World of Tanks Playing Better Guide

World of Tanks Playing Better Guide by Toasted_Rofls

I’m not really sure how to start this guide out, so I am going to go straight into it as directly as I can. Basically, most players at this game need some help at playing better. I think the best way to summarize why I made this guide is the clan motto of NDP: “By and large, the people who play this game are bad@tanks. Don’t be those people.”

I feel many people could improve at internet tanks if they could just master some game mechanics in particular and understand how they can affect their performance, and with it, win rate. Their are two main parts to World of Tanks, both equally important and equally useless if someone doesn’t have skills in both of them. They are tactics and core gameplay. You need to be able to understand your role on the battlefield, and then, you need to be effective at that role. I’ll go a bit more into those in a little bit. Before that, let me give you some more important information.

Q&A;:

What is the point of this guide?

I am hoping the people who always seem to end up on my team will read this and stop doing stupid shit like letting our entire team get flanked, or loosing a 1 v 1 fight to a tank below their tier. Also, moderately good players with alot of potential will hopefully be able to recognize what they need to do to really get good at the game and start having an impact on every match they end up in.

Why should I trust you or listen to you? How do I know you are not just one of the dumb pubs that everyone hates?

Good, understandable question. You should listen to me because I have an awesome avatar. I also have a 55% win rate, which puts me at the “above average” category of players. In certain tanks, such as mediums tanks that I am good at, my win rate is as high as 68%. My average win rate, however, is 55%, and is the win rate I have in my King Tiger and E-75, my (as of now) two most played higher tier tanks. Bad players who can manage a 47% win rate in their tier 7 heavies often have much lower win rates in their tier 9 heavies. Mine is a solid-ish 55%. I will also be posting replays of one of my “average” wins and my second best game, ever, which you can watch to see my skill (or lack of it) firsthand. I am nowhere near the best player, but I hope I am good enough that people will take my advice seriously.

Can I actually get better at this game?

There is always room for improvement. Almost all of us have the potential to get better at this game, but don’t seem to have a grip on what needs to be done to do well. The point of this guide, as I stated earlier, is to fix that.

BUT WIN RATE IS RANDOM 29 OTHER PEOPLE BLAH BLAH BLAH I JUST FEEL BAD BECAUSE I HAVE A 42% WIN RATE THE T-50-2 IS SO BROKEN I CAN’T HIT ITJHSHSHGJBFBAYUSIKGFJIE?!?!?!?!!!!!11111!!!

Stop making excuses and read my guide, I plan on addressing this very “concern”. As for the T-50-2, just learn2aim.

I hate reading, will you post videos?

Yes, yes I will.

Part IGame mechanics you need to understand and what to have before you even enter the battleIf you don’t understand certain things, I will promise you you will do bad at internet tanks. There are four in particular that many people don’t understand, and suffer heavily for it.

1. Armor and Sloping If you don’t understand armor sloping, very, very bad things are going to happen. Did you know the AP shell from a T92’s 240mm howitzer can bounce off a Loltraktor? Many people will call BS, but that is because they are ignorant pubs. I really can’t explain armor that well, my grasp on it is firm, but my ability to translate it is not. If anyone can link me to a guide to link people to about armor sloping, that would be fantastic.

A basic diagram can be found here, and was provided by Agentice. Basically, it tells you how much more effective the armor is, roughly, when at a certain angle, so you can calculate it for yourself.

Armor is another thing you need to understand. I will update this later, I think, but, basically, you need to know weakspots and effective armor. The most common and most used weakspots on a tanks armor are (usually) the lower glacis, commanders cupolas/hatches, and the side and rear armor. These are all places you should be trying to get a shot at. For example, while the upper glacis of an E-75 will bounce BL-10 shots with ease, the long 105 on the King Tiger will easily go through the E-75’s lower glacis. In fact, you can actually pen an IS-4 with a Tiger (either of them, they both mount the long 88) if you hit the lower glacis and don’t roll too badly. Now, of course, like all weakspots, this doesn’t always apply to every tank. For instance, the E-50’s lower glacis is just as tough as its upper glacis.

Important things to know about armor, for now:

1. Weakspots Learn them or die: Learn this thread

2. Effective Armor How much armor does that tank actually have? This guide does not have French tanks (Not like you need a guide on the effective armor of a French tank), nor has it been updated for the recent normilization nerf, but it is still useful to get a rough estimate on how much effective armor their is. Learn this thread as well.

I will add more later, but trust me, the sign of a true bad player is someone who does not know these.

2. Vision Mechanics

This topic had allready been covered by my good friend, Agentice, who has a good grasp on this game and its mechanics, and also has a good win rate. Notice the correlation?

He did it better then I ever could. If you don’t understand these, then you are going to die a lot of needless deaths, and then come onto the forums and bitch about invisible tanks. With the exception of the Object 704, I promise you no tank has a cloaking device, more likely, you are just an ignorant pub. Notice a pattern here? Anyhow, read up.

3. What a tanks role is on the battlefield

I am a lazy bastard. TL,DR, I have another excellent guide to link you to, this one by Garbad, who is one of the best players on the NA server, and has included multiple replays, which I highly recommend you watch. You will learn a lot from watching them, potentially more then I could ever hope to teach you. Watch the replays, for the love of god.

Anyhow, here is a quick run down of what you are supposed to be doing (usually) for each class.

Heavy tanks: You are the primary pushing force, (usually) possessing very large guns, the best HP pool, and the best armor. Your job is to dish out damage, and take shots that would have been aimed at your softer teammates. You also compose the primary pushing and defense force. Heavy tanks are the slowest tanks on the battlefield generally, and therefore, need a bit more planning ahead of time before decided on what to do while in one, as it is harder to adapt to the battlefield while you are in a slower tank. If you are the top tank in a heavy tank, I am expecting you to simply crush a flank filled with smaller tanks, or to take out as many top tier enemies as possible. If you are at the top in a heavy tank, you don’t sit back (most of the time, that is), you need to be on the frontlines. You are not a support tank (French heavies don’t count, they are just oversized medium tanks), you are a frontline combat tank. You should not sit in base and snipe, you should push or defend. If you are near the bottom of the list, only then is sitting back and supporting really acceptable.

Medium tanks: You have something no other tank in the game has, supreme flexibility, and if you are not using it, then you are playing a medium wrong. Mediums make the best flanking tanks in the game, due to their superior mobility over heavy tanks and TD’s, and their superior firepower over light tanks (AMX 13 90 doesn’t count, that thing is a medium with the wrong classification, IMO). You can fill almost any role in a medium, all though I would recommend letting tanks that are meant to fill that role do it instead if it is possible. As a medium, your primary job is to adapt to the battlefield at hand to increase your chances of winning. Whether that means you are sitting on top of a hill, pumping out damage, pestering the enemies top tier heavy, scouting, counter-scouting, flanking, or really anything else, you need to hurt the enemy as much as possible in as many ways as you can. Don’t be afraid to relocate, that is your biggest strength over heavies and TD’s. Your adaptability is your key strength, try to use it as much as you can.

Light Tanks: Congrats, your either a medium, a scout, or a French tier 6 or 7 tank. At lower tiers, you are everything but a TD or an SPG. As a light tank, you have the best mobility in the game, as well as some of the best camo, and also get an on the move camo bonus, further adding towards your scouting abilities. Light tanks are actually very diverse. At tier 3 and below, you are the main attacking force. Once you hit tier 4, you are a scout tank most of the time. At tier 5, you are a scout tank or the Chaffee. Any light tank above tier 5 is just a medium tank with a camo bonus, IMO. Anyhow, you shouldn’t just charge straight into the enemy base most of the time, try to stay alive and keep things lit up, or find an opportunity to slip into the enemy base and kill there arty. As a light tank, you need to use your abilities as a scout to keep the enemy lit up for as long as you can, as well as to kill the enemy arty.

Tank Destroyers: As a TD, what you have is (usually) the best camo and the biggest gun, with the highest damage output. While mediums trade pen and alpha for DPM and RoF, and heavies trade DPM for pen and alpha, TD’s (usually) get more or equal alpha and equal if not better pen compared to a heavy tanks gun, and more DPM and usually very comparable RoF to a medium tank, as well as more accuracy compared to both. Basically, you get a hell of a potent gun, and good camo, in exchange for (usually) bad armor and the worst HP of any of the direct combat classes. You also do not have a turret, which is an extremely important thing to remember, as it will affect your ability to use certain terrain and cover, and also means tracking can spell an instant death. As a TD, most of the time, you are best of sticking back and dumping damage into the enemy with your amazing gun. Now obviously, there are some exceptions to these rules, such as the Ferdinand, which has no camo but tons of armor, or the Jagdpanzer, which has terrible pen (But amazing DPM). Also, make sure you do not confuse sticking back with camping. You can still play aggressively. You have a huge gun, you need to make sure you are in a position to use it. Camping the base usually will not allow you to do that.

SPGs: Basically whack-a-mole. Once you learn how to time rounds, avoid counterbattery (Which is very, very easy to do), and predict the enemy (Also generally very easy to do), you can basically sit in the back of the map and pwn noobs with little skill required. All you really need to do well in arty is good timing and common sense. Shoot bigger tanks first, if you can wipe a dangerous tank of the map in one hit, shoot that, relocate if the enemy is coming your way…. This stuff should be obvious. Arty is easy mode. I guess I need to make a bold part now to explain what your role is. As an laser guided orbital ion cannon, your role is to whack the biggest moles that you can, or the whatever puny normal tank is brave enough to stop hugging a wall and peak out. Also, if the enemy arty gets lit up, shoot that first, please. That enemy heavy will probably get lit again very soon, you cannot say the same about enemy arty. Once it is up, it isn’t guaranteed to stay up for very long.

4. Before battle loadouts

This might seem obvious to many people, but it really isn’t, sadly. You need to equip your tank properly. If you don’t, you deserve to loose. Now, ideally, you will have a 100% with all secondary skills trained, a Automatic Fire Extinguisher, a Large Repair Kit, and a Large First Aid Kit, as well as all the top modules for your tank, and the best equipment. Now, obviously, this is not always possible, and luckily, not having the absolute best should not hurt you much, if at all. Having nothing at all, however, is going to hurt you. You need to be aware of the importance of crew training, consumables, and equipment. Don’t be that guy who doesn’t have an extinguisher on his Panther and burns to the ground every other game. If you do use make use of the following things, you are severely handicapping yourself.

1. Crew training: The more crew training, you have, the better. Ideally, you would want it completely maxed out, with all the secondary skills. That is not always possible. Do note, once your crew hits 100% primary, they are not getting any better at anything other then secondary skills. Once you hit tier 5, you make enough money that you should never be using a 50% crew again. It really doesn’t cost that much to train a crew to 75%, and I promise you, 75% is leaps and bounds better then 50%. You can also re-train an 100% crew from an different tank of the same class up to 90% percent and keep their secondary skills for the same cost as training a fresh crew to 75%. Try to do this as much as possible. Finally, you can also spend gold to get a 100% crew. Whether or not this is worth doing is highly dependent on your current situation and opinion, so I will not go into it much in depth.

2. Modules: You obviously want the best modules unlocked and mounted on your tank. If a module is shared with other tanks you plan on getting, I highly, highly recommend you get it. Seeing a T29 with the 76mm, or a E-75 with the long 88 (Some people actually do this), is just painful. Don’t be that guy, if the tank after your tank shares modules, get them now, so your grind later will be less painful. Trying to grind a E-75 with the long 105 and the second best engine is almost indescribably easier then trying to grind one with the long 88 and the stock engine. Every little module upgrade helps, even the radio, get as many as you can.

3. Consumables: They are cheap and game winning. Once you hit tier 5, you more then make enough to afford them. While it will be different for every tank, my recommend load out for 95% of tanks will be a Small Repair Kit, a Small First Aid Kit, and a Manual Fire Extinguisher. Some people like to run things like a removed speed governor or improved quality gasoline, but I would not recommend doing this unless you know what you are doing. If you do not run consumables, you are severely handicapping yourself. Fixing a broken ammo rack, healing a dead gunner, stopping a fire before you become nearly completely combat ineffective… It only cost 3,000 credits a consumable. That is almost nothing. Remember, if you win, you get extra credits, and they will pay for those consumables. If you don’t use consumables, your chances of winning go down. Basically, use consumables, o.k? Don’t be that one guy who doesn’t.

4. Equipment: Very important, but it can be expensive. I highly recommend you put at least a Rammer on whatever you can mount it on. You are handicapping yourself once more if you are not making full use of equipment. It is very expensive, but well worth it. If you can, try to fully loadout every tank you can. As to what is worth mounting, that is another topic entirely, but just having a Rammer will often be good enough for many smaller tanks. At tier 9 and above, however, you should ideally have a full 3 slot loadout with the best equipment you can mount. If you run any tank at tier 9 or above with no equipment, you are a bad person and deserve to loose. Remember to use gold to remove expensive equipment, it is very cheap at 10 gold, and incredibly useful and cost effective, perhaps the best value for your gold in the entire game.

Part IIYour win rate and how you can affect itNo, win rate is not random, and you can actually help your team win

Contrary to popular belief, you do affect your win rate, enough to judge other players by their win rate. To start this section off, I am going to post my second best game (Third if you count a 1,350 EXP loss I had once). After watching it, I am going to ask you nay-sayers, did I not just affect my win rate in that battle by killing over half the enemy team? In this replay, I got 2,373 EXP, non-doubled, with a premium account, a Boelters Medal, Steel Wall. I had 8 kills and 1 damaged. This battle was on Malinovka, in my T32. It can be found here.

I recommend watching it, so you can see how to effectively employ an American heavy, and so you can have proof I don’t suck.

Moving on, I am going to flat out state, right now, that you affect your win rate every game you play. You can have an above average win rate,and it can be caused by you. Where you there to stop a cap? Did you singlehandedly kill that enemy IS-4 in your Pershing? Where you smart enough to take advantage of the gap in the enemies defenses to kill there arty? These things win games, and your average player is not capable of pulling them off or doesn’t realize he has the opportunity to do them. The only constant factor in every game you play is you. If you play better, I promise you, your win rate will improve.

The key to doing well is tactics, because, in the end, your amazing ability to rip the enemy apart will be meaningless if you end up camping the wrong spot, or half of there team is able to flank yours. You need both superior situational and superior core game competency to do well. I am going to bring this up later, trust me. You need to pay attention to the current state of the battlefield, and you need to adapt to it, constantly. I think I may expand this section later, but for now, I will give you a rough run-down.

1. Pay attention to where the enemy is at all times. Position is vital.Where are they? In relation to your team? In relation to yourself? What can they do about their current situation? What can you do about the current situation?

2. Where are you? What are you doing at the moment, how does this help your team? What can you do to have a bigger impact on the battle?

3. If you are loosing, figure out why. If you can correct this problem, then do your best to do so.

4. Similar to #3, if you are winning, figure out why. If you can add towards this, then do your best to do so.

Affecting your winning


You have a constant affect on your winning. Basically, winning comes down to pulling more then your own weight. We are going to get to the key of winning, something that seems so obvious, yet so many players fail to grasp. This is the entire point of the guide, in a way, and something that needs to be made clear. It really is as simple as this.

The key to doing well is to maximize your chances of winning.
Basically, that is it. Now, on how to maximizing your chance to win. The key thing you need to do is damage. Not just actual, literal damage, allthough that is usually it. You need to hurt the enemy team in every possible way. Killing arty, denying the enemy positions, taking out scouts, tracking bigger tanks, lighting the enemy up, destroying their cover, really everything goes if it makes it harder for the enemy to win. Most of the time, however, doing direct damage is the most important thing. Aim to do as much damage per a game as possible. Think about it, if you deal an extra 1000 damage to the enemy, that is an extra 1000 damage your most likely retarded teammates will not have to do to win the game. With the exception of scout tanks, you should try to do a minimum of your HP’s worth of damage to the enemy. It really isn’t that hard to do, actually.For example, it only takes 6 damaging shots for the Pershing to do its HP’s worth of damage. If you can’t put out 6 damaging shots, then you suck. Ideally, try to do twice your HP’s worth of damage. That only requires 12 shots from your Pershing to deal damage. That really isn’t that hard to do if you stay alive for most of the game.

Speaking of staying alive, survival is important. If you died, that is one less gun on the field. A 1 HP tank has the same gun as a full HP tank, and can use it just as well (not counting if the gun or ammo rack is damaged, the gunner and/or commander and/or loader is dead). I have had many games where I was at extremely low health yet still pulled myself together and dealt huge amounts of damage. Don’t just rush in, play cautiously and stay alive, dealing damage.

Basically, if you want to win, you need to pay attention to what is going on and do as much damage to the enemy team as possible in whatever way you can. You need to compensate for the retardation of your average pub. Being average doesn’t mean you are in anyway competent. The average win rate is 47%, go watch a 47% win rate player in action, and then tell me if the average player is actually any good.

I may add more to this part later, in fact, I’m hoping to, but right now, this is what I have for you. It’s a little abstract, I guess, but its the concept that is the most important to understand.

Part IIIIn conclusion
Anyhow, that about raps up the basics I hope for people to try to learn. I’m not sure how well I did at explaining, but I hope some people can read this and “click”. I know I used to be bad, and then I kinda clicked myself, a combination of paying more attention and reading guides like these. I used to be a 50% win rate player at best. My King Tiger win rate was at 49% at one point, and then one day, I just got better. My KT win rate now hovers around 55%, and alternates between 55 and 54. The first tank I ever applied my strategy to, the one I have given here, for the entire grind, is my T29. I have a 62% win rate in that tank. I am fully confident that that was not luck, but me affecting every battle. One fond memory I have in my T29 was going hull down in a good spot and basically holding an entire flank with just me and my platoon mate, who was in a Jumbo, against multiple enemies long enough that my retard team could take the long route, even after I told them if they go that way, they are going to loose. They then proceeded to win because I was not an idiot, and in the chat they said “You where wrong”. I was raging so hard. Luckily, one of the smarter players piped up and said “We would have lost had Rofls not been there.”

Anyhow, here is the conclusion. Now that I look over this guide, I realize it will need some work, but it is late, and I need to get up early tomorrow. In the end, this is what matters, as simply and as bluntly as I can put it. It ties into everything I have said so far.

The key to maximizing your chances of winning is to have core game competence and situational awareness, and to use them to do as much damage to the enemy as possible, in whatever way you can.
Anyhow, this took me some time to create. I could have added alot more, but as people who know me can attest, I am a lazy bastard. I typed this up to help the people who have potential to do well, but can’t use it right now. I am hoping some 47%-53% win rate players will read this and then “click”, and become 56% or better win rate players. I used to suck at internet tanks, but I improved, and I figure if I can do it, almost anyone else can do it as well.

Thanks for reading my wall of text, if you are the type of person to lazy to read the whole thing, then I have trouble believing you have the abilities to really put to use what I talked about in this guide effectively enough to really make a difference. Anyhow, some more stuff.

A couple of replays:

1. An average game for me in my Noodletank, featuring both Mow_Mow and the most hated player in this game, Matchmaker. Yes, for real, that is his username. In it, I effectively take the hill in Himmelsdorf, only to find nothing is on it. I then go into the enemies cap, and rush in to save Mow_Mow from an enemy Type 59, who I end up pushing back and then killing. Afterwords, an enemy arty hits me, but I make up for it by lucking out against the other enemy arty and getting an invader at the end. Link here.

2. An average game in my E-75, featuring Mow_Mow and Matchmaker once more. Mow_Mow kills everything before I can even shoot at it, and then Matchmaker, being the dick he is, shoots me on purpose. Seriously. The map is Fisherman’s Bay, and as the top tier heavy tanks, we push into the town and do our best to wreck everything in it as fast as we can so we can secure our flank. Link here.

3. Recommended watching material: A very good game in my T32, where I effectively use hull down and weakspots to stop the enemy heavy advance. A very good example of how to play a game. I made over 2,000 EXP in this game, and really showed how to best use an American heavies primary advantage, turret armor, by using the terrain to hide my terrible hull armor. It also features alot of commanders cupola shooting. Once again, the link is here.

4. A above average game in my Pershing, where I effectively take the hill on mines and then rain death upon unfortunate nubs. After dispatching of the enemy IS-3, I proceed to hurt as many tanks as possible from my newly won position, and secure an easy victory because of it. Click here.

5. Recommended watching material: I get a Top Gun in my T2 Light Tank, proving that the T2 Light Tank is still the king of tier 2 premium noob-stomping tanks. I machine gun a couple of tanks to death, its fun to watch. I rush the hill on Mines as I did in my Pershing, but much to my surprise, no one was there but me. I then proceed to try to scout the enemy out, with little effect, so I move up to get into machine gun range and then hose down the enemies with my pew-pew of death. As always, the link is here.

6. An excellent game in my GW Panther, where I counter battery two enemy arty, and then proceed to stop the capping of our base multiple times. Sadly, it ended in a draw, because Kamparin sucks like that. Click here.

7. Recommended watching material: I successfully whack moles so well in my GW Panther, that it helps us win the game even though one of our IS-4’s was AFK the whole time. In it, I start out by trying to make sure our weak flank is covered after my idiot team all rushes towards the middle area with no real plan. After trying to keep the enemy from crossing a bridge, I relocate farther back until I am in less danger, and then continue to shoot at them until an AMX 12t comes by. Considering how small the thing is, how fast it was moving, and in what directions over what terrain, I’m pretty surprised I was even able to splash him. I rapidly relocate to a new location to avoid the scout. Luckily, my non-retard Lowe teammate is able to take out the scout for me. Realizing I am now in a good spot to do some direct fire, I pummel the enemy IS-4’s the best I can, dealing enough damage that I may have won us the match by doing that alone. Overall, an excellent game for me, especially considering I suck at whack-a-mole. The replay is here.

Final words

This guide turned out pretty well, I guess. I really wish I could have said more, but I think I covered the basics pretty well. I plan on modifying this later once I get some feedback on it. I still feel there isn’t enough, that I was to brief and vauge. Anyhow, I really would like all the feedback I can get. Any feedback would be very appreciated. Tips, links to other guides, personal philosophy, opinions, anything would be nice. Currently, I am looking for a guide of sloping and general armor mechanics, as well as the RNG and what it affects. Really, any useful guides would be appreciated. The more in-depth knowledge I can link people to, the better.

Anyhow, I hope this helps people. If just one person learns something from this guide, then I have pulled my forum warrior weight for this entire match. This guide was made for people like thandiflight and other people who hover around the 50-ish percent win ratio, but I hope everyone can learn something from this guide. In conclusion, internet tanks, go go go!

-Rofls