I've done it... over 3,000 recent WN8... here's what I've learned.

[Scorpiany]

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!

[samoritu]

congratz! and you are right in all what you say above ;).

it be good to all wot players to read your topic, its good to know :), and again good job...

[altobe]

Awesome write up! Fantastic! Thank you!

[Vycodine]

Thx

[blueunicorn]

I play Blitz but found this incredibly useful. Thank you. :)

[ENPRO]

nj scorp and congrats i have been with you on several of your conquests and its always fun to have u on the green side :)

[Bavor]

I'd like to expand on the "Never trust allies" bit.  You actually should expect your allies to do the worst thing possible for the situation and plan accordingly.  That way you aren't shocked when they do the worst thing possible and are pleasantly surprised when they do something good.

 

Also, the watching your own replays bit really helps out.  You notice many things that you never see in the game, missed shots because you had poor situational awareness, where you took damage that was unnecessary because you had poor situational awareness, where you made a bad decision in the heat of battle because you tunnel visioned, etc...

[Yippee38]

These are all great pieces of advice.  I've been focusing on improving my SA lately, and it's been helping immensely.

[RyuOgi]

Great Advices mate, been playing this game for a while and I can assure you are right on the spot!

[Danijongo]

That was actually very helpful, some solid guidelines for a newcomer like me, thanks mate!

Edited October 15, 2016 by Danijongo

[Tonislav]

Well written;)
Some things are useful to read
Thank you for the work

[Darth_Clicker]

Great advice here, well written.

[Spazza]

Just new to Aslains forum....nice article full of good advice some bad habits of which I am guilty of.......Will try and learn from this;

 

 

 

Shane....

[Zlatan_sk]

thanks

[Forlorn_Hopes]

Great advice and lots to think about.  Even more to learn...

 

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts; very useful.

[Dr. Vin Zip]

You put nice effort. Very usefull and well organized. Always ready to learn something. Thx.

[Shingomera]

Never trust allies :-). Totally true. The only ones that you can trust are yourself and the ones who are driving with you in an platoon. There of course if they are in Teamspeak with you of course :-).

 

Have fun.... I always have fun. Esspecially when I read someones frustration about ithers in Ingame chat :-).  The only thing I mosttimes hate is that so many players are waisting Prem Ammo on Tanks with Paper Armor or when they not Know where to aim for weak spots.

 

I have never used Prem Ammo in my entire Career and I´m still standing at an effiancy of around 6000 just because I know where to aim on neary any Tank and that´s only because I watch each Video from Quickybaby and Mighty Jingles on Youtube :-).

[Pauleng]

Good summary of the game -  well done mate

 

[SGarv]

Good stuff. Thank you for taking the time. o7

[yorkiedave]

I really enjoyed reading your summarisation of the game of the best way to play Many thanks it has helped stop the rot on my gameplay  (I Think ?)

[Rino162]

Great Job.  Got to book mark it to come back and re-read it.  will take time to digest.  The tunnel vision thing is the killer.  

 

[ryuuto]

Thanks! I really needed to read this. I feel like I've been stuck in a rut for the longest time, feeling like I've reached the peak of my performance. I need to get back into having fun too! I've been finding myself showing up in game chat asking the team "how bad are we gonna lose this time?", you know after like 6 games and you still haven't got your daily! I know it just makes me sound like some sourpuss loser and it actually makes me feel and perform that way in game. I got to get back to just making the best of the situation and having fun at it. Thanks again for your advise!