Then, I see it was coming back around again- did Wargaming learn anything from last year?
Nope.
This is really frustrating to me, but probably not for the reasons you expect. See, at a glance you might think I'm just mad I can't afford this tank, or that Wargaming has purposefully made the tank "rare" to charge an exorbitant price for it... nah, I'm more mad because the Hydrostat used to mean something back when it was actually "rare" (not this BS market "rare" they're playing now) and it doesn't anymore.
Firstly, the Hydrostat is not a good tank. I would argue it was never a good tank. It has been in the game for many, many years and plays very much like the tier 5 Panzer IV with the stock gun. It's most equal "premium" comparison I can compare it to is the Panzer III-K, which is in itself terrible. The gun is weak, the mobility is average at best against opponents that are much faster, and it's armor is almost nonexistent. A shot virtually anywhere in the back of the tank will take out the engine.
So, what am I mad about- rich idiots will buy the Hydrostat, and the rest of us will shoot them like the idiots that they are. Wargaming makes money to keep the game free. What could be the problem?
My complaint with the Hydrostat (beyond the aforementioned artificial scarcity of it) is that once upon a time, the only people who had the Hydrostat were players from the early days of the game, or players who earned them through that big clan wars event some time ago. If you saw a Hydrostat in 2014-15, which was rare as there weren't that many of them, you knew that whoever had the tank knew what the hell they were doing. It was a symbol that whoever had that tank could definitely hold their own. I remember the first time I fought alongside a Hydrostat; that tank bagged six enemy tanks and pretty much carried the round. It was the driver's skill, not the merits of the tank- but simply having the tank made it clear he knew what he was doing.
Now, it (like virtually every "expensive" tank now) is just another indicator that whoever is driving is some rich goon who is just as likely to drive off the cliff as actually engage in the fight. I feel worst for the old Hydrostat owners- the guys who are good and earned theirs fair and square, who aren't going to take theirs out anymore for fear of getting ridiculed as part of the "rich idiot" group- the same as the M6 Mutant drivers all did back in April of this year.
A reward isn't a reward for long in WOT, which is too bad in my opinion. My 2 cents...
