This guide will cover some of the equipment pieces with the general playerbase considers “useless”, and why that is the case, and what use each equipment piece does actually have.
While Vitality I and Specialization III equipment are generally brushed over, none of these pieces are useless on any tank, and when choosing them, generally there isn’t a clear popular choice. The ones mentioned below are equipment pieces that are very clearly less used by players.
Some have long explanations/ reasons, some are easy and quick to explain. Use the below table of contents to navigate to the section you want.
Improved Ventilation
Also called vents, it improves all crew skills by 5%.
Generally ignored and deemed “useless” for the fact it does not give much DPM.
Vents have to compete against calibrated shells equipment, which gives increased penetration. Vents are only found on tanks with automatically loading guns.
Tanks with cyclic guns have gun rammer instead of vents. The gun rammer gives much more DPM than vents, which is why less players use calibrated shells on tanks with “regular” guns.
Players generally choose calibrated shells over ventilation, as the only notable benefits it gives are to:
Hull & turret traverse speed
Aim time
Reload time
Dispersion
The other parameters it gives to the tank are generally considered as not being so useful, such as view range. The values it provides for each of these parameters is very small, which is why often players take calibrated shells instead.
When is it actually useful?
Calibrated shells are only really “mandatory/necessary” on tanks which don’t have enough penetration. Calibrated shells are like a compensation equipment, because even if you reload lower, at least you can penetrate.
For this reason, calibrated shells is not needed on all tanks with a decent to good penetration level. These tanks would benefit from vents, while not being put at a disadvantage by not using calibrated shells.
(Examples: IS-3 Defender, Emil 1951, FV4005, T57 Heavy, Obj. 752, Mintotauro).
Necessity:
Generally vents are not a necessity on any tank, just due to them not giving a large amount of anything, and the difference not being noticeable.
Vents definitely have a more valid argument on tanks with less accuracy, aim time, or extremely long reloads (such as the Somua SM and IS-3 Defender), however whether they actually provide you use is down to how you decide on playing these tanks and what you value more on them.
When your tank has both good penetration, but also good parameters in other areas, the choice comes down to what you like to have on your tank as a player, and the question of “What can by tank do without?”.
The Obj.752 and Emil 1951 can both do without increased penetration, neither of them need better penetration; yet they can also do without improved crew skills, again neither of them really need it.
Many tanks with the choice between vents and calibrated shells don’t actually need to make a choice. They would work just fine without taking either of them.
The only exception are on tanks which need calibrated shells to compensate for poor penetration, or need vents to compensate for poor general gun stats.
Supercharger
Supercharger increases velocity of all shells by 30%, and reduces AP and APCR shell penetration drop-off by 50%.
This piece of equipment has to compete against gun laying drive (GLD), which improves base aim time.
Reason 1:
A large part of the reason that many players don’t take supercharger will be down to the fact that no statistical benefit is “shown” in game.
Shell velocity and penetration loss over distance are not stats you can see in game, and many players just can’t be bothered to check these stats on websites, or they just equip the tank based on how it feels (by playing the tank). When you choose supercharger in game, it just gives a description, with no “shown” benefits.
On the other hand, aim time is shown as being improved when you select the GLD, its shown with a green highlight with a number showing how much its improved by. So just visually, the GLD is more enticing, as you can actually see how it improves your tank in game.
Reason 2:
The secondary reason is because of players themselves. If you do check the velocity or penetration loss of your tanks through websites like Blitzhangar and Gamemodels3d, you can actually see what your tank is lacking or what the shell velocity and penetration drop off stats are.
Generally though, you would still probably choose GLD. This is for a few likely reasons:
-Blitz maps are small, and shell velocity really isn’t that much of an issue in the game.
-Skilful aiming negates shell velocity, you can lead shots ahead of your target.
-Most battles happen in close quarters, so you don’t need high velocity, and shells won’t lose much penetration due to short distance.
-Premium ammunition is an answer to penetration loss at distance, same applies to calibrated shells.
-Tanks with bad aim time won’t hit long range shots anyway, you may as well use GLD.
When is it actually useful?
Its a VERY specific tank type that will find supercharger actually useful, and the requirements are below:
The tank has decent or fast base aim time.
The tank has very low velocity OR poor penetration at distance
The tank DOES have to fight at long range on a regular basis (so, not a frontline heavy tank)
The argument for using supercharger becomes stronger if the tank has AP or APCR as a premium round, and that premium round has poor shell drop-off
What tanks fit the above requirement?
-Churchill Mark VIII, having the lowest velocity in game on all 3 of its shell types, but having great base aim time.
-SP I C, having the lowest velocity in tier 7, and being a fast light which often has to shoot at enemies from the other flank, also with a great base aim time.
-Chieftain Mark 6, being a support heavy tank and not a frontline brawler, having poor penetration loss at distance on both standard and premium ammo, having the lowest velocity in tier 10 on its HESH ammo, constantly using its HESH ammo due to good penetration, and having great base aim time.
Tanks with don’t need supercharger even though it may seem like they do:
-Nameless, with poor penetration loss on AP, and with APCR that has the worst penetration loss in game, along with a decent aim time.
It doesn’t need supercharger as it just never fights at distance, its a frontline brawling heavy.
-Caliban, with the lowest velocity in tier 8, and sporting decent aim time for its alpha damage.
It doesn’t need supercharger because it just never fights at distance, and it never should, its a frontline brawling heavy, and its reload is too long and shots are too precious to allow for long-range gameplay.
-T49, with fairly low velocity on both its shells, and being a light tank which sometimes finds itself available to take long range shots at enemies.
It doesn’t need supercharger as HEAT and HE don’t lose penetration over distance; because the tank only has HE and HEAT, it shouldn’t even take long range shots, both ammo types are far less consistet for penetration compared to AP and APCR, especially at a distance. T49 is a close range ambush tank, so it doesn’t need better velocity.
-KV-2, with very low velocity on all of its shells, and terrible penetration loss on its standard AP.
It doesn’t need supercharger because its premium AP hardly loses penetration at distance, the aim time is long so GLD is more useful, the tank should not even be fighting at a distance, the KV-2 is a point-blank range tank due to its aim time and dispersion.
Improved Control
Improved Control gives your tank 10% improved traverse speed
This piece of equipment has to compete against engine accelerator, which gives either 5% or 7% engine power to your tank, depending what class it is.
Generally players choose engine accelerator, as it gives both traverse speed and acceleration, even if that traverse speed is slightly less than what improved control provides.
When is it actually useful?
On tanks with decent or excess engine power but lacking traverse, or on turretless tanks.
The first type of tank that benefits more from improved control than engine accelerator are tanks that are already quick in acceleration, but have below-average traverse speed.
(Examples: T-22 Medium, Alt Proto AMX 30, Pz. II Luchs, T95E6, Chieftain/T95)
The second type of tank that benefits more from improved control over engine accelerator are turretless tank destroyers. Mainly the slower ones with limited top speeds or with slow traverse, quicker tanks with better traverse won’t need improved control as much.
Due to the lack of a turret, how fast your hull turns is extremely important to turretless TDs, more important than even your acceleration.
(Examples: Jg. E 100, Tortoise, Turtle Mk.I, Vindicator UM, T95, ISU-152)
There are also tanks like the Foch 155, which fit into both categories, it has excess engine power with below-average traverse speed, but it also lacks a turret.
Enhanced Tracks
Enhanced Tracks increase your track’s module HP/track durability, and when your tracks get repaired (by crew and not repair kit) they will be restored to standard condition.
What enhanced tracks do is a bit confusing. Basically they just make it harder for your tank’s tracks to be destroyed, and when they do get destroyed and repaired again, they won’t be repaired to the “partially damaged” condition, they will go back to a completely un-damaged condition.
This equipment has to compete against toolbox, which increases the repair speed of all tank modules by 30%.
The reason that enhanced tracks are not used by most players is because this equipment piece is actually just useless.
When is it actually useful?
Its not useful ever, and there are various reasons for this:
-You can have up to 2 repair kits for tank modules, both instantly repair tracks to standard condition.
-If you use toolbox, your tracks just repair 30% quicker, using enhanced tracks doesn’t do this.
-It only benefits the tracks, nothing else.
-Getting tracked generally isn’t a big issue in this game, hardly ever. Either due to fast track repair, increased module durability by using Vitality I equipment or protective kit, or just due to the way the game is played, where players just don’t actively aim to take off your tracks.
Generally, if your track is broken, its fine. Unless you just made a terrible over-aggressive push, having a broken track usually doesn’t spell death, especially with 2 repair kits and a fast track repair time.
This is the only equipment piece in game which you should not use on any tank. It gives no benefit at all, no matter which type of tank you are playing. Toolbox is better for every situation.
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