8.6 Update

Just been having a look through the latest info on 8.6;

http://www.worldoftanks-wot.com/game/version-8-6-first-look/2/

Personally I'm going to stop grinding arty for now as the XP for damage caused is getting a huge increase of 50% and 30% for td's to make it the same as for heavies.

I've only found one other thing that might be worth doing for the vehicles listed below, buy the spall liner now and you get the new Super Heavy Spall Liner after the update, no idea on the credit cost but I can't imagine it will be any less than the old one and giving the Maus/E100, for example, a 30% increase in HE damage protection might just be worth freeing up an equipment slot for, wish Kawa could tell us!

The Super Heavy Spall Liner will be applicable for the following vehicles which get an upgrade if they already have the Spall Liner installed. The new Super Heavy Spall Liner will go to the depot since it may exceed the weight capabilities of your vehicle.

USSR: KV-4, KV-5
Germany: GW typ E, Jagdtiger8,8 , Jagdtiger, JagdPz E-100, VK4502 B, Maus, Lowe, E-75, E-100, VK7201
USA: T95, Т110Е3
Britain: Tortoise, FV215b, TOG II*

I've managed to get a few games on the test server, only a few though and bear in mind that most people are playing arty!

This is all just my opinion so far btw;

The new MM has arty as top tier tanks now, 4 or 5 on each side but the good news is it's no longer worth playing unless you really, really love it, like I do

The RoF nerf is an absolute killer for arty and they have much less speed. Aiming times are worse too, so patience and map knowledge are a must now, GWPanther feels most affected to me.

Even worse news for arty is the apparent revival of the heavy god's, Maus and E100. I had two test games in each so thought I'd test them out in the true idiot fashion by driving straight at the enemy with my new Super Heavy Spall Liners fitted (750000 credits compared to 500000 for heavy spall liner now).
Each time I was head on with at least one tier 10 arty and 2 tier 10 td's and I managed to take everything they could throw at be and actually absorb the damage for 200 - 300 damage if they caused any so make your own judgements on that and remember it's all gold shells being fired. The sides of both were also bouncing shots or having no damage done up to 80 degrees and the E100 absorbed a full drum from the T10 auto load French td at 90 degrees on the side with no damage at all, wouldn't try it too often though!

For me things are looking good, with the KV5 and TOG II also being able to fit the SHSL, they work even better than before

I demounted the crew ventilation to mount the spall liners btw, and I also notice the new tier 8 US arty can have ventilation fitted too which is unusual for arty.

Other that that not much else but I'll keep you updated

How has the S-51 been affected? Is it true it's aim time is now something like 11 seconds?

Looks like playing arty just got even more static and more of a waiting game than ever before!

Won't stop me though! (20k exp till the Object arty)

S-51 BL-4 stats in 8.6:
aim time: 7.5-8 seconds
ROF: 1.06-1.38 shots/minute
accuracy: 0.84-0.9

Aim time nerf isn't such a big deal, on most maps you simply pre-aim at chokepoints and wait for the enemy to appear. I'm more concerned abut the ROF nerf, although the fact that the S51 will now fight Tier 6 tanks means that it's probably a good thing, 1850 dmg shell hitting a Tier 6 tank will be just brutal!

@ monty: S-51 is moved up to tier 7.

@rancid: Is the spall liner really worth buying it on the kv-5 or a jagdtiger 8.8 cm? in my calculations it reduces minimal HE damage. I might consider using it on one of the abovementioned vehicles. I used spall liner once on the kv-3 and it felt like I had less module/crew damages/kills, is this is a hidden side effect of the spall liner or is it just my perception?

Actually, moving it to tier 7 means it now has the same MM as Tier 7 tanks, meaning it can fight anything from tier 5 to tier 9, but will no longer se Tier 10. So in effect it's actually been moved down a tier in terms of the max tank it can face.

Imagine being hit by an S-51 in your T-34? It's going to hurt...a lot.

montyburns1982 wrote:Actually, moving it to tier 7 means it now has the same MM as Tier 7 tanks, meaning it can fight anything from tier 5 to tier 9, but will no longer se Tier 10. So in effect it's actually been moved down a tier in terms of the max tank it can face.

Imagine being hit by an S-51 in your T-34? It's going to hurt...a lot.

what T-34? when the S-51 presses the fire button there will only be a crater at the impact location. There has never been a T-34.

just imagine a lemmin train of fresh newb players in their KV-1. One shot of a S-51 and suddenly the enemy team has three tanks less. Now how is that?

So the most famous Russian tank of world war 2 is a figment of my imagination is it

I don't know the exact in game designation, but I know the T-34 with the 76mm gun is a Tier 5, and it already dies horribly to my tier 4 arty, so I cannot imagine what an S-51 will do to it!

montyburns1982 wrote:How has the S-51 been affected? Is it true it's aim time is now something like 11 seconds?

Looks like playing arty just got even more static and more of a waiting game than ever before!

Won't stop me though! (20k exp till the Object arty)

I just played 1 game with S-51. Reload is around 49 secs, aimtime is loooong, but accuracy is quite okay. My first shot was a one-shot on AMX 50 100, second killed SP and third killed IS-6. All three went very close to the center of the aimcircle. So far, so good.

Oh yeah, it seems like it's gun arc was reduced. And splash range too

montyburns1982 wrote:
Won't stop me though! (20k exp till the Object arty)

Speak for yourself D:

WG successfully made an arty player ragequit here D:

The more they nerf it the more I will play it, I love bucking the system and causing 'unicums' to rage even harder!!!

I will continue to oneshot the idiots that think parking their thinly armoured TD in an open field is a good idea! It's easy damage and from the next patch even more XP!!!

It just means faster firing arty will once again be my preferred weapon (french arty mostly) as higher ROF will make up for the lower damage. The only sad thing will be that I have to sell the SU-5, as I can't see it being useful with only 12 HE shells due to the fact I will barely scratch KV1s etc. The HEAT ammo is the only thing that makes that arty good at the moment!

I think that the new spall liner will be very useful for the TOG II as well, looking forward to even more trolling in that tank!!!

montyburns1982 wrote:The more they nerf it the more I will play it, I love bucking the system and causing 'unicums' to rage even harder!!!

Oh hell yeah!! I totally agree with you there

Ding760 wrote:

montyburns1982 wrote:
Won't stop me though! (20k exp till the Object arty)

Speak for yourself D:

WG successfully made an arty player ragequit here D:

Maybe, maybe not. But I still expect this wont be enough for arty-haters. They will call for making us stationary and deployed randomly on some place in map without option to move. Because it still looks like, that if we hit, we will still one-hit and that is not fair, is it?

Edit: that I will be probably right confirm this text from official info: "In short, arty will still be easily able to whack you like they/we do now. If you want to learn to avoid arty, I strongly suggest that you play arty yourself. You’ll add a whole new dimension to your game, knowing what spots are actually any good to stop your tank (Free tip: Almost none, except behind buildings)."

Useful information thanks. What do the buffs to gun accuracy feel like? Noticeable?

Suspension now also counts as spaced armor giid luck penetrating the sides of a kv1 E100 etc.Changed the mechanism of calculating damage and penetration. The extreme numbers will be seen 5% less, while the average amounts will be seen more often my frenchies already rejoice about this

CountOfTuscany wrote:@ monty: S-51 is moved up to tier 7.

@rancid: Is the spall liner really worth buying it on the kv-5 or a jagdtiger 8.8 cm? in my calculations it reduces minimal HE damage. I might consider using it on one of the abovementioned vehicles. I used spall liner once on the kv-3 and it felt like I had less module/crew damages/kills, is this is a hidden side effect of the spall liner or is it just my perception?

You do get less crew/module damage, it's mostly caused by HE. The KV5 I found to be a bit of an evil bastard, more so probably because everyone is firing gold on the test server so it absorbs the HEAT hits more. An M103 couldn't seem to damage me until he switched to standard shells.

ABCWarrrior wrote:Useful information thanks. What do the buffs to gun accuracy feel like? Noticeable?

I only had one game sniping with the Indien Panzer but it is noticeable in as much as you don't get those odd shots going nowhere near where you aimed them but I need more distance games to make sure. I didn't notice a change in accuracy in the rest of the tank games as I was in point blank heaven now I can actually get the E100/Maus/KV5/Tog up close again

As far as arty goes it's still playable but only as arty now if that makes sense. No more sniping at fast moving tanks or scouts, no more TD mode either

I'm still playing them but have to wait and see once the update is released, if there are less arty players around hopefully the MM won't be as ridiculous. Atm it's something like four GWPanthers as top tanks on one team against an S51 and three IS2's on the other team, with the old arty not a problem but fricking impossible now!
Especially since the nabs haven't learnt to track for arty yet, probably not even read the patch notes, if they had they would see the big scores they will get for doing it. This could well be a new tactic we all need to learn so that we can still use arty in CW, otherwise it's a case of arty only getting one shot in before the rush is on them.

Etairos wrote:Suspension now also counts as spaced armor giid luck penetrating the sides of a kv1 E100 etc.Changed the mechanism of calculating damage and penetration. The extreme numbers will be seen 5% less, while the average amounts will be seen more often my frenchies already rejoice about this

This ^, makes the E100 seem almost impossible to even track. I took 14 hits from T10's on one side and only got a damaged track without even being slowed down, but it won't take long for people to realise that standard HE is needed for that job.

In fact it's just occurred to me that in all the games I've probably been the only one using standard ammo (I never use gold on the test servers), so in their own odd way it does feel that WG have succeeded in their aims;

Gold ammo not as useful and needs to be aimed instead of spammed,

Arty needs to be played skilfully and with teamwork so there will much, much less in the game,

Tanks will actually match their purpose now, scouts/fast meds will need to use their guns now to track for arty, the big heavy assault tanks will be able to get to the battle, snipers will need to aim properly etc. etc. etc. so teamwork and fair play will work much better

Rancidpunk wrote:
Tanks will actually match their purpose now, scouts/fast meds will need to use their guns now to track for arty, the big heavy assault tanks will be able to get to the battle, snipers will need to aim properly etc. etc. etc. so teamwork and fair play will work much better

OMG, I cant even begin to think what its going to be like playing randoms now. Im going to have to buy one of those stress balls..!

andy_scouser wrote:

Rancidpunk wrote:
Tanks will actually match their purpose now, scouts/fast meds will need to use their guns now to track for arty, the big heavy assault tanks will be able to get to the battle, snipers will need to aim properly etc. etc. etc. so teamwork and fair play will work much better

OMG, I cant even begin to think what its going to be like playing randoms now. Im going to have to buy one of those stress balls..!

Sharing is caring Andy! D: I want one too! D:

Rancidpunk wrote:
I only had one game sniping with the Indien Panzer but it is noticeable in as much as you don't get those odd shots going nowhere near where you aimed them but I need more distance games to make sure. I didn't notice a change in accuracy in the rest of the tank games as I was in point blank heaven now I can actually get the E100/Maus/KV5/Tog up close again

Thanks. Did you try any of the derp tanks to see how bad the nerf there is? I'm thinking if they have been hi bad this might have implications for some of the preferred tanks for the upcoming CW if 8.6 comes out before or during.

Rancidpunk wrote:

Arty needs to be played skilfully and with teamwork so there will much, much less in the game,

Tanks will actually match their purpose now, scouts/fast meds will need to use their guns now to track for arty, the big heavy assault tanks will be able to get to the battle, snipers will need to aim properly etc. etc. etc. so teamwork and fair play will work much better

Nobody cares about arty in randoms, they will only yell on us more, because when we will have harder time to do our job (dmg), it’s only our fault, it is always our fault and no one else.

Rancidpunk wrote:
You do get less crew/module damage, it's mostly caused by HE. The KV5 I found to be a bit of an evil bastard, more so probably because everyone is firing gold on the test server so it absorbs the HEAT hits more. An M103 couldn't seem to damage me until he switched to standard shells.

KV-5 absorbs HEAT? those the spall liner work as some kind of spaced armor? I don't reallt get the idea that firinf AP to a kv-5 would be more usefull than firing HEAT.

Also, does the spall liner increase the effectiveness of the kv-5 ramming another tank?