With the new 1.0 patch I thought I would make a return to wot. The last time I played this game I had the pleasure of representing North America in Moscow Russia for their first ever world championship.
My first impressions on return is that the graphics are quite nice, especially the water. The new tank physics is also very nice and it was great to see all of the new tank lines. It is a true joy to be able to simulate riding around in a tank that the chieftain does such a great job making videos of.
However even after a few hours of playing the ugly side of WOT began to show it's ugly head and reminded me of why this game is no longer relevant/up to current standards and does not deserve room on your hard-drive.
This company seems to lack a basic understanding of how to balance (both in this game and in world of warships). The new sweedish TD line is an excellent example. They put giant derp/brawler style guns with horrible accuracy on tank chassis that have no armor and no hit points: meaning you have to knife fight with a tank that has no turret, no armor, and a poor hit point pool. Meaning you have to rely almost solely on the horrible play of your opponents in order to have a good game. Luckily though the player skill in this game is very poor: XVM shows most players well bellow 50% win rate.
Every map (though nicely detailed) has an almost identical game play. In each map there are 3 defined avenues of attack and choke points. When combined with the REALLY bad spotting system means that most games either wind up with one team completely dominating the other or games where people barley leave their starting point. Unfortunately in world of tanks it is completely viable to sit back in your base until there are only a few minutes left in the match.
The camping in this game could be easily fixed if they changed artillery from a direct all or nothing damage model to an area of effect Damage-over-time which would force campers out of their choke points. However after so many years I doubt they will make any changes.
The gun play is still EXTREMELY random. You might as well roll the dice when shooting a target to see if the shell will penetrate, or even go where you aim it. Combine this with premium shells and it is EXTREMELY frustrating. You can bounce a high tier TD shell in a medium tank, and just as easily get penetrated in the front while driving a heavy. The best you can do is put your tank in a position where you have a stronger likely hood of success. This company REALLY loves to put a huge emphasis on randomness in the most important part of the game, the gunplay: Unfortunately this removes a large part of the skill; and only gets worse as players progress up the tiers.
The two tier difference in tanks in games. There is simply to much of a difference in Hit points and firepower. A tier 4 tank has no business fighting a tier 6 with double the hit points and armor. ESPECIALLY when the other tank has more firepower and speed. As a result a good player (top tier) can easily steam roll an entire area of the map. This results in most games being won or lost simply by whoever has the better skilled top tier tank. A good player in a bottom tier tank "can" make a difference, but a good player in a top tank is damn near unbeatable.
Lastly I suspect that there is some sort of matchmaking algorithm that puts players with good stats consistently in the bottom tier of the battle. I began keeping track and confirmed this. In my last two days of playing it put me in the bottom tier nearly double the amount of times that it placed me in the top tier.
My final conclusion is that the game has made progress (especially in the cosmetic areas) over the years, however not in the areas that really matter: Game play and balance. As a result this game is best suited for nostalgia and historical reference. When one considers the expensive micro transactions and ridiculously expensive premium tanks I would not consider this game well balanced or a good value.
The best part of this game can be found here: https://www.youtube....ftainWoT/videos