Returning To WoT After A Long Break…

So I took a while off, not really sure how long, I've been playing and rage quitting this game for ages. I'm shocked by some of the changes, and disappointed by others.

Friendly Fire

Holy shit… they got rid of friendly fire…. I can't believe they actually did it. Makes the game soooo much better, with terrible players at least not actively damaging your team.

There's an automated swearing filter now apparently

Yeah, this one sucks. Already on chat ban number two… apparently masked swearing (#$@$) is also detected. I'm probably going to turn off chat completely as fucked if I can go 10 matches without swearing at least once… this game does that to me.

All The Mods are Belong To WoT

This is a nice change… most of the mods you would install previously seem to be included out of the box now. Outside of seeing Winrate and WN8 from XVM (which I really don't want to know, it makes the game soul crushing), pretty much everything I would install a mod for seems to be in the UI out of the box… kudos here.

Turretless snipers got nerfed HARD

Ok, I don't remember the maps perfectly, it's been a while, but… wow did snipers get hit hard. First it seems like 3/4 of the cover have been removed from the game. It also seems like little bumps and crevices were added to force you into a handful of spots, where artillery know you have to go and will feast. Non-mobile redlined unarmored case tanks like the Nashorn got boned HARD. It's even worse when you add in ….

Wheeled Vehicles

These were added since I quit and it seems any idiot realizes they break the game. WTF Wargaming, how are these still allowed unchagned. I was once spotted in my slow ass tank… 4 seconds into the match. 4! I've seen yolo EBR idiots light up the entire arty squad less than 40 seconds into a match a number of times. Apparently the auto aim also makes these things OP as shit against other light tanks, making wheeled tanks the only real viable options. Being immune to tracking is just weapons grade bad game design.

I honestly think wheeled tanks are the single stupidest decision WoT have ever made, they are just absolutely game breakingly stupid. I'm not saying they are OP, I'm saying they are game breaking. The completely ruin pretty much all the pacing of every level designed to date. WTF were they thinking and why are they still in the game? From what I see online, the vast majority of the community thinks they are game breaking too.

Artillery

So… still 3 per side eh? I used to be fully in the ban sky cancer camp, but after having several camp fest matches with 0 arty, I get it's purpose. But 3x per side, I think even arty lovers realize those games are kinda shit. Instead of doing the logical thing and trying 2x per side, apparently Wargaming are still trying to "fix" it with idiotic game mechanics eh? I finally bought my first and only artillery tank yesterday for doing the missions and to learn how to avoid it… I hate to admit it, but it's actually kinda fun playing on the dark side… at least in the broken as shit M44.

Autoloaders… everywhere

I remember when the batchat was kinda unique. Then they added the Emil and it was an interesting addition. Now though… now it feels like 95% of new tanks are autoloaders… Can't say as adding more and more burst damage is going to be good for preventing 15-0 stomps. Hell, even my IS3A is apparently an autoloader of sorts now. That said, autoloaders for the most part don't really feel that OP, but seriously… there are even autoloader TDs now.

Premiums

So Wargaming aren't even trying to hide it anymore are they… Many premium tanks are just straight out better than their tech tree cousins… in some cases BY A LOT. I don't think the game has ever been more P2W than it is right now, and this is the biggest reasons why. Tier 8 is an absolute mess from all the OP premiums. Hell I picked up a Centurion 5/1, which isn't considered one of the OP tanks, and it's OP as shit. It's straight out better than the Centurion, as well as all the other Cent based variants that came before it. Hell, in many ways, its better than the Tier X Centurion Action X! This is stupid.

Minsk

Was there a competition to make the shittiest map possible?

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In the end, I'm noticing even more ROFLSTOMP matches then ever before. The game is still really fun, but if you want to influence the match, its harder and harder then ever before, unless of course you platoon. So those are my observations that nobody asked for from a returning player.

In the end it really is feeling like WoT just don't give a damn about the power creep or forced metas and that part is a bit scary.