Artillery and high-explosive shells are the two things that have
been on the minds of tankers. It took several
large-scale Sandbox tests to decide how they
would look in the future. And most importantly,
how they would feel. The thing is,
these changes are important. They affect complex systems,
and this entails consequences. Both separate and combined tests of
HE shells and artillery were conducted. And not in a vacuum, but in
close cooperation with players. Now that the hard work is finished, all the changes are ready
to be added to the game. In the wake of Update 1.13, it's time to delve into the topic
and figure out what awaits us all. ARTILLERY AND
TOOLS TO COUNTER IT Throughout the history
of World of Tanks, artillery has changed many times,
and sometimes drastically. New changes are largely aimed at
decreasing the amount of stun in battles. And this is clear to anyone who has been on the receiving
end of artillery at least once. The less stun, the longer the vehicles,
and nerves of their commanders, live on the battlefield. Now the therapy course
includes new tools to counter SPG. My all-knowing colleague
will tell you about them. Let's start with the simplest
and most noticeable change. The brighter artillery shell tracers
are now clearly seen in the sky. They help you
understand three things. First: artillery has fired. Well, in case you didn't
figure that out immediately. Second: approximately
where it fired from. And third:
where and how the shell flew. If you put the pieces of this
very important information together, you will understand where you
can hide and where you shouldn't go. The initial point of tracer display is calculated randomly along
the trajectory of the artillery shot. At the same time, the tracer appears
at at least 10 meters from the SPG. Putting it simply, it doesn't show
the exact position of the artillery. But attentive tankers
can benefit from it even not having
all the cards in their hands. The impact points
of SPG shells on the minimap will allow the monitoring of artillery
actions and help work out tactics. It's been always
useful to look at it. But now there's even
more reasons to do so. A marker in the shape of
a circle with a dot at the center appears on the minimap at the
point of impact of the enemy shell. It disappears after 10 seconds,
but it's long enough to take note of it. If you see one explosion
or tracer near you, while there's another impact marker
on the other side of the map, this means both
artilleries are reloading. So you have a window of
opportunity to change position, or attack without fear
of a sudden artillery strike. While tracers and impact
points require your attention, Sound Detection
is more about your reaction. This is a completely
new commander's perk that warns you about
incoming enemy artillery shells. If your vehicle is in the impact area
at the moment when artillery fires, you will see a special indicator
showing the direction of fire. You need to act immediately
after Sound Detection activates. Yes, it doesn't guarantee
you'll completely avoid damage, but it helps reduce it,
sometimes significantly. A slow tank—and it's almost
always a well-armored tank— won't have time to leave the
impact area, but that's not required. It's enough to turn your hull when
playing, for example, the E 100, and expose your thicker parts,
this alone will help significantly. Faster vehicles will have
time to hide behind cover and decrease the amount of burst
damage or even avoid it completely. It also worth mentioning
that Sound Detection won't activate if your vehicle rolls into the
enemy shell trajectory by accident. Provided that the distance to the
point of impact is more than 75 meters. If the vehicle is within this radius, the tanker will see
the Sound Detection indicator. Another new feature… I haven't finished yet. The other case when
Sound Detection doesn't work is when a tank rolls into the impact
area after the artillery has fired. This can happen to a vehicle
that is moving fast. Ehm… Thanks. Now, when we've dealt with this topic,
let's talk about the artillery itself. The first change
is seen right away. Three shells in the arsenal. This is not just another icon
at the bottom of the screen. This is an important
new tactical feature. All three shells are different. Each has its own
strengths and purpose. The first is the familiar,
standard high-explosive shell. It's the simplest to use. It causes damage to several
opponents within the burst radius. This is the only shell
that causes stun. There's one problem with this, it doesn't cause critical damage
to internal modules and crew if it does not penetrate. But it doesn't need to. A standard shell is like
a pair of everyday sneakers. You don't think much
when putting them on. The range of use
is wide, but clear. A target moves fast. An enemy hides behind cover. Several tanks
are close to each other. The choice is obvious
in all those cases. The second artillery shell
is an alternative shell. This is also a high-explosive shell but with obvious differences
from a standard shell. It doesn't cause stun
to the enemy. At all. And its burst radius
is half the size. However, its armor
penetration and damage are a bit higher than
those of a standard shell. Just what you need
when firing at a slow target. And if it doesn't have much
armor, that's even better. Standard and alternative shells are
the foundation of artillery firepower. These are the most used shells that
suit the majority of combat situations. Until there's a big, heavy, slow tank
focused on survival in your sights. This is when it takes the stage,
its Majesty Armor-Piercing Shell. The Third. Well, in some cases
it can be a HEAT shell. By its purpose, this is a tactical shell
with the highest armor penetration. If it penetrates armor, it causes more damage than
any HE shell with non-penetration. For obvious reasons, it doesn't
cause stun and has no burst radius It sounds like
a situational superhero shell that comes to the rescue when
regular HE shells fail to perform. Like when you need to fire
at a tank with a Spall Liner. But what is its true effectiveness? It can ricochet or miss the target. At a first glance,
there's little point in it. Well, that's your opinion,
but I base my decision on the facts. Let's do an experiment. Two 60TP twins and two SPGs
with different ammo loads. As you can see,
high-explosive shells don't always hit the target
and cause significant damage. For a series of shots, the damage
with armor-piercing shells is comparable
to high-explosive shell damage. The numbers are beautiful,
but emotions are important as well. It's very satisfying when you hit
a heavy tank with an AP shell, penetrate it, and cause damage. Oh yeah! From this shocking news, let's
proceed to other important details. Each of the three shells travel
at their own speed and trajectory. It's important to keep it in mind
when planning your next shot. A standard shell has the most
curved, most comfortable trajectory. But, it's velocity doesn't impress. An alternative HE shell travels faster,
but at a less curved trajectory. The trajectory of AP
and HEAT shells is flatter, which is not always convenient. However, they can't
be matched in speed, and this is important
when taking lead of the target. The key to artillery success is the
combination of all three shell types. You can't categorically say
that one of them is the best. They are tools that allow to adjust
for the ever changing battle situation. Using only one shell type is like
driving at night with your lights off. It's strange at the very least. But most importantly,
it's dangerous. When the enemy tanks
are preparing to attack, it's reckless to aim at one
particular tank to fire an AP shell. It's more logical to hit several
vehicles at once with an HE shell, preferably with stun. But the long reload… It doesn't motivate
to switch shells. What do you do about it? This is where the revamped
Intuition skill comes in handy. The already loaded shell can
be switched to another in no time. Well, you can see the precise
time under the reload timer. The fully trained intuition
accelerates the reload by 60%. The Commander bonus
provides 6% more. With the Brothers in Arms
perk, food consumables, Improved Ventilation (including
the one for Bonds), and Directives, you will be able to switch
the shell even quicker. However, if you switch a shell
during reload, Intuition won't work, and the full reload
of the next shell will start. If you do everything in time, you will be able to react
to the changing situation. Of course, you wanted to know,
but were afraid to ask: Intuition works in the same
way for other vehicle types. Here you should
take note of one nuance. Different shell flight trajectories
make the gun re-aim after switching shell types
to fire at the same spot. So if an SPG is parked improperly,
the gun aims in two planes at once. Due to that, the aiming circle
widens like a first grader's horizons. You just need to remember
this and accept it. Finally, a few words about aesthetics and new functional
features of the interface. The currently loaded
shell type and its travel time are displayed right next
to the artillery aim. The color shows whether it can
reach its destination or not. If it's red,
the chances are very low. If it's green,
the shell can reach the target. Also, you can now switch modes
from Top View to Trajectory view by scrolling the mouse wheel. All these new features expand
the range of possibilities for artillery and increase its adaptibility. Three shells in the arsenal help
adjust to various combat situations. It doesn't matter how many
vehicles are in your sights, the artillery will have the
appropriate response in all cases. Reworked Intuition will help react
to the changed situation quicker. But other tankers are
also in a winning situation, because the amount of stun
has reduced significantly. And this change
is noticeable right away. From the elevated artillery, let's move to a more grounded
topic of high-explosive shells. This is the strangest shell type. It's clear with armor-piercing
and HEAT shells, but HE shells… HE shells are a different matter. When you join a battle in your
heavy… no, superheavy tank, you want to feel confident. Especially, when you do it correctly. Take the right position. Roll out. Remember to angle.
Aim. And see… …hopelessness. Or not? The thing is, the mechanic of causing
high-explosive damage has changed. Previously, HE shells
caused damage by volume. This means that when
an HE shell penetrated armor, it exploded inside,
causing damage to the vehicle as well as to modules and crew
members within the burst radius. If a shell didn't penetrate armor at the
impact point, it detonated on the armor, and the mechanic looked for its
thinnest part within the burst radius. And damage went
through that spot. Yes, this led to different consequences,
mainly to unpleasant ones. But do the new mechanics
drastically change anything? It's hard to believe. Shells are still shells. Those HE shells, these HE shells… You have no idea about it yet,
but you're already making assumptions. With the new mechanics,
the picture changes completely. Now a tank HE shell causes damage
not just anywhere, but where it should. To be more precise,
at the point of impact. When contacting armor,
a shell tries to penetrate it. If it fails to do so, it detonates. An explosion outside causes spalling, with armor fragments
breaking off inside the vehicle. That spalling causes damage to the
vehicle, its internal modules, and crew. The fragments inside
disperse at the same distance as shell fragments in the old system. The difference is now that there are no fragments on
the external side of the armor plate. And here's a thing that our
nagging friend forgot to mention. The fragments are there, but they
cause insignificant damage to the armor. If you fire at the ground near
the tank, there'll be no damage. But you can still knock down a tree,
destroy a house, or a small obstacle. That's the dichotomy
of a high-explosive shell. Relax, guys.
Things stay the same for you. The artillery has the old system
of causing damage by volume and not at the impact point. New rules mean one simple thing. If a shell reaches the armor,
it will cause damage. The amount of damage depends
on the armor plate at the impact point. The thicker it is,
the lower the damage. For well-armored vehicles that rely on the fact they are difficult
to penetrate from the front, the new mechanics allow them
to use this advantage to the fullest. The time when
you lost hit points just because the opponent kept
on using HE shells has passed. It's not that effective against
well-armored vehicles anymore. Yes, you still can't bounce off
HE shells and avoid damage completely, but you can reduce it significantly
by playing instinctively. Turn your hull here,
hide your thin armor there… Just like with any other shell type. The key to victory
is blocking damage. You don't even need
to learn anything new. Well, that's not completely true. You will have to learn
something new after all. The thing is that tank HE shells now penetrate obstacles
just like armor-piercing shells. In the same way, they lose
part of their armor penetration that equals
the thickness of an obstacle. It's all clear! You better talk about screens
and tracks—they're more important! If there's a screen in the way high-
explosive shells, they can penetrate it. They also may not penetrate it. It depends on armor penetration
and the thickness of the screen itself. When contacting armor, HE shells
cause damage in 9 cases out of 10. I checked. Same with tracks. If a shell penetrates a track
but doesn't find armor behind it, it flies next to the tank. If there's armor, it causes damage. In cases when an HE shell
can't penetrate a screen, there'll be no damage at all. When hitting a screen,
a track, a wheel, or a module, the shell will also lose part
of its armor penetration. But unlike destructible objects,
there's one important nuance: the coefficient that equals 3
is applied in the calculation. This means that a shell loses
three times more armor penetration than the thickness of an obstacle
when passing through the screen. That's why you need
to fire at screens with caution. This boring description
leads us to one simple point. In cases when AP shells
ricochet or don't penetrate armor, the tank HE shells cause damage. And since they can
penetrate screens and tracks, expose your side only if you're sure
an HE shell won't get through it. In any other cases,
think about consequences. But the most important thing
we all gathered here for is that a heavy tank now
has more confidence in its power during positional skirmishes against
tanks of the same type and tier that use HE shells. Because the ephemeral but very important
survival time indicator increases. And what's more enjoyable,
the opponent knows it. Instead of high HE damage, they will see numbers that
might inspire them to retreat. But it will be too late. Don't forget about
another enjoyable detail. There will be no more bitter
artifacts of the old mechanics, when hitting the turret
could lead to engine fire due to that burst radius sphere. Now HE shells behave
like the hoodlums, you know. They're still dangerous,
but there's a kind of certainty because they're your guys,
from your neighborhood. You don't want to see the facts with the
stubbornness of a Maus on Prokhorovka. The mechanic of causing damage
at the impact point changes a lot. You can still cause damage
while not penetrating the armor. You can fire at the 60TP's turret. It's just the effectiveness of these
shots will be low. Predictably low. But if you deliberately aim
at thin armor sections, and know when you
should hold your horses, and when to pull the trigger, the
HE shells will show you a new side. Continuing my genius metaphor,
you want to say that the new mechanic allows for drawing the
frivolous universe to your side? Yes, speaking in your language,
the result depends on you. Don't fire randomly
at an enemy silhouette, look for the spots with thin armor. You penetrate it,
you cause massive damage. You don't penetrate it?
No worries, there'll still be damage. In this case, an HE shell
doesn't care about effective armor. When calculating damage
upon non-penetration, only the nominal armor
thickness is taken into account. The thinner it is,
the higher the damage. And this means the position
of the enemy doesn't matter. It's important how you fire. Additionally, you can now
penetrate a track with an HE shell and cause damage to armor. Yes, this is unusual. Yes, you will have to overcome
a psychological barrier. But what opportunities
will open after that! And most importantly, new possibilities
open up from a familiar game. Essentially, we can get these new
facts down to three simple points. If a shell hits the armor,
it causes damage. If a shell hits a screen and doesn't
penetrate it, there'll be no damage. If a shell hits a screen,
penetrates it, and makes contact
with armor, see point 1. The conclusion from
all this is as obvious as financial advice given
to aspiring billionaires. Don't shoot at a screen
you can't penetrate! Cut this piece of the video with your
scissors and hang it over your monitor. New notification types help you better understand
combat situations in new realities. Now it's clear when you don't hit armor,
don't penetrate a screen or a track. And the improved penetration indicator
works with HE shells more accurately. Red color means
there'll be no damage. Yellow means damage
won't be full damage. Green means penetration
with full damage. Previously,
there was usually no point in firing HE shells at the
Maus' side from many calibers, and now there are options. And they remind you of those you have
had when using armor-piercing shells. Resetting a base capture or finishing of a massive
opponent with almost no HP left are no longer a feat
but a common occurrence. The characteristics of a number of
vehicles with HE gameplay were improved, so that they feel more
comfortable in the new conditions, and you enjoy playing in them
as much as you did before. At the same time, the test
showed that wheeled vehicles demonstrated excessive
combat effectiveness. That's why armor penetration of
their HE shells was reduced to 75 mm, which has become a standard
value for the whole branch. We could talk forever about the
numbers, but let's get this straight: high-explosive damage has
remained high-explosive damage— frightening and extremely enjoyable. But you don't need to wait
for THAT VERY moment now. You can create it yourself. This is about awareness.
It's in your hands. World of Tanks
has been constantly changing. All this is a new
cycle of game evolution. Artillery now has more choices. Three shells help it better react
to the changes during battle. In a natural manner, they also
decreased the amount of stun in battles. The comfort of gameplay in tanks,
especially heavy tanks, has increased, in particular due
to the tools to counter SPG. While the revamped HE shells provide
the feeling of controlling the situation, which would previously
sound like nonsense. And this is what it's all about. It's never going to be like it was!
The comment section is a mess...
So the skill is no longer a "chance" to swap the shell out, just a percentage of loading time once the shell is loaded?
1.13 is worst update what wg ever maked, they destroyed last fun thing in this fucking game - derps, for me its time to say goodbye to wot because i will not lose my time in this game, wg is just pice of shit (ye i know am toxic but community is just money cow for wg)
This is a well written explanation of the new changes... does a pretty good job of outlining how things are going to change for arty and for tank HE...
Talk about not listening to player feedback and pushing out an update for the sake of change, these changes are mostly bad and people who did not even participate in the multiple test servers iterations are shilling for WG and have no idea how much damage has been caused to the game with this update, leave it to the Reddit players to disregard feedback and warnings from people who actually tested these awful "new" HE shell mechanics by down voting anything being critical of WG.
You fucks asked for this and now you will see what hull down monsters tanks such as the Chieftain and 279e can do now that the time to kill with HE increased significantly if you own a krangvang or heavy hull down tank with virtually no weakspots get ready to be even more indestructible.
The Spg change's are just as bad you cannot balance indirect fire remove them from the game, also WG is planning to sell premium SPG M55 now that they "fixed" artillery these changes were made to promote sale of premium rounds spall liner equipment and crew retraining for virtually every tank in the game with a commander and loader for both intuition and the new Commander anti SPG spam skill.
I was curious what they're gonna do about the Japanese heavies with those changes. From the companion post the answer seems to be "fuckall"
I thought "just flank them" was an old meme 4 years ago, and even them it was supposed to be about agile mediums flanking superheavies, not the other way around. Just flank the enemy, in your goes-20kph-on-flat tugboat. Yep.
Depending on what alpha the AP shells on 15cm will receive, you might still be better off using the old-new 14cm gun, which makes you a poor man's 705A that only exists to check if the enemy has 80% gold loadout (they will). Otherwise, you're still stuck with KV2 gun on T10, but one that won't do any damage to enemy fronts now.
Bey bey hetzer with derp. WG you broke my heart
Superheavy tanks were always kept in check with HE and even artys. Now they could be too OP with these changes.
Welcome to World of heavy tanks.