Then he'd facehug the biggest thing nearby and the E8 and I would focus down supporting mediums so our IS-4 wasn't flanked, and then flank the heavies. It was awesome.

And low tier games are always fantastic. Even my godawful A-20 can shine in tier4/5 matches. Hang back a bit, identify a weakspot, and go zooming in. The armor change means I actually do bounce some shots off the front now, which is nice. And everyone underestimates the A-20 which lets me get easy flanks before charging arty.

 

[stag3]

yea WAY less arty now post patch. might have to do with decrease in income + tracers.
it's so good to have tracers back, i just zoom into common arty hiding spots and wait for them to fire. tanks are more aggressive now that tracers are back in. i've seen less hiding the entire round now.

finally bought my is-7. it's pretty beastly. i was the last one alive on my team vs 6 and i survived a long time considering. i was able to take out a t30 before i ate it.
i never had it pre .7 patch but from what everyone is saying, it got a nice buff this patch.

 

[cecco]

I redeemed my code from the Logitech special Newegg add and got the Matilda. Man what tough little tank this is. It's no sniper or speeder but it packs a punch and it bounces a lot! Even arty has a tough time with me.

 

[Possessed Freak]

yea WAY less arty now post patch. might have to do with decrease in income + tracers.
it's so good to have tracers back, i just zoom into common arty hiding spots and wait for them to fire. tanks are more aggressive now that tracers are back in. i've seen less hiding the entire round now.

I see no difference in amount of arty. First game I had in my E50 last night was a 14 arty game... all tier 7+. I died in under a minute as I tried to rush a flank and hit their mediums. Arty found both of us and booooooooooom we were toast.

My 212 certainly does not make money even on a win if I get destroyed. But that is okay since I play a lot of a different tanks and only get my doubles in my 212.

 

[stag3]

hmm that's odd, all my matches since .7 there's been hardly any arty, which is usually the chat in game also of everyone saying there's less arty. i've never had so many arty free games as i've had since the patch

 

[PowerYoga]

Unless you're in a tier 9/10 tank you'll probably see a lot less arty because the low tiered arty players in su-8s and hummels have most likely rage-quitted. The high tier arty players have invested too much into their arty to just throw it away so they'll likely play it for doubles or for lulz.

 

[stag3]

pretty much 8/9/10 as i'm grinding my KT and 4502A, and still playing my is-4, is-7, e50, t-54.

 

[Binky]

I see a lot less arty too, and I'm not surprised. My own arty's accuracy went to shit, there are tracers now announcing my position, and now I'm almost guaranteed to lose money. Fun right?

28 shots with 3 hits. What a joke. It seems like the only place the shell WON'T land is right where I target it.

 

[stag3]

im debating if i even want to move up to the obj212 now. the s51 is fine for me, the long reload doesn't bother me really with tracers back in now hehe