World of Tanks Mark 2

[PeZook]

Are you guys talking about KV-1S with the 122 miniderp or the HEUGE top gun?

[Zinegata]

The big gun which makes the KV-1S a virtual IS.

[Darth Wong]

The big gun which makes the KV-1S a virtual IS.

I wouldn't go that far. With its lower firing rate and its inferior armour, the difference between the KV-1S and IS is painfully apparent if you forget which one you're driving (which has happened to me on numerous occasions, because they look so similar).

[Slacker]

This thread of conversation was in the back of my head last night driving my Comet, as a KV-1S blew away a good 45% of my health in one shot and then proceeded to get picked apart because its armor is not, in fact, on par with an IS.

[Darth Wong]

KV-1S drivers need to drive it like a KV-2; stay in the second line, be patient, and never try to brawl or get into a slugging match with anyone. Always fire, then immediately withdraw to cover for reloading, even if you haven't taken any damage and/or no one seems to be shooting at you (unless you have Sixth Sense and you can be reasonably confident that no one sees you).

When the KV-1S is used properly, it surprises people with huge alpha strikes and ruins their day. When it's used improperly, it's just a big target and a fairly easy kill.

[ryacko]

Personally I'm finding myself enjoying the T-150 (even with just the 85mm). People really underrate this tank IMO.

Yes, I forced myself to choose between the KV-1, the KV-2, and the T-150, and I sold the other two tanks. It has a decent profile, armor, and a rather excellent 107mm gun.

[Darth Wong]

I agree that the T-150 is underrated. It can stand there and slug it out very effectively with any tank of its tier, and it can be a threat to tanks a tier above it as well.

Having said that, I think a lot of people don't give the KV-2 enough of a chance. KV-2s can be far more useful in battle than people expect, for a number of reasons:

1) The 152mm derp gun. The KV-2 has no other reason for existing in this game (it was also the reason that turret was designed in real-life).

2) With the derp gun equipped, the KV-2 can damage any tank in the game, from any angle, on any part of its armour. This is no small feat: there are plenty of very powerful tanks in tier 7 or tier 8 which can be utterly stymied by an enemy T32 in a hull-down position, whereas the tier 6 KV-2 can hurt him every time: usually somewhere in the range of +300 damage. I have been personally involved in numerous tier-8 games where my KV-2 was able to break up a stalemate by damaging a dug-in enemy who would normally be invincible in that position, thus making him lose his nerve and abandon the position so that other tanks on my team could advance.

3) The horrible accuracy of the main gun is not as severe a handicap as you might think. First, a 100% crew can greatly mitigate its effect; most rounds tend to fly to the middle of the circle, rather than going to its edges. Second, part of the need for accuracy in the first place is diminished by the fact that you don't have to worry about weak spots. Just avoid long-range sniping fights (although I have gotten miraculous long-range sniping kills with the KV-2; if you see a juicy target, it never hurts to try).

4) If you are lucky enough to hit a weak spot (or manage to somehow find yourself in a flanking position), the 86mm penetration of the shell might actually be enough for the shell to explode inside the enemy tank, which is utterly devastating and can deliver upwards of 900 damage in one blow. I have hit enemy tanks from the rear for over 900 damage.

5) With gold-bought HEAT rounds, the KV-2's 152mm derp rounds suddenly gain 206mm penetration, albeit with "only" 700 damage. This is easily enough to one-shot same-tier tanks, although it can be counter-productive against higher-tier tanks which can bounce a round with 206mm penetration. I very rarely use these, but they can be a devastating surprise to an enemy tank, particularly since so few KV-2 drivers ever use them.

6) Credit income is determined in large part by damage dealt. The KV-2 deals out plenty of damage, and costs very little to repair. Its rounds are expensive (800 per shot), but that is not a big problem considering you won't fire that many in a game anyway. In short, KV-2s make a lot of money even if you lose.

[Vendetta]

Victory!
Battle: Arctic Region 22 November 2012 21:22:17
Vehicle: Matilda
Experience received: 966
Credits received: 18,911
Battle Achievements: Steel Wall, Top Gun, Master Gunner, Mastery Badge: "Ace Tanker"

I'd love to be able to do that consistently in the Matilda. Sadly, it seems to be magnetised, drawing in enemy artillery and exploding most of the time.

Getting more used to what I need to do in it though, the 2pdr Mk-X B certainly has its charms given the absurd fire rate and penetration.

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

Its low damage per shot can be a blessing sometimes as occasionally enemies seem to ignore it. I once killed a KV-1S with my Matilda because he didn't even react to my shots into his rear until I'd already taken over a third of his hitpoints off.

[Zinegata]

I earlier posted a Matilda that killed a Type 59. Brave little tank inflicted 500 damage and was the third highest XP earner of the match, more than some of our Tier 8s.

[Jub]

The test server for 8.2 is out so I'm going to see what the Chinese tanks can do.

[Imperial528]

Victory!
Battle: Abbey Thursday, November 22, 2012 10:49:40 PM
Vehicle: M6
Experience received: 1,395 (930 without premium, top in the match to boot)
Credits received: 36,909
Battle Achievements: Sniper

An M4A3E2 and I were the only ones going through the pass on the side of the river, and we encountered their main push. With a little help of our SU-26 towards the end, we destroyed all of them with both of us alive and above 25% (I was at 32%, he was at 43%). Total death toll was a VK3001P, Churchill, Churchill VII, Hetzer, and T1 HT.

Overall, very good match. We both came out 1st and 2nd experience wise.

[Skywalker_T-65]

The 8.2 TS is out? I'll have to get that tomorrow (too late tonight).

And to continue from my 'T-150 is underrated' post...I think the major problem is it gets lost between its more famous Tier-mates. The fast and powerful KV-1S, and the 'Derp-Tastic' KV-2. The T-150 is neither fast, or armed with the best gun. Its advantage lies in the best armor, coupled with a great (though not as good as the 122 or 152) gun. Very much a Super KV-1 in that regard, and I figure most people want something different.

[Imperial528]

Just bought T29, after spending five hours grinding for cash.

Now I just found I had 600k worth of stuff in my depot I could've sold five hours ago. Well, now I can get some nice equipment at least.

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

What the bloody hell do you have to do to get an Ace Tanker in the KV-2? Last night I had a match where I raked in over a thousand xp, and 32,000 credits on a loss, got Top Gun and Defender, did around 2700 points of damage, and took fifty-one hits before I went down, and I'm still only at a Second Class Mastery Badge. How much better am I expected to do?

[Skywalker_T-65]

Okay...trying out the T10 tanks on the Test Server (since God only knows when I'll get to that point on the main server) and so far my favorite is the new Chinese Heavy. Plays (to me) very much like a Tier 10 Chinese/Soviet VK 3601. Faster than average, with a good (but not great) gun, and just bouncy enough armor.

I prefer it by far to the Maus and IS-7. Though the T110E5 and the IS-4 are close behind it. So most likely when 8.2 goes live I'm going to concentrate on the T-150 and the Chinese Tree, since the IS-4 and the WZ-111 Model 5A are the only T10 tanks I really like so far.

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

How do you get into the test server?

[Skywalker_T-65]

Download it from here:

http://worldoftanks.com/news/1795-versi ... blic-test/

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

I became a tanker two days ago. My service record up to this point is pretty lackluster. I've only started on the French and American tier 3s, while I'm still messing around with the British, German, and Russian tier 2s.

Victory!
Battle: Prokhorovka Friday, November 23, 2012 6:32:40 PM
Vehicle: AMX 38
Experience received: 594 (x2 for the first victory each day)
Credits received: 6,705
Battle Achievements: Steel Wall, Mastery Badge: "3rd Class"

Not much of an accomplishment, but I'll take anything I can get at this point.

[xthetenth]

That's not bad, that means you took an absolutely silly amount of damage for that tier.

Getting going is pretty hard because crews matter and WoT doesn't really work the way most shooters do. The low tiers are nice because there isn't much armor on most things, so you can focus on learning the many myriad ways you can hose yourself and how to avoid them. Longer range fire becomes progressively more important as you get to higher tiers, as does armor, but the effects of getting isolated and how useful terrain is and how to manage it as cover never really change.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

That's not bad, that means you took an absolutely silly amount of damage for that tier.

Speaking of silly amounts of damage:

Victory!
Battle: Ensk Friday, November 23, 2012 8:48:46 PM
Vehicle: AMX 38
Experience received: 341
Credits received: 5,242
Battle Achievements: Steel Wall

Basically just sat in one of the alleyways on the west side with my front towards the enemy and acted as a bullet sponge. Detailed report says I took a total of 42 hits that time.

[Darth Wong]

What the bloody hell do you have to do to get an Ace Tanker in the KV-2? Last night I had a match where I raked in over a thousand xp, and 32,000 credits on a loss, got Top Gun and Defender, did around 2700 points of damage, and took fifty-one hits before I went down, and I'm still only at a Second Class Mastery Badge. How much better am I expected to do?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but while a thousand XP is a really big game at lower tiers, it's not that great at higher tiers. Also remember that you're being compared against everyone else who drives a KV-2 in the last week, and you have to be in the top 1% to get Ace Tanker. Games around 1000 XP do happen with some regularity in a KV-2: enough so that it's not surprising at all that a 1000 XP game wouldn't get you an Ace Tanker award.

At the higher tiers, it's quite possible to play 5 games in a row, lose every single one of them, and still average 600XP per game.

[Vendetta]

Now, I've played a fair few high tier games in my french lights. Top score for the match is still in the 900-1100 range, it's just more consistently that high than it would be at lower tiers. There will generally always be someone who breaks 1000, but it's really exceptional for them to exceed it by a large amount. So you may find that if you get a 1200 or so match that'll get you your ace tanker.

Or, y'know, run HEAT rounds and murder everyone for jesus points.

Remember that the mastery badges are calculated on your non-premium score as well, so if you're premium you need to do better than you think.

I became a tanker two days ago. My service record up to this point is pretty lackluster. I've only started on the French and American tier 3s, while I'm still messing around with the British, German, and Russian tier 2s.

A tip for the AMX-38 is to use that 25mm gun. It's accurate, fast firing, and can penetrate basically anything at tiers 3 and 4. It doesn't do a lot of damage, but it is consistent about doing it.

Although, the French tanks are generally the hardest to play as because they're frequently ideosyncratic or just plain weird, they rely on a quite specific play style in order to succeed, whereas many others, especially the German tanks, are good all round vehicles that you can throw at anything and achieve something. German and Soviet are easiest to play, British and American next, French are hardest.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

Victory!
Battle: Karelia Saturday, November 24, 2012 3:57:08 AM
Vehicle: AMX 38
Experience received: 583
Credits received: 9,163
Battle Achievements: Mastery Badge: "1st Class"

I've actually fared remarkably well with the long 47mm gun on the AMX 38. Not very consistent with penetration at long range, but when it does go through, it hits hard. Finished off three by myself and wounded several others enough for the rest of my team to mop up. Could have killed more, but the low-tier French tanks are slow even with full engine upgrades, and I was also crawling along with damage on both treads.

[Skywalker_T-65]

I'm having fun playing on the test server...when it works anyway. Nothing is quite as annoying as the thing being full when I want to get some T10 fun in