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[Rex_Nex]

Dunno, the new lights seem to be, instead of better scouts and harassers, just closer to mediums in how they can engage tanks directly on their own. I'm kind of worried about what will happen in Stronghold, 7vs7 and company games where these new monster lights get to play at their own tiers... Many lights were already very powerful(type 64, 59-16, wz132 and especially 1390).

However it'd seem that the tank diversity has finally returned to tier 6! Lots of Kv85s and Hellcats still around but not in as huge numbers as before!

I feel like making light tanks and scout tanks distinct is a good idea. Right now, you can't make viable scouts. Too many brawls, too much close combat, too little emphasis on spotting - and spotting itself, for most of the playerbase, means "drive straight into the enemy, go back to garage". You simply can't make pure scouts viable without implementing silly systems like respawning etc while also teaching your playerbase how to scout effectively.

Light tanks as a form of really light med, on the other hand, can very much be viable.

As for how they'll play in competitive play, I don't know. Right now, however, things like the WZ-132 are terrible in random matches. I think you're more likely to see the old scout tanks buffed than the new scout tanks nerfed.

[Erkki]

We probably agree that introducing new lighs that fit the current meta(mainly the maps) was the lazy solution compared to fixing the meta. Good thing is that now we see more lights around... The bad is that many tanks became obsolescent, again.

[Rex_Nex]

Light tanks were still pretty bad even when every other map was like old redshire or ruinburg. The meta was perfect for them. There's a reason they have ridiculously low MM weight - they aren't (and never were) expected to do anything of note. They were designed so that you could do almost nothing and still break out an average winrate. That's why I'm happy - maybe now we'll see scouts easy enough to play that something is at least expected of them.

[Erkki]

Yeah, which is why Im worried about what they do in to game types where they along their tiers. Even before the update a team if mostly or even only amx 13 90s was perfectly viable(autoloader + mobility). Same thing with the Type 64 at tier 6 for superb speed and flexibility, in a well coordinated team, with medium tank firepower. Their competiveness could be seen in ESL and tje latest tier 8 clan wars event too. For randoms I think they are ok(even if they are more powerful than the old lights) as they are top tier only very rarely and all but the T8 ones have +3 MM.

In the meanwhile I've unlocked all modules for the T-34-1 and am starting to like it. There have been games where I would not have done better in a T20 or Comet which is good news... It may be a fun grind!

[Rez]

Have they finished ironing out the crashes from the update this spring?  I'm pretty sure I stopped playing WoT, because I would have at least one or two crashes every hour I played.  In July. I can't even complain about meta stuff when 1/4 of my matches had CTD's.

But, I can't deny that ricochets giving experience is something that gets me excited, as a kv-1, 2, and m4 driver.

[Erkki]

Have they finished ironing out the crashes from the update this spring?  I'm pretty sure I stopped playing WoT, because I would have at least one or two crashes every hour I played.  In July. I can't even complain about meta stuff when 1/4 of my matches had CTD's.

But, I can't deny that ricochets giving experience is something that gets me excited, as a kv-1, 2, and m4 driver.

It feels very stable now, to me, but the main screen/ tank carousel/ garage thing feels very heavy. I suffer considerably lower fps and higher vid card temperature there than in the actual game itself...

[Rex_Nex]

Bouncing giving XP wasn't released. They had some bugs with the system and pulled it back until they could fix those. Ricochets are modeled now though, so you can bounce a round off a tank and hit the guy next to him.

Crashing is rare. There was a patch or two (probably the one back in spring that you're talking about) where crashing was pretty common, but it's back to very stable levels now - you might crash every hundred matches or so, but otherwise it's basically only old mods that cause problems.

[Thorus]

Dunno, the new lights seem to be, instead of better scouts and harassers, just closer to mediums in how they can engage tanks directly on their own. I'm kind of worried about what will happen in Stronghold, 7vs7 and company games where these new monster lights get to play at their own tiers... Many lights were already very powerful(type 64, 59-16, wz132 and especially 1390).

However it'd seem that the tank diversity has finally returned to tier 6! Lots of Kv85s and Hellcats still around but not in as huge numbers as before!

In tier 6 Stronghold, lights tanks are already super strong. On EU there is a mission for Stronghold battles: get 2k experience on a win if you survive.

We grinded our tier 6 light tanks there for patch 9.3 - we won 13/14 matches (Himmelsdorf with light tanks was a failure ). And after the patch we easily won again with a complete light tank setup. Everyone was picking KV-85s and then they camped so hard with those moles - outspotted and sniped.

[Erkki]

Aye, that was exactly the point I tried to make... And now the theres the new lights that are at least mostly better in direct combat than the old ones. AMX 13 90 is strong enough to not need support on many maps...

[Rez]

No crashes, yet.  I'd forgotten the feeling of penning with 152mm HE on the KV-2.  It's a good feeling.

[Thorus]

Aye, that was exactly the point I tried to make... And now the theres the new lights that are at least mostly better in direct combat than the old ones. AMX 13 90 is strong enough to not need support on many maps...

I think it is still too early to judge the new lights. Let's wait until someone has played a lot of rounds in all of them and does a nice comparison.

I can't compare them, because I don't have enough battles in them:

113 battles in AMX 13 90 (mostly from the grind)
40 battles in WZ-132
11 battles in RU 251

Also I'm not into light tanks anymore. Before the big arty nerf I played my VK 28.01 a lot (about 750 battles). Spotting was so much fun, because arty would shred the enemies to pieces and there were no tier 10 medium tanks. But If you try to spot now you get instagibbed by invisible Death Stars or yolorushed by meds. Right now light tanks are pretty much useless. Tier 10 meds can do all the stuff tier 8 lights can.

Lets hope WG will overhaul the spotting and viewranges soon, to make light tanks more viable in random games.

But at least in tier 8 strongholds light tanks still shine as spotters and are preferred over most medium tanks.

[TheDarkStar]

I like light tanks because people underestimate them despite being comparable to medium tanks (plus camo and speed and minus armor and health); they tend to have decent guns and can also get to people's sides and backs well. Spotting is a plus, but I find them more enjoyable when played as very light mediums.

[Erkki]

I'm growing to really like this T-34-1:



It also needs little to no premium shells/APCR because the AP penetration is so high, which is good for my standard account's budget. I think T20 is probably overall a better tank, but clearly not in every situation nor every map. Just last game I managed to win an IS, a VK36, T-34-85 and an AT-8 practically alone(that friendly VK3001D lasted about 15 sec) on Kharkov map, lower right corner with the hull-down positions, starting north, without losing more than 180 HP. It seems to be a rare tank so not many people seem to understand its strengths and are happy to exchange shots with me when I'm hull down.

[Thorus]

While the 34-1 was enjoyable, I really hated the 34-2. Every shot you get will either damage your engine, set you on fire (or both at once) or damage your ammorack. The module HP on this tank is so low.

[Erkki]

While the 34-1 was enjoyable, I really hated the 34-2. Every shot you get will either damage your engine, set you on fire (or both at once) or damage your ammorack. The module HP on this tank is so low.

Well... At least on the paper the T-34-2 is even worse than T-34-3(which also enjoys special matchmaking) and Panther 2. It could be the worst tier 8 tank.

Speaking of which, I went and bought the T-34-3. I had been warned of horrific gun depression and bad mobility, but I dont entirely agree. I think the speed and maneuverability is just fine, and the poor gun depression doesnt bother me every game and only now and then do I need to trade shots because of it. Equipping rammer+vstab+gld the aiming time is tolerable too and its not like sniping is absolutely required in every game. And I love the damage of that huge gun!

However that penetration is really awful. 250 mm for the premium HEAT doesnt help much either. With any kind of support, even one tank(preventing the enemy from rushing me when I reload) I can cut through tier 6 and 7 teams like they are nothing, and I can deal with softer tier 8s. Unfortunately as we know theres helluva lot of heavy tanks around at tier 8 and especially 9(usually horrible players) and they are nearly immune to me. I once failed to penetrate E-75's rear armor 3 times at 90 angle(I had driven into his rear and blocked him from moving that was as there he had wrecks on one side and ahead). So far in 50 games I've done 1550-something average damage but only 50% WR, but I expect both values to rise still - I've played too impatiently but no more!