World of tanks patch 8.6 coming this week. Aaaand here are the patch notes

Changes in SPGs:

• USSR SPG line has been reworked:
  
  • New SPGs added: SU-122А (Tier V), SU-14-1 (Tier VII)
• Now the tree will look like this:
  
  • Tier II SU-18
  • Tier III SU-26
  • Tier IV SU-5
  • Tier V SU-122A (new vehicle)
  • Tier VI SU-8 (moved from Tier V)
  • Tier VII S-51 (moved from Tier VI) ======  Tier VII SU-14-1 (new vehicle)
  • Tier VIII SU-14-2 (moved from Tier VI)
  • Tier IX 212A (moved from Tier VII)
  • Tier X Obj. 261 (moved from Tier VIII)
• German SPG line has been reworked:
  
  • New SPGs added: G.Pz. Mk. VI (e) (Tier II), Pz.Sfl. IVb (Tier IV), G.W. Tiger (P) (Tier VIII)
• Now the tree will look like this:
  
  • Tier II G.Pz. Mk. VI (e) (new vehicle)
  • Tier III Sturmpanzer I Bison (moved from Tier II) ==== Wespe
  • Tier IV Sturmpanzer II (moved from Tier III) ====== Tier IV Pz.Sfl. IVb (new vehicle)
  • Tier V Sturmpanzer 38(t) Grille (moved from Tier IV)
  • Tier VI Hummel (moved from Tier V)
  • Tier VII Gw Panther (moved from Tier VI)
  • Tier VIII G.W. Tiger (P) (new vehicle)
  • Tier IX G.W. Tiger (moved from Tier VII)
  • Tier X G.W. E-100 (moved from Tier VIII)

• USA SPG line has been reworked:
  
  • New SPGs added: M44 (Tier VI), M53/M55 (Tier IX).
• Now the tree will look like this:
  
  • Tier II T57
  • Tier III M7 Priest
  • Tier IV M37
  • Tier V M41
  • Tier VI M44 (new vehicle)
  • Tier VII M12 (moved from Tier VI)
  • Tier VIII M40/M43 (moved from Tier VII)
  • Tier IX M53/M55 (new vehicle)
  • Tier X T92 (moved from Tier VIII)
• French SPG line has been reworked:
  
  • New SPGs added: AMX 105 AM mle. 47 (Tier IV), Bat.-Châtillon 155 55 (Tier IX)
• Now the tree will look like this:
  
  • Tier II BS
  • Tier III Lorr.39LAM
  • Tier IV AMX 105 AM mle. 47 (new vehicle)
  • Tier V AMX 105 AM mle. 50 (moved from Tier IV)
  • Tier VI AMX-13 F3 AM (moved from Tier V)
  • Tier VII Lorraine 155-50 (moved from Tier VI)
  • Tier VIII Lorraine 155-151 (moved from Tier VII)
  • Tier IX Bat.-Châtillon 155 55 (new vehicle)
  • Tier X Bat Chatillon 155 58 (moved from Tier VIII)
• Introduction of new Premium tank: British Tier V Heavy Tank A33 Excelsior
• Added new camouflage patterns for the following nations:
  
  • USSR: 1 winter and 2 summer.
  • Germany: 1 desert and 2 summer.
  • France: 3 summer.
• New map added "Sacred valley" (Korea, Autumn)
• Encounter battle has been added to the following map: Mines, Lakeville, Redshire.
• New birds have been added to Ruinberg and Lakeville
• Improved after-battle statistics
• Reworked the list of WoT achievements on login screen
• Removed the following inscriptions: "Popeye", "Mickey Mouse", "Betty Boop". All players with these inscriptions will receive compensation corresponding to the method of purchase (credit or gold) and time remaining (in case of inscriptions purchased for credits)
• Small improvements of special battle's screen (display of nation, type or Tier limitations)
• All new accounts will now receive Tier I tanks with 100% crew

Game Mechanics:

• Damage model of the following tanks has been improved: SU-8, SU-85B, Cromwell, Comet, Matilda Black Prince, SU-5, SU-76, Т95, Т92, M12, M41, M7 Priest, T57, G.W. E 100, G.W. Tiger, Hummel, Pz.Kpfw. V/IV, IS-6, Pz.Kpfw. III/IV, Object 268, FV215b (183), Wespe
• Reworked additional absorption bonuses for Spall Liners:
  
  • Small Spall Liner 20 % (was 15%).
  • Medium Spall Liner 25% (was 15%).
  • Large Spall Liner 30% (was 15%).
  • For heavy tanks of more than 70 tons added super-heavy  spall liner with additional absorption coefficient of 50%
  • All spall liners on vehicles with weight above 70 tons were dismounted, moved to depot and changed to ‘Super-Heavy spall liners’
• New rules of how HEAT shells work:
  
  • HEAT shells will start to ricochet if the impact angle equals or is greater than 80 degrees. (please note that every shell can have slightly different settings). The armor penetration after ricochet will remain the same.
  • After successful penetration, a HEAT shell cannot ricochet inside the tank (as the shell is transformed into a continuous stream.)
  • After successful penetration, the HEAT shell will lose 5% of armor penetration value for each 10cm of travelling distance (50% for 1 meter travelled between the spaced armor surface and armor)
  • After successful penetration, the force with which the HEAT shell continues to travel through the armor will lose penetration value equal to the amount of armor hit and will take into account the angle of impact between the armor and penetration spot.
  • Suspension now also counts as spaced armor
• Changed mechanism of camouflage calculation when using camouflage pattern and camouflage net:
  
  • From now on, the values for vehicles with camo patterns and camo net will be cumulative.  This means that now the camouflage net and camouflage pattern will provide fixed bonuses which will only differ based on the class of the vehicle (for example, TD's will receive the highest bonus)
  • This means that the camouflage net and camouflage will give a significant camouflage bonus even for big turrets.
  • To avoid side-effects of having nearly invisible TD's, it was decided to decrease the overall camouflage bonuses provided by bushes and fallen trees by 20%.
• Increased income for high tier tanks (the full list of changes will be available later in a special appendix):
  
  • For tier 10 vehicles (except for SPGs) income increased in average by 10%.
  • For tier 9, 8, 7, 6 vehicles (except SPGs) income also increased but not as much as for tier 10 vehicles.
• Tracers have been temporary turned off:
  
  • Removed all tracers from unspotted enemy vehicles, except of SPG’s tracers
  • The area in SPGs aiming mode, where tracer of non-spotted SPGs is being shown, has been reduced.
• Changed the mechanism of shot accuracy calculation. Now amount of shells falling on side of the aiming circle will decrease by 20%. Shells will fly more accurately and closer to the aim center.
• Changed the mechanism of calculating damage and penetration. The extreme numbers will be seen 5% less, while the average amounts will be seen more often
• Removed decreasing coefficients of XP received from dealing damage with TD or SPG. TD’s will receive 33% more XP from damage, while SPG owners will notice 50% boost in the same parameter.
• Added ‘assist’ bonus for tracking enemy: if you track an enemy and allies deal damage to it, or even destroy it while it’s still tracked, you will receive an XP bonus. Mechanism will work similarly to the one applied currently for damage on spotted vehicles.
• Shell normalization of all ACPR and ARCP shells decreased from 5 to 2 degrees
• Mechanism, which allows to determine what bonuses (XP, credits, frags count) will be received for damaging or killing tanks using physics (pushing to water or from the cliffs etc.) and by whom, was added
• Added a new camera mode, which swings slightly when firing or getting shot and adding a compensation mode for vehicles moving in Sniper mode (can be enabled in setting by selecting ‘Use dynamic camera’ option)
• Rebalanced Tank Company requirements for different types of tanks. Now all ‘divisions’ will have same requirements for Medium and Heavy tanks, TD’s and SPG’s: Junior – Tier IV, Medium – Tier VI, Champion – Tier VIII, Absolute – Tier X. Limitations for light tanks will still be in place
• If a player gets banned for teamkilling, he’s now immediately kicked out of a current battle, rather than waiting for the battle to finish first and being banned after

Rebalancing:

• Elevation and depression angles of Matilda Black Prince have been increased.
• Balance changes have been made on map ‘Fjords’. Also one-storey wooden houses can be now destroyed.
• Balance changes have been made to the “assault” game mode on Westfield.
• ‘Widepark’ map is now only available for random battles of Tier IV, V and VI
• Full rebalance of SPGs was made (full list will be available closer to the update)
• Overall velocity of SPGs’ shells decreased (10-15% for regular guns and 50% for short ‘mortar’ guns)
• Rebalance of income values for most vehicles (the full list of changes will be available later in a special appendix)
• Rebalancing of premium shells has been performed (the full  list of changes will be available later in a special appendix):
  
  • Price adjustments have been performed according to the efficiency value, which was calculated for each type of shells minding its penetration value and damage.
  • The price for some APCR/ACRP shells has been increased and for some of them reduced.
  • The price for almost all HEAT shells has been increased because they turned out to be cheaper despite the same efficiency as for APCR/ACRP shells.
  • Almost all premium HEAT shells remain without any changes except for some HE shell types.
• Rebalancing of HE shells has been performed (the full list of changes will be available later in a special appendix):
  
  • Armor penetration of high Tier HE shells was decreased
  • Middle Tier HE shells (105-122 mm) armor penetration was significantly decreased
  • Premium shells, which saw their characteristics changed, were reimbursed with credits according to the shell purchase price of version 8.5

Visuals:

• Visual models of the following tanks have been improved: VK 16.02 Leopard, Matilda Black Prince, SU-85B, SU-14, T26E4 Super Pershing, GW. Panther, SU-26, Hummel, Е-100 (turret has been moved 10 cm closer to the front), SU-18, Object 212, Т-54, BТ-2, АТ2, Pz.Kpfw. II Ausf. G, Pz.Kpfw. I Ausf. C, Matilda IV, Sturmpanzer II, Aufklärungspanzer Panther, T57 Heavy Tank, M2 Light Tank, AT 8
• Graphics have been improved on the following maps : Murovanka, Widepark , Airfield.
• Visual changes have been made to ‘Ruinberg’ map.
• Reworked animation of base flag

Sound Improvements:

• Sound processing module has been reworked. Now it’s possible to play more sounds with less sound distortions and while using less system resources.
• Changed mechanics of ambient sounds placement on the map. Removed ‘dead zones’, increased volume of wind in SPG-view, created new events for water, industrial objects and fire
• Decreased amount of sounds of tank ground hits while driving though uneven areas
• Increased distance of fire sound, changed dependence of sounds on camera position, added physical model of hearing sounds from a distance
• Increased distance of other tank sounds to add ‘Doppler effect’ to increase reality of two vehicles moving side-by-side
• Increased variety of tank hit sounds
• Changed sound of tank destruction
• Added 3D parameter. All players, who have 5.1 multimedia-systems, will experience a greater level of realism in the game.

Technical Improvements:

• Reworked mechanism of informing about the lack of memory
• Added an automatic quality regulation system of tuning special effect depending on resources usage and system performance, which will reduce quality of effects (explosions, smokes and fire) automatically if fps drop is detected
• Made some improvements and corrections to the mechanism displaying dynamic shadows. This leads to an overall improvement of the shadow quality with fewer artifacts.

Fixes:

• Corrections have been made to names of French tanks and their modules.
• Fixed the low turning speed of some vehicles on bridges
• Added small corrections to battle and video tutorials
• Fixed wrong effects displaying when destroying some objects
• Fixed discrepancy between actually damaged parts and the resulting visual damage models of the affected buildings and objects
• Fixed damage models of small ambient objects
• Fixed errors and improved display of dynamic shades
• Partly fixed issue of NVIDIA 309 and newer drivers conflict with WoT client which sometimes could result in a crash