Scorpiany

I know a few other modpacks have this feature - essentially, when you go into "Preview" mode in the installer, for any sound mods, you will hear a preview of the sound. That way you'll be able to know what the 6th sense sounds, crew voices, gun sounds, etc. sound like before you install them. It would be very a convenient feature to have, if it's possible to add into the installer.

Update: Added A (Detailed) Guide to Equipment to the "Gameplay Mechanics" section Added Captain Canada's YouTube channel (tank reviews and patch overviews / map overviews) to the popular YouTube channel section

Don't worry. I see that you are lost and confused, in need of guidance and support. Lucky for you, thou have stumbled into the Scorpion's Den; with guides aplenty. This particular edition contains A (Detailed) Guide to Equipment. If these are the drones you were looking for, sit back, turn on some pimping music and read away... all of your questions shall be answered here. Finally - you've bought that brand new tank, fresh out of the factory. You wish you could admire it's flawless construction all day, albeit a dilemma hovers about. You must prep your tank for combat, and that involves mounting equipment - yet you only have three slots, with nearly a dozen options. How to choose? It's time to unveil the secrets of equipment mounting. Your tank comes with three equipment slots, no more and no less. The types of equipment available, as well as their effectiveness and costs all may vary based on various factors, such as: Tank class (e.g. Light, medium, heavy, etc.) Nation of the tank (e.g. American, British, German, etc.) Gun mechanics (i.e. autoloader vs. machine gun vs. single shot) Size, weight and armor thickness of the tank (This affects the type of spall liner available) Equipment class; complex or not (this affects the way the equipment can be de-mounted) Ultimately, what all of this means is that each tank will have different equipment options available. Some tanks (such as light tanks) may have very limited options present, especially if they're lower Tier or have autoloading guns. Others will have seemingly endless possibilities. However, regardless of the amount of equipment there is to choose from, chances are that more than 3 types of equipment are viable for the tank, so you need to firstly know what the equipment does and when to mount it. The "What" and "When" of equipment - let's discuss... as soon as we differentiate between complex and simple equipment. Simple equipment: Camo Net, Binocular Telescope & Toolbox Mounting - Simple equipment has a single Credit cost associated with it - you pay the initial price ($100,000 for the Camo Net, $500,000 for the other two) and that's it. You are then free to mount it to any tank you want. The three pieces of simple equipment are compatible with all tanks. De-mounting - It's free! You click on the equipment icon on the tank you mounted it to, press "Demount" and you're done! The equipment is then sent to your Depot. Transferring to another tank - If you want to put the equipment on a different tank, simply demount it from Tank A, find the tank you want to mount it upon (Tank B), select an open equipment slot on Tank B and then click on the equipment piece. It should have a yellow taint to it with a checkmark next to it, meaning that it's in your Depot. Click on it and then it's re-mounted to Tank B for free. You can repeat this as many times as you want; no strings attached! This technically means that you only need a single copy of each of the three simple equipments to cover all of the tanks in your Garage. One time purchase that lasts your entire WoT career! Selling - If you wish to sell your simple equipment, demount it, then go to your Depot and sell it. It's that simple. If you're selling a tank with simple equipment mounted, you have the option to sell the simple equipment or to send it to your Depot. Complex equipment - All other types of equipment (every other sort of equipment other than the three simple ones) Mounting - The initial purchase of complex equipment is a Credit cost, and the process is the same as with simple equipment; it can be purchased onto a tank directly or can be bought from the Store (in which case it will be in your Depot until you decide to mount it) De-mounting - Complex equipment requires a fee of 10 Gold to demount. Once the 10 Gold is spent, the equipment will be sent to your Depot for future usage. However, if you cannot afford the 10 Gold yet you desire to remove the equipment, you may destroy the equipment. Destroying it is free, but the equipment is permanently removed from your Garage without compensation. Transferring to another tank - If you wish to transfer complex equipment to another tank, you will have to spend the 10 Gold to demount it from Tank A. At that point, the process is the same as with simple equipment; select Tank B, select the equipment icon and it should have a yellow taint with a checkmark, meaning it's in your Depot. You can then mount it for free. However, if you wish to transfer the equipment yet again (perhaps from Tank B to Tank C, or maybe right back to Tank A again), then you will have to spend 10 more Gold. Each time you demount the equipment, or wish to send it to your Depot, you will have to pay another 10 Gold fee. It's actually a pretty good deal - it's much better than having to spend another 500,000 Credits (or whatever you originally spent on it) to purchase another set for a different tank, especially if you don't wish to keep the tank. Selling - To sell Complex equipment, you have to first de-mount it (thus you will have to pay the 10 Gold fee). At that point, you are free to sell it from your Depot for half of the original Credit cost. You only get half of the equipment's Credit value; the Gold is non-refundable. However, if you are selling a tank which has Complex equipment mounted, you can sell the equipment with the tank for free; no de-mounting needed. You will also have the choice to spend 10 Gold per piece of Complex equipment to send it back to the Depot, if you wish to mount it to something else rather than selling it with the tank. Now we can finally get into what equipment is available, what it does and when to mount it. Spall Liners: Protects your crew from injury, reduces damage received from explosions and ramming attacks. Small Spall Liner - 20% reduction in chance of crew injury, 20% reduced explosion and ramming damage received. (Does not change damage received from penetrating explosive shells. It only reduces damage from non-penetrating explosions) Medium Spall Liner - 25% to the above values Heavy Spall Liner - 30% to the above values Superheavy Spall Liner - 50% to the above values Spall Liners are most effective on tanks that: ​​​Have thick armor values for its Tier Are very large and very slow Have a very limited crew count, and the crew is very vulnerable (e.g. D35; it only has two crew members and the Driver dies very often. The effect from a crew member dying is a lot more significant for the D35 due to only having 2; and an arty hit could easily kill both, thus removing the tank from battle even if it has hit points. For this reason, the spall liner's bonus to crew survivability, plus its protection from HE (thus from howitzers and arty) make it much more useful than it would be for some other tanks) Are used for ramming, or are rammed into a lot. (If this is your reason for mounting a Spall Liner, only mount it if either a) there is no better equipment to mount or b) one of the other three requirements are fulfilled as well (e.g. KV-5 is used for ramming, but is also a very large target that is very vulnerable to artillery) Ultimately, tanks such as the KV-5, T28 Concept, E-100 would benefit from a Spall Liner simply because they are prime targets for artillery and have thick enough armor to the point where damage from HE shells will be reduced significantly. Tanks such as the E-50M which are large but also used often for ramming can also be more effective with the addition of a Spall Liner. Just keep in mind that Spall Liners are very heavy, and thus will slow your tank down. If a tank relies entirely on mobility, avoid Spall Liners (which means that Aufkl. Panthers shouldn't mount them, even if you ram often. You're already a very easy to hit target, you need that mobility to move around) Wet Ammo Rack: 50% increase in Ammo Rack hit points. It weighs 1% of what your tank does (e.g. 1 ton if your tank is 100 tons) So... when to mount it? If you feel as though your ammo rack is extremely vulnerable, you may want to consider this... just keep in mind that most fragile ammo racks are in the sides of tanks, thus if you keep your side safe, your ammo rack will be safe. If you feel that you will benefit more from more ammo rack hit points than you would from something such as Ventilation, then mount it.. otherwise, just keep your side safe and you'll be fine. Wet Ammo Rack 1 and 2 have the exact same effect... #1 costs $200,000 Credits; #2 costs $600,000 Credits. Cyclone Filter: +50% to engine durability. It does not change the time until your engine is damaged from a Removed Speed Governor (consumable). Personally, I do not recommend mounting this - there are very few tanks which suffer too badly from engine damage. The only time I would mount a Cyclone Filter is if all of the following conditions are fulfilled: The tank is prone to module damage in general, not just the engine (meaning more than one module is likely to be destroyed in a battle, thus are likely to spend a repair kit) You do not have Repair skills to speed up your track repair, thus you are more likely to use a repair kit on tracks Your engine is vulnerable; frontally mounted perhaps, easily damaged from the sides, or simply has low durability... You tend to be shot in your engine often (you find yourself flanked and shot in the rear often, or you play an aggressive role in which tanks may often gets shots at your engine) There are no better equipment choices Please note that the Cyclone Filter has no effect on chance of fire; as that is directly associated with the engine compartment being hit, not critical engine damage. Only Soviet and Chinese tanks may mount a Cyclone Filter (excluding lend-lease tanks with Soviet crews; e.g. Churchill III) Fill tanks with CO2: +50% to fuel tank hit points. Whilst fuel tank damage has no effect on your tank, as soon as your fuel tanks are destroyed your tank will burst into flames. The best time to use Fill Tanks with CO2 is if you have a tank which has frontally mounted fuel tanks which are easy to hit, or if they're very fragile in the first place and are hit often. Tanks such as the 113 (fuel tanks in the lower plate, which coincidentally is the main weak-point of the armor) may often be hit in the fuel tanks and possibly set on fire. An Automatic Fire Extinguisher should be able to prevent any real problems, thus the Fill tanks are unnecessary... however, on the rare occasion a double fire may occur from repeated lower plate hits, and after a while, the costs of the Automatic Fire Extinguishers add up... thus it could be considered as an option, perhaps as a replacement to Ventilation. It's available for tanks Tier 6 and above. Enhanced Suspension: +10% to suspension load limit (e.g. 100 ton weight limit would become 110 ton limit), +20% to suspension hit points (i.e. tracks will break less often due to your tank being launched into the air, fewer track breaks due to suspension damage) and 50% reduced HP damage which comes as a direct result from suspension damage (i.e. you take less damage if you fall off a cliff, launch your tank in the air, hit the ground at a strange angle, etc.) So - when is it useful? For the most part, only on light tanks; especially light tanks with uncontrolled mobility (e.g. MT-25, it's extremely fast but drifts all the time). However, light tanks with which you perform many off-road maneuvers may also benefit (fewer track breaks due to poor driving, reduced chances of your tank being stuck in the open) The second scenario in which the Enhanced Suspension may be useful is if you are driving a tank with stock tracks, which also has upgraded modules researched, but can't mount them due to excessive weight. If you don't mind replacing an equipment slot for an Enhanced Suspension, you could research and purchase all modules aside from the tracks first, then purchase the tracks last after you've gotten everything else... or perhaps skip the tracks entirely to save yourself some XP. Enhanced Suspensions have a wide variety of names, depending on the tank you mount it on; sometimes it's called "Coil Rings", sometimes "Leaf Springs", "Torsion Bars", "Belleville Washers", etc. The costs range from 20,000 Credits to 600,000 Credits; it all depends on which tank you're mounting it uopn. It is available on all tanks. Gun Rammers: 10% reduced loading time (10% quicker reload). This essentially would make your tank fire 11 shots in the time it would normally take to fire 10. Usually considered a "must-have" for all tanks on which it is available. There are 4 times of Gun Rammers; each with the exact same effect (10% reduced loading time). Medium Caliber Tank Gun Rammer (200,000 Credits) Large Caliber Tank Gun Rammer (500,000 Credits) Medium Artillery Gun Rammer (300,000 Credits) Large Artillery Gun Rammer (600,000 Credits) If it's available, put it on... being able to shoot faster means that you are more likely to retaliate against an enemy which peeks against you, you will have more DPM and ultimately will be able to cause more damage in a shorter period of time. This is unavailable for most autoloders; however, there are exceptions for tanks such as the 59-16. Enhanced Gun Laying Drive: 10% reduced aiming time. Please keep in mind that the aiming time listed in-game (e.g. 2.7 seconds, 1.5, etc.) is not your actual aiming time. There's a formula behind that listed aiming time, but I don't know entirely what it represents. All I know is that aiming times 2 seconds or below are good, between 2 and 3 seconds are decent, and 3 seconds and above are poor aiming times. A 10% reduction in aiming time means that you will be fully aimed more quickly and you will be able to fire your shots more quickly (less time spent aiming = more time spent shooting = greater damage output in a shorter period of time). This should be considered for tanks with poor aiming times, and especially for tanks with poor gun handling. However, there's a different piece of equipment which is even more useful than an Enhanced Gun Laying Drive which is listed below. Due to the presence of that equipment, an Enhanced Gun Laying Drive should only be placed onto tanks which fulfill the first of the following requirements and one other: Poor aiming time and / or gun handling (This must be true for a Gun Laying Drive to be useful) One of the main strengths of the tank is the gun ​If this is true and there is a Stabilizer available (in which case mount the Stabilizer), then the tank also must not have other equipment available which would benefit it even more (meaning you would then be taking up two slots; one for a Stabilizer and one for a Gun Laying Drive. Is there something more useful than the laying drive?) There is no Vertical Stabilizer available Vertical Stabilizer: 20% reduction in gun bloom / aiming spread / accuracy penalties (due to moving, rotating turret, etc.). This does not affect final gun accuracy (e.g. .33 will still stay .33) A 20% reduction in gun bloom not only means that you can snapshot more quickly and reliably, but it also means 20% smaller of an aiming circle, which means 20% less time spent aiming... this effectively is a Gun Laying Drive that had 10 shots of espresso prior to each battle (to keep it PG to avoid Forum bans...) If this equipment is available, chances are that you should mount it. Unless the tank truly would not benefit very much from this equipment (i.e. already very good gun handling, and / or needs other equipment more so; such as some light tanks), then you should mount the Vertical Stabilizer. On tanks such as a T54E1, which main strength is the gun and the tank suffers from poor gun handling, and there is no other equipment which serves even greater purpose, then put on both a Vertical Stabilizer and an Enhanced Gun Laying Drive. This equipment is available for American Lights at Tier 5, Mediums at Tier 6, and Heavies at Tier 7. It's available for all British medium and heavy tanks at Tier 7. Available for all other nations starting at Tier 8, with the exception of the French AMX 13 90 and the Chinese WZ-132. Coated Optics: +10% to View Range at all times (except when Binoculars are active) A 10% boost to View Range can be very effective on a few tanks: The first set being light tanks, in particular active scouts (meaning scouts which move around a lot rather than spotting from a bush; tanks such as the MT-25, LTTB, etc.). It also can be useful for any tank that moves around a lot, and relies on spotting its opponent before the enemy spots it. Tanks with good camo values benefit even further from this, as the extra view range on top of their good camo will allow them to remain invisible whilst shooting at targets at a distance that it spots itself. Also, tanks that suffer from relatively poor View Range could use this in order to compensate If out-spotting opponents could benefit you and there aren't any better choices of equipment (some heavies or mediums, they don't need it, but sometimes it could come in handy, and there is no other equipment that's any more useful.) Personally, I would only mount Optics onto light tanks and some mediums. If you use Binoculars on a tank, chances are that you don't need Optics (the View range bonus is not active when Binoculars are active). A few people like to mount Optics on accurate heavy tanks such as the FV215B, simply to have the ability to shoot targets that are a distance away when there is no one else there to spot. If this is something you think would benefit you, go ahead. Don't fear! If your tank already has high View Range (let's say the T71's 400m) and you have Skills and Perks which increase it even further up to the 445m limit (You can only spot targets yourself that are within a distance of 445m or less), putting on Optics still isn't a waste - any View Range that exceeds the 445m limit will then reduce the enemy's effective camouflage, meaning it's yet still easier to spot the enemy, which is very important for active scouts or tanks that rely on spotting their own targets. Additional Grousers: A strange piece of equipment that reduces your terrain resistance by 9.1% on soft ground and by 4.8% on medium terrain... this effectively means your tank will be able to accelerate and traverse faster on rough terrain or when you're off-road driving. The effect of the equipment is partially counter-acted by the weight of it (1,000kg!), but that's not the main problem with it - whilst it is still useful when it comes to reducing terrain resistance, it's only available on a select few tanks, most of which wouldn't receive any real benefit from the equipment in the first place, as there are many other pieces of equipment that are more useful. It's mostly German tanks that can mount it, and two Soviet TD's as well. The tanks that can mount it are the: SU-76I, SU-85I, Pz. III A, P. IV A, Pz. III, Pz. IV D, Pz. III/IV, Pz. IV H, VK 30.01 (H), D.W.2, Pz. IV Schmalturm, StuG III B, StuG III G, Jagdpanzer IV, Nashorn, Sturmpanzer II, Pz. Sfl. IVb and the Hummel. Most of those tanks... just wouldn't see much use from it, or even if they would, there is equipment that would be even more useful. I do not recommend mounting this equipment unless there is absolutely nothing else that is of any greater use to mount (which I don't think is the case for any of these tanks) Improved Ventilation: +5% to your Crew's effective skill level (e.g. a 90% crew is like a 95% crew with Vents). Improved Ventilation improves your Crew's major qualification by 5%, which thus improves nearly all parameters of your tank's performance in battle. Slightly better camo, view range, reload, radio range, accuracy, aiming time... the effective boost to those aspects is approximately 2.5%, but regardless, it is an overall boost in your tank's effectiveness. One interesting thing to note about Ventilation is that it stacks with the Commander's bonus (Commander provides a 1% boost to the rest of the crew for each 10% of Commander's training; it rounds up, thus a 75% commander provides an 8% bonus to the rest of the crew). Vents would thus give the crew a 6% boost rather than a 5% boost. (e.g. a 100% Crew @ 100% Commander, 110% rest of crew with the Commander bonus, would then become a 105% crew; with a 105% commander, and the rest of the crew would be at 116%, since the commander now has another 10% (rounded up), thus he gives the crew yet another 1% bonus) That extra 1% doesn't affect your tank much, but it does mean that technically, Ventilation improves your crew by 6%; one percent more than advertised. Vents are a very good piece of equipment to have on any tank you own, as it improves all of the characteristics of the tank... however, it's also a great piece of equipment to replace if there's a different bit of equipment that you could use more (e.g. You have Vents, Rammer and Optics, but you feel as though you would benefit significantly from a Stabilizer - you would then replace the Vents for the Stabilizer). Since the change in performance is minor, it allows you to replace the Vents with a more roll-specific piece of equipment... the downside is that removing Vents slightly reduces all aspects of your tank, not just one. Camo Net: Adds to your tank's camouflage values after your tank has been still for 3 seconds. Your tank must remain still for the camo bonus to remain in effect; as soon as you move, you will need to be still for another 3 seconds for the bonus to re-activate. The bonus is + 10% camouflage to lights and mediums, + 5% for heavies, + 15% for TD's and +5% to artillery. Shooting and rotating the turret does not affect the camo bonus; only moving the hull / tracks removes it. This is most useful for passive scouts (scouts that sit in bushes in aggressive locations to spot), and tank destroyers which do a lot of sitting still; especially turreted ones (T67) or ones with very good gun arcs, as they won't have to move very often to move their guns. Please keep in mind that a Camo Net is only useful if your tank already has decent or better camo to begin with. Putting it on a Wt. auf. E-100 will do you absolutely no good, and will only waste an equipment slot. Do not mount it on heavies (no exceptions), mediums (there are *some* exceptions to this) or artillery (arty only get a 5% bonus, and would benefit a lot more from Vents, Rammer, Gun Laying Drive, Binocs, etc.) The Camo Net is a piece of simple equipment (no cost to de-mount). Binocular Telescope: +25% to your tank's View Range after it has been sitting still for 3 seconds, it only is in effect whilst your tank is sitting still (traversing the turret or shooting does not affect this bonus; only moving the hull [tracks] does.) This is most effective on tanks which are effectively scout tanks in one way or the other (passive light tanks, mediums such as the M7, TD's such as the T67 and E-25, etc.). All of these tanks need to spot their own targets, and may very well do a lot of sitting still (i.e. they don't need to be active scouts, rather it would benefit them to sit still; the TD's to snipe, the lights to be able to spot from bushes to avoid being spotted, and the M7 to both, stay hidden, snipe and to not affect the gun bloom as much. ***Please note that the M7 should do a lot of moving around, it should only spot early on during the battle or when it is beneficial, otherwise it should be flanking and circling the enemy*** The bonus from Binoculars does not stack with Coated Optics (i.e. you only get a 25% bonus, even if you have Optics on your tank). This means that tanks such as the T67 would benefit most from Binoculars since it doesn't do enough active moving to justify Optics; and both would only help if they stacked. It would be pointless to put on both Optics and Binoculars on any tank in fact, unless it's a scout tank in which you tend to do both, actively and passively scout. If you do a lot of both, than both pieces of equipment may be useful... most scouts only fulfill one of the two types of scouting roles however, and thus only need one of the two. Binoculars are simple equipment, thus can be de-mounted at any time without penalty. Toolbox: +25% repair speed of destroyed modules (does not affect damaged modules, only destroyed ones). This is primarily useful for tanks that tend to get tracked often; both for tanks without repair skills and with repair skills... either way, it's 25% less time sitting out in the open vulnerable to fire whilst your tracks are destroyed. Since this is simple equipment and can be de-mounted and re-mounted to any tank you want as many times as you want, it's a great one-time investment - then, it's a great piece of equipment to put on any tank that you cannot afford equipment for. You buy it once, then all of your new tanks without equipment may benefit. As permanent equipment however, I cannot recommend it unless the tank in question is: Prone to losing its tracks often Tends to lose its tracks when exposed to enemies in vulnerable locations (e.g. light tanks being tracked in the open would benefit more than heavy tanks being tracked whilst side-scraping. Does not have better equipment choices Now, we've discussed the differences between simple and complex equipment, as well as have listed and described the uses of all of the various pieces of equipment in the game. Anything else to mention? Of course there is! What would a good guide be without extra, miscellaneous information about the subject matter in question? Extra Info: When playing a new tank, if you cannot afford any other equipment at the time, put on a Camo Net, Binoculars and Toolbox. These are the 3 bits of simple equipment, thus you do not incur a penalty for de-mounting and re-mounting. Buy them once whilst you can afford them, then never have to worry about bringing a new tank into battle without equipment again. Now, will these 3 be useful? Well... perhaps not... but at least it's better than nothing... and who knows? Perhaps it will come in handy on occasion. (Obviously, once you can afford more appropriate equipment, mount it. Please don't go around driving heavy tanks with Camo Nets and Binocs if you can afford Vents, Rammer, Stabilizers, etc.) There truly is no point in purchasing more than one set of each piece simple equipment aside from convenience - if you have a lot of tanks in your Garage, it may be hard to remember which tank you last had the simple equipment on... however, if you have few tanks, or have few tanks which will ever use the simple equipment or possibly you have very good memory and can easily remember where you last put on the equipment, then there is no point in having more than one Camo Net, more than one set of Binoculars or more than one set of Toolboxes. Stabilizer > Gun Laying Drive. Only use both if the tank really, really needs it; and the tank's main strength is the gun. Optics > Binocs unless you do a lot of sitting still. It is very well worth having some Gold around to be able to de-mount and re-mount equipment on tanks (especially news ones), rather than having to pay 1,500,000 Credits to put on all the complex equipment. 30 Gold vs. 1,500,000 Credits? Which is more valuable... *Hint: Not the Gold.* In general, light tanks should use equipment that helps them spot, mediums should use equipment that aids their mobility and gun handling, heavies should use equipment that helps them dish out damage and take a beating, TD's should be able to spot, and dish out damage quickly. Arty should have Vents, Rammer, Gun Laying Drive. If Vents aren't available, then put on Binocs. No exceptions for arty, since you're all about the gun. Take advantage of equipment sales!!! If equipment is 25% or 50% off (especially the latter), grind as many Credits as you can, and spend those Credits on buying as much (useful) equipment as possible! Earlier, I mentioned the D35's crew problem. Whilst a Spall Liner does help, at Tier 2 you face a lot of howitzers, primarily from T18's. Arty also makes the chance of your crew dying very high. For the D35, I would thus not only mount a Spall Liner, but also a Large First Aid Kit (consumable) as that reduces the chance of crew death even further. D35 benefits from the Spall Liner since it's slow (thus easy to hit), has a limited crew count, and is often hit be HE shells (both from howitzers and arty)... in addition, the 40mm of armor is very thick for its Tier. Combine the Spall Liner with a Large First Aid Kit, and the crew problem is almost entirely resolved. If you're grinding a tank you dislike, if you have the Gold to de-mount equipment and put it on, or if you don't mind spending the Credits, put some equipment on said disliked tank... in some cases, the reason for not liking a tank is simply not having the equipment necessary for success in combat... or even if you still dislike the tank, it will at least allow you to perform better in battle, thus speeding up your grind. The World of Tanks Wiki has lists of compatible and suggested equipment for almost every tank in the game (with the exception of a few reward / tester / other server / not available tanks) My typical equipment layouts on most tanks are: Vents, Rammer & role-specific equipment. If I need two pieces of role-specific equipment, I will also replace the Vents. The only time I would not put on a Rammer is if it's not available or if a tank truly needs something else (some scouts). Brothers in Arms and Ventilation have the exact same effect. Having Vents is liking having BIA... having both is very useful, but if you need other crew skills aside from BIA, then putting on Vents is a good way to make up for not having BIA. ***List of recommended equipment for every tank in the game will come soon; it will be hyperlinked here once it is complete*** I hope this guide proves to be useful! I wish all of you the very best of luck, both in-game and in real life! Don't forget to have some fun as well!

Update: Added TargetDamage and WoTHelp to the list of useful websites & links.

Welcome, and do not fret. I see that you are lost and confused, in need of guidance and support. Lucky for you, thou have stumbled into the Scorpion's Den. Aside from venomous arachnids, you shall find guides a-plenty within this humble abode. Over the past couple of years in which I've been playing WoT, I've been cranking out guides in hopes of providing a valuable resource for players which are seeking to learn. Some of the guides are fairly simple and directed more-so towards newer players. Other guides however are rather quite complex, and may provide benefit to even seasoned veterans. As time passes and I create more guides, I shall add on to the compilation below. Guides from other members of the Forums, and various websites / tools which I find to be very useful have also been linked here. If these are the drones you were looking for and you are intent on staying, then sit back, turn on some pimping music and read away... all your questions shall be answered here. My personal collection of guides: Game Mechanics: The miracle of auto-aim Battle Positions Ammunition Spotting Mechanics Shot Trapping Sky Lining, and why you should avoid it A (Detailed) Guide to Equipment The Ultimate Light Tank & Scouting Guide Tanks: IS-3 Weakspots IS-6 Weakspots MT-25 Review StuG III G Review Charioteer Review O-I Experimental Review 59-Patton Review KV-5 Review WT auf E-100 Review Sherman Jumbo Review Pz. Sfl. IVc Review FV4005 Review 113 Review T110E5 Review Cromwell Review AMX CDC Review Pershing Review M41 Walker Bulldog Review Panzer 58 Mutz Review WZ-111 Review Maps: This section appears to be empty. Sad. Fear not however! It shall be added to very, very soon! Good Sportsmanship: Do not judge a player based off of their stats Rage, False Accusations, etc.; and why they are bad. Other: A Guide to Aslain's Modpack (How it affects FPS, extra info, etc.) Survival Guide to Match-up Melee Tournaments Uploading Images to the WoT Forums General Overview of Tips and Hints which I recommend Going AFK with minimal effect on your team A compilation of guides from other players: "Welcome to World of Tanks" - spectacular guide to the interface of the game for those who just installed the game Lert's Collection of Guides - A spectacular compilation of guides for newer players Tazilon's Website (Contains good overviews of scouting for various maps, techniques to use, etc.) Tazilon's YouTube Channel (For video scouting guides) WoT Guru (Player-run Weakspot guide website) The Tanker's Handbook (100+ pages of spectacular information) QuickyBaby's YouTube Channel (He has some great tank reviews there, and offers good gameplay tips as well) KingAlphyn's Noob Friendly Tips (For beginning players, a good overview about some of the "Do"s and "Don't"s of WoT. Will add more as I find them / as people suggest them. If there's something you feel as though I should definitely link here, tell me in a comment below and I shall add it! Other valuable resources / links often used: World of Tanks Wiki WoT Scout (Tournament Progress Tracker) Team Speak 3 (Voice Communication Platform, most Clans require this) Tank Inspector (Great tool for examining armor layouts, "soft" stats of a tank, etc.) WoT Compare (Website for comparing the stats of tanks) WoT Info (Great site for stats access, camo value calculation, etc.) WoT Labs (Most commonly used site for tracking player statistics) VB Addict (Somewhat of an all-in-one information site for WoT) WoT Replays (Great place to upload your WoT replays, and watch other's replays as well) Rita Status Report Blog (Un-official, "leaked" leads about possible WoT development in the future) QuickyBaby's Replay Site Aslain's Modpack and Forums (My personal favorite modpack, I also upload guides there on the Forums under "Guides and Tutorials" ) XVM official website (XVM Stat mod, you have to activate statistics here if you want them to show in-game, if you use XVM) WoT Labs Forums (Great place to ask others for help, lots of skilled players hang around there) Will add more as I find them. If you have any suggestions on more sites to link here, let me know! Additional Links for Easy Access: World of Tanks Website World of Tanks Official Forums Customer Support Gift Shop Clans Page "Refer a Friend" Program Clan Wars Global Map eSports and Tournaments WGLNA on TwitchTV WoT's YouTube Channel Imgur (Needed for uploading images to the Forums) TinyPic (Another option for uploading images to the Forums) TargetDamage (Nice weakspot & expected damage site) WoTHelp (Site with various tutorials) Will add more as they are suggested. Popular and / or very good YouTube Channels & TwitchTV Streamers: Anfield's Twitch Sela's Twitch QuickyBaby's Twitch & YouTube Jingle's YouTube TheFochYou (Sir Foch)'s YouTube Capt. Canada's YouTube Zeven_NA's Twitch JunkersHiryu's Twitch Please tell me which other channels to mention here... I don't follow Twitch or YouTube very often, so there are a lot of channels I do not know of, which very well deserve to be linked here. I would like to mention that some of my guides linked above are on the old side. I will go through all of the guides within this Thread soon, and update them with more accurate and up-to-date information. Most of the content within the guides is still very viable, some of it merely needs some revising. I genuinely wish you all the best of luck and fun, both in-game and in real life. I hope this collection of guides and other links proves to be useful. As long as I can help others, it's all worth it. =)

Don't worry. I see that you are lost and confused, in need of guidance and support. Lucky for you, thou have stumbled into the Scorpion's Den; with guides aplenty. This particular edition contains A Field Survival Guide to Match-up Melee Tournaments. If these are the drones you were looking for, sit back, turn on some pimping music and read away... all your questions shall be answered here. Match-up Melee Tournaments - they occur once every 8 weeks or so, and consist of 5 vs. 5 fights with random teammates. The people on your team will be there for the entirety of the tournament, but you have absolutely no influence over who will be on there. It could be a group of professional players who've been around since the early Beta stages of the game, or it could be newbies who are just starting out and stumbled across the registration page. Regardless, you'll have to work with what you're given. This guide contains three sections - A general overview of Match-up Melee, a guide for a Captain / Caller and some general information for regular players. General Overview of Match-up Melee: This section simply contains some basic information about Match-up Melee formats, rules, etc. Standard Setup: Match-up Melee is usually a 5 vs. 5 fight, between Tiers 2 and 5. There are usually 13 people on a team, 5 combatants and 8 reserves. Everyone on the team can participate in battle and everyone on the team gets the same prizes that everyone else does. In the map rotation, there are 6 different maps. 2 of those are for Group Stages, 4 of them are for Playoffs. Typically, any map which has an Encounter mode available, will be used (e.g. if Lakesville is in the map rotation, the Encounter version will be used). On the first day of Match-up Melee (Saturday), you will be fighting in Group Stages. These battles filter out the top 50% of teams. Those in the top 50% will be moving on to the Playoffs. No prizes are earned in the Group Stages; rather they are just qualification rounds for the Playoffs. Group Stages usually at 4:00 P.M. PST (7:00 P.M. EST) and 7:00 P.M. PST (10:00 P.M. EST). There are 6-7 battles in each set of battles in the Group Stages. Assuming you placed in the top 50% of teams during Group Stages, your team will then move on to the Playoffs on Sunday. This is when you begin fighting for Gold. There are 4 sets of battles during Playoffs. Each "set" of battles during Playoffs is simply an engagement with one other team. Your team and the enemy team will then engage until one of the two achieves 2 victories. The first to 2 victories moves on, and also increases their Gold pool for the end of the tournament. You may only fight the enemy team up to 5 times - if neither team achieves 2 victories within 5 battles, then neither team moves on. Playoff times are as follow - 4:00 P.M. PST (7:00 P.M. EST), 5:30 P.M. PST (8:30 P.M. EST), 7:00 P.M. PST (10:00 P.M. EST), 8:30 P.M. PST (11:30 P.M. EST). Prizing: Playoff rounds are the only battles which award Gold. Group Stages are merely qualification battles for the Playoffs. Playoffs are out of 16 teams, and prizing goes as follows: 5th-8th (having won one set of Playoff battles): 500 Gold per player 4th (having won two sets of Playoff battles, lost semi-finals, lost the fight for 3rd / 4th): 1,000 Gold per player 3rd (having won two sets of Playoff battles, lost semi-finals, won the fight for 3rd / 4th): 2,000 Gold per player 2nd (having won three sets of Playoff battles, lost Finals): 5,000 Gold per player 1st (having won all four sets of Playoff battles): 10,000 Gold per player. The amount of Gold listed on the WoT website is the amount that each player gets. The 10,000 Gold prize means that your team wins 130,000 Gold - each individual gets 10,000 Gold. Please keep in mind that Gold takes up to 7 work days to be delivered. Even players who didn't participate in a single battle will get that Gold (so if you don't get picked for the Playoff battles due to lower skill levels, fear not - you still get the same amount of Gold as everyone else). However, that does not mean that you can leach Gold. If your team doesn't have the players and tanks they need, chances are that they won't win any Gold. Registration, battle times, disputes: Registration - You sign up for Match-up Melee via. e-mail. You will receive the e-mail when registration is available. Simply follow the instructions within. (If you don't see an e-mail, and Match-up Melee is open for registration, check your spam folder. Otherwise, you can sign up on the Match-up Melee page on the World of Tanks website). Battles - For Group stages, battles are 13 minutes apart, with each battle lasting no more than 10 minutes. For Playoffs, battles will last no longer than 10 minutes, and after the completion of a battle, there will be 2 minutes until the next one. (On occasion, a team gets a "bye", meaning they don't have a battle when most other teams do. You can check for such "byes" on your team's page in the WoT website; you will be able to see your individual team's battle schedule there) Disputes - since there are few rules that can be broken in Match-up Melee, disputes are unlikely. However, if you feel as though you must submit a dispute, send an e-mail to [email protected]. Captain / Caller Guide: For success within such tournaments, someone will have to take charge of the team... unfortunately, usually no one else on the team is willing to step up to that role. Thus if you really want to win, you will have to take that responsibility on yourself, at least to an extent. Early Stages: So you've just registered for the tournament. You've been assigned a team, and know that the battles begin within a couple of days. There are several important things you should do at this point: Find the Match-up Melee page on the WoT Website and bookmark it. The schedule is rather strange, so it's important that you have it available for easy access. Go to WoT Labs and quickly do a database search of the people on your team. Alternatively, if you check WoT Scout a day or two prior to the start of the tournament, you will usually be able to see your team's stats that way. Checking your team's stats is essential just so you know who you're working with, and if you have a surplus of players available for the battle, you will be able to select the more skilled players for the more important battles. Please don't forget that you should give everyone on your team who wants to, a chance in combat. On the first day of combat during Group Stages, you should more freely cycle between available players. On the second day during Playoffs is when you'll really want to pay attention to skill, since at that point you are fighting for Gold. (Remember - on WoT Labs and WoT Scout, if the players themselves does not check their stats, their recent WN8 will be displayed as "0". This does not mean that they actually have "0" recent WN8 or that they are not active. All of the players on your team have played within the past 30 days) Setting up Communication: After gathering very initial information about your team, you will need to set up a communication system between all of the players on your team. Firstly, start off by creating a Private Message in the Forums, and add all the people into the "participants" list. (It says that you can only invite up to 5 other people, but that's a lie - during PM creation, you can put as many people in there as you wish.) The format of the P.M. does not matter, however I have a sample one below (this is one that I use for all of my teams): Sample Private Message: Hey guys. This is our “Match-up Melee” Tournament Team - hopefully some of you guys already know each other. We are a part of Team 254. Scorpiany will be the primary caller / captain of the team (due to having the most tourney experience and skill) We will be using the Relic Gaming Team Speak 3 server: ts.relicgaming.com (relic1 is the password). (If you do not have Team Speak 3, that is fine. I will type out all strats and calls via. the in-game chat. The TS3 is only for those who want to communicate in-battle… however, I’d prefer everyone get TS3 if you don’t already have it; it’s free anyways) Tanks I want: Luchs (Most preferred tank, 3cm autoloader) M5A1 Stuart (Chinese Tier 4 light tank) Pz. III Backup tanks (not preferred, but still O.K. if nothing else is available): Covananter Pz. IV D We will select tanks based on attendance, skill, and availability of the tank in question. Battles schedule is below: May 23rd - 4:00 P.M. PST (7:00 P.M. EST), and 7:00 P.M. PST (10:00 P.M. EST) May 24th - 4:00 P.M. PST (7:00 P.M. EST), 5:30 P.M. PST (8:30 P.M. EST), 7:00 P.M. PST (10:00 P.M. EST), 8:30 P.M. PST (11:30 P.M. EST) Make sure to listen carefully to my calls… if you guys want to have a good tournament experience with a Gold profit, listening carefully and working together as a team will be essential. We will meet up half an hour before each tournament session to discuss strategies (hopefully). Keep in mind that there are 2 (two) sets of battles on Saturday, and 4 (four) sets of battles on Sunday. The times have been listed in the battle schedule. The following are simply some links that you may find useful: Scouting Report Tournament Page Our Team Forum Discussion Team Speak 3 Download Page Good luck everyone! Let’s win some Gold! =) On occasion, you will get an error when trying to send the message. Typically, the error says something such as "Users XXX do not exist!". This either means that the person does not yet have a Forum Profile, or that they were permanently banned from the Forums. Simply remove these players from the Private Message list and the message will send. Forum Communication is only one medium however. Not everyone on your team will even check the Forums, and despite the fact that people get an e-mail upon the arrival of a new Private Message by default, they may have disabled that option, or perhaps don't check their e-mails very often. Thus it is also essentially to be able to communicate in-game. With the new Contacts system, it's very easy to organize all of the people for your Match-up Melee team. Start off by creating a new folder called "Match-up Melee". You will then have to copy and paste the names of your team members from the WoT website (not the Forum PM, remember that some of the users may have been removed from that), and then add them into that folder. At the end of it all, you should have 12 people in there (assuming it's the standard 13 on a team format). Make sure to send all of those people a Friend Request! After creating the folder in your Contacts List, send everyone on your team an in-game Private Message. I recommend a format such as the one below (obviously you will have to edit the text): Sample In-Game Private Message: Hello tanker! Don't forget, Match-up Melee 3 begins tomorrow (Saturday) at 4:00 P.M. PST (7:00 P.M. EST). Please try to show up at least half an hour early so that we can discuss a few strategies. The tanks we are looking for are: Luchs (3cm autoloader), Pz. III or M5A1 Stuart. Covenanter and Pz. IV D are also viable if you have nothing else, but we prefer one of the first 3 in the list. Log into the WoT Forums and check your Private Messages for more information. We hope to see you soon! Good luck! The amount of text seen in the sample is approximately the maximum quantity of text that you can fit into one individual message in the in-game P.M.'s. Upon receiving said message, most of the players on your team who log into the game will not only understand where the Friend Request is coming from, but will also be reminded about the battles. Keep in mind that many of the players on your team are not used to Tournaments, and may very easily forget when the battles begin. Thus I recommend "bumping" (sending a new message) the Private Messages during the following time intervals (for the initial set of Saturday battles): 3 days prior to battles 1 day before battles 3 hours before battles 1 hour before battles 30 minutes before battles When battles are up Do not feel as though you are being pushy... I can guarantee that a significant number of the players on your team would forget if you don't bump the messages. Remember, these are random teammates who most likely have never had a tournament experience in the past, thus they will be very confused without a lot of guidance. The most efficient way to send such messages is to type one out, Select it (Control + A), Copy it (Control + C) and then paste it (Control + V). Strategy and Tank Lineup: Any good team will have a known strategy and tank lineup that they will want to follow for the tournament. Since you have random teammates, you can't necessarily expect them to have all of the tanks which are most optimal, so try to have some "backup" tanks available as well. To create a strategy, you may need to talk to professional Skirmish or Clan Wars players. Check out WoT Scout or WoT Labs, find one of the top teams / Clans, and send one of their leaders a message. Hopefully you'll get a legitimate response back. Luckily, many people are willing to help less experienced players, thus you should be able to find some great advice. If you already have a lot of Tournament and Clan Wars experience such as I do, I still must stress how imperative it is to communicate with other players. Often times, top teams will have different (and very successful) suggestions for strategies and tank lineups. Your strat and lineup should consist of two sections: Primary list of tanks / strategy Backup tanks / strategy For your primary list, include the tanks which you believe are most beneficial for the maps within the rotation, and include strategies which you would like your team to begin following at the start of any battle. The backup however, should be just that - in case your teammates don't have some of the primary tanks, which tanks still can work decently? As for the strategy, the "backup" is more of a "flex" strategy. For example - if your team felt that putting a sniper in the middle of Lakesville whilst putting the rest of the force on cap would be a good idea, you have to have a backup for an enemy team that, say, pushes valley before you can even get onto the cap. What would you do then? How many tanks would you send to stop their flanking push, would you stay on cap or not, what would the sniper do at that point, etc. Be ready to change up the strategy as the battle progresses. Now for some specifics - for your tank lineup: Most of these Match-up Melees are lower Tier. In general, penetration values aren't nearly as much of a worry as factors such as clip damage, DPM, gun handling, mobility, etc. Just make sure that the tanks you select can decently reliably penetrate all other tanks of the same Tier, at least with Premium rounds. For example, the Luch's single fire gun may have low AP penetration, but the APCR will easily punch through everything it meets, and the gun can offer great distance fire or cover fire between reloads for other tanks. Thus just due to the lowish penetration, do not disqualify the gun until you've looked at all of the other factors. Keep in mind that there are 6 different maps during Match-up Melee. The tanks which are viable on one map, may not work so well on a different map. Remember that most of the maps which have it available, will be Encounter mode battles - thus you may have to change your strat / lineup based on that as well When picking people for the more important battles, try to keep individual skill in the tank in question in mind. For example, I can easily excel in the Luchs and Pz. III, but I won't be able to perform quite as well in an M8A1, so I'll try to choose someone else for that TD. 30-60 minutes before the battles: Try to get everyone in your team into a Training Room half an hour to an hour prior to the start of the battles. That way you will be able to discuss the strategy as a group, and they'll be able to get a quick view of the maps as well. Hopefully they'll bring the tanks that they'll be using in the tournament, but that's not necessary as it's just a Training Room. I do suggest getting together with another Match-up Melee team however, and fighting a few practice battles, especially on maps that your teammates may not be familiar with. Most importantly however, don't lose track of the time, and remind your teammates when the Special Battles tab pops up. When it's time for battles: Well, you've gotten thus far... now what? Firstly, hop into the Special Battles tab (bottom left-ish corner of the screen) and Team Speak 3. Don't forget to bump the Private Messages that you sent, so those on your team who are online (even if they didn't accept your Friend Request) will be notified of the Special Battles tab. Let's say that you have 8 players in the Special Battles tab. In order to facilitate the best choices for the battle, follow such procedure as follows: Ask your teammates which tanks they have available. Take record of their responses. Filter out the tanks which are not beneficial, so you're left only with the desired tanks for the tournament. Imagine this scenario - you want 3 Luch's on your team, and 5 of your teammates have them. First check their stats - how's their overall performance in-game? What about in the tank in question? If there's still no clear-cut answer (if their skill is about the same), then ask what kind of equipment they have on their tanks, and how many sets of skills and perks they have. A Luchs driver with a 85% crew and all equipment needed may take priority over a 100% crew with no equipment or skills. A player with 6th sense and camo as their only skills and perks will take priority over a Luchs driver with 4 sets of skills and perks who does not have 6th and camo. Just determine who has the most effective crew for the battle scenario's you are fighting in, and pick players that-a-way. If you need 2 M5A1 Stuarts on your team and 3 Luchs, if only 2 people on your team have the M5A1's, make sure that you put them in said tank... you don't want to put your only M5A1 drivers into Luchs, right? Don't substitute a 350 WN8 M5A1 driver for a 1,250 WN8 Luchs driver... even if the M5A1 stuart is a better tank for the tournament, the Luchs driver with significantly more skill will be able to do a lot more in battle. So - now you have your tank composition set up, players selected, etc. You want to confirm that all of your players are fully upgraded, have Vents and consumables. Also, send the TS3 info in chat, so that those who haven't yet gotten it will be able to hop in and communicate. During the battle: Now that you are in combat, chances are that you will need to call your team. If you're not the best of players, and there are people on your team whom you think would do a better job at calling, designate the duty to them. If you are calling however, there are several things you should keep in mind. Firstly, as a caller for Match-up Melee, you will need to determine whether you want to call via. Voice Chat or the regular in-game chat. If you are going to use Voice Chat, double and triple check that everyone on your team has Voice Chat enabled in the settings (under Audio). If your team does not have Team Speak 3, or for some reason they can't enable Voice Chat, you will have to call via. the regular chat. During the battle loading, explain where you want tanks to go for the start of the battle, and ping the map a bit. As the battle progresses, you want to emphasize sticking together as a group. If the battle comes to a stand-still, with no enemies spotted, or no active fighting going on, you can take the time to type out a few plans or strats you wish to go through with. Chances are that your team is not quite as familiar with the maps or strategies as you would hope for. Thus make sure that you: Keep the strategies relatively simple, make sure that everyone on your team knows what is expected from them, and won't be easily confused If you want a tank to do a more complex maneuver, make sure you thoroughly explain it, and make sure the person who will be doing said maneuver understands exactly what they need to do Change the strategy based on the enemy's tank composition Adapt and flex the strategy as your teammates or enemy's move, take damage, etc. Don't forget about the cap circle, make sure that you have a backup plan ready in case the enemy tries to cap Keep reload times in mind. If you're using autoloaders, make sure that they have an easy escape route for them to take during their reload, or at least make sure that they have support fire so that they won't be isolated. Any tank with a howitzer should be closer up to the enemy. The more inaccurate guns should be closer, just so they'll be effective. Do not split your team too far apart - make sure that they can always cover and support each other when it's needed. For the most part, try to avoid sniping. Even if you have a designated scout, he's mostly there to tell you where the enemy is, not for you to snipe at them. At lower Tiers, sniping is usually very ineffective. If you wish to incorporate sniping into your strategy, make sure that you have a tank in your lineup which is capable of fulfilling that role. HP share - make sure that the tanks with full HP are taking a few hits for the allies with little hit-points Pay attention to the mini-map! You want to be able to detect an enemy push as soon as it begins. Don't tunnel vision, and maintain a healthy level of situational awareness. After the battle: Obviously, if needed change your strategy and tank line-up. However, after the set of battles, emphasize the time of the next set of battles (as there are 2 sets on Saturday, 4 sets on Sunday). Make sure that your team knows in how many hours they will need to be back online for the next battles. Also, make sure that you adjust the strat and tank comp based on the next map - each set of battles has a new map. In addition, encourage your team members to check the WoT Forum for the Private Message that you sent to all of your teammates. Lastly, encourage your teammates to resupply their Credits if necessary - you don't want your teammates running out of APCR mid-battle! Other: Remind your teammates of each set of battles, preferably half an hour prior Disputes can be sent to [email protected] There is no special Tier limit for the standard Match-up Melee. If there are 5 combatants and the maximum Tier allowed is 4, the Tier limit will be 20. Do not worry about strange limits such as 17. dance210 will be able to answer most of the questions you have about Match-up Melee that you have. However, since she is very busy I would first ask your questions to someone such as myself or Moguai. Gold will take up to 7 days after the end of the tournament to be delivered to your account. If you feel as though there is an issue, or you haven't received your Gold within 7 days, send a message to dance210 with your concerns. Good luck, have fun! I insist upon it! ^^ Regular player information (non-captain, non-caller): If you do not have the time and / or skill to be a captain / caller for your team, there are still some things you should make sure you do prior to the start of the tournament. Check the WoT website and read through the Match-up Melee Tournament page (WoT Page > Tournaments > Tournaments (you'll be on the News tab for tourneys, you'll have to switch to the tournament list) > Match-up Melee. Add the people on your team to your Friend's List. Even if you're not a caller or captain, I do recommend having your teammates in your Contacts list so that you can message them if they're not in the Special Battles tab when they're needed. Talk to your team's caller / captain (if you have one). Figure out which tanks are most needed. If your team doesn't have a leader, make a tank decision logically. Perhaps message a few other players who have prior tournament and Clan Wars experience, and ask them which tank they would recommend. Prior to the battles, make sure that you are familiar with the maps which will be in the rotation. If not, visit a few Training Rooms and get an idea of their layout. Make sure that you have enough Credits for the tournament. If your tank has low penetration with its regular rounds, make sure you carry a few Premium rounds. Your consumable set-up should be First Aid Kit, Repair Kit, Automatic Fire Extinguisher (manual one is too risky; in a tournament you need to be able to put out fires as soon as they spring up) Put equipment on your tank which fits its role in battle - Vents for most tanks, and then determine whether you're scouting (Camo Net, Optics, Binocs, something of the sort), sniping (Gun Laying Drive) doing a lot of shooting on the move, or circling enemies (Vertical Stabilizer), or just soaking up hits. Light tanks should have camouflage and 6th sense as their primary set of skills and perks. No exceptions. Heavy tanks should hopefully have 6th sense, Brothers in Arms and Repairs Make sure you train your crew prior to the battles. A 100% crew with skills and perks is almost imperative. If you can't get your crew to that kind of level, just do what you can. Talk to your teammates during battle, don't isolate yourself. Focus fire - if you see your teammates shooting at a target within your line of sight, shoot at it as well - sooner you kill an enemy, the sooner you have one less gun pointing at your team. Leave a route of escape for yourself - don't get yourself trapped into a corner. The WoT webpage, dance210, myself and Moguai are your most reliable sources for information about Match-up Melee. Disputes can be sent to [email protected], following the format within the Skirmish Rules v2.1 Have fun. Match-up Melee tournaments are supposed to be special, fun tournaments. Don't stress out too much if you lost a battle. If you lost a battle, think about what you or your team could have done differently. Communicate your suggestions to the rest of your team. If your engine, ammo rack or crew is damaged / injured, or if you're isolated and reloading, let your team know. Your captain won't send you in as a scout if you have a damaged engine, and won't expect you to be providing the primary support fire if your ammo rack is damaged. Just make sure that the caller knows what your situation is (only if it's significant, don't bother him or her with trivial information), so that your tank will be put into a role which it can fulfill in its current state Team Speak 3 is highly recommended. If you can get your team into a TS3 server for voice chat communication, that would be great. At least use the in-game Voice Chat; it's a lot easier than typing. I hope this guide helps! I wish to all of you the very best of luck, and utmost fun and enjoyment! Good luck, have fun! ^^

Well, in that case you were out-side of spotting distance from the enemy, so you were fine. If you were close enough to be spotted, you'd be dead.

What's fast as can be, drifts like a boss, and has the damn scariest autoloader you'll ever face? The MT-25! In this guide, I shall cover all of the various Pros and Cons of the MT-25, explain the gun and equipment choices, and give a general overview of tips and hints you should follow when it comes to driving this speedy beast. Table of Contents: General overview (With Pros and Cons) Equipment and ammo layout Gun choices Gameplay style Tips, Hints and Random Information Comparison to other same-class tanks of its Tier Overall Rating General Overview: The MT-25 is just "one of those tanks". It takes a lot of getting used to, but will pay off when mastered. On paper, it has several major drawbacks - the large size, low View Range for a scout, and very low alpha damage. However, each of those drawbacks can easily be countered or has a remedy to it. The large size for one comes at some benefit - the tank is 25 tons and has 45mm of armor. For a light tank, that's not bad... not only will most guns be unable to over-match you (the armor is far from effective, albeit it allows for lucky bounces unlike other scouts), but you will do more damage than you take if you ram something such as a Bulldog or AMX.The View Range is easily countered with Optics and some crew skills, which will cap it out right around 455m. The tank plays the role of an active scout or flanker, so you really don't need much more than 455m anyways. Lastly, the low alpha damage comes at the benefit of a very high Rate of Fire (RoF) and fairly good gun handling in general. The tank excells at one thing in particular - speed. The tank hardly speed bleeds on turns, reaches the top speed in seconds and has a very good traverse. Mobility is without a doubt the tank's strongsuit, and allows you to easily out-pace and out-circle a large majority of tanks you come across. This is great, since active scouting and flanking is most effective in a fast tank. When you engage the enemy, you also have some kick from the gun. Good gun handling for the speeds you're driving at, combined with a great RoF and high APCR pen if it's necessary, all allow for you to pick apart the enemy fairly effectively. The approach to the enemy typically is very stealthy. Even though your camo values aren't the best (they're fairly good on the move, shooting is what will get you spotted), they are decent enough for you to get close enough without getting spotted for your speed to finish the approach before the enemy can react. When you're being shot at, you can easily dodge most shells with your mobility, especially if you keep zig-zagging. You are a large target, but most people don't realize just how quick the tank is, and often times will miss you if you know what you're doing. There is one major drawback however - the mobility is almost too good for the tank's own good... if you're not careful, you will enter a very long drift. In addition, the lack of speed bleeding combined with great acceleration means that when you driver over even a tiny bump, your tank will be launched up into the air. If you become air-born whilst turning, your tracks will break every single time. When trying to escape the enemy, you need to be aware of your surroundings, as well as have an understanding of your tank's overall handling on the move. Personally, I have almost 1,000 battles in my MT-25... despite this, I still find myself drifting and losing my tracks when it's least desirable. The moment I stop focusing on my driving, I drift and / or lose my tracks. The mobility is very impressive, but does take a lot of getting used to. Pros: ​Great acceleration (27.69 HP/ton ratio) Very high top speed (72 km/h) Minimal speed bleeding (Even on the hardest of turns over the roughest terrain you will lose no more than 10km/h) Armor is thick for a light tank (45 all around on the turret, 45/40/40 on the hull) and will not be over-matched by a large majority of enemy tanks, which allows for some lucky bounces Great RoF with the 57mm ZiS-4 Massive clip on the 37mm SH-37 (30 rounds) High APCR pen for a Tier 6 light tank (189 with the 57mm ZiS-4) Fairly good camo values on the move Is more effective at circling enemy targets than any other light tank of its Tier and almost all higher Tier light tanks The 57mm ZiS-4 is extremely accurate (.34 accuracy) The gun handling on all guns is very good considering the speed of the tank The 37mm SH-37 unloads the entire clip in only 10 seconds (thus having a 1200 damage output in 10 seconds) You lose very little speed when travelling over terrain, even on uphills (You can power up Himmelsdorf at 50km/h) Cons: ​The armor might not be over-matched, but is very easy to penetrate (even by 105mm Howitzers) The tank drifts very often (even on low speeds), and the drifts can last a long time if you're travelling quickly The tracks will break very often on bumpy terrain if you're not careful The View Range is low in comparison to most Tier 6 light tanks (only 370m) The AP penetration is fairly low (112 mm), and may be reliant on APCR (although the APCR rounds are great) The 37mm SH-37 autoloader has a very long reload (35 seconds) The 57mm ZiS-4 has very low alpha damage (85) 37mm SH-37 has exceptionally low penetration (46 AP, 62 APCR, 19 HE) Unlike most light tanks, the HE is ineffective even against Walker Bulldogs and RU 251's. (19 pen with the 37mm, 29 pen with the 57mm) The tank itself is a fairly large target; very easy to hit if you're not moving The camo value after shooting is extremely low Driver and Radio Operator die fairly often (However, the chances of it happening more than once during a battle is extremely low, so one first aid kit will usually suffice) The tank has very low ground clearance - try to avoid driving over fences, houses, etc. as those will slow you down significantly. Equipment and Ammo Layouts: Equipment: For equipment, I mount my MT-25 with Vents, Enhanced Torsion Bars and Coated Optics. Vents: The reason I mount Improved Ventilation is fairly obvious - the 5% bonus to the crew is very useful, and helps counter the low View Range Enhanced Torsion Bars: Without them, a shot to the tracks or a bump in the terrain whilst you're rocketing across the map will destroy the tracks almost immediately. The 50% bonus to the suspension's durability means that your tracks are a lot more likely to hold up on rough terrain. The MT-25 is the only light tank I ever mount Torsion Bars on, since I feel as though it needs them more than any other tank. Coated Optics: 370m of View Range is fairly low. With rew skills and perks, as well as Vents, the View Range goes up to 407m... however, that's still low if you're going to be an active scout. The Coated Optics combined with Vents and Recon & Situational Awareness will bump the View Range up to 448m, which is just what you need to fulfill your active scouting role. There are other choices of equipment which are also viable, although I do not recommend these. Binocular Telescope: Binocs will allow you to passively spot the enemy, although the MT-25 is one of those tanks which should always be moving. Not only is your camo inferior to many other light tanks, but by passively spotting you are squandering the main advantage of the MT-25, which is the speed and overall mobility. Enhanced Gun Laying Drive: Before I mounted the Enhanced Torsion Bars, I used to put on an Enhanced Gun Laying Drive. However, the recent buffs to the MT-25's aiming time make the Gun Laying Drive unnecessary. In addition, fairly good gun handling overall further reduces the effectiveness of an Enhanced Gun Laying Drive. Even before the aiming time buffs however, I found that it was much more beneficial to have Enhanced Torsion Bars in order to prevent the tracks from breaking. The MT-25 is so fast that its own tracks can't handle it sometimes... a set of Enhanced Torsion Bars will be much more useful than an Enhanced Gun Laying Drive. Toolbox: If you have 100% Repair Skills, putting on a Toolbox is a different way to counter your tracks breaking. However, Enhanced Torsion Bars strengthen the suspension itself, which will address the problem at its source. The Torsion Bars will help prevent your tracks from breaking in the first place, whilst a Toolbox will help you deal with the aftermath of such immobilization. The plus-side of having a tool-box is that it will speed up the repairs of all modules, not just the tracks... however, 97% of the time it's only your tracks that break... thus I still prefer Torsion Bars over the Toolbox. In addition, the fact that Torsion Bars reduce the damage you take from suspension damage means that you won't lose as much HP for bad driving as you might without them. Lastly, the Toolbox should only be considered if you have 100% repair skills... otherwise, the benefit of the Toolbox will be very minimal as you won't be able to repair your tracks quickly enough to survive; whislt the Torsion Bars would help prevent the tracks from breaking in the first place. With 100% repair skills, the benefit of a Toolbox is significant enough to be a viable replacement to the Torsion Bars. Ammo: My ammo layout on the MT-25 depends on the gun I'm using. For the 37mm SH-37, I load 100% APCR (360 rounds). The other ammo is absolutely useless. For the 57mm ZiS-4, I load 50% AP, 50% APCR (Which just so happens to be 50 AP, 50 APCR). The HE once again is useless in every way. I will be honest, when I'm using the 57mm ZiS-4, I tend to shoot a lot more APCR than I do AP. Having that 75mm boost in penetration, as well as 300m/s boost in shell velocity makes the APCR an absolute staple. Unfortunately, APCR usage on the ZiS-4 tends to be a lot mroe expensive than on the 37mm (even though it's about $300,000 to supply 100% APCR, per battle I find myself using a smaller percentage of my overall ammo with the 37mm, which results in lower ammo costs). For the 37mm SH-37, I load 100% APCR... even then, you only have 62 penetration. The nature of the autoloader (which will be discussed further in the guide) makes it a very viable option however. As for raw ammo costs, I find that a larger percentage of my 37mm shells do damage whilst shooting a lower percentage of my overall ammo count in comparison to the 57mm. I shoot a lot of APCR on both guns, so for me the 37mm isn't as costly. For people who don't spam as much APCR as I do with the 57mm, they may find themselves earning more with said 57mm. And for all the guns, HE is useless. Do not load HE in the MT-25... just don't. Gun Choices: Now, I'm going to go into more detail about the two guns. The black number is for the 57mm ZiS-4, the blue number is for the 37mm SH-37 autoloader. Reload speed: 2.25 (37.5) Aiming time: 2.1 (2.5) Accuracy: .34 (.45) 10 second damage output: 377.77 (1,200) Penetration: 112/185/29 (46/62/19) Ammo Capacity: 100 (360) Single Shell Damage: 85 (40) Methinks a comparison of the possibilities and effectiveness of the two guns is necessary. 37mm SH-37 Autoloader: Penetration wise, the 37mm Autoloder may seem useless... 62mm APCR pen won't penetrate many targets. However, the burst damage is absolutely insane. The gun does 1,200 damage in 10 seconds... for comparison, the M41 Walker Bulldog's autoloder does 1,500 damage in 20 seconds. That's only 25% more damage for 100% longer time required to unload the clip... this means an MT-25 using the 37mm autoloader can win a 1 vs. 1 fight with a Bulldog, assuming both start at full HP. The mobility, ammo count and armor also mean that you are very likely to dodge or bounce a Bulldog shell... it would take the Bulldog 2 seconds to put another shell into you, whilst if you miss, you only need a third of a second to put a shell in. If the Bulldog misses or bounces even once, the Bulldog has 0 hope of winning... and even if it doesn't miss, you still should come out victorious 9 times out of 10. The reload of the 37mm is long... 37.5 seconds. The gun also has limited range - targets outside of 360m or so can't be penetrated no matter what. The 62mm of penetration also means that you can't penetrate the rear of an IS for example. The burst damage is what makes it so effective. Considering the mobility of the platform, the gun has a lot of potential. When using the 37mm SH-37 autoloader, there are several different kinds of targets you should prioritize. The first of which are light tanks - you can win a 1 vs. 1 with almost any light tank you come across, and can one-clip any light tank you see... no exceptions. The only 3 light tanks that will give you any kind of trouble are the T49, AMX 13 90 and the T-54 Lightweight. If you can catch a T49 or AMX during their reload, you can kill them before they can get away, and the T-54 Lightweight just needs to be flanked. Regardless, those are the only light tanks that pose any real threat. T71's, Bulldogs, RU 251's, etc. are absolutely harmless... if they rush you (which they will do often), you can easily win an engagement with them. Secondly, you should try to hunt down TD's with low amounts of side and rear armor. Whether it's an E-25, French TD or Rhm, you can easily one-clip it. Most TD's (even St. Emil's and Dicker Max's) you will have to flank in order to penetrate... however, once you begin dumping the clip, not only can you circle them faster than they can traverse their hull, but you will kill them in a matter of seconds. Only Tier 9 TD's have any hope of surviving an entire clip being dumped into them. The 62mm of penetration does mean that there are some TD's which you can't penetrate (some British ones), but it's not as bad as you think - most TD's (Let's say the Soviet SU's) have a 30mm hatch on their rear. Your mobility allows for you to easily shoot at said hatch and clip them. Even AT-15's and AT-15A's have a spot such as this, which means that most TD's are very tasty morsels if you know where to shoot them. There is one TD that I must tell you to proceed with caution when engaging - the E-25 is very easy to clip if you get to its side, but it's also an extremely small target... you won't be able to shoot if you're hugging it, so keep a slight distance from it. The same applies to TD's such as the T28 - the non-angled 50mm side is below your gun depression if you're hugging the tank - keep a small distance from tanks you shoot at, and you will very little trouble penetrating (if they lack armor). The last 3 kinds of tanks you should prioritize are American tanks, French tanks and artillery. American tanks tend to have 36mm-51mm of rear armor... in addition, they're not fast enough to turn their hulls to prevent you from having shots at said rear. There is a benefit to having the 37mm autoloader - because the shells have actual caliber to them (37mm), and they're not machine gun shells, they are very likely to destroy modules they come across. Most American tanks you can only penetrate in the rear... however, that's where the engine of the tank is. Once you begin unloading your clip into the rear of a tank, most of the time you will knock out and destroy the engine before the tank can turn its hull enough to where you can't penetrate it. This means that you immobilize the target you're shooting at, giving you the opportunity to easily dump the entire 1200 damage clip. Since you unload it in 10 seconds, you will be able to unload the clip and get away before the tank can reload and shoot you. As for French tanks, they have paper sides and rear. All Frenchies are tasty morsels if you can get around them... since most Frenchies have autoloaders, you simply need to catch them during their reload. There is only one french tank which may give you trouble, and that's the AMX 50 120... unlike all other French tanks, the 50 120 actually has 80mm of side armor and 60mm of rear armor, which makes it very tough for your autoloader to penetrate. Every other French tank you will meet however is extremely easy to penetrate if you flank it. Artillery are easy to kill before they can react. Your mobility allows for you to find an arty and flank it before it can even turn towards you. However, if you're an approaching an arty that's pointing directly at you, I suggest using this manuveur: Let's say you're facing an S-51. It's looking directly at you, and you're getting closer and closer to it. First, begin driving off to one side so it's forced to turn to keep it's gun aiming at you. As soon as you reach the point where the arty's gun is beginning to catch up to your tank's positioning, quickly change directions and cross the arty's line of fire. Most arty players do not expect you to do this, and thus you will catch them by surprise and be able to safely flank them. As you're moving to the (let's say right) side of the S-51 in the example, it will be turning it's hull in that same direction. At first, your tank is further away from it's gun's line of sight... however, eventually the S-51 will be able to catch up to your tank. The moment the S-51 is within half a second of lining its gun up with you, turn to the opposite direction (in this case left). The S-51 will not expect this, and will turn its gun in the wrong direction for another second or so. By that point, you'll be far enough to the other side of the S-51 to safely be able to flank it. The last thing to keep in mind about artillery is that some arty (such as the S-51) have strong hulls... this means you'll have to manually aim at their gun shields. In general, the 37mm autoloader is a gun to use with auto-aim... unless there's a specific weakspot I need to aim for (SU's, arty's gun shields, hatch on AT-15's, SP's side armor hole, etc.) I usually will auto-aim. When facing any tank you can reliabley penetrate, auto-aim will prevent you from missing. Typically, this means that you need to keep a slight distance from the enemy you're circling in order to allow the gun depression to aim where auto-aim wants to aim. In the few cases where manual aim is a must, I usually use Sniper mode at a low zoom level in order to have a better view of the weakspot I'm trying to hit. If the enemy whose weakspot you're shooting at is moving, then be cautious with Sniper mode, since your aiming reticle will bounce up and down with the terrain (if you're moving as well), whilst in manual aim you'll be able to keep your aiming reticle more stable, at the cost of a smaller view of the weakspot. 57mm ZiS-4: The 57mm ZiS-4 has a very short reload and is extremely accurate. This means that it's great for picking apart tanks shot by shot at any range. The problem with the 57mm is the limited alpha damage. Any light tank you face with the 57mm is one which you should be very careful around. Unlike the 37mm, your primary task is not to hunt down light tanks and Americans or Frenchies. Rather, gun wise, you primarily have 3 different tasks, including sniping, circling slow heavies and turretless TD's, and providing general cover fire in a brawl. When the battle is still setting up, you should be scouting... however, there are times when it's impossible for you to actively spot, whether due to the map or simply the enemy's positioning. If it's still early in the battle and you don't have the ability to scout, you can snipe. You will need to shoot APCR if you're going to shoot at range, but .34 accuracy won't let you down. However, you should only snipe if you have no better option. I cannot emphasize that enough... you are not a TD... your job is to spot and flank enemies. The only time to snipe is if there is absolutely nothing else you can do. When the opportunity arrises, you should try to circle a slow opponent or a turretless TD. With the 57mm, you will have the penetration to go through most heavies and TD's with ease with AP, and your APCR is strong enough to penetrate the sides of even a KV-5. However, you have to be cautious around TD's with turrets, such as the Rhm or Tier 9 WT waffle. These TD's are fast enough to reload and turn their gun towards you before you can kill them (even though it will take them a while). Whilst the 37mm can kill an Rhm before it can even get its gun pointing at you, let alone reloaded, the 57mm cannot. You need to be careful around such turreted TD's with the 57mm. On the other side, tanks like a Tortoise or KV-4 are now possible to engage. You're fast enough to circle them with ease, and your APCR can easily penetrate them. Whilst most tanks you can circle, even some mediums, you still should be careful. The low alpha damage and relatively low DPM means that it will take you a long time to pick apart an enemy tank, which means that if there are other tanks around, you won't be able to stick around long enough to kill the enemy. When your allies want to push a flank, you should come with them. Load APCR and provide cover fire. Pick apart the tanks with low HP, or the slow tanks which you can circle. As long as your allies are distracting the enemy, you can put your gun to constant use and provide a lot of help to them, and allow them to succeed in their push... just make sure that no enemies are aiming at you. The alternative is to push past the enemy which are distracted by your allies and hunt down the enemy's camping TD's and arty... or you could flank the enemy on the other side of the map and distract them enough for your allies on that flank to advance and push up. Please keep in mind that you are a scout... when possible, you should be spotting. If you're not spotting, you should be flanking or shooting. If there are no opportunities to spot or flank, you can snipe... unlike the 37mm which has limited range and penetration, the 57mm will be able to put in damage at distance if it has to. However, when engaging a tank (especially lightly armored ones), the 57mm takes a lot longer to kill the enemy. This means that you cannot rush a loaded Bulldog or AMX 13 75... with the 37mm, you can yolo them frontally and win the engagement, even if they're at full HP... with the 57mm, stay away from enemy light tanks... even a Type 64 can kill you 1 v. 1. Even though the 37mm is a lot more effective against lightly armored targets, the 57mm can do damage to tanks with thicker armor. With the 57mm, you can impact a heavy tank brawl if you can avoid being shot at, but you will not be able to stop an enemy light tank or other very quick, lightly armored target from flanking your allies. The 37mm is just the opposite. It absolutely devastates anything without armor, and kills them in a matter of seconds (even if they're at full HP), but it cannot penetrate anything with decent-ish armor. Gameplay style: Honestly, I've already covered the gameplay style of the MT-25... the way you play greatly depends on your choice of gun. With the 37mm, you have to primarily spot, and wait for the opportunity to engage a lightly armored target. You can rush higher Tier light tanks with no fear of losing the fight, but have to steer clear of more heavily armored targets. On the other hand, with the 57mm you should steer clear of light tanks and similar targets, but should rather focus on circling heavy tanks, slow mediums, and turretless TD's. Your primary task is to spot the enemy, your secondary task to to flank them. You can do a very effective job at supporting allies which are pushing, as well as flanking enemy on the other side of the map. Your mobility means that you can get anywhere you want in an extremely short period of time. You want to avoid being shot at since you are a light tank... the only time you can afford to take a hit is if you're using the 37mm autoloader and you're going to charge/rush a lightly armored target... and even then, the only hit that you can afford to take is from the enemy you're rushing... with the 57mm, you must avoid all fire entirely unless you know you can kill an enemy before it can kill you. You must keep a very high level of situational awareness, in particular of your terrain. Since your tracks break so easily and you drift on many turns, you need to pay attention to how you're driving. If you become careless or stop paying attention, you could easily lose your tracks or drift and lose all of your speed. Ultimately, you want to remember this: Scout, Flank, Relocate, Reconnaissance. Your primary task is to spot, after that you want to flank the enemy, relocate to a new position and start the cycle over again. Tips, Hints and Random Information: ​ When approaching a target which is looking at you head-on, don't be afraid to cross its line of fire in the way I described earlier in the guide (The S-51 example). You have the mobility to easily trick the enemy Use the drifting to your advantage. If you've mastered the art of drifting, you can use it to power drift into a corner and come out of it with your hull pointing where you want it to Avoid destroying fences, houses, etc. Not only does it give away your location, but you have extremely poor ground clearance - the fact that you're such a light tank on top of the poor ground clearance means that you will lose a lot of speed when destroying obstacles. You can do damage to almost any tank if you ram it at full speed... typically, ramming is a very suicidal thing to do, but it's something to keep in mind as a last resort (Yes, you can damage a Lowe or KV-5 by ramming, as long as you're going at your full speed and you hit it with your hull rather than the tracks) When engaging a very lightly armored, light-weight target, you can ram it to do some additional damage (If you're approaching an Rhm that's not looking at you, start off by ramming its tracks to immobilize it whilst doing damage to it, then begin engaging it... this gives you the greatest hope of beating it. Or, if you're using the 37mm autoloader and you leave an enemy Tier 8 light tank at one-shot levels, you can easily ram it to death whilst you're reloading). Do not get shot at... you're a very, very fast tank. If you need to relocate, please do so. You are fast enough to out-circle almost every non-light and non-medium tank you come across. Your mobility allows you to do a lot more than you may think. If you're not spotting, try to flank or at the very least re-locate to a better location. If you're trapped against a rock with an enemy tank approaching you, show your side or front at the greatest angle you can get it to. Since you have 45mm of armor, you won't be over-matched by most guns, so if you have no other choice, you can try to trick the enemy into shooting you at a very extreme angle. Many opponents think that they can overmatch you and thus will shoot regardless of the angle... if you can get a bounce, you can use the mobility to get the hell away. Please keep in mind that side-scraping is not something you should to in this tank... what I described is a last-resort only, and you have to be a lot more stingy with the angle than you would be with any other tank. If you find yourself in a fight that you can't win, try to run away. If you're ever in a bad position, your mobility will often times save you. Rather than trying to keep fighting, relocate. Zig-zag when you're running away, but be careful - if you zig zag too hard or improperly, you will drift and ruin your chances of escape. When travelling down a hill, if you intend on turning, either a) slow down prior to turning or B) turn ahead of time so you will drift to the location you want to get to, rather than crashing into a wall or something of the sort. The 37mm SH-37 autoloader has a limited range. Even though it's not a machine gun, the shells simply "disappear" outside of 360m or so. The 57mm ZiS-4 can be very effective at shooting at moving targets if you shoot APCR. The gun is already accurate as it is, with the 300m/s velocity bonus that APCR gives you, moving targets are a joy to shoot at. If you're not spotting or sniping, you should be moving and flanking. The primary strength of the MT-25 is the mobility, you don't want to squander that by sitting still. That's why sniping should be a very limited role, and you should be an active scout rather than a passive scout. Torsion Bars. 'Nough said. I honestly cannot stress them enough; if you're putting the mobility to proper use the Torsion Bars will come in very handy. Avoid engaging enemy light tanks or mobile mediums in a one on one fight unless you're using the 37mm. Unless you're using the 57mm, avoid heavily armored targets. If there are only heavily armored targets left and you have the 37mm, shoot their tracks or just spin circles around them to try to distract them. Surprise! The 37mm autoloader will make many people lag up if they have bad computers. Whether you're penetrating or ricochetting, people with potato computers will lag up when being shot at by that gun. If an enemy begins acting very strangely whilst you're unloading into it, that's why. The gun depression is 7 degrees, but since the tank is so tall for a light tank, it seems as though it has less. Comparison to same-Tier light tanks: Mobility: Superior. Best-in-class top speed, acceleration and minimal speed bleeding. Only down-side is the constant drifting. Alpha damage: Inferior. Most light tanks of Tier 6 do 115-135 damage a shot, the MT-25 does 40 (albeit a 3 round burst in a 10 burst clip) or 85, depending on the gun you use. Armor: Good. For a light tank, the armor is pretty good. Only the Vk. 28. 01 has thicker armor at that Tier for light tanks. Penetration: Average. The AP rounds have below-average penetration, but the APCR is phenomenal at 189mm of pen. If you use the 37mm autoloader, then you have worst-in-class pen. Burst damage / clip damage: Best in class. The 37mm autoloader has 1200 damage a clip, which is the best you will see at Tier 6. Clip unloading time: Best in class. The entirety of the clip is unloaded in 10 seconds. T37 also unloads in 10 seconds, but has significantly inferior clip damage. View Range: Below average. 370m of View Range isn't bad at Tier 6, but considering the MT-25 is a light tank, that's fairly low. Accuracy: Best in class. At .34, the accuracy is the best of any light tank. Only the stock 55mm on the 59-16 has that kind of accuracy, but it comes at the cost of a long aim time. (If you use the 37mm autoloader, the accuracy is below-average) Aiming Speed: Good. 2.1 seconds isn't the best in class nor worst in class. Good gun handling makes that 2.1 seconds a fairly good aiming time. (With the 37mm autoloader, you still have good gun handling, but a longer 2.5 second aiming time, which would be below average). Battle effectiveness: Very good. Regardless of the gun you use, if you understand the play-style of the MT-25, it has a lot of potential and can without-a-doubt carry battles, both by your spotting and active flanking / damage. Overall Rating: 7.5/10 The tank in general is very capable. Almost all of the down-sides to it have some kind of remedy for them, which ultimately allows the strengths of the tank to shine through. The few things which lowered the rating were the general size of the tank, the limiting factor the height of the tank has on the gun depression, reliance on APCR and the tendency to drift. Despite these few things, the tank has many strengths ranging from mobility to gun handling and accuracy to ramming capabilities to even APCR or burst damage. All of these varying strengths allow the tank to really excel on the battlefield, despite the few short-comings. One thing to keep in mind is that the tank has a fairly high learning curve. It takes a lot of knowledge to bring out the full potential of the tank and understand its various quirks. However, once you understand the mechanics behind the tank, you're left with a beauty and beast, beast from the east with which the enemy simply cannot compete.

Moving the barrel doesn't affect anything; as long as your hull doesn't move. Skylining will get you spotted very easily; and there are few situations where it's an appropriate tactic.

Ooh, hello you tasty morsel of an enemy... let me just aim in... and... WHAT??? Hacks! How was I killed?!?! Whilst the above is a dilemma that mostly newer players face, often times I see said newer players making a very, very bad mistake. On maps such as Sand River, Serene Coast, etc they easily get spotted and are shot down within moments. Why? They were sky lining. Sky lining is a term which means what the name says - lining your tank up with the sky. Usually this is by sitting on the highest bit of terrain available; often times terrain which is significantly higher up than the rest of the map. Since usually there is little cover in sky-lining zones, this makes your tank very visible to the enemy, and you become an extremely easy kill. Sitting on the highest Sand River dunes, or on the Railroad in Prohorovka / Fiery Salient, or Serene Coast puts your tank above everyone else; where there is no cover, and where you can be shot at from all sides. Try to avoid this. Let's take this T-43 in the image below as an example. See how his tank really, really, really stands out? Yeah... that's why you don't sky line. The enemy will easily spot you and shoot you. T-43 asking to die: And what a surprise! He's dead. And if you look at the chat right before he died... he skylined intentionally as a suicide, since he wanted to get out of the match quickly (bad sportsmanship, but that's besides the point). Skylining ultimately is a suicide - whether it's intentional or accidental, sitting above everyone else is likely to get you killed. What a surprise! He's dead. So - in general, try not to make your tank the first thing people see. Play smart. It's only logical that when your tank stands out more than anything else, and is easier to hit than anything else, people will shoot at you and you exclusively. Are there any times when sky-lining is a good thing? Well, being on high ground can often times give you a tactical advantage - however, you want to make sure you have cover around you. Being high above over tanks can be good; just make sure that you're not making yourself an easy target. If you're spotted, you should not be an easy pool of XP for the enemy. There is a difference between being on high ground and sky lining. Sky lining is making yourself an easily visible, easy to hit target, without cover around you. Being on high ground for a tactical advantage should not do any of those 3 things to your tank. Some people may argue that if you're in a scout tank with all of the enemies far enough away from you so that they can't spot you, then sky lining can help you spot and/or shoot them. Well... it's possible - however, if there's a tank moving along the bushes, or on very low ground, or simply an enemy is closer than you expected, then you will easily be spotted and shot at - sometimes without even seeing what's shooting you. Thus, unless you are 100% certain that it is absolutely safe (i.e. all remaining enemies are currently spotted, and you know they are all too far away to spot you), you should avoid skylining; or if you do it, it's only for a fraction of a second (i.e. peeking over a dune or hill and pulling back immediately to see if 6th sense goes off). In general though - don't sky line. It's very, very risky; and almost suicidal. I hope this is useful for some players! If you'd prefer to see an example or additional information live, send me a P.M. and I'll take you to a Training Room and show you exactly what I'm talking about, how to avoid it, or how to do it safely as a test to see if you get spotted. As always, I'm very open to feedback and looking to improve the quality of my posts. Good luck both on the battlefield and in real life, tankers.

I finally did it... I've gotten my recent WN8 above 3,000. I intend to keep it climbing, but for now - I'm going to jot down a few key things which I have learned that really stand out. Maintain a healthy situational awareness: Don't let yourself tunnel vision... no matter what you do, no matter how you're fighting or who you're fighting, you always want to watch your surroundings. Not only will you be able to detect enemy vehicles trying to flank you before they get the opportunity, but you will also be more likely do dodge artillery, and avoid finding yourself in a crossfire. I've seen too many allies and enemies focus upon one vehicle in the battle, only for their enemy to take advantage of this and absolutely wreck them. Don't be afraid to pull back from a flank: If your gun is desperately needed in a flank, put it in there and use it. However, there are times when it becomes increasingly obvious that the flank you are at will be quickly overrun, or flanked and destroyed from behind. If your flank is disintegrating, don't be afraid to turn your tank around and put on your "Nope" shoes. However, if you feel as though you need to pull back, don't hesitate. The more time you spend at a failing flank, the more likely you are to be shot up during your grand escape. When I feel as though it's time to begin pulling back, if I don't begin moving immediately, all too often I'll be destroyed while I'm trying to escape. If you find that you have hesitated for too long and escape is now impossible, just stick with your allies and try to do as much as you possibly can... the enemies which overrun you are the same enemies that the rest of your allies will be fighting, so at least try to cripple them. If your gun is not shooting your tracks should be rolling: If you are not contributing to the battle, your allies are effectively down a tank. There are very few times when you should be cowering behind a corner while your allies are fighting... usually this is only the case for non-scout autoloading tanks. However, unless you have an empty autoloader or a very long reload, you should be in the battle. Yes, you should wait for the right opportunity to make your moves, but don't hesitate for extended periods of time. The longer you're not doing anything, the more likely your allies are to lose. XVM Win Chance is not to be used to judge a battle before it starts. Remember - it's a chance (i.e. prediction of the likelihood of a victory or loss). If your chance to win is low (let's say 33%), you will still win 1 out of every 3 battles with similar predictions - however, if you give up and don't even try in the battle, you are only reducing your chance to win; and often times significantly. Also, keep in mind that recent posts on the Forums and FTR including data from thousands of battles has indicated that in general, XVM Win Chance gives an inaccurate prediction - If you were to average the XVM Predictions for 1,000 battles (let's say you end up with the number 55%), you would find that (assuming you don't give up) will win anywhere from 1%-5% more battles than it predicts (the greater the gap between your recent WN8 and overall, the greater the percentage of additional victories). Even though 1%-5% doesn't seem like much, keep in mind that is 10-50 more victories than XVM predicted... if you give up when you see a low Win Chance, you are more than likely to turn some of those would-be victories into losses. Don't let XVM Win Chance ruin your mood - it's a prediction of probability, and an inaccurate one at that. Every battle always has a chance to be won. Giving up or getting upset about the prediction only reduces the likelihood that you will win. If the entire team lemming trains... follow the train: Sadly, there are times when the entire team goes off in one direction, or rather simply sits at base. If your team does this, don't go off on your own to a doomed flank. The only result will be that you get yourself killed to no avail. When your team lemmings, follow the lemming train and make it a success. Once you've won your lemming flank, either push to the enemy base, or fall back to your own... just work with what you have and make the lemming train work. Never trust allies: As much as I hate to say it, you just can't trust your allies. Unless you got confirmation from an ally that they will do exactly what you have told them to do, don't expect an ally to do anything, no matter how simple or easy it is. Sadly, most players in pub battles are a lot worse than you would hope. Do not do anything that relies heavily on your team. Always leave yourself an escape route and a Plan B. Also, communicate. Talk with your allies... if you want them to move up, or support you, let them know. Saying "Attack!" or "Help!" won't work... type out a text message and try to get confirmation from your allies that they will follow it... and if you get no response, assume they're doing their own thing. If you're going to say something, make it positive: If you're going to type in the chat, keep it positive. Negative text only reduces your team's chance to win by taking the focus of your allies away from the game, as well as breaking their mood and focus. If you want an ally to do something, be specific: Earlier today, there was a JagTiger 8,8cm. facing a Chaffee who's behind a rock. The JgTig8,8cm can one-shot the Chaffee, and the two tanks are 300m away from eachother. The Chaffee isn't even directly behind the rock... he's a distance aways from it. I told my JgTig to move his tank and kill the Chaffee... sadly, he drove straight up to the rock and let the Chaffee circle him... all what the JgTig needed to do was turn his tank to the left, and move about 30m or so to the left... driving up to the rock was not only unnecessary, but suicidal. Obviously, that was my fault. I presumed that the JgTig would figure out that he simply needed to change his line of sight.. instead, he charged the Chaffee (plunging his tank into shallow water, thus reducing his speed). The way my comment came out was unproductive, and had very negative consequences. I needed to specify to the JgTig that he needs to move 30m to the left so he'll have shots at the enemy Chaffee. Have fun: If you lose, or if you have a bad battle, bad RNG or something of the sort, try not to get frustrated. Frustration only reduces your focus, and will only make you do worse, thus become even more frustrated... the cycle then repeats as a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you did well, even if you lost or missed a critical shot, keep your cool. Take note of what you did wrong and what you could have done better, but don't get frustrated. Instead of focusing on the negatives of a battle, focus on its positives. Criticize yourself: Watch your own replays, or think about how you did and what you did after a battle ends. Try to find your mistakes and realize what you did wrong. If you discovered something new which works out very well, take note of that as well. Learn from mistakes, and emphasize your strengths. Don't be afraid to ask for help. I may have 3,000 recent WN8, but there are still some things which I have no idea how to do - I'm clueless when it comes to setting up my artillerly, I have no idea how to brawl in the city in Windstorm, I just can't stop drifting in my MT-25 when trying to circle a tank, and despite putting on Camo, Emblems and Inscriptions onto everyone of my tanks prior to taking them out to battle, I did not realize that I could translate the inscriptions in foreign languages to English by simply highlighting them. Everyone has there strengths and weaknesses. I can't play slow tanks very well - I try to avoid any tank which is not fast (or at least fast for its class). There are some parts of maps which I have never once taken my tank to fight, even though I see allies go there all the time. There are maps which I've mastered one side of the map, and haven't learned any of the other side... obviously that's bad. I perform a lot better on maps on which I am familiar with the entire map. That's why when I have the opportunity, I will explore and try out the "other side" of any map I'm not familiar with. Keep learning, keep asking questions. When trying to learn how to play a tank, focus on playing only that tank... don't keep bouncing around back and forth between the tanks in your Garage. Yes, it may be frustrating at first because you're unfamiliar with the tank, but the only way you will master a tank is by playing it and (not necessarily solely but) mostly it. You won't learn how to play your heavy tanks if you keep switching back to lights, and you won't master scouting if you bounce between your TD's. There are times when your team is at a position to absolutely over-whelm the remaining enemy, but they are all too afraid to move up. If telling them to move up in chat doesn't work, sometimes you will have to be the one who leads the push into the enemy. You don't have to suicidally rush out; you can inch out and try to encourage the enemy to fire their guns and bounce off of your armor, but if the enemy don't fire then at least your allies are likely to being inching out with you. If you have the HP and armor though, sometimes you will have to sacrifice a handful of your tank's HP to allow your allies to win the push. 99% of the time in this scenario, as soon as the enemy fire off their guns your allies will push all the way up. Just make sure that there aren't any TD's or artillery waiting to strike - if that's the case, you may be better off leaving your allies there and trying to go around. If you don't have the HP nor armor, you may have no choice but to go around, or wait for your allies. The very least you can do is tell your allies which tanks they have that are in the best position (and most likely to survive) a forwards push, to hopefully give your team the courage to do something... but don't be the one who sits still with your allies in silence; otherwise you're contributing to their cowardice. If you can't lead the push yourself, at least try to organize a push via. chat, or flank around the enemy to distract them from behind. My apologies for the blob of text, and for any errors which it may contain. I'm tired right now, and was about to go to sleep, until I discovered I reached my goal. I hope my tips prove to be useful!

Yes I will. I've been sick recently, so I haven't been able to work on guides last week, although I'll get back to work as soon as I'm better.

If it helps at least a few, then it was worth it.

Ignore dis post. :D

★ ★ ★ I apologize for the large images - I can't put them into spoilers! :( ★ ★ ★ "IS-6 - Replenishing Credits since 2010" ~~~~WoT Community The IS-6 on paper seems like a very weak tank - only 100mm of armor on the sides and front. However, the angling of the frontal and side armor increased the effective thickness significantly. Throw spaced armor on top of the angling and you have one difficult to penetrate tank. Not only this, but an IS-6 can angle his armor to increase the effectiveness even further since it does not hold a pike nose shape. So - if you have a low caliber gun without much penetration, how do you go through this beast? Easy - abuse the IS-6's weakspots. Be careful though, even though it has plenty, they can be tough to go through if you're not shooting properly. On the very strong, angled hull there is one fairly large weakspot that really should stand out - the Driver's hatch. Unlike the rest of the armor, it's only 90mm thick. Despite it having the same angling, it's now only effectively 180mm thick. This is great for T32's - whose guns can't quite go through the 200mm of the rest of the hull, but can fairly easily manage 180. However - don't just shoot straight on! Point your gun downwards. Whether you have 1 degree of gun depression of 15, the more you point your gun downwards when shooting at the hull, the less effective armor you will be shooting at. Driver's hatch: Next up on the hull is the lower plate. It's a double edged sword. On one hand, the armor is thicker on the lower plate than on the upper plate. On the other hand, the armor doesn't quite have the same angling. If the IS-6 is pointing his hull upwards, it will be easy to penetrate the lower plate... if not, it may be difficult. Shoot this based on the IS-6's hull's elevation / depression in relation to your gun. ***Hint: If the IS-6's hull is pointing up, shoot the lower plate. If it's pointing down, shoot the upper plate; especially in the driver's hatch.*** Lower Plate: On the turret roof, there are three different hatches. They are all very small, but since there are three of them, it should be easy to hit one of them. There are two very large ones on both sides of the IS-6. These are easy to penetrate, but at a bad angle it's possible to bounce with a low caliber gun. Between them, there's a third hatch (which I'm aiming at in the image below), which has only 30mm of armor... this means that regardless of angle, you'll overmatch it. However, the middle hatch is very, very small - thus hard to hit. Shoot at the one you're most likely to penetrate / hit based on your current location - although all should be easy to go through. Turret Hatches: Notice the angle I hit the middle hatch at? The ones on the side could have bounced this shot, but the middle one is overmatched by anything 90mm or above. Middle Hatch Penetration: Let's say the IS-6 is angling its armor. The frontal armor has two panels that point diagonally in relation to the frontal plate. When the IS-6 is side-scraping and perhaps keeping his turret hidden, this diagonal plate is a great place to shoot... assuming you have the penetration to go through it (and the IS-6 isn't showing his turret, which is a weakspot). Diagonal Plate: Unlike all other tanks in the "IS" series, the IS-6 has a weak turret - only 150mm thick. Even though most players who aren't relatively new know this, people still seem to struggle penetrating it. That's because the turret has both, weak spots and strong points. Be careful! If you're unlikely to hit the commander's hatches, shoot at the turret - but avoid the gun mantlet! Shoot the turret "cheeks" to the sides of the mantlet. See how my 130mm gun bounces off of the mantlet in the image below? Shoot at the cheeks to the sides of the mantlet to penetrate. Avoid the gun mantlet: Want to know something cool? A T67 and an M8A1 can penetrate the IS-6. Not only that, but they can overmatch it. How is this possible? The hull roof! In particular, a hatch on the hull roof. That's right - if the IS-6 is giving you shots as this little hatch on the hull roof (which often times they do), it's possible to penetrate it. Honestly, it's a hard shot - so it's only useful when the IS-6 is side-scraping without revealing his turret. Hatch on the hull roof: There's one of those hatches on the other side of the hull too. Hull Roof Hatch: The side armor... don't shoot this... not only is it 100mm thick like the front, but it's angled in a way that makes it 130mm thick... plus the upper half has spaced armor! It's very difficult to penetrate with HEAT and at an angle. If you're going to shoot it, make sure that the angling is minimal. Side Armor: Warning, warning! If and when shooting the sides, avoid the side skirts! (Striped red and black in the image below). Shoot above the skirt!!! Don't shoot the side skirts! Other than the rear, there's one more weakspot which is a very good place to shoot when given the opportunity (this works on any tank!). The frontal and back track wheels. If you shoot them correctly, you'll not only de-track the IS-6, but also do damage to it! Track Wheels: Careful though - shooting it at an angle, even a slight one, may make it so that you only track the IS-6 without doing damage. Bad angle at track wheel: Shoot it correctly though, and you'll be able to wreak havok. Proper way to shoot track wheel: Summary: Obviously the rear is a weakspot. When shooting an IS-6, I always would aim for the turret, whether it's the commander's hatches or sides of the gun mantlet. Never shoot the gun mantlet itself. The side armor is resistant to HEAT and is hard to penetrate at an angle. Lower plate is a good place to shoot only if the IS-6 is pointing his hull upwards. If the hull is pointed down, the upper plate is much easier to penetrate, especially the driver's hatch. Hitting the track wheels correctly makes it easy to do damage and immobolize the IS-6. Great thing to do if he's showing just part of his front / rear, and its parallel to a corner. Hull roof has two hatches on the sides which are only 20mm thick, and the turret roof has a tiny hatch between the larger ones which is only 30mm thick. I hope this helps! Good luck on the battlefield, tankers.

The path to becoming an Unicum begins here. Tip of the day offers detailed guides to many over-looked gameplay mechanics to allow you to excel in combat. Let's begin, shall we? "Hacks! There's no way you can penetrate my T32's gun mantlet!" "My IS-3's turret is stronger than that!" True, true... but it wasn't your mantlet or turret that was penetrated. Welcome to the rarely discussed, hardly known and strange world of shot trapping. Before Patch 9.4, shells which bounced off of a tank would disappear as soon as they stopped contact with said tank. Even then, mysterious seemingly impossible penetrations were occurring. Post 9.4, shells may keep travelling into other tanks if they bounce their original target. Yet some of these penetrations remained un-explained. The answer? Shot trapping. Shot trapping is ricocheting a shell off of an enemy tank in such a manner that the bounced shell hits the same tank a second time, except now in a much weaker location. The word "trap" comes from the fact that you are essentially trapping a shell in a very small, confided area within the enemy tank; typically between a tank's gun mantle and hull, although it can occur in other situations as well (Bouncing the hull roof of a Cromwell, into its exhaust release). Why should you shot trap? Easy - if you're facing a hull-down T32, IS-3, etc., your options when it comes to penetrating the target become very limited. A T32 only has one weak spot - the commander's hatch. The IS-3's turret roof is much weaker, but lower caliber guns will still struggle to penetrate, and low accuracy also may cause a problem. Shot trapping allows you to hit an angled, yet armored part of the enemy tank in such a way that the shell bounces upwards or downwards into the tank's turret ring or hull roof. Now the question is how does one accomplish a successful shot trap? Simple - shoot part of the hull roof from straight on so your shell goes into the turret ring, or more easily, shoot the lower part of the gun mantle of a tank with a hull roof directly below the mantle. If you shoot correctly, your shell will bounce off of the mantle and into the hull roof. *Hint: The sides of the lower part of the mantle are more reliable than the middle - typically due to flatter angles. Image references are below. The green mark is a ricochet off of the enemy armor. The red mark is a penetration. Spoiler See how this works? You hit the lower part of the mantle, and the shells enter into the upper hull roof of the tank. This is a close up of my aim when trying to shot trap. Spoiler It works on any tank too! Even against an FCM 50 t (although honestly, FCM's are easy to penetrate regardless). Even the strange shape of the IS-3's mantle / turret allows for shot trapping! Spoiler Last but not least, it works on strange areas of a tank as well where there really isn't room for a shell to be "trapped". Rather, you're simply encouraging the shell to hit a weakpoint by bouncing it at an angle on a flat part of armor (However, at this point you shouldn't be trying to shot trap - if you have a direct shot, take it. I just did this as a demonstration to show that it was possible, and to show how the basic mechanics of shot trapping work). See the magic below. Spoiler I hope this helps! If you'd prefer to see shot trapping live, send me a P.M. and I'll take you to a Training Room and show you exactly how it's done!

★ ★ ★ I apologize for the large images - I can't put them into spoilers! :( ★ ★ ★ The IS-3 can be quite the beast in combat... it's a great pleasure to drive, but it certainly isn't very fun to be on the receiving end of its gun. Thick turret armor and a very well angled pike-nose means that it can be an extremely difficult tank to deal with at times, whether you're at close range or long range. However, what many people don't realize is that the IS-3 is riddled with weakspots. Even low penetration guns can do damage to it from the front when put in that situation. The first major weakpoint is on the top of the turret. Both the turret roof and panels above the gun mantle are only 20mm thick. This means that it is very easy for you to over-match the turret and any kinds of hatches, bumps, panels, etc. you find on it. Turret Roof: Let's say that you're face-hugging the IS-3 in a decently tall tank. You'll probably see something like the image below. Just take a shot. See the red penetration mark? Very easy to go through as long as you don't hit the gun mantle. Turret Roof penetration: In addition to the weak roof and panels, there's also a very weak, rounded 80mm hatch on the upper right corner of the turret. This may be hard to hit unless the IS-3 is staying still, or moving very slowly. If you can hit it though, it's easy to go through. Hatch on the upper right corner of the turret: Beware of the gun mantle!!! It's spaced armor - 90mm panel of armor over the rounded 249 turret armor - unless you're a Tier 10 TD shooting 400 + pen Gold ammo, you won't penetrate it. Even the "holes" in the mantle aren't really holes... they still count as 90mm thick. If you hit it, your round will penetrate the spaced armor, but will not go any further. See how my bullet hits the hole, penetrates the spaced armor, and then simply bounces off harmlessly a bit lower on his turret? Gun Mantle: Now for the hull. On the front of the hull, you will noticed two panels of "patched" armor. While these are not weakspots (still 110mm thick), they're very good places to shoot. When aiming for the front, try to hit these panels. They can serve as a visual reference as to where to hit the IS-3. Shooting at them prevents your shot from hitting the hull at any kind of very bad angle. However don't shoot them head-first - try to move somewhat to the to the sides of the frontal armor before opening fire upon them. From there, you will negate the angle of the pike nose, and hit the hull in the right spot to prevent your shot from bouncing due to a bad angle. For me, this works like a charm when performed properly. "Patched" Armor: On the top of the pike nose, you will notice a 60mm thick flat portion with a small port above it. Unless you have very high penetration and good gun depression in a tall tank, you are unlikely to be able to penetrate it. Even the port won't do damage - it just counts as a critical hit. Don't shoot this unless you're above the IS-3!!! Flat panel & Port (Don't shoot this!): ​ Also, the lower plate is not a weakspot. Not only is it the same thickness as the rest of the hull, but it's even more angled. Unless the IS-3 is pointing his hull upwards, don't shoot this! Lower Plate (Not a weakspot - don't shoot!): Good news! That flat panel is useful... if the IS-3's gun is aiming upwards. If you're face-hugging him, he will likely move his gun upwards to hit the hatches on your turret. This puts him in the perfect position for you to shot trap! (Shot Trapping is ricocheting a bullet off of an enemy tank in such a manner that the bounced bullet hits the same tank a second time, except now in a much weaker location.) When the IS-3's gun is pointing upwards towards my commander's hatches, he reveals his turret ring. This allows you to shoot the flat 60mm panel on the top of his pike nose (near the back of the panel), in order for the bullet to bounce upwards off of the panel and into the 100mm thick turret ring. Shot Trapping (Flat Panel on the top of the pike nose): Guess what? This same tactic can be used in the exact opposite manner! Shoot the lower part of the IS-3's gun mantle for your bounced bullet to hit the 60mm flat panel from directly above! This results in an easy and effective penetration. Remember, the IS-3 will have to be pointing his gun upwards. Usually at very close range and when face-hugging, this is where he will aim due to his poor gun depression. Shot Trapping (Lower part of the gun mantle): Warning, warning, spaced armor alert! The IS-3's side is very thick (90mm) with a 30mm panel of spaced armor in front of it (making it 120mm effective). This means that not only are HE, HEAT, and HESH ineffective against the spaced armor, but also it's hard to penetrate it in general. Be very careful when shooting it! Make sure you are not at a bad angle when shooting it, otherwise your bullet will penetrate the spaced armor and then harmlessly bounce off of the underlying side armor, as show below in the image. Side Armor (Don't shoot at a bad angle - not weak!): Remember - when shooting an IS-3, you want to aim for his turret roof and hatches, or try to shot trap. Don't shoot the lower plate or frontal hull unless he is elevated upwards or you are somewhat to the side of his frontal pike (respectively). Position yourself like this: Just keep in mind, when you are face-hugging an IS-3, he will be able to aim for your Commander's hatches... you want him to do this so you can shot-trap, however don't keep your turret still. Wiggle your hull and turret after you take a shot - because he's aiming for them! Careful now - the IS-3 has shots at your Commander's hatches! Obviously the rear is a weakspot. If you're going to track the IS-3, shoot for his front or back track wheel, and make sure to shoot it head-on, not at an angle if you want to do damage. The turret has a funny shape, so just make sure that you don't hit its sides or rear at a bad angle! Also, the side of his turret armor is 172mm thick, as well as somewhat rounded - this means that you need high penetration to go through it - you'll probably be better off hitting the side armor or frontal / rear track wheels if you have a low penetration gun and are at the IS-3's sides. I hope this helps! Good luck on the battlefield, tankers.

The path to becoming an Unicum begins here. Tip of the day offers detailed guides to many over-looked gameplay mechanics to allow you to excel in combat. Let's begin, shall we? One of the first things that you are taught when beginning World of Tanks, during the tutorial, is how to use auto-aim. Yet shortly after completing the tutorial, many players abandon auto-aim entirely. Even WarGaming's tips during battle loading say that most skilled players do not use Auto-aim... this is true... to an extent. However, auto-aim offers many tactical advantages that you would never other-wise be able to accomplish. There are several situations when auto-aim is an absolute life (tank) saver. What, when and how are all described below. 1. Driving a mobile tank. Having mobility is often times a key advantage on the battlefield. Whether you're a scout or simply a fast medium, or even TD (M41 Bulldog, Obj. 140, T67, etc.), there are times when you simply cannot afford to take your eyes off of the road; or rather, you're put into a situation where you're circling an enemy tank. In the first scenario, you may have spotted an enemy tank which you can easily penetrate but is at a distance, and you are currently spotted and engaging in evasive maneuvers. If the terrain is bumpy or is filled with obstacles, turning your turret towards the enemy tank (let's imagine it's a Nashorn) to shoot takes your eyes off of the road which consequentially may result in you colliding with a rock, building, or perhaps simply falling off of a cliff. This could make you lose a track, lose HP, or simply come to a complete stop. All of these can be devastating, and are very real possibilities; thus turning your camera in the direction of the Nashorn for extended periods of time may very well be suicidal. If the Nashorn is entirely exposed and especially if you have very clear shots at him, simply hover your mouse over him and right click. This takes a fraction of a second - as long as you have the space to drive forwards without bumping into anything for at least a couple of seconds, you'll be able to safely and efficiently shoot at him. The second case is when you are circling an enemy tank. Let's say you're an M41 Walker Bulldog circling an IS heavy tank. Manually aiming each shot can be difficult, and requires you to point your camera directly at the IS - which reduces your Field of View. Since the IS doesn't have much armor (100/90/90) compared to your penetration power (175/210), penetrating isn't really a concern... however hitting the target and avoiding shooting his hull roof at a bad angle, turret, tracks, etc. can prove to be a challenge. Enabling auto-aim whilst circling the IS will allow you to hit each of your shots and penetrate reliably. When facing a tank such as an IS-3 or IS-7 though, or when you have a shot loaded when your gun is at a bad angle, time your shots. Don't shoot without thinking - when circling an IS-7 don't bother shooting his frontal hull or even his sides if you need to make every shot count. Wait until you're at his rear end, and then shoot. There's no obligation to shoot the moment you're reloaded. Often times circling a target whilst auto-aiming at him allows you to not only hit more shots, but also allows you to move your camera freely around without messing up your aim. What this means is that you will be able to see incoming enemies ahead of time, circle the IS (or whichever tank you're circling) more efficiently, and ultimately leave the brawl with more HP left and more damage dealt. In addition, efficient circling means often times you will be far ahead of the enemy's gun - their gun is pointed in the opposite direction that you are in. This allows you take more time shooting at certain weakspots (rear), temporarily disable auto-aim to hit a cuploa perhaps, or simply get away. One thing to keep in mind about auto-aim: The moment you traverse your hull significantly in the opposite direction, your gun will be off-center; it will need half a second (more or less, depending on your turret traverse speed) to snap back onto the center of the target. When circling an un-armored target: Shoot all you wish, auto-aim will do the trick. When circling an armored target: Don't shoot until your gun is pointing at an area of the enemy tank which you can penetrate (whether that be the sides or rear). 2. When being circled by an enemy tank. Following the previous scenario, let's say that you're the IS that's being circled by the Bulldog. The Bulldog is an extremely fast but also un-armored target. Due to its speed, it's difficult to hit by manually aiming. However, it is very easy to penetrate. Right click on the Bulldog, and traverse your hull in the Bulldog's direction. Auto-aim will automatically try to keep your gun pointing at the Bulldog, thus traversing your turret. At this point you are free to point your camera wherever you wish - as soon as the gun is centered on the Bulldog, you may take a shot without worries of missing. Keep in mind that this only works at close range. Auto-aim points at the center of a target - it does not lead the enemy. This means that if you have a derp gun, or if you are shooting a shell with a low velocity, you will need to get closer to the target, or time your shot when the Bulldog is traveling in such a manner that his trajectory is in relation with your gun's line of sight - meaning he's traveling more in a parallel manner to your gun; not perpendicular. This also applies to shooting at targets at long range. If they're traveling in a parallel line to your gun, you can hit them without leading. (This applies to both, manual and auto-aim.) 3. Coming in for a drive-by shooting. Let's say you're in a Luchs about to come up to unload your clip into an M4 Sherman. Manually aiming will result in misses and bounces, or will require you to slow down which may result in... undesired... consequences. If you auto-aim at the Sherman as soon as your camera allows you to, when you round the corner or approach him, you will be able to unload your clip without misses or bounces. This is very effective for any tank that needs do a drive-by - whether it be a T49, Luchs, ELC AMX, or even a Maus driving by a T95. Please keep in mind that if you are rounding a corner, or approaching at an extremely close range your gun / turret will be off-center at first. Make sure that your aiming circle is on the enemy before shooting. This won't take long at all if you have a fast-turning turret... and if you have a slow turret, approach the target at a slight distance, and as you're driving by turn your hull in the target's direction for a moment to help your gun snap onto the mark, shoot, and turn your hull back where you want it to be pointing. (Good for a T67, Hellcat, etc.) 4. Brawling with an un-armored target. If you're engaging an un-armored tank at close range, if the tank is moving manual aim may be difficult in some scenarios. (My T110E5 shooting at a wiggling & randomly moving BatChat, etc.) Auto-aim will prevent misses in this case. Just make sure that the target has negligible armor and that your gun & aiming circle are pointing at the enemy tank) 5. Arty. This should not be used often. Artillery are very inaccurate in general, which makes auto-aiming difficult. However, there are two scenarios in which auto-aim can be very beneficial; or even save your tank. The first case is when you need to move your camera, but want to shoot at a tank which you are pre-aimed at. If the target is stationary and you are fully aimed (or still aiming), you can enable auto-aim to free your camera. You will then be able to move your camera around (or even enter / exit arty mode), and still take a shot at the enemy once you're aimed. This is very useful when you're aiming at a stationary target whilst there is a scout approaching you. Obviously you need to watch the scout's location to make sure that when you shoot you won't be spotted, or so you can move when it becomes necessary. Auto-aim will allow you to keep your gun aimed at the target, but still exit arty mode and carefully watch the scout driving near-by you. When the scout is 15m away from a bush blocking his line of sight to your entire arty, you are safe to shoot. The second scenario is when a scout tank (or any tank really) is coming at your arty. As they are approaching you, the closer they get to your artillery the more difficult it will be to keep your aiming reticle and gun centered on the target. Auto-aim will prevent this from becoming an issue and significantly increase your chances of hitting the target... however, artillery have very slow shell velocities, such as is true with howitzers. Thus the target will have to be moving in a straight line towards you, or at very close range in order for you to hit whilst auto-aiming... otherwise you will have to manually aim slightly ahead of the target. 6. Poking over hills. If your target is fully exposed and you need to crest a hill to fire at him, autoaim, crest and start pulling back and fire. You can get shots off extremely quickly and with very little exposure once you master this technique. It can similarly be used in a peekaboo fight for minimum exposure. (Credits to ballinbadger for this part.) Some very important things to remember about auto-aim: It does not lead the target. The tank you are shooting at either has to be stationary, moving in a straight line parallel to your gun's trajectory, or at very close range. It aims at the center of the target relative to your current location. This means that it does not aim at weak-spots. Shoot only when the gun is pointing at a penetrable part of the target (don't shoot at an IS-7's front - wait until you're at his sides or rear). Traversing your hull significantly, or with a slow-turning turret, will make your gun off-center. Give your turret / gun / aiming reticle the time it needs to snap back onto the target before shooting (whether that be a quarter of a second or two seconds). Auto-aim is enabled and disabled with the right mouse button. You can change this in Settings. You can enter and exit Sniper mode / Arty mode without affecting auto-aim. You can also turn your camera freely without affecting your aim when in auto-aim. Don't use this when you need to take the time to aim, or when sniping at moving targets. Please, only use auto-aim when it is appropriate. You remain centered on the enemy target as long as you are in auto-aim whilst the enemy is spotted. If you disable auto-aim, or the enemy is destroyed and / or disappears, normal gun handling returns. I hope this helps! Good luck on the battlefield, tankers.

Hurrah! What a quiet, bug-free transition. :P

Well, the improved Forum servers would be very costly. I suppose you could cover that by putting more effort into expanding your requests for donations, but that's never easy to do. Taking the site down would be very unfortunate... since I have a lot more free time than you do, I will look into additional options that you could explore, and let you know via. Private Message what I come up with. Best of luck to you, Aslain. :)

I'm not entirely sure whether or not there is an option for that. I believe that is crosshair / damage panel related. For example, MeltyMath's mod and eXtended Tank Info will give you that information, but the minimalistic, historic, and a few other custom crosshairs won't.

You don't have to configure that. Go to the XVM website (hyperlinked here), sign in using your World of Tanks account, click settings, and select "Win Chance". If the checkmark is there, you've activated it. ^_^ I will make a guide however to clarify a lot of XVM related inquiries... as for now, I will request that Aslain move this Thread to "General Discussion" or "Requests", as it has been placed in the wrong section of the Forums. (Guides and Tutorials is here for completed guides... not requests for guides. A bit confusing, but that is what "Requests" is here on the Forums for. :) )

APCR is usually a good choice, but at range really becomes in-effective... that's why I use an effective penetration mod (MeltyMap's Math Mod), to tell me just how much penetration power I have with APCR... And on tanks like the IS-6, Jg.Tig 8,8cm, and lower Tier tanks, APCR becomes approximately as effective or even less effective than AP at around 500m, up to 650m.

No there is not... besides... if arty isn't already aiming at a tracked vehicle, if they change their aim, the tank will be un-tracked before the arty can re-aim.

This ^^^ However, the WarGaming rating is relatively useless. WN8 accounts for your effectiveness in battle, other than spotting damage... which means it does a great job at reflecting your performance. It compares your damage output to those of other players. The WarGaming rating is partially based off of battle count, and other ratios such as survival and hit ratio... which ultimately does not reflect how you did in battle...