So when you're not doing all those useful activities above and you just want to play some tanks while taking a dumb on your throne, here's what I recommend.
-Map Awareness. I'm sure you've heard this before. To be honest, it's not the most important thing to be a unicum, I know plenty that are able to skate by with their other skills like snapping and positioning. You just need to have a basic understanding of where your team is, how you can support them in your location, and how they can support you from their location. This game is like chess, you don't want to be working an area where no one from your team can help you if something bad happens. Also, you need to be able to have an idea of where unspotted reds might be, but this is gained by playing battles and just having experience. What would
you do if you were in their position?
-Positioning. This is huge. You
need to be able to position your tank correctly for at least most matches or you will never be a unicum. Everyone can get a few shots off per game no matter where they drive, but if you want to be carrying your team or at least going top damage most of the time, you need to have areas on the map that you drive to which will allow you to get shots or spots on the reds. Of course, it's not just as simple as that. You also need to know
when to go to these spots, not just drive to them when you want. I highly recommend grabbing a light tank and finding areas on the map that follow these requirements:
- Does this area have hard cover? If you get spotted, you're going to need hard cover to hide behind while you can safely reset your camo. Hard cover doesn't need to be a convienent rock or wall, it can be a slope you drive backwards down.
- Does this area have soft cover? Unless you like going into engagements with no tactical advantage, soft cover is going to be necessary. Even if you just want to get some spots and then drive away, you shouldn't be interested in allowing yourself to get spotted unless you have an advanced bait strategy. Also, if you're going for damage, allowing you to not be spotted until you fire means that you have a better chance of getting a sure shot into the side of a tank and you don't have to worry about having to go through frontally. It also allows you to aim in fully and not just make a snapshot.
- Does this area have an escape route? There are some really good positions where you can shots and spots on the map, but if you can't run away when you need to, you could potentially cost your team a valuable asset, especially if you're like the only medium on the team. Make sure that when you advance forward, that you can escape without dying.
- Does this area allow you to safely get shots off? Now, if this is just purely a spotting run and you're just doing some passive spotting, this isn't an issue. But most of the time, you're also going to want to do damage as well. Does this area allow your tank to physically get a shot off? It may work well with a tank with lots of gun depression, but you might not be able to use the spot with a Russian medium. Also, do you need to extend past the hard or soft cover to get shots off? Can you stay hulldown while taking shots, or do you have to expose your hull while doing it? You need to make sure the spot will work for the tank that you're driving, it may not just be a universal area where all tanks will perform well there.
-Making Predictions. I'm just going to steal this from one of my older forum posts:
To be able to make predictions, you need to have at least, but you should really have both; of the following:
Prior knowledge is the first one.
Best way to learn this: battle experience. People that have hit the "Battle!" button more have an advantage over people with less battles. They've seen more scenarios happen on the battlefield, they've played the maps more and have learned specific spots on the map for various tanks in order to help them carry out their role, they've played their tank more and are more comfortable with it, they have the game mechanics memorized, and they even recognize specific clans or players in battle.This is all why someone that sits down for the first time and plays Blitz HAS to do poorly in the beginning. Everyone starts as a noob. If you make a mistake in a game, hopefully you won't be making that mistake anymore. When you've played thousands of battles, you start to gain a sense of how something is going to play out. Even though there's no possible way to account for every single last scenario, by playing a lot, one will gain a sense of what is most likely going to happen, and will be able to set themselves (and hopefully their team as well) into a position where they can gain the upper hand.
How to account for this without having the luxury of playing thousands of battles (i want to git gud RIGHT NOW): watch YouTube videos, read forum threads like this one, platoon with players with more game experience. Play tournaments! Honestly, having to call for a tournament team for a few months taught me more about strategy than I could have learned from playing public matches for a year. By participating on a tournament team, you're forced to learn specific map positions that are essential in carrying out the battle plan. Having to call forces you to make up a strategy which should be utilizing specific map positions. The more you built your team into playing more regularly, the better you'll carry out the strategy.
Logic is the other part of this information.
Best way to have logic: be smart. Seriously, you need to be able to rationalize situations quickly and get in the mindset of the enemy player. I realize that you can't just simulate an entire battle in your head while in battle, and why should anyone. I mean, you need some prior knowledge first (oh, a Comet platoon is capable of massive DPM) but then logic steps in later, when you see an enemy Comet platoon, the map is Middleburg, and the enemy team also has 2 others mediums and 1 extra light. You should realize that the Comets will be begging the team to go hills, because they can better utilize their turret armor and gun depression, and because they'll already have 5 tanks up on the hills already. That's a relatively simple logical prediction.
-Challenge yourself. Set stat milestones that you want to meet by a certain point. For example, I'm trying to average 2700 damage at Tier 10. Another thing is to challenge yourself while in-game. Play mediums and lights at higher tiers, that's where the skills I mentioned above really come in handy. You won't learn a lot while playing a 183 or an IS-4.
-ALWAYS follow the fundamentals. You need to be consistent. Don't make stupid decisions, like over angling while sidescraping, going for that low health kill no matter what, etc. Take the time to set up the proper sidescrape. Poke above the hill behind a bush, not just anywhere. Just shoot AP at the side of a Batchat if you're 200 meters away, not HE. When you're 6th sense is screaming at you to turn around, just follow your instinct.
-Get involved with the community. Join some Discord servers. Chat around and discuss. Play in tournaments. Get some friends together and make some strats for maps. Try calling for a team. The more competitive your mind is thinking, whether it's a public match or tournament, the more you will be focused on winning and playing for the team, not the pixel stats.
Hope that helps!!
Maverick
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