18 replies to this topic

[canadianguitar]

Hello Asia forums, I'm CanadianGuitar, from the NA server. The other day someone on our forums had a question about your giftshop, so I quickly made an account to log in and help them. I then figured since I was here, I would share with you the advice/tips that I have shared with the NA forum community.

Who am I? Again, I'm CanadianGuitar from the NA server, and I've been playing since January of 2012. In that time I have spent almost as much in game (nearing 16,000 battles) as I have on our forums (5,800 posts). In the last few months, I decided I would start giving back to our community; giving players advice or help, posting replays so people can see which tanks and styles they may want to work towards, writing this small "guide", and recently tank reviews. Our forum community taught me a lot, now I'm trying to teach them, and the newer players that pick up the game, after all, it is a hard game to get into.

What I will do I will update this topic as I update the one on the NA forums. I will continue to make additions to it, make new replays and reviews and share them with you as well. It is never too late to want to learn, or become better. I might have good stats now, but I was a 46% 700 efficency player when I had 7,000 battles. I had to stop, and admit I wasn't as good as I thought I was, and re-evaluate how I play, and why. I have no become a good player, but I am still always learning new things.


For anyone interested in my replays, here is the link to my replay collection (on the NA forums); http://forum.worldof...__fromsearch__1




I will also lend my ears to you here on these forums. I will check back at least twice a week (more if I have updates to this topic/guide), feel free to ask me questions, or advice. Leave it on this topic, or send me a private message, I will respond to everyone.




Please enjoy.  


~CG

[canadianguitar]

Learn the Maps: Figure out where most of the fighting happens, and what tanks generally go where. Learn how to adapt to counter their moves. Learn where arty usually sits, and where to be ‘safe’ from it. Know where depressions are to hide your hull, and where enemies will hide theirs, the same with bushes for camo. This can take some time to learn when we have 37 maps, but be patient, watch the minimap, look at how the game flows, and WATCH THE MINIMAP.
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Learn Tank Weakspots:Learn where to be shooting your targets. Lower Front Plate is a general rule of thumb from the front. If you are mainly hidden, and they are hulldown, try for the hatches on the top of the turret, German hatches are particularly prominent for example and are easy to hit when they are hulldown. Front and rear drive wheels are other great spots when tanks are poking around a corner, you can usually deal damage and track them with a drive wheel shot. Sides and backs are also generally good spots to shoot, however, beware of some tanks side armor(spaced)/tracks that have a tendency to eat your shells. If you are having trouble with particular tanks, take the time to ASK. Ask your team where to shoot X tank, most people will be happy to tell you, or take the time to look them up online.
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Learn How to Angle:In a tank with sloped frontal armor (but no pikes ex; IS series), rather than staying completely flat/straight on to the tank your fighting, angle your tank. Another tip when fighting, near buildings sidescrape/reverse angle. In a tank like an E75, plant the nose/front of your tank in the wall infront of you, and back out at a 10-20 degree angle. This will hide your LFP, and cause enemies to either shoot your tracks, or scrape shells back the angled side of your tank.
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Flex/Pay Attention to the Map:Just like checking mirrors when driving your car, you should be checking your minimap constantly. Know where your team is, and ISN’T! Also know where the enemies are and aren’t. If you see a flank that is weak, or can’t handle itself, don’t continue to stack up in a big lump. Go help the weaker flank. If it looks like it’s going to fail even with you there, get in a location to at least get shots on the enemies before your teammates die. A great way to improve yourself is to flex. Always be prepared to run back and forth across the map. Obviously some tanks are slow, and make this more tedious, but it still has advantages. Whatever lane you pick initially, play it, get your damage and kills, then rather than pushing through to cap or what have you, switch to another flank that is still dealing with enemies and grab more damage and kills. This isn’t to say you couldn’t/shouldn’t continue the initial push and flank, but sometimes by the time you get to their rear, they have already broken through.
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Always Be Doing Something: Always be dealing damage. If you aren’t dealing damage, you aren’t doing anything useful. If you find yourself holding a position where enemies either aren’t spotting , or not presenting themselves as targets to you, ask yourself, “Is it that important that I sit here and hold this location, or should I find somewhere else I could be doing something?” Sometimes, yes, it is imperative you sit there and hold a location while doing nothing, but a lot of times you could probably be  used somewhere else.
Map Control/Firing Lines: Ever wonder how your clump of team dies sometimes? There might be 8 of them in a big clump fighting many fewer tanks, but they lose. Why did they lose? Not always lack of player skill, but often a lack of Map Control and firing lines. You need to be spread out, and covering multiple approaches. Make sure any cover the enemy could get from one side, is in the line of someone else’s sights. A great example of this is south spawn Prohorovka. You can send people to the 0 line hill all day and watch them get killed. Yes, it’s a key position, and a great spot, but you need to control enemy movement. Instead of sending 5 guys to the hill, send 3, the other 2 could go to the bottom of the town, and fire up at the enemies side of the hill, forcing them to retreat, hide, push into your tanks, or just die. At the same time, the town can also keep people at the tracks from shooting your team on the hill. Control enemy movement, and make sure you have multiple firing lines!
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Learn the Reload Times:This can take a long time considering all the tanks, and variations of guns they have (nevermind that they keep adding new lines), but is something you should learn. Focus on tanks at tiers you play often first. Learn Heavies and Tds first, the tanks that will be brawling, holding corners, and pinning you down. Next learn the mediums. Keep a notepad and pen handy if need be. For example, I know an E50 has a reload of 8.1s with a rammer and vents or BIA. After seeing him firing, you know how long you have to pop out and shoot, or maneuver to a different location. You can always ask your team, again, they should be happy to help. A good rule of thumb, always subtract 1second from the reload time, just in case they have crew skills/equipment you didn’t count on, or you time it wrong.
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If You Don’t Know, ASK!: Many people seem to be too hesitant to ask things when they don’t know. Yes, some people can be jerks about it, but I think you’ll find most people would rather inform their teammates, so they can perform better, than to degrade them. I much prefer a player who knows nothing, and asks lots of questions, than someone who assumes they know it all, and ****s up, or gets a teammate killed.
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Read the Wiki:The wiki might not be 100% accurate, but it is quite reliable. Learn the battle mechanics and spotting mechanics. Use it to find out the thing you can't find out in game(easily). Gun depression, opinions on wat to upgrade first, or equipment selection (take it with a grain of salt), better and more informative descriptions of crew skills/perks
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Watch Replays/Spectate: Watch Replays or spectate other players after you die. Find out what other players are doing, you WILL learn something. Everyone has something to offer, good or bad. Watching better players can teach you new locations, how to angle their tank, play certain locations, or play in a group. Watching similar skilled, or bad players can teach you things too. They might still know things you don't, or failing that, you can see what common mistakes they, and other players make, and learn to take advantage of them. A popular bad habbit is people pulling out around corners perpendicular, or completely sideways.
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UPDATED OCT 9
MatchMaker can be Cruel: MM can be cruel, but get used to it. Everyone goes through the same MM, sometimes you have good placement, sometimes you don't. Don't think you are useless because you are a tier 6 in a tier 8 match (for example). No one expects you to run out, come across a tier 8, and take him out by yourself. There are enemy tanks of the same tier for you to engage, and one tier higher. As for the top tiers in the match, help your team with them. If you see two tier 8s slugging it out, put rounds in the side/back of the enemy, help our your team.
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Scout Tanks: Tier 4 lights are a pain, but you'll get through it. Everyone has been through it, you are not the first. Don't buy into this stigma that scouts have to either; A)Suicide but light the entire enemy team in the first 20 seconds B) Have to run straight for enemy arty, and if there is none, you are useless.  Scouts are there to help provide Line of Sight on enemy tanks for your team. Generally, you are in higher tier matches (a tier 4 scout in a tier 7-8 game), you are not there to be dealing damage. You, being in a small tank, have a great camo value, making it harder to be spotted. Find a bush(es) and sit there, spot enemy tanks for your team to shoot, you get experience for your team shooting any targets you find for them. DO NOT SHOOT AT THE ENEMIES. Your gun is either too small to pen, or in the chance it does, does so little damage it isnt worth it, firing your gun will reduce your camo DRASTRICALLY, and will usually lead to you being spotted, and then killed, losing the eyes for your team. In higher tier matches, 7-10, on a non-city map, scouts can be the deciding factor of a game, espcially in the second half of the match, usually because the scouts have already died. If you can survive the entire match, and spot enemies, you will be a huge asset to your team.
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UPDATED Oct 17th
Further map reading: Again, always be glancing at your minimap. I don't want to specifically push XVM, but it has some handy add-ons/features. A config I'm currently running had an asterisk (*) next to all enemy tanks until they are first spotted. Its nice to know mid/late game what is still hidden (usually TD's or sniping mediums). It also has a feature where it will display tank names ON the minimap itself. Example: V Jadg8.8 Which is very usefull to see which tanks are where.  If you don't use XVM, or don't want to, there is a slower method running vanilla (no mods). In game, hold control (which enables cursor use), and mouse over a player name on either side (friendly or enemy). If the player is currently spotted on the mini-map, their tank icon will GLOW/LIGHT UP. It is much slower than XVM's add-on, but still useful just the same. It sometimes can be more usefull, in the case where there are multiple tanks of the same time, and you want to know where a specific player is.
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Use of Control Key: I just mentioned it above, but I think I should re-iterate, and add to this. Some of this, I didn't know for many thousand battles, and (without naming anyone) some people I platoon with who have been playing for as long as I have, didn't know about some of this. While holding control, it enables you to use the cursor on screen. While doing this, if you mouse over a friendly or enemy tanker, their tank icon will GLOW/LIGHT UP on the mini-map (Providing they are currently spotted). Also, if you right click on your name, you have options to add them to your friends list, ignore them, file a complaint, etc. Now, the feature that gets overlooked the most. You can hold control and mouse over your ammo counter at the bottom, and it will give you the average damage and pen. Its very nice when your playing a newer tank/gun, and you can't remember exactally how well the gun may(or may not!) pen.
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Focus Targets! Focus targets! This is a very important thing that can make the differnce between winning and losing. If you are
enaging multiple targets, take out the weaker one first. I do not mean, kill the lesser of the tanks (lower tier = less total HP), but target the one that is already damaged and closer to dieing. Remove his gun from the battle. I have seen too many middle/late game scenarios where the enemies have a 4+ tank advantage, but they are all under 25%. I'd rather fight 1-2 tanks at full/nearly full hp, then several that are only moderately damaged. They have more guns to damage you with, plain and simple."Both tanks have the same (or similar) health left, who do I target?" If you ever find yourself in this situation, there are a few basic guidelines I can give you:
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Look at your health, can either of them kill you in one shot? If yes, target that tank first. If you are weak enough that both can one shot you, shoot the tank that either; A) You can kill in 1 shot, leaving your team one less enemy, or failing that B) Shoot the tank that deals the most damage per shot, so your team can finish off the damage dealer sooner.
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Which Tank has the slower reload?Depending on what you are fighting, and when they fired (see above keeping track of reload times), you might be able to kill the tank that is about to fire, and reload before other tank, and kill them both. Don't waste your time killing a tank that is reloading, only to have his buddy finish you off.
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Which Tank will your team stuggle with the most?Sometimes, you have to ignore the other two 'rules', and sacrifice yourself. Suppose your the highest tier remaining on your team, or the most knowledgable about tanking and/or weakspots. The two tanks who are engaging you are both able to be killed before you die, but you can only take one. You might have to ignore the rules, and shoot the tank with the most armor, or is the hardest to pen. Perhaps for example your facing a Centurian and a T110e3. Shoot the e3 and kill him, you don't know if your team will be capable of penning him themselves, but you know you can knock him out, and they should be able to handle the 'softer' Centurian.
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Kill Stealing: Not really a tip, or advice, more so a way to avoid unwanted altercations. Generally speaking, there is no kill sealing in this game; EXCEPT! Kill stealing isn't as much of a 'thing' in WoT as it is in your typical FPS', this is because you are awarded and rewarded for dealing damage. Killing blows don't offer much other than a point on the scoreboard, HOWEVER, there are two instances where 'team killing' ****es me off. Number one: I lit an enemy on fire at low HP, he is going to burn to death. If you see a tank that is burning, and it is going to die due to the fire, let it burn, give the guy the extra damage and the kill UNLESS the tank on fire is FOR CERTAINTY going to hurt you.
NUMBER two: If I am fighting a tank, by my self, and I deal over 85% to him, again, by my self, while someone is either watching and not helping, or just too dumbfounded to help me, DON'T run up at the last second and fire that killing shot. Now if several of us are whittling away at a guy, whatever, whoever kills him kills him, but when one guy...does literally, all the work save the killing blow... don't be a d-wad, don't jack it.
SPACE!!!
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***UPDATED NOV 1***
Consumables
I've noticed lately a lot of people NOT running consumables (at least fire extinguishers http://forum.worldof...__fromsearch__1). The basic consumables can really help improve your gameplay by SURIVING to fight longer.
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First off Repair kits. Your basic repair kit can be used to repair ONE module to full health. How you use your repair kit can vary, but the most important are AMMO RACK, GUN, TRACKS. If your AMMO RACK gets damaged, your reload time DOUBLES, say goodbye to getting much more damage with double the reload, and, not only that, but the next damaging shot to your ammo rack could detonate you, killing you instantly (regardless of remaining HP). The GUN is also important to repair, when your gun is completly damaged (red), it cannot be moved or fired, when it is in its orange state, it is very half as accurate as before, making it very difficult to hit your targets. Thirdly the TRACKS. The tracks can be the most important to repair depending on the situation. Fighting an enemy 1v1, tracks aren't very important to repair, however, if you find yourself in the open, and have multiple tanks (or arty) firing at you, repairing the tracks to get out of harms way and fight another day is very crucial! I reccomend learning the keys for each module for the fastest repair possible. It is possible to hold control and click the module, but this is a very slow process. In addition to regular repair kits, there are more expensive LARGE REPAIR KITS. These kits when used will repair ALL currently damaged modules. Having a Large Repair Kit on your tank also gives a passive 10% bonus to all repair speeds (until it is used)
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Secondly, First Aid Kits. Basic First Aid Kits are used to heal ONE crew member. Again, how you chose who to heal can vary but most important is the Gunners, Loaders and Drivers, sometimes the Commander. Once a crew member dies, their role to the tank becomes ZERO %, unlike modules which perform at 50% and any skills/perks they have are inactive. Gunner's death results in a lack of accuracy, and Loader's in a lack of reload speed. These are the most important, if both were to die, which to heal would vary greatly on the tank being played. The Driver is also an important one to revive (assuming loaders and gunners aren't dead), the driver's death results in your tank being very sluggish and slow to maneuver. Lastly, the Commander can be important (assuming no other 'vital' crew is dead). For example, when the Commander is dead, if you have Sixth Sense, Eagle Eye, Mentor (etc), they become inactive, and no longer work until he is healed. One thing I do from time to time, at the end of battle if a 'non-vital' crew member has died (radio man, sometimes commander), or even any crew member, but a victory is imminent I will heal them. If a crew member is dead at the end of battle, they receive 50% of the XP they should earn. Much like Repair Kits, there are Large First Aid Kits. These kits when used will heal ALL crew members back to full health. Having a Large First Aid Kit on your tank also gives a passive 15% bonus to crew resistance from injury (until it is used).
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Third, Fire Extinguishers. A fire extinguisher is pretty straight forward, if on fire, it puts you out once you activate it. When on fire, your tank takes continuous damaged, Two instances of damage per second on fire. The damage decreases as it burns, and will eventually burn out on its own, but this is not reccomended. You can lose well over half your heath and more to a single fire. While on fire your reload time inscreases, and accuracy decreases, and not only that, but while burning your modules will take damage, and crew will die. And untended fire can severly cripple your tank by taking our multiple modules and crew, of which you might only be able to repair one each. There is a more expensive version, the Automatic Fire Extinguisher. This actives .5s after the fire takes place, you will receive only one instance of fire damage before it puts out the fire, automatically, no button pushing required! Also, while on your tank, the Automatic Fire Extinguisher reduces your chance of igition by 10%.
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Each basic consumable is only 3000 credits. I reccomend running the three basics on most tanks. Some [newer] players will argue they don't have the credits to use them, but in reality, these SAVE you money. Repairing a rack can keep you from missing out on damage that yields you credits, or fix your tracks so you dont die early on...allowing you to live longer and again, do more damage, or contribute more. First Aid, just the same, and again with Fire Extinguisher. In fact, you don't even use them every game, you aren't spending 9000 credits every game for all these consumables. In my experience, I would say I use a repair kit 1 for ever 1.2 battles played, first aid 1 for every 1.5 and fire extinguisher 1 in ever 7. THEY WILL SAVE YOU MORE MONEY IN THE LONG RUN.
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I will update this as I think of other little tips I can put into short points. Or, if anyone has any questions or suggestions, please ask or comment, I will respond to all LEGITIMATE questions or comments, and make additions where necessary.
Happy Hunting,

~CG

Edited by canadianguitar, 05 November 2013 - 12:37 AM.

[Lornitz]

Nice output there! Something a man who will place this forum to its right place.

BTW, would it possible that you upload your replays in your Youtube channel, if you have one?

[canadianguitar]

Lornitz, on 05 November 2013 - 01:17 AM, said:

Nice output there! Something a man who will place this forum to its right place.

BTW, would it possible that you upload your replays in your Youtube channel, if you have one?

No sorry, I dont have a means to convert them, or a youtube channel. The link given will direct you to a topic I made on the NA forums, each link in that topic goes to http://www.noobmeter.com/ (a site which allows monitoring of stats), where I have my replays uploaded.

[Lornitz]

Yep, I visited your thread in NA server. Was thinking it would be easy to access if it's a Youtube channel.

I usually watch replays to learn. Anyway, thank you!

[j4nl]

IOC best klan!  

[KiwiPanzer]

Just a newbie question, if I select a consumable, do the crew automatically use them or do I need to press a key to use them.  Because if it is the latter, in the heat of a battle, it will make it more difficult to use.

[Freaking_Monika]

about time someone did this. good job sir. +1

[ArticArson]

Really good job!!

i want every player to at least read this...

but still.. +1 from me

keep your good work..

[Lornitz]

I hope there will be translations of his work too. :)

Many can't just read and completely understand English.

[Noob_Inside]

You,sir,is da bomb!
and frankly ChaosGhost will be having a conflict with CanadianGuitar
CG&CG

Edited by dhiyahebat, 05 November 2013 - 07:53 AM.

[canadianguitar]

KiwiTTNZ, on 05 November 2013 - 02:36 AM, said:

Just a newbie question, if I select a consumable, do the crew automatically use them or do I need to press a key to use them.  Because if it is the latter, in the heat of a battle, it will make it more difficult to use.

The consumables are placed into the key slots 4,5,6 depending on which order you place them in your service menu.
I reccomend placing them in the same locations every tank. Example, repair always 4, medkit 5, fire extinguisher 6. eventually, you know to repair tracks in less than 2 seconds you press 4 then 5. Placing them in different orders on every tank can really mess you up.

Lornitz, on 05 November 2013 - 01:25 AM, said:

Yep, I visited your thread in NA server. Was thinking it would be easy to access if it's a Youtube channel.

I usually watch replays to learn. Anyway, thank you!

ArticArson, on 05 November 2013 - 04:23 AM, said:

Really good job!!

i want every player to at least read this...

but still.. +1 from me

keep your good work..

Hildegard_Struning, on 05 November 2013 - 02:56 AM, said:

about time someone did this. good job sir. +1

dhiyahebat, on 05 November 2013 - 07:52 AM, said:

You,sir,is da bomb!
and frankly ChaosGhost will be having a conflict with CanadianGuitar
CG&CG

Thank you all.

Not aware of this other CG...    Perhaps he'll have a little...accident...

Lornitz, on 05 November 2013 - 06:27 AM, said:

I hope there will be translations of his work too. :)

Many can't just read and completely understand English.

Please, if anyone knows how to translate this, do it and PM it to me, I will attach it in a spoiler tag for those who aren't fluent in English.

[Ezz]

canadianguitar, on 05 November 2013 - 08:13 AM, said:

I reccomend placing them in the same locations every tank. Example, repair always 4, medkit 5, fire extinguisher 6.

I'd go for med at 4, repair at 5, then driver is a double tap 4, 4, and tracks are a double tap 5, 5.

Also, OP i'd give you a +1 but your avatar is freakishly ranga so it might encourage more soulless posting.

(+1 anyway ;) )

[Hazza]

Great read thanks mate.
In regards to tanks weakspots I find this site very useful for tier 5 and above. It doesn't show vulnerability for tiers 1 - 4.
http://www.wotdb.info/#country=ussr
Cheers +1

Edited by Hazza, 05 November 2013 - 08:27 AM.

[canadianguitar]

Ezz, on 05 November 2013 - 08:16 AM, said:

I'd go for med at 4, repair at 5, then driver is a double tap 4, 4, and tracks are a double tap 5, 5.
Also, OP i'd give you a +1 but your avatar is freakishly ranga so it might encourage more soulless posting.
(+1 anyway ;) )

Was just an example.
Also, that is me in my avatar  

Edited by canadianguitar, 05 November 2013 - 10:47 AM.

[tom_bro]

#1 Baddies like you should get rekt. This includes you Coolone.
#2 Is IOC_5 5 times worse than IOC_1?
#3 Who would win a fight between yourself and Lert?
#4 Can you make me more lucky so I can improve my w/r?

[Airborne447]

+1 for effort and time.
Will read through everything and see how it goes  

dhiyahebat, on 05 November 2013 - 07:52 AM, said:

You,sir,is da bomb!
and frankly ChaosGhost will be having a conflict with CanadianGuitar
CG&CG

Hahahaha.. Should we ask him to come 'ere and moderate this thread? *just kidding*

Edited by Airborne447, 05 November 2013 - 12:59 PM.

[canadianguitar]

tom_bro, on 05 November 2013 - 11:03 AM, said:

#1 Baddies like you should get rekt. This includes you Coolone.
I got rekt last night, everything was out to get me
#2 Is IOC_5 5 times worse than IOC_1?
Yes, but no. IOC_5 is a joke klam, theres lots of backstory. tl;dr social experiment
#3 Who would win a fight between yourself and Lert?
Statiscially I'm the better player, but Lert is much more famous, and has way more experience making guides and tutorials.
#4 Can you make me more lucky so I can improve my w/r?
Yes, I can, but I won't....because PBKAC.

[fabiensg]

Added to my favorites.