To Gold or not to Gold?

Just being doing a very unscientific experiment while I'm grinding another account

I played all my tanks, arty and td's with gold for 25 games and without for 25 games, I only used the gold for higher tier enemies than the vehicle I was driving (took a lot of willpower not to use it against KV1's in my other tier 5's!). Still aimed properly etc. with both types too.

The results? Well, pretty underwhelming tbh, win rate, efficiency, kills, damage etc. all stayed pretty much the same but after 25 games with gold I was struggling for credits and without gold I was 500k credits up. Bought another GLD which seems a much better use of credits than gold shells

Until 8.6 I'll keep some gold shells for emergencies, after that they won't be bought again.

Going full gold is useless unless you wan't the lulz that only derps could satisfy.

Very tank specific though. I have a T69 T8 autoloader medium, it is like a little lamb with normal AP (160mm), with gold rounds (300mm), its a game changer that when really abused can see you with a pretty big loss but a great battle. I actually need to take the T34 out for every 3 times I take the T69 out.
The SuperP needs to carry gold when met against good players as the very low pen of normal rounds will see you dead in no time.
I dont like using gold rounds, but in tanks that need it and situations that require it i will. But as you are saying, its not too good for the piggy bank.

"NEVER go full gold."

That said, there are a very very few tanks (and I basically mean here a handful of premiums, mostly low tier) which have such terrible guns that I have as much as half and half normal ammo/prem ammo - in my case, The Pz B2 and the lend-lease Valentine.

I carry 10 rounds of gold in my tier 7's and 8's

i cary 5 gold rounds, and the average number of APCR/HEAT gold rounds (on tanks) fired is around 1-2 a day in total now. On arty however i tend to use heat every now and then, tought with mixed results, thus not realy liking it.

I carry some for emergencies in tier 5 tanks and above, don't want to waste my 36.4m credit balance on just gold shell

Shufuni wrote:my 36.4m credit balance

o god, i am jealious now! (got only 1M now and want to buy to many tanks before next patch (T110E5, Gw typeE, bat 155))

lol i have only 300k left after buying my t32 and is3.
never used any gold ammo. tbh so far i've never needed it, maybe that will change? not in any hurry to go to higher tier than i am already.

Going full gold is usually reserved for "special" tanks like the M4 Sherman, the IS-6, or rage-inducing tanks like the AMX 40 and stock T-44.

Shufuni wrote:my 36.4m credit balance

Dear sir, have you heard of the IronClaw WOT Unitedly Distributed Internal Directed Theory Foundation? (IC WOT U DID There Foundation for short)
It is a foundation aimed at helping misfortuned players (well, player really... ) to gain funds in order to buy more tanks and spam more gold shells. I think you are a prime candidate to support this foundation and do something great for the world of WoT.

If you might be interested in such a heartwarming project, please contact me in-game.

Wen90 wrote:Going full gold is usually reserved for "special" tanks like the M4 Sherman, the IS-6, or rage-inducing tanks like the AMX 40 and stock T-44.

This! There is one more tank that I do this with, because I hate it: the VK3002D (with 10,5 derp).

well i use goold ammo, but only around 10% of whole ammo, using it agains tanks which cant be penend by normal ammo or in situations in which sure penetration is need to have (reseting cap, finishing dangerous enemy..etc).
And because im low on money i even sometimes hastiate to fire gold, even if it will be much wiser.

Depends on the tank, the situation and the opposition.

I use full HEAT on SU-5 and SU-26, but then I like to troll Tier 8 tanks in them

Most of my other arty have between 2 and 5 gold shells in, but mostly I don't use them.

In normal tanks I keep 5-10% gold shells just in case, but again i mostly dont use them. It's purely situational IMHO.

I always carry some gold. But I use them very rarely, maybe one game every 20th battle. Having the option to switch to gold is very valuable though, and can very rarely turn a losing game into a win.
The question is, how much gold ammo should you load? I've decided to carry just enough gold to take out the highest HP tank you'll run in to, using the average damage of your ammunition for the calculation. For example: On my M18, I carry 7 gold rounds (average damage: 1680) which is just enough to take out a Löwe (1650 HP, highest of all tier 8 ).

I mostly reserve full or almost full gold for tanks/guns that lack decent pen, like the gun I used stock on my SU-152, it's a 152mm with 106mm pen for its AP ammo also having a 16 second reload. At least the gold shells buff the pen to a normal level.

I carry few gold with my high tier medium, because if I am left with highly armored enemy, I want to be sure to finish him.

I have been testing gold ammo on KV1 and KV1S.

I use the 122 short barrel on the KV1 so its HE or HEAT ammo. I carry 5 gold rounds on the KV1 and I tend to soften targets with well aimed crit hits gun,gunner,driver, commander etc. I also note that the sides of the T1 heavy tank I get 400+ damage from HE. I use the gold rounds if the enemy tank is 1 shot with gold and I feel outnumbered or I am very low health. To be honest without it I am sure I would have lost more games.

KV1S... very rarely need it. The penetration is good enough not to bounce on same tiers at most ranges frontally. If I am in a tier 8 game I usually try and support mediums and scouts and find I can pen tier 8 mediums frontally and certainly have no issues if I manage to flank tier 8 heavies. Yesterday though I faced a King Tiger alone and managed to get a bounce by angling my front. I loaded gold and went right through his bottom plate ( he wasnt angled much) so.. I would say that in these 2 tanks at least carrying say 4/5 gold rounds may well increase xp,win rate and progress in the game.

One observation from playing my t40 TD.. I loaded 20 gold rounds in the long gun and started shooting hard targets at range.. they all went through! I didnt really have to aim much and this leads me to a conclusion.. excessive use of gold ammo could over time have detrimental effect on your ability to aim and select weak spots. I always try when possible to shoot a crit zone such as hatch, ports engine etc.. using gold ammo removes the need or reduces the need to do so.. and could result in less effective shooting.

Thus I recomend always carry some gold. use sparingly.

For someone with less than 1000 battles under his/her belt you are providing some eminently readable and remarkably insightful analyses.

HowTheStoryEnds wrote:I mostly reserve full or almost full gold for tanks/guns that lack decent pen, like the gun I used stock on my SU-152, it's a 152mm with 106mm pen for its AP ammo also having a 16 second reload. At least the gold shells buff the pen to a normal level.

Use HE in the derp, its much more fun.

Shufuni wrote:For someone with less than 1000 battles under his/her belt you are providing some eminently readable and remarkably insightful analyses.

In the interest of fairness. Most of what I wrote is taken from the WOT official forum and youtube videos. I have then tried to apply what I have read/watched from others in order to determine its validity. I am of scientific mind. I must analyze everything in life.

I almost always carry a few rounds of (credit purchased) gold ammo in my T7+ tanks.
And I almost always forget to load it when it would do me some good. D'oh !

jtaak wrote:I almost always carry a few rounds of (credit purchased) gold ammo in my T7+ tanks.
And I almost always forget to load it when it would do me some good. D'oh !

Same  

Gold always, how much it depends on tank load capacity. Some times you just need to pen enemy. For example IS-3 AP 20 shells, 5 APCR shells, 3 shells HE