North American World of Tanks has been decreasing in popularity since the overall boom of newer members sometime around 2013, and this was in part due to popular Youtube channels (such as Jingles/Quickybaby/SideStrafe), and also due to advertising the growing game. Now, the game is receiving very few newer players in the NA circuit.
There are many possible reasons to this, and there are probably many, here are some of my own thoughts:
Content:
Wargaming's last big content patch, which included a brand new line (WT line), 4 new premium tanks, Team Battles, and a new map: Northwest (which has been removed for some time now). The follow-up patch to this was in December, introducing the Japanese Medium tank branch. After this patch, some new tanks have been released, but not in the same "line after line" format that previous patches had done. There have been 2 new lines since then, the Czechoslovakians and the Japanese Heavies. The amount of content has obviously reached a somewhat stagnant point for Wargaming, partly due to the lack of tanks to actually fill their game with, which could have actually been solved by introducing higher tier tanks (above tier 10), and therefore having many modern tanks to choose from. There are issues with this, such as a lack of real classes, as MBTs were very dominant, and lights would need to be replaced by AFVs, which would create some mess, but could be solved in time. This is besides the point, as they elected to not do this. Many of the later patches have been bug fixes and some minor balance. Wargaming as a company was also just starting to launch World of Warplanes and was developing World of Warships, requiring some of their resources. They have definitely been slacking on the content side of things, and their blind-less additions of content did not take into account the overall balance of the game, meaning that if they ever stopped introducing more lines, many players would be less than interested to keep playing, which is what they did. This started the downfall of the game, as many overpowered tanks were destroying the others at unprecedented rates. This lack of balance and content cause players to start to leave the game, as they were not overly invested in the game. As I mentioned before, there have been introduced maps, both of the ones mentioned were actually removed from the game.
Service:
Wargaming NA has become the neglected child of this company (now becoming SEA), and its playerbase has had little to say about the overall balance of the game and how it applies to the gameplay in NA vs the other regions. This has created strife within the community, and anger towards the company.
Competition: WoT is forced to compete with games like Overwatch, CS:GO, and LoL now in terms of competitive team play, and it used to compete massively (and still does) with other MMOs such as World of Warcraft. This competition leaves WG behind in the sense of balance and attention to detail, which effects other servers less, as some games are less prevalent there (WOW being one of those). Now that all of these games are becoming bigger and better, WoT is no longer as innovative graphics and balance wise, making it fall behind in player base, and causing it to begin to die.
-Spirtwalker
Friday, July 8, 2016
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Calling: Ideologies and Examples
Calling in WoT is much more hectic than it is in 5-man games such as CS:GO, which has a certain limit to what can be done within matches. WoT is very creative in what can happen, and many things can work, abstract and mainstream.
Calling can be broken down into two ideologies: dynamic and static. Dynamic calling is basically seen by running defaults (very basic, similar to saying "we will take control of this general area"), then adapting to what your enemy does. One way to really do this, is to take extensive map control to portions your opponent is willing to give up. This allows large rotations to happen, and traps to be set. Dynamic calling can also be seen in a more basic way, as sending out scouts, then taking control of the map, then attacking the enemy. Static calling can be seen as giving a very strict strategy to counter an opponents, given at the beginning of a battle. This is good on certain maps that have especially important/strong parts that are necessary to win a battle. This will often consist of specialized tanks such as AMX 13 90s or artillery. Tanks that aren't normally used are good to counter opponents when you can expect what they are going to do. This tactic is really strong when you are competing on the global map, and allies have told you what your opponent does on a specific map. This is also great to surprise a clan with a unique strategy.
Dynamic Calling:
This example shows how the team of 6 heavies and 4 lights are generally spread to face the enemy. See how one side of the map is directly controlled, the entire "green" half. It also gives three alleyways where tanks can advance, the center, west, and east. More tanks are pushed toward the east, allowing the other lights opportunity to flank the enemy when the time is right. Remember it is important that every tank is covered by another at all times. No tanks should be alone. Even the tank in the middle in this example is easily covered by the lights on the west and on the east.
Static Calling:
This example shows how the 5 lights and 5 heavies can rush a specific part of the map and play off of each other. The heavies can shoot enemy light tanks and our lights can defend themselves due to their high number. The south is the most important position on this map, requiring a set composition of tanks, at least two auto-loader light tanks. This provides burst damage to fend off a rush in rapid time. This setup does not allow really any rotation until the "mid game", which I will be covering in my next strategy article/guide article.
Comment or PM me any map you want explained/strategy example of!
-Spirtwalker
Calling can be broken down into two ideologies: dynamic and static. Dynamic calling is basically seen by running defaults (very basic, similar to saying "we will take control of this general area"), then adapting to what your enemy does. One way to really do this, is to take extensive map control to portions your opponent is willing to give up. This allows large rotations to happen, and traps to be set. Dynamic calling can also be seen in a more basic way, as sending out scouts, then taking control of the map, then attacking the enemy. Static calling can be seen as giving a very strict strategy to counter an opponents, given at the beginning of a battle. This is good on certain maps that have especially important/strong parts that are necessary to win a battle. This will often consist of specialized tanks such as AMX 13 90s or artillery. Tanks that aren't normally used are good to counter opponents when you can expect what they are going to do. This tactic is really strong when you are competing on the global map, and allies have told you what your opponent does on a specific map. This is also great to surprise a clan with a unique strategy.
Dynamic Calling:
This example shows how the team of 6 heavies and 4 lights are generally spread to face the enemy. See how one side of the map is directly controlled, the entire "green" half. It also gives three alleyways where tanks can advance, the center, west, and east. More tanks are pushed toward the east, allowing the other lights opportunity to flank the enemy when the time is right. Remember it is important that every tank is covered by another at all times. No tanks should be alone. Even the tank in the middle in this example is easily covered by the lights on the west and on the east.
Static Calling:
This example shows how the 5 lights and 5 heavies can rush a specific part of the map and play off of each other. The heavies can shoot enemy light tanks and our lights can defend themselves due to their high number. The south is the most important position on this map, requiring a set composition of tanks, at least two auto-loader light tanks. This provides burst damage to fend off a rush in rapid time. This setup does not allow really any rotation until the "mid game", which I will be covering in my next strategy article/guide article.
Comment or PM me any map you want explained/strategy example of!
-Spirtwalker
Tier 8 Clan Wars: Tanks and Basics
Tier 8 Clan Wars is the first level of competitive play that is really fun and diverse. Tier 6 is dominated by a few tanks and basically two strategies, heavies on city maps and lights/mediums on more open locations. Tier 8 brings about a more dynamic setup with more health to play around with. It no longer is based upon whoever shoots first, wins. I want to give you all a guide to help understand the basics about how tanks should be played and what tanks should be used. Keep in mind that I am only really going to go over tanks that are usable on all maps, not including TDs, Mediums, or artillery because these tanks are specific but here is a list of some good ones: JP2, Charioteer, Ferdinand, FCM 50t, AMX 50 100, OBJ 416, Pershing, M40/43, and Lorr. 155 51.
The AMX 50 100 is not included in my overall "top tanks" due to its inability to stay within the fight and only really being successful in certain situations and on certain maps. Also, artillery is only really helpful on open maps. The Pershing can be useful as a faster T32, and the 416 is a useful tank destroyer medium. The Ferdinand is a helpful as a heavy support in certain situations and the JP2/Charioteer are the best snipers of the tier. Finally, the FCM is a good fast heavy to destroy light tanks due to its high health and troll armor. On to the tanks:
Lights:
All lights are useful at this tier, except for the T49.
RU 251/M41 90- These tanks are both excellent for DPM as well as penetration (on HEAT and HE) at long distance. They have depression but lack armor, so they are best suited for mid range combat and support roles. It is important to bring these tanks in a lineup that also includes T54 Lightweights to allow them to take the hits for the German lights. They are basically best for the more open maps, or on maps where you need better DPM lights to support heavies.
T-54 Lightweight- This is currently considered the best light tank for the tier due to its armor and similar gun to equal tier lights. While it struggles with sniping, it is adept at brawling and carries APCR (does not have as much pen as WZ however) which allows it to fight spaced armor and tracks well. Its turret is fantastic, and it can tank some shots with some luck. This should be the bulk of your fast tank lineup as it is the most versatile light tank, but any team should be at least half heavies.
AMX 13 90- This tank has the most specific role, mostly to do burst damage and then retreat into cover. It is mostly useful on maps where there will be a large light tank brawl such as Westfield or Swamp. It cannot tank damage or snipe, but can support in close quarters. It is also worthwhile to now that the APCR ammunition has great penetration. This machine does have a long reload so it makes it less useful in most lineups, but helpful on some maps. It also probably does better in pairs, rather than as a solo support tank.
WZ-132- This is a tank that sort of combines the T-54 Light and the RU 251 as it is fit for sniping and has a lack of depression. This is a really quick tank that is best used as a backup tank for when your others are locked out due to deaths in clan wars. It does have HE resistant armor, unlike its German counterpart, but is inferior to the lightweight in brawling and to the RU for sniping.
Heavies:
Only the IS-3 and T32 are really viable for this class.
IS-3- This is the pinnacle Russian heavy with excellent side armor, good turret, and good mobility. It can reverse side-scrape as well as tank shots while hull down. It does have a small weak-point but it is hard to hit on a regular basis. The speed allows it to traverse the larger maps quickly and flank enemies or engage them in unique positions. It is the best city tank of the tier and only second when fighting on ridge-lines, to the T32.
T32- This is the true ridge-line warrior of the tier with a near impenetrable turret and decent gun, it can rip apart its enemies quickly, albeit with less alpha damage then an IS-3. It could be compared to the T34, but is much faster and has better DPM. It also has decent hull armor which can pull off some ricochets when angled properly. This is really only suited for ridge engagements due to its depression.
These are my thoughts on some of the individual tanks and their uses for Tier 8 Clan Wars, I will post later about strategy on maps!
-Spirtwalker
Monday, July 4, 2016
Schedule
Figured it was about time I establish a schedule of articles so you guys can know the rough topics of the upcoming things I write about.
Monday: Maps, Tactics, Esports, and Clan Wars
Tuesdays: About me, status of the blog, my tanks/progress, and guides
Wednesdays: Overall state of the game
Thursdays: Sandbox Talk
Friday: Balance
Weekends: Whatever
Hope I can really start posting regularly!
-Spirtwalker
Monday: Maps, Tactics, Esports, and Clan Wars
Tuesdays: About me, status of the blog, my tanks/progress, and guides
Wednesdays: Overall state of the game
Thursdays: Sandbox Talk
Friday: Balance
Weekends: Whatever
Hope I can really start posting regularly!
-Spirtwalker
Friday, July 1, 2016
Arty vs. Arty: Sandbox Thoughts
As you all probably know, it is possible to find enemy arty in your own arty by looking for their tracer shells. It is also possible to shoot at those locations, making the splash damage changes very interesting on sandbox.
The splash damage and penetration changes allow artillery to splash tanks nearby to the shell hit for around 500 if those tanks have light armor. This is especially true in tanks such as T92 and Conq GC. This means that it is very possible to counter enemy artillery, just by hitting near them. It isn't actually possible for most of these artillery to move that quickly after firing (aside from BatChat 155 58). This will prove to be an interesting counter to the artillery players within WoT.
-Spirtwalker
The splash damage and penetration changes allow artillery to splash tanks nearby to the shell hit for around 500 if those tanks have light armor. This is especially true in tanks such as T92 and Conq GC. This means that it is very possible to counter enemy artillery, just by hitting near them. It isn't actually possible for most of these artillery to move that quickly after firing (aside from BatChat 155 58). This will prove to be an interesting counter to the artillery players within WoT.
-Spirtwalker
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Thoughts on Overall State of Sandbox Week 3
The Sandbox Server (at the moment) is actually somewhat competitively viable. Lets start with artillery:
Artillery now has an "assistance" bonus towards tanks that are damaged when stunned. This is similar to tracking damage and spotting damage, yet unique to artillery. This makes artillery a rewarding class to play again, as the number of tanks effected, the greater amounts of reward. This also addresses other problems such as XVM focus in some respects. If a target is isolated, they will less likely be hunted down quickly as it is more helpful to destroy large clusters of enemies that are pushing down a flank. Artillery also has large splash which can hit tanks around buildings and other cover, which forces people to make aggressive plays, instead of sitting still. The splash damage seems to be mitigated by armor, but not distance from where the shot landed to as large a degree. The increase in penetration also allows SPGs to deal some damage, usually around 300-400 per shot.
Tank Destroyers, Cavalry, Assault Tanks, and Light tanks are also still performing their roles as planned, so I won't really touch on them.
Juggernauts/Heavies were still a bit too strong, and I still feel more of them need nerfs, especially the Type 5, in a similar respect to the Maus and IS-4. These tanks need the bonus for tanking however, otherwise they will be terrible experience/WN8 earners. These tanks need to solely be the armor or shields on the battlefield, not the damage dealers.
Fire Support Vehicles were improved/nerfed in different ways promoting a more sniper-based game, with them not being the damage dealers they were. They are now support only, and don't rule the game as they once did. They are now able to be countered at close range from Cavalry vehicles and Heavies.
All vehicles have different counters and strong positions that did not exist before in the ways they do now. Heavies are strictly armor, fire support and artillery strictly support, assault tanks and cavalry do damage and tank damage (close range), and light tanks can spot.
-Spirtwalker
Artillery now has an "assistance" bonus towards tanks that are damaged when stunned. This is similar to tracking damage and spotting damage, yet unique to artillery. This makes artillery a rewarding class to play again, as the number of tanks effected, the greater amounts of reward. This also addresses other problems such as XVM focus in some respects. If a target is isolated, they will less likely be hunted down quickly as it is more helpful to destroy large clusters of enemies that are pushing down a flank. Artillery also has large splash which can hit tanks around buildings and other cover, which forces people to make aggressive plays, instead of sitting still. The splash damage seems to be mitigated by armor, but not distance from where the shot landed to as large a degree. The increase in penetration also allows SPGs to deal some damage, usually around 300-400 per shot.
Tank Destroyers, Cavalry, Assault Tanks, and Light tanks are also still performing their roles as planned, so I won't really touch on them.
Juggernauts/Heavies were still a bit too strong, and I still feel more of them need nerfs, especially the Type 5, in a similar respect to the Maus and IS-4. These tanks need the bonus for tanking however, otherwise they will be terrible experience/WN8 earners. These tanks need to solely be the armor or shields on the battlefield, not the damage dealers.
Fire Support Vehicles were improved/nerfed in different ways promoting a more sniper-based game, with them not being the damage dealers they were. They are now support only, and don't rule the game as they once did. They are now able to be countered at close range from Cavalry vehicles and Heavies.
All vehicles have different counters and strong positions that did not exist before in the ways they do now. Heavies are strictly armor, fire support and artillery strictly support, assault tanks and cavalry do damage and tank damage (close range), and light tanks can spot.
-Spirtwalker
Sandbox Server: Week #3
The sandbox server was changed yet again, in the search of balance on the top tiers. They basically looked at the superheavy tanks and nerfed some of them, as well as buffing the overall effectiveness of artillery. Fire support vehicles were also changed to make them less of a dominating sniper force, by lowering their overall DPM. And on to my more specific comments:
SPGs: Artillery were buffed a massive amount due to their increase in penetration, as well as improvements in how splash damage works and the "stun" effects. Also, the T92 recieved an overall increase by a slight gain of damage and reload speed decrease. The BatChat artillery also recieved some damage buffs and a reduction of one shell from its magazine, down to three. The reload is also scaled down to meet these changes. It has also become more mobile, making it the only really fast arty at tier ten.
Juggernauts/Heavies: The Maus has become the true heavy, with no more DPM or gun statistics, just armor. This hopefully signifies an introduction of the experience gained from effective usage of armor, in order to still make tanks such as these worth playing. Also, the IS-4 had a slight DPM nerf, making it the worst along with the Maus. The JPZ E 100 was also nerfed in its penetration to force it to only fight close quarters, despite its fantastic accuracy. This is an interesting change, probably stemming from its great armor. We may be looking at an E 100 and Type 5 nerf soon. The E4 received its APCR nerf and the E3 got a shell capacity buff.
Grille 15: The only tank destroyer change, the penetration was increased to help with sniping, and to bring it up to par with its competitors.
Fire Support Vehicles: Mediums in this category were given large buffs to their aim time and accuracy, but also substantial nerfs to their DPM, except the Centurion AX, which remained the same. We can probably expect a nerf coming its way... The STB-1 was also excluded, only to be met with a harsh accuracy nerf, now similar to "Cavalry" mediums. The BatChat also recieved an accuracy buff as well as a reload decrease to meet the current four shell magazine. There are also rumors of Patton mobility buffs, which I can't truly confirm, but I can say that it played to what the alleged buffs were.
Some Other Things:
Maps- The current maps for Karelia and Steppes are called Karelian Glades and Flat Steppes. The became much more flat in areas, especially the taking out of the northern hills on Karelia, and the flatter parts of the West on Steppes. This is interesting because it could promote more sniping opportunities for TDs, artillery hits due to lack of prominent terrain features, movement of heavies due to a lack of hilly terrain, or the ability for light tanks to light up targets.
BatChat Guns- The guns (90 mm and 100 mm from 13 90 and Lorr. 40t) have been dropped from 6 shells to 4 shells which may point to a change among the tier 8 and tier 9 tanks from the french lines.
I will release another article about my opinions themselves.
-Spirtwalker
SPGs: Artillery were buffed a massive amount due to their increase in penetration, as well as improvements in how splash damage works and the "stun" effects. Also, the T92 recieved an overall increase by a slight gain of damage and reload speed decrease. The BatChat artillery also recieved some damage buffs and a reduction of one shell from its magazine, down to three. The reload is also scaled down to meet these changes. It has also become more mobile, making it the only really fast arty at tier ten.
Juggernauts/Heavies: The Maus has become the true heavy, with no more DPM or gun statistics, just armor. This hopefully signifies an introduction of the experience gained from effective usage of armor, in order to still make tanks such as these worth playing. Also, the IS-4 had a slight DPM nerf, making it the worst along with the Maus. The JPZ E 100 was also nerfed in its penetration to force it to only fight close quarters, despite its fantastic accuracy. This is an interesting change, probably stemming from its great armor. We may be looking at an E 100 and Type 5 nerf soon. The E4 received its APCR nerf and the E3 got a shell capacity buff.
Grille 15: The only tank destroyer change, the penetration was increased to help with sniping, and to bring it up to par with its competitors.
Fire Support Vehicles: Mediums in this category were given large buffs to their aim time and accuracy, but also substantial nerfs to their DPM, except the Centurion AX, which remained the same. We can probably expect a nerf coming its way... The STB-1 was also excluded, only to be met with a harsh accuracy nerf, now similar to "Cavalry" mediums. The BatChat also recieved an accuracy buff as well as a reload decrease to meet the current four shell magazine. There are also rumors of Patton mobility buffs, which I can't truly confirm, but I can say that it played to what the alleged buffs were.
Some Other Things:
Maps- The current maps for Karelia and Steppes are called Karelian Glades and Flat Steppes. The became much more flat in areas, especially the taking out of the northern hills on Karelia, and the flatter parts of the West on Steppes. This is interesting because it could promote more sniping opportunities for TDs, artillery hits due to lack of prominent terrain features, movement of heavies due to a lack of hilly terrain, or the ability for light tanks to light up targets.
BatChat Guns- The guns (90 mm and 100 mm from 13 90 and Lorr. 40t) have been dropped from 6 shells to 4 shells which may point to a change among the tier 8 and tier 9 tanks from the french lines.
I will release another article about my opinions themselves.
-Spirtwalker
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