The Day Light Tanks DIED | World of Tanks 9.18 Review #2/3

PLEASE HELP ME WITH A FUTURE VIDEO! forms.gle/wiQb...
Light tanks lost nearly all their diversity in patch 0.9.18, and are still extremely generic across the board, with few unique qualities left on most of them (and I never said they were good qualities). Yes, I know these changes were to make them into recon vehicles, but the view range and speed also got nerfed, so they did a little more than turning them into recon vehicles...
FULL PATCH NOTES: worldoftanks.c...
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P.S. That's the last video done for 2023 besides the year-in-review one.

[@lncoming]

Two quick things to note- 1. Filmora butchered the bitrate upon exporting the project, so it's super grainy for no reason. 2. 16/18 tier 6+ light tanks got nerfed in this update. The two exceptions were the T54 ltwt (moved to tier 9 and got basically no buffs), and the T21 (which is basically a medium, got 10m less view range, and 0.7 better top speed). This doesn't include whatever they did to tier 5s, which also got huge nerfs sometimes (most notably the ELC getting absolutely killed). This update has ended up being one of the worst of all time, I have no doubt. --------------------- Edit: I didn't even mention that lights have a much more harsh penetration drop-off than most other tanks, when they already have lower pen to begin with. Edit 2: If you want to critique this video with your own, or watch it on stream, be my guest. Just, please don't be someone who sits there, in the bottom left, with nothing to add. Don't be a SSSniperwolf, be a Jacksfilms :)

[@Uberrandom]

Only the T10 lights have the absurd pen dropoff - the 54ltwt and RU have basically the same pen as tier tier 10 counterparts at 500m despite having ~25 less base pen.

[@explorersara]

"The two exceptions were the T54 ltwt (moved to tier 9 and got basically no buffs)" I don't get it. Why would a tier 8 tank with tier 9 MM be buffed when it is moved to tier 9 with the same MM? Goes from +3 MM to +2.

[@griffinfaulkner3514]

Did you forget that old light tanks had +3/-1 matchmaking? because that was very much a thing, and explains why some tanks got moved up a tier. If all they'd done is change them to +2/-2 without anything else they would've been fine, but the rest of the changes you mentioned are what killed them... with the exception of the T-54 lightweight and T71 DA, which escaped the nerf bat mostly intact.

[@СергейКленовский-ч4ц]

I recommend to try DaVinci Resolve for video editing, it has nice convenient interface so it's easy to re-learn and it can export in H.265 so bitrate and file size will not be an issue. Never had any editing related problem since I started to use it. Literally 10/10 software.

[@lncoming]

@@СергейКленовский-ч4ц Cheers, might look into it at some point for next year's projects. Wondershare almost had a PR disaster earlier this year by borderline-cancelling lifetime licenses. That was the entire appeal of the product, so they're gonna go downhill pretty soon.

[@Robb_in_Oz]

it's a shame what WG has done to WoT, the hull down HT meta absolutely blows, but hey who wants to play anything other than a HT that's as fast as a MT has the same view range as a LT and the penetration of a TD while being immune to HE

[@neojuanma]

They can change the Hull down meta adding new city maps whit no places to use the gun depresion making the gamers try another mechanics

[@lncoming]

If only I could pin a second comment

[@antonvlasov2092]

agreed, this happened because they made gold ammo purchasable for silver, making armor useless

[@USMC0311CplJackson]

Unless you are an American HT, then you still have a big ass weak spot the size of an ELC Even 90 on top of the turret, so no hull down for you.

[@1slotmech]

That was the whole idea. Med and heavy players bitched and got their way.

[@chems]

Remember when people use to be light tank mains? Now light tanks are so boring and irrelevant, aside from scouting for platoon mates there's really no reason to play lights. (Except for LT-432 and EBR 75, EBR 105, which are regarded as the best largely because they have guns that can actually do something)

[@znoqap]

elc amx my goat dont forget 🤧

[@amzarnacht6710]

My Manticore would argue the point... It's evil incarnate even if it can't dish pinpoint shots at full speed. I never could figure out how to drive wheelies, I was always rolling them or running into junk. That ninety degree snap turn without loosing speed absolutely defies my attempts at learning it..

[@neisvestno2444]

​@@amzarnacht6710cap

[@edgypone4011]

​​@@amzarnacht6710just gather speed, then when you turn press X to switch to slow mode, release gas and hold turn alone, after you turned quickly turn the fast mode back on and keep going. Sometimes even just releasing gas and pressing the turn key does the trick, without switching modes, gotta go fast enough tho

[@bonehunter9766]

Valid opinion, I used to play 80% of my games in Lighttanks. Now I pretty much only play mediums, they can also mount CVS so why play LT

[@esbam2002]

I want my 10 round autoloading Bulldog back! As a LT main, at this point there isn't much of a reason to play them over a MT. Then there's wheeled ebola.

[@chrisscala4221]

As an LT main I play the bourrasque. An MT. yep. F for respects.

[@willpotts4343]

highest exp i ever received was the 10 shot bulldog

[@1slotmech]

​@@chrisscala4221the BBq is a 12t with a EBR 105 turret and gun on it. Basically an overgunned light tank designated as a medium. That's why it's so OP at tier 8.

[@amzarnacht6710]

​@@willpotts4343Highest XP (other than with Churchill III) was with my old 59-16 with the autoloader. I would get 20k+ wn8 battles with it all the time. LOVED that tank, it was my go to for a long, long time. Until WG took away the autoloader and then it just became another run of the mill LT with absolutely zero qualities to make it any different from all the other LTs of its tier. As for the bulldog... yeah, it was a beast with its autoloader. I remember, back when I used XVM, eyeballing a deep-purple player in their own LT unload on a hapless heavy. The moment he dished his last shell I launched from my bush and fell in on his tail as he ran, unloading until he was dead. I did an immediate handbrake 180 and jetted back as his entire rear line opened up and not one shot landed. Guy messaged me after the battle and laughed at being gunned down on the run and no one even scratched my paint. A month later the autoloader was taken away... Did I rip up a dev, or something? :(

[@jonathanvl1160]

Always some dudes who pop by on the mm to ruin your day with those wheelies there was a better way to implament them but even now they are still a but too much even just with the matches few and inbetween.

[@BobcatxD69]

"Light tanks don't fit our corridor map hulldown meta and thus a rebalance was needed"

[@unknown_player9498]

rip 59-16 and its shitgun

[@thunder7135]

When they butchered the AMX ELC Bic, that was my saddest day in WoT. The second saddest day was when they added the EBR to the game. You were not supposed to have good games in a high-tier light tank if you were a below-average player, until the EBR came, which initially was able to drive at 105km/h and had more view range than it has now. For a GOOD WHILE (talking years), there was no point in playing any other tier 10 light tank, if you wanted to win the game for your team.

[@zanwrightmfwr756]

Same here. I missed the ELC AMX. I don't mind them nerfing the the firepower, that's fine, but they completely butcher the mobility. A fucking Panzer III has better mobility. What's the point playing a light tank when it's just a worse off medium.

[@kebabsaurusrex1601]

This 1000% this. I loved the AMX ELC, it had a high skill ceiling but was so enjoyable to learn how to use it - then they destroyed it...

[@Ozark-nq9uu]

I played the ELC for years both before and after nerf. I still have yet to notice any significant difference, especially on mobility, and that gun still slaps.

[@thunder7135]

@@Ozark-nq9uu I don't think this is up for debate. The current ELC is not even comparable to the old one, literally every single aspect and stat of the tank was nerfed in that summer of 2017, while giving it a tier 5 matchmaking and that was about it. (btw, I often get into tier 7 matches like I did in the past anyway, so... weaker tank overall in those situations.) Since then, however, the hitpoint pool at lower tiers got buffed, making the already lower and nerfed DPM of the ELC make an even lesser impact. Don't get me wrong, I still take the ELC out for a spin occasionally, and I'm at all times at 100% MoE, but ofc, it's a different tank. It's slow, sluggish, and, while having way worse DPM, you're still forced to rely on the gun more than ever and "active" spotting runs and shoot-and-scoot tactics are long gone. It really feels like they wanted to suck the fun out of that tank and they kinda managed to achieve that. EDIT: "I still have yet to notice any significant difference, especially on mobility" - I can't honestly believe that. They nerfed the power/weight from 36.98 to 26.63. It was super hard not to notice that after the change, lol. Among other things, like when they EVEN nerfed its hitpoints to a laughable 320HP LOL. Then, only years later, they buffed the lower tiers and gave it the current 490HP... But that's besides the point. It's still, to this day, the biggest massacre a tank has received in a single patch, to me at least.

[@zanwrightmfwr756]

@@Ozark-nq9uu Years. Did you play it in 2017? Cuz pre 2017 was a whole different beast, especially on the mobility department. It turns faster, it accelerates faster and it has 5kmh more top speed. What are you smoking? Because I want what you're having so that I can cope just as hard as you.

[@StuddMuffinn_YT]

Could make a video on the day maps died with 1.0. Turned every map into hulldown beats all. Here's a quick test. Go to any map, on any flank, on any spawn. There are hulldowns everywhere. Why tf did they add rubble piles for hulldown tanks in Himmelsdorf. Now hulldown tanks beat superheavies, on a city map, the only times super heavies were supposed to be better.

[@lncoming]

Ohhhh that's gonna take a lot more than one video, just you wait...

[@jannekoskinen2050]

And removed a loooot of bushes because Steve the IS-7 driver was getting frustrated that people who knew the spotting mechanics were outplaying him and he had no idea what happened.

[@lncoming]

@@jannekoskinen2050 this is something people forget (myself included) unless you've gone and watched replays back from 2012-2015. There were bushes EVERYWHERE! Fisherman's bay had big spruce trees lining the pier as decoration (like eight of them, in a row) as well as buildings and other stuff all over the place to stop shots and sightlines from being too easy. They then removed a ton of bushes and moved the buildings, and players started getting shot nonstop driving to the city on the northern side. If only it was that obvious to them as well.

[@kevinhall330]

@@lncoming They nerfed bushes and increased corridors on top of more hull down. WG has form. The latest is the event on Prok. When the airplanes crash, they mow a huge portion of the bushes on 2 line at the southern portion of the map. This gives the north a big advantage after the event. They couldn't leave the best vision game map alone - next will be Malinovka. 9.18 removed the character, personality, and diversity of lights. It became the NFL - no fun left.

[@TheHoodedFellow]

I hated this update from day 1. I remember an excuse for murdering view range was that players would have to choose between the gun or scouting when putting equipment on. So lights have to rely on equipment before they can perform their role. Absolutely ridiculous. You should use equipment to make the tank better, not to make it barely functional.

[@maciejpieskasta493]

Sadly it's the other way around now... Without equipment ur not competitive

[@vvav]

This was the update that made WoT bland as fuck. Some Wargaming dev got a stick up his ass about light tanks dealing too much damage which isn't supposed to be their "role" in a battle, so they neutered light guns across the board and told them to go spot... on Himmelsdorf and Tundra. Good joke. Light tanks are just supposed to be spectators without any ability to hurt enemy heavies frontally on all the city maps that the game is full of now.

[@bettyrose959]

In short, you don't know how to play a LT.

[@fannyboy8294]

Correction: In 9.18 there used to be onky one t71. It could use both weapons and both turrets. Later it was seperated into two

[@lncoming]

See, I like this. It tells me you were invested in the video throughout the entire thing. I greatly appreciate that :D

[@Crosshair84]

I was confused when they said that. I had the T71 back then and could only remember there being one tank. Thanks for seeing where the issue was.

[@soicymemes2223]

Great vid man, I have noticed too how WG over the years killed low tiers, first with the light tank update and then the colectors vehicles. Evry single fun tank nerfed into being just another copy of one another. Back then i used to actually play low tiers for fun, now every tank until tier 9 is complete ass.

[@lncoming]

"-now every tank until tier 9 is complete ass." -or the complete opposite, like Chi-To SP or VK 100.01

[@btfo420]

@@lncoming I have zero idea why the fuck the Chi-To SP is in the game, in this current state, at tier 7. Seriously whenever I see that tank playing my T-43, my heart just sunk. There's literally zero thing that I can do, unless it's completely exposed but good luck with that.

[@letsup5627]

I thought I was the only one who remembers 59-16's silly autoloader. Fun fact, my top experience record is still achieved thanks to that tank even tho Ive been playing wot from time to time since 2012 I couldn't manage to beat that

[@phsteven3686]

I absolutely loved the autoloader on the 59-16! Yes I had to spam gold at everything, but it was fun to play. I distinctly remember bouncing half of my magazine on the side of a T20 even firing gold, but I still got him. :)

[@Lunar137]

God I miss the old 59-16's autoloader. That was my go-to for skirmishes.

[@szymonkania3068]

I remember once i was last alive in my team against 200hp kv-4 with this autoloader gun. There was no time to cap so i had to kill him. Once i got on his ass i couldn't pen him no matter what and it was a draw. The laugh of enemy team and dissapointment of mine xd First tank I 3 marked

[@therightarmofthefreeworld4703]

59-16 with the autoloader is the only tank I've marked. And I didn't fire a single round of gold.

[@Crosshair84]

Oh the 59-16 was frustratingly good with the autoloader. You had to spam gold to do anything with it, but it was just so much fun when things went your way.

[@tp5668]

I builded my clan focused around ELC in 2016. After that patch it almost colapsed. I had long brake from WoT afet that day. ELC3K (ELC Freak clan) is still alive but We had to learn once again how to play this tank. True power of ELC is in platoon. It forced us to play it way more as a team (over one man army) on battlefield. Now I am gattering best ELC players from Europe in one spot, and I can assure You this community is quite big. Great video, great data collected, great summary. Cheers from ELC enthusiasts, and ELC3K clan. __TotaS__

[@Claous]

I'm totally interested in getting into this clan, I didn't know there was a clan for ELC enjoyers. I have over 1K games on my AMX ELC Bis and I 3 marked it, it's the most played tank on my main account. I remember the first time I played this game back in 2014 (I think) and saw the ELC on a random game, my first thought was "I want this tank" and I grinded to get it, I loved it so much It became instantly my favorite tank of the game, I loved facehugging IS-3 and Ferdinand with it. When I first saw the new update when they nerfed to oblivion the ELC, I was devastated and furious, I kept playing the ELC until it got nerfed then I switched on PS4 where it didn't get nerfed yet. I still play it time to time but damn I miss the old times.

[@tp5668]

@@Claous Nice to meeting another ELC Freak :) send us application. Clan name is ELC Ferak (ELC3K) You can and in descripton You talked with __TotaS__ on KZbin comments ;)

[@rob7041]

In addition, I felt the into of wheeled vehicles put the final nail in the coffin for lights-not even fastest anymore

[@MoZeZ92]

At least they're weighted so EBR vs Light tank won't be happening anymore.

[@sejozwak]

Crusader was converted because of the 4 tier 5 lights back in the day (Leopard, ELC, Chaffee and Crusader, only Crusader had normal MM, while other three had +1 Scout MM)

[@StuddMuffinn_YT]

Unfortunately I was a T49 specialist throughout this time in WoT history. I remember learning specifically how to fight and counter T-54 lightweights, how to kite and avoid AMX 13 90s. How to dive in punish a Medium Tanks weak rear armor then jump out before they could react. A couple weeks after the patch I found myself sitting in a bush. The same bush I had hid in for the past few weeks. Sitting there twiddling my thumbs waiting for something to happen. Unfortunately there I realized what had happened and slowly but surely stopped playing light tanks. Shortly after Patch 1.0 I stopped playing the game entirely as it was no longer fun and not headed in a good direction. I still watch commentaries on it. As it was a huge part of my gaming history. But its sad to see where it all went.

[@theknifesong]

I switched to the T49 after this patch and actually really enjoyed playing it with the derp gun because the gameplay was so unique but then not long after HE was made a joke and everything became gold spam so I switched over to the sneakier French LTs

[@CarlosGÓMEZ-e2w]

I remember loving 5916 autoloader, now...

[@graycecollins2085]

I didn't had the chance to play LTs before they were nerfed, but now that I changed playing WoT for WoT Blitz and saw this video I realize a lot of the LTs in Blitz still have very similar characteristics of their PC counterparts before the update. For example in Blitz the SP I C still has the autoloader gun (Its a 2 shot) and great camo and mobility at tier VII. How weird is that LTs in blitz are funnier to play than PC even when the maps are smaller. Note: there's no 10 shot autoloader M41 in blitz, it would be broken there but it has a three shot autoloader that its "meh" at least...

[@JohnF0X]

i miss my 59-16 autoloader. so much fun i had with that. a lil beast in Strongholds battles aswell.... a shame it had to end.... hate that they did the same with the Walker Bulldog aswell

[@Duikboot953]

You are soo right!!!!! Chapeau for explaining and showing the downfall of the lights and the utter crap WG is dishing out!!!!

[@Billy-the-Kid]

That is why I want the true power of arty restored. Like 1 hit on tiger maus and 900 HP gone.

[@Kar4ever3]

Will never happen, but yes. 3 man arty platoons back. With old 70 sec reload, BUT when you hit. You hit.

[@adcaptandumvulgus4252]

I ran my e25 as a scout after light changes, very fun.vents active camo and optics

[@mike393000]

Thanks for this video. I have just come back after a few years and I'm trying to figure the game out again. I'm have a good time but trying to improve which led me to your videos. I learned so much about recent history of WOT in this one and why I suddenly don't understand why my lights seem to suck. I thought it was me. I don't understand the new spotting camp mechanics but some of these lights were so bad unlike I remembered. Thanks for being here. Your personable explanations and video presentation style are awesome. I hope you can bring me up to speed on more stuff.

[@HS_Gomikubi]

At this point in the game's history I didn't consider myself a specialist in any category, I just liked having a grasp of most things not named SPGs. I felt the changes to lights, but I had enough fun playing other classes still that I wasn't utterly turned off from the game... Is what I would say, were it not for the much greater sin committed when artillery went from a considerably dangerous (but ultimately fleeting) presence to a constant and consistent source of misery overnight. THAT was what killed my love for this game, souring pretty much any joy I once felt from engaging with it's strategic elements. Cooldown consumables? A sick joke, beautiful on paper but ultimately a sacrifice that came at far greater cost than it was worth. I stuck with it for a while in spite of things, tried my best to live with it... but the writing was on the wall.

[@sheabrockhoff2279]

It was shortly after this patch that I stopped playing world of tanks, I had been a nearly exclusive light tank driver up until that point and they moved or removed all the things that made some of the tanks and lines fun to play.

[@roger7392]

I was a light tank main before this update and then pretty fast (though not consciously) stopped playing them at all. Its pretty much only heavys now and I barely play the game anymore. LTTB and Bulldog were really sad - ELC AMX was worst. Got my first Kolobanovs in it and all I want is a well deserved reward tier 6 version :(

[@SmallPotato2313]

I feel same way. Literally stopped playing wot out of frustration and never completely came back to it. i had most battles in light tanks, i still have but its barely above the medium tanks now. If i even keep playing the game, my battles with medium tanks will definitely become higher than with light tanks.

[@Robi11114]

I remember playing on the test server with the new wz-132-0 or whatever tank (tier 9 chinese) in its initial status and it felt godlike. Then wg nerfed it before the update went live so the tank was murdered even before it was born 😢 I never ever played with it or the tier 10 on the live server. Also like others, missing the good old Walker Bulldog 10 mag autoloader, ELC AMX, 13 90 with 6 shells...

[@sarunotaslt]

Yeah I remember that on the first iteration of 0.9.18 LT were unnerfed.

[@Johnnyynf]

I still remember how it is They ruin some of my favourite tank, such SPIC and AMX ELC They're now just become boring tank to play.

[@szymonkania3068]

Wheeled clown cars killed light tanks, and this game overall

[@LynxTank]

The algorythm seems to have blessed you (and me) and this vid arrived on my fyp. Good video dude, your content definately deserves more views. Sorry that it was your "serious borderline rant video" that got all the love xD

[@lamri13uk]

I can’t believe someone is talking about my beloved 59-16. Utterly loved that tank with the autoloader, was my reason to play WoT, when it changed my interest in the game was lost :(

[@Mikosah]

Well said. I was one of the turbo-autists who ran the bulldog with the single shot even when the autoloader was available. The very first nerf it received was to the reload time of both guns. For the autoloader this made some sense, but the single shot was horribly crushed ever since. I wanted to believe that they would rebalance appropriately to at least let it have some firepower advantage to compensate for the massive size, nonexistent armor, and bad camo... but that hasn't ever happened. There may have been small incidental buffs here and there, but even with these it remains the weak compared to the two premium bulldogs. On the whole, lights also have a much greater problem to overcome- the current meta is all about corridor brawling.

[@olmaned3795]

God what a tank the old bulldog was… I had stopped playing wot right before they introduced the t10 lights. Came back to the game about a year ago. When I returned, I had double the number of games played in lights tanks than the second played class - heavies. Most of the light games were in the bulldog. Now I only play heavies and mediums.

[@MojiMikato]

This game went downhill since they made gold ammo purchacable by credits, that move opened the flood gates of bs marketing, tank designs (especially premiums ) and mechanic changes. At that time I got talked down and belittled and now every one of my friends who acted that way apologized to me and admitted I was right.

[@neonlight1214]

I remember playing when that update came out, in the shadow of all the good changes once you got in your favorite light tank(s)... they got destroyed. It was the beginning when the game stopped being fun. LIGHT Tanks didn't even need a REEEEwork, except nerfing the op ones... yet wg decided to make them more than useless

[@friendlyreaper9012]

Most light are just boring nowadays, all you can do is sit in a bush cause everything has view range and the guns suck ass. Meanwhile they keep adding brainless heavies that are as fast as mediums and have the firepower of tank desroyers cause why not. Every game is just the same 5 tanks going to the same 3 positions. Its just cancerous.

[@jannekoskinen2050]

You could've covered the introduction of tier X light tanks in more detail. In the first iteration of tier X light tanks on the test server they were actually competitive and would've been a viable option to play. Then most likely Igor went in the meeting: "Steve the IS-7 driver don't like if they get penned by a light tank" and they completely neutered all of them making them worse medium tanks in most of the maps. DPM nerf, penetration nerf, penetration drop over distance, speed nerf...

[@mile_381]

yea,qb made a vid about that: World of Tanks || T10 Light Tanks are now Useless

[@man1699]

I remember loving the MT-25, then the update hit and something about it felt wrong. And I couldn't really put it to words back then.

[@milosstefanovic6603]

You are right, they fuck up the basics, more armor low mobility, small silhouette better camo and large-caliber gun more aiming. You can play with rules without braking them

[@rwilsonpaladin]

I went down the American and German light tank line. Once I got the SP1C, they got rid of the auto-loader because it was not historically accurate. But have a Russian tank with jets boosters and two barrel guns....SURE that is historically accurate....They also screwed me on the T71. I have hardly ever played or continued down that line since.

[@claudius_drusus_]

The Soviets did build experimental tanks with rockets tho.

[@AgentK-im8ke]

@@claudius_drusus_ it was a disaster

[@medojed8266]

I think Wargaming went down the path like Gaijin was years ago, if there was any documentation showing where the tank could look like that, could have this and that then it could be added into this game. Gaijin went down the path nowadays that at most prototypes will be added into the game. Back to Wargaming, I am not sure about any of those tanks and their historical accuracies but I could search it up later on, point is that if it did not have an autoloader and it was never designed then it is to be removed. As someone said, Soviets tried to experiment with rocket tanks which ended terribly but the main point is that it happened, it exists. That is a sufficient reason for WG to add it into the game, same as double barreled tanks. No IS series to my knowledge has had a double barrel design, however WG is right when it comes to 703 using a double barrel. Which again is sufficient to be added into the game.

[@claudius_drusus_]

@@AgentK-im8ke thats why they were *experimental* only.

[@n10tkey1]

When you think about it, all nations have become quite bland. They all seem the same, or I should say the new tanks they've been adding made them feel the same. Everything now has at least 8 degrees of gun depression, great turret armor, good mobility, decent gun handling, ... you get the point. I really miss the time when the game only had 4 nations and barely 150 tanks in total (I might be exaggerating that, maybe I was even less than 100): USA, GER, USSR and FR. I feel like every nation had a distinct character. USA - Featured versatile tanks that didn't really excel at anything, but in turn could do okay on all maps. They had the best gun depression angles in the game. Some of them also had really good turrets (T29, T32, T34, T30). They weren't the slowest, neither were they the fastest. Armor was only okay in the front, sides and rear were horrible. Best summarized as average (but that didn't mean bad). Germany - Featured mostly large and slow tanks with insanely think unangled plates. The tanks' boxy design made them ideal for angling (the infamous diamond 45 degree angle). They had impressive accuracy. They had one massive weakness which was being prone to engine damage and fires. German tanks had the highest amount of HP. USSR - Featured fast low-profile tanks with the worst gun depression angles in the game. Soviet tanks had highly inaccurate guns, albeit with high alpha. Tanks had quite average armor thickness, but the plates were heavily sloped, making them surprisngly very effective. Most Soviet tanks were prone ammo-rack damage and fuel tanks getting set on fire. Freance - Featured the fasted tanks in the game. They had the lowest amount of armor as well as HP. They had one really unique feature - autoloading guns - incredilby long reload, high clip potential. French tanks would usually come with insanely high-penetration guns for their tier (T6 ARL 44 / V39 had 212 mm on AP, AC 46 had 232 mm on AP). Writing this has made me miss the old days...

[@TheHjkkkl]

I miss so much the T54 lt, bulldog, and elc amx 😢. Also the T49 with derp gun was amazing

[@JontysCorner]

This is a great video dude. Detailed and keeping to the specific point. Honestly, I think you could easily do deep dives into all the various issues WG have created or made worse through poor decision making. The original arty changes in 8.6 which could have made everything fine, but they didn't listen to THE ONE SIMPLE THING OF JUST LIMITING TO 2 PER TEAM which would have prevented all the problems we STILL have.

[@NGabunchanumbers]

Mt-25 with 37mm was my favourite, but i kept a 59-16, m37, and 13-90 aswell. Was quite disappointed with the update for removing the fun from all of those tanks, I got the 13 105 and its just not fun, neither is the 13 90 anymore, obvi other tanks I mentioned had their autoloaders removed so...

[@therightarmofthefreeworld4703]

I loved lights when they were always bottom of the team list. They used to be high risk, high reward and a lot of fun. Now they are just gimped mediums.

[@markvanleeuwen5477]

If bulldog gets it autoloader back i would play it again just for fun

[@hcs626]

I loved my 59-16 with the auto loader I miss it so much :( I dont miss the 6 shot 13 90 but I do miss it at tier 8 also I miss my M41 with the autoloader thing was nutty and fun and I miss the RU 251 at tier 8 and I miss climbing soooo much they killed fast/powerful PTWR tanks with that change it honestly makes me kinda mad, and the RHM was a balanced tier 10 light on the first iteration of the test server no one can convince me otherwise. I miss the old tier 6 hellcat and KV-1S but the KV-1S was a bit too nutty

[@dimitardimitrov6328]

Besides the illiterate WG decisions mentioned, I also think they totally broke the game. With the EBR, in addition to destroying the entire history of light tanks, they also destroyed the team battles in which light tanks played a major role. Now there are no tactics, no team play, no surprise in the battles, no development, In 10 seconds EBR has spoting all the tanks and every tactic and it remains a simple chaotic overshoot. There are tanks that have not yet loaded their first shel and they have already been spotted by EBR. That and a bunch of other nonsense. But WG don't care about the community, they just want fast money and whatever we want or say , they just dont give F*

[@zanwrightmfwr756]

I'm a light tank main. Well, used to. The most insulting change that they did to most light tanks are the nerfing of view ranges and mobility. I get that they have a bonus camo on the move, but at the end of the day, youd be better off with a medium tank. The bonus camo doesnt even matter, most maps are corridor maps, you dont have much room for maneuverability. Light tanks has become from an exciting flanking-spotting-fire support gameplay to "who can kill the enemy's light tank first"

[@alexanderpeplinski3265]

"artillery didn't one shot you anymore".... Unless you're a light tank???

[@Gomcio]

In current meta even best light tanks feel like Trash Mediums. Maps are so bad for Light, autoloaders(without armor) and for non armored tanks in general its not even funny. I always feel sad when i see tanks like american lights, current British wheeled mediums, french autoloaders etc.

[@greener2497]

If we pay attention, what basically happened to not just lights but also every other class of tank AND map design AND mechanic was that WG FORCES people to play their "intended" roles on their tanks and "intended" way to play the game. Light tanks gun nerf to oblivion and all the busted scout equipments ? HE nerf and suddenly everyone got a diamond turret ? generic corridor map designs with hulldown terrain or literall piles of scrap planned on FLAT ground for hulldown purpose ? arty with the stupid stun made to annoy someone out of a position ? I get it, the meta changed and it's normal in a game life cycle. But the way they did this, just turning people favorite vehicles into junks, you can't even have your own way to play the game now. "fuck lower tiers you need to play tier 8+", not only that they dumped so many good high tier tanks into collectors AND nerf them like what the fuck is that for ?? why did the amx 30b need to have 248/300 pen at tier 10 with the gold heat flying at 800m/s while being labeled as sniper ??

[@billjohansson88]

Probably the best video I've seen regarding the game, thanks for taking the time to make it.

[@actrosa3732]

yeah i remeber only playing lights before this update,the amx elc bis was rly fun and it got killed so hard its sad,now i only play them for missions

[@GewelReal]

IMO 9.18 was one of few actually good patches WoT had and it's probably the best or 2nd best. It made a lot of light tanks actually playable (hell, some of them got very meta) instead of just 2-3 strong ones while everything else being irrelevant

[@GewelReal]

1.26 took the spot of the best patch

[@kajwis2675]

i remember playing tier 8 clan wars in 2016/17, we were an absoutely awful clan with yellow players (my dad was also playing with me), but i remember i was a big light tank main, and we often took 2/3 of them to the clan wars, amx90 was best at facing mediums because of firepower, t49 could half the hp of borsigs/cdcs or even heavies from the back, t54 ltwt was esentially the fastest medium tank you could get and still bounce heavy tanks, but my pick was always Ru251, the gun was accurate, and my main role was to come back to defend and decap base because of the 85+ kph max speed which was very useful at el hallouf (our best map), i miss those days so much

[@anyrandom_1884]

Well earned sub there. I actually learned a lot about some WoT history and it was really interesting. I wasn’t there to witness any of this but light tanks got nerfed in such a questionable way. What did WG have to gain from this?

[@jparmurr9960]

I knew that tier 10 lights werent in the game, but had no idea that every light tank got beat down by being moved up a tier. I always wondered why most tech tree lights felt out of place, and theres why

[@NocnaDusza]

That's misinformation in the video... LTs back then had one tier higher MM, and that's why they were adjusted. So t54 ltw, that used to be teir VII, had MM like a tier IX tank. The only "downside" to all that is you can no longer take what is basically tier IX tank in to tier VIII CW. And that's a good thing.

[@ElsinoreRacer]

I loved the challenge of taking Tier 5 lights to tier 10. I gave WG credit for being smart enough to end lights at Tier 8. Then they "fixed" those things, and much of the joy for the game left me. When the wheelies came out, I quit. Besides being unbeatable at active scouting, they (WG) also made gave wheelies the "click to auto-aim" feature and removed that mod's legality from the other light tanks. Total kick in the face. I was happy to spend money on the game. It ended then.

[@Jean_1999]

Last Night I was sitting there and tried to figure out what wargaming did to the interaction menu where you can say for example: "affirmative" or "negative". I took a 3 year break from World Of Tanks and realised that menu looks different now and let me tell you wargaming made that menu far worse than it was before. At least I found a method now to reliably use it again.

[@AgentK-im8ke]

yeah i was surprised that they would change something that works

[@mile_381]

just press F5 and F6. Works.

[@MongooseJakeGames]

Finally got a chance to watch this in full, and have to say very well done. Me being the German and American tank fan that I am can quite clearly remember this patch with some serious disdain. One of my favorite "just have fun" tanks was the Scout Panther. I never cared about my stats too much in it, just dug it out for some laughs by mostly counter scouting as the guided missile it was supposed to be. Then, poof. Gone. Yes, I got it back in the whole Black Market and it was worth it, but even it got hit by the nerf bat.

[@theknifesong]

Playing the old school Chaffee was the only reason I played WoT for years and its still my most played tank all these years later without me having played it since this update. Thankfully now the 12t, 13 57, and LT-432 keep me playing but it's sad that we're forced to exploit gold spam and the meta has shifted to making LTs a bad pick in general. You know it's bad when you pretty much have to play a mid-tier premium tank to succeed in a class.

[@averagelightenjoyer9882]

you can see how wargaming is slowly killing light tanks for example "reworking" maps like Berlin, where you could have spotted all you want driving from bush to bush shooting here and there, now it's either you go trade with mediums with double your alpha or you sit in a bush that is 99% gonna be blind-fired throughout the game. lovely wargaming

[@DaKdawg]

I was still grinding medium tanks and really didn't play much until 2018/2019, so I knew the change to the lights was terrible, but was oblivious to the extent of the damage that was committed. Sheesh...

[@sejozwak]

btw T71 CMCD was actually in the game before this update, it was a premium tank

[@philthymofo]

the 59-16 "buff" was the death of a beautiful light.. it was mediocre but SO much fun.

[@joshsearson4510]

I miss the 59-16s Auto Loader. Such a faaaaantastic tank. I remember when tier 5 lights could see tier 10s. They were gold for a team that could keep them alive. An amazing ELC bis, or a Chaffee could always carry the team if used properly

[@AveragePootis]

Honestly the ELC AMX nerf was needed, that thing was like the best tank of tier 5. It had a better cannon than the tds of the same br, while having insane camo rating and being low and mobile enough to be unkillable at a close range 1v1

[@hohuynhquocchuong4925]

The additional reason is Equip2.0 with CVS and Modification, they make every tank for now easy to reach >455m. Also med can use same setup like LT, such as Bouras, that make LT lost it strength again other class, specially MED. Solution is remove CVS from MED can help.

[@Crosshair84]

I finally moved over to World of Warships full time when this patch hit. I was already reducing my time on WoT due to the problem of spotting saturation and other issues. WoWS having actual stealth was a breath of fresh air and I quickly got settled in as a DD main. Watching the background gameplay, WoT looks like a COD shooter. The poor 59-16 became a can of "Why bother" once the autoloader was removed.

[@festiverespecttrackingfanc6644]

What I find absurd about lights is how they're all "competitively" played with the same 3 pieces of scouting-slot equipment, often it boils down to who's got the bounty exhaust, bond optics. I play lights for the fun in their guns, not because this one can spot and hide better than that one *ahem Elc Even 90 ahem*. There's another problem at tier VIII, there are way less tanks per team than at other tiers so each team relies heavily on one light, while at tier 9 there are usually 3 lights and you can choose to be the firepower one and at lower tiers nobody gets angry at you and uses you as a meatshield the second you're not spotting for their blind by choice TD

[@sparkycjb]

You forgot to mention that LTs aren't even relavent in CW anymore because of the change to Strongholds style map rotation. Don't risk an LT when many maps don't require one and some maps it is just as bad as leaving a AFK tank in the line up.

[@otakuryoga]

worst decision WG ever made was changing Premium ammo to be purchasable with credits very close 2nd was the introduction of the Hot Wheels tanks

[@vojtapokorny2336]

I miss the old AMS ELC bis

[@ebola4211]

You should do more series like this,Was very fun to watch and would love to see more ❤

[@RyuuMurasaki]

I mean pretty much every light below tier 8 is pretty much unfun nowadays, atleast i think it is, i mean what is a tier 6-7 light gonna do a against a tier 8 Light with CVS? That is most cases is even more stealthy. Also while there are some Maps that are good for Lights, most of the Time, you are just better of playing a Medium, because they have almost the same Camo while having more Firepower. I think Mailand made a pretty good Video about them (Its in German, so some might need to enable Subtitels), where he basically explains it, while also saying, maybe they should make the Maps bigger, so Lights actually had more impact, like if you drive a EBR on Ensk etc, its like Driving a Lambo in the City, they arent made for that, they are basically driving in Circles.

[@beansmcbeans1449]

i think back to this update more than any other in wot. they destroyed so many amazing tanks in a single go. RIP old RU 251, elc amx, t49, chaffee, and many others

[@AMX_10_RC]

it's sad to see current lights having a low top speed but a high p2w and crappier guns compared to old day lights

[@anissyahromi5671]

I will never forgive them for: -Killing 2 of my boi Bulldog and ELC -stun mechanic -the demon they have spawned,HE mechanic change

[@zdinc7268]

KZbin has been recomending me so many sub 1000 sub content creators recently, you are far and away the best! Please keep it up!

[@lncoming]

As of two hours ago, no longer sub-1000 :D

[@zdinc7268]

@@lncoming Get in there lad! Glad I could help tip that scale!

[@MR_FIAT]

i still cant forgive how they massacred the M7, it was changed from a MT to a LT and got hit extremely hard with a nerf bat despite already being a very unpopular tank at the time. i still dont understand why so many LTs got heir VR nerfed to be worse then meds.

[@SmallPotato2313]

When they killed Elc Amx I left WoT for half a year out of frustration and never fully came back to be honest. Only tank that i had played for 1k+ battles. You forgot to show 2 changes about that tank. First is the dpm, reload speed of the gun increased by 2 secons which is lot thats around 200 dpm difference. Which would be fine for me and probably all of the elc amx players we didnt care about penetration and dpm nerfs. What was the biggest nerf and the ONLY MASSIVE change was change to horsepower/t which was from around 37hp/t to 26hp/t. Thats the biggest change to the tank which made it move like a snail compared to what it was before. The significance of the change to horsepower/t is so massive that the tank went from very fun and full of skill expresion to boring and lazy-more suited for sitting in bush and sniping at medium range. I wish for 7 years that they would bring its mobility back. i dont care about my penetration being 120mm. I dont care about my dpm dropping. All i want is to circle around the tanks and outplaying them with my maneveurs. Medium tanks have better mobility than this abomination of elc that is in the game for 7 years now...(also the tank got a bit bigger, i think when they remodeled it into 3D the turret got a bit taller so now everyone can aim at your despite their poor gun depression) EDIT: Only reason they keep adding removed features from light tanks on new shiny premium tanks is moneyyyyyy. Pathetic cash grab appealing to peoples nostalgia

[@amzarnacht6710]

WG needs to do a view range rework, BIG TIME. Been saying this for years. Only LTs should have base view ranges over 400. Mediums about 380 Heavies and TDs about 360 And arties around 300 That would give each vehicle a solid role which is what light tanks simply do not have anymore.

[@rogerarruda3674]

"overall people loved it" heh, I remember quite the contrary. people imediatelly complained that the update made them much worse than mediuns at spotting and general mobility, that it killed several lt tanks(my poor ELC AMX included) and the arty nerf nuked assist dmg output (not to mention the stun mechanic that people are still mad to this day)

[@dtater1898]

The 3 tanks I thought of were the ELC AMX, Bulldog and the T49

[@edwardnkuna2571]

It's crazy how much better light tanks are treated on the mobile version of wot in addition they have different quirks like the french having autoloaders , the Sheridan line being derp guns from tier 8 (T49) tier 9 (T92e2) and the Sheridan , only the T100 has a mechanic that doubles the time spotted for shot enemies, the Brits having a Vickers line that has hesh and the Chinese LTs having mechanic that shows who spotted you and reduces the time spotted by 7 seconds and 17 seconds if hit by a T100 with and the tier 10 wz132-1 having it's gun balanced around the spotting mechanic having 7 second reload. The lines are also better balanced and make sense. The maps on blitz are much smaller making spotted redundant yet light tanks are still more relevant than the ones on pc. Sorry for the Wall of Text

[@apenzijncool3441]

I feel like lights also needed games to be long and get to some winnable end-game to have most of its impact. Playing lights in stomps is just frustrating af. I only play elc even now because only praying for spotting makes me not feel useless.

[@wunderdoktor7255]

This explains why i dont play lights anymore, or just the game as of late. I miss playing German lights.

[@armaslohemadu]

Happened to this video through Chems, and its bittersweet to hear that i perceived the light tank changes the same way in retrospect cheers from a former mountain goat

[@tenkowal]

Well, moving tank up a tier without changes was not changing anything at all since they already had tier higher matchmaking. This change alone was a good idea since it was confusing to new players and caused imbalances in non-random games since you could sneak an effective tier 9 in tier 8 battles. But I agree that many of the vehicles got unnecessary nerfed. I stopped playing 13 90 after that patch and tried it again yesterday, it's crap. The whole point of this vehicle was to be sneaky and survive to the end of the battle when you can clip out beaten up enemies and scoot away for the reload. Now with 2 less shells it simply can't be as ballsy at that. and RIP bulldog, my top exp ever tank (not counting Churchill III)

[@synthesisritual]

Not to mention the removal of the T-50-2 in the first place just to bring it back at tier 6 in a worse state... Now, I did just 3 mark it yesterday, but still, I wish they didn't remove it in the first place.

[@edgypone4011]

Hey I'm here cus Chems_ shared your video, I like your stuff, leaving a sub

[@minnesotarailfan12]

This is why you play Blitz. Light tanks don’t suck.

[@lncoming]

Blitz map design is better honestly, that's the big reason to play it (and I've heard it's gotten worse)

[@AMX_10_RC]

I used to be an lt main with other 2k battles in lights, now I find them almost impossible to play because pubbies don't help you anymore

[@BoldSherlock]

That's some huge 5head gameplay in the background. Hats off.

[@truemage3985]

Another thing that is NEVER talked about is the sense of speed in world of tanks, in the older versions of wot vehicles moved faster than the ones that we have in the current wot despite if they had slower or higher top speeds they had from their respective updates. The reason why I am bringing this up is that beyond 9.0 & beyond is when tanks slowly started to become HDtized wargaming was slowly nerfing the Global values of acceleration & speed as a whole.. I am not talking about like speed or engine nerfs to vehicles but as mobility as a whole. TLDR wargaming slowly nerfed the general values of mobility.

[@Doom1981]

In the months before that update I fell in love with ELC, I used to be a majority arty player and became a majority LT player, then came this update, I no longer liked my ELC, I no liked my LTTP, th3 Bc12t was fun, but pretty much all the other light tanks were ruined for me.

[@aaaa9489]

they removed the howitzer from the m5 stuart too, which imo just completely killed any fun value that tank had

[@Piglady00]

This was very well documented-written video! Awesome!!

[@MrVolodia19]

You omit the matchmaking. If in previous times you rarely get another one light tank in team, currently you have more headache competing teammates on lights, not enemies. 3 lights in team is regular thing. But... if you try to take TD, or, even worse, SPG - you get no one spotter in team.