Confessions of a reluctant Tanker
May 24, 2017 19:19:41 GMT -5
MahWaffle, Styro, and 3 more like this
Post by DarkVagabond on May 24, 2017 19:19:41 GMT -5
Confessions of a reluctant tanker:
As an old mechwarrior fan, I downloaded War Robots in December 2016 and I was quickly hooked. I enjoyed the craftsmanship and gameplay of War Robots so much, I stopped playing anything else and it became the centrepiece of my gaming world. I like to be a team player and give my best (like I do in most areas of my life) and I wanted to make my hangar more competitive. Not having seen any YouTube videos or forums on the game, I decided to lvl up my Leo bot as high as I could to increase survivability (just the bot). My weapons were still only lvl 6. Unbeknownst to me, the matchmaker at the time then proceeded to treat my hangar as if I had at least 3 heavies with maxed out bots AND weapons (Those of you playing long enough will remember when the matchmaker favoured bot level too highly). I couldn't understand why the hell I was being matched against players with lvl12 weapons when mine were only lvl6 .
I even tried buying another Leo and putting the weapons on this lvl6 one, but I experienced no change in matchmaking and I was only disadvantaging myself further. My clan mates also stopped playing with me, as they would just get slaughtered. And so this was how I found this forum: to understand how the Matchmaker worked and what I could do about it. After learning how I had unwittingly stumbled into the glaring flaws of the MM, I had to just concentrate on leveling up my weapons for 3 weeks just to be able to keep playing the game.
When I returned, it was still obvious that I was massively outgunned (I had lvl7 and 8 gear now across 4 slots), but I focused on trying to play smarter. I learned corner shooting, fade away attacks with griffin, taking out Orkans with Tarans between 300 - 350m range, mastering more long range weapons like Tulu and Tridents, all that good stuff. I soon noticed that I was playing with more skill than many other players, but it didn't really matter as their equipment trumped my skill and my win rate was rarely above 50%.
Then the leagues matchmaker hit, and for a while it really helped out my situation. No more was my Leo throwing me to the wolves - I was up against players with weapons slightly higher than mine, but that balanced out the fact my Leo was lvl 11. So matches were generally fair and I was able to achieve a win rate of about 60%, not through brute force, but by implementing tactics that the other team neglected. Then Pix changed the MM to make matches more difficult if your winrate was above 60%. Yet again, I was getting slaughtered by players who were not more skilled, they just had much better equipment. I was used to punching above my weight, but again it just became ridiculous and discouraging. For the first time playing the game, I realised that my focus on my winrate was hurting my enjoyment, and if I wanted to continue playing I had to care MUCH LESS about my winrate and in turn, less about winning in general. I noticed many other players had stopped caring about winning also, as they stopped going for beacons and just tried to focus on building their damage stat instead, perhaps to apply to a top 100 clan or something.
But I tried one more time to rise above the people who game the system. I finally levelled up my Mag Leo weapons to lvl 10 and started to rise in ranking. It took me a few weeks to fight out of Diamond 2, but I eventually succeeded. Also, I noticed that playing at certain times of day was better for avoiding tankers, so I used this strategy to finally progress to Expert League 3. I did this with only 2 Orkans and two tarans in my inventory, 1 Galahad, my Mag Leo, a Griffin and a light bot that I switched up from time to time to cap beacons. I had no Lancelot, Fury, Zeus or Ancile as I simply couldn't afford them.
My discouragement only continued when I was in Expert League as I quickly ascertained there were not enough players in the same league to make up the numbers. This meant that the numbers were getting filled up by Master and Champion League players, sometimes with rankings 4000 point higher than my own. This made my contribution to the fight trivial and brought my chances of earning extra Au from little to zero. Again this was through no fault of my own playing ability. I also ascertained that for this reason the majority of Expert League players had used tanking strategies to go back to Diamond League and below, just to be able to play on a more level playing field.
I couldn't squad with my clan anymore, as I was probably the highest ranked player there. I decided to leave my friends and join a new clan which were mainly Expert and diamond 1 league players. Consequently, I was getting put in matches with players from both Master and Champion Leagues just to make up numbers, sometimes with rankings 4000 points above my own. This made playing the game at certain times of day impossible, certainly if I wanted to earn gold to improve my equipment. Even my best squad mates were experiencing similar problems. And then the Anniversary event hit...
I thought Pix's idea to have daily tasks to eventually win a Rogatka was fantastic, as I had so many other priorities for my Au that this was probably the only chance I would ever get to own one (they are super fun to run btw). So I started to play like a madman to get this Rogatka. I finished the first few tasks easily enough, earning a Magnum and the next few prizes without a problem. The tasks for bot kills and beacon caps were arduous at times, but inevitable if you just spent the time. But when I saw that they were asking me to win 17 games in order to get to the next task, I knew I had to make a choice.
I knew to win 17 games could require up to 340 mins of gameplay at a winrate of 50%, which was higher than my winrate at the time. And this was for 1 task, with more difficult ones to come. With 60 tasks to complete, I couldn't spend almost 6 hours just to complete 1 task, otherwise I should just forget about owning a Rogatka. But what bothered me so much about the win tasks in particular was not so much the time it would take, but how out of my control it was. So many players were tanking, and in many games I knew within the first 30 seconds we were going to lose, through no fault or lack of strategy of our own.
This was the final straw. First I was placed in impossible matches because I unbalanced my hangar with a lvl 11 Leo. Second was because I was winning too much against hangars of comparable strength. Third because I progressed to a league above the tankers and there were not enough players left except Master and Champion League players. Now Pixonic wanted to require me to win enough games in spite of all these disadvantages (resulting from honest play!), just in order to win Au/gear to put me on a level playing field as those who were playing dishonestly.
And so at that point I simply gave up. I decided that if Pixonic hadn't devised an adequate solution in the 6 months that I had already been playing the game, then I was on my own. So as they say, if I couldn't beat them, then I should join them. For the first time in 6 months of play, I began losing matches on purpose. I did the math. I soon discovered that if I tanked 10 games each 10 minutes, I would usually still win one. So even if I tanked, I would still win one game per 10 mins, which is as fast as a 100% winrate of playing games all the way through to the 10 minute mark. That meant I could earn 17 wins in half the time as playing honestly. Furthermore, my league dropped as far as Gold 3, which compounded the ease of winning enough matches for the tasks.
I was actually disgusted at just how effective this tactic was. Furthermore I was even more disgusted to still come across some of the same near-maxed out hangars I had encountered 4 - 6 leagues higher. I was even matched against a player who was in Silver League with lvl 11 and 12 weapons. I have included a shocking screenshot of his stats below.
Interestingly, I spent 1000 Au on a gold chest in the anniversary event, as I had checked on the forums what prizes were on offer and realised I needed almost all of them. This was my most fortuitous move to date. I quickly won enough gold to complete the bar to a super chest, where I won even more gold, which I used to complete more openings of gold and super chests, winning almost all the gold prizes I so desperately needed. I won a Butch, Doc, 2 Jesses, a Lancelot, and lots of gold equipment. Somewhat ironically, I also won 2 Rogatkas. Had I have known the event would yield such good results, I probably wouldn't have felt the need to tank at all. I appreciated the event so much, I spent actual money for the very first time to show my support for Pixonic's initiative, especially as it coincided with my birthday.
And so I still earned my Anarchy Rogatka, along with all the prizes along the way, ending up in Diamond League 2 by the end. I haven't felt the need to drop a match since, as I am currently playing in Diamond League 1 and it's a good fit. My biggest problem is still tankers with maxed out hangars, but most other players have a comparable level of ability vs hangar strength. I don't currently feel the need to tank anymore, as I don't enjoy the Schadenfreude of seal clubbing and I'm not as desperate for equipment anymore. I wouldn't say I would never do it again, as I never say never, but I would only do it if I felt I was being unfairly disadvantaged.
And so there you have it - the honest player, turned tanker, turned honest(?) player. Personally, I don't give two poo poos if you think what I did was right or wrong. I merely write this so people (hopefully also the developers) can understand why I felt the need to tank, and hopefully develop a system which does not incentivise selfish play. Wishing you all the best.
DarkerVagabond
As an old mechwarrior fan, I downloaded War Robots in December 2016 and I was quickly hooked. I enjoyed the craftsmanship and gameplay of War Robots so much, I stopped playing anything else and it became the centrepiece of my gaming world. I like to be a team player and give my best (like I do in most areas of my life) and I wanted to make my hangar more competitive. Not having seen any YouTube videos or forums on the game, I decided to lvl up my Leo bot as high as I could to increase survivability (just the bot). My weapons were still only lvl 6. Unbeknownst to me, the matchmaker at the time then proceeded to treat my hangar as if I had at least 3 heavies with maxed out bots AND weapons (Those of you playing long enough will remember when the matchmaker favoured bot level too highly). I couldn't understand why the hell I was being matched against players with lvl12 weapons when mine were only lvl6 .
I even tried buying another Leo and putting the weapons on this lvl6 one, but I experienced no change in matchmaking and I was only disadvantaging myself further. My clan mates also stopped playing with me, as they would just get slaughtered. And so this was how I found this forum: to understand how the Matchmaker worked and what I could do about it. After learning how I had unwittingly stumbled into the glaring flaws of the MM, I had to just concentrate on leveling up my weapons for 3 weeks just to be able to keep playing the game.
When I returned, it was still obvious that I was massively outgunned (I had lvl7 and 8 gear now across 4 slots), but I focused on trying to play smarter. I learned corner shooting, fade away attacks with griffin, taking out Orkans with Tarans between 300 - 350m range, mastering more long range weapons like Tulu and Tridents, all that good stuff. I soon noticed that I was playing with more skill than many other players, but it didn't really matter as their equipment trumped my skill and my win rate was rarely above 50%.
Then the leagues matchmaker hit, and for a while it really helped out my situation. No more was my Leo throwing me to the wolves - I was up against players with weapons slightly higher than mine, but that balanced out the fact my Leo was lvl 11. So matches were generally fair and I was able to achieve a win rate of about 60%, not through brute force, but by implementing tactics that the other team neglected. Then Pix changed the MM to make matches more difficult if your winrate was above 60%. Yet again, I was getting slaughtered by players who were not more skilled, they just had much better equipment. I was used to punching above my weight, but again it just became ridiculous and discouraging. For the first time playing the game, I realised that my focus on my winrate was hurting my enjoyment, and if I wanted to continue playing I had to care MUCH LESS about my winrate and in turn, less about winning in general. I noticed many other players had stopped caring about winning also, as they stopped going for beacons and just tried to focus on building their damage stat instead, perhaps to apply to a top 100 clan or something.
But I tried one more time to rise above the people who game the system. I finally levelled up my Mag Leo weapons to lvl 10 and started to rise in ranking. It took me a few weeks to fight out of Diamond 2, but I eventually succeeded. Also, I noticed that playing at certain times of day was better for avoiding tankers, so I used this strategy to finally progress to Expert League 3. I did this with only 2 Orkans and two tarans in my inventory, 1 Galahad, my Mag Leo, a Griffin and a light bot that I switched up from time to time to cap beacons. I had no Lancelot, Fury, Zeus or Ancile as I simply couldn't afford them.
My discouragement only continued when I was in Expert League as I quickly ascertained there were not enough players in the same league to make up the numbers. This meant that the numbers were getting filled up by Master and Champion League players, sometimes with rankings 4000 point higher than my own. This made my contribution to the fight trivial and brought my chances of earning extra Au from little to zero. Again this was through no fault of my own playing ability. I also ascertained that for this reason the majority of Expert League players had used tanking strategies to go back to Diamond League and below, just to be able to play on a more level playing field.
I couldn't squad with my clan anymore, as I was probably the highest ranked player there. I decided to leave my friends and join a new clan which were mainly Expert and diamond 1 league players. Consequently, I was getting put in matches with players from both Master and Champion Leagues just to make up numbers, sometimes with rankings 4000 points above my own. This made playing the game at certain times of day impossible, certainly if I wanted to earn gold to improve my equipment. Even my best squad mates were experiencing similar problems. And then the Anniversary event hit...
I thought Pix's idea to have daily tasks to eventually win a Rogatka was fantastic, as I had so many other priorities for my Au that this was probably the only chance I would ever get to own one (they are super fun to run btw). So I started to play like a madman to get this Rogatka. I finished the first few tasks easily enough, earning a Magnum and the next few prizes without a problem. The tasks for bot kills and beacon caps were arduous at times, but inevitable if you just spent the time. But when I saw that they were asking me to win 17 games in order to get to the next task, I knew I had to make a choice.
I knew to win 17 games could require up to 340 mins of gameplay at a winrate of 50%, which was higher than my winrate at the time. And this was for 1 task, with more difficult ones to come. With 60 tasks to complete, I couldn't spend almost 6 hours just to complete 1 task, otherwise I should just forget about owning a Rogatka. But what bothered me so much about the win tasks in particular was not so much the time it would take, but how out of my control it was. So many players were tanking, and in many games I knew within the first 30 seconds we were going to lose, through no fault or lack of strategy of our own.
This was the final straw. First I was placed in impossible matches because I unbalanced my hangar with a lvl 11 Leo. Second was because I was winning too much against hangars of comparable strength. Third because I progressed to a league above the tankers and there were not enough players left except Master and Champion League players. Now Pixonic wanted to require me to win enough games in spite of all these disadvantages (resulting from honest play!), just in order to win Au/gear to put me on a level playing field as those who were playing dishonestly.
And so at that point I simply gave up. I decided that if Pixonic hadn't devised an adequate solution in the 6 months that I had already been playing the game, then I was on my own. So as they say, if I couldn't beat them, then I should join them. For the first time in 6 months of play, I began losing matches on purpose. I did the math. I soon discovered that if I tanked 10 games each 10 minutes, I would usually still win one. So even if I tanked, I would still win one game per 10 mins, which is as fast as a 100% winrate of playing games all the way through to the 10 minute mark. That meant I could earn 17 wins in half the time as playing honestly. Furthermore, my league dropped as far as Gold 3, which compounded the ease of winning enough matches for the tasks.
I was actually disgusted at just how effective this tactic was. Furthermore I was even more disgusted to still come across some of the same near-maxed out hangars I had encountered 4 - 6 leagues higher. I was even matched against a player who was in Silver League with lvl 11 and 12 weapons. I have included a shocking screenshot of his stats below.
Interestingly, I spent 1000 Au on a gold chest in the anniversary event, as I had checked on the forums what prizes were on offer and realised I needed almost all of them. This was my most fortuitous move to date. I quickly won enough gold to complete the bar to a super chest, where I won even more gold, which I used to complete more openings of gold and super chests, winning almost all the gold prizes I so desperately needed. I won a Butch, Doc, 2 Jesses, a Lancelot, and lots of gold equipment. Somewhat ironically, I also won 2 Rogatkas. Had I have known the event would yield such good results, I probably wouldn't have felt the need to tank at all. I appreciated the event so much, I spent actual money for the very first time to show my support for Pixonic's initiative, especially as it coincided with my birthday.
And so I still earned my Anarchy Rogatka, along with all the prizes along the way, ending up in Diamond League 2 by the end. I haven't felt the need to drop a match since, as I am currently playing in Diamond League 1 and it's a good fit. My biggest problem is still tankers with maxed out hangars, but most other players have a comparable level of ability vs hangar strength. I don't currently feel the need to tank anymore, as I don't enjoy the Schadenfreude of seal clubbing and I'm not as desperate for equipment anymore. I wouldn't say I would never do it again, as I never say never, but I would only do it if I felt I was being unfairly disadvantaged.
And so there you have it - the honest player, turned tanker, turned honest(?) player. Personally, I don't give two poo poos if you think what I did was right or wrong. I merely write this so people (hopefully also the developers) can understand why I felt the need to tank, and hopefully develop a system which does not incentivise selfish play. Wishing you all the best.
DarkerVagabond
