This is a long post, but I would like to revisit my early days and apologize for them. Hopefully you'll get a kick out of this... as I moved through most of the traditional player groupings.
The Seal
Before WOT I had never played video games other than the occasional shooter and COH, which I enjoyed playing mostly for the graphics and historical accuracy. The idea of recreating WW2 battles in some fashion was quite interesting to me. So, when my friend told me about a "cool WW2 tank game that is free" I thought I should check it out. So I made an account, with no clue how to play. I simply drove around chasing red dots, and was quite thrilled to hit something. This was fun for a while, but then my friend told me that the most fun was spending some money and buying a Lowe. This would get me credits that I could use to make my Tier2 tank better and help me get a Tier3, etc.
The Noob
Now I was the beast! I had this incredible, huge tank in my garage, that could demolish anything... at least it looked that way in my garage. So off I went into battle, with no more knowledge than my Tier2 experience provided me. Wow was I a disaster, now I was this huge slow tank trying to chase red tanks that seemed to be able to run around me and hurt me. Regardless, I had fun and was quite happy to kill one tank every so often. Then, I was told the Lowe is actually no good, and that the KV5 is way better and it's really fun to ram tanks.
The Terribad
On onto the 3rd portion of my time at WOT. Now I had a ramming machine. Now I didn't need to worry about why all my shots were bouncing, I could just find the highest hill on the map, climb it, and then charge down ramming into other tanks. The challenge was to see how many I could hit in a game. It was around this time that all the people complaining about me in the chat started to get annoying, so I learned to simply ignore that part of the screen and go about my business. Oddly it seemed that people would get super upset when I would continue to ram as much of the opposite team as possible rather than going into the enemy base as if winning the game mattered for anything. For those of you wondering how low of a win rate you can get, trust me, it's VERY low. I was "that guy" who was actively hurting his team, not helping.
The Top Tier Failure
The 4th period of my time at WOT began as my other tanks slowly moved up the tiers. I learned that if I hit enemy tanks in certain spots I could be more effective, and that there were complex shell mechanics involved. This is where I started to wake up and actually realized that the game was more than just running around shooting at the enemy, there was strategy and teamwork, and so much more to the game. It was around this time that I joined my first clan, as it seemed it it could be fun to play with other people and learn from them. Instead I spent most of my time solo playing, struggling to understand why some tanks seemed so horrible and other seemed pretty good. It was around this time that I charged up to get the Tier9 IS4, playing game after game, not caring about winning or losing, just trying to get the XP & credits, to get the tank before it turned into a Tier10. Amazingly I managed to get the IS4 and played it exactly twice as a Tier9 before it switched to a Tier10. This was me failing my way to the top. Now I was a badass with a Tier10. And yes, I was one of "those" idiots that played the IS4 with the tier8 gun.
The Average Player
I then met someone who was incredibly nice, and saw me failing horribly in my Tier10 and took me under his wing, and this brought me to 5th portion of my time here. He was no Unicum, but was a solid player, but to me with my horrible win rate, he was a genius. But more importantly he was friendly and he told me about this thing called TS that would allow you to talk while playing. We had a great time playing and talking with him and his friends. This is where I started to platoon and understand gameplay, armor, angling, accuracy, etc. All the things most players would take for granted. The fun that the social aspect brought to the game actually made it fun again, and being able to implement what he said, and improve was really fun.
A Decent Player
Around this time I was clanless and started to be contacted by people who wanted to join their clans. I wasn't sure why or what the point was to a clan. After looking into it I learned about the other aspects of the game - tank companies and clan wars. This is where it all finally clicked and I made the decision to really focus on becoming better and join a decent clan. After many more pub battles I was able to squeak into my current clan where there were plenty of players who I could learn from.
One Day - Unicum?
And here I am today, 10,000 battles, targeting a 60% overall win rate, and working to 1800 efficiency. I still have lots to learn, and am not kidding myself that I am a top player, but I finally feel like I am able to have control over the outcome of a battle. I hope that I can continue to learn and improve to reach up to the higher levels of gameplay.
So, what is the point of this huge post?
To those whose game I ruined in my early carrer - I'm sorry.
To those that saved me from life as a 40% player - Thank you, you sacrificed your win rate to help a lesser player get better, and made someone eternally grateful along the way.
Deez_Nutz
the_blonde_bullet
_Endo_
To those who post instructions and videos that I have learned from - Thank you, you took the time to help others with no benefit to yourself.
9mmCapsule
CarbonWard
Garbad
Illusion
Kewei
Relics
nagatron
Thanks for reading...
, its great for people to see the steps one takes to improve.
