Tank Types and Their Role in the Game 

Or Lack Thereof

 

When you first start playing World of Tanks, you really don't have a choice what type of tank you play. The only differentiation between them is nation, and their individual characteristics, which are largely the same at tier 1 (T1 Cunningham being slightly better than the rest). Past tier 1 however, you may notice that there are other types beyond just light tanks. This includes medium tanks, heavy tanks, tank destroyers, and artillery (SPGs). All of these types have a role in the game, similar to assault class, support, engineer and recon in a game like Battlefield 3.

There are certain features which define these different classes: 

Lights

AMX 13 90

 

Light tanks are largely meant as scouts, and very important in any game, as they serve as the forward eyes for the entire team, and provide the team with targets. Without someone scouting, the team may not be getting the eyes on the enemy it needs to see where enemy is going, so they can be countered. Lights tend to be very difficult to play the higher you go, especially in tiers 4-8. This is because they have the lowest amount of hit points other than artillery, in general, and almost never have any armor to speak of. They also are largely undergunned, so dealing damage with them can be difficult at times. The three things they do have are camouflage, speed, and agility (track traverse). This allows them to potentially engage in active scouting, scouting where you're always on the move trying to light the enemy up for your team, or passive scouting, which is using your camo behind a bush or in a forest serving as the forward eyes, but not moving. I believe that light tanks in the higher tiers are some of the most difficult tanks to succeed in, and there is a severe lack of good light tank/scout players in this game.

Mediums

T-62A

These are a step up from light tanks in terms of evolution, as they are still generally fast, but have better armor, and bigger guns. Usually mediums are the jack of all trades on the battlefield, able to flex from position to position, take some hits, deal solid damage. It's of course possible for mediums to scout, more on that later. They tend not to have the same or more alpha damage (any initial shot where you might draw the enemy's attention) than same-tier heavies, and certainly not TDs, but their DPM (damage per minute) makes up for it in almost every case. To play mediums well, you have to have great map awareness, tank versus tank knowledge, and quick reflexes to take advantage of the any openings you get. While lights are definitely harder to play, mediums are not easy by any stretch. A well-played medium can change the course of any game, because of the ability to flex back to cap or to another flank quickly, and to finish off weaker tanks using superior DPM.  Mediums are indeed my favorite class of tanks without a doubt. 

Heavies

T110E5

Heavies are the meatshields, being slower with less agility, but having more hit points and armor to be able to take hits. Once the kings of the battlefield, back when they were the only tier 10s (mediums and TDs only went to tier 9), now they serve the purpose of absorbing punishment, and dealing a good amount of their own as well. Heavies usually have better alpha than meds, slower rate of fire, and longer aim-times. Historically throughout the game's lifetime, they have been the most played type of tank, evidenced by the statistics which are coming up a bit later. You want to generally use heavies to lead forces in an organized attack, so they take most of the damage, and preserve your lighter tanks so they can survive and deal damage or spot. 

Tank Destroyers

FV215b (183)

 The name says it all. These are the tanks which were historically designed to counter other heavier types of tanks in the most effective way possible: from a good distance away and from concealment. They generally have very good camo (TDs get a special camo bonus in the game), and much better guns than any other tank for their tier. The drawback of them is that usually they don't have a turret, instead mounting the gun directly into the superstructure of the tank. There are some exceptions to this of course, such as the American and German turreted TDs. They vary in speed to very fast and agile (Object 268/Foch 155), to slow and cumbersome (JP E-100/T110E3). The best way to play them is mostly as described previously, you don't want to be seen, and you don't want to be the main attacking element. TDs are ideal for base defense, area denial, and heavy fire support.

Artillery

G.W. E100

Artillery is another form of heavy fire support which usually comes in the form of indirect fire. They have some of the biggest guns on the battlefield, but tend to be less agile and slower, having little to no armor. This class is almost entirely team-dependant, and requires solid scouting to achieve the goal of completely obliterating whatever they fire at. Without proper scouting, artillery is mostly useless. Unlike other classes of tanks, artillery cannot scout for itself, unless in very desperate situations. Light tanks primary objective is to give artillery targets to shoot. Well-played artillery can make a massive impact on a battle, and provide the team with many nearly dead targets to finish off. Make no mistake, playing artillery is all about doing the most damage you can to the biggest threats, not necessarily getting kills, which is a big misconception in this game, at least in public battles.

Playerbase Usage 

It's common knowledge that the playerbase tends to abuse the type of tank which is viewed as 'best' or 'most overpowered' in general. When the game first came out, the only tier 10s were heavies, so most people went for those, for obvious reasons. The gap between tier 9 and 10 is fairly large for the most part, and unless there is an obvious skill-gap between players, the tier 9 is at a definite disadvantage. 

So initially, you had many people grinding out IS-7s, Mäuse (plural of Maus), and T30s (back then the US tier 10 heavy). Most of clan wars was full of either one of these three tanks, and to be honest, it got to be a bit stale. Not to say I want change in the form of powercreep, but I don't think Wargaming knows how to do it otherwise. Tier 9s were sometimes used in niche roles, but tier 10 heavies were always the main force. People complained that the only tier 10s were heavies, and this was unfair, so eventually Wargaming came up with tier 10 meds and TDs, and higher tier lights. This served two purposes: the first is that it gave the playerbase something most of them wanted, that is, all except tier 10 heavy drivers. The second was of course, to further powercreep the game, which must be done at all costs, komrad. 

Keep in mind, the top tier for artillery when the game first released, was tier 7. This means the top arty in the game was the Object 212, G.W. Tiger, and M40/43. Back then these were essentially the same things as the tier 10 versions are now, with the exception of the 212 being decidedly different than the Object 261 (tier 10 arty). Artillery was not overused like it later became, and in my recollection, wasn't a tremendous problem. 

So of course, Wargaming, in their infinite wisdom, decided that tier 7 arty was not enough, and thus tier 8 arty was born. At this point, in my opinion, the game really shifted towards power creep, big time. These new tier 8 artillery pieces were essentially bigger, badder versions of the tier 7's, except for the aforementioned 261, which had a smaller round, but fired very fast and accurately. Eventually people realized that tier 8 arty was something that was super fun, and relatively safe, so many people began to play them. 

If you look at overall battles played, and not recent batttles, on noobmeter, you will find that the first three high tier arty (and one tier 9 arty) have been played quite a lot:

Object 261                               8,223k games played

G.W. E100                               4,061k

Bat Chatillon 155 55                3,684k

T92                                          2,848k

(source: http://www.noobmeter.com/tankStats/) 

This is all-time games played, not recent. If you look at the recent games played, it's way down for this class, and you will understand why later.

The reason for the tier 9 Bat Chat 155 55 being more played than the tier 10 Bat Chat 155 58 is most likely because they are nearly identical in every way, except for a small amount of hit points, top speed, and traverse speed. Rather than engage in the insanely long tier 10 arty grind, people are content with the tier 9, a similar situation with the M53/M55 tier 9 and the T92. 

So there came to be an obvious arty epidemic in high tier matches, where you would commonly have 4-8+ per side, not unlike the TD epidemic we have now, more on that later.

fun for the whole family

At this point it wasn't a question of whether heavies, meds, TDs or lights were overused, it was just, "something must be done about arty". So of course, rather than simply nerf the biggest problem with arty (the extreme alpha damage, splash radius and module/crew damage), Wargaming simply made them much more boring to play, requiring a lot more patience. They increased aim time, decreased accuracy, made them much slower, and took away hit points. While this was a solid way to get fewer people playing arty, it also made the people who have multiple tier 10 arty in their garage feel some regret perhaps, and for good reason. I've always been a big proponent of simply getting rid of arty altogether, and refunding the credits and experienced used on all the arty for each player. This is something Wargaming would never do, because it would allow certain people to simply get 1 or more new tier 10 tanks, right off the bat.

I mentioned earlier that heavies were the most played tank in the game, and looking at noobmeter, you can clearly see that overall, heavies as a class have more games played than any other class:

Here I combined the top 5 most played tanks for each class, added the games played in each of them together, and came up with these numbers:

Heavy                   48,369k games played

Medium                36,117k

Tank Destroyer     25,231k

Artillery                 19,388k

Light                     14,137k (combining tiers 7 and 8)

(source: http://www.noobmeter.com/tankStats/)

This data confirms that for a long time, when heavies were tier 10, they were simply used more than anything else, and more people ground them out for clan wars, etc. The recent numbers are not terribly different however, since in clan wars, heavies still comprise much of the main force, although not quite as much as they once did:

Top 5 most played tanks, recent games played (Oct 24-Nov 23, 2013), by class:

Artillery                 3,967k

Heavy                   2,731k

Tank Destroyer     2,478k

Medium                2,237k

Light                     1,479k (again combining tiers 7 and 8)

(source: see above)

The artillery number is only inflated because of the strange abuse of the Bat Chat 155 55 (3,209k battles!), which is strange because the Bat Chat 155 58 (tier 10), only has 8k games played recently. Despite this anomaly, it's safe to say that heavies are still the most played class, although TDs are not far behind, and catching up fast. As mentioned in my previous article, World of TDs, we now basically have with TDs what we had with arty not long ago. This is a bit of a problem for high tier public matches, and hopefully something will be done, but at this point I'm not sure what, other than toning down TDs a bit.

The Object 268 is one of the best TDs in the game

 

Implementation in Today's Game

Now that you have a basic concept of what the various tank classes can do and how much they're played, let's discuss how they are actually used in-game. The various roles these tanks are supposed to play in the game in many cases simply does not work the way it should. Let me be clear, any of these types of tanks well played, can be a force to reckoned with. However, some are much easier than others, and some take on roles they clearly were not meant to.

Let's begin with artillery, as the role of this class has greatly been reduced in recent patches, and, much to the delight of many, these are mostly missing from many a battle. The role of artillery should be to break the enemy's defenses, stop him from camping, and force him to make a move, hopefully one that he doesn't want to make, or doesn't want to make yet. Its other role is to support the tanks when they commit to an offensive push, and take out or severely damage or disable the biggest threat. Since artillery is now mostly boring to play and not nearly as rewarding as all the other roles for the most part, Wargaming has essentially take artillery's role out of the game in many respects.

My take is, why even have it in the game if not many want to play it, and its role is simply artificially lessened because Wargaming doesn't know how to balance it. Arty as it is now, should simply be removed, as I said before, and the credits and experience refunded. This to me is one of the only solutions with this class as of now.

So, since you have less artillery, it stands to reason that you would have fewer lights. This seems to indeed be the case, as you look at the recent numbers for lights above, they are by far the least played class, and this is combining the two highest tiers (7 and 8). Light tanks were always the hardest tanks to play well, and now without much arty and with a proliferation of TDs, they're even moreso. It doesn't help that Wargaming simply doesn't reward good scouting with light tanks well enough, you don't get enough experience for spotting, or damage upon spotting, simply put. Lights are the least rewarded, and have the toughest job, so it's little wonder why they are the least played class.

Mediums have always been awesome to play, and quite rewarding, even when they only went to tier 9. This doesn't mean they're easy, because in my opinion, other than effective light tank scouting, playing a medium well requires more than any other class. With the introduction of tier 10 meds and TDs, they evened the odds a bit versus the heavies, and gave each class a more defined role. In today's World of Tanks, mediums are still some of the best tanks when played effectively and not like a heavy, or TD. They can scout, and for the highest tiers (9-10), I'd rather have a Bat-Chatillon 25t, Leopard 1, or T-62A/Object 140 scouting than an AMX 13-90 or WZ-132. Other than speed, agility, and camo, which those meds have, it simply boils down to what else the meds bring that the lights don't, and that is hit points, and firepower. There is no better tank to win a game when it's on the line and the enemy is a bit battered or worn down, than a medium.

Other than the 62A/Obj 140, I'd take a Bat over anything

After tier 10 meds and TDs came out, the role of heavies was largely unchanged, and they are still the main force in clan wars (as of this writing, T57, T110E5, E-100, IS-7/4 are some of the most used clan wars tanks). Their role is still damage absorption, heavy pushes, and slow but steady map control. Many people claim that outside of clan wars, the role of the heavy has been diminished greatly, but I believe this has more to do with the excessive number of high tier TDs than anything else.

If you see this, you're probably going back to the garage.

TDs have clearly become the kings of the battlefield for pub matches, and are used more and more in clan wars (see WT E-100 article to understand why). TDs are the only class other than mediums (scouting), which can take on additional roles not meant for the class, as they can lead pushes, flank enemies, outrun or catch certain tanks they probably shouldn't be able to, and take ridiculous amounts of damage. They not only have superior camo (with some exceptions) and superior firepower but also very good speed and armor as well. Obviously this doesn't include all high tier TDs, but in general, as a class, TDs have more to offer for high tiers than anything else at the moment.

Wargaming should take a look at the different types of tanks they have included in this game and think about whether each one has a role or not anymore, because in my opinion, lights and arty really don't. You could make an argument that, for public matches, heavies and mediums role is in jeopardy due to the TD-spam effect. It's simply too easy to sit back in one of the lanes on a map and just pound people with super alpha, all while not being spotted in many cases. I'm not saying we should remove TDs or nerf them greatly, but there are some balances you could make that would work, such as slightly lessening the alpha, armor, or speed of some TDs. Obviously it's not easy to balance this game 100%, but Wargaming has made some positive changes in the past, so obviously it's not out of the realm of possibility that they could do it again. 

 

  

RNG, the Playerbase, and Their Effects on Your WoT Experience

 

RNG

Many new players may never realize the effects that factors outside their control have on the average World of Tanks experience. Indeed many have likely quit due to not realizing that these factors exist, and how to either take advantage of them or lessen the effect they have. Had I known all that I know now about this game, I probably would've quit awhile ago myself. This isn't to say the deck is stacked against you all the time, or that there's nothing you can do to have an impact on the outcome of a match, but I am not the biggest fan of how large the RNG spread is. It becomes obvious in some matches that the RNG may not be on your side, and this directly correlates to a negative gameplay experience.

For those who don't know, the RNG, or random number generator, is an effect in WoT which partially determines whether or not your shot hits, whether it penetrates the armor of the opposing tank, and also whether or not it does damage, and how much damage. Any decent player in this game will tell you that it's all about damage to the enemies' actual hit point pool that matters, not module or crew damage, more on that later. The RNG in WoT is +/- 25%, which many believe to be far too much for a game trying to become a major e-sports platform. Beyond the 25%, there are also other factors that can determine whether or not your shot lands in the dirt, or where you aimed it. Taken from the WoT wiki:

"Every shot you take is dispersed randomly around the center of your aiming reticle, i.e. you will not necessarily hit exactly where you aimed. The actual dispersion amount is based on a Gaussian (normal) distribution curve and depends on your gun and the turret it is mounted to."   (http://wiki.worldoftanks.com/Battle_Mechanics#Accuracy_and_Dispersion)

This mechanic can indeed be maddening at times, when you have a perfectly aimed in shot, with 100% crew, a very accurate gun, and you still miss. Sometimes, a perfectly aimed shot will hit, penetrate, only to damage or destroy a module or crew member of the enemy. This is yet another RNG mechanic, as all modules and crew members of tanks have hit points which are separate from the tanks hit point pool. When you're about to die, and you put a shot into the enemy which takes out his radioman, or driver, or fuel tanks (without setting him on fire), or engine, instead of killing him, you will then understand that this mechanic is just unnecessary. Wargaming has put so many elements of RNG and luck into the game to increase the level of frustration, and we all know WoT is not without great amounts of that.   

In my opinion, this mechanic and most RNG mechanics are in place to give worse players a higher chance of success, while at the same time dampening the impact a good player has on a given battle. Still, the fact that good/great players' performance all but ensures victory or defeat in many cases, truly means that these players are above and beyond the level of most players. This is despite sometimes going through terrible bouts of bad RNG, so essentially it means good/great players (green, blue, purple for WoTLabs.net) are even better than their stats would suggest, in general. It also suggests the opposite for bad players, who, when given good RNG, are still not likely to not use it to their advantage and win a match. Yes, the RNG goes both ways, but good players will win games if given average-good RNG, bad players will not. Good players will even sometimes draw out or win matches when given bad RNG, and thus, you can see why they are good players.

 

 The Playerbase

potato is as potato does

   

I mentioned earlier that the RNG may be a major factor in whether new players stay in the game, and this has proven to be true in countless forum posts by angry new players. They may not like the RNG, or the camouflage system, or something else, but it drives them to other games nonetheless. This is something that Wargaming really should consider, especially knowing that War Thunder ground forces is gearing up for closed beta soon (December 4th). 

When looking at player retention, let's consider the following current numbers from wot-news.com:

Players who played between 0-500 battles =   3,156,512 players (60.24%)

1-1,000 battles =   1,730,263 (33.02%)

1,000-1,500 battles =   65,066 (1.24%)

1,500-2,000 battles =   45,345 (0.87%)

2,000-2,500 battles =   34,473 (0.66%)

2,500-3,000 battles =   27,206 (0.52%)

9,500-10,000 battles =   4,020 (0.08%)

(source: http://wot-news.com/stat/server/us/norm/en, bottom chart)

As you can see, Wargaming really has a problem keeping new players playing more than 1,000 battles. Also of note, not even 1% of players play more than 1,500 battles. These are telling statistics, as, while many players still play and enjoy the game, there is something fundamentally wrong with how WG is going about it. I believe RNG is only one factor here. There is also the camouflage mechanics, spotting/view range mechanics, physics and how they change the game, tank imbalances, tier imbalances, map imbalances, matchmaker imbalances, and the list goes on (all of which could be entirely separate articles in and of themselves). 

I read the WoT forums a lot, and almost every day I see some new player complaining about any one of these mechanics or imbalances, and while some players are helpful to them, others simply write them off as noobs or troll them. This is another factor that determines player retention, if a player is helped by the community, or trolled, he may or may not stay with the game. In many cases the forum can hurt new players more than it helps, which to me is sad.

There is no doubt that there are overall more players playing WoT than there ever were, on all servers, but this is mostly due to extremely aggressive advertising on Wargaming's part, free-to-play games becoming hugely popular, and a virtually perpetual downturn in the global, and US, economies. Given the above player retention statistics, it's a safe bet that most of the current populations of all servers are new players, or newer players.

#yoloderp

This leads me to my next point, player skill. If you look at all the various mechanics and skill level required to be a good player in WoT, you will know that new players are almost inevitably bad, very bad. Now, when I first started off, I was absolutely horrible, and had no idea what I was doing, and understood almost nothing about the game. But, I made sure to stay in low tiers, enjoy the game, and have fun, while also learning the game and how it works. This is something all new players should do, if they want to become better. 

Unfortunately, many new players want to skip tiers or play a tier 8 premium tank (which anyone can purchase even if you have 0 battles played), both of which are detrimental to them actually learning the game properly. There's also the problem of bots and afk'ers, but sadly some new players are even worse than the previously mentioned parties, which takes real skill. There are more and more of these bad players running up the tiers every day, and for players like me, it only makes the game worse. 

If you look at WoTLabs, you will find the average server statistics for NA:

Server Statistics

Average Win Rate: 48.78%
Average Tier: 4.91
Average Efficiency: 873
Average WN7 Rating: 772
Players Tracked: 217763
(source: http://wotlabs.net/)

WN7 is a metric used as an alternative means of calculating player skill, and while it is not a be-all-end-all of skill measurements, it has its merits. The following graph can be used as a tool for comparison:

source: http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/184017-wn7-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work/page__st__1980

For a breakdown of what WN7 takes into account, we can look at these statistics:

For example: M8A1 tier 4 td, Win, 1176 dmg done, 4 kills, 5 detected, 33 defense points. A 3776 WN7 game which breaks down into.
1176 dmg = 1020.85
4 kills = 1645.98
5 detected = 625.00
33 defense = 220.00
win bonus = 264.23
tier bonus = -0.32
Total = 3775.74 WN7
(source: http://quickybaby.com/general-discussions/wn7-breakdown/)

As you can see, the average WN7 is 772, which is red, and red is generally pretty bad. I don't believe the average win rate of the server reflects the actual skill of the average player, I believe WN7 more accurately does. Playing this game in beta and on release, it's very obvious to see the average skill level has become far worse than it once was. There were many players with actual common sense and some kind of tactical awareness, mini-map usage, and game mechanic knowledge. Now, many players simply want to get to tier 10 as quickly as possible, no matter what. By the time they get there though, they find that not only did they not learn how to play the game, but that tier 10 is where most of the best players reside, making the task of a bad player becoming good nearly impossible. If you ask any veteran player who has been here even since release, they will tell you that the playerbase has gotten considerably worse, and there are many more lopsided 0-15 and 15-0 battles than there used to be. Anyone who has fun with those types of battles, doesn't really know what fun is.

WoT has really become a game of "new player and veteran player retention doesn't matter, it's all about brand new players coming in and dropping cash", which many do. It's sad that Wargaming doesn't seem to value their veterans or try to retain people, instead focusing solely on how much money they can get before this game inevitably dies to something like powercreep, connection issues (Telia.net), other games coming out (WT ground forces), clan wars issues (ROTA and campaigns 1 and 2), or simply Wargaming's continued ignorance of known game issues other than the ones previously mentioned. If they valued their customers, they would make changes, but this is not likely to happen, as they are for now, and have been for awhile, the only (tank) game in town.

Most considerate developer ever?

  

The Waffentrager auf E-100 

Overpowered, or Not?

 

You Decide

 

Whenever Wargaming releases a new tank line, there's always endless speculation about whether the new set of tanks will be balanced (T110E5), break the game (Foch 155), or just fade into oblivion (anything British except the 183). Given the nature of what Wargaming is trying to do and has already done with their game, I believe it's fairly obvious at this point that new tanks are generally better or have some advantage over established ones, at least at first. Wargaming has a well-known history of releasing a new tank tree, intentionally making at least the tier 10 tank obviously overpowered, and then nerfing (making worse) said tank line. 

The reason for doing this is obvious: everyone sees the new flavor of the month tank line, and uses gold to free experience to the tier 10. For those who don't know, gold is the in-game currency which can only be bought with real money, or won via contests, tournaments, or Clan Wars. Everyone who plays the game accumulates free experience, which can be used to research new tanks. To use the free experience though, you have to pay gold, 1 gold for 25 free experience, a pretty terrible ratio if you ask me. To free experience a tier 10, you need a lot of gold, and thus Wargaming makes massive profits from these new tank lines. Now, don't get me wrong, I have absolutely no problem with Wargaming, or anyone, making money (I have my own business too), but the tactics they use to make the money are in my opinion shady at best. I understand they have a lot of leeway which is given to them via the EULA (end user license agreement), but the constant cycle of releasing broken overpowered tanks and then nerfing them later just makes this company look bad. 

Now that you perhaps have a clear understanding of partly how Wargaming operates, let's have a look at the newest tier 10 addition to the game, the Waffentrager auf E-100, released in patch 8.9. While there were some historical designs for Waffentragers, there was definitely nothing for this beast. This is yet another tank Wargaming has literally made up, 100% fantasy. 

Aliens?

I have to give Wargaming credit though, they really know how to come up with tanks that people fall all over themselves to spend money on. This tank was just released not long ago, and already 274k battles have been played in it (source: noobmeter.com). Here are some other pertinent numbers:

Waffentrager auf E-100

OP Rating           605 (green)

Battles                 274k

Win Rate             60.1%

(source: noobmeter.com)

Noobmeter's OP Rating is a rating for determining if a given tank is overpowered or not. Currently, this tank has the highest OP rating of any tier 10, and is the only tier 10 with a green OP rating. It's very rare for a high tier tank to have a green OP rating, for tiers 8-10, this tank and the WZ-111 are the only ones that do. 

 Aside from the OP rating, the win rate is the highest of any tier 10 by a wide margin. Now, you might say this is because all the best players are playing it, and you would be partly correct. I believe the majority of players who have this tank now are better than average, but there are always bad players who use a lot of gold too. I believe that once more mediocre players get this tank, the numbers will not drop very significantly for it. Please allow me to explain by showing you the technical specifications for this tank.

2200 hit points

40 km/h speed limit

30 deg/s track traverse

12 power/weight ratio

200/120/150mm hull armor

20/10/8mm turret armor

24 deg/s turret traverse

420m view range

15% chance of fire

and the guns:

12,8 cm K44/2 L/61      

276/35265 penetration

560/560/750 avg damage

5.14 rate of fire, 6 shot autoloader, 30 rounds per minute within the clip, 57.53 sec clip reload

.29 accuracy

1.5 sec aim time

15 cm Pak L/38

 235/334/85 penetration

750/750/950 avg damage

3.87 rate of fire, 4-shot autoloader, 20 rounds per minute within the clip, 47.95 sec clip reload

.34 accuracy

1.9 sec aim time

It's basically common knowledge that the 12,8 cm is the better choice, not only because of the sheer damage you can put out with it (3360 per clip), but also because of the superior gun handling characteristics (.29 accuracy, 1.5 sec aim time). There's also the fact that you don't have to shoot gold ammo to penetrate, which helps a lot. So, looking at the gun statistics, I'm not sure anyone can come away from this and think this tank is balanced. You can literally burst damage any tank in the game to death in one clip, including the Maus, which has 3000 hit points. In many cases, you won't even need a full clip to make quick work of anything. 

I know, the turret armor is horrific, and in most cases will be penetrated by HE rounds. The fact that this is really one of the only major drawbacks to this tank is a bit ridiculous in my mind. The other 2 major drawbacks are of course the rear-mounted turret, as well as a truly terrible camo value, literally the worst of any tier 10 in the game (source: http://www.wotinfo.net/en/camouflage?country=all&vehicletype=td&tier=10&showLines=30). 

These really don't make up for the fact that, having good hull armor and 2200 hit points, almost any potato can yolo their way to 2-3k damage games relatively easily. Most good players in this game know that hit points are really the best armor, and not relying on armor and instead conserving your hit points is the best way to survive and do well. This thing having 2200 hit points means it can survive long enough to make a big impact on almost every game. Having played this tank on the test server, I seriously believe it is the single most overpowered tank Wargaming has ever released. If you encounter one in-game driven by someone who knows what they're doing, you will likely come to the same conclusion.

                                      VS

Let the Games Begin

 

Anyone who has enjoyed World of Tanks, made by Wargaming.net, will tell you that the game was truly revolutionary in its concepts and implementation. Truly no other company sought to create an online player versus player armored warfare game quite like Wargaming managed to do with this game. They found a niche that no one had really tried yet, and made it work, and for that, they were rewarded with revolutionary success. Since 2010 when the game was in closed beta, millions of players have played this game, and given Wargaming their money.

Speaking of money, here's an overall breakdown of Wargaming's revenue and active players: 

(source: ftr-wot.blogspot.com)

 

Overall Revenue 281 million,  Broken down into..
168.9 million -  Russian Server
  70.0 million - European server
  39.7 million - U.S Server
    2.4 million - Sea Server
 

Now compare that to active players closer to the time of the report (Pulled Dec 01, 2012)
3,034,756 - Russian Server
   845,528 - European server
   195,340 - U.S Server
     62,225 - Sea Server

That means that that for the average active player they made roughly the following per month..
  $4.64 - Russian Server
  $6.90 - European server
$16.94 - U.S Server
  $3.21 - Sea Server

It's little wonder then, that finally another company took notice, and created some competition. In November of 2012, Gaijin Entertainment put War Thunder into open beta testing. They were clever with their implementation however, since they didn't immediately start with tanks. Gaijin's idea for War Thunder is very similar if not identical to what Wargaming is trying to do with it's 'World of' games, create a land warfare game (WoT), air warfare (World of Warplanes), and sea warfare (World of Warships). Gaijin decided to preempt Wargaming and start with planes first, trying to take many potential customers from World of Warplanes, and get them hooked on War Thunder planes first. According to War Thunder news (source: http://warthunder.com/en/news/216/current/), as of July 25th, 2013, War Thunder has more than 3 million players. Apparently, WoWP had around 4.5 million players throughout the beta-testing phase (source: http://www.techmerszone.com/2013/11/world-of-warplanes-is-now-available-to.html). This may lead you to believe that World of Warplanes is more popular, and is going to be more successful, but from these polls and forum threads, you will quickly begin to see the opposite is true:

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/52375-world-of-war-planes-vs-war-thunder/

http://forum.gaijinent.com/index.php?/topic/10242-war-thunder-or-world-of-warplanes-poll/

http://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/39396-world-of-warplanes-vs-war-thunder/

http://duxter.com/topic/5491-world-of-warplanes-vs-warthunder/

http://archeagesource.com/topic/2067-war-thunder/

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3862506/Re_World_o_Planes_vs_War_Thund

https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/17064/

War Thunder

Aside from those, having read a great deal about both World of Warplanes and War Thunder, I can safely say that most people are very positive when it comes to War Thunder, and almost universally negative towards World of Warplanes. 

WoWP

Given the community's sentiment about both games, I'd have to say that Gaijin has succeeded in their attempt to take Wargaming's air warfare customers away. This isn't to say that World of Warplanes doesn't have its share of fans, but I believe most people are really not that excited about WoWP.

This brings us to the next topic: the ground forces side of things. Having effectively won the air warfare contest, Gaijin is now nearly ready to begin the closed beta for their ground forces.

http://warthunder.com/en/news/337-Ground-Forces-closed-beta-announcement-en

Many people, myself included, have been eagerly anticipating the release of, or at least testing of, War Thunder ground forces. It's somewhat of a drawback that the number of slots for the closed beta are limited, and you will have to complete certain objectives in the War Thunder planes game to become a closed beta tester for ground forces. For me, it's enough that finally a company that is obviously very competent will try to compete with Wargaming on it's home turf, ground forces. 

 
Given Wargaming's history of bad customer service, bad North American servers, failure to fix known issues with the game (spotting system/camo/RNG/fail platoons/AFKs/bots/0 dmg crits), and their general attitude towards their playerbase, I won't be surprised if many people jump ship from World of Tanks and give War Thunder ground forces a shot. I believe that Wargaming is digging their own grave with the way they handle many issues, or in some cases, simply ignore them. As long as War Thunder ground forces is halfway decent, not full of bugs or other critical gameplay issues, I think WT ground forces may be a hit. Wargaming will definitely notice a down tick in their active players, if not their income, once WT ground forces is put into open beta, and the only thing I'll have to say to them will be, "how terrible".

http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/261998-customer-service-fail-security-measures-fail-no-help-from-wargaming/

http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/246835-telianetfaillagpacketlossfml/

http://themittani.com/features/wot-serb-facts-july-%E2%80%9Chow-terrible%E2%80%9D

World of TDs

Some commentary and a look at the numbers 

 It's long been known by experienced players that, if there was ever a proper nerf to artillery, we would see a World of Tank Destroyers. Since the arty nerf of 8.6, this has more or less proven to be correct, at the very least for tiers 8-10. Artillery provided a safe and relatively easy way to give a player high damage, as well as avoid all the close-quarters brawling which can be tricky for many. It's only logical that once an entire class is nerfed so that only good/great players can succeed with it, the masses would run to TDs as their new safe haven. 

So, let's look at some numbers shall we. This is from October 10th through November 9th of this year (source: Noobmeter.com):

Tank                         Games Played       Win Rate (recent)
WT E-100                   111k                       60.3%
AMX 50 Foch 155     728k                       55.5%
Object 263                  104k                       54.7%  
Object 268                 1,168k                     54.4%    
T110E3                       222k                       54.2%
FV215b (183)             494k                       53.6%    
T110E4                       553k                       52.7%   
JagdPz E-100              507k                       50.7%    

Now for the heavies:

T57 Heavy                 867k                        53.1% 
E-100                         824k                        52.9%   
FV215b                      110k                        52.5%
AMX 50B                  498k                        52.4%            
T110E5                      629k                        52.0%            
IS-4                            245k                        51.9%        
Maus                          176k                        51.7%            
IS-7                            931k                        51.3%            
113                             53k                          51.0%

And the mediums:

Bat Chatillon 25 t      1,139k                      54.9%        
M60                           157k                         54.5%        
Object 140                 362k                         54.1%        
T62A                         672k                         53.2%            
M48A1                      240k                         53.1%    
E-50 Ausf. M             289k                         52.9%        
Leopard 1                  247k                          52.8%        
FV4202                      89k                           52.6%           
121                            130k                          51.9%  
  
I believe these recent numbers show a few things. In today's meta game, it's simply easier to win in a tier 10 TD. For the heavies, the top win % is 53.1% on the T57, you don't even see a 53% for the TDs until the last 3. As for the meds, they fare better, however, only the very top 3 are even close to the best TDs as far as win rate, and the Bat barely eclipses the 263 in this regard. Even the very worst 3 TDs have higher win rates than the worst 3 meds and heavies, with the exception of the JP E-100, known to be the worst tier 10 TD. Yes, the WT E-100 has a bit of a small sample size, but I believe once it gets to 500k+ games, the win rate will not change a great deal. This tank in particular may be the single most overpowered tank Wargaming has ever released. 

 

Aside from the WT E-100, it's quite widely known that the Foch 155 and Object 268 are formidable, if not outright overpowered. It's no accident that since 8.6, and with the release of the new German TDs, these 3 have become the kings of the battlefield, and you may include any of the tier 10 TDs in this category if well played. You may argue that any well-played tier 10 will be a king of the battlefield, but, having played almost every tier 10 on the test server, I'd argue it's much easier to make a massive difference in a TD. I'd argue this because this game favors alpha damage/burst damage (autoloaders) over DPM for the most part, speed and maneuverability over armor, and if you just happen to have a good combination of all 3 (Foch 155 and 268), you may not need much help in winning your share of games.

 

I really believe another major reason TDs do so well is because of the way the maps are intentionally designed. There truly aren't a lot of unique maps, in many cases you have 3 lanes, or maybe only 2, which are viable options for the majority of tanks. For the most part, if you don't stick to these lanes, you will die very quickly. Here are a few examples of this:

Fisherman's Bay

Karelia

El Halluf

Prohorovka

Murovanka

Steppes

These are only a few examples, but, as you can see, you're rather restricted to where you can go. On many maps, such as El Halluf, it's even more restricted. This only favors TDs who get to sit back, wait, and deal insane amounts of damage, not unlike the way arty used to. If there are only a few lanes, all you need is 3-5+ TDs on a team to virtually negate the entire map from the opposing team. In my experience, getting 3-5+ high tier TDs on a team is not uncommon at this stage. 

To me, this is a broken game mechanic, and should be addressed. I don't want to be punished even more than I already am for taking the initiative and attacking in my heavy, medium, or light tank. This does not mean blindly rushing a known enemy position, or some other suicidal technique. Experienced players can see that high tier TDs are indeed in need of rebalancing. Let me be clear, I'm mostly addressing public play, and not clan wars or some other modes.

some TDs not only have ridiculous alpha, but armor, or speed, or all 3

It would seem that in nerfing one class of tanks (arty), WG unintentionally (or perhaps intentionally) majorly buffed TDs. Where once you couldn't sit out on a hill or behind known camping spots, you can now feel quite safe in a TD. TDs have become the go-to pubstompers for high tiers, and generally speaking, if you're not in one, you're putting yourself at a disadvantage.