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Tankers! 7.5 is nearly upon us!
We'll be shutting down the server for roughly six hours while the update is applied. You'll be unable to connect or patch to the latest build until the maintenance is complete.
Players who have a premium account at the time of the shut down will be credited 1 day of premium time as compensation.
You can see a list of all the changes in the 7.5 update notes.

Server down time starts: 01:00 08/02/2012 PDT (08:00 08/02/2012 UTC)
Server down time ends: 07:00 08/02/2012 PDT (14:00 08/02/2012 UTC)

Due to the 7.5 update being rolled out, Clan Wars will be frozen for 24 hours. All you Global Map veterans will get a night off, rest up; the 7.5 update is bringing some big changes.

Start Freeze: 00:15 08/02/2012 PDT (07:15 UTC)
End Freeze: 00:15 08/03/2012 PDT (07:15 UTC)

Patch Notes

Tankers!
The World of Tanks development team is excited to announce that the 7.5 update for the NA server will be released soon. We will announce the exact date within the next few days, but for now check out the list of changes between 7.5 and 7.4.1:

New Content:

Added 3 new maps: Seaport, Highway, Serene Coast
Added new tier X medium tanks: Е-50 Ausf.M, Т-62А, M48A1
Added new tier V French light tank: ELC AMX
Added new tier VIII German tank destroyer: Jagdpanther II
Added new tier X tank destroyers: JagdPz E-100, Object 268, AMX 50 Foch 155, T110E3, T110E4
Finalized parameters for tier 6 Premium TD Dickermax and tier 8 Medium Tank Superpershing. Both added to the in-game shop
Added 'planes in the sky' environment effect to ‘Airfield’ map.

Game Mechanics Changes:

Following French light and medium tanks have moved one tier up: AMX 12t, AMX 13 75, AMX 13 90, Lorraine 40t, Bat Chatillon 25t (details can be found here)
Added a research path from Tiger P to Ferdinand (150 000 exp.)
Added a research path from AMX 12t to Lorraine 155 50 (140 000 exp.)
Credit revenue and repair cost rebalanced for some tanks basing on statistics results (details can be found here)
Reworked Match-Making for the majority of vehicles. Now players won't normally see vehicles of more than two tiers difference to the tier of his/her own vehicle (new MM chart can be found here)
All experience from elite Ferdinand transferred to Jagdtiger
KV-5 removed from the in-game shop
Reworked mechanism of knocking out crew members with HE shells
Now a hit to an internal module will still deal damage even if the armour wasn’t penetrated.

Vehicle Model Changes and Rebalance:

Rebalanced tier II and III tank destroyers
Basing on statistics results, French TD’s and SPGs, which were added in 7.4 update, slightly rebalanced
Rebalanced parameters of second USSR Heavy Line: Т-150, КV-3, КV-4, SТ-1, IS-4.
E-100 and Maus rebalanced according to the statistics results
Due to the introduction of tier X Medium tanks, the following tier IX vehicles have been rebalanced: E-50, M46 Patton, Т-54
Due to MatchMaker changes, parameters of following USSR Medium tanks and TD’s were rebalanced: Т-28, Т-34-85, Т-43, КV-13, SU-85
KV-5 slightly buffed
Changed IS-8 armouring in the lower plate.

Details on USA Vehicles changes can be found here
Details on German Vehicles changes can be found here
Details on French Vehicles changes can be found here
Details on Soviet Vehicles changes can be found here

UI Changes:

Added and reworked some battle hints.
Reworked hint pop-up text on buttons in replays
Added option to restore converted XP to the original vehicle by clicking on the vehicle checkbox in the XP exchange window.
Made some additions to the battle hint window which pops-up when pressing 'F1' in battle.
Added a notification for when Premium Account compensation has been made due to server maintenance.
Slightly changed mini-map icon colours.

Fixes:

Fixed the icon for French SPG: AMX 105 AM
Fixed the name and characteristics of Lorraine 155 51 top suspension
Fixed the display of "ZigZag" camouflage on M18 Hellcat TD
Fixed a bug which made it impossible to buy а M24 Chaffee stock engine after selling it
Fixed some errors in the visual models of the following vehicles: AMX AC Mle 1948, ARL 44, IS-8
Fixed errors in armouring of AMX 50 Foch TD.
Fixed name of Somua Sau 40 TD.
Fixed the extended view range of T1 Cunningham.
Fixed some errors in visual model of the Super Pershing tank.
Fixed the 'We hit them hard' voice replay when setting an enemy tank on fire.
Fixed the bug of not damaging enemy vehicle by getting the suspension, which was destroyed prior to that.
Fixed a bug causing game crash when leaving battle to garage
Fixed the density of some bushes. This influences camouflage level.
Fixed the WoT symbol not appearing on the white banner in 'Encounter' battle mode.
Fixed some rare cases of training room chat not being removed once the room is dismissed.
Fixed the login screen not displaying correctly when quickly pressing ‘Enter’ after the client loads.
Fixed the display of damaged modules when watching an ally vehicle in 'postmortem' mode.
Fixed suspension repair option when using 'Ctrl + LMB' click on the image.
Fixed a disparity between the actual state of the scrolling buttons and their display in 'carousel' of chat channels.
Fixed storage of the platoon window in garage.
Fixed the shortened names of tanks in the battle loading screen.
Fixed the position of vehicle icons in historical description.
Fixed the description and conditions for obtaining Fadin's medal.
Fixed some errors in chat filter.
Fixed the display of durability marker over tanks with all crew wounded.
Fixed the functionality of 'Attention to the sector X' with max-scaled mini-map.
Fixed the pop-up hint for mastery badges.
Fixed the change of marker colours when toggling 'alternative colour scheme' on and off.
Fixed the functionality of alternative colour scheme in training rooms.
Fixed the description for 'Ace Tanker' mastery badge.
Fixed the description of some crew skills and perks.
Fixed some errors in the interface training.
Fixed some places where it is possible to get ‘stuck’ on 'Wide Park' map.

I cant beleive I would ever see a sale that impacted anything higher than tier 7 vehicles but here it is. World of Tanks is now offering deep discounts on tier 9 vehicles. hurry up it ends August 1st. here is the post

Tankers!
We have often stated that Tier IX vehicles would be never dicounted. But there is always place for surprises and all rules have exclusions. The time has come for an exceptional special!
Starting at 4.30 AM PDT (11.30 UTC) July 28th and lasting until 4.30 AM PDT (11.30 UTC) August 1st enjoy the following discounts! Curious what time this is in your region? Use this handy Time Zone Converter to help you out.
Following Tier 9 Tank Destroyers will cost as current Tier 8 TD's during the special: