World Of Tanks - the thing that really gets up my nose

I've been playing WoT on and off since the beta, only really got into it in the last few weeks. So far I've got a clutch of tier 4 and tier 5 tanks, and I've just unlocked the Jagdpanzer IV which is tier 6.

A couple of weeks ago I thought what the hell and bought a couple of premium tanks including the tier 8 Jagdtiger 88cm. This gave me my first opportunity to play the higher tier games. I've noticed one thing that is common to nearly all my tier 8 and 9 games, and that is there are some utter a-holes playing.

Just about every battle I play at this level, there is someone who right from the start is trying to direct the entire team... go here, go there, do this, do that, whatever. They usually get killed very early on (without actually having done anything for the team) and then spend the rest of the match on the chat telling everyone what a bunch of idiot noobs they all are and what a crap team it is.

I was told some time ago that WoT has the worst community of any MMO, and I'm starting to believe it. If this is what the high tier games are like then I think I'll stick to the lower tiers.

I just ignore the chat, and try to help out dynamically based on what the other tanks are doing. Most split in one of two directions. A few run off on their own and get killed early on. I really don't like it when the scouts run off and get killed before really producing any good intel. I think that sways the battle more than anything.

I have been in battles where one person on my team after they died starting giving away our positions to the other team on chat. It got so bad that they were telling reporting him too.

As a rule I pay attention if the person giving directions is from a well known clan like -G- or SIMP, if you follow their advice you will win in pubs 9 out 10 times. Otherwise I play to my own plan in pubs as there is really no one you can count on.

I've had mixed results.The most crap I took was when I played my premium tanks.Cries of 'noob' and 'pay to win' were frequent,especially if I didn't do to well. I have to admit I had more fun with the 'loltractors'.

I've got a few premium tanks, never had any comment about them.

I play random battles on the public servers, generally watch what the rest of the team is doing at the start and then decide what I'm going to do. No point rushing off to do my own thing with no support. However, sometimes the other team members aren't too smart... like seeing heavies sit at the base defending it when really they should be pressing the attack, or guys wandering aimlessly around the map when it's quite clear our base is about to be capped.

I've been slowly getting my head around this scout tank business... was using the T-15 last night and was scouting one side of the map for my team. However, nobody was moving up to support me and engage the targets I'd spotted. It was very frustrating as I'd skirt the crest of a hill at high speed, light up three or four enemy tanks and then duck back behind the hill for cover whilst they were trying to shoot me. I was calling the rest of the team to actually engage the enemy I'd spotted but was ignored. Eventually these guys came over the hill, blatted me and then moved on to capture our undefended base. Quite frustrating really.

Then again I occasionally find myself in some really good teams that seem to work in a coordinated manner and really clean up.

Scouting is really hit and miss for me at the moment, it either goes really well or I end up getting one shot killed very early on. one of my favourite things to do with the PzIc when I'm in a tier 3 battle (maybe tier 4 if I'm feeling lucky) is to sit back at the start of the battle and let my team move forward and engage the enemy. Watching the minimap once I've got a good idea of the enemy team's disposition I'll choose a route to dash through and get behind the enemy team's lines. Once there I'll be pedal to the metal sweeping through his rear on an artillery hunt, and the PzIc can make really short work of those SPGs once it finds them. I've had a few battles where this has worked brilliantly and I've single handedly wiped out the other team's artillery support and not been scratched myself.

What's really scary is the guys who have got up to tier 7+ with no premium account, but who are still do really dumb stuff in the game. They must have played thousands of battles to grind their way to that tier but not actually learned much along the way.

I'd like to tell you that it is different on the European servers regarding the attitude of the WOT "community". Unfortunately that's not the case, at times it got so bad I eventually just shut down the game in disgust once the battle was finished and left it off for a few days.

Recently I filed a complaint because someone made racist and generally offensive remarks, e.g. wishing arty guys cancer and calling someone a (quote) "useless #%&*$#". All in all I considered that to be really nasty and way over the top. This wasn't someone just yelling idiots, morons or something similar on chat.

I told the guy (a veteran of almost 20k battles) to knock it off if he doesn't appreciate being reported for severe abuse. He just replied that he doesn't care and I can report what I want as nothing would happen anyway. Fine, so I reported him for abuse straight after the match was finished within the battle debriefing menu and I also put together a report stating the facts what happened and sent it to wargaming.net - including the replay.

The reply I received from there was indeed surprising, as it was a standard reply stating how well conceived their ingame reporting tool is nowadays and that they just don't accept reports sent in via the ticket system anymore. So in the end the guy was right, as WG apparently just don't care.

Concerning scouting, at times it can get very frustrating, especially when you deal with players who are just ignorant about your role and what you can and cannot do as a scout.

Once I played an assault on the Karelia map and had an AMX ELC, facing tier 8 opponents. so what can you do? I went for passive scouting, hopefully illuminating some opponents. Found a decent bush on the southwest crest, facing the opposition.

Just as I was there for a few seconds a Lowe came from behind and pushed me over the cliff.

When I asked him why he did that he simply replied "do your job". Well, thanks for nothing, as I actually just tried to do that. Unfortunately that action blew my cover and there was not much I could do to evade the resulting barrage of fire, albeit the ELC is a very fast tank.

Furthermore his action blew his cover as well and the Lowe didn't survive much longer than me.

Apparently this guys idea of scouting was rushing towards the enemy like a virtual recapture of the charge of the light brigade, failing to realise that this doesn't help a team at all.

For me I would say that scouting is the hardest skill in the game to master. It's definitely a game by game hit or miss affair.

It's easy to dash off and spot a few enemies but if your too far in front of your team you won't receive the support you need. So not only do you need to be hunting the enemy you also need to be aware of where your teammates are and where they will will probably be heading. For me in my A20 I wait to see where my heavies are heading and then move like a sheepdog around them. Because I'm usually in the lowest tier in my team I too usually passive scout and only shoot if I know I can do enough damage to justify my almost certain death !

The scariest moment for me recently was on the EL-Halluf map when I rushed to the left flank where you go down the hill and I hid in some bushes to spot the enemy as they came down through their ravine and into the open. Well a stream of heavies and mediums drove past within spitting distance without spotting me at very close range. To fire would mean certain death so I let them pass and once they were in our ravine I rushed up and killed a TD before being killed myself.

I don't have the AMX ELC yet, I'm grinding along in my AMX38 to get to it. I want the ELC because from what I've seen in game it's an awesome scout, it's quick with a very low profile which makes it hard to hit.

I also always have binos, camo and a toolbox onboard.

I'm a Tank Destroyer player in the main, usually along the German line. My favourite TD is my Stug followed by the Marder. This week I've got the Jagdpanzer IV and the Nashorn. I'm having a tough time with the stock Jag though the Nashorn is quickly becoming a favourite, it's quick firing gun evens out it's high silhouette.

It also has a big enough gun to inflict PITA to tier VIIIs heavies, plus if they're the tall USSR genre (don't play this vs US or german tanks), once you stick to their hull they can't hit you at all, pretty funny

I'm playing on the EU servers...

Just tonight I was playing a game where one of the guys on my team was yelling on the team chat at "ALL THE CAMPING NOOBS AT A9!" Well from this guy's username it was apparent he was Serbian, and there was a platoon of Croatians on my time (actually the guys he was yelling at), and you can guess how that worked out. The Serbo-Croat profanity filter got a good workout.

I always have a bit of a laugh at people complaining about campers... it's a tank game and not Quake. Some tanks are supposed to camp! It's not all about the rush to the big brawl in the middle of the map.

I must admit though the last few days I've been on some good teams and seen some good team work play.



My experience exactly. Some times it works out great, but most of the time for me at least it results in a pretty quick and unglorious death.



Seen these zipping about in a few battles. I've not done anything with the French line, but I'm kind of tempted if nothing else than to get this one. They look like a lot of fun.



I've been grinding the German TD line, but not the Nashorn one. I got the Jagdpanzer IV last week. The problem with the JPIV is in the stock configuration it's pretty much right on the weight limit for the suspension so you've immediately got something like a 4,000XP grind to get the upgraded suspension before you can even think about upgrading anything else. It plays a lot like a StuG. If you researched the Pak 42 L/70 on the StuG then you'll have it available for the JPIV, and it's still a very good gun for long range sniping. Throw in a camo net, binocular sight and shell rammer and you've got a very nasty long range sniper.

I see in the new version 9 they've split the StuG into the StuG IIIB and StuG IIIG. I absolutely hated the StuG when I first got it after the Hetzer but it really grew on me.

Far and away my favourite German tank destroyer is the E-25.... it's awesome. So much fun to play.... very, very fast (you can zip across the map to reinforce a crumbling flank in a matter of seconds), great camo value, and very accurate gun. If you enjoy the German TD's then the E-25 is the premium to buy. Other than that I also have find the Jagdtiger 88cm is great for making credits which I use to buy extra equipment for my other tanks. You can make huge piles of credits from a good JT88 battle. However, it's kind of hard to get used to... it's terribly slow and the gun is underpowered for tier 8 so you need to aim for weak spots. It's also so huge that you've got pretty much no chance in trying to remain concealed. The upshot is the gun is very accurate and reloads very fast for tier 8/9.


I've been grinding away at the Soviet tanks for the last week or so. I had an awful time with the T-50. I understand it was a player favourite but was nerfed some time ago. I think I had one or two good battles in this and the rest were just trying to stay out of everybody else's way. The matchmaking for the T-50 is awful... I was in lots of tier 8 games. It's supposed to be a scout tank but it's just not fast enough for the job. I absolutely hated it.

Likewise the T-28 wasn't really much fun. Pretty poor armour, but surprisingly fast. I had some good games but the by and large I didn't appreciate the T-28.

However, thanks to the grinding I am now the proud owner of both a T-34 and a KV-1. So far I'm having great fun with them. The T-34 got off kind of slow but with some upgrades I'm really enjoying it. I've just swapped the 57mm ZiS-4 for the 76mm S-54. The ZiS-4 is a great gun, very accurate, fast reload and fast aim time, ok penetration but not so great damage. The S-54 is the exact opposite, much greater damage and pen but the aim time and reload are painful after using the ZiS-4. I've just thrown in a shell rammer and enhanced gunlaying drive to see if I can mitigate this somewhat but I might end up going back to the ZiS-4.

The KV-1 is also great fun. I spent so long getting stomped by these guys and watching my shells plink off their armour it's great to finally have one myself. This tank is a great brawler and I've already had a couple of really fun games with it. Only problem is I can't decide what line to pursue from the KV-1. Nor the T-34 for that matter!

Oh yeah, if you want a really challenging tank (but challenging in a good way, not a frustrating way like the T-50), check out the TOG II. It's massive, stupidly slow, but has a ridiculous number of hitpoints and you can soak up so much damage for your team. Also has a pretty decent gun.

I try to ignore the chat but often enough there is good info rolling down and good comradery going on. But there are jerks and I from time to time go off and get profane with the offender. I know I shoulder take the bait but I'm getting old and have a rich Naval vocabulary. Tonight I got called a coward which is silly as I am a relatively aggressive player, often to a fault. But if I'm in a Tiger I and at the bottom of the list I'm playing conservative unless I just need to take one for the team to distract the enemy. One of the new mongoloid tier 10 TDs decided to play hero and got his ass handed to him. Somehow it was my fault. I was good tonight and ignored the sillyness.

Sometimes,the insults and banter are better than the game itself.

When somebody (usually dead) starts to get annoying and insulting the rest of the team I usually ask them:

- Why don't you go and get a girlfriend? Maybe some sex would help you stop getting so worked up about a video game.

- You know, you'll never lose your virginity playing WOT.

- I wish I was as good as you at WOT. I bet you get all the girls.

- Isn't it past your bedtime?

- Do your parents know you're up so late playing video games?

- You really should go to bed otherwise you'll be really tired at school tomorrow.

- Stop playing WOT and go and do your homework.


This is usually enough to get a torrent of abuse sent my way, but I just keep responding with stuff like the above, never get nasty, never swear... it's just funny to make fun of them.

I don't have TS, so on PC I can ignore the typed chat and am usually too busy to type back anyway.

However I also play WOT on Xbox using a mic and some of the profanities and cussing cause me to mute people pronto. I never bother to argue as it only seems to lead to more hate. I have chatted to some nice tankers from all over the world, so I can platoon up with some like minded players when I want too.

The problem is with this stupid scout designation Wargaming came up with for certain tanks like Luchs, Leopard (the Baby-Panther), T-50, A-20 and M5 which throws you into high tier battles. Now since there are high tier light tanks (up to T7 and T8, albeit I'd never consider the Aufklärungs Panther a genuine scout), I hope they change that soon.

I read an article recently where the author raised the point that tier IV is the "stress test" for players, given the mixed-bag choices of this tier. The T-50 and the T-28 are prime examples. The first one was fun, totally unrealistic (ok, it's WOT anyway), but fun. Now the T-50 is nerfed beyond recognition when you remember the way it used to be. And the T-28 is a tank I was more than happy to get virtually scrapped. Useless armour, large silhouette - the only mitigating points were speed and a decent gun. It was worth the grind to get to the KV though.

I only got to the T-50 after the nerf. I was having real problems with it and had a look on the WOT forums to see if there was any advice on how best to play it. That's when I read about how good it used to be and the subsequent nerf. All I'll say is it was a horrible grind to the T-34 and I was only too happy to get rid of the T-50.

The T-28 was ok, when it got a decent gun. The problem was as you say it has awful armour. The KV-1 so far is being a bit of a mixed bag - probably because I'm getting used to it. I remember facing off against so many KV-1 when I was working my way through the Hetzer and StuG III and they were always tanks I had problems killing. Even aiming for the weak points I had a tough time with these. Now I've actually got a KV-1 it's pretty funny because I'm hitting tier 6 and 7 matches where the KV-1 can be squished pretty easily. I've had some fun games though where I've been sat slugging it out with another tier 5 or 4 and they may as well be shooting peas at me