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.