Post by Commander Boot on Apr 27, 2013 4:45:55 GMT -5
Recently many people have asked about the WN rating. We recently switched from WN6 to the 7th version, which brought few but important changes. It’s better if we go to the beginning, so we can have a good picture of what WN is and isn’t.
The WN rating was first published by its author, Praetor77, on the NA forums on the 28th of November, 2012. The main goal is to eventually replace Efficiency, which is a widely flawed formula (prior to the recent update, which actually did not help much at all). The WN rating was created using advanced mathematics to create an accurate formula, using Win Rate as a proxy to accurately determine the weight each stat would have in the formula. The Efficiency formula was the basis for an analysis to figure out what was wrong with it and create an improved formula with those problems fixed.
WN is short for Weighed and Normalized, and implements various ways to deal with statpadding, and in the end it turned out the only way to pad your WN rating was to be actually good at the game.
Key points of the WN Rating are:
Damage is scaled according to your average tier and is the most important stat in the formula
Players with a considerable number of battles who have an average tier lower than 4 are heavily penalized for sealclubbing
Cap points are not counted towards your rating, since standing inside a circle requires no skill
To compensate for things like cap used to lure the enemy out and crucial decisions not recorded in the stats, the win rate counts for up to 10% of your rating
Average Defense points is capped at 2.2 to prevent padding
One of the most important characteristics of the WN Rating is the open development format, meaning any player can talk directly to Praetor through the thread above and suggest modifications, which will be tested and, if successful, implemented. By having this open development model, it effectively eliminates biases which closed formulas such as Efficiency have.
After the rating was released, WoTLabs was the first website to implement it, keeping it up to date every time a new version is launched. Although many people dislike the fast evolution of the rating (having gone through several changes and versions in only 4 months), this means that the formula rapidly grows more accurate. It has spread to the point where the WN Rating is set to become the standard rating used on the XVM mod, although it will probably come with some modifications.
Common Misconceptions
Despite having been based on advanced algorithms, the WN Rating did not pass without heavy criticism, although most, if not all, of this criticism turned out to be misconceptions.
One common complaint was that, if it was made to correlate with win rate, then we could just use win rate. Unfortunately win rate can be easily padded by platooning with good players. The WN Rating separates those padded players by using their actual stats. A veteran player with a low WN Rating but a high win rate has been heavily padded.
Another common criticism is that we should stop caring about statistics and just play the game, since statistics eventually lead to mockery. Unfortunately World of Tanks is a competitive game, and as in all competitive games, there must be a measuring stick in order to know if you are improving and how much you are improving, otherwise we might as well go play Farmville. Shooting tanks for the heck of it gets boring after a while.
Other players criticize the formula for not taking things like spotting damage into account. This can hardly be pinned on the WN Rating, since Wargaming has not released this information publicly. The WN Rating can only work with what it has available. To account for those invisible stats that help win games, Win Rate has been added to the formula.
The WN rating was first published by its author, Praetor77, on the NA forums on the 28th of November, 2012. The main goal is to eventually replace Efficiency, which is a widely flawed formula (prior to the recent update, which actually did not help much at all). The WN rating was created using advanced mathematics to create an accurate formula, using Win Rate as a proxy to accurately determine the weight each stat would have in the formula. The Efficiency formula was the basis for an analysis to figure out what was wrong with it and create an improved formula with those problems fixed.
WN is short for Weighed and Normalized, and implements various ways to deal with statpadding, and in the end it turned out the only way to pad your WN rating was to be actually good at the game.
Key points of the WN Rating are:
Damage is scaled according to your average tier and is the most important stat in the formula
Players with a considerable number of battles who have an average tier lower than 4 are heavily penalized for sealclubbing
Cap points are not counted towards your rating, since standing inside a circle requires no skill
To compensate for things like cap used to lure the enemy out and crucial decisions not recorded in the stats, the win rate counts for up to 10% of your rating
Average Defense points is capped at 2.2 to prevent padding
One of the most important characteristics of the WN Rating is the open development format, meaning any player can talk directly to Praetor through the thread above and suggest modifications, which will be tested and, if successful, implemented. By having this open development model, it effectively eliminates biases which closed formulas such as Efficiency have.
After the rating was released, WoTLabs was the first website to implement it, keeping it up to date every time a new version is launched. Although many people dislike the fast evolution of the rating (having gone through several changes and versions in only 4 months), this means that the formula rapidly grows more accurate. It has spread to the point where the WN Rating is set to become the standard rating used on the XVM mod, although it will probably come with some modifications.
Common Misconceptions
Despite having been based on advanced algorithms, the WN Rating did not pass without heavy criticism, although most, if not all, of this criticism turned out to be misconceptions.
One common complaint was that, if it was made to correlate with win rate, then we could just use win rate. Unfortunately win rate can be easily padded by platooning with good players. The WN Rating separates those padded players by using their actual stats. A veteran player with a low WN Rating but a high win rate has been heavily padded.
Another common criticism is that we should stop caring about statistics and just play the game, since statistics eventually lead to mockery. Unfortunately World of Tanks is a competitive game, and as in all competitive games, there must be a measuring stick in order to know if you are improving and how much you are improving, otherwise we might as well go play Farmville. Shooting tanks for the heck of it gets boring after a while.
Other players criticize the formula for not taking things like spotting damage into account. This can hardly be pinned on the WN Rating, since Wargaming has not released this information publicly. The WN Rating can only work with what it has available. To account for those invisible stats that help win games, Win Rate has been added to the formula.
