Trying to earn the 3.5 million credits needed to buy the IS-4 (before the 7.3 patch goes in) I was playing my derpy KV money maker last night, and had a great tier 9 match.
In tank alley on the Himmelsdorf map, I worked behind a VK4502(P) using him for a shield -- VK's are a great shield as its heavy frontal armor seemed hard to penetrate by the many big enemy guns shooting at him. I was offering supporting fire to the VK, supplementing the VK's firepower with my big derp gun. The derp gun on the KV was equivalent a sword in this framework.
I hit 8 of my 9 derp shots and got credit for an IS-4 kill (hit him twice) and a Tiger II kill (hit him twice) in the process. I earned about 33K in credits and about 1600XP (on a non-premium account). That also earned me my first ace badge. It was one of my better matches in my KV lately.
Watching the replay, I saw that the Tiger II I dispatched congratulated me with a "great shot KV" which is very refreshing to see. I love playing with really good sports like that.
Cool, I got my Ace KV badge last night in a similar fashion: 3 KV 152 platoon: we gangbanged a M26, a 4502p ausf A, a T20, and I blasted a PzIV. KV/152 platoons are too hilarious, I'm gonna be sad when it gets raised to T6. IIRC, I got 1575 for it - also no premium.
On the skills/perks thing:
Ya'll that are choosing mentor might want to re-do the math on it: a clan mate of mine did and it just isn't worth it.
My take on it:
Everyone should get BIA first, or something else, then Gold transfer the exp to BIA. since Wargaming is lazy as hell and the BIA patch can't be any closer than 6 months at best and I'd be surprised to see it within a year.
For heavies and mediums, repair is always a solid choice.
SPGs can skip repair, I don't know TDs outside of the T30 particularly well - I just treat it like a heavy tank that doesn't shoot on the move though.
after BIA/repair, it really depends on what your tank's role is:
-Mediums and heavies that shoot on the move, the vert stab stacking skills (snap shot & smooth ride) are fantastic.
-Scout tanks of course want to increase view range(even if you are already at max range, you will spot camoed tanks sooner). Pattons with all of the above are scary as hell.
-Scout tanks & SPGs camo helps.
-SPGs and TDs can both use snapshot despite not having turrets, this is often a reasonable choice.
-SPGs and Scout tanks can make good use of clutch braking (for different reasons obviously), scout tanks might want to take other skills first though.
-E50 + controlled impact = hilarious. (controlled impact doesn't help much unless you are both heavy and fast)
-The other stuff is either situationally useful, or totally worthless: eg Signal boosting is a total waste of exp; firefighting is OK on german tanks, but otherwise I wouldn't bother, etc. etc.