TOPIC: World of Tanks full beginners guide!

What is World of Tanks?

World of Tanks is a free MMO action game in which you can choose from 100s of tanks from 7 different nations from around the World War 2 time era ( with a few exceptions ). In the game, there is a few fun game modes in a play option called "Random Battles" in which the game will place you in a 15v15 multiplayer game in any of the 3 game modes available on a wide variety of maps.



Game modes:

Standard Battles: The most played and most likely gamemode to appear in the rotation. Two teams fight against eachother in either a standard battle of attrition or a capture mission to capture the opposing team's base in a duration of 15 minutes. This game mode features the most amount of maps available and has a 60% chance to be played in a Random Battle.

Assault: One of the least played and least likely gamemodes to appear in the rotation. Two teams fight against eachother in either a standard battle of attrition, or the attackers try to capture the defender's base in a duration of 10 minutes. The attacking team has no base at all. Assault is limited to 4 maps and has a 20% chance to be played in a Random Battle.

Encounter: The other gamemode which is least likely to appear in rotation. Two teams fight against eachother in either a standard battle of attrition or over the one neutral capture point which both teams spawn equal distances away from. Capture can be halted/decreased in time if one of the capturing tanks is either successfully hit and damaged or a tank from the opposing team to which is currently capturing the objective enters the capture zone. Encounter has an average amount of maps to play on and also has a 20% chance to be played in a Random Battle.

Nations:

In World of Tanks there is currently 7 nations to choose from, but more will be added in the future. Here are the current nations and some current information about them.


United Kingdom

There is 57 tanks in the British Tech Tree. British tanks in WoT are known for their extremely high DPM guns ( Damage per minute ) because they are fast firing, high penetration guns. But they are also known for their mostly poorly armoured tanks and slow tanks apart from the later Tank Destroyes. Tank destroyers from tiers 5-9 in ( starting with the AT 2 ) are well known for their unpenetrable armour from the front and sometimes sides due to extreme amounts of thick, sloped armour making it nearly impossible for tanks to penetrate their armour from the front. But these TDs are notoriously slow and slow turners, but they are also armed with high DPM guns.



U.S.S.R

The U.S.S.R have 94 tanks. Soviet tanks in WoT are known for their sloped and heavily armoured tanks, whilst also maintaining mobility and speed on some of the tanks. Most of the tanks have above average guns. While the tanks have good turret and frontal armour the sides and rear of the tanks are weakly armoured, moreso than most tanks from other nations. Russian guns are also normally low DPM guns, but have very good damage and penetration, meaning they are good for one hit at a time and bad for prolonged shooting. Expect long reloads.

Nazi Germany

There is 99 tanks in the German tech tree. German tanks are known for their mostly outstanding guns, with above average DPM, high penetration and damage. German tanks are also fairly well armoured, but usually lack sloped armour so high penetration guns are good against them. Their scout tanks are also some of the fastest. Some negative points would be usually slow tanks, bad gun depressions (can't aim your gun down far), slow moving turrets and flat armour (some exceptions).



France

France has 52 tanks. The french are well known for having the best scout tanks and fast tanks in later tiers. In lower tiers their tanks are very slow but are heavy armoured. They are notorious for having auto-loading cannons ( meaning they have magazines ), but most of their other weapons are mediocre. Their Heavy Tanks, although they are Heavy, they are very poorly armoured at later tiers, and can be easily penetrated by most weapons, they have to use their fast guns and mobility to their advantage.



United States of America.

America has 68 tanks in their tech tree. American tanks are well known for their extremely well armoured turrets, and generally well armoured tanks with amazing gun depression whilst maintaining good guns. Light tanks from the U.S.A in WoT are also very good. In lower tiers, American tanks are somewhat mediocre, although some of the tank destroyers are good ( like the T18 ). Strangely enough, most of their tanks maintain average speed in every tier.




Japan

Japan has 17 tanks in their tech tree. Japanese tanks are known for averageness across the board. They are normally quite poorly armoured and have average, fast firing- average penetration and damage guns.


China

The chinese tech tree consists of 23 tanks. China is known for their rounded and hard to penetrate turrets, and fast tanks. Their gun selection is similar to a russian gun selection being slow firing, high penetration and damage guns. Hull armour is usually well sloped but not much armour thickness, so be sure to angle your armour.

Game Mechanics

World of Tanks is a relatively hard game to master, but that does not mean you can't have fun in it. Here I will include some necessary mechanics which you will need to learn to be effective on the battlefield.

Armour

Armour in WoT seems complex and it is in some ways, but it's easy to adjust too, especially if you use scientific knowledge and common sense, it's easy. Armour is measured in milimetres. Armour from tanks ranges from around 5mm ( on low tier light tanks ) all the way up to around 200mm. Most guns in higher tier tanks can easily penetrate 200mm of armour, so armour is usually sloped to improve its effectiveness. Here is a formula to calculate armour effectiveness: Effective Armor Formula: (Thickness/cos(angle°)). E.g: 150mm of frontal hull armour/cos(50 degrees)= 233mm of armour.
Turrets are usually the most armoured with the gun mantle being the most armoured part of the tank (the part which connects the gun to the turret and seals it).

The trick to making the most out of your armour is to rotate your tank so your frontal armour and side armour is presented at an angle, giving armour more effective armour. If an enemy tank with high armour/effective armour values shows his front too you, your best chance of penetrating his armour would be to fire at weak points, most of the time these will be drivers' hatches, machine gun ports and capolas (commander hatches on the tops of turrets). The weakest parts of the tank is the sides and the rear, the rear is the most effective way to immobilise a tank because it contains the engine, the key to movement. And the rear is almost always poorly armoured and ill-sloped. To set a tank on fire or instantly kill it if you're lucky, aim for the side, usually under the turret. This is where the ammo is usually located, if you penetrate and blow up their ammo supply, all that ammo will explode and kill everything inside, usually blowing the turret off, or it will set the tank on fire, where it will slowly loose health until you use a fire extinguisher consumable.

Tech Trees, Upgrades and Different types of tanks

In WoT, you progress through Tech Trees belonging to different nations. Each nation contains their own, unique tech trees with their own tanks. The tech tree is split into usually 5 categories, Light, Medium and Heavy Tanks, Tank Destroyers ( TD ) and Self Propelled Guns ( Artillery or SPGs for short) with the exception of China and Japan as they currently do not have TDs or SPGs. Tech trees start at Tier 1 tanks, all the way up to Tier 10 tanks. All tiers have tanks from all the 5 categories, apart from Tier 1 which almost always has a light tank only.

Light Tanks have low armour, but are fast and maneuverable. Light tanks should be used for spotting tanks and relaying vital information back to the more heavily armoured tanks, tank destroyers and artillery tanks. Most of the low tiers consist of mainly Light Tanks, where some are more heavily armoured than others. You should never go in a head to head fight with medium or heavy tanks in a light tank, you're normally outgunned and outarmoued. If you plan on engaging enemy tanks, you should almost always circle tanks (if possible) and make the most of your mobility. This tactic is extremely effective to tanks without turrets (i.e. Most Tank Destroyers and SPGs) as they are usually incapable of turning fast enough to shoot you. You can also do this to Heavy Tanks with turrets that turn slowly, but make sure you know that they have slow turret traverse otherwise you might be in trouble.

Medium Tanks have low, average and high armour, depending on which Medium Tank you are using. Playstyle with Mediums alternates between Light Tank playstyle, and Support. If you are a medium tank with low mobility, play a support role, hang a bit behind the Heavy Tanks and give supportive fire, or play a sniper role in which you find a good place to stay and shoot enemies from a safe distance/concealed position. You shouldn't try and fight face to face with Heavy Tanks.

Heavy Tanks usually High armour, sometimes average. Your role in a Heavy Tank is to take more of the damage and push forward. When I mean take damage I don't mean go in guns blazing, play safely, pop in and out of cover but don't be afraid to take hits for your team when needed. Heavy Tanks usually have good guns, so in case you have a poorly armoured Heavy Tank, play the role of Support or Sniper. Remember, Heavy Tanks are usually slow so beware for faster tanks getting around you easily.

Tank Destroyers either have good armour, or bad armour, usually from the front. But that's not the point, Tank Destroyers shouldn't go up close with the Heavies and Mediums, unless you have a heavily armoured tank. Tank Destroyers have very good guns, so mainly, you'll be behind Heavy Tanks playing a Support role, or playing as a sniper. You usually rely on light tanks to give you information.

SPGs have extremely low armour, always stay far back in the map, away from danger and make sure you have a good concealed location. Only move when you need to, whether it be enemies advancing on your position or enemies are out of your gun range. SPGs have the capability to hit and kill enemy tanks from across the map, sometimes in one shot without being seen by the enemy. Their guns are exceptionally powerful but extremely slow and inaccurate. This class usually depends on luck.

In WoT, in order to progress to the next tank (The tank in the same line as you or a connection to a different, but a tier above usually), you have to research certain upgrades for your tank.

Guns: More accurate, faster firing or aiming, higher damage and penetration guns to upgrade your firepower.

Radios: Higher spotting range and relay range ( how far away your teammates can be to pick up your spotting signals ).

Tracks: Higher traverse speeds(how fast the tank turns) and weight limits ( how much the tank can carry ).

Engines: Higher speed and higher horsepower. Also susceptibility to fire.

Turrets: Higher armour values, more sloping, view range, and turret traverse. Also needed sometimes for certain guns.

The upgrade tree will show you what upgrades you will need.

Modules and Consumables

Modules are pieces of equipment you can equip to your tank to increase it's effectiveness, modules cost in game money and can be essential, especially in later tiers. There is different types of modules for different tanks.

Consumables are one time use items you buy which can get your tank out of a tricky situation fast. Such as repair kits.

Spotting

Spotting a tank will light the tank up to everybody in your signal range. You can only see tanks if they are in your view range and are not obstructed by objects or concealed by foliage, although foliage won't completely hide the tank. Only the commander hatch, optics and hull can spot a tank .

Microtransactions.


You can use real life money to purchase gold in WoT. Gold can get you premium (faster xp and money gain, but not by much), Premium Tanks (tanks only purchasable with real money, but doesn't lead to any of the normal tanks, all experience gained on Premium tanks goes to free experience, able to spend on all tanks), changing into in game money and buying aesthetic improvements for your tank.

Mods

You can download free mods made by the community, these mods don't add any new tanks or anything, but they improve your HUD, Aiming Reticule and other display features.

Here are some useful mods:

eXtended Visualization Mod

Battle Assistant

Credit to Scorpion (of course) for helping me out with this thread, it took me more than 3 hours to complete, some areas aren't fully completed and I've included everything you're gonna need to play WoT.

This guide will be for sure helpful for any new players of world of tanks. This a perfect and detailed guide.