Premium Shell Rebalance: Testing

From the portal.

Last December, we announced rebalancing special ammo would be a priority for 2019. This news became one of the hottest topics in the community. The forthcoming changes garnered plenty of suggestions and additional questions, so we carefully analyzed player feedback to understand what steps we should take next.

We also launched several Supertests, experimenting with special ammo settings and tweaking their mechanics, while studying the feedback from our testers. Now we’ve finally gathered all the necessary data and are ready to share more information.

Taking Another Step Forward

From June 4-10, we’re launching a new round of special ammo rebalancing tests on Sandbox, our test open server. An alternative special ammo concept will be featured, different from the one we outlined at WG Fest last December. Full details of the changes will be announced just before the test, so stay tuned!

Testing will last only 1 (one) week and will end on June 10, at 02:00 PT | 04:00 CT | 05:00 ET!

How Can I Take Part?

Everyone can take part in testing — all you have to do is submit an application via the “JOIN SPECIAL AMMO TESTS” button. After we accept and process your application, you’ll get direct access to the test server. At the same time, you’ll see a special promo screen in your game client.

If you have previously participated in Sandbox tests, then you already have access to testing.

Prem ammo test

Be the first to experience the revised ammo mechanics and evaluate them for yourself. Join the tests now and share your feedback!

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Premium Shell Rebalance: Testing

30 thoughts on “Premium Shell Rebalance: Testing

    1. Anonymous says:

      This, if they want actual player input they need to show something that indicates they have serious ideas otherwise it’s just BS.

  1. Tiger says:

    I guess just limiting the number of rounds as a % total ammo load in a tank should solve the issue to a great extent (15% – 20% should be a good spot)
    I’d want to see the gold whores suffer with normal ammo; retards who have gotten used to the “easy” mode for stat padding.

    1. heinz says:

      I am just a random fool on the internet, but i dont think its as easy as that. You cant just limit the amount of gold rounds, then heavy tanks are suddenly op and russian tanks generally broken. All tanks that have good armour would need to be rebalanced.

      1. Tiger says:

        You are correct that Super HTs like the Type 5, Maus or obj 268 v4 will become difficult to deal with. But that is the point; instead of slinging gold on every enemy tanks that you see; you’ll need to think how much to shoot and whether to save some for the end or not.
        I am fedup with morons that play S. Conq. With nothing but gold ammo.
        Make them think; make them regret spamminf gold on LTs or Batchats.
        This would also help in lowering the requirements for 2nd & 3rd moe for us mortals.

      2. Anonymous says:

        Every tank and class shouldn’t be able to pen an E3 or super heavy frontal…the number of fools in mts playing peek a boo with those is hilarious….I’ve seen 3 going head on the last tank standing and plenty of room to circle flank.

      3. Yeet says:

        I think the issue too is how armor has completely changed over the past couple of years. I started playing 8 years ago when armor actually had weak spots at the front that you had to hide or angle properly. Tanks like the Type 5, the 268 v4, the 430u, etc, don’t have weak spots from the front at all. The Maus has a weak spot, its lower plate and turret cheeks. The T110E5 has its lower plate and cupola. Hell, even the WZ-111 5A has two cupolas, its lower plate, and even the front of its armor. The problem is when you have tanks like the 268 v4 which has extremely small weak spots, the 430u does not have a large lower plate and its cupolas are impenetrable, the Type 5 is literally 250mm+ on the entire front of the tank and as long as you aren’t a brainlet, you can bounce gold rounds extremely easily with minuscule angling. Nerfing the amount of gold rounds would just powercreep any armored tanks into the meta. You shouldn’t have tanks where you can just drive like an idiot and get away with it. If you nerf the amount of gold rounds, bring back driver’s hatch and machine gun port weak spots again so you can’t just completely rely on the armor of a vehicle without any skillful knowledge at the same time.

    2. Anonymous says:

      Agreed. So sad seeing tier X monsters spamming gold. Likewise others would have to look at the red tanks and make decisions about shells rather than spamming gold.

  2. Anonymous says:

    “please, sign up for testing of an unknown thing”

    WG proving yet again what a “special” company they are.

  3. I think... says:

    Gold shells for gold only. Penetration reballance.
    OR
    Damage reduction.
    OR
    Reducing max amount of gold shells in battle.
    OR
    Make them more expensive.
    OR
    XP reduction for shooting gold ammo.

  4. Anonymous says:

    I think damage should be reduced 10-30% cause irl if a round over pens a tank it doesnt do as much dmg compared to a round that only just pens the tank since you have all kinds of shrapenal going and damaging the moduals and crew.

  5. Premium ammo as special ammo should be ammo that should only increase penetration by 20-40mm of penetration depending on vehicle but the general rule would be it would be sufficient when a tank gets put in a +2 MM match.

    That means for Tier IX and X vehicles, special ammo would at best give 10-20mm more penetration. That way the damage reduction for special ammo would not be as severe as the numbers proposed by the initial suggestion.

    Also with special ammo not providing the massive increase in penetration, we can finally reverse the massive unhistorical over-armouring tanks received the past 3 years.

    Tanks should be balanced on some realistic foundation. Since Closed Beta up to 3 years or so ago, this was the case. So now we got the majority of tanks balanced with this rule playing with tanks with near fantasy levels of armour. This is a balance fubar.

    Further advantages with limiting how much penetration there is that it would make quick unaim shots having higher chances to bounce. Having tanks being not as easily damage as quick as they are now would allow them to last longer. That means it would delay the snowball effect from picking up speed. Landslide matches would still happen but it would take longer for it to happen.

    So a well played tank would be harder to take out but if it exposes its weakspots (lower plate), it would still die quick. An E100 should not be so easily penetrated when it angles its turret after playing well enough to hide its lower plate.

    When heavy tanks cannot hold their ground, then it just makes landslides occur too quickly.

  6. Yomir says:

    Wg dug their own grave when giving everything insane armor. No matter how they change the prem ammo, it’s not going to fix the problem.

    1. Gundamu says:

      Ah no wtf you talking about dummy, gold rounds ruined the game not armor. once they were made available for credits everyone got lazy and started spamming them instead.

      1. Which of course resulted in heavy tanks being unable to perform the role they were meant to and the large slower ones were severely impacted resulting in the insane armour.

        People often seem unable to make this connection. Premium ammo came first before the overarmouring that resulted from premium ammo spam.

      2. Anonymous says:

        in >>FRUSTRATION<< of seeing all there regular AP ammo ;Bounced then Bounced then Bounced again
        ~ then they died as the Super Heavy Tank normal AP/HE did NOT bounce

        SH Vehicle/ Tank players are pissing over most other Tank classes (except SPG there 'special')
        Only the high tier Heavy Tank players think Gold ammo is a 'spamming' problem

        what about the for-a-loo' funs shooting 15cm HE 1100/ 900 damage guaranteed WITHOUT aiming at ANY weak spots

        Tier 8 and above has some STUPIDLY OP Heavy Vehicles and Super Heavy Vehicles
        and of course the 'REAL problem' the Russian high tier Bobjects

        there is a ongoing and frankly badly thought out power creep with high tier Armour in WOT which actively encourages Gold ammo spam

        Unicums and Gold ammo will always be a 'thing' there no-lifers WOT is there reason to live apparently?

  7. Anon says:

    The penetration of prem ammo should be slightly higher than regular ammo, otherwise even lowering damage will do nothing to prevent prem spam

    Do you rather:
    1.) deal 300 damage 90% of the time
    or
    2.)deal 400 damage 50% of the time

    1. beepstar says:

      OK but then to counter (or suggest it’s a question of balancing – not WG’s core skilled, granted)

      1.) Deal 200 damage 90% of the time
      or
      2) Deal 400 damage 50% of the time

  8. beepstar says:

    Alternatively…

    Provide all shells available to all tanks but make them specific

    All AP variants have high standard shell velocity – above 1000
    AP – Standard velocity, standard normalisation, standard pen, standard alpha (Standard)
    APCR – Higher velocity, lower normalisation, higher pen & drop off, standard alpha (Bounce more easily)
    APDS – Very high velocity, higher normalisation, higher pen, lower alpha (Do less damage)

    All HE variants have low standard shell velocity and low pen like 1/3rd AP – sub 800
    HE – Lower penetration high alpha with standard crew and module damage (Standard)
    HESH – Does more crew damage at the expense of module damage with standard pen & alpha (Crew Damage)
    HEAT – Does lower module and crew damage with higher penetration but lower alpha (Lower alpha)
    HEP – Does more module damage at the expense of crew damage with standard pen & alpha (Module Damage)

    Then allow only 3 types per load out. All roughly equivalent costs (some variation +/- 20% allowed) Or something similar, allowing players a greater range of variation in play style and an actual choice, rather than press 2 to skill up and lose credits and a largely useless HE round.

    1. Adam Jakubowski says:

      I really like this idea but i would keep some ammo types exlusive to specific tanks just so they can keep their uniqueness. Overall this change would make people think about using ammo which is what you ideally want from this and any game mechanic. Thinking about the best choice, figuring stuff out is what makes a game fun.

  9. Anonymous says:

    This is just another tool for Wargaming to further manipulate the game, with RNG wildly out of control, and now this.

    Everntually tank stats will meaning nothing.

  10. Mikosah says:

    Wouldn’t even be an issue if we had proper weakspots to shoot at. Make the standard shell viable, and the problem is solved.

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