I have 1300 gold leftover in my account from a promotion involving the World of Warplanes beta. I'm not likely to get more anytime soon. So what's a good strategy for spending this gold to maximize XP and credits in the long term? Should I use it to buy consumables, a premium account, premium tanks, or some combination of the above, and why?
How to gold best be used to optimize credits and XP
world-of-tanks
Related Solutions
USA
- T57
- 76 mm Gun (M1918): 520 m
- M37
- 105 mm Howitzer M3: 440 m (480 m HEAT)
- 105 mm Howitzer M4: 960 m (1100 m HEAT)
- M7 Priest
- 105 mm Howitzer M3: 380 m (420 m HEAT)
- 105 mm Howitzer M2A1 905 m (875 m HEAT)
- M41
- 155 mm Howitzer M1: 1210 m
- 155 mm Gun M1918M1: 1210 m (1315 m M101M2)
- M12
- 155 mm Gun M1918M1: 1210 m (1315 m M101M2)
- 155 mm Gun M1A1: 1315 m
- M40/M43
- 155 mm Gun M1A1: 1315 m
- 203 mm Howitzer M1: 1175 m
- T92
- 240 mm Howitzer M1: 1250 m
German
- Bison
- 15 cm sIG 33 L/11: 465 m
- StPz II
- 15 cm sIG 33 L/11: 465 m
- Wespe
- 10.5 cm leFH 16 L/22: 1000 m
- 10.5 cm leFH 18 L/28: 1000 m
- Grille
- 15 cm sIG 33 L/11: 355 m
- 15 cm sFH 13 L/17: 710 m
- Hummel
- 15 cm sFH 13 L/17: 1210 m
- 15 cm sFH 18 L/30: 1260 m
- GW Panther
- 15 cm sFH 18 L/30: 1260 m
- 15 cm sFH 36 L/30 Ausf. 1943: 1400 m
- GW Tiger
- 17 cm K72 (Sf): 1315 m (1200 m Ausf. G)
- 21 cm Mrs 18/1 (Sf): 1170 m
- GW Typ E
- 21 cm Mörser 18/2: 1170 m
French
- Renault BS
- 76 mm Schneider: 450 m
- Lorraine 39 L AM
- Canon de 105 court mle 1935B: 775 m
- Canon de 105 court mle 1934S: 840 m
- 105 leFH18B2
- 105 mm leFH18 L28: 1000 m
- AMX 105AM
- Canon de 105 court mle 1934S: 845 m
- Canon de 105 mle 1930 Schneider AM: 1000 m
- AMX 13 F3 AM
- Obusier de 155 mm C mle.1917: 1100 m (1210 m H1A)
- Canon de 155 mm de 33 calibres: 1250 m
- Lorraine 155 50
- Obusier de 155 mm C mle.1917: 1250 m
- Obusier de 155 mm mle.1950: 1200 m
- Lorraine 155 51
- Obusier de 155 mm mle.1950: 1200 m
- Canon de 155 mm L GPF: 1300 m
- Bat Chatillon 155
- Canon de 155 mm: 1295 m
Soviet
- SU-18
- 76 mm Howitzer mod. 1927: 550 m
- SU-26
- 76 mm Howitzer mod. 1927: 550 m
- 76 mm Howitzer mod. 1903/30: 520 m
- 122 mm Howitzer mod. 1930: 635 m
- SU-5
- 76 mm Howitzer mod. 1903/30: 520 m
- 122 mm Howitzer mod. 1930: 635 m
- 152 mm Mortar NM mod. 1931: 600 m
- SU-8
- 122 mm Howitzer A-19: 890 m
- 152 mm Howitzer ML-20 mod. 1931: 920 m
- S-51
- 152 mm BR-2: 1140 m
- 203 mm B-4: 1230 m
- SU-14
- 152 mm BR-2: 1295 m
- 203 mm B-4: 1210 m
- Object 212
- 152 mm BR-2: 1315 m
- 203 mm B-4: 1225 m
- Object 261
- 180 mm B-1-P: 1460 m
— Source: SPG gun range - General Discussion - World of Tanks official forum
Premium tanks do get a credit bonus; it's typically 130% or more of what a similar non-premium tank would get (I arrived at this number by comparing premium tank income to non-premium tanks that have a 30% or more credit bonus weekend).
The main money makers are the tier 8 premiums; a good round in one of those can clear 100,000 credits (gross; typically about 60-80,000 net, depending on ammo and repair costs) on a premium account.
You can see a great chart here that shows, over the last 30 days, the net income (after accounting for repair, reammunition, and replacement of consumables used in the match) of all tanks in the game (as if they were played on a standard account -- the chart is adjusted to account for premium bonuses etc). Premium account holders will generally double this net income due to tank costs being fixed.
If you are buying a premium tank, it's usually a good idea to buy one that shares a nationality and type with tanks you are actively working on; for you, if you're working the American heavy line, I would recommend the T34. Its playstyle will be familiar, but more importantly you can swap the M6/T29/T32/M103/T110E5 crews into the T34 and use them in that tank without retraining them in order to increase the amount of crew experience they earn.
One warning: if you have not progressed beyond tier 6 in any tank, be aware that your experience may be frustrating at first, simply because you are coming up against much more capable tanks (and much more experienced players), so it may take you a couple of hundred games in the tank to start regularly having decent matches. It may be worthwhile to buy a tier 5 or 6 premium first, use that to earn credits, and then once you have reached tier 8 "naturally", buy a tier 8 premium if you need/want to.
Another good way to earn credits is to run tier 5-6 tanks (on a standard account; premium accounts can make money at higher tiers as well), especially ones that currently have an income bonus. For these tiers I would suggest the M4 Sherman (use the 105mm with HE ammunition), the PzIV (likewise), the KV-1S (whose damage potential outweighs its ammunition costs), the Hellcat, or any other tank at tier 5 or 6 whose playstyle matches your own.
Note that tank costs are usually dominated by ammunition costs, so a tank with cheap but effective ammunition will often make more money than one that does more outright damage but has more expensive ammo.
Finally, if you are aiming to maximize credit income, do not fire premium rounds unless it may be the difference between a win and a loss (wins get 150% bonuses on XP and credits). They are very useful for maximizing experience, but will destroy your net income unless used very sparingly.
Spotting damage is also very efficient (since it costs you no ammunition), so running scouts (if you're good at them) can be very effective at bringing in credits.
Edit 9/4/2014: As of 9/12/2014, premium vehicles will receive additional bonuses. All premium vehicles will receive 1.5x normal crew XP (making them even more valuable for crew training), as well as a tier-relative bonus to all XP earned in the tank (which will stack with the crew XP bonus). Lower tier premium tanks will earn a higher percentage bonus, although this will probably not be enough to make them better on a per-game basis than higher tier (and more expensive) premium tanks (simply because higher tier tanks earn more XP on average). Prior to this update, the Churchill III (premium tier 5 Russian heavy tank) was the only premium tank in the game with an XP bonus (of 1.35) -- it will keep this additional bonus after the update, so it will still be the best crew trainer at tier 5.
Best Answer
For making credits and XP in the long run I would usually answer get a premium tank. In general premium tanks give you more credits than normal tanks, crew can be easily trained and moved to tanks of the same nation and every battle gives you free XP.
However, the limit of 1300 gold makes this question a lot harder to answer as you can see on the average net income statistics for tanks the premium tanks costing less than 1300 gold are actually outperformed by some of the regular tanks.
Credits
When it comes to making credits in the long run, the answer would then be spend your gold on a premium account and constantly play the game until you get the French BDR1 (non premium tank with best credit making stats).
Too maximize your premium account time wait until Wargaming runs a premium account promo, which temporary lowers the price for a premium account.
If you know you can only play a few rounds of WOT a day then spending your gold on a premium account makes less sense, in that case a better option would be to spend it on premium ammo which will only be used when you play. However, if you're a terrible shot then premium ammo won't help you at all, in which case consumables might help you survive on the battle field longer.
Experience
When it comes to XP and a limit of 1300 gold this question becomes almost impossible to answer, a cheap premium tank will still get you some free XP. A cheap premium tank can also be used to train crews for tanks of the same nation, but if you're not interested in that than go for a premium account again to temporarily boost your XP gain.