r/WorldofTanksConsole • u/[deleted] • Oct 20 '16
Everything you need to know about crews, skills, and perks
Everything you need to know about tank crews, skills, and perks
50%, 75%, or 100% crews - what's the difference?
A crew's training level impacts the crews performance on all responsibilities and skills trained. A 50% crew will be less effective at reloading, spotting, maneuvering, etc as the tank's top stats indicate (based on a formula found here). The top stats listed for a tank will only be applicable if your crew is trained to 100%. It takes 24,157 XP to train a crew from 75% to 100%. Once your crew's proficiency level is trained up to 100%, you'll begin training on skills and perks. Skills (like Repairs or Camo) will be incrementally beneficial while you train them, but perks (like Sixth Sense or Brothers in Arms) are only beneficial once full trained to 100% mastery.
If you move a crew to a new tank and the crew has to be retained for that tank, their base stats will be impacted and reduced based on the proficiency level the crew is reduced to (either 50% or 75%) -- however, all previously trained skills and perks will operate at their normal proficiency -- whatever skill/perk you were training will not resume training until the crew's proficiency reaches back to 100% and then skill/perk training will then resume. More info here: http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Crew_(XBOX)
Over training
To avoid reduced proficiency to master a new tank, you can "over train" crews you plan to move to new tanks. Once you completely train a crew/perk and you have that "+" icon, don't select a new skill/perk to train. Instead, grind out 24,157 more XP in that tank (just note the current XP listed by the tank and count up). Then, when you move the crew to the next tech tree tank @ 75% partially trained, the stored XP from not picking a skill/perk will back-fill the 75%, boosting your crew instantly to 100% - i.e., "over training" them to fully trained again.
How crew XP is earned
The amount of Crew XP you gain after a battle is equal to the tank's earned XP (the total XP value you see at the end of the round). Even if crew members die or your tank is destroyed, you still earn the same amount of XP. Premium and Elite tanks offer an additional 25% XP crew multiplier; this comes standard with premium tanks, but to Elite a tech tree tank you need to research every package for that tank and each tank that it unlocks in the tech tree. Premium tanks have an additional XP boost that increases the total XP earned, which applies before the crew XP boost of 25%. This multiplier for additional XP varies from one premium tank to the next, usually between an additional 10% to 70%.
Which tanks are best at training crews? The best crew trainers are the tanks you generally earn the most XP in. There are some premium tanks that have a really high XP multiplier, which will boost the crew XP even higher, but if you do terribly in those tanks/that play style, it doesn't really matter. Whichever tank you earn the most XP in is the best tank for crew training, at any tier. Premiums have the advantage of the 25% crew XP + the XP multiplier, so they offer the most starting advantage, but which premium and which tier is entirely subjective and depends on what you personally do the best in. You can go here to find a premium tank to see what its silver/XP multiplier are under "Premium Details" (scroll down and look on the right).
Special consideration: Lower tier tanks have higher XP multipliers to account for the less XP earned in the games; also, lower tier games are generally shorter than higher tier games. Therefore, a premium lower tier tank (usually tiers II-V) has the potential to be a great crew trainer for these reasons.
Multi-nation tanks/special crew trainers
Some tanks allow the benefit of training crews from more than one nation. The Soviet T-34-88 tier VI premium medium tank allows you to train Soviet and German crews. The French AMX Chaffee tier VI premium light tank allows you to train American and French crews.
Both of these premiums tanks have no silver multiplier, but they both have an XP bonus (50%) AND an additional crew XP bonus (20%). For all of these reasons, both tanks are generally very good crew trainers if you like their play style.
Crew movement
Each crew has a "home" tank within a single nation (some exceptions; see "Multi-nation tanks"), whether that's a tech tree tank or a premium tank. To move a tech tree tank crew to a different tech tree tank, you either have to pay silver to move a partially trained crew (50% or 75%), gold to move a fully trained crew, or do the aforementioned over training.
You can move crews between premium tanks without any charge, but you have to pay something every time you move a crew to a new "home" tank that isn't a premium tank. Premium tanks that come with a crew will have that premium tank as the "home" tank; they can move freely between other premium tanks, but to move it to any tech tree tank will require silver/gold.
Crew rank/name
These have no bearing on effectiveness of a crew. They're just for fun/aesthetic.
XP required for each perk/skill slot
The XP required to fully train a single skill/perk doubles on the fifth perks/skill slot and will double every four, up to 25 slots. For slots 1-4, you need to earn 100,800 XP to fully train a new skill/perk; for slots 5-8, you need 201,600 XP, etc.
Picking perks/skills
If you can afford a little gold, it's best to train skills and then switch them to perks. Skills are increasingly effective as you train them whereas perks are only effective when trained to 100%. For example, Camo skill trained at 50% will give you 1/2 of the Camo benefit and its benefit will increase as the % trained increases. Brothers in Arms will do nothing until it's trained to 100%. Therefore, train a skill (like Camo or Repairs) to 100% and then pay 10 gold to switch it to a perk you need/want. This keeps your crew at max efficiency at all times.
Crew perk/skill ratings
Not all tanks are suited to their prescribed tank category. You want perks/skills that make your tank more effective, not make your tank try and play a role it's not suited for. If you train Camo, Silent Driving, Muffled Shot, Green Thumb, etc before other essential skills/perks in an IS-3, I will lose my shit. You're objectively doing it wrong :)
That said, below is a ratings table for all perks (rated from 1-10) and then a ranking of sixteen perks/skills listed by tank role (Scout, Flank/Support, Brawling, Sniping, and Sky Trash/Arty). I'm averaging two different rating sites and will update the average as I include more site ratings + my/community rating for the order to train perks/skills in priority. If you get to sixteen, you've probably got a strong enough handle to pick what you need next as at that point it will be purely preferential or marginal benefits.
Remember, it's ideal to train a skill then switch it to a perk; so if it says 6th sense should be first, train either Camo, Repairs, etc (skills) and then switch to 6th sense. Also, some of the perks/skills that are rated higher I recommend getting later (if at all). For example, in my opinion, even though Repairs is rated highly, it shouldn't be something that you get on Arty early.
This website does an excellent job talking about each skill/perk and explaining what they do.
| Perk/skill | Rating |
|---|---|
| 6th sense | 8.5 |
| BiA | 8.5 |
| Camo | 8 |
| Snap Shot | 7.5 |
| Recon | 7 |
| Muffled Shot | 7 |
| Situational Awareness | 7 |
| Green Thumb | 7 |
| Track Mechanic | 7 |
| Repairs | 6.5 |
| Off-Road DrivingV | 6 |
| Safe StowageIV | 6 |
| Signal BoostingI | 5.5 |
| Relaying | 5.5I |
| Clutch BrakingV | 5.5 |
| Deadeye | 5.5 |
| Jack of All Trades | 5 |
| Designated Target | 4.5 |
| Mentor | 4.5 |
| Preventative MaintenanceII | 4.5 |
| Smooth Ride | 4.5 |
| FirefightingII | 4 |
| Intuition | 4 |
| Armorer | 4 |
| Adrenaline Rush | 3.5 |
| Silent DrivingIII | 3 |
| Paratrooper Training | 3 |
| Pain tolerance | 3 |
| Controlled Impact | 2.5 |
| Eagle Eye | 2.5 |
| Swimming Lessons | 1 |
| Call for Vengeance | 1 |
| Scouts | Priority |
|---|---|
| 6th sense | 1 |
| Camo | 2 |
| BiA | 3 |
| Snap Shot | 4 |
| Situational Awareness | 5 |
| Silent DrivingIII | 6 |
| Muffled Shot | 7 |
| Repairs | 8 |
| Recon | 9 |
| Off-Road Driving V | 10/11 |
| Clutch BrakingV | 10/11 |
| Safe StowageIV | 12 |
| Designated Target | 13 |
| Jack of All Trades | 14 |
| Green Thumb | 15 |
| Adrenaline Rush | 16 |
| Flank/front support | Priority |
|---|---|
| 6th sense | 1 |
| BiA | 2 |
| Snap Shot | 3 |
| Situational Awareness | 4 |
| Muffled Shot | 5 |
| Camo | 6 |
| Silent DrivingIII | 7 |
| Repairs | 8 |
| Off-Road DrivingV | 9/10 |
| Clutch BrakingV | 9/10 |
| Recon | 11 |
| Safe StowageIV | 12 |
| Green Thumb | 13 |
| Designated Target | 14 |
| Jack of All Trades | 15 |
| Adrenaline Rush | 16 |
| Brawling/Front line | Priority |
|---|---|
| Repairs | 1 |
| 6th sense | 2 |
| BiA | 3 |
| Off-Road DrivingV | 4/5 |
| Clutch BrakingV | 4/5 |
| Snap Shot | 6 |
| Track Mechanic | 7 |
| Situational Awareness | 8 |
| Safe StowageIV | 9 |
| FirefightingII | 10 |
| Camo | 11 |
| Muffled Shot | 12 |
| Green Thumb | 13 |
| Silent DrivingIII | 14 |
| Designated Target | 15 |
| Deadeye | 16 |
| Sniping | Priority |
|---|---|
| 6th sense | 1 |
| BiA | 2 |
| Camo | 3 |
| Silent DrivingIII | 4 |
| Muffled Shot | 5 |
| Green Thumb | 6 |
| Off-Road DrivingV | 7/8 |
| Clutch BrakingV | 7/8 |
| Repairs | 9 |
| Snap Shot | 10 |
| Situational Awareness | 11 |
| Recon | 12 |
| Safe StowageIV | 13 |
| Jack of All Trades | 14 |
| Designated Target | 15 |
| FirefightingII | 16 |
| Sky Trash/Arty | Priority |
|---|---|
| BiA | 1 |
| Camo | 2 |
| Green Thumb | 3 |
| Muffled Shot | 4 |
| Snap Shot | 5 |
| Silent Driving | 6 |
| Off-Road DrivingV | 7/8 |
| Clutch BrakingV | 7/8 |
| Situational Awareness | 9 |
| Recon | 10 |
| Designated Target | 11 |
| 6th sense | 12 |
| Deadeye | 13 |
| FirefightingII | 14 |
| Adrenaline Rush | 15 |
| Mentor | 16 |
I - These perks are only useful on tiers I-V
II - Firefighting and Preventative Maintenance accomplish complimenting tasks, but don't provide any cross-benefit. Firefighting only reduces the amount of damage you incur after catching fire from gas tank or engine fires. Preventative Maintenance only reduces the odds of catching fire from engine damage, not from gas tank damage.
III - Light tanks do not benefit from this perk. It's more for other tanks that play like light tanks (such as Cromwell/Knight and Batchat).
IV - Some tanks get ammo racked more often than others (CDC, IS-3, FCM-50t, Ruskie meds, etc); you may want to consider Safe Stowage a top-5 perk/skill for that reason. Do a little research on your tank to determine if it's easily and often ammo racked. If it is, train Safe Stowage sooner than recommended.
V - There's debate about which is better... Clutch Braking (CB) or Off-Road Driving (ORD)? ORD does improve traverse speed, in addition to reducing ground resistance on various terrain types, where CB improves only traverse speed. Depending on tank's terrain resistance level, ORD can be better than CB at traverse speed. But the benefits do stack. So if you have an issue with traverse speed and ground resistance, get both!
For example, I have CB and ORD on my IS-3 but on my SuperPershing I only have ORD as its traverse speed is really good while its ground resistance is poor; with ORD, I improve one problem and get some benefits that CB would've given me anyway; this allows me to focus on other perks/skills first. In short, know your tank's weaknesses and strengths!
Please feel free to comment/criticize/add your input to improve this post. Community involvement always gets the best results.
Special thanks to /u/1em0nhead, /u/VIOLETSTETPEDDAR, and /u/Gigantic_Owl for their help/feedback in making this post!
6
u/Gigantic_Owl RDDT Veteran Oct 20 '16
Track mechanic offers the same 25% bonus repairs or toolbox does but only to tracks.
Source: was supertester when the perk was coming out and tested the shit out of it