so, Panther 88′s price is getting reduced to 7300 gold and whoever bought it for full price will get 4200 gold compensation. So, basically, WG admits it was overpriced (so enjoy the gold you didn’t want to buy).
Still, a nice gesture with that compensation (even though I think everyone knows that if they reduced the price just so without anything, people would go totally mental). Wargaming is getting careful. Of course, reduced price (as low as it is) does not make it a better tank, but now it’s at least worth thinking about. Still – 27,79 EUR, compared to JT88 31,33 EUR…. I’d get the Jagdtiger, or the FCM, which is now more expensive (36,7 EUR) but undisputably better.
Remember one thing. By buying it now, you won’t be saving 4200 gold. You’ll be spending money for 7300 gold worth of merchandise.
as you probably know, Rita’s gone on vacation and she won’t be streaming for a while more. That however doesn’t mean you should stay without girl streamers whole Christmas :)
Here’s one nice to watch, recommended by Nixxie and approved by Rita! :) She swears and isn’t particularily a good player, but I guess that makes it ever more fun… :D
A quick announcement first to avoid any confusion. Several players sent me e-mails complaining that their Object 907 in 9.5 was not buffed properly. I had a quick lock and here’s what happened. In the official post, Grimbru fucked it up – or someone making the patch did, but given the number coincidence, my money’s on Grimbru. Basically, he posted the following, regarding the buff:
Dispersion on the move 0.9.4 – 0.12 0.9.5 – 0.1
What got buffed from 0.12 to 0.1 however was not dispersion on the move, but dispersion from rotating the turret. So, yes, the buff happened, it was just wrongly announced.
Otherwise, not much again. Apparently, rammer equipment mechanism changes are not planned. Oh and regarding the feature that if you buy consumables/equipment for half a price, you have to sell them for half a price as well during the discount event, this won’t change either.
The development of experimental Soviet heavy tank started in 1949 in the ChKZ design bureau under the leadership of Zh.J.Kotin. In 1950, a trial run of 10 vehicles was built. After a full series of tests and some changes, the vehicle was accepted into service in 1953 under the IS-8 designation.
Tier 8 Soviet HT
Hitpoints: 1550
Engine: 700 hp
Weight: 49,045 tons
Power-to-weight: 14,27 hp/t
Maximum speed: 42/14 km/h
Hull traverse: 26 deg/s
Terrain resistance: 1,055/1,247/2,11
Turret traverse: 25 deg/s
Viewrange: 360
Radio range: 440
today, a new Soviet tier 8 heavy premium tank is getting introduced to the supertest – it’s called IS-5 (Object 730) and here’s a short preview of its history and how it’s going to look.
Object 730 (also known under its IS-5 designation) was a Soviet heavy tank and a precursor to the later design known as the IS-8 (or T-10). To avoid confusion: there were two IS-5 tanks actually. One was a modified IS-2 (also known as Object 248), the other is this one.
The development of this vehicle started in late 1948. The goal was nothing less than complete overhaul (modernization) of the IS-4 heavy tank in order to increase its performance. The designers of the vehicle (Chelyabinsk plant) proposed to replace a number of internal components and to make the entire vehicle weigh less (specifically, to lower the weight from IS-4′s 60 tons to 50 tons. This “slimming”, along with the use of modernized engine was to assure better combat characteristics.
I don’t usually post various player proposals for WoT improvement, as, well, most seem to be of dubious quality (in some cases, that’s an understatement), but I will make an exception in this case. Hungarian player rlazol made a proposal to Wargaming in a form of an open letter regarding possible new map, called Budapest. While the English is somewhat… lacking, I think that the proposal looks quite solid. What do you think?
Thanks to several folks who sent me this (I always forgot to publish it, Winstonpus was the last one).
In case you are wondering what changed on the Mountain Pass in 9.5 – one infamous camping bush on the northern side got removed. Let’s face it… it was an annoying position.
Welcome to the third part of the artillery guide. Today the big topic will be aiming, which might make some of you reconsider the way you click those damn tanks. Before we start, big thanks to those 50+ people who started sending me encouraging messages when the FTR comments got locked. Some even sent gold, which took me totally by surprise and made my Christmas a lot merrier.
Sadly, some disturbed players couldn’t handle the guide again. No point mentioning the usual cancer wishes but one guy deserves a special mention. The “special” player award goes to Xensation, commander of IDEAL for 2 days of truly “original” trolling at our own TS.
COMMUNICATION
Arti drivers should be the most “talkative” players on the team but few really are. Talking to your team sure influences your win rate and many players are happy to work with arty when they realize you are ready to cooperate. Having an ally pull and track an enemy in the middle of your aiming circle is one of the most satisfying moments of playing arty. Due to your long reload and minimal movement you can use the chat and shortcuts more often than others. You also have the best tactical overview thanks to arty view and can see the HP situation anywhere on the map. That said, while you cannot expect your team to always listen or work with you, it is still worth doing no matter how many times you get frustrated.
the day before yesterday, Jingles made a review of the Panther 88. I think it’s a solid review, pointing out the flaws and good points of Panther 88, so check it out. It’s actually quite long though.
There is one part though (well, as far as I noticed) where Jingles is not correct. In the first battle, he states that this vehicle has very good camo factor. Well, actually, it doesn’t.
A proof for this statement can be found on Russian forums. You see, there’s a group of players, who dedicate their time researching the camo factors of ALL the vehicles in the game (well, at least those they can get their hands on). Their testing method is sound and it’s been going on for over a year. In case you are interested in various vehicles’ camo and the methodology used, I explained how it works in one older post.
According to this reseach, the Panther 88 actually has worse camouflage than Panther and Panther II – in fact, it has the worst camo factor than every other German medium tank including E-50. The original data can be found here.
My guess is that Jingles just got lucky with spotting. Basically, Jingles’ conclusion at the end is that while this tank makes a lot of money, it also has weak armor and the gun is not so good in tier 10 battles (the FCM 50t is better in many aspects AND it has limited MM). Whether it’s a good purchase or not, that I leave up to you, but I have one more argument for you:
According to Vbaddict, out of all 14 tier 8 premiums, Panther 88 is on 13th place with 48,55 percent winrate (the best out of “regular” premiums are IS-6 and FCM 50t). In net income, according to the same source, Panther 88 is 9th out of 13 (13 because the T95 premium data are missing), while FCM 50t is 4th. Panther 88 is earning only 60 percent credits of the Jagdtiger 88, which is actually cheaper in the premium shop currently.
As such, I still cannot recommend buying it. The fact we had no option of testing it during 9.5 test along with its steep price and problematic results… there are better way how to spend 40 Euro.
