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Hello there,

Since Maus was buffed in the last patch I decided to buy it and play it. There has been lots of talk about it being overpowered now while others counter it by saying that gold ammo negates its armor or that it's slow which makes it balanced. My initial plan was to play 100 games but I ended up playing 104 and saw no reason to leave the extra 4 games out so they are included in the experiment. Around 80-85% of the battles are solo.

I shoot a fair amount of gold because most of the action takes place against the enemy top tier heavy tanks and thanks to the power creep. I did attempt a few games with exclusively AP but the 246 penetration standard round is as useless as female orgasm when you are fighting against an enemy Maus, E100, Type 5 Heavy or sadly quite a few other tanks. These are however the heavies you're facing the most now that they've been buffed and if you are hoping to never shoot gold this tank is not worth it because everyone and their mother is going to spam gold at you and you're putting yourself in a massive disadvantage if you're trying to get away cheaply and not return the favor.

I use Chocolate and my initial equipment was Rammer - Vertical Stabilizer - Vents. As I progressed I switched my Vents to Coated Optics. Now why would I do that? The base view range is great, I have both view range perks, BIA and Chocolate. Why the hell would I want more view range when I am over the cap with Vents?

The reasoning is simple - the biggest nightmare of Maus are the big, open maps in which the tank is largely useless. The conventional wisdom says that your view range is "capped" when you have something like 445-450m view range. This is absolutely wrong. There is no such thing as view range cap. You can't spot tanks farther away than that, that's correct, but by going "over the cap" in view range you negate the camo values of your enemy tanks. Now how often do you spot tanks that are 445m away? Almost never because they have camo values that reduce your ability to spot them. So why do we call it the cap? If this is what you've been taught, forget it. There's no effective cap.

By giving myself broken view range(497m) I allow myself to often spot things far away even if they have some camo. Spotting base camping TD bots is a fantastic asset because they are a source of endless frustration. Spotting a crossing enemy medium or even light in an awkward situation can put your team ahead or prevent an enemy from getting into an annoying position or from using it. All in all because your camo is worthless and you can't compete in that front you might at least spot the enemy once he fires. It's also worth remembering that the gun of Maus(my own current stats) has 0.32 accuracy, 1.89 aiming time, excellent stabilization and decent shell velocity(920). It's pretry impressive for long shots with its 490 alpha plus 3k DPM which is exactlt what you're going to need in the open, "fun" camp fest maps. There are few things as frustrating as having to deal with a few bush camping mongoloids who are never leave the base but who can shoot you at impunity, and having to rely on your teammates to spot them. Since your tank is naturally awful in digging them out you can compensate through carrying Optics which actually makes your tank fairly good at this job. The good news is also that most base campers are atrocious players who don't expect to be spotted and often react too slowly, resulting in them dying after just being spotted once.

Vents just gives you a marginal accuracy, aiming time and DPM buff. Since the Maus gameplay is slow-paced and you already out-DPM your enemies the effect of Vents isn't really that impressive. The terrain resistance and camo buffs aren't even noticeable. If you're relying on your teammates to do the spotting for you, you're going to be in a world of troubles. Because of this I chose Optics.

Now let's get into the numbers.



Average statistics after 104 battles:

Winrate: 59.62%

Damage done: 3350

WN8: 4001

Assist damage: 937

Kills: 1.55

Spots: 1.7

Damage received: 2575

Damage blocked: 3150

What can we conclude from these statistics? Let's start with the ugly part: Maus is just as overpowered as everyone who understands how the game works has been saying since these changes became a thing in the supertest. My recent tier 10 tanks before Maus were doing between 2650-2900 damage per game. Maus deals 3350 which is almost 500 damage per game more than my second best performers. How is this balanced? The gun is suddenly fantastic since the buff and the armor which was already outstanding is now even better. The mobility still sucks but that's a rather cheap price to pay for the best armor of the game and a very reliable all-around gun. This is the TVP 50/51 of heavy tanks and even a total bot can play it to a much better effect than his other tanks. Well done Wargaming, you guys really got this right.

The worst part is that I firmly believe that I was unlucky. I got pretty bad map rolls(more about this later) and played almost all of the games in the weekend. During the weekends the quality of the gameplay sinks a lot and you see players commit their mistakes even more extremely than usual. You see more ridiculous mass camps, you see more yoloing autoloaders and so forth. Especially during a 3x or 5x for the first win promotion players are playing a lot of tanks they normally never take out which results in even more yoloing, more autopiloting and players in general playing tanks they don't have any idea of and that are often stock. I can say I am guilty of doing this which shows in my stats when I am grinding through a tank I don't particularly like.

Maus is not the perfect weekend tank. You regularly run into situations when your faster teammates have gotten themselves turned into ketchup before you fire your first shell. Even when the situation is reversed and you get the better team your tank is too slow to really do anything. I want to highlight that this stuff isn't exclusive to weekends and you get your fair share of this at all times. It just gets worse during weekends.

Overall I feel I was on the receiving end, getting bad map rolls and more bad teams than expected and if I played the tank for another 100 or 200 battles I am pretty sure I could achieve a solo win rate of 63-64% with my Maus. I am not complaining here, the bad map rolls and teams are natural variance. I am just saying that this tank is insanely good and I expect it to perform even better in the future.

I primarily played with Standard and Encounter on. I experimented Assault for a few battles but although I love the game mode it's just bad for a big and slow super heavy so I turned it off after a few games. Here is a list of map rolls for anyone interested:

Map rolls: Prokhorovka/Fiery Salient 10 Malinovka 7

Ruinberg variants 7 Ensk 5

Mines 5

Redshire 5

Steppes 5 Himmelsdorf variants 4

Sand River 4

Sacred Valley 4

Siegfried 4 Airfield 3

Cliff 3

Mountain Pass 3

Murovanka 3

Overlord 3

Swamp 3

Windstorm 3 Abbey 2

Erlenberg 2

Fisherman's Bay 2

Fjords 2

Highway 2

Lakeville 2

Live Oaks 2

Paris 2

Serene Coast 2 Arctic Region 1

El Halluf 1

Karelia 1

Kharkov 1

Westfield 1

Next I would like to discuss the game modes a little bit:

Assault

As I explained above, Assault is just plain bad for Maus and you should disable it when you're playing a super heavy because your tank just doesn't have the flexibility this game mode requires. Siegfried Line is ok and Erlenberg isn't too bad but in the big picture you're playing a zero camo, super slow super heavy tank in a dynamic game mode full of open maps. Just not worth it.

How about Encounter?

As you can see on the map rolls above, by clicking Encounter on you get more of certain maps. The maps that have an Encounter mode generally dominate the map roll statistics above. This shouldn't come as a surprise.

Encounter is the concentration of lemming trains. Generally the teams spawn closer to each other and are set up to have a brawl. This is a double-edged sword. You get more bots to farm but you also get lots of teams with no situational awareness who can't make a difference between the game modes and play it just like Standard even if the enemy is capping the base. You also see a fair amount of early caps which can be really frustrating when you've worked your arse off to carry the flank and then the 47% guy with 120 damage done is just happy to end the game.



Let's review the Encounter maps quickly. This may also be a useful guide even if you don't own a Maus.

Ensk is the best map Encounter map for your Maus, no questions. A tiny city map, what more can you ask for? Ninjacaps are rare.

Ruinberg is very good and better than Standard because the cap circle is in the city and you can generally avoid the field camps. This is good for you. Just win the brawl and you're good to go. The reduced importance of the field also makes Encounter Ruinberg more balanced than its rather [edited] Standard version which gives the relevant mid ridge to one team by default. Ninjacaps are uncommon.

Lakeville has a very similar concept as Ruinberg. The cap circle is in the city and although the camper bots can shoot you in the city in some cases, you at least never have to leave the city and run into their guns. You still get lots of Hitler rage moments in Encounter Lakeville when your teammates still make their way to the valley which is even more useless than in Standard and couldn't possibly be any farther from the city and the cap circle. Even so, Lakeville is much better as Encounter than Standard and a very good map for your Maus. Ninjacaps happen, but not that often.

Steppes is also surprisingly good for you because of the lemming train effect. When you play Encounter Steppes you will lose your faith on humanity and there's just no way around it. Basically the two spawns are put near the 1-2 lines(the useless bot flank in Standard) and that draws tons of players into the area even with tanks that have no business going there(such as bottom tier mediums). This couldn't be farther away from the cap. That's right, all the action takes place in the most useless part of the map which sadly also makes it the key flank. If you go towards the 8-9-0 lines you could easily be 1-9 down by the time you get near the cap because all the bots have had a massive brawl in the 1-2 lines while you "made the right play" by going to the technically correct area and after a few such losses you should start to realize that it's not working out and the 1-2 lines are more important for metagame reasons. In a perverse manner this is actually a good thing for your Maus. All the action takes place in a close quarter area near your spawn point. That's exactly what you want in your Maus. At times you will sweep the 1-2 line brawl and be outcapped but it gives you the same twisted feeling of satisfaction as not using a condom. You had lots of fun, you did lots of damage, you made credits and XP but in the end it says "Defeat." Think of this as the "I'm pregnant" text message you receive a few days later. But it was worth it, kind of... Ninjacaps also happen fairly often in Encounter Steppes but when you are in a Maus you just close your eyes to this. You try to win the 1-2 lines brawl and hope some faster tank from your team goes towards the cap circle and sees to that you do not get capped.

Himmelsdorf seems like a wet dream but it's much worse than Standard. The hill fight is crucial and you should generally go there. The sad news is that after the hill is won your job is done and it's common to see your teammates throw their tanks away afterwards. You will obviously try to do something but you're too slow to really get down the hill so you have to make the call whether you're even going down or redline sniping from the hill like a boss. The chances are that you're not seeing much action anyway. It's still a good map but less good than in Standard. Ninjacaps are uncommon.

Siegfried Line is very similar to Standard except you have to be careful early on to not get spotted because you spawn in the field. The cap circle is poorly protected and highly irrelevant. Ninja caps are rare.

Murovanka is an excellent good map for your Maus if you don't roll 3 arties. This one is pretty straightforward. You just go near the cap circle, have a brawl there and then you do whatever is needed. The great news is that since you're sitting in the cap circle you can effectively force your enemies to make plays against you and they can't camp forever. You also get a fair amount of free damage and credits from players who are desperately yoloing to decap. The Optics are going to be crucial in this map for spotting the campers. Regrettably this map gets ninja capped way too often, but it's one you should be happy to roll nonetheless.

El Halluf is practically identical to Standard. There's nothing to say.

Redshire is where things start to get ugly. It's the same [edited] as Standard with lots of retardproof camping locations and almost no possibilities to advance. The brawling area turns unplayable with 3 arties and you should just goof around the middle or play the castle in such a situation. Or you can "play vision game" and redline snipe which is sometimes the correct play. I do however advice turning the chat off when you do this. This is one of the maps in which you'll love your Optics, but still a very bad map that you should never be happy to see if there's artillery. With 0-1 arty you just faceroll stuff in the brawling area and if you're carrying Optics you can spot many campers afterwards and have a good game. Most of the time this is not a Maus map though. Ninjacaps are somewhat common.

Prokhorovka/Fiery Salient is less bad than the Standard counterpart because the campy 1-2 lines become less relevant. Even then this is an extremely campy arty fest where your Maus is going to be out of depth and isn't going to have any meaningful role. You can play the middle, hill or even the town depending on the matchmaking. The middle is pretty playable if there is no arty because the turret armor works surprisingly well if you know how to angle it. This is once again where the Optics pay off. Just like in Standar this map would be fantastic if players knew how to play it but mostly it just turns into a campfest. When there are 2 or more arties you just wish you hadn't clicked the "Battle!" button. Ninja caps happen quite often.

Malinovka is better than in Standard because there's often a hill brawl because the teams spawn close to it but otherwise it's the same old gathering of the window lickers club as the Standard version where everyone is camping behind tons of cover and when you try to dig them out, artillery "prevents you from camping". Fantastic design. The worst map ever for Maus, and when the map rotation gets stuck with this you should seriously consider uninstalling. Do yourself a favor and equip those Optics and then you at least have something to do. Ninjacaps are non-existent even though once in a while a terrible light tank yoloes into the cap circle and sits there despite it being very open. One day, my friends, you will depend on these guys to do the spotting for you. Doesn't this all just scream of "uninstall"?

Erlenberg is practically identical to Standard. Both teams lemming one flank and then the team that camps more wins because the crossings are too easy to cover. Only playable in Assault mode and definitely not what you want in your Maus, although there some cases when you get a good brawl up. Ninja caps happen.

Mines is actually much better in Encounter than Standard because the town is relevant and spawns can't be camped for an eternity. The town is where you usually where you want to go with your Maus and you almost always get action there in this game mode. The hill is usually won or lost before you get anywhere near it and you have no contribution in that area. Just go to the town, have a fun brawl and pray that there is no ninja cap which regrettably happens far too often. The map is much better in Encounter than Standard because camping isn't an almighty play anymore.

Sand River works a bit like Malinovka in the way that you spawn near the brawling area and are much more likely to get action there than in Standard. Otherwise it's very similar to Standard and the map is too dynamic for a one-size-fits all guide, but a good start would be to attend the brawl and read the minimap afterwards. The hill and the area around it is where the action takes place and the "river" is pretty useless until the endgame. At least this game mode is somewhat less campy than Standard but with lots of arty it becomes unplayble like all the open maps. Ninja caps happen once in a while but not really often.

All in all, Encounter is a much closer call than Assault. You get some really good maps but you also get copies of your worst maps. I would keep it on but it's close.

Last but not least, how about artillery? How did it impact my gameplay with a Maus? Did I have fun and will I keep playing it in the future?

I made a count because I found it relevant and the total artillery damage I received in those 104 battles was 59827 damage. That means I receive around 600 damage per game from artillery or from a different perspective artillery alone would've averagely killed me around 20 times during my 104 games. This is a pretty big deal. One out of 5 games with the most armored tank with the most hitpoints of the game is basically going to waste and you are going to die out of nowhere. What should be remembered that this is the grand total arty damage received and includes arty free games. In reality around 25% of the battles are arty free and artillery does not bother you at all in those battles. On the other hand that means all that 60k damage was done in 75% of the battles, turning the average of 600 per game more into more like 800 damage received in every battle that has artillery, or 25% of my health. You got that right - whenever there was artillery in the battle, I effectively started with a -25% health deficit. That's pretty depressing and what's even more depressing is that this isn't the end of it.

The amount of damage I received from artillery obviously depended on how many arties there were. Arty free battles and battles with 1 arty were generally bearable and it did not destroy the gameplay. I did receive some annoying damage but outside of the rare occasion when a T92 penetrates me for 1900 damage it didn't really ruin the game. I would estimate that I received an average of 300 arty damage in such battles which I can live with. It's the 2-3 arty battles that made Maus a frustrating tank to play and a massive amount of the arty damage I received piled up in these battles. I was often forced into a passive, campy role that ensured that nobody had any fun. I had no fun redline sniping with a frontline brawler because it was the only viable play and I don't imagine the enemies were having much fun digging out a camping Maus who is consciously sitting in an area where he is the least likely to be spotted artied. At times my teammates told me their opinion about my camping but when I asked them in response(I had plenty of time to chat in such occasions, trust me) what they really expect a Maus to do in a triple arty Prokhorovka, they didn't really have any advice. The truth is that there just wasn't a viable play available which crippled the fun factor of playing the tank for me.

What's worse is that although these are very significant numbers the real problem with artillery is the leverage or the "would be" damage. What that means is that it kills the dynamics of the game because players are forced to actively avoid certain areas and they are forced to camp. The damage artillery does would be much higher if players put no effort into evading it. This 25% health deficit in games with arty is only the top of the iceberg, the hitpoints aren't the only form of damage artillery does. The real damage for the game it does is making more Mauses and Type 5 Heavies camp a corner and turning the game into a very frustrating [edited]fest. Then because people whine, WG buffs the armor of these tanks which makes them even more retarded against lower tier tanks but does not address the real problem at all, which is that arty negates armor.

There's enough RNG in rolling fast battles where you don't get to do anything because the average World of Tanks battle lasts around 5 minutes and 3-4 minutes long battles are common. Adding damage falling from the sky and further limitations to a tank that already is very limited because of its speed doesn't achieve any positive outcome. It just ensures that nobody has any fun, neither the driver nor the enemy. Just the guys sitting in the base and clicking stuff without any other presence in the battle.

Maus should be nerfed but the balance of these tanks is never going work as long as triple arty games are a thing. Either they are overpowered and boring/frustrating to play or they are deadweight and free XP. Many seem to believe that it is good balance that the tank that deals 6k damage in one game gets hammered to death from sky view in the next game and gets 1k damage done but to me this is the most cancerous imbalance ever. It's not fun to play, and it's not fun to play against. That's what you call a lose-lose situation.

As result I am probably not going to be playing my Maus a lot more despite it being an overpowered tank and awesome for stat padding(my WN8 with it is 4k). Isn't this supposed to be exactly what we want? I play the game for fun, not the stats and I felt that Maus was playing its own game with me just pulling some ropes once in a while and despite obviously being way too powerful I didn't particularly enjoy it. It was one-dimensional, unhealthy and dependent on the matchmaking. I was a living hell to any lower tier tanks, and made entire flanks unplayable for them while their pathetic gold rounds would bounce off my slightly angled armor. I was even more of pure agony to any free-to-play player who can't afford spamming gold. They probably felt so miserable that they thought they were in a family meeting. And that's not because I was playing the tank but because this new Maus shadows the pre-nerf T110E5 with its formidable strength. It's another large object shoved into the [edited] of the game balance.

Thanks for reading and hopefully you you enjoyed,

Tony

P.S. A crucial statistic in the end: During the experiment I told 4 players to uninstall the game and go play tetris or [edited] themselves.

Edited by Tony_EU, 28 February 2017 - 07:22 AM.