Discussion – Complete Game Rebalance Part I

OK, so for the last 2-3 years I have been enjoying this game like most of you, but during this time I constantly thought: There are better ways to do things!

Having thought about this stuff for 2 years at this point, I am almost convinced that I have come up with one of the most comprehensive game rebalances. I don't know of anyone else to have posted something like this before, but please don't hold back on your criticism. Most of you will think there is at least one part of the game that need a buff/nerf, but I disagree. I think the game needs to be completely rebalanced, and I sincerely hope someone from WG will read this. Without further ado, here we go: (please be patient, English is not my first language and this is gonna be quite long)

Also, if you have endured through this lengthy written work, please let me know in the comments if I should also touch on some forgotten/underpowered and overpowered premium tanks, and how to adjust their stats best!

Overall important changes to the game:

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Matchmaking Revolutionized Mk. III:

Having seen the absolute misery that was the 3-5-7 MM and looking at my friend, who struggled to play tiers 1-4 and found it so abhorrent, I want to cure the plague that is the current MM.

First measure: Skill based matchmaking. Under no circumstances should players with 1k battles and sub-3k WG Rating have to face Super-Unicums and feed those players Kolobanov's and Pool's and whatever other medal. What I propose is a skill based matchmaking system in 2000 WG Rating Points Brackets. Wargaming may as well use WN8 if they wish, it would be much more accurate, but hey-ho, if they really don't like the folks at XVM, then don't use it. Anyway, first bracket 0-2000 Player Rating, 2nd bracket 2001-4000 and so on in jumps of 2000 player points. To accomodate the reduced numbers of players at both ends of the spectrum (the skill curve is similar to the IQ curve, sort of a bell shape), certain templates would exist, for instance 7-8 with 7 players from the higher bracket and 8 from the lower, or even 3-12 or 1-14, but these templates would never jump 2 brackets, so 4-4-7 would be unfair and wouldn't exist. This should solve the issue of meeting both sealclubbers at tiers 1-4 and "noobs" at tiers 8-10 and having the entire team jump on the hate wagon towards that player.

Second measure: Preferential MM Tanks would receive a mandatory Tier -1 match. This means that instead of not meeting Tier+2, they must be in Tier-1 matchmaking. As such, Tier 8 Premium Matchmaking tanks will always see some tier 7s, regardless if in a tier 9 match, a tier 8 match, or a tier 6 match. This also solves the tier 7 quota of Tier+1 matches. Same goes for tanks like the Panther M10, which would always meet a tier 6, regardless of if they also saw a tier 8 or a tier 5 in the same match. Of course, this will respect the improved 3-5-7 template matchmaking system that we currently have in the game, with all templates available.

Third measure: Tanks at tier 4 will now be incorporated into the tier 1-3 1 tier matchmaking spread. The reason is clear: for a tier 4 tank of any kind to go against tanks like the O-I, the T150 or even KV-2 is pure cruelty, mostly because the new players most of time come to play the game for fun and then get obliterated by these tanks, without even having a chance to do a single point of damage. It is tragic enough that they get massacred by 105mm guns at tier 5, but there is little to be done there if those tanks are to be kept able to do damage to Tier+2 tanks.

Fourth measure: Light tanks tiers 5 will see only Tier+1 MM. This is for a simple reason: up until this tier, they are neither fast enough to spot nor well armed enough to do reasonable damage, so their role in the battle is quite limited anyway, and so they struggle with being shot by guns such as 152mm or 122mm at tier 7, or even the blistering RoF of some 75mm and 76mm at this tier when finding themselves in Tier+2 MM.

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View range and spotting mechanics:

I have seen countless TDs, Heavies and Mediums balanced on the premise of View range, which is ridiculous. It undermines the importance of Light tanks and creates a hierarchy of view range and effectiveness of which light tanks are not a part of. What I mean by this is, I would rather drive a Medium tank with some armor and a great gun than a Light tank with no armor, some additional mobility and a junk of a gun, if both have 500m view ranges. So, what I propose, and this is a very radical change is:

Heavy tanks: maximum view range 370m. Commanders cannot take any view range related skills, neither can the radio guy. Can equip either Binos or Coated. If you wanna balance heavies, you do it in increments of 5m or 10m of view range, and change their camo, instead of view range.

Medium tanks: maximum view range 390m. Only commanders can take view range related skills, and only 1 skill/crew. Stock view range same as heavy tanks, but they get an improved coated optics and NO BINOCS. Balancing done in increments of 5m and 10m of view range and of course camo values.

TDs: Maximum view range 350m. The radio guy gets a special perk, not spotting the enemy but locating the closest unspotted enemy (kinda like the perk in WoWs). Perk active from 300m to 500m. Can equip special Binocs, which deploy faster and don't de-equip if the speed is low enough.

Arty: Maximum view range 250m. No skills, Binocs or Coated, but they do get an improved camo value and a special Camouflage Net, which doesn't deactivate when turning the hull. Improved 6th sense for the Commander, triggering immediately upon being spotted.

Light Tanks: Maximum view range 415m. Can equip both Binocs and Coated, cannot equip Camo Net. The commander can get EITHER 6th sense or a spotting skill, not both. If he is the radio man too, then he can get 6th sense and 1 spotting skill. Otherwise, the radio man has the option of the spotting skill. NO Camo skill for Lights. This gives other vehicles a chance to spot the light tanks. No Camo net either, but they do get a new equipment: Improved Suspension, which allows the tracks to take more punishment before breaking and also allows bigger jumps.

Wheeled LTs: Maximum view range 340m. No Binocs, but they can get Coated. No Camo Net and no camo skills either. However, the commander can train the 6th sense skills in 3 stages: 0-33% 6 second delay; 33-66% 4.5 second delay; 66-100% 3 second delay. They get the same new equipment as regular lights, but have to choose between it and Coated.

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Aiming and the ballistic arc:

The slower the shell, the larger the ballistic arc, dictates physics. However, in WoT this can present quite a challenge for people firing slow shells. They seem to behave very much like ship shells in WoWs, but they tend to be very annoying and they take away some enjoyment from using such large caliber guns. In order to make this fair, I propose that all shells be fired along an imaginary, completely straight line from the point of aim, according to the gun's dispersion. This basically means that slow shells become rockets, to some extent, but this should make moving shots much easier to achieve. Also, to help with aiming, I propose introducing a custom magnification setting, where the user can select up to a maxium of 6 magnification settings for the scope, starting from x1 up to x50.

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The TD sniper mode handbrake mechanic:

This should be a no-brainer. I propose either complete removal from the game, because it severely limits TDs, or at least an option to deactivate this junk in the game settings.

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Modules:

I propose a complete redo of the tank modules and unlocking game mechanic. Either EVERY SINGLE TANK IN THE GAME has to equip upgraded tracks for ANY of the gun/turret upgrades, OR NONE!! We can't have it both ways, and be forced to play tier 8 tanks with tier 6 guns and turrets (Tiger 2 great memories). Also, certain tanks need to have some guns removed, for instance the americans have 4 or 5 version of the 76mm gun. Ridiculous!! I also propose unifying Tank and AT guns, so that once I unlock a bloody 17-pounder on the Mk IV Churchill I can also use it on the TDs in the same Tech Tree. THEY ARE THE SAME GUNS!!! Don't waste valuable player time unlocking the same thing over and over again. No need for these grinds to happen 2 or 3 times in the same tech tree.

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Premium ammo and standard ammo inventory:

I propose a very radical and hard to digest change: limiting the amount of premium ammo that you can take in a battle to 1/3 of the total ammo. This means very selective use of such ammo, and a nerf to autoloaders with limited ammo capacity. I also propose a 40% decrease in damage done by PREMIUM HEAT shells, and a 33% reduction in PREMIUM APCR damage.

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New Players Welcoming Improvements:

I have recently seen statistics indicating a drastic decrease in new player numbers for WoT. I was wondering what was causing it, and after starting a new account it was incredibly obvious what was going on: they were being trashed on by players with 50K+ battles, who knew what OP tanks to use, how to use them and then spammed nothing but APCR at everything. I was an experienced enough player, and even I was finding it hard to compete with them. What I did was I got myself a M2 Light, loaded standard and went at it. I averaged 1 Top Gun every 10 games or so, 1 High Cal every 25 or so and the occasional Pascucci's or Lehvaslaiho's. Based on this, I propose a number of changes as far as the tiers 1-4 are concerned:

1) No Premium ammo. The first introduction to Premium should occur, at least in my mind, at tier 5. This means that at the lower tiers, every tank, with its intended penetration, and every tank, with its intended armor effectiveness, can play its role properly. Not only that, it makes earning enough credits for a couple of tier 5s much easier, as now they can't mistakenly load Premium and lose all of their money in the first match.

2) No advanced players. Tiers 1-4 will follow a mandatory progress systems for players with either: more than 5000 games OR more than 3500 Personal Rating OR a tier 8 tank in the Garage. What this means is, if any of these conditions is met, the player will not be allowed to play any tier 1-4 tank that he has finished progressing through, any tier 1-4 tank that he hasn't unlocked will have a limit on how much exp can be earned on it (this limit will be the sum of all experience needed to turn the tank Elite) and then it will be locked out. Exceptions to this rule are tier 1-4 premium tanks.

3) Full combat capacity. At tiers 1-4, all tanks will come with non-transferable 100% crews for that specific tank, without the option to train crew skills of any sort. Also non-transferable will be the consumables, 1 Small Repair Kit, 1 Small Aid Kit and 1 Manual Fire Extinguisher. These will be half-price when compared to their normal counterparts, and will recharge just as slow, so that the players can get used to the pace of the action.

3) No modules. No tier 1-4 tank will be able to equip any equipment of any sorts. This is so that no player can get an unaffordable advantage over another player. This is acceptable and encouraged at higher tiers, but at tiers 1-4 this is the sort of idea that can make life very difficult for novice players. Premium tanks are NOT EXEMPT from this rule.

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Tank rebalances:

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Chapter I: Heavy Tanks

Heavy tanks in WoT are, at least currently, very polarized. You have stuff like the Chrysler K, impenetrable, and stuff like the AMX M4 45, not even LT armor. My Proposition regarding heavies is this: give each heavy and/or each line of heavies in the game a role and a strong point.

Example: T29 and T34, E75 and Tiger 2. The first pair is entirely balanced, as far as I'm concerned. The hull of the Americans is garbage and easily taken care of, while the turret is Stalinium level. The Germans struggle, however. The E75 can get its upper plate penned with Premium Ammo by almost all T9 TDs. The Tiger 2 cannot show its turret, because it will get penned even at tier 6. Don't even get me started on the hull. So, what can be done?

Simple:

The Germans get the upper plate. 350mm effective starting from tier 8. It will make no difference to tanks up until tier 9 and 10 anyway. Give the Tiger 2 a 210mm turret, so it has at least a chance to bounce. Leave the lower plate weak on both tanks, so that tier 6s and 7s can still do damage to them. Lower depression to 7 degrees on both Tiger 2 and E75 and increase DPM on Tiger 2 to make up lost Average damage in comparison to other tier 8 heavies. Tier 4, remove the DW2, honestly it is a lost cause. Otherwise, give it the Pz IV gun for upgrade and 5cm gun as stock. No turret upgrade. Tier 5, remove some guns from the tank. Lower the exp price of the Waffe, remove the 7.5cm L/70 and the stock engine. Increase HP Pool for all Tier 4-6 German heavies to compensate for the mediocre speed and agility OR increase speed and agility to compensate for flimsy armor. Tier 6 VK 36.01 H increase speed and agility slightly. Better turret armor as well, not too much though. Both tier 7 Tigers: great gun handling, DPM and accuracy. No other changes to these tanks. Tier 8 VK 45.02 P Ausf. A, 2 choices as far as I'm aware: 300m upper plate with resonable side armor and a strong lower plate, but a large weakpoint in the machine gun port, 250mm of turret armor as well and an improved gun in every respect, with a massive hit to mobility, bringing it more in line with the VK 100.01 P; OR greatly increased mobility, improved gun and better turret, but junk hull armor, replicating the AMX 65t. Tier 10, E100 slightly improved turret armor, however a much weaker turret ring. Move the Turret Bar Weakpoint further forward, so tier 8 tanks can hit more easily. Maus, decrease mobilty and increase pen and alpha. Pz VII, turret weakpoint somewhere (cupola or something else), improved slightly side armor and reverse speed. More depression over the side of the tank.

The French: Increase retreat speed. Nah jk.

Starting from tier 5, remove the track vulnerability and give them reasonable side armor so they can sidescrape. Tier 6, increase turret armor to 140mm, but decrease hull. Again, no track weakpoint. Reasonable side armor as well. Tier 7, better turret (170mm of more), keep the depression and give some side armor. Maybe even a bit better hull frontal amor as well. Remove penetration from the 90mm gun and give it better aim time. Tier 8-10 autoloaders are quite balanced, I would say increase unload time by intraclip reload, but this will not be popular with players. Tier 8 armor heavy from the French: TURRET ARMOR. Slightly increase mobility because the hull armor is junk. Tier 9 and 10 balanced, maybe give a more pronounced lower plate for tier 8s to go for.

The British:

God, have mercy on my hands. Tier 5 needs more side armor, more frontal armor, MOAR ARMOR because it is unreasonably slow, (slower than the 100T O-I Exp???). Gun is good, strengthen track weakpoint. Tier 6 omg remove from game, or greatly increase armor (160mm frontal hull with lower plate weakpoint, 165+ turret and strengthen TRACK WEAKPOINT), greatly increase gun depression (10+ degrees) and improve aim time. You have literally no advantage gained from being slow in British heavies up until tier 8 or so. Tier 7 increase gun depression, side armor and TRACK WEAKPOINT, lower aim time and dispersion. You are literally the slowest thing alive and get nothing for it.

USA:

Tier 5 and 6: do something about the armor, please, maybe give them no hull but great turret (like literally all other American heavies perhaps??) and remove the bloody 15k exp engine upgrade. Makes no sense at all. Split the gun on the T29 and the T32 in two separate guns. Tier 8, the T32 needs more pen, a lot more pen, and also better aim time, as the gun is quite low caliber. I would also say give it a bit more DPM, but this is optional. Apart from that, give the tier 10 T110E5 more turret armor, because it has been powercrept to hell and back, and decrease lower plate slightly for tier 8 pen.

Japan:

Frontal weakpoint all over. O-I Exp must have lover plate penned by tier 4 tanks. O-I must have lower plate and/or mini-turrets' cupola penned by tier 4 TDs. O-Ni frontal penned by tier 5, lower plate or mini-turrets' cupola. O-Ho frontal penned by tier 6s, again lower plate or cupola. Tier 9 penned by tier 7s, tier 10 penned by tier 8s. All of this WITHOUT ANYONE USING PREMIUM AMMO, so stock ammo only. Increase HP Pool if you have to, but make them pennable for god's sake. NO PREMIUM HE ammo on tier 9-10. No AP or Premium ammo on tier 6-8 derp gun. Increase gun depression in the front and the sides slightly.

Russia:

Tier 5, make the KV-1S slightly more mobile and give the poor thing a bit more depression, maybe -4.5? Tier 6 a bit more depression for the KV-85, maybe -5. A bit of a mobility increase for it too. KV-2, remove the 122mm howitzer, leaving the 107mm gun stock and 152mm upgrade. Also, remove both AP shells from the 152mm. Lower pen on the HE shells to Japanese level, decrease loading time to compensate for less armor. Tier 7 no objections. Tier 8, IS-3 increase the hull armor to 120mm, 125mm on the flatter portion of the beak seen from the front, hardpoints on the beak to 145mm. Slight decrease in both aim time and reload time to make up for lost Alpha Damage. KV-4 frontal armor 240mm thick, turret 245mm, middle of thelower plate 160mm and two narrow portion of the lower plate, left and right 140mm for 6s to pen. Increase in RoF , decreased Aim Time and -7 degrees of depression. Tier 9, T-10 EITHER increased mobility OR improved turret and slightly improved hull armor, -7 degrees of depression. Tier 10, IS-4 complete removal of the Turret weakpoint, instead enlarge the cupolas.

China:

Reasonably well balanced, however I propose an IS-3-like turret weakpoint on the 110, and a slight increase in hull armor at tier 9.

Poland:

Weaker lower plates across the board. Tier 7-8, turret weakpoints. Adjust rate of fire in such a way that all of them have lower than average DPM, but much harder hitting guns, somewhat like tier 9 German VK 45.02 P Ausf. B. Slight buff in mobility.

Sweden:

Trash the hull armor, 30-35mm all around at tier 80, 40-45 at tier 9 and 50 at tier 10. Slightly stronger side turret armor, but not the overhang at the back, that becomes 33mm all across the board, at all tiers.