Req: 1 v 1 lessons

All in all I think I am doing well. Improving at a steady rate and regularly hit ~60% WR / ~1700 WN7 over the course of a day lately, usually mixing solo and platooned.

I have pretty good map awareness, decent situational awareness (bit flaky still, I still tend to tunnel vision a bit too much). My tactical calls have improved a lot when platooning. I do well leveraging pubbies to my advantage. My strong points are supportive play, positioning and leveraging terrain. This is probably why I like playing my Hellcat, M8A1 and even the Leopard PT A.

Failing Ding's skill test hard has once again highlighting my most prolific weakness: 1 on 1 engagements, in particular when it comes to fighting out in the open.

I would like a combined training room and platoon in a heavy tank to start with. It would also help me if some of the instructors could provide me with one or more replays where they handle such a situation quite well for me to analyze and compare against my own (because it allows me to see exactly what you do, where you aim, when you zoom, etc).

Always up for 1 on 1, I can be online today until 20.00 UTC and tomorrow a lot longer than that. Is there a any specific heavy tank you want help with? It's just and IS-3 plays very differently in 1 on 1 than a KT for example. Do you have a way to look replays from old versions, because I'm sure I have lot of good replays with 1 on 1 especially with IS series.

Tomorrow sounds good, as I'd like to follow the lesson today.

I am having trouble with 1 vs 1 in general, I would say. I just picked heavies, because they demand you get stuck in more often. With faster tanks, pulling back to reposition is a lot more viable. That said, I would say my KT/E-75 are the ones I struggle with the most currently.

I don't have a way of watching older replays currently, but I can look into that if necessary.

If you need another noob to fill that platoon, I'm always available  

Hey Nilz, I feel almost compelled to say something.

Firstly I want to apologize for my absence, my laptop broke (probably Nvidia GPU broke) and I am currently unable to turn on my laptop (using ancient desktop atm), so I cannot play WoT for some time. Otherwise I would have grabbed this opportunity to engage you once again!

Secondly, please please PLEASE understand that EVERYONE who took that test that day failed to kill me. I am a very realistic person when I describe my own abilities (to students at least) and I will not hesitate to say I am by no means a pushover in 1 on 1 engagements. In fact, if you HAD actually managed to kill me that day I would have been very pleasantly surprised. So do not feel you are somehow lacking in 1 on 1 skills because you lost to me, because the greatest likelihood is that the vast majority of players in WoT would have lost just the same.

Thirdly, in my experience, 1 on 1 is not a skill you can acquire watching others play (hence I wasn't big into the idea of many people watching others fight me that day when I hosted the session). Instead, I would recommend a heavy-duty 30 minute session with someone or more people to dedicate specifically to solo combat. Ideally, in order to challenge yourself further, you should engage a second target immediately after killing the first target, as this is often the case in randoms. I believe in a raised difficulty bar because by doing so the standard 1 on 1 combat will seem like a breeze when you accomplish that skill level, and without even noticing it.

At the end of the day, my solo combat skills are gotten by playing my tier 2 Pz35t non-stop for 1000+ battles (yes that's right, I played NOTHING ELSE) for fun. You do not need that level of dedication, but that experience has taught me that if you really want to learn a skill set in WoT, you need to force the environment around you to accommodate that training, hence my recommended 30 minute focus session with someone on this solo combat skill.

Hope this helps!
Ding

Just posting something Ding asked me to post for him (and written by him) on the above subject:

1) Select a matchmaking tier that is not overly unfair. Preferably with tanks which are 1 tier above you who can still be taken out with relative ease if you know what you are doing with that tank. My personal recommendation at the moment is tier 7, as tier 8 tanks are not overpowered against tier 7 tanks if you know how to play your tier 7.

2) Select a BALANCED tank within your matchmaking tier. Look for the an EVEN measure of attributes which is NOT overly powerful compared to tanks its tier nor overly weak compared to tanks its tier. The attributes you should be looking to analyze are: tank HULL manouverability, tank max speed, gun penetration and armor.

3) Having selected your tank and matchmaking tier, play that tank primarily (i.e switching to other tanks only when you die in your primary tank before battle ends). Learn how to perform AGGRESSIVE techniques by challenging your targets by your own initiative (you won't learn anything playing defensively) in your tank and try to single out enemies to engage in solo combat (it's the only realistic way of beating and surviving a game playing aggressively). Through this experience you will find certain patterns in how your tank performs, and indeed, perhaps amazingly, how other players behaves and how other tanks performs.

4) Do this for around 1 week-2 weeks and make NO EXCUSES for playing other tanks. You will find you will excel at that primary tank you've selected. But this knowledge can easily be carried onto other tanks after a short 'adjustment time' as the techniques required to play a balanced tank successfully can easily be adjusted to fit the playstyles of most other tanks. Some exception which occur usually involves the limited capacity of certain tanks to perform to certain playstyles at all. I found that when I hit the 300-500 battles mark that was my biggest learning experience in my Pz35t, as it was during that time most of my currently used techniques in other tiers developed.

5)Develop confidence in your abilities to take on ANY tank no matter which tier, especially after you've hit 500 CONSECUTIVE battles in that tank. This is an investment in time in your abilties as a tanker. Have confidence but be realistic and go with whatever your brain tells you is right. But have confidence that your abilities in solo combat is second to none and unless something absurd happens, you will prevail.

6) Profit and own everything in solo combat.

Ding760 wrote:
Secondly, please please PLEASE understand that EVERYONE who took that test that day failed to kill me. I am a very realistic person when I describe my own abilities (to students at least) and I will not hesitate to say I am by no means a pushover in 1 on 1 engagements. In fact, if you HAD actually managed to kill me that day I would have been very pleasantly surprised. So do not feel you are somehow lacking in 1 on 1 skills because you lost to me, because the greatest likelihood is that the vast majority of players in WoT would have lost just the same.

It is not just about the skill test. 1 on 1 in open ground is an aspect of the game I have always been least comfortable with. The skill test merely highlighted this once again. I wasn't necessarily expecting to come out on top, but I was expecting to do better. I felt like a fish on dry land during that test from the start. In my opinion, this is my last main hurdle to becoming an all-round good player. It's not about winning every fight I enter, but about entering every fight with confidence.

Ding760 wrote:
Thirdly, in my experience, 1 on 1 is not a skill you can acquire watching others play (hence I wasn't big into the idea of many people watching others fight me that day when I hosted the session). Instead, I would recommend a heavy-duty 30 minute session with someone or more people to dedicate specifically to solo combat. Ideally, in order to challenge yourself further, you should engage a second target immediately after killing the first target, as this is often the case in randoms. I believe in a raised difficulty bar because by doing so the standard 1 on 1 combat will seem like a breeze when you accomplish that skill level, and without even noticing it.

This absolutely sounds like a solid training method, Ding. Repetition is the best way to learn. I like watching replays in addition to this type of training for several reasons:
1) It allows me to ease into the mindset of doing well. Seeing someone do something to great effect can be inspiring.
2) As with learning every new skill, at the beginning you will probably fail. Sometimes a lot. I find that having a positive example to show me that it can be done, helps me to stay motivated.
3) It can help eliminate some of the trial and error of repeating something over and over and sooner enter the phase of sharpening skill.

That said, I do believe the core should be hands on training!

Also

Ding760 wrote:Hey Nilz, I always feel compelled to say a lot.

Fixed that for you  

nilzatron wrote:
This absolutely sounds like a solid training method, Ding. Repetition is the best way to learn. I like watching replays in addition to this type of training for several reasons:
1) It allows me to ease into the mindset of doing well. Seeing someone do something to great effect can be inspiring.
2) As with learning every new skill, at the beginning you will probably fail. Sometimes a lot. I find that having a positive example to show me that it can be done, helps me to stay motivated.
3) It can help eliminate some of the trial and error of repeating something over and over and sooner enter the phase of sharpening skill.

That said, I do believe the core should be hands on training!

Nilz you are a good player, have no doubt about that because I've seen you in my experimental TCs. You can pull stuff out of the buttcrack of defeat if you were placed in a team available for cannon-fodder.

You, believe it or not, perform very well when there is someone or something (rocks, etc) else taking the damage FOR you. This shows you have a solid understanding about how to fire your gun, but lack the skill and confidence to perform what I like to call efficient 'damage control', which has nothing to do with dealing damage to the enemy. This damage control refers to everything from taking damage in stationary positions to while on the move and from close environments to open terrain. Usually every single scenario you can find yourself in can be fitted into a combination of the 4 categories above (that is stationary positions to while on the move and from close environments to open terrain), each combination of 2 of the 4 categories above requires a different skill set.

A recent staff member only thread seems to show there are few if any instructors who are able to teach how to dodge shells and minimize damage. Hence I think soon after I acquire my new laptop I will host a special session on damage control. Frankly quite a lot of students in SGTA needs it. Having these skills for damage control will significantly improve your abilities and confidence on open ground. I'll admit it, circumstances on open ground is the hardest skill set of the lot, but still attainable (I at least do not feel doomed to die on open ground, and fact is I perform fairly well on open ground too).

But until then there is only one core tip I wish to give you, and that is remember: DODGING shells is ALWAYS better than BOUNCING shells.

The art of damage control is not only about techniques and skill Nilz... quite a lot of it involves understanding the psychology of your opponent, ESPECIALLY the person or persons shooting at you at that particular time when you need to take less damage.

nilzatron wrote:Also

Ding760 wrote:Hey Nilz, I always feel compelled to say a lot.

Fixed that for you  

Tell me something I don't know

Did you know that Amsterdam was the first city in Europe with a functional system of street lighting, as early as the late 1600's?  

nilzatron wrote:Did you know that Amsterdam was the first city in Europe with a functional system of street lighting, as early as the late 1600's?  

Nah, I believe that was the city of Troy in 1194BC during the siege of Troy, when flaming arrows and burning buildings lit the streets up pretty well in a functional and systematic way!

Very good 2hr 1 vs 1 session. Going to let this sink in and study the replays from both sides. Thanks Vallu!

Aaaand, here is my first post-training solo E-75 game:

http://wotreplays.com/site/368052#tundra-nilzatron-e-75

nilzatron wrote:Aaaand, here is my first post-training solo E-75 game:

http://wotreplays.com/site/368052#tundra-nilzatron-e-75

There ya go! Problem solved! Congratz!

Nice match. Gz. I want to toon now...

I hope you are not expecting consistency  

2 matches later that day, platooning with Wasp and Sapaki, were total potato games, mostly because I am still food for good T10 players. So it is definitely a work in progress. I am much more confident now though, which is already translating in better aimed shots or not taking the shot when I don't think it is right (instead of panic-clutch shooting because you think you must get the damage in NOW).