Update 9.17 is currently in the following phase: Update 9.17
Ensuring that the vehicle roster stays fresh, exciting, and relevant as the game evolves is the promise we made at WG Fest. And we're kicking this year off by delivering on it with the very first update of 2017.
This revision begins with the German Tech Tree. The growth it’s been through since the game's release messed with the tree’s very structure: today, vehicles united into one branch (and supposedly similar in play style) often differ a lot. Here, we set things right with comprehensive balance changes and the introduction of completely new tanks. Now, let’s get to the full change list.
The Maus heavy branch (as we know it now) is quite a bumpy ride. The VK 45.02 (P) Ausf. A and VK 45.02 (P) Ausf. B. are miles apart from the Tier X Maus in terms of gameplay. Firstly, after careful consideration, we decided to replace the two with the VK100.01P (Tier VIII) and Mäuschen (Tier IX). If you researched the Tier X Maus, they will be credited to you as researched as well. Everything you've come to expect from heavies, the newcomers are somewhat slow, yet well-protected and pack a punch. Secondly, to further smoothen the succession within the line, we’ll improve the Maus’ combat parameters. It’ll receive thicker frontal and hull armor. The gun handling is going to get easier thanks to a quicker reload time (reduced from 14.9s to 12s) and improved gun stabilisation—one of the best in the game, which isn’t surprising if you consider its sizes and speed.
We heard the requests to keep the VK 72.01(K) as a unique reward to Clan players. It will remain this way. The fan favourite VK 45.02 (P) Ausf. B and its predecessor VK 45.02 (P) Ausf. A will form an alternative branch ending in a new vehicle: the Pz.Kpfw VII.
Researchable from the VK 45.02 (P) Ausf. B, the Pz.Kpfw VII will mount the 12.8 cm Kw. K. 46 L/61 gun, providing a playstyle that’s quite different from the VK 72.01 (K). Also, the latter will get a number of improvements including easier gun handling, an increased penetration value for the Pzgr. 42 shell (the 15 cm Kw. K. L/38), and a larger ammo load of 35 rounds. On top of that, the VK 72.01(K) and the Pz.Kpfw VII are getting significantly thicker frontal armor. To compensate for it, we’ll reduce their maximum speed from 43 km/h to 33 km/h.
If you favor the E-100 line, this bunch will receive a few improvements as well. The E-75 will benefit from better gun stabilisation, while the E-100 will get a much-deserved increase to AP shells penetration. Starting in 9.17.1, it’ll be capable of piercing through 246 mm with 150 mm gun. Finally, moving down the tiers, the Tiger (P) and Tiger I turrets will become more resistant to enemy shells thanks to thicker turret armor.
Upon analyzing the combat stats of mid-tier medium tanks, we decided to improve gun handling and boost their mobility a little. Moving to top-tiers, the Tier IX E-50 and Leopard Prototyp A will get a considerable power-up:
Although originally designed as vehicle for ambush warfare, the Grille 15 currently plays a lot like a medium tank. Its technical characteristics will be tweaked to make it more suitable for ambush combat: we’ll give it a less powerful engine and worsen its gun handling. Its maximum reverse speed will go down as well.
Update 9.17.1 will introduce a series of tweaks to punch up underperforming Premium vehicles and make battles more enjoyable for them:
Lastly, we’ll increase APCR shell penetration with the 8.8 cm Kw. K. 36 L/56 gun for absolutely all vehicles that have it.
We’ve put a lot of work into these changes, and we're looking forward to rolling them out and seeing what the experience is like for you!
Tank Commanders,
Along with major changes to the Tech Tree and Strongholds, 9.17.1 will also bring a few small, yet long-requested improvements to UI and platoon battles. Let’s take a closer look at them.
Significantly optimised, the new Garage filters will get you to your desired selection a lot faster. Working off your requests, we:
The confusing “Reset Filters” button (often mixed up with “Apply Filters”) will soon be replaced with a far more useful search bar. Here, you can search by name, taking into consideration all the filters marked earlier, e.g., if you select, heavy USSR tanks, it’ll search among them. If you’d like to search among absolutely all vehicles, don’t apply any filters. Just type the name to get a full list of all available vehicles whose name(s) contains the characters you typed in the search field.
Starting in 9.17.1, you’ll no longer need to go to the Settings menu to switch between one and two-row carousels. You can do it right in the filtering popover: just click the button to the left of the search field (If you don’t mind going the long way, the similar option in the menu remains). However, we urge you to check out the Settings menu regardless. There’s one useful new option in there: minimalistic carousel display. Compared to the adjustable layout you are all familiar with, it keeps small-row design even if you switch to high screen resolution.
To save you some time when checking additional stats, we implemented a few new information blocks for vehicle slots: Mastery badges, win ratio, and Marks of Excellence. Just hover over the vehicle slot to view them.
Getting placed far from your fellow platoon members is a frustrating experience that can seriously undermine your battle plan. It takes a long time to rendezvous, not to mention the precious seconds that you lose when coordinating this “reunion.” Working off your direct feedback, we’ll put an end to it with an additional logic to prevent platoon members from getting placed far, far away. Instead of random start positions, vehicles will be placed as close to each other as the map, the number of platoons in a battle, and the platoon setup (vehicle types) allow.
Yet another frustrating scenario that you brought up to us occurs when playing in a platoon and your tank gets destroyed. You, most likely, want to see what happens to the people you were fighting with. However, you often have to click through a good half of the team roster before you finally switch to your platoon mates. And it's often too late when you get to the right one. Starting in 9.17.1, the camera will automatically switch to your first platoon mate on list. Left clicking will move the camera to the next platoon member, instead of the next teammate down the list.
Too much isn't always a good thing, which seems to be the case with missions. Sometimes, it gets hard to keep track of all of them. What we are going to do is improve on the very way they are brought to you in the Garage so that you get timely notifications about completing a mission, rewards you earn, and new tasks you get. Simply put; we’ll ensure you don’t miss on the fun.
As many of you know, to get the first taste of personal and battle missions, you have to level up to Tier IV. And Battle Training missions are there to help you climb the ladder. From Update 9.17.1, you can access them by clicking on a special flag in the Garage:
Starting with Tier IV, you’ll see two flags: daily and personal missions, each animated to inform you on changes to the number of available missions, rewards, and switching between mission types. Once you complete all daily missions, a check mark on the flag will inform you about it, while hovering over a flag will open an info tip with the full list of missions and rewards for them.
Need a detailed breakdown on a certain mission? Just click the one that excites you most, and it’ll appear on a tooltip including basic and extra conditions, as well as the rewards for fulfilling each group of tasks.
The Battle Missions and Specials screen is in for a revamp, too. To improve navigation, we’ll group all missions into three tabs: all available missions, Specials, and missions for the current vehicle, with ribbons marking new arrivals and the full list of rewards to the selected task at the bottom right.
These improvements are just a small fragment of what we have in store for Battle missions UI, and we’re looking forward to hearing what you think. Your feedback will help us prioritise future work and improve on the overall experience moving forward.
Tank Commanders,
Update 9.17.1 is right aroud the corner, so we're getting you up to speed regarding upcoming features and improvements. This time, we’ll walk you through updated vehicle comparison mechanics—featuring mounted equipment, Crew skills and perks, consumables, and camo—and a pack of enhancements to the simplified technical characteristics display. Shall we begin?
When this feature was first introduced in 9.16, many players noted that the rundown on vehicles wouldn’t be complete without including the elements that influence their performance: Crew skills and perks, equipment, consumables, camo, and ammunition. From 9.17.1 onwards, you will be able to select those parameters in a special menu and get the lowdown on a vehicle’s capabilities.
The Crew proficiency dropdown menu that you currently have will be replaced with a vehicle configuration list, where you can choose between default, current, and custom setups:
The Vehicle Configuration screen (above) is where you can get a full breakdown on default or current setups and can customise the selected tank in any way you want:
In 9.17.1, we’ll build on the display of simplified technical characteristics to make them more informative:
These are long-awaited changes that we hope you’ll enjoy. The teams around the studio are continuing to monitor and optimise your gaming experience. As we get closer to 9.17.1’s release, we’ll continue priming you for what to expect with the update. So, stay tuned.
See you on the battlefield!
Update 9.17.1 is headed into Supertest, and it's jam-packed with game-shaping changes to multiple features. We're also excited to begin our breakdown of everything that’s in store. This update will bring a salvo of features: enhanced representation of technical characteristics and improved damage log panel, sound tweaks and additions to vehicle comparison, along with a massive Tech Tree revision. Strongholds mode is in for a few adjustments as well.
Check out the detailed change set below to see what’s on the way.
As mentioned recently, we’re reinforcing our commitment to bring Tech Trees up to speed with the game as it stands today. In 9.17.1, this includes smoothing the progression to the top tiers of the German, Japanese, and American lines in particular, plus tackling some balance issues and introducing several all-new tanks.
Full rundown:
We’ve kept a watchful eye on battle stats and will introduce a series of tweaks to punch up underperforming vehicles and prevent their more powerful counterparts from upsetting overall balance:
We’re continuing to incorporate useful elements from your favourite third-party modifications. This time, the battle UI is getting a detailed "received damage" log. This includes ribbons for the damage amounts, shell type, critical hits, and the name and type of the vehicle that hit you. Conversely, we’ll remove ribbons that aren’t as useful: machinegun fire ribbons and detailed log messages will only display the total amount of damage caused by a series of shots.
Finally, 9.17.1 will introduce a new setting for adjusting the width of the dynamic damage indicators, indicating how much damage you receive or block. These additions will make it easier to evaluate ever-changing combat situations and quickly adjust your battle plan.
We heard your requests to expand the list of comparable stats, and we're pleased to say this is coming with 9.17.1. Soon, you can examine vehicles' mounted equipment, Crew Skills/Perks, consumables and camo.
With over 500 vehicles to choose from, it’s crucial to get the maximum information on each, whether it’s already in your Garage and you want the full rundown on specs, or you’re thinking about researching or purchasing it. In 9.17.1, we’ll build on the simple tech characteristics display to make it more informative. One-time cost equipment that affects combat performance (e.g., Binocular Telescope and Camouflage Net) will display their familiar icons. On top of that, you’ll see how much of a bonus they give you in solid numbers.
Also, as you have requested we’ll be replacing the "Standard Shell Penetration" and "Standard Shell Damage" ranges with an average number for each, shown in the Garage and Vehicle Preview Mode. If you prefer the current range displays, they will still be shown in a tooltip.
Finally, you’ll be given more details when choosing ammo types. The default type will be marked in a tooltip on the shell. And you can see it compared to others, right in the tooltip, which will make it a lot easier to choose the most useful shell for the job.
A brand-new, simpler “Offensive” format will replace Battles for Strongholds. It differs from the old format in a few ways:
Also, you’ll notice a new option for Skirmishes. When creating a detachment, you can open it for others to join, similar to Team Battles and Tank Companies. Whether you're new and want to try Skirmishes, or fought in a few as a legionnaire or volunteer, just browse through the list of available detachments in a special screen and choose.
If you love to go all unconventional with game sounds, it's time to celebrate! Starting in 9.17.1, audio files will be available to modders, while those using third-party voiceovers or sound packs can personalize their experience by tweaking almost every in-game sound.
Deeper under the hood, 9.17.1 also marks the transition to Wwise 2016.2.
Finally, a new bunch of maps get remastered minimap art: Training Area, Overlord, Stalingrad, Empire’s Border, Sacred Valley, Stalingrad, and Fiery Silent.
We’ll be talking more about each of the outlined changes in the near future. Stay tuned!
Tank Commanders,
The time has finally come to let Swedish reinforcements loose on the battlefield. Along with the new Tech Tree, which introduces some cool new mechanics, we’ve also buffed a number of Premium vehicles based on your feedback.
Here's what you need to know before rolling out in Update 9.17.
World of Tanks servers will be down on 16 Dec from 03:00 to 08:00 SGT (UTC +8) to get everything in order. Also, we’ll be freezing the Global Map for 24 hours, temporarily closing the Clan portal and cancelling Strongholds battles (except skirmishes).
The Swedish tree comes in two flavors: tank destroyers and a mixed branch.
The TDs are lightly armored, making them quick off the mark. They can bring the pain with their decent guns and stay safe with their low silhouettes. At tiers VIII–X, the TDs introduce Siege and Travel modes. The former considerably ramps up your ability to deal damage. The latter is for when you need to secure your position.
The mixed branch has light, medium, and heavy tanks. Early-tier and mid-tier tanks have good gun elevation arcs and can perform a wide number of combat roles. At the higher end, the EMIL I, EMIL II, and Kranvagn have the nation’s trademark gun depression and autoloaders.
Thanks to your feedback, we’ve made the first round of changes to several Premium vehicles, tweaking the combat parameters of the FV4202, STA-2, M4A1 Revalorisé, T26E4 Super Pershing, WZ-111, Löwe, Panther 8.8, T34, M46 Patton, and 112.
Improvements were also made to the French heavy tanks АМХ 50В and АМХ 50 120.
On the sound stage, we’ve made a few improvements:
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9.17 refreshes the looks of seven more minimaps: | |
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11 more vehicles now have HD models: | ![]() |
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The revised overmatch and ricochet rules (initially planned for 9.17) were postponed. All the data and your feedback from the Common Test showed that their introduction could lead to some deeper changes to vehicles strong and weak spots. Just like you, we wouldn’t want that. That's why we're taking some extra time to fine-tune these elements. Until it's all ready and meets our high standards of quality, we’ll stick to the old, time-proven mechanic for all vehicles, including the Swedish TDs. Head over to the Common Test article for more details.
As usual, your contributions during the test period were extremely helpful in making World of Tanks a better game. Head to the forums, talk to your fellow tankers, and let us know what you think about the final release!
See you on the battlefield.
Game Features
Added two vehicle branches in the Swedish Tech Tree:
Vehicles
Added the following vehicles for testing:
Reworked the following vehicles to HD quality:
Changed technical characteristics of the following vehicles:
Increased vehicle profitability by 10%
Improved gun depression angle from -7 to -10
Maps
Reworked visual quality of the following minimaps:
Tank Commanders,
Mark your calendars, because Update 9.17.1 goes live on 28 February! On the portal over the past few weeks, we’ve fired a few salvos of information explaining changes to Tech Trees, balance tweaks, Strongholds, damage log improvements, and other additions. Now is your chance to jump in, give it a shot, and check for yourself if these changes make your gaming experience better. But before you do, let’s take another look at everything scheduled.
Ready? Let’s do this.
World of Tanks servers will be down 28 February from 03:00 to 09:00 (UTC +8) to get everything in order. Also, we’ll be freezing the Global Map for 24 hours, temporarily closing the Clan portal and cancelling Strongholds battles.
Current Premium players will be credited an additional 24 hours of Premium account time to make up for the maintenance period. If you’d like to make any in-game purchases, please wait until the servers are up and running again.
Click the images below to check out some of the details on each feature.
Thanks once again to all who pitch in and help us make World of Tanks a better game. We encourage everyone to head to the forums and let us and your fellow players know what you think about the latest update.
Game Features
Implemented the following changes to the interface elements:
Implemented comparison of shell parameters in the tooltip against the standard shell
Improved filters of the vehicle panel in the Garage
Improved the interfaces of the mission informer and mission window
Changes to the Stronghold mode
The Battle for Stronghold sub-mode is replaced with a new one, named Advance, which is still a series of battles in the tug-of-war format with three defense lines, but with a number of distinctive features:
Strongholds cannot be pillaged any more: in case of a defeat, the clan will not lose anything. The winner's earnings will depend directly on the level of their Stronghold
The Stronghold does not need to be defended every day. Battles in the mode are not mandatory
Battles in the mode start at a particular time; opponents are selected automatically from the queue
Disabled pillage and mandatory Stronghold defense resulted in significant changes in the mode economy. The War Department, which is currently used by top clans that earned their reputation in battles, would be available to a large number of clans, which would result in imbalance of the game economy in general
Fixed the issue of improperly counted damage upon spotting, when damage to the spotted vehicle was caused within a short time after spotting.
Minimaps
Vehicles
Changes to the Germany Tech Tree:
Reworked the following vehicles to HD quality:
Changed the vehicle durability, when the second turret is mounted, from 710 to 750
Changed penetration of the Pzgr 42 shell for the 15 cm Kw.K. L/38 gun from 235 mm to 246 mm
Changed the traverse speed of T28VVSS T46 from 18 to 20