Original date of blog: June 24th, 2015
I was going to do this for my 30th entry, but Wargaming broke the game, so I had to write about that instead because it was too funny not to. Why the 30th? Because it’s somewhat of a milestone, and I’m turning thirty this year (I feel so old o_o), so it seemed fitting. So Wargaming broke that too =’D
Anyway, it was December 4th that I first posted an entry to this blog. The day before the Noobs came. Back then, I felt like a pretty good player. Boy, what a noob I was. I thought camping was awesome, and that it worked really well. The words Angle and Sidescraping were completely foreign to me. True, I still can’t do much of either now, but at least I know what it is!
I hadn’t yet figured out that there were other ways to drive a tank destroyer that didn’t involve camping. Truth is, I still camp in my tanks, but it’s a rare thing now, and I only do it when I feel it will be good for that match. I trust my instincts when I tank now, having a feel for the maps and for the tanks I’ll meet in battle.
The only ones I really knew in game were Leopard, Owl, Turtle and Panda, and I didn’t even platoon that much. Only when one of them happened to be online and asked me – because I was too insecure to ask them for platoon, except for Leopard, because I knew him best.
I had only just gotten my first tier IX tank, and didn’t understand much of what it took to play in the higher tiers at all. APCR was something I knew existed, but I never carried more than two shells because it was so expensive. Equipment was a foreign term to me as well, and HE was something you only used if the entire enemy tank was red to you with AP.
I have come such a long way since then. For starters, I have my fourth tier IX now, and once I have enough credits, I’ll have my fourth tier X. I no longer shy away from driving expensively – I take plenty of APCR/HEAT with me, and I feed my tankers. I don’t drive a tank until it’s fully equipped, and I buy the crew for tiers VIII, IX and X. If I start to run low on credits, I just use one of my premium tanks and earn back plenty in a short time.
The difference of stats between my first line of tanks and my newer ones are night and day, and I’m fairly sure that that will only increase in the future. I’m working hard to get my stats up in the Monster-line, but it will take some time before they’re decent. Back then, I thought that winrates of 60% were already absolutely awesome. For me, now, a tank only has decent stats if the winrate is about 70% and the average damage is high.
I am a statwhore. I can’t deny that. But aiming for higher stats gives me something to works towards, so I really don’t feel bad about that. At the same time, when we’re having events, I don’t mind losing at all, because I’m having a ton of fun. So, while being a statwhore, I’m mature enough to be able to completely let go of it if I want to.
But the biggest change of all? The Clan. When I started this blog, I knew very few people, and didn’t really platoon much. Now I’m leading a clan of 70+ people, who are all awesome and amazing in their own way. They’re all unicorns to me, and I love our similarities and our differences. Even if I have to go mom on them (translation: telling them off for being rude, being completely immature or other unacceptable behaviour) from time to time, in the end, it all works out, and we get along again. They may not always like it, but they do accept it, and albeit grudgingly, agree to it.
But aside from the people in the Clan itself, my role in the community has completely changed as well. From not knowing there was a Blitz forum at all, I now have quite the active role in the community. I’ve put my Clan out there, both on the Blitz-community and on social media, I’m organising server-wide events between (all the) clans, I’m bettering clan relationships everywhere, getting rid of prejudices and creating an open and friendly atmosphere.
Arrogant as it may sound, I’m actually quite proud of me. I feel like I’ve accomplished quite a bit since I started this blog, stat-wise, clan-wise and community-wise. I do my absolute best to keep drama levels to an absolute minimum. At least in LOCA and between clans. Because drama is what eventually ruins all good things about an online game. I’m sure I’ll not be able to prevent it all, and that has already been proven. But I’ll settle for minimum.
I’ve written a tankiquette of basically just stating the obvious and mentioning manners that I find normal in real life, and online. It’s surprisingly hard for people to be polite online. I don’t see why that should any different online than offline. But then.. nowadays youths and all don’t have much manners either, so I’m guessing I shouldn’t be too surprised. My parents raised me to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, just saying. 😉
Either way, I think the biggest change of all is that it’s no longer just a game. Of course, the game is just a game, but with the community around it, the different people, it’s so much more. And that’s what keeps things interesting. I have days, sometimes weeks, that I don’t tank at all, where I’ll still stay involved in the clan-chat, the forum, the blitz-forum. True, I’m not that active there – I’m not one to post for the sake of posting, so I usually only post when I feel I have something to contribute.
And the changes still aren’t done. I’m still learning new things about tanking and the tanks I drive every single day, I’m learning whole new tactics. Recently, I’ve come to the realisation I like driving mediums. That was a definite first for me, since I always sucked so much at it before. I still have a heck lot to learn about driving them, but I’ll soon no longer just be a TD-woman.
That in itself feels strange already. When I started this game, I never had any intention to drive anything but TD’s. Because of the big guns and big booms. It’s strange to realise that I might actually enjoy other tank lines even more. I can’t wait to learn how to properly do the circle of death. I know I will definitely need help from our Medium-experts in the clan to get there. I mean you, Buffalo, Coyote. Be prepared 😉
I can’t wait to see what else will change this upcoming half year, I’m looking forwards to all the new things I’ll be learning, all the events we will be having, the clan-relations we’ll develop. The thing I’m most worried about is how Wargaming will screw everything up. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. I’m hoping they will ask for input from the Clans on the server, like they do on the pc-version of the game, before implementing anything/everything. We’ll see.
For now, I’ll continue to grow, to learn, to have fun, and to mother-hen the heck out of everyone =D
Then:
Battles fought: 2,531
Winrate: 55.16%
Now:
Battles fought: 7,384
Winrate: 64.37%
Average damage: 1,570
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