In this video, I discuss the capabilities of the M8A1, a tier 4 American Tank Destroyer, in a tier 6 battle in World of Tanks (WoT). The M8A1 is a mobile glass cannon that can snipe from great distances with an accurate gun.
Tank specs and statistics:
- Crew level: 86-87% training level
- Gun: 57 mm Gun M1 L/50
- Equipment: Camouflage Net and Tank Gun Rammer for the the camouflage and loading bonuses
- No premium account, gold spent, gold ammo, or consumables
Let me know your questions and feedback.
P.S. After a brief and disappointing experience with Age of Wushu just over a week ago, I installed WoT on a whim. That turned out to be a great decision, as WoT is a gem of a F2P game! I’m extremely impressed with the tactical nature of WoT teamplay and the rich design of the tanks and battle mechanics. I’d heard a while back that WoT is “pay-to-win” (which is part of the reason I never tried it until now) so I’ve been playing without a premium account and without buying gold, to see whether a noob player can compete against other opponents who have better crews, equipment, and possibly gold ammo.
Cheers,
Taugrim
Taugrim's MMO Blog 
hey Ed the vid brought back fun memories of my m8a1, I’m running teir 9 tanks now though lol. I’m glad you like the game. Anywho, for future recording of gameplay I would start using the World of Tanks replays. In options you should be able check an option that says battle recording. You can find your replays in your game folder too.
I didn’t realize there was a replay recording.
I’ll think about using it. Do people post their replay files somewhere for download?
sorry for taking so long, but yeah its this site: http://www.wot-replays.org/
I tried recording a few matches, but I noticed that I was getting lag / drop in frame rate while playing.
I turned it off. It sounds like great functionality, but if it impacts my gameplay it’s not worth it.
Taugrim,
I don’t mean to high-jack your World of Tanks thread (Great video by the way) But what did you not like about Age of Wushu that caused you to stop playing it? I was looking forward to some feedback from you before I tested it out my self…I won’t be doing that now :)
For starters UI is clunky, the movement is very stiff, and the localization was “all your base are belong to me” bad.
Beyond that though the game clearly favors players who have tons of free time or money.
awesome i didnt know you were playing WoT, i think its probably one of the most underrated games out there. the balance is fairly good and the ability to just jump back into the game after long breaks is quite refreshing. not your typical mmo
That makes sense, especially after fully upgrading a tank and earning skills for crew members.
I can tolerate grinding once for a given character (or tank) but I hate having to re-grind periodically.
Having a game where you can come back and play without having to grind is good for bringing players back.
Hey Taugrim, great to see you’ve picked up WoT! It’s a wonderful game indeed with a nice balance between gameplay and realism.
In my opinion the Pay-to-Win only refers to the ‘gold ammo’ and not to the premium accounts or even the premium tanks. Those enable you to make xp and credits faster which is great for people with less time on their hands. The premium account also enables you to have a three-man platoon which, in good hands, can make a world of difference. That said, most people are just average (just as statistics would predict ;) ) so the advantage you buy is only minimal. Your vid is actually an example of this. You have a three-man platoon on your team but they aren’t cooperating.
I can imagine people use the gold ammo in the Clan wars though but in the regular games I think most people will agree with me that it’s just not worth the money.
Looking forward to your next videos and replays. Maybe form a platoon with some of your Maven friends?
Larz
True. The gold ammo is the most important single equipment upgrade in the game.
Interesting – thanks for pointing that out.
Good suggestion! Will record some footage with Sujitsu and Ryndar and others.
Hey Taug, its Geta here. I didn’t think you would play WoT but this game is pretty cool. For someone who doesn’t have too much free time to play this game is perfect. I can always jump in even if I only have 10–20 minutes to play and have a very good time. Also it is always fun to experiment with different tactics to see what the results are. As you said I don’t feel like I have to grind super hard in order to be competitive. Have fun playing the game and hope to see you on the battlefield!
I kind of dismissed WoT a couple years ago because of the pay-to-win perception, but now having tried the game, I think the most important thing is to get a full crew @ 100% and skills (even though I’m not at 100% yet with any tank).
This is a tremendous selling point to the game IMO.
Hit me up in-game, it’d be fun to play together again.
Are you in LA or Vegas now? Hope your career is going well and that you are able to stay healthy.
Thank you sir! Still in Vegas! Hope all is well with you as well, I know you were busy with RL last year. I certainly will look for you in game, it would be fun to play together again!
Biggest secret of Wot if u dont have the feeling of grinding having 3 or 4 tanks in the garage do ur daily x2 experience victory missions and log off
Then without knowing u will have tier 8-9 vehicles on the garage, btw tier 8 where is the most fun above that it is more camping
And play arty u have to learn the arty safe spots on the maps….
For raising currency, that’s a savvy suggestion.
The “free experience” comes pretty slowly though, and that’s what I find to be the bottleneck as I am leveling up through tiers.
Ohhh, there is another trick there, when you fully research a vehicle (all engines, tracks, guns, radios), it gets elite status…
After that you can either set that all the XP you gain with that vehicle will be free XP or u can choose that all the XP you gain with that vehicle to accelerate your crew training…..
Another big tip, all the XP that you will gain from a Premium Vehicle will be directly free XP…
Anybody who is serious about playing WoT as F2P I really suggest to get a Tier 8 premium (which will be around 10-15$ investment) then after you will not get any credits problems plus you can train all of your of your crew from other tanks in this premium vehicle without getting any penalty (lets say you are interested with American heavy line get a T34, you can train all the crews of American Heavy tanks in it without any penalty, you are interested with American Mediums get a Super Pershing then you can train all the all the american medium crews with that tank…)
One other nice tip is, if you hate your crew goes from %100 training to %80 training when they are re-trained for the new tank, when you get a tank crew to %100 you have an option to train perks (faster repair, better camo skil, etc) don’t, this XP will sum and will be added as extra training level to you crew :) when u re-train them, you continue like this until Tier 8 there switching tier will slow up then you can start getting ur perks….
Sry
After little bit thinking i made mistake there the xp u get from an elite vehicle u can convert to free xp (or from a premium)
And never use free xp to open a tank just to make the first upgrade when u open a tank
Every new tank that u open in WoT sucks big time at the begining
You’ll have fun with the T49 that comes next in the line. Pay close attention to the vision and camo mechanics as you work your way through it. The tank is exceptional at manipulating them.
The vision and camo mechanics are absolutely critical to learn. They’re the only mechanics in game that are not dependent on RNG.
I have the T49 unlocked but haven’t purchased it yet. I hear it’s good, and that the Hellcat is even better, and the tank stats over on Noobmeter support that perception:
http://www.noobmeter.com/tankStats/na
I’m not sure whether I’m going to play those TDs, as I have been more interested in HTs and MTs recently. I actually sold my M8A1. It was the tank I was playing the most, and I stopped at around a 53% win rate. The M8A1 is a solid TD but my biggest issue is that the guns didn’t have particularly good penetration, and while the ROF is high the alpha damage options are pretty limited.
Agreed re: the camo mechanics. The American TDs with turrets really benefit from camo, e.g. Camouflage Net, moreso than most other vehicles.
Hey Taugrim, I realized you haven’t played the American Tank Destroyer line for a while but the T49 is like the M8A1 on steroids. There is a very good thread going on at wotlabs.com that goes into excellent detail how to play the tank. If played properly, a player can easily carry the whole team to victory. Feel free to look into it, it’s good fun.
http://forum.wotlabs.net/index.php?/topic/515-t49-appreciation-thread/
BTW, I love the work you do. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the tip!
I have been working on the British medium line, but I’ve been actually thinking of switching over to the German Leopard medium line, because it looks on paper like a closer fit to my playstyle.
After that I may pick up a TD line, but that won’t be for a while.
Appreciate the kind words :)
Its like you read my mind! You appear to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book
in it or something. I think that you can do with a few pics to drive the message
home a bit, but other than that, this is fantastic blog.
A great read. I’ll certainly be back.
http://worldoftanks.2tl.in – also good advices about WOT tactics