What are premium tanks, and should I buy one?

Premium tanks are tanks you can buy for gold or for real money on the World of tanks website. They only have one standard set of modules, so you cannot unlock better modules than the ones they have when you buy it. The generate a lot of in game credits per victory, the increase in crew experience is higher, and you can put a crew from a different tank in it, as I explain below.

In my opinion, they are in some ways worse then their closest “sibling”. Take the Russian heavy tank IS-6 at tier VIII. It is in many ways similar to the one of the other standard Russian heavy tanks at tier VIII, the IS-3.  However, there are several differences:

• The gun on the IS-6 only has far worse penetration, at 175 mm, versus 225 mm on the best gun on the IS-3
• The rate of fire is better, at 5,13 shots per minute, against 4,51 at the IS-3
• The IS-6 has a lower top speed, at 35 kph, versus 38 kph with the IS-3
• The armor is weaker, at least on paper, but in reality the difference is negligible

To make a long story short: The premium tanks have distinct weaknesses and strengths and have to be played accordingly. Take the “Dicker Max” as an example: It is slow, has a long reload time, but the gun depression is great, and the gun is quite good. A very popular premium tank is the german E25. It is very fast and has an excellent camo rating (is difficult to spot behind bushes). The gun has decent penetration and high rate of fire, but it has a low alpha damage (the number of health points the enemy loses per hit).

However: The point of using premium tanks is – besides getting more in game credits per battle – to increase crew skills on the crew from another tank. If you buy the IS-6 and also have the IS-3, both Russian heavy  tanks, you can play a match in the IS-3 and get the “daily double” for the first win of the day. Then you can move the crew to the IS-6 and get the daily double on that tank as well.

You must NEVER put a designated crew in premium tanks. ALWAYS use a crew from one of your non premium tanks of the same type and nationality. You can mix crew from different tanks and put them in your premium tank, as long as they are of the same type and nationality.

Remember that playing in higher tiers is very different from playing in lower tiers. If you are new to the game, and have reached tier 3 or 4, buying a tier VIII heavy like the IS-6 or the German “Löwe”, you have to play in a completely different way than you do in a tier 3 medium tank. If you do not know what “sidescraping” is, for instance, you should probably not buy the IS-6 or the Löwe.

The way I use premium tanks is as I have described above. In addition, I often use premium tanks directly after buying a new tank. I recently bought the SU-152, a standard tier VII  Russian tank destroyer. The crew was moved over from the tier VI SU-100. When you start playing a new tank, it is most often stock, unless one or more of the modules used on it has been unlocked in a different tank. Therefore, the tank is not as good as it “should” be, and performs significantly worse then when all modules are unlocked. I had a couple of matches in it to see what it was like, and decided I needed to increase the basic crew skills from 90% to 100% to decrease loading time, aiming time and so on. So I put the crew in my premium tier V Russian tank destroyer, the SU-85i, and played a number of matches until the crew had reached 100% basic skills. Then I put them back in the SU-152 and started to grind this tank.

Another way of using premium tanks to increase crew skills, is what I did with the Sturer Emil and the Jagdpanther, both tier VII German tank destroyers. Both of these two tanks have a crew of 5 (commander, gunner, radio operator, driver, loader), and this is also the type of crew that fits in the Dicker Max, premium tier VI German tank destroyer.  On days where I wanted to grind one or both of these two tanks, I first played a match in the Dicker Max and got the daily double. I always put the worst crew member, position by position, from both the Emil and the JPanther in my Dicker Max: The worst of the two drivers, the worst of the two gunners, and so on. Soon I had very decent crews in both tanks, long before I had unlocked then next tanks.

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.