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I haven’t talked about World of Tanks in a while, even though it has taken quite a bit of my normally precious Eve Online time. This mainly due to the fact that I can play one or two rounds, then go fix something, weed something, or do general stuff that need to get done. So, in the meantime, this is where I am at.
What Hummel Pummel?
One of my favorite class of tanks in WoT is the Self-propelled Guns. In particular, my current favorite is the German Hummel. My personal Hummel is fully upgraded, with every member of my crew 100% skilled and in their 90% for their perks. I can usually get into position fairly quickly on most maps and, until recently, do some fairly decent damage, accurately nailing my targets on the battlefield.
That is.. “until recently”.
Turns out that the developers at Wargaming.net felt that they needed to change the ballistic algorithium that they used to better reflect real life physics (This point turned out be false, as I misread a recent Developer Blog – See my note here). Well, that was all well and good.. except for the part that my artillery strike is lucky to hit inside the circle, even if I have my target fully dialed in. In the last few days of gaming, maybe only a dozen times have I landed a shot right were I aimed it. Most of the time, it lands on a random edge (or maybe not so random. One time I had a tank dialed in where only a sliver of the targeting circle wasn’t on the tank… wanna take a guess where the shot landed?). “Pummel with a Hummel” is no longer all that true. Kinda makes me nervous about moving into the GWPanther.
Jaga.. Jaga.. Jaga…. JAGPANTHER!
Another favorite class of mine is the Tank Destroyer, and among the ones I really enjoyed is the ever popular Hetzel, the sleek StuGIII, and my most recent addition, the JagPanther. I just got my crew to 100% training. This baby is schweet.. except when matchmaker decides that because I have a Tier 9 gun, that I should be in an All Tier 9 and 10 fight. That usually means I can’t damage a thing, even with AP shells.. and that I die to random shots. Aside from that, though, it is a rather fun tank to run.. and worth the painstaking effort it is to get through the Jagdpz IV.
Still, another issue that has recently come up is that my JagPanther no longer making me any money. It is a Tier 7 tank, but I usually did well enough that about 75% of the time I came home with a bit of profit after ammo was replaced and repairs made. That no longer appears to be the case. Not one of the battles I have been in, even the ones where my team one, have turned a profit. Not really happy about that and not sure if that is just a bad run of luck.. or if there has been a change to how credits are calculated.
Das Booma!
Probably the most expensive, and most hailed, tank in my arsenal is the Tiger tank. I had a zen weekend with it last week where I actually dominated and started to make money on it. There were even a couple battles where I personally was the deciding factor in victory. That zen moment has promptly disappeared and I am again losing money on the tank. It is my only heavy tank and oddly reminds me of the Minmatar Tempest prior to projectile changes, meaning: Really good at shooting small stuff, but no where near on par with tanks of the same tier. Still, I am starting to get the hang of this tank and with a my fully trained up crew (including perks in the 95%), I can usually hold my own. I do expect to be selling this tank shortly because I can now operate the Tier 8 Tiger II, which looks like a Pzv IV, a tank that I was stellar in.
The Sports Car
I still have this VK3001P kicking around in my garage. Of all the VK series tanks that I have tried, this one just rocks. The VK3001H was just a bit too light for me and the VK3601H was just too high and too weak (despite it having more armor). The VK3001P is low to the ground and fairly fast with enough firepower to make a difference. I really should play this one more, but I have been focused alot of getting my JagPanther and Tiger crews all trained up.
Retreat?! Never! Advance?! Never!
The latest addition to my garage is the French Lorraine 39 L AM SPG. Let me put your fears to rest. Yes, it sucks. Not the usual “all arties suck.” way, more of a “OMG, I fired my gun ten minutes ago and only now the shot hit the target!” type of way. This SPG is sllllllooooooooooooowwwww. It moves slowly, it fires slowly, and the shell hits the target.. yes, slowly. The only thing this SPG does fast is bracket the target. I have been able to count the seconds pass from the time I pull the trigger to the time the shots land (usually between 3 to 5 seconds). My favorite part is when I have a tank bracketed, all the indicators are green, and I fire.. only to find out that the system forgot to tell me that there is a mountain in the way. Ooops.
2nd Anomaly From the Left 
Hmmm, your Tier VII TD – JagdPanther should only be getting into Battle Tier 7-9 matches while Tier X vehicles get into Battle Tier 10+
I love my Tiger I, have mastery in it and it is elited with 100% crew. It rocks at its tier if you know how and when to play it right.
PS – I don’t play arty but I still really hate to see Pummels on the opposing team. so, not sure what you’re seeing, but I still feel those hits. 🙂
Well, whatever happened to the Hummels.. it has done so in the last week or two. You always expect a periodic miss here and there, but when you have more misses than hits with shots that aren’t even inline.. then it gets a bit frustrating.
You will love the Tiger II once you get the upgraded gun and turret. Jagdpather is my best tank ATM, still working on the bigger gun for the Jagdpanther II. I agree the VK3001P is a good medium at tier VI, but for tier VII the VK3002db is superior to the Panther.
You know, I was wondering that. I always look at it wantingly, only to discount it because its expensive and would also require me to train more in the VK3001Hs.
Haven’t played the Hummel in ages, but the GWPanther is amazing fun and can actually make decent money if you are careful with your shots. As always upgrading the gun is the most important bit but once that’s done it’s a monster.
Jagdpanther is likely my favourite tank, but it was definitely nerfed a while back and had its MM tweaked. Sometimes the high tier battles suck, but you can still be effective if you change how you play; hang back a bit and use your accuracy to track the big tanks and hold them in the open. I do miss the glory days though when you were one of the top 5 tanks in about 3/4 of your battles and could run around demolishing everything in your way.
I think you would also like the Panther as well once you get the long gun. It plays very similarly to a TD but with even better mobility than the already very fast JagdPanther.
Well, that certainly makes me feel better about moving up to the GWPanther. Probably going to stay on track to get the Tiger II though… and maybe change a gear and work on the VK2801 too.