Hey guys, a short disclaimer: I always loved WoT, played it for many good years, met some amazing people, spent countless hours and multiple nights fixing my DPGs, marking or whatever else I was doing and loved the process, but the state of the game is so bad I just heave to whine a little bit and discus this with people who love the game as well. What You are about to read is a perspective of a player who has played for more or less 10 years with brakes. I am a 4k Wn8 try hard if that adds to my perspective. Expect a long and whiny post.
- META: this has been discussed by so many players already, yet I want to have my own take. Long story short, currently we have the most boring, disgusting META in years. The continues spam of 10-14 gun depression tanks with amazing turret armour is just cringe, trading hatches every game is boring as hell, and practically impossible on a lot of tanks (all of the super heavy tanks, Russian heavies, French heavies, Chinese heavies to name a few) on a lot of maps, because in order to have a reliable shot at Kran and Chief hatches You have to expose Your upper and lower plates. I believe that present META has been formed by adding chief, nerfing HE and Arty, as well as building maps with the most potent heavy tank areas with ton of ridge lines and hull downs.
- Power Creeps: Okay, so this one seems a little bit confusing to some people I’ve talked with, therefore I will use other video games as reference. When You make a competitive multiplayer game, You want to ensure a more or less stable and balanced environment. META will always exist, however, in most of good games it is dealt with on regular basis. Good example of that is League of Legends, in which there are multiple meta changes throughout the year, also, whenever a META forms, it has a significantly larger scale than in WoT (6 tanks vs about 30 champions). Now, let’s stay with LoL as an example (just because it’s ultimately the most popular esport title out there). What does happen when one champion in LoL overtakes a META, and simply over performs? It’s usually nerfed to the ground. This way of balancing could be called brining META champions down to equalise the META. How does Wargaming approach the subject? They do the opposite. Take Super Conqueror as an example. After it’s initial release and buffs SConq has stormed WoT meta, tank was practically the best HT in the game and we could see it taken for every single competitive game. We did not however, see teams of 14 SConqs, because it lacked mobility. It was a time when teams experimented a lot with tanks such as WZ5A, Object 260 and eventually with 277. Wargaming still decided to push the SConq down, however not by nerfing it. They decided to power creep it by releasing tank which is even better. That’s how the monstrosity called Chieftain was born. Instead of nerfing the Super Conqueror to push it out of meta, WG has created something better. There are more examples of that, one is the infamous EBR 105 (taking down T-100LT), EBR 75 and LT-432 (power creep for M41 90 GF), 703 (Defender) to name a few. For years WG has been using power creeps to shift the META, leading to some tanks getting better and better, extending the gap between the best vehicles and non META ones. In all fairness WG does buff some of the tanks every now and then, however these buffs usually are irrelevant (Who cares rather Maus has 280 or 305 effective turret armour, premium AMO penetrates it anyways). Some people claim it’s fine to have a META because You should be playing these tanks if You are competitive. The thing is, that’s applicable to Ranked Queue and Clan Wars. We see META braking the random queue gameplay as well. Only one good example of balancing the META I can recall were nerfes to Object 268v4. – Solution would be changing the balance approach, nerf Chief, Kran and 279.
- Map design: okay, so here is another massive issue I have with the game. Let’s say You really like some of the non meta tanks (let’s pick E100, E50M, Wz-132-1 and Foch B). Currently the game maps usually support 1-2 flanks for a tank such as E100 to play on. Let’s use Serene Coast as en example (this is a fairly decent map, yet is shows the problems which are far worse on some of the other maps). You could try to trade on the most potent flank which is C1, however, You will be a DMG farm for META Krans and Chiefs. You decide to play the south east of the map, where You end up being AFK because You can’t push it by yourself, while You have 8 tanks contesting C1 and getting farmed. Same applies to E50M or Foch B. I understand that it’s a bit of an extreme scenario, however we have seen that happen plenty of times on other maps (Westfield, Malinovka, Sand River, El Haluf, Pilzen, Studzianki, Redshire, Overlord, Tundra, Berlin and whatever else comes to Your mind). Then You might try to play a light tank (let’s skip how unplayable these are because of EBR), and You end up playing shity maps for Your class. Point being: why not design maps with more flexibility and options, something like a 1200×1200 Proho but with a city on the right side of tracks, so literally all types of tanks can enjoy it? You can play Your tracked lt as a support/passive scout, You can play Your TD and protect the 1-2 so the city doesn’t get flanked, You can enjoy a non full down super heavies trading in city, together with assault TDs, and meds can do whatever. Make sure there aren’t as many hull downs and ridge lines to play around, and perhaps we could see a shift in a meta without even nerfing the Kran.
- Arty: here is my problem with Arties. This class will never ever be balanced. The problem with arty isn’t that it’s too good. It’s actually terrible and I’d say arty players are some masochist. Yet, it’s annoying as hell because You can’t strike it back, You can’t protect Yourself and because of Stun mechanics. Just limit them to 1 per team, You can even buff it for all I care and get rid of arty missions.
- Pay to win and money being top priority: I don’t really feel like there is a need to elaborate on tier VIII P2W situation (72% of premium tanks are better than their tech tree counterparts). I do feel however that it is mandatory to mention how cringe it is that Wargaming bases every little decision about the game on the money. Nerfing gold? No, because people pay less for their games so some of them don’t need premium perhaps. Adding actual weak spots to tanks, such as the gun port on old Jagtiger? No, same applies. Rebalancing tier 8, so it’s not a massive p2w? Nah, who would be stupid enough to invest shitload of gold on black market, or wait for months to buy Proggeto 46, if Pantera P44 was a better tank. Get rid of outdated -2/+2 (the fact that M6 can be matched in the same game as 703, and theoretically represent the same role as it cringes me to death)? Nah, because -2/+2 forces more gold spam, also people want to grind faster so the pain stops. Not to mention free exping.
- DMG has to go: I can’t believe I’m saying this, but DMG and Moes need to be deleted. They create egocentric environment in a team oriented gameplay. Of course people will let You die to make a nice wreckage to hull down behind it. Fuck that, show Your skill by blocking a friendly one shot tank, so he survives and You don’t take DMG. That’s some skill and team play id like to see. Make the game more win oriented for people, rather then DPG/Moe
EDIT: so in regards to MoE and DPG, I’d like to add that I don’t mean completely remove these (they after all are a primary indication of “skill”), just move them perhaps to a competitive queue rather than randoms. My idea for it is somewhere in the comments. Anyways, this is the least important part of my list