[MMO] World of Tanks

[PowerYoga]

Wait until the SU-152 with the BL-10. Really fun.

ISU-152. The SU-152 only has the 122mm as the top gun, but I derped my way through it years ago without HEAT rounds.

 

[Craig234]

ISU-152. The SU-152 only has the 122mm as the top gun, but I derped my way through it years ago without HEAT rounds.

Thanks, I mistyped.

I'll correct it.

 

[Craig234]

Well, that's crappy. Just spent gold to retrain arty skills and get eagle eye, forgot it doesn't work in arty mode. The description doesn't say anything about that limit.

Opened a ticket for a gold refund.

With their customer service, not likely.

 

[Hoober]

Well, that's crappy. Just spent gold to retrain arty skills and get eagle eye, forgot it doesn't work in arty mode. The description doesn't say anything about that limit.

Opened a ticket for a gold refund.

With their customer service, not likely.

Yeah. Good luck.

 

[BladeVenom]

60 millions registered players, http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/07/world-of-tanks-hits-60-million-registered-users/

 

[Skott]

I'd be really curious the server population break down. How many on each server?

 

[chimaxi83]

So... who's getting in on the WoT Xbox 360 beta? D:

 

[Craig234]

Thought I'd write up a guide for anyone who isn't sure how to play arty and wants info.

- Overview (pun intended)

Artillery are meant as the game's 'glass cannons', the primary damage dealers but weak in close up combat.

They use an overhead view primarily which has a large range - sometimes the whole map, sometimes a fraction of it, depending on map and arty.

Shots do take time to reach their targets, especially if at great distance. Enemies can move or stay behind cover.

- The basics

To enter overhead view, hit 'shift'. To switch back, hit 'shift' again. You generally will use normal view for moving and close combat and overhead view for normal combat.

- Ammo

A general rule is that arty uses HE; depending on the tank, it can have some 'splash' damage. If you want more damage, but requiring a direct hit, you can use AP. AP is useful in close combat - but the reload time on arty is so long it's usually a problem to switch, even with the 'Intuition' skill that gives a 10% chance for an instant switch.

- Which arty?

I won't say much on this here except to say there are some variations of damage, reload, and so on but the most noticable is the speed, especially of French arty.

There are 'slugs' who move very slowly, medium speed arties, and the fast French.

- Skills

Arty uses camo, but I think it's overrated - by the time the enemi is close enough to spot you, they're usually going to spot you with or without camo.

The especially useful skills are sixth sense, and the ones that help aim faster like snap shot, and clutch braking to turn faster. Of course mentor helps get them faster.

- Gameplay

Let's start with regular combat, 'counter battery' will be covered later.

The first important thing is location. Many arty are slow and you can't travel a long way. There is a tradeoff - many of the 'better spots' are also well-known and watched, while you can go to a more unexpected spot but it might have disadvantages, such as worse angles for shooting or closer to the enemy to get spotted. I'd say start with the better positions, here's the main way to avoid them:

When you shoot, move quickly. You can go front and left, back and right, whatever, you want an enemy arty who is 'countering' you to miss by shooting where he saw you.

Arty calls that 'shoot and scoot'.

As for aiming - it seems the best aiming is putting the target dot on the middle of the enemy usually. Do consider their cover, sometimes you ony can hit a little bit of their tank, in those cases put the cursor in the middle of the area not in cover. I don't think you'll likely ever use auto aim as an arty.

The next sections are where you can do better or worse.

- Targeting strategy

This is important for an arty. The arty who just shoots at any red light doesn't help his team as much as one who picks targets well.

The basic approach once you have your location selected - one with some room for 'shoot and scoot' - is to decide either to counter enemy arty or support your team with enemy tanks, and get ready to patiently wait for chances to shoot. This is discussing when you want to shoot regular tanks, not counter-battery.

The basics here involve taking into account that you need a long time to aim and trying to pick where you won't need to move the aim a lot.

Some factors to consider:

1. Shoot where your team needs you. At one part of the map, six of your team are killing two enemies. On another, one of your team is against three enemies.

The six don't really need you probably - they are killing ok. The guy who is alone needs you helping on those three enemies. You can get him through the battle sometimes.

2. Try to kill the enemies harder for your tanks to kill; this usually means the higher tier heavies and td's. But having said that, also give weight to enemies you can kill rather than just damage. If there's a tank at 25% and one at 100% you might want to kill the 25% rather than damage the 100%; that halves the damage dealing by the enemy.

There's a limit, though - if the enemy has a tank at 1% and your tanks can easily kill it, it's a waste probably to use an arty shot on it, better used on a tank with more health.

3. Slower tanks are easier for you to kill. It's not easier to kill a fast tank racing around.

4. Pick targets you can hit - if they have cover and aren't leaving it, look for ones you can shoot.

5. It's ok to pre-aim at areas you expect enemies your tanks are going to be lighting. That's helpful to shoot them more quickly, instead of aiming for 20 seconds.

6. Pick a spot your team will probably keep lit over one that's a 'freak light'. You don't want to start aiming, target disappears, wasted time.

- Counter-battery

This is when you try to kill enemy arty you can't see, by watching for their tracers when they shoot, a quick little white trail that'll show with a game sound.

The trail generally appears in front of the enemy.

It takes a lot of patience - you are watching a section you might not even be sure has enemies, for a long time.

A decision in watching the overhead view is to use the heads up display normally visible, with the targeting circle, or if you need a clutter-free view, hit 'v' to get rid of it, but you'll need to hit 'v' again when you shoot. That's usually used only in 'counter arty'. The other key to hit when you do hit v is 'm', which shows the minimap and helps you watch the battle.

One issue when using v, you can't see chat; hit v sometimes to see if there's chat like "Arty need your help at J8".

It takes some practice to learn to watch a screen for long periods carefully, where when there's a flash on any part you can recall exactly where. You'll often need two or more flashes, probably, to zero in - and they can move around a bit if the enemy does shoot and scoot.

A basic choice here is whether to watch one area, and make sure you spot if an enemy shoots; or move around the map more searching, but miss some enemy shots.

- A little more advanced tip

To get better at counter arty, one thing that helps is learning when the enemy would shoot. That means considering when your tanks become visible and how long enemy arty need to aim. That helps you decide when it's likely enemy arty won't be shooting, and when it's likely they will shoot. If there are juicy targets on your team without cover the enemy can see and after about 30 seconds they haven't been shot at, there's a good chance there's no enemy arty there, or they are doing countery battery to you.

- Arty protection

If you're on a team bad enough they leave areas open the enemy can go to spot arty, it's a good idea to say so in chat. Move if they don't.

- Arty hate

You will often find some players express hate for arty during the 30 second countdown before a match. And during the match. And after.

The best response is to hit those people on the enemy team first.

OK, those are the suggestions to get going on arty.

Comments or suggested edits, feel free.

 

[gammaray]

how to use arty: press shift, aim, click, next target. (can sip a beer or tea between each click or do laundry whatever)

Can't believe you wrote a novel about it.

 

[LurkerPrime]

The last things this game needs is more arty players. They should impliment a mini-game of wack-a-mole you have a 75% of getting when you enter the queue instead actually loading a real match. That and you can't exit it prematurely without having to pay full repair costs. I think this would alleviate all these tier 7/8 arty in my tier 10 tank matches. Oh and I think they need to double shell and repair cost for arty.

 

[Possessed Freak]

Oh and I think they need to double shell and repair cost for arty.

They already did that once. Changed nothing. I will play certain tanks at a loss knowing I can recover the cost playing others.

All they need to do is put an arty cap in place and end the queue timeout. Let the arty players sit in queue for minutes each and every time and people will play them less.

 

[stag3]

yea the queue timeout is stupid, they should just start a match 15v15 all arty since arty is the highest # waiting in queue EVERY SINGLE TIME

i've been in a 9v9 all arty match, we used the french as scouts, good times

 

[chimaxi83]

Yeah, every time I queue up in my T92, I have to wait a while, and hit the timeout pretty frequently. Don't mind at all and it should always be like this imo, in addition to a per match cap (badly needed).

 

[Skott]

The player base has been demanding, praying, bitching, and begging for them to put a # cap on how many arty in a battle since beta and WG simply refuses to do it. It simply isnt going to happen. I don't like it but there it is. Basically we players have two choices. Play their game or not play their game. As much as I enjoy WoT I wish someone would come up with a WW2 tank game as good with no to little arty. I'd switch to that.

 

[Craig234]

how to use arty: press shift, aim, click, next target. (can sip a beer or tea between each click or do laundry whatever)

Can't believe you wrote a novel about it.

Arty is the most difficult tank to play well in my opinion. Your version is not a good arty.

 

[Ruptga]

The player base has been demanding, praying, bitching, and begging for them to put a # cap on how many arty in a battle since beta and WG simply refuses to do it. It simply isnt going to happen. I don't like it but there it is. Basically we players have two choices. Play their game or not play their game. As much as I enjoy WoT I wish someone would come up with a WW2 tank game as good with no to little arty. I'd switch to that.

I used to think this way, but then they redid the MM, and the next patch will tighten up the RNG, bring some sanity to HEAT, reduce some of the t10 power creep, improve high tier money making, and make arty harder to play. They never go as far with their changes as I would like, and their pace is absolutely glacial, but every once in a while they surprise me.

 

[PowerYoga]

There is a cap though, a 5 arty cap. Which is way too fucking much. Arty needs to be capped at 2 in its current state.

Though I hear rumors of that going away next patch thanks to them "fixing" arty's MM, which is by far the biggest buff arty ever got. Now even tier 1s will see tier 2 arty, and the 203mm guns that the tier 7 arties have will one shot tier 5s and 6s. Even previously arty safe premiums like JT88 will now see big ass arties that can pummel it to dust in 2 hits tops.

Wargaming doesn't fucking care, it seems.

Also arty is not getting a nerf. The dispersion "nerf" is to bring arty's accuracy in line with the current accuracy due to the dispersion buff to every vehicle. Arty is just as accurate, if not more accurate thanks to the accuracy buff making shots land more often where you are aiming.

The slow shell travel speed and reload will have no impact on the biggest problem with arty: the humongous alpha damage and complete luck in playing arty. It may take "skill" to learn how to play arty, but arty has such a ridiculously low skill ceiling cap that its hard to tell the difference between a good arty and a bad one.

 

[ThinClient]

There is a cap though, a 5 arty cap. Which is way too fucking much. Arty needs to be capped at 2 in its current state.

Though I hear rumors of that going away next patch thanks to them "fixing" arty's MM, which is by far the biggest buff arty ever got. Now even tier 1s will see tier 2 arty, and the 203mm guns that the tier 7 arties have will one shot tier 5s and 6s. Even previously arty safe premiums like JT88 will now see big ass arties that can pummel it to dust in 2 hits tops.

Wargaming doesn't fucking care, it seems.

Also arty is not getting a nerf. The dispersion "nerf" is to bring arty's accuracy in line with the current accuracy due to the dispersion buff to every vehicle. Arty is just as accurate, if not more accurate thanks to the accuracy buff making shots land more often where you are aiming.

The slow shell travel speed and reload will have no impact on the biggest problem with arty: the humongous alpha damage and complete luck in playing arty. It may take "skill" to learn how to play arty, but arty has such a ridiculously low skill ceiling cap that its hard to tell the difference between a good arty and a bad one.

Wrong.

Arty are getting moved up a tier or two, so they'll be against higher tier tanks, making them less effective at penetration and damage.

Their round flight time is increasing. Their reload time is increasing.

They will be limited to 4 per match but I'm not sure if that's total or per team. Per team would still suck nuts.

 

[chimaxi83]

Wrong.

Arty are getting moved up a tier or two, so they'll be against higher tier tanks, making them less effective at penetration and damage.

Their round flight time is increasing. Their reload time is increasing.

They will be limited to 4 per match but I'm not sure if that's total or per team. Per team would still suck nuts.

Lol, less effective. I've been annihilating tier 10 tanks since M40/43. The tier change will do nothing, so wtf are you talking about? Low tier games?

 

[ThinClient]

You aren't paying attention.

 

[0___________0]

SPG's are going to face lower tier tanks. 0.8.6 will give them a two tier spread for match making. So my M41 which currently sees tier IX tanks will only see tier VII after the patch. My M12 sees tier X right now, but after the patch when it goes to from VI->VII it will only see tier IX. This is how it works on the test server. They will probably be weighted so that they are lower tier more frequently though, like scouts.

 

[LurkerPrime]

They already did that once. Changed nothing. I will play certain tanks at a loss knowing I can recover the cost playing others.

All they need to do is put an arty cap in place and end the queue timeout. Let the arty players sit in queue for minutes each and every time and people will play them less.

Arty shell and repair costs should be doubled every patch until morale improves.

 

[Possessed Freak]

ThinClient - I suggest you read the release notes and discussion regarding them. For example, the S51 is bumping up one whole tier (to tier 7). On the test server *it appears* that it has the same matchmaking as every other tier 7 tank. It can see as low as tier 5 tanks and as high as tier 9 tanks.

RIGHT NOW, as a tier 6 SPG, it gets tossed into tier 9 or 10 battles. Which means the LOWEST tank it can see currently is a tier 7 and the highest a tier 10.

But all of this could change before release. If it doesn't then every tier play other than 10 just took a massive hit. I would not like to play any tier in pubs if I am facing even harder hitting arty than I used to.

Arty shell and repair costs should be doubled every patch until morale improves.

I would rather see them balanced. Imagine the hardest hitting arty was a 105 (from say a priest). The reload speed stays the same the pen values increase as the higher the tier increases (so the chance to pen the higher armored vehicle remains about the same). So you take ~350 damage every 7 seconds *if* they hit all the time. Splash stays as complete crap.

 

[ThinClient]

You miss the part where their reload times are increasing 20% and their hang times are increasing 15%? And the part where they're being limited down to 4 per match?

That's something like 40 second reload for some of them.

Saying that arty isn't getting nerfed is just plain wrong.

 

[LurkerPrime]

ThinClient - I suggest you read the release notes and discussion regarding them. For example, the S51 is bumping up one whole tier (to tier 7). On the test server *it appears* that it has the same matchmaking as every other tier 7 tank. It can see as low as tier 5 tanks and as high as tier 9 tanks.

RIGHT NOW, as a tier 6 SPG, it gets tossed into tier 9 or 10 battles. Which means the LOWEST tank it can see currently is a tier 7 and the highest a tier 10.

But all of this could change before release. If it doesn't then every tier play other than 10 just took a massive hit. I would not like to play any tier in pubs if I am facing even harder hitting arty than I used to.



I would rather see them balanced. Imagine the hardest hitting arty was a 105 (from say a priest). The reload speed stays the same the pen values increase as the higher the tier increases (so the chance to pen the higher armored vehicle remains about the same). So you take ~350 damage every 7 seconds *if* they hit all the time. Splash stays as complete crap.

The entire problem is that WG invented arty as the counter to larger heavily armored targets. This is why they made them hit so hard. Personally I believe this philosophy is all wrong. Mediums are really the counter to heavies, speed and maneuverability allow flanking manuevers to negate the heavy tanks strong frontal armor.

I personally believe that arties role should be more of support and not 1 hit snipers. I agree with your statement above, that would be a start. With that, I would like to see more of an implentation of crew morale system. Where HE hits/splash doesn't really do that much real damage, but will cause loss of morale of your crew, which in turn makes your tank lose effectiveness (note, this is different than crew member dying, as it isn't permenant, and morale would improve after a time, or be regained by damaging/killing enemy tanks).

So in this scenario, repeating shelling of your tank/area by arty could effectively reduce your crews skills enough to give an attacker quite an advantage in manueverability and reload times. This system would turn arty into a "de-buffer" instead of a headshot sniper, and thier assistance would still be needed in battles. It would also allow us to have real tank vs. tank encounters/fights without worrying about being 1 shotted by arty upon being spotted.

This implementation would also allow the introduction of new crew skills. Ones not only devoted to increasing your crews own morale, and replenishing it, but also other for causing more morale damage. It would also make HE useful on smaller tanks/guns useful again, as eventhough they might not do real damage, they could cause loss of morale to your crew. This would also allow the implementation of command tanks, which would help bolster and replenish lost morale within a certain area/radius.