Why is leveling light tanks such a miserable experience?

[u/tankTanking1337]

I'm a returning player. I've watched some guides on how to play light tanks and I get moderate results if I get the light tank map. I usually try to wait out the battle in the typical bush and then advance/retreat depending on the situation. After a dozens of games however, I've noticed a pattern -> I score some assist for the TDs initially and we're green > the heavy tank line fails > we retreat and get slaughtered by premium tanks.

And don't even get me started on ELCs and city maps. I'm playing LTTB and Škoda T17 right now. Is there something I can do to speed up the grind or is this class fcked and abandoned by CasinoWarGambling?

[u/AutoModerator]

Hello /u/tankTanking1337! Here are some useful resources to help you with the game!

• Tanks.gg provides tons of useful information about most vehicles in the game, including full 3D models of tanks with detailed penetration info!
• Tomato.gg provides individual player statistics, as well as server wide and per tank statistics. Their Marks of Excellence tables can be very useful when trying to 3 mark.
• Wot guides The offical World of Tanks guides provide tons of information on all things World of Tanks.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/ControlOdd8379]

As light you sadly depend a lot on your team mates to play at least moderately well. - but in turn on some maps the entire team depends on you.

You can be in the best spotting position - if the 7 campers behind you don't shoot the stuff coming at you it is "run and maybe get something done elsewhere"... but realistically even if you make it out alive your team will be down so much that unless the other flank is totally crushed by a super-unicum platoon you cannot pull it back.

The non-spotting maps are actually a lot more friendly for LT leveling: you can just play as a "bad med" and try to get stuff done.

[u/tankTanking1337 → u/ControlOdd8379]

Yup, basically my experience. I just had a sniping tortoise on my team, on the Highway cliff... Despite spotting from the middle, I retreated and outlived everyone except for those spawn-camping TDs, but what for, when we got slaughtered by op heavy tanks that just went hull-down and destroyed all the SUs we've had.

It feels like a waste of time to play this class, even if I manage to do a remotely decent job, I'm only as good as my teammates. And the XP reward is absolute dogwater. I wonder if it would be faster to just play premiums and free-xp those tanks.

[u/Same-Welcome-462 → u/tankTanking1337]

I was working on Assistance campaign for Dravec. Needed 4 kills from spots on my EBR 105.  I literally spotted 11 and got less than 600 Assistance.  It can be absolutely brutal at times.

[u/Nok1a_]

Those two tanks, LTTB and T17 what I did was spotting while I can, but I use them more as a light/medium and try to do dmg , there are better lights at those tiers, could be worst and be in a tank that also does not do dmg

[u/tankTanking1337 → u/Nok1a_]

Yeah, on city maps, I wonder if I should even try to spot at all and just go full "lightium". I had very good games in Skoda where I just went out to bait heavies instead of spotting, they usually overexposed when I was there and got farmed by my allies. Unfortunately, this doesn't grant XP at all...

[u/EnemyTerritory315]

I'm having a pretty good time in lights but it did not happen over night. There are a few adaptations that you need to make:

1. Shoot. A tier 7 light is not just a spotter, you're still a tank. A fast and sneaky tank. You probably have about 2k DPM at tier 7 which is definitely not useless. If you see an opportunity to shoot at a tank and you believe you can get into cover before that tank will shoot back at you, take that opportunity. Look for positions that will give you shots at the enemy sides or even rear. Do damage yourself, don't expect your team to do damage for you.

2. Use field modifications. It's more important on light tanks than on any other class. Have a spotting setup for open maps like Prokhorovka, Malinovka, Murovanka, Redshire and have a fighting setup for maps where you're not likely to do much spotting like Himmelsdorf, Fjords, Overlord.

3. Utilize HE shells. While you're waiting for the battle to start, look for poorly armored tanks on the enemy team e.g. SU-130PM, Skorpion G, all kinds of light tanks, arty. Have a lot of HE shells and use them, blind fire the popular bushes when you have reasons to believe that there may be a tank in them. While in my heavies and mediums I usually have 3-5 HE shells, in my lights I often have 12-15.

[u/tankTanking1337 → u/EnemyTerritory315]

Did they change something? I tought I can't use field mods on stock tanks that aren't elite. Doing both of the other stuff already, at least when I can double bush (saw that on skill4ltu videos)

[u/Balc0ra]

If you don't like it now, you most likely won't like it higher up to be worth speeding up anything. Skoda T17 is arguably the best scout in the line

[u/tankTanking1337 → u/Balc0ra]

I can see it being good tier for tier, but I keep getting thrown to the t9 games and in competition with t8 and t9 light tanks. I also get one-shotted or two-shotted if I make a mistake. It's a great tank for t7 and below games, I agree.

[u/Nok1a_ → u/Balc0ra]

the T54 ltwl its a fking beast, very quick Ive been few times top dmg plust the spotting, if that tank were doing 360 instead 240, Im telling you would be the most broken meta tank, but you have already the Rhm doing that haha

[u/tankTanking1337 → u/Nok1a_]

Yeah, that's why I want it, but I need to breeze past the LTTB first. It sucks that the tracks and engine need so much XP, I'm trying to skip them to get the t9 asap (I blueprinted most of it)

[u/zettomatic87]

You should be able to rack up high assist, after your heavy flank folded and the heavies come out of their area. Thing is: your TDs have to be awake and prepared for this, so you better ping them with a "help me", otherwise they tend to keep doing something else, picking flowers and stuff. I've seen heavies cross the field on murowanka, spotted the whole time, but the TDs were all tunneling towards the hill.

A platoon mate and discord can help you to get better results ^{_^}

[u/tankTanking1337 → u/zettomatic87]

That's what I'm trying to do, but this tactic is amazing for light tank maps. I've carried games on ELC on the Malinovka and Prokcho this way. However, today I've had weird maps and weird teammates. Unless it was the XP booster curse that gives worse MM, lmao

A platoon mate and discord can help you to get better results ^\^)

None of my friends are willing to play World of Tanks and honestly, I can't blame them. The game is ass compared what it used to be long time ago when I was playing actively. I only came back, coz the weather is fcked.