World of Tanks Comprehensive Scouting Guide

World of Tanks Comprehensive Scouting Guide by Tanitha

Firstly, what is a scout.

I’ll break the scouts up into two groups, because they have different play styles and goals (well they do for me anyway)

1. Dedicated scouts / The powerful Rusher
There are tanks that are purchased for the soul purpose of scouting and killing the enemy artillery.
In this category is mainly the Leopard, fully upgraded (Elite), with equipment like
Spall liner (50k & Is a must have) It reduces ramming damage, reduces HE damage from HE ammo and arty’s
Coated optics (500k Optional) Adds 10% view range, so it helps you light-up more enemy tanks for extra pay.
And either a toolbox (500k Optional) Adds 25% repair speed
or Improved ventilation (50k Optional) Adds +5% crew levels. So your crew goes to 105/116 instead of 100/110
“One use” – “first aid kits” “Repair kits” and “Fire extinguisher”
100% crews levels, with additional skills of fire/repair.
IE: They are built for killing Arty and earning EXP and Credits quickly.

The leopard has 390HitPoints far more than any other light tank.
A high speed of 68kmh, which it can obtain.
Quick acceleration with its 350HP engine.
And a quick turning turret (48) which can usually keep up with the tanks maneuvers.
And highly sloped Armour which can bounce a lot of hits.

And it comes in red, so its quicker. (Thanks for the skin)

It is possible for other tanks to fall into this range of “dedicated scouts” if they are fully upgraded and the player is skillful.
Such as the luch & PZ III, but they don’t do it as well with the early rush maneuver.
The T44 can also be used as a arty killer, because it has a top speed of 51 which it can easily get to, and it turns on a dime. But it usually goes in with another medium backing it up, and only if the scouts have failed, so 1/4 to 1/2 way through the game.

2. The, I’m on my way to my next tank, Light
If people want a tank “just for scouting” they usually go the leopard, because its by far the best IMO. And then deck it out because its the end of the line as far as they can go in that line..

There is however a “lot” of other light tanks, that people play on their way to the next tank.
And these have to be played a little more cautiously because they “often/usually” aren’t as quick, don’t turn as well or don’t have as many HP’s, and usually aren’t maxed out crew and upgrades wise.

To rush or not to rush. For dedicated scout tanks
Most people (except artillery players) know that artillery is overpowered and a valuable part of a game. Its often artillery that will make the difference between win or lose. If your artillery is killed early you lose, if the enemies artillery is killed early you win. So if the enemy have artillery, then a early rush is always a good option, IF you have a “dedicated scout” tank as listed above that will handle the rush. If your scout tank isn’t quite up to par, you will need to take a more cautious approach, (see below)

Why rush?
At the beginning of the game, there usually is a rush of lights heading into your base, killing your artillery and lighting up all your tanks for the enemy artillery to rain down on.

For some reason, a lot of players are against rushing, they tell you to “defend against the incoming scouts”, “don’t rush noob!”, “wait for the artillery to get setup first” Now every time you hear this in chat, look to see who’s saying it. Every time I check its arty who are spamming this. Why? Because the arty want you to help defend them against incoming scouts so they don’t die, But the mediums, TD’s and heavies can do this job, there is no need for the scouts to. And they want you to wait until they are ready because then they get to shoot, get kills, and get EXP and credits, Arty backup while scouting is nice, but its not essential (if you are in a dedicated scout tank capable of killing the arty yourself), I’ve found that even when waiting for a arty to get ready before I scout, after I start scouting they turn their attention to another tank, they are busy looking for other arty’s smoke trails and not looking at you, they are running from enemy scouts, or relocating for a better lineup on another area, etc etc.

The advantages of not waiting to scout.
When the game starts, the Arty will usually wait 5-10 seconds to see where the other tanks are going, then run off to hide, with a cammo net, with 100% cammo crew, with TD’s defending them, who also have cammo and 100% cammo crew. Waiting until all the artillery is hidden and defended and camouflage just makes your job of finding and killing them and surviving a LOT more difficult. When the game starts you know exactly where they are, at the enemy base. I usually find that going early and rushing “with a dedicated scout tank”, I get there after the enemy tanks have moved on, and the TD’s and arty are just getting settled before their cammo kicks in. Arty only take 2 hits to kill usually, or 3 for school-bus or S51. So the chances of finding and killing one are fairly high, with or without your arty’s help. All going well you will get to kill a couple of arty before dieing, all going very well you can kill all the arty, then withdraw to start taking on the other light/medium tanks. But the main thing is killing that artillery. Your T4 light tank is a fair swap for killing a enemy hummel..

And, the pay for scouting first is a lot higher as-well. So you might as well clock up those scouting medals while your killing their artillery.

Screen-shots of the ideal rush..

What I usually aim for, which has been my best/perfect game so far.

The map is Campinova. its called that because it almost always drags out to a 15 minute camp, were no-one moves and shoots from long range.
I rushed in, killed their 2 artillery, and then capped.
Our team won 12-1 kills.

And if you checkout the time on the photo, there was 12.38 minutes left on the 15 minute clock.
The 12 tanks were killed and the game was over, including the 100 count for capping, In 142 Seconds..
I earned 993 exp and 14.7k credits.

Rinse and repeat. Time to enter the next game and do it again, to earn another 14.7k, (hopefully)…
Sure, occasionally you get tracked and then have a arty shell land on your head, And then everyone will call you a noob for rushing in.
but most games, I get those arty.

Depending on what tanks you are up against, the Leo can go on the attack too.

Scouting the careful way / For smaller or non specialized scout tanks.

So as i was saying in another thread, When you are reading peoples advice, Its a good idea to check up and see how good they are, because listening to someone who’s not every good, isn’t a good idea. And soulspectre is a star in the smaller light scouting tanks. His stats are absolutely amazing, with 1262 games in his Luch alone..

And thank-you also for another excellent skin : )

Amazing stat’s for the Luch.

And here is soulspectre’s tips for how to do that well. Might as well learn tips from the best.. : )

soulspectre said:

I’ll give some tips as to how I maintain my good scores in the luchs.

1. Don’t suicide run. Although you get points for spotting, if you stay alive and act as a proper forward scout you will get more points via spot damage assists. Also you will live longer and you will be much more useful to your team which increases your victory chances and give additional points.

2. Try to take up a mobile forward observation point at the maximum visible range and keep that distance by falling back as they advance.

3. Try to set up a circuit where you are able to safely turn about behind an obstruction to prevent opportunistic shots upon you. Ideally that type of cover might consist of two large rocks separated by 50-100 meters.

4. chase after other scouts, if you track them their dead, especially when their near your troops. Deal with the enemy scout first before scouting yourself, since your team will be too busy fighting the scout to be of any assistance to targets you have spotted.

5. don’t fight or try to bypass enemy fast mediums that are trying to interdict you, lure them back to your troops and keep a safe distance, then harass them once they are in range of your troops.

6. Do not approach a target head on, approach them in a decreasing orbit like a leaf going down a drain hole. If the target fires at you, briefly head straight for them to quickly reduce the range then go back to your orbit approach before they reload.

7. Always try to track your opponent first. The speed of a luchs will keep you out of fire of the pinned targets turret.

8. Try to keep an eye on other enemies in the area if your dogfighting, when the outside enemy fires at you that’s your cue to safely perform an about-turn.

9. If there are two or more enemies in a group, circle around the group as a whole. Do not drive through the middle of the group as this will force you to expose your rear to at least one of them later when you turn.

10. Remember to randomly jink every now and then, arty can still hit you if you travel straight and a near miss will track you and result in your death.

Looking at his stat’s there’s a few interesting features, slightly over 2 kills a game average & Up to 12 kills max in a game!.
And most importantly, a 68% Win ratio. as most of you know its very difficult to get over 50% due to the balancing, To get as high as 68% over 1200+ games is amazing, It shows you how important scouts can be, its clearly soulspectre’s excellent playing that swings his whole team to a 68% Win and 30% loss ratio, His team always wins over double as many games than they lose. Unfortunately I’ve not been able to perfect soulspectre technique yet, but Ive bought a Luch and I’m practicing : ) remember this is only a tier 3 tank that costs about 85k.

Room for both strategies
Early rushing and taking out the enemies artillery in the first 30 seconds of the game, works and works very well and it often ends up in a win if performed successfully, but you need the beefed up tank to get away with it. But the more cautious approach works for any light tank.. A combination of the above two strategies seems to balance and work well, but what doesn’t work is rushing in a slower or smaller scout that aren’t rigged out with 100% crews and fully upgraded. Doing that you usually just die 3/4’s of the way to the enemy base, often before the Arty is even light up. Exp and credit wise, A win pays you bonus exp, and so does being alive at the end of the game. So playing a bit more cautiously definitely can earn you a lot more exp/credits. But exp/credits per minute played, I still prefer the rush. Especially if you play several tanks, like a leopard, then another light like a Luch, and then your main tank or a artillery. That way three games can be played in 15 minutes instead of one, and the earnings roll in.

General hints and tips.
Ramming
I seen in another post, saying scouts DO NOT RAM. Well i do, all the time, and I highly recommend it, especially with the spall liner and repair kit on board. Ramming usually takes 25% off the enemy artillery. One shot takes about 75% off most of the smaller/medium artillery. So using the ram, you can effectively now kill the artillery in one hit. Shoot, Ram Its dead. 2 seconds worth, doing that you probably take no damage yourself, and get tracked, press 5 5 to activate the repair kit and repair the tracks, and off you go to kill the next artillery. If by chance you kill the arty in the one hit, then ramming a dead tank causes no damage to you and you wont be tracked.

Circling enemies
I seen in another post, that you should circle enemies, so that the enemy cant shoot you because their turret doesn’t keep up with you. Again I’ll disagree with this, because for starters turning slows your tank down, so the less you do it the better. Slowing your tank down makes you more of a target. Also the Leo isn’t that good at turning, the Luch and T44 is pretty good at it though. So it really depends on your tank.

Also there are always several other tanks camped taking pot shots at you. If you are doing a circle around a tank, at one point of that circle you WILL be going straight to or away from those onlooking enemy tanks, making it very easy for them to land a hit on. Remember one of the main things with driving a scout is to never go towards or away from enemy tanks, You need to have as big a angle between you as possible, You know how hard it is to hit a tank that’s warping and going sidewards to/from you. If you are solo 1v’s1, then you can loop around a tank, but this usually isn’t the case for a scout who’s IN the enemy base.

Staying in groups of 2-4 or Solo
You don’t need anyone holding your hand, IF you are a dedicated maxed out scout, it takes two shots to kill a arty, or one and a ram, I find another super quick tank running around the enemy base to just be a hindrance, something you have to avoid running into. If another tank or two follows you, so be it, but its definitely not something you need if you are a “dedicated scout” class.

Arty Support
Before you head off, let your arty know what you are doing, and which way you are going.
I’m going to scout through the valley, I’m going to scout through the town, I’m going to scout left, etc.
If the arty wants to setup quickly and support you and get kills and get paid, they can. If they want to screw around moving 1/2 way across the map, then that’s up to them as-well. People will play how they want to play, So don’t bother trying to tell anyone else what to do, just tell them what YOU are doing.

Don’t Stop
Your only defense is your speed, do not stop to aim and do not stop to shoot. The only exception to this is, if you have a arty in front of you, and you know you usually hit for 75% and ram for 25%, then shoot and ram, repair your tracks and move on again, the risk is worth the kill. If you don’t kill that arty, he will probably go on to get 4 kills and your team will probably lose.

Don’t follow the leopards
Leopards are renown for their early rush’s, if the enemy team has leopards on it, usually the team or at least several extra tanks will wait for the leopards rush before moving off. So if there are several leopards, split up and split their defense, like one can approach from the left side, and the other from the right. If you are in a smaller tank. Its safer for you to wait for the leopards rush to finish before starting to more cautiously move in yourself. After the leopards are dead the enemy usually starts to disperse a bit more and lax on their defense a bit more.

Where are the Arty?
To start with, play “defend the arty” and follow them and help them kill the incoming enemy tanks. Do this for about 50 games so you get used to “where do arty hide” on each map, OR play arty yourself. To kill your enemy you need to know your enemy.

HERE IS SOME OF THE USUAL HIDING LOCATIONS FOR ARTY

I did them up quickly, I might redo them a little later when i have more time.

Murovanka

Ensk

Himmesdorf

its a difficult map for arty, so they usually stay in the base, Or wonder around playing TD, or follow directly behind some heavy tanks.

Lakeville

Karelia

Prokhorovka

The bigger arty is usually on the back line as highlighted, the smaller arty cant reach from one side of the map to the other, so they often move up and hide in closer to the middle in tree’s.

Pagorki

Erlenberg

Malinovka

Watch for arty HE shots
When HE is fired it leaves a trail, both from tanks and arty, You can usually tell the difference between the two easily enough though. So while you are approaching the enemy base apart from looking out for enemy tanks, keep an eye out for enemy arty shells flying overhead. They will give you a good idea of which of the few hiding spots the arty will be in.

Good luck Arty hunting!