RNG explained

If you are new to the game, the concept of RNG might be a bit confusing. You see a lot of numbers about your tank, and might think that “Isn’t this it?”

The simple answer is “no”.

RNG stands for “Random Number Generator”, and is implemented in the game to make it less predictable. It means that for certain data about a tank, the number will vary as much as 25%.

Type 4 Chi-To

Let’s take a look at a random tank. I will choose the Japanese Type 4 Chi-To, since I am grinding it at the moment.

Penetration

The penetration of the top gun is 155, according to tanks.gg (which I recommend). But if you check in the game, you can see that the penetration will vary between 116 and 194, which is 155 +/- 25%. The average penetration will over time will be 155, but you can get lucky or unlucky, meaning that the penetration will be higher or lower than that.

Damage

The same variation is to be expected when it comes to damage per shot. The alpha damage of the Chi-To is 130 hp, but due to RNG, you can high roll or low roll, getting from 163 to 97. This is 130 +/- 25%.

Other factors are not affected by RNG, such as reload time and the speed of your tank.

So, how do you use this information? I would suggest you ignore them, at least when you play lower tier tanks. When you play tier IX or X, you can start to play according to RNG. Let’s say your alpha damage is 390, and you see an enemy with 350 hp left, you can be reasonably certain you can kill him/her with one shot. You can take the chance of firing at him even if you expose your tank to him if you are reloaded and he isn’t.

If his remaining health is 485, you actually CAN kill him with one shot, if you high roll. But you can not expect to do so, and should play much more carefully.

How am I doing?

Most new players to World of tanks do not know how they perform. They don’t know if they are a good player, a decent player or a bad player. Trust me: Most new players are bad. They don’t know what to do in any given situation. Such knowledge comes with time.

Some players believe that capping is the best way to win. Others do not know how bushes work. Anyway, they do not know how they are doing compared to others.

All players see the “end plate”, or the score from the game. Take a minute to study it. See what made the top players in your team the best players in that particular battle. But being the best player in a bad team does not necessarily mean anything. It is time to look at WN8.

Best and worst tanks by tier and type – worst tier VII tank destroyer – UPDATE

I have previously said that the Challenger is the worst tier VII tank destroyer in the game. Now, there is a new “king” in town…

There are ten tier VII tank destroyers in World of tanks (as of patch 9.17):

• SU-100M1
• SU-152
• Jagdpanther
• Sturer Emil
• T25 AT
• T25/2
• AMX AC mle. 46
• AT 7
• Challenger
• ikv 90 B

I have now played all of them, except the AT 7, and I am 100% certain that I can point to the (new) worst one. Some say the T25/2 is a bad TD, but I have still had quite fun in that one. Some point to the Sturer Emil as a bad TD, but the top gun is absolutely magnificent, with 231 penetration and 490 alpha damage. The AMX and the SU-100M1 also get some bad reviews, but they are both good in their own way.

The SU 152 can make you giggle like a child, when you one shot Cromwells and other tier VI tanks.

(The best is the Jagdpanther, of course.)

The Challenger was the previous loser, but now we have the Swedish tanks. After playing the ikv 90 B for more than 60 battles, I hereby conclude: This is a turd of a tank destroyer. It is as reliable as an ice cube in the Sahara desert.

Pros:

• It has good camo rating
• Fast, at 65 km/h, but this only applies when falling of a cliff?
• 10 degrees of gun depression
• Wide gun ark
• The NEXT tank in the line might be fun

Cons:

• No armor
• Slow traverse speed
• Unreliable gun

When you play this, you cannot get spotted. Try that in the maps we have to endure… This tank only works in you can “kemp bush”. The penetration is supposedly 210, but it can easily bounce of the side of a light tank…

I hate every minute in this tank. It feels sluggish, and the gun is inaccurate as hell. It is supposed to have 0.33 of gun “precision”, but it behaves more like it has 0.37 or 0.38. You cannot trust the gun at all. 210 mm of penetration should be enough, but since it fires some sort of APCR ammo, you will struggle to penetrate if the armor on the enemy tank is sloped somewhat or if it is spaced.

Here is what an ACE tanker game looks like:

See all best/worst tanks here.

Vital tips for playing light tanks in lower tiers – UPDATED

Too often, I see new players playing light tanks complaining about being bottom tier. Light tanks are meant to be bottom tier, due to the characteristics of their tanks: Being sneaky/having good camo rating, being fast, and having a long view range. Light tanks now got normal matchmaking, and they see tanks of the same tier as themselves and as all other types of tanks (+/- 2 tiers).

Light tanks keep their camo rating while on the move, unlike any other type of vehicle in the game. And if you compare view range, it is very obvious: M24 Chaffee has 390 meters view range, while the Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. H has 350. 40 meters might not seem like a lot, but in the game, it is enough.

So, how should you play light tanks? Let’s first have a look at how you should NOT play them.

Best and worst tanks by tier and type – worst tier V tank destroyer

There are eight tier V tank destroyers in WOT, as of patch 9.16:

• SU-85
• Pz. Sfl IVc
• Stug III Ausf. G
• M10 Wolverine
• T67
• S35 CA
• Archer
• AT2

These are very different tanks, at least more different than TDs at tier IV. The T67 is the best, I think, even if it has no armor. The AT2 is the opposite, (one of?) the best armored tier V’s in the game.

However, it is quite easy to pick the worst one. A tier V tank that is slower than the T95…. It is the Archer. It’s top speed is 12 km/h. However, the reverse speed is 32 km/h, so you can escape fast. But this one is hopeless. Really bad. Even if the gun is decent. But it’s speed, combined with the armor, is horrible.

Pros:

• You can escape quite fast
• Good gun, penetration is 171, and DMP is 1915,5
• Good gun traverse.

Cons:

• Bad armor, 20 mm everywhere
• It’s slow!

You have to snipe with this tank. You can penetrate everything you meet, but damage is only 150, so don’t get spotted. So stay hidden, and shoot at what you’re allies spot. I recommend you get clutch breaking on the driver, sixth sense on the commander, camouflage before snap shot on your gunner and camouflage on the rest of your crew. You should also choose camouflage as the second skill on your driver. But I’m confident you will not keep this tank.

Let’s have a look at an Ace tanker game:

Notice how the three heavy tank drivers on the enemy team doesn’t know how bushes work in World of tanks. Quite funny.

See all best/worst tanks here.

New to SPG/arty/artillery?

Here is an introduction to playing arty:

Two different strategies for increasing the skill level on your crew

When you play low tier battles, from tier I to tier V, the other players tend to have low skilled crews. Some players you will meet are likely to have played only a few battles in their tanks, and they might use crews at 90% base skill, or they have just started grinding their first skill.

But when you enter higher tier battles, tier VIII and above, you will meet players who use crews with three or more skills on their crew. If you use a low skilled crew, you will struggle a lot. Therefore you should take crew training seriously.

To train crew faster, it is advisable to use premium tanks, since they train crews faster than ordinary tanks.

There are two different strategies to training crews and prepare them for higher tier battles.

Strategy A: Boosting single crew members
If you are training a new crew for a specific type of tanks, and you already have one good crew for the same type of tank, you may use a “single crew member boost strategy”.

For example: My Cromwell (British medium) crew are all on their fourth skill, about 35-40%. I am also playing the tier VIII  British medium Centurion I. My crew on that tank is not as good as the Cromwell crew, since they are at their third skill, about 25-30%. What I do, is to use the Cromwell Berlin for boosting the Centurion crew, one by one. The Cromwell Berlin has a crew of five. When playing it, I choose four crew members from the ordinary Cromwell, and one crew member from the Centurion I. Then playing the daily double will boost all the crew, but the crew member with the “lowest” skill will get a double boost. So when I play the Cromwell Berlin once a day (or whatever), the one crew member from the Centurion I will get xp very fast.

The reason for choosing strategy A is obvious: You can grind a single crew members xp and still have a great crew in the tank. The tank will perform very good.

There are some downsides, however:

1. If – in my example – the Cromwell crew has Brothers in arms and the Centurion crew member hasn’t, I will not get a benefit from that perk, since all crew members must have it. Brothers in arms is only effective when all crew members has reached 100%.
2. The skill profile might me suboptimal. Again I will use the Cromwell Berlin example: On a tier VI medium like the Cromwell, camouflage is a bit better than repairs, because of the low hit points on the Cromwell. On a tier VIII, repairs is a bit better. Grinding a tier VIII crew in a tier VI might not be ideal, then. (But I still believe it is a viable strategy.)

Strategy B: Boosting multiple crew members

This is the opposite to to strategy A. Let me use an example from my recent battles: I have both the Ferdinand and the Jagdpanther II. Since I have multiple premium German tank destroyers, I decided to boost both of the crews on the Ferdinand and the Jagdpanther II. Therefore I played a lot of battles, constantly choosing the worst crew members from each tank in one of the premium tanks. I took me quite a while, but now both of these tier VIII tanks have crews on their fourth skill. I chose this way of doing it, since there are a total of 11 crew members on these tanks, and since I didn’t have a better crew in any other German tank destroyer.

The downside is that this takes a lot of time. I do not know how many battles I have played only to boost the crews on these two tanks, but it must be more than 100.

But from now on, I will choose strategy A to boost my Rheinmetall Borsig crew, one by one. I will soon have unlocked the tier IX tank German tank destroyers, and I will be able to put very decent crews in them.

Two situations where capping is a good alternative

Rushing for the cap circle right from the beginning is a bad idea. Most cap circles are impossible to hide in, and the enemy only need to damage your tank once or to score a critical hide to reset your cap points. Kill your enemies instead of capping. You earn more xp and credits by doing so.

However: Here are two situations where going for the cap circle is a good alternative.

The tanks I’m going to keep – UPDATED version

Here is a list of tanks I am going to keep, and why I’ll keep them.

• Tier I: T1 Cunninngham. Because I might need a tier I tank sometime.
• Tier II: None. Because I don’t need any tier II tanks.
• Tier III: Renault UE57 and FCM 36 Pak 40. They are fun to play sometimes. The FCM is a premium used for training crews.
• Tier IV: SU-85B, Hetzer and Matilda. These are the three best tier IVs. Playing lower tiers every once in a while is fun.

Best and worst tanks by tier and type – worst tier IV tank destroyer

There are eight tier IV tank destroyers (as of patch 9.15):

• SU-85B
• Hetzer
• Marder 38T
• StuG III Ausf. B
• M8A1
• T40
• Somua SAu 40
• Alecto

It was difficult to choose the best one, as I said a while ago. If you ask almost anyone, they would call me mad or at least an idiot, because the Somua is a hated tank among a lot of people. But I did very well in that tank. My WN8 rating when I sold it was 2,038. Part of this is because I played it somewhat recently, after I had learned a lot about the game. I played only 17 battles before I sold it, but during those battles I had a win rate of almost 59% and got (at least) one Ace tanker game. Even if I should declare this as the worst tier iv tank destroyer, I can’t, Or rather: I will not.