Sunday 14 November 2010

Guide to Self Propeplled Guns aka Arty

We have so far trained in the use of Light, Medium and Heavy tanks and also improved our understanding of how to use the Tank Destroyers, now I hope to enlighten you to the ways of the Self Propellled Guns (SPG), also known as Artillery or Arty.

Check out my other World of Tanks previews and guides.

Much maligned, (arty/artillery) is (or SPGs are) considered to be overpowered using the 'finger of God' and 'God view' to pull off impossible 1-shot kills and repeatedly track every tank known to World of Tanks. Whilst this was far from true and is even less true now with the dispersal area increase and projectile speed decrease, the SPG is an extremely powerful tool in your teams arsenal and a good SPG player will be able to sow discord and devastation around the battlefield.

Some basic tips for Artillery players which almost every artillery player misses (seriously):
  • Fire and move. Most players and enemy artillery will check your tracer fire and find out exactly where you are camping. You will be killed by an average enemy if you don't move after every shot.
  • Prioritise your targets correctly. Enemy artillery is your top priority with the higher tier tank destroyers coming in second and heavy tanks coming in third. I find that a good TD player in their camping mode can be devastating to an advancing or holding formation and they are more vulnerable than a Heavy tank
  • Kills do not give you experience!!! Damage gives you experience. Unless it is absolutely critical that you kill that Light/Medium tank on 7%, aim for another target. Let your allies take out the small % and use your ammo more wisely.
  • Be patient with your shots. Aim up, lead properly and try to get an accurate shot off. Your reload is so slow that you are not too likely to get a second chance. Unless your target is about to disappear or go behind cover where you can't reach him, hold your fire.
  • Artillery has paper-thin armour, low HP and barring a couple of exceptions, has absolutely zero maneuverability. You are vulnerable and if your protection is looking like collapsing, bug out and find a new safe area to continue your barrage from.
This guide is very short, cheap and cheerful as we'd say locally. Artillery are a highly specialised unit and in general each artillery piece is similar to the next with the gun being the only real difference. Your biggest assets are damage and disruption so use them to full effect by prioritising your targets correctly and forcing enemy tanks to rethink their tactics with carefully placed shells.
If you get called a noob because you have no kills, ignore them because that player has no idea what they are talking about.

If you get called a noob and you are a noob but are trying to learn your class and following this guide, shrug it off. You have your learner plates on your bumpers and focus on the task at hand.

If you get called a noob because you are not doing the things an artillery should be doing, for the love of all things living, re-read this guide until the image is etched onto your brain.

Main thing to do is to have fun. Artillery can be very frustrating (no scouts, no defense and you get killed within 2 minutes, due to a really good tactical enemy push) but it can be very rewarding when you pop a speeding scout tank at 100% in lower tiers or track/damage a higher tier tank so badly that your team can mop up and crush the enemy.

Play and enjoy. The play style doesn't suit everyone, me included, but it's definitely a fun diversion and you will learn to respect artillery rather than despise it. I'm sure it has made me an all round better player.

10 comments:

fjodderambo said...

Nice guide m8! I'm only at the t3 spg but it rocks when getting the 122mm howitser. It's the most killing effective thing i have played in WoT but it can be frustrating too. Especially in cities!

Anonymous said...

I like arty after softwipe il have the SU-8 and M41 with ease,For now i have only SU-5 and M37 thus.Il also get T29 and T20 :P.LAter on french heavy tanks il take :P.

Kurt said...

How do know how far my shot will go? Let's say I want to shoot 6 squares away, how do I ail for that?

Tx for your help.
Kurt

Anonymous said...

You need to go into aiming mode using the left Shift button or by zooming all the way in with the mouse wheel (I'm not sure if the second method works with arties, but it is good for other tanks).

Anonymous said...

Which is the accurate reference point when fully registered? The + sign of the cursor, or the green dot in the center of the oblong green-dotted aiming circle? Thanks... Traveler123

ElcomeSoft said...

The green dot is the accurate reference point. Typically aim a little big behind the middle of a tank to increase your chances of scoring a full on hit... though even with the best accuracy in the game and top crew, scoring dead on hits is difficult to do reliably.

Greg said...

I would argue the point of shoot and move after every shot. With a camo net and a trained crew I can stay hidden even with an enemy scout parked 50yds away. I would do more than 3 shots before moving though. Remember, every time that hull moves, you have to re-aim and that's can cost you more than sitting still and getting a good hit. Bottom line is situational awareness, if you're about to be overrun then move.

Wojo said...

true that, greg

Anonymous said...

And remeber that hitting X locks your hull.

killertc said...

i am using a camo net but I realised once the enemy is near you, even if he is not firing at you, once u fire, u will be lighted up. So you have to move. If the enemy spg is good then u can bet on a counter-battery fire... I killed a few spgs this way when they fired too near our scout, even when the scout is pointing somewhere else.

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