A quick tip about crew skills

If you – like me – train your crew in a premium tank, there is one thing you should be aware of: Sometimes, the tank where the crew “usually” sits, have different tasks designated to the various crew members. This is most often the case when you train your crew in a premium tank with more crew roles than the ordinary tank.

Let’s say you have a premium tank with five crew members, but four of them “belongs” to a tank with only four crew members. In many cases the commander have more tasks in the ordinary tank, than in the premium tank. When you unlock a new skill or perk, place the crew in the ordinary tank when you decide what the new skill should be. There you will see what skills you actually have to choose from. Don’t keep them in the premium tank while you choose the new skill.

Of course, this means that the new skill you choose might be ineffective in the premium tank, but that is – in my opinion – a lesser problem than designating a skill that the crew cannot use while in the ordinary tank.

Being patient or rush through the tiers?

A lot of players are eager to play higher tier tanks. And so am I. But! I don’t like to play higher tier tanks with a bad crew. I am quite obsessed with crew experience, as I have written about here and here.

I have always enjoyed playing tank destroyers, so I have only recently started grinding the Japanese heavy tank line. At  the moment I am at tier…… III….., playing the Type 91 Heavy. Which isn’t a heavy tank at all, besides being slow. It has no armor and when I meet tier VI tanks, it is a mixed blessing. But the gun is very good. So when you play it according to it’s weaknesses, being slow and having no armor, you can do quite well.

I have a 64% win rate in the Type 91, and I have a WN8 of 1,906 in it.

My ambition is to ace every tank I play before eventually selling those I will not keep. I aced the Type 91 in my ninth battle in it, while still having a terrible crew. Now I have decided to get sixth sense on it before moving on. That means I have to play a lot more battles in it.

Now, having played 25 battles, I still haven’t got all crew members to 100%. But I quite enjoy playing a bad tank now and then. I guess I still have to play 20 battles or so before getting sixth sense. But playing the tier VI and V heavy tanks with decent crews from the beginning will make those battles so much more enjoyable.

So, what is my message here? Quite simply: Even bad tanks can be fun, and skipping to higher tiers with bad crews in your tank can be much worse than having to put up with the Type 91 Heavy. So be patient. And have fun while you wait…

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.

How to improve your tank

This post will cover how to improve your tank. I will use the tier VIII German heavy tank Löwe as an example, since it seem to be a popular premium tank for newcomers. Remember: Tier VIII is very different than tier I to III!

The Löwe isn’t a very easy tank to play, due to it’s low rate of fire, it’s low speed and it’s obvious weak spots.

Löwe, German tier VIII premium heavy tank

Once your crew reaches 100% base skill, the Löwe will fire 5 rounds per minute, which will give an average damage per minute of 1.600. (As long as you both hit and damage your opponent.) This is a very low number, but here is how you can increase it:

• Getting Brothers in arms as a perk on all your crew members. This will give 5% improvement on all qualifications.
• Mounting ventilation. This will give 5% improvement on all qualifications.
• Mounting a Gun Rammer. This will give 10% improvement on reload time, by decreasing reload time.
• Using a consumable. For German vehicles you can use Chocolate. This will give 10% improvement on all qualifications. This is, however, not recommended on a vehicle like the Löwe, where your normal equipment should be a repair kit, a first aid kit and a fire extinguisher (since it has got a 20% chance of being set on fire).

Let’s see how this will affect your DPM. All these values are fetched from tanks.gg:

1. Base DPM: 1.668,57 (this really should be 1.600, but I don’t know how tanks.gg calculates this number)
2. Brothers in arms: 1.706,29 (2,2% improvement compared to line 1.)
3. Ventilation: 1.706,29 (2,2% improvement compared to line 1)
4. Gun rammer: 1.853,97 (10% improvement compared to line 1)
5. Chocolate: 1.744 (4,5% improvement compared to line 1)
6. Brothers in arms + Ventilation: 1.744 (4,5% improvement compared to line 1)
7. Brothers in arms + Ventilation +  Gun rammer: 1.937,78 (16,1% improvement compared to line 1)
8. Brothers in arms + Ventilation +  Gun rammer +  Chocolate: 2.021,59 (21,2% improvement compared to line 1)

These values are estimates, and not correctly calculated. Using Brothers in arms in combination with ventilation gives a cumulative effect, which should be 5% + 5% = 10%. Based on this, the total effect of using all these ways of improving the Löwe, the DPM number in line 8 should be 2.080 (5%+5%+10%+10% =30% improvement), since these values are cumulative. (If they had been additive, it would have been  2.134,44, since 1,05*1.05*1,1*1,1*1.600 = 2.134,44.)

The only one of these improvements that only affects DPM is the gun rammer. All the other elements also improve the Major Qualifications of the entire crew and in any of the common Skills (Repair, Firefighting, and/or Camouflage).

Anyway: The best way to improve the tank is to play according to it’s strengths and weaknesses. The Löwe has got decent turret armor, although there are weak spots. It has a very accurate gun and high penetration, and the side armor of the hull makes it a decent sidescraping tank. So you should hide your hull and you can use it for sniping, but in tier VIII battles you can’t camp in the base…

When should you buy a new tank?

When should you buy a new tank? This might sound like a stupid question, but it is really not. When grinding (opening modules like tracks, engines and guns) lower tiers from 1 to 3, it is not important. Play a few games, unlock everything and move on. I would recommend that you unlock every module, though. That is because many modules are used on different tanks.

Let’s have a look at the french medium tank D2 (click for larger image):

French medium tank D2

As we see, it is only necessary to unlock the Renault S6Bis engine to unlock the next tank in this line, the B1. However, this will make the grind of later tanks more difficult, because the gun and the radio are used on other tanks:

The french medium tank D2

The radio ER53 is used on several other tanks. It is therefore a good idea to unlock it on the D2. (If you have not allready unlocked it on other tanks, like the UE 57.)

The same goes for the gun:

The french medium tank D2

As we see, the SA37 is also used on the B1. Even though you have to unlock the D2 APX 4 turret to use it, it will make it much easier to play the B1 if you have unlocked the SA37.

Therefore: You should always unlock all modules on a tank before moving to the next. (There are exceptions from this rule, when a module is used only on one tank. These exceptions are very few, though.) You should at least make this a rule from tier 3 or 4 and upwards.

The other thing you should be aware of, is the skills of your crew. As I have described, you have to get to 100% basic (or “base”) skills before you can start to add secondary skills on your crew. If you are patient, and play a few games after you have unlocked all modules and the next tank (or the next tanks), you can start to add secondary skills on the crew you will use on the next tank.

When I started playing World of tanks, I was not aware of this fact, unlocked and started using the next tank with a completely new crew. The old crew was dismissed, because I didn’t want to pay to retrain the crew to a different tank. BIG mistake. So wait a few games, and increase your crews skills before you move on. But remember to check the “Accelerate crew training” box when you do so. Almost all you XP will then be used on crew skills:

Accelerate crew training

Understanding secondary skills

Secondary crew skills

Secondary skills
When your basic crew skills reaches 100%, you can add secondary skills. These are specific skills, adapted to the role of the crew member. For instance, you can choose “Off road driving” for the driver. This will increase the speed of the tank on difficult terrain, by reducing the terrain resistance, by up to 10%. Your tank will then go faster in swamps, and accelerate faster on grass, among others.

Some secondary skills are effective from the moment the skill level is increased (more than 0%). Others do need to achieve 100% before they are effective. These last ones are called “perks”. In the picture you can see all crew members having the camouflage skill. This skill is effective from 1%. But do remember that the effect increases with the skill level. 1% camouflage skill has (almost) no effect.

In addition, the skills that can be chosen for all crew members, will increase their effect when all crew members have them. When five crew members have 78% percent camouflage skills, the average camouflage skill level is exactly that; 78%. If one crew member in a five crew tank has 100% camouflage skill, and the four others have no camouflage skill, the overall tank camouflage “level” is (0% + 0% + 0% + 0% + 100%)/5 = 20%

Which skill is the best?
There is not one single best skill. This depends on the type of tank your crew is assigned to, and the role on the battlefield. This topic will be covered later. But to simplify the overall picture, I will recommend the following:

• A heavy tank needs repairing tracks and damaged modules. When you get shot in the tracks, you do not want to remain standing still to long. The basic skills ensure some repairing skills, but adding repair to a heavy tank crew is wise. The heavy tanks should usually be in front of the field, and they are therefore vulnerable to damages where repair skills can speed up the repairing process. A heavy tank crew needs more skills, but repairs is a place to start.
• On a medium (and on a light) tank crew, there are – in my opinion – three types of skills that are useful: 1) Off-road driving (increase speed and acceleration) and clutch braking (increase the speed the tank can turn), 2) Snap shot (how fast you can aim and shoot after rotating your turret)  3) Sixth sense (you will get a warning signal 3 seconds after you have been spotted). These skills (and perks) are useful because medium tanks have a lot less armour than heavy tanks, so they are vulnerable.
• On a tank destroyer, I will recommend camouflage, snap shot and sixth sense. Most tank destroyers are vulnerable, and remaining unspotted (not discovered by enemy tanks) is vital.

Managing secondary skills
When you right click on one of your crew members, you can see what skills and perks can be assigned to the different members of your crew. Take some time to consider what role your tank will have on the battlefield, and chose your secondary skill accordingly.

When you first secondary skill is at 100%, you can add another secondary skill, but this will take even longer to increase. You will need more than 210.000 XP to go from 0% to 100% on your first secondary skill. To go from 0% to 100% on your second secondary skill, you will need twice that amount of XP, namely more than 420.000 XP.

Dropping skills

If you would like to change the skill of a crew member, you can retrain him. If you do not want to spend gold, you will have to use 20.000 ingame credits to retrain, but you lose 10% of the overall skill level. Be aware: 10% of the total skill level does not equal 10%-points of your secondary skill. If you have two secondary skills, and the second secondary skill is at 10%, the new skill level after retraining will be reduced so that all of your second secondary skill disappears. You will need about 40% on your second secondary skill to not have it disappear. When you right click on one of your crew members, you will see a button called “Drop”. When you click on the button, you will then be able to see the new skill level. Remember that perks have to be at 100% skill level to be effective.

 

Understanding basic skills

Basic skills for a crew

Basic crew skills
When you start playing WOT, and select a tank, you will see the crew of your tank in the upper left hand corner. Depending on your decision when you bought the new tank, the basic skills of your crew will either be 50%, 75% or 100%. If you select a free crew, they will start at 50%. If you pay 20.000 in game credits per crew member, they will start at 75%. If you pay 200 gold per crew member, they will start at 100%.

In the picture to the right, we have a crew of five, all of which have 100% basic skills. (Or “base skills”.) This means that they perform their tasks at a “normal” skilled level.  They have become as skilled as they can get before we ad secondary skills. More about that in a minute.

I strongly recommend that you at least pay the ingame credits to let your crew start at 75%. This will cost you 80.000 ingame credits, but you will soon earn those credits during normal gameplay. Depending on your own skills as a player, and how many games you win, this will usually take between four and ten games. So if you have the ingame credits, spend it on your crew when you buy a new tank.

Increasing basic skills
When your crew start at a 75% basic skill level, this level will increase as you play. Some of the experience (XP) you earn will be used to increase the crew skills. The rest will be used to unlock tank modules and to increase your free XP. The XP you earn from the matches are depending on how well you play. The more damage you do, and the more kills you get, will increase your XP earned for that match. However, the amount of XP you need to increase your crew skills vary. The closer you get to 100% basic skills, the more XP you will need. To increase from 75% to 76%, you will need about 1.590 XP. To increase from 99% to 100%, you will need almost 4.800 XP.