User:Proto464:na
Contents
- 1 ✐ Howdy, I'm Proto. ✎
- 1.1 ☼ Where it all started... ☼
- 1.2 ✩ Favorite Tanks and First High-Tiers ✩
- 1.3 ⚔ Strengths / Flaws (As A Player) ⚔
- 1.4 ♢ Team Training Bio, History, and Experiences ♢
- 1.5 🏞 Please Bring Climbing Back! 🏞
✐ Howdy, I'm Proto. ✎
Here you can find my WoT self-bio, my general in-game history, the Team Training mode from my point of view, and why climbing should be re-added.
- TL;DR: Don't ask why I wrote all this, I was bored and just felt like it. I don't typically make TL;DRs.
- This page was written December 3rd, 2022. Some information could become out of date with time.
- 👑 My YouTube Channel
- 💎 Some of my best cinematic productions
- 🧭 My WoT Service Record
- 🍹 My Tomato.gg Stats
- 🚕 The Cliff Drop Racing Community Discord
☼ Where it all started... ☼
I first discovered World of Tanks on the Xbox 360 version back in ~2013. After failing my way to my first tier X, the Object 263, I clumsily stumbled over to the PC version in 2015 where I made my Proto464 account. (Originally named "LordPrototype464". "prototype464" was taken and I was going through a phase in my teenage years where I thought being a "lord" of a kingdom was pretty cool (it wasn't.))
Considering whatever else matters concerning me and WoT is all elaborated below, I'd just like to say thank you, Wargaming. Thank you for World of Tanks. Despite its flaws, it has brought me experiences like no other game ever has, and has set me up with some friends for life. It got me into cinematography / video and audio editing, which allowed me to create some really beautiful stuff of my own.
Despite how much I wish I could hate it, I love this game. I love the beauty of it, I love the graphics, the sound design, the music, the variety, the atmospherics, the physics (especially), and (when they're being nice) the community. This game is amazing. I have no idea what kind of person I'd be without it, even though it can be bad for me in excess.
My journey to this point doesn't really matter overall, it's just one story out of thousands of players' experiences, just told in "Asperger's Text Wall™" format. I've never thought of writing something like this, but it's a nice way to get some sort of odd closure / create a bit of hope in myself for WoT's future.
✩ Favorite Tanks and First High-Tiers ✩
Object 430U, First Tier X
My first tier X on PC ended up being the Object 430U, as the Object 268 Version 4 replaced my beloved Object 263 before I could get it. The 430U has quickly become one of my most loved and most played vehicles, as it suits my playstyle very well. Even after Wargaming nerfed the cupolas' armor, the gun handling, and the traverse, it continues to be one of my favorite vehicles to this day and I insist it remains an effective heavium despite this even if I don't play it as often anymore.
It is one of the best sidescraping vehicles I have ever played (minus the engine deck), the only vehicle I have blocked over 10k damage with, and the only vehicle I have dealt over 10k damage with. Because I don't goldspam and really only play this tank casually, it has one mark.
ELC EVEN 90, First Tier VIII Premium
For the longest time this has remained my most played vehicle directly above the Object 430U. To some it may look small and weak, but to me it is one of if not the best scouting vehicles in the game thanks to its camo. Because you can get the concealment rating so high, it allows you to take very aggressive passive scouting spots if you're careful enough.
It makes boatloads of silver being a light tank with low health (even lower repair costs), and its ammunition is quite cheap, while the gun remains punchy enough to hit at its (figurative) weight class. Because I play it casually, for fun, and for silver grinding, it has one mark.
Favorite Tank(s): IS-3 and IS-3-II
Both of these vehicles, in my opinion, are amazing in their own respects but demand respect from their owner in order to be played well. While the IS-3-II is stronger tier-for-tier than the IS-3, both of these vehicles do have their drawbacks. Today's goldspam and hull-down invinciturret meta scream that both of these vehicles are relics of WoT's glory days, and while that's somewhat true, they are still very effective.
They can sidescrape very well, their gun(s) hit hard, and they've got decent mobility. Everything you need from a classic Russian heavy, these two provide. The IS-3 is my first and only three marked vehicle, one of the most difficult and genuinely frustrating experiences I've ever had in WoT. The IS-3-II is two marked.
Honorable Mentions
- E 50 M (Full rampanzer setup)
Despite not having any equipment for reload or gun handling in general on my setup, this tank performs AMAZINGLY. It will ram anything and everything, it does not care who or what you are, if you give it the chance, you are going to be missing 1,000 hitpoints or more at the bottom of that hill. The standard penetration, aim time, dispersion, and accuracy are all excellent even without a setup for it all, and its armor is beyond useable. 10/10 would ram again.
- MT-25 (45mm gun with maximum reload setup)
1.4 second reload, 1.3 below 10% health, two marks. Incredibly good mobility and a nasty little gun, this thing is an evil little [CENSORED].
- T-43 (Pre-HE Nerf)
With the 122mm derp gun it was fun while it lasted and I got it to two marks. Armor layout / shape is very flexible and makes sidescraping an absolute breeze. Mobility's really good and you get from Moscow to Berlin in one tank.
- T-34-85M
This tank is overpowered and should be nerfed, but hey, Wargaming doesn't nerf premiums or reward tanks despite having the ability to. Disgusting amount of DPM (3k with a proper setup), decent mobility, and armor you can work really well provided you mind the turret and cupola.
- EBR 105
I like the playstyle, it was new and refreshing when it was added but the nerfs were certainly needed.
- Cromwell
Despite not looking like it on paper, this is one of the funnest tanks you will ever play.
- ELC AMX (Pre-Nerf)
It was very, very fun until it was nerfed into the ground years ago.
- Object 263 (Pre-Nerf)
I loved everything about this tank including the aesthetic, I was mad and still am at it becoming a mediocre tier IX. Come on, man.
⚔ Strengths / Flaws (As A Player) ⚔
I should first start out by immediately mentioning I have Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD, Tourette's, and OCD. I was diagnosed at the age of 7 and while I do my very best not to blame them for my shortcomings, it's a little less than obvious that some of my flaws are spearheaded by certain quirks that come with this totally wonderful variety of disorders.
Despite coming across as a stupid or inept person socially, I am an intelligent and genuinely talented person (and WoT player). One of my biggest strengths is having a jack-of-all-trades playstyle. I can play any tank and any vehicle, determine a decent setup for said vehicle, and at the very least, try to do my best in it. My best might not be very good at times, but I am unafraid of trying new playstyles and one of my biggest strengths lies in that flexibility. My favorite classes are heavies and lights.
Because I'm quite analytical / logical, the variety and flavor of World of Tanks' game mechanics and statistics systems came naturally provided I was granted the knowledge of how they work internally. Thanks to this, I have developed an excellent understanding of how armor works, how bush mechanics and spotting work, how the physics behaves, and other finer details a lot of players would generally not put as much importance up to, which all go toward me playing my best in sidescraping tanks and high-camo vehicles.
Despite all odds, I'm actually not a bad reactionary player when I'm in smaller scenarios. The less people I'm playing against, the more breathing room my mind has to utilize. I feel incredibly competent in 1v1 scenarios and can often surprise my opponent with my abilities.
Due to fine motor skill issues I've had for my entire life (Asperger's), stressful situations very often lead me to being very shaky in my movements, causing my hands to jerk and move erratically at critical moments, which have screwed me over in battle situations more times than I can count. I've also run into this issue in CS:GO, it's embarassing and often impossible for me to explain this because it's often seen as an excuse when it is a perfectly valid and genuine reason.
Another flaw of mine is anger issues (Asperger's / ADHD). I very, very often get angry at WoT's RNG almost every time I play, and that is generally followed up by repeating how "WoT's RNG by nature makes it impossible to be a truly competitive game" for the 15th time that week, and/or mixed rants about game balancing issues, "toxic" metas (tiny weakspots on invincible hull-down turrets, "pump and dump" drive-by tanks (Bourrasque, Vz. 55, Char Mle. 75, etc.), weakspots being armored, goldspam practically being necessary for good stats,) and other countlessly repeated things that always hinder my ability to play even if not consciously observed.
Lastly out of these three major flaws holding me back from being a better-than-above-average player is single-mindedness (Asperger's / ADHD), I know how to read the minimap and react accordingly but very often I tend to tunnel-vision and by the time I'm done with the fighting or realize I'm not going to be able to do anything where I'm at in the map, I look at the minimap and the other flank has completely fallen or almost the entire team is dead and I'm next. Maybe this is just bad teams (NA server amirite?), but to be honest, I'm pretty sure if I went back sooner, more of these scenarios could be prevented and I'd become a much better player.
There are other, smaller flaws such as many of my plays being far too aggressively positioned and I end up dying early, but other than that and those three major flaws, I'd say I've got WoT down pretty well. Sure I could shoot more gold, but I'm an advocate for not losing silver every time I want to play something that isn't a premium tank, and past a certain point I became a completely Free-2-Play player.
♢ Team Training Bio, History, and Experiences ♢
On console (2013 - 2015), Team Training Rooms were introduced late and because they could only be hosted by players with premium account, I didn't get to host them all that often. It was really fun playing in them with friends and meeting new folks, learning the universal language of raising your gun all the way up and locking it to say you're friendly was one of the funnest, cutest things about it. I really liked console TTRs despite them almost always being dead, exploring maps and climbing was absolutely amazing.
In (late 2015 / early 2016), I joined my first Team Training Room on World of Tanks PC. After browsing the multitude of neat TTR descriptions, I decided to join this "Runners vs. Chasers" room, or "Runners vs. Rammers" as it was called on console before I knew "RvC" was the actual name. Unfortunately, this is where I was also first introduced to a group (or rather, groups) of people I would eventually call "The Apes".
From what I read, the rules said to run / ram, but not to shoot. We were on the Steppes map, and here comes this T-62A by the name of Exhilirated on the Chasers team shooting everyone. When I was killed, I was understandably upset, and asked "Why was I shot?" - Because I was young and brand new at the time, I didn't know how obnoxious my voice was, and after receieving a generic insult in response, I replied "You're a jerk". From that day forward, I was put on my first "KoS (Kill on Sight)" list without even knowing it.
As the year(s) progressed, I advanced in-game, learned the ropes of WoT on PC, got new tanks, and played in more TTRs. At some point, WoT console was discontinued on Xbox 360, but it lives on in memory (the old WoT console, at least.) I grew to have a genuine like toward TTRs in this time - It wasn't like any other experience I've had in gaming, but those people would continue to be a thorn in my side from those days forward. Eventually, come (mid 2017 - early 2018), I started hosting my own TTRs. This was mainly because I wanted to host modes myself, but also because "The Apes" continued to be a thorough and persistent nuisance.
I couldn't enter any Team Training Rooms anymore without my vehicle being purposely destroyed by one person or another followed by an array of insults toward myself and me of course getting upset over it. Multiple times I had been driven to actual tears due to the, for no better a way to describe it, bullying, and genuinely hurtful insults piled on top of that. I had never experienced anything like it in my life, even if it was "just a video game". Bullying at school wasn't even nearly as bad as some of the utter filth that was being thrown my way.
Jimmy Rustler, James, SolidSnake, StoneCold, Amy, Yorkshire, Ender Wiggin, Dirt Napper, Forester, too many names it literally became impossible to keep track of. At some point, I just started blacklisting (and of course, kicking) everyone I thought was a part of those groups. At the time, I didn't know there were multiple, all I saw was this toxicity, hatred, and malice being thrown my way just because I was an "Annoying R*tard" to them. Sure there were times here and there where I did make mistakes, but for the most part, all I wanted to do was play TTRs and have fun. From what I can tell, these kinds of people derive their fun from starting fights and feeding off of the drama that follows.
They join a room en masse, kill folks on the KoS, then give little to no elaboration on why upon being questioned by others about it. Almost all of these rooms, of course, prohibit killing in their rules because people are usually trying to play a game, climb, test stuff, chill around, or any other variety of assorted activities Team Training Rooms enable you to do that you can't do anywhere else. Their definition and method of having fun greatly differs from what quite a decent amount of people who used to frequent public Team Training rooms consider it to be.
Anyway, past a certain point, I began hosting my own rooms. My favorite two modes were Chill Rooms and Gladiator, eventually I made a text file to keep track of my room descriptions for them all: Chill Room, Gladiator, RvC, Hide and Seek, Battle Rooms, Arty Wars, Arty vs. Tanks, Trouble in Terrorist Town, Leviathan, King of the Hill, Heretic, Sardines, Vehicular Tankslaughter, EBR 105 Dodge, Maus vs. All, and even Cliff Drop Racing were all modes I ended up hosting, and quite frequently during those couple years.
Naturally, I wasn't the only person that was subject to this mistreatment from "The Apes". Because they were / are some of the better players in the game in many of the top clans, there wasn't a chance any of us could even fight back especially considering we didn't have the vehicles for it, and because we didn't know the game nearly as well at the time. Because of this, the kind of people that tended to frequent my rooms were often the people who were picked on by those people, and people who didn't want to be around that toxicity / toxic atmosphere. In that time, I actually became quite well-known (or rather, infamous for some) within the TTR community.
"LordF*ggot", "Ryuu 2.0", "Annoying R*tard", "That one guy who kicks everyone from his rooms" were all names that were given to me during that time, but no one even to this day ever had a chance (or rather, cared) to hear my side of the story. At some point, my group at the time and I actually decided to have a war with them to "settle" things. Unsurprisingly, this comically devolved into us collectively getting our @sses handed to us by "The Apes" as we neglected to consider they're literally better players than us and we could not possibly win! XD
Lesson(s) Learned?
At the end of the day, all of it was just drama in a video game... Right? Eh. Despite everything though, I did learn some valuable lessons from it that took far too long to learn, some of which will actually stick with me for life even outside of WoT:
- Getting shot and your tank being destroyed happens, don't get mad when you get damaged and try to ignore it if possible.
This honestly applies to a lot of things as well, at some point you must learn to have thick skin.
- Drama in TTRs (and everything else), while unfortunate, happens.
The only thing you can really do is try to avoid it / stay neutral, and for the genuinely deplorable things, don't be afraid to speak out.
- If you kick people, you are directly involving yourself. (I learned this the hard way.)
Thank you Jimmy, Lobster, Amy, and ImCoconut for teaching me this.
- Don't try to be the hero.
Back in the day, respect ruled TTRs. Now it's only fear that does so. Don't try to reason with them, and especially don't start a war with them. They find your angry reaction hilarious. - Another way of phrasing it would be: "Don't feed the trolls!" - There are many of them and few of you.
- There are two sides of the story, even if you hate the other side.
Past a certain point (late into 2018 / early 2019(?)), I was starting to ask why I was always on KoS with no foreseeable hope of getting off it. One day, I was hosting a small chill room. Jimmy and a buddy of his, Lobster, join my room. Of course, as usual, they KoS me, destroy my vehicle (shooting gold in a TTR, power move lol)
This of course gets me all angry, and considering my day hadn't been great up to that point, I started shouting over the mic at them. Jimmy, miraculously, got me to shut up and stop talking for a moment. He told me "The reason you get KoSed is because you kick people from your rooms."
That, combined with a chat I had with Amy in a clan TeamSpeak a couple weeks before that finally made it click that they actually did have a point there, and around that time is when I started playing TTRs less and less because I, like many others, was honestly just getting burnt out of both TTRs and WoT in general.
Eventually, I actually got an invite to Jimmy's Discord. Since I had a lot of time to think, I made amends with Jimmy, letting him know I realized he was actually right about that and that I was going to stop kicking people, and even if I get KoSed, just to deal with it and move on. That was a turning point for me. Thanks to that as well, Jimmy must've let his buddies know and I got off his friends' KoS as well.
Over time, people did start to forget about me, even if I still know so many people from back then and they know me, most people just kind of forgot. Most except for James. I couldn't actually get off of his KoS for the time and he refused to remove me from it, but at some point many months later, I had uninstalled WoT for a break that lasted about nine months. In this time, I learned more about myself, became less angry and more patient, all thanks to no longer having WoT as an influence.
At the time, I was a part of my buddy's group server, which I came to find out I shared with James. One day I was in a voice chat with my buddy and a couple of his buddies, and James joins. Things are a little silent, but overall there isn't all that much tension in the moment. I nervously ask James "Do you know who I am?" and he replies "I know who you are.", thankfully I was able to de-escalate the situation by letting him know not only had I quit WoT, but also that I had changed not only as a person but also with how I approached the whole kicking people thing. He said "Well, I guess since you no longer play I can remove you from my KoS."
He (aside from Sir Dankus over an unrelated matter he half-falsely blames me for) was the last person I needed to convince to take me off KoS. It was official! I was free to enter any TTR and not be KoSed! But... Was it worth it? I don't actually know to be honest, but at the very least it was closure.
Team Training Rooms Are (Basically) Dead
- With the benefit of hindsight it's kind of funny, and kind of sad.
Thinking back on it now, I get to laugh at my past self. I was younger, and really stupid. I made my share of mistakes but also got every bit of fun out of TTRs as it and the people there brought me. I love to think back on all those noisy nights where we played RvC, came up with clever spots in Hide and Seek, hung out in chill rooms, and especially the nights where we'd spend hours climbing, doing glitches, chatting, or literally all of the above.
Considering the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia and old, faded memories make it feel quite sad the glory days are gone, I do have a genuine reason for feeling disheartened over the current state of TTRs: "The Apes". I had originally come up with that name to describe them as so because they, well, act like apes. They're noisy, obnoxious to many, often disrespectful, have flawed overall reasoning, and just do not care to elaborate or behave any other way. Sure, some are better and more forgiving than others, but they all share that toxicity in common.
It has been 7 YEARS, and a surprising amount of them are still around, pissing on the rotting carcass of TTRs with the same exact behavior seen even all those years ago. In the blue moon a TTR is actually seldom-hosted, they will fill the room and make everyone uncomfortable that don't already know them. Speaking of which, I've lost any will to host rooms anymore. Considering I've all but earned the achievement of "Neutral Status", it is genuinely a bittersweet feeling.
I don't get KoSed anymore, but I don't want to host for them because I still find their behavior and treatment of others outside their group to be deplorable. I hate sitting there and having to watch them treat certain people the way they do, especially children like what was once myself. They think nothing of calling me "r*tard" in jest, but I still find it really hurtful, mainly because I have been called that slur so many times in many different ways, and by all accounts that does not describe any aspect of me, not even my social stature. It doesn't matter if it's a joke, it's still hurtful.
- Team Training Rooms are pretty much dead nowadays, and in a melancholy sense, that's just how it is now.
In all that time, years had passed. 2018 quickly turned into 2020, and now it's 2022 at the time of writing all this. Many of those people including several of the ones I mentioned no longer play World of Tanks and have moved onto other things and fields of life, even my friend group has been closed and re-opened twice with completely different people each time except for a handful of names.
Only one of my friends from that time still plays WoT actively, and as ImCoconut (who has been such an honor to know to this day since 2018) put it: "TTRs are dead. It's no longer about respect, just fear now. Ever since Wargaming removed climbing, there's been nothing to do in TTRs."
No truer words have been spoken about it. Remnants of those groups still hang around of course, but a majority of them have moved on because WoT is still an unbalanced mess even after all these years, not at all helped by Wargaming incessantly introducing unbalanced tanks of all varieties, fixing bugs and glitches that don't affect normal gameplay (elevator glitch, flying glitches, etc.), and more importantly, nuking climbing out of existence.
Nowadays, only a couple of rooms are hosted at most during active hours and they don't typically have all that many people compared to back then. The total and frankly unreasonable removal of climbing contributed greatly to this, a fun glitch for everyone to play around with only shows itself once in a blue moon and even then Wargaming tends to patch it in a few weeks. You can only play the same modes for long before they start to become dry and need something to shake it up. (Not to mention when "The Apes" join it always guarantee that room will shut down soon if the host isn't one of the usuals.)
The Cliff Drop Racing Community, A Glimmer of Hope
I'd like to take a moment to mention Cliff Drop Racing, a WoT TTR community. I had seen these pop up every now and then, but I hadn't actually known there was a Discord until early 2022 or so. Eventually I joined it, and after a few months of inactivity, I realized just how much I liked it and the people there, so with my prior experience managing two small (1,000+ member) Discord communities, I applied to become an admin. After an interview and a discussion about my prior experience / how I planned to contribute, I was incorporated as part of the team and honestly I really enjoy it.
Cliff Drop Racing is a testament to that old TTR spirit Wargaming tried to kill long ago, I can't help but feel it is the last of its kind. It's only made possible by Ironguardian, who out of his own generosity and his own wallet, funds these (organized, balanced) events where people have a chance to win gold that isn't just WoT's tournaments. It's incredibly well-structured, and he has become very well-known in the TTR community as the guy who hosts these events and gives away gold. ZEnderMan333, GIZMO316, myself, our moderators / helpers, and the dozens of other active members all help him co-run it, and I couldn't be happier with how it's all structured. They've got a good thing going here, and it brings me joy to see this survive.
Of course, "The Apes" hate him. They are placed on a staff-only-visible blacklist and kicked from the racing rooms, but the unfortunate thing about this is it's just how it is despite them being given so many chances. They think he's stupid, but as someone who's gotten to know him, I don't think I've met someone kinder and more generous than him, even if he's too suggestible at times. Those people get kicked either because they don't take part in the racing, or end up (wanting to or not) sabotaging the events. When gold's up for grabs, this can't be allowed and there's no way they don't already know that. Anyway, I digress, moving onto the last thing(s) I wanted to talk about here:
🏞 Please Bring Climbing Back! 🏞
Let me speak on behalf of the tens of thousands of people in the WoT climbing and Team Training communities (much likely a lot more than that) and say: "I miss climbing." While I can understand why Wargaming got rid of it from a branding / gameplay (kind of) standpoint, I can't possibly as someone who partook in climbing and got to experience it from both ends (playing against it and doing it myself) in good faith EVER say it was good of them to do so.
Climbing legitimately brought life to WoT, I have no idea how or why Wargaming can't possibly fathom that. While yes for your less-than-average player it could be annoying to play against, it was the one thing keeping the corridor meta at bay and TTRs consistently fun. Maps were a lot more open, felt leagues less claustrophobic, and it brought something more important to WoT than any amount of money: Soul. With the removal of climbing, WoT lost a good chunk of its soul.
With climbing, you got the opportunity to take some of the most beautiful screenshots, see some of the most awe-inspiring locations, see the coolest of views, and have some of the funnest (and funniest) experiences EVER in gaming. Not to mention, there have been more climbs than I can count that did actually require quite some skill in maneuvering to get up, and even moreso which required certain tanks with enough speed / traction to make it up. Wargaming made climbing more balanced when they applied limits to RPM on certain inclines, but to put up invisible walls absolutely everywhere was just straight up murder.
The WoT climbing and Team Training communities politely request of Wargaming.net the following:
- Remove the restriction of all shaded areas of the minimap being completely inaccessible.
In other words, interact with the community more and through dialogue / testing, work out which climbs to fix and which to keep like what was done before the infamous "They Will All Be Blocked" update. World of Tanks has never been a particularly balanced nor competitively viable game and frankly, never will be.
It would honestly be better to embrace that and let the creative side of the community flourish, than to continue pretending WoT's current direction is any better despite slowly falling player numbers every year. Above all, please, just don't restrict ALL areas of the map like this.
OR
- To satisfy the climbing and Team Training communities alongside the added benefits of opening up future possibilities for even the game itself as a whole, allow the ability to turn off the invisible walls in Team Training Rooms.
Additionally, while I'm at it, some additional changes to the Team Training mode would be greatly appreciated as it is one of the most under-developed modes:
- Allow hosts to ban players from their rooms, not just kick them. This ban list should be accessible to the host so they can also unban players if they wish.
- Allow hosts to toggle voice chat for the lobby while a match is in-progress, this would put an end to lobby mic spammers which are very common.
- Allow hosts to toggle whether or not players can deal damage to others, for things like chill rooms and the like which have been a TTR staple for years.
- Allow hosts to restrict the tier and/or vehicle class participants can choose, similar to filters already in nearly every other mode.
- Adjust the room description display to instead of showing a scroll bar past three lines that an overwhelming majority of players don't tend to notice, display 4 or more lines.
- Allow hosts to start rooms by themselves and/or allow one team to be empty. This would help people working on filming-related projects immensely.
- Allow hosts to toggle whether being flipped on your side / upside down kills you or simply unflips you after a few seconds like in Steel Hunter or on console.
- Allow hosts to toggle spectator on players.
- Several of these are already features on World of Tanks console and have been so since the introduction of TTRs to console, so really a lot of this would be parity.
Climbing Showcase / What Used to Make WoT (Really) Fun
And lastly, to summarize something more powerful than words can describe as a strong advocacy toward climbing:
- This is by no means a catalogue of climbs, but rather a few to showcase what made them so amazing to begin with.
- Needless to say, all of these except a couple (River Valley and Warehouse Roof) are patched. There were hundreds upon hundreds of climbs like these that were disappointingly removed.
Rheinmetall Panzerwagen ⚜ Mountain Pass ⚜ D5 Climb
- Description
This climb was fixed a long time ago and wasn't the even the best Mountain Pass had to offer out of all its climbs, but it certainly looks great.
- Requirements
Your tank needed to have good traction, a top speed around 70, a weight below 30, and a running start.
- Difficulty
For inexperienced climbers it wasn't the easiest, but it also wasn't difficult by any means. Just a matter of getting up the first slope.
- Viability (Should-This-Be-Patched-ness) - Functional
If you're in a fast light tank, this climb becomes not only possible but viable. It enables you to spot the bridge and ice valley and has bushes / trees.
Patch? Move or get rid of the concealment, flatten the rocks, or block visibility with something. Due to similar climbs the South team can perform, this climb is balanced out by the other climbs this map used to have. (It's still a great climb and would be a shame to lose.)
Leopard 1 ⚜ Glacier ⚜ Glacier Climb
- Description
This is one of the most well-known and easiest climbs but barely deserves the title of "climb". Wargaming seems to encourage the use of it on their YouTube videos (RNG Series) showcasing tanks jumping off of it every now and then onto unsuspecting tanks below. That's the spirit! Please don't let this side of the game die!
- Requirements
Any vehicle, provided its traction isn't absolutely awful.
- Difficulty
As mentioned, this is quite literally the most easiest climb in existence. Recently, Glacier was updated and the climb was smoothened and made much less steep.
- Viability (Should-This-Be-Patched-ness) - Semi-Functional
This climb is a double-edged sword, in a light tank you can spot and shoot a majority of the North team's middle, along with some of the North team TD positions, however you are exposed to fire and artillery from nearly all directions and are quite literally a beacon begging to be shot at.
Patch? Unbalanced for the North team, should have a South team equivalent, and very dangerous to use. Fun to see people dive off of, and great for screenshots. Removal would be a shame.
O-Ni ⚜ Province ⚜ Valley Crossing
- Description
A trek all the way down a cliff from the Northeast corner of the map down and through the river to an opening up to the sea down at the Southeast corner. O-Nis can play Battleship in this river as it's shallow enough for them to make their daily commute in their daily O-Ni lives.
It used to be possible to get on top of the bridge to the left of the O-Nis by using Torsion Bars (Later renamed to Improved Hardening in Equipment 2.0) and full-sending on the cliff to the left in a tank that can go above 70 kph, only you'd be missing half of your health upon landing. This climb was patched after the infamous "They Will All Be Blocked" update, however the river crossing area remains possible to this day.
Lastly (to elaborate on it still being possible), despite it being absurdly difficult and requiring a couple pushers to get to, it is only (rarely) seen in Team Training. Yes, it is possible in Random Battles, but the cap circles and physics abuse reports exist for a reason, don't they?
- Requirements
Most tanks except slow heavies / tank destroyers can make it to the area behind the bridge to the left of the O-Nis, only the O-Ni can go into the water in this specific area and not drown. This is because it is the tallest tank in the game and can tread the deepest water out of any other vehicle.
- Difficulty
To start, you need at least two to three pushers to boost the O-Nis or any other vehicle(s) up to the cliff where you have to jump all the way in the Northeast corner of the map. Then, you jump off an almost ninety degree cliff into nearly-flat ground below using some loose rocks (some of which are "ghost rocks" (rocks which don't have a hitbox and you drive through them)) as your guide at the beginning of this short journey.
The beginning of this climb is quite difficult for some and if you jump off wrong, you'll wreck, or drown, or both. Then it's a somewhat slow trek through water, ghost rocks, and avoiding sharp terrain pits to your destination near the Southeast corner. Throughout this entire lower valley, the terrain softness is worse than Lakeville's valley, which greatly reduces traverse speed and can catch you off-guard while navigating the river.
In short, a really difficult start but the rest is just a matter of memorizing a specific route through the water and keeping in mind some dangers.
- Viability (Should-This-Be-Patched-ness) - Fun Climb (Non-Functional)
Not viable for anything except enjoyment, great views, and bragging about how you jumped off of a cliff in an O-Ni and survived.
Patch? No, don't patch this. Its only purpose is Team Training fun and proving even more that the O-Ni is a battleship in disguise.
EBR 105 ⚜ Safe Haven ⚜ Warehouse Roof
- Description
A hop, skip, and a jump on a short wall using the weird physics of the EBR's wheels on sharp edges to vault over a tall invisible wall onto a factory roof.
- Requirements
An EBR 105, or anything else you can find that happens to go well-over 90 kph and has wheels.
- Difficulty
Considering it's just a matter of hitting the wall right, not too difficult. However, it can take quite a few tries and you if you fail it you have a decent likelihood of heavily damaging yourself, getting stuck on your side, or just straight up dying, if not all of the above.
- Viability (Should-This-Be-Patched-ness) - Fun Climb (Semi-Functional(?) / Non-Functional)
Considering this climb is as new as Safe Haven, has rarely been done even in TTRs, and a patch raising the invisible wall where it's performed ensuring the EBR 105 is the only vehicle that can do it, the viability of it is questionable alongside the fact you can be shot from North and from practically the entire West team at any given point.
Patch? You won't be able to shoot anyone except folks in North, but even then you can be shot from many angles and only one tank can do this. No patch necessary.
TOG II* ⚜ Ensk ⚜ Hidden Tank
- Description
There's a TOG II* hidden in this picture, but I won't tell you where. :)
- Requirements
You don't see the TOG II*...
- Difficulty
...And it is very hidden.
- Viability (Should-This-Be-Patched-ness) - Fun Climb (Non-Functional)
lol
Patch? No.