Thursday, April 12, 2012

The tank crew skills - a guide


Ever wondered on the usefulness of the new skills? In the following post I will try to present a guide on the usage of the skills and/or perks, based situation.

Repair - By now everyone knows this skill, it's most useful on the majority of unit types, except SPGs.
Fire Fighting - Used on tanks witch have a problem with engine fires more than usual, these tanks are MAUS and E-100. But the use of Manual Fire Extinguisher or premium one, Automatic Fire Extinguisher is more effective.
Camouflage - Used mostly on TDs, but has can be used quite effectively on medium tanks and light tanks that fill the role of forward scouts. Can be used on SPGs also, but the higher tier SPGs have a lower cammo coefficient.
Brothers in Arms - Or BiA for short, grants 5% bonus to all crew members's primary skill (only works in the perk is at 100% and present on all crew members). This perk is extremely useful and I suggest training this skill on all of your units. Open top units, like SPGs are the primary beneficiary of this perk, because these units cannot mount a Improved Ventilation class I-III module.
Jack of All Trades - This skill is useful on brawling tanks that gets crew injured a lot. In certain situations it can save you a med kit.

Mentor - Mainly use this skill early on, when starting with lower tier units and carrying the crew to higher tier units. At 100%, this skill will provide to all crew members, except commander, an extra 10% XP gain after each battle.

Recon - At 100%, this skill will grant 2% on view range increase. If your commander is also the radio operator, I suggest using Situational Awareness, because it gives 3% increase in view range. Extremely useful on every unit, except SPGs.


Sixth Sense - Frankly I don't see the point of raining this perk. It works with a 3sec + server lag delay. Also this, as far as I know, it does not work with strategic view on SPGs. Maybe on TDs, but with that delay, shells are already flying towards you. The indicator turns off after a few seconds whether you are still detected or not. There is no indicator to show whether or not you have become hidden again.

Eagle Eye - Again, I do not see the usefulness of this perk. It does not work with SPGs in strategic view (overhead arty mode). It has a delay of 4 seconds.

Clutch Braking - Extremely useful on brawling tanks, scouts and units with low hull traverse speed (TDs, SPGs). The skill is cumulative with Additional Grousers, a Removed Speed Governor, and any speed boosting consumables (fuels).

Off-Road Driving - Useful of tanks with heavy tonnage that lose speed when passing from one type of terrain to softer type. The skill is cumulative with Additional Grousers. Extremely useful on those units that need to be at the right spot at the right time.
Snap Shot - Use it on the units that have a big default aim reticule, it can be also used on SPGs.  The skill is cumulative with a Vertical Stabilizer, so it will bring an improvement on all brawling tanks (medium tanks especially).

Smooth Ride - Use this skill on all brawling tanks. The skill is cumulative with a Vertical Stabilizer equipment. I also believe it may have marginally usage on SPGs.

Controlled Impact - This skill does not work if one of the units is stationary (example: against SPGs), thus pretty much useless.


Preventative Maintenance - Use this perk on all tanks with engine fire problems (MAUS, E-100).


Armorer - Use this skill on tanks that poses a hi chance of getting the gun knocked out a lot, for example VK 4502 (P) Ausf. B. The skill is cumulative with a Vertical Stabilizer.


Dead Eye - It gives AP and APCR shells a 3% increase in chance of damaging a module or a crew member. Pretty much useful all around, except SPGs that primarily use HE ammo. Also this skill has no use when you use HEAT premium ammo (E-100, T110).

Designated Target - Must have by forward observers, scouts. Does not work in a SPG's strategic view.


Safe Stowage - Might not replace Wet Ammo Rack equipment, but will do the job on the tanks you know they have a permanent issue with a weak ammo rack. I highly suggest you train this perk on all medium and heavy tanks you use in CW or other type of competitions.

Intuition - Are you used to switch a lot between ammo types, then this skill is for you. Also extremely useful on SPGs that use AP and HE.



Adrenaline Rush - Use this perk on all brawling tanks. This perk shortens reload time by 9.1% if the vehicle has less than 10% of its HP left. Someday this perk may just win you a battle.

Signal Boosting - At this stage of map surface area, this skill is pretty much useless on hi-tier tanks. Maybe in the future when the maps will get bigger, this skill may have it's use.


Situational Awareness - Analogue to Recon, but with a greater bonus, gives 3% bonus to view range. Use this skill on all forward observer tanks (light, medium tanks) and TDs.



Relaying - Pretty much as Signal Boosting, this skill has not use on current maps. Some say it's useful in tournaments ...


Call for Vengeance - Use this perk on all forward observers and SPGs. Will help your team by having the scouted enemy units kept lit 2 seconds more after your unit's destruction.




Note: If your crew has 2 members with same specialization, please note that some of these skills/perks do not stack, unless specified by the skill/perk's description.
Example: if your unit has two loaders and you chose Adrenaline Rush on both of them, only one will be able to use this perk.

6 comments:

  1. A few things. First, generally nice post.

    You said 'Eagle Eye' when you meant Recon once.

    You said Smooth Ride is useful for arty. It's not. It has no effect if the tank is stationary, and nearly 100% of arty shots are stationary.

    You said Camo is useful on TDs without qualification, and noted not on all arties because some arties have a low camo - but the same applies to TD's. Some have low camo.

    I'm not sure snap shot has any use on arites without a turret, nearly all arty.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ok, corrected Recon

      on Smooth Ride, tho you are right, the arty shots are stationary, but when arty moves/relocates this skill will decrease your default aiming reticle size, not by much, but anything helps

      TDs have the greatest cammo coefficient from all units

      the gun on the arty and turretless TDs have traverse speed thus is considered as turret; you can check Overlod's posts on EU Q&A forums about this

      Delete
  2. On Smooth Ride - it has no effect on arty when they're not moving, and they almost never shoot when moving, so about totally useless for arty.

    Check the info on TD's - what's the camo value for a Ferdinand? Comments have suggested that some TD's have very low camo, while others are good.

    on Snap Shot - OK, if it's helpful, great. I'll check more and might get that for arty.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it's not about shooting on the move
      the stat that affect gun, if you fire it or not, it's accuracy
      this skill affects accuracy of the gun while unit's movement
      and when you position yourself for aiming and firing you will already have a smaller, not by much, target reticle

      Delete
  3. Signal Boosting - my T110E5's radio has 745 range; some maps are bigger than that.

    There are battles I see teammates and enemy on the mini map, but can't see them to shoot.

    So, it might be more useful than that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes you are right, but so far, my T110 never got into the issue of being out of signal range
      for example IS-7 has 720m radio range, even lower than T110, and I never had issues with it

      Quote: "There are battles I see teammates and enemy on the mini map, but can't see them to shoot."
      this is due to view range and has nothing to do with radio range, if you're outside radio coverage you will not see any units on the map or minimap whatsoever

      Delete