What is the best first crew skill?

The sixth-sense equivalent (the warning when you are spotted). Every other skill presumes you know whether the enemy can see you.

Is camouflage worth it on medium tanks?

Yes — camo keeps you unspotted on approach and lets you spot first on ridgelines. It is the highest-skill medium perk in most builds.

What changed with Crew 2.0?

Crews were consolidated into fewer members with role-based specializations, skills were re-grouped and re-balanced, and one crew now covers a whole vehicle class. The fundamentals — sixth sense, camo/repair, view range — stayed the same.

Should I retrain a crew for credits or gold?

Credits for 90% retrain on crews you experiment with; gold (or retraining orders) for your main tier X crews where every percentage matters.

Do skills matter more than equipment?

They are multiplicative. Equipment gives flat bonuses (e.g., +10% view range), skills give percentage scaling — a maxed crew with equipment is roughly 25–30% more effective than a bare one.

Crew Skills Guide: Best Skills for Every Tank (Crew 2.0)

How crews work now

After the Crew 2.0 rework, crews no longer live per-tank: a single trained crew covers a whole vehicle of the same class, and skills are grouped into specializations that apply only while the crew member fills that role. In practice, your choices are the same as always — you pick a small set of skills that synergize with your tank. Percentages stack up to +10% combat effectiveness, so a “zero-skill” crew (one that starts with a free skill) is worth gold later.

Crew level scales everything: aim time, reload, view range, handling, repair speed. 100% first, always.
Skills scale with the number of trained crew members filling that role — effects listed below assume full training.
Respecialization lets you move a crew to a different tank class for currency — plan crews per class, not per tank.

Universal first picks (every tank)

The sixth-sense equivalent — being told when you are spotted is non-negotiable; take it first on every crew.
Repair-speed skills — tracked heavies and mediums lose fights they cannot repair out of; gunnery skills matter little if you are a sitting duck.
Mobility/handling skills for the driver — terrain resistance and faster turning sharpen everything the tank does.
Reload and gun-handling skills for the loader/gunner — direct DPM and accuracy buffs.

Best skills by tank class

Heavy tanks

Priorities: repair, then survivability (firefighting is rarely worth it — use an automatic fire extinguisher and spend the skill slot elsewhere), then reload and gun handling. A brawler lives and dies by track repair and clutch shots.

Medium tanks

Vision skills shine: anything that boosts view range or camouflage directly converts into damage through early spotting. Then gun handling — mediums fire on the move constantly.

Light tanks

Camouflage above everything, then view range, then mobility. A scout with max camo stays unspotted while spotting the entire enemy team — that is the class in one sentence (light tank guide).

Tank destroyers

TDs split by type: snipers (Grille, Strv) want camo and gun handling; assault guns (T110E3, 268) want repair and survivability. Both want reload.

SPG

Mobility and survivability, plus the skills that reduce stun and module damage taken. Artillery crews are cheap to retrain, so do not over-invest early.

Training order that works

Order	What	Why
1	Sixth sense	Information wins fights; being spotted unknowingly is the #1 killer
2	Repair (ht/td) / Camo (lt, med, sniper TD)	Class-defining effect
3	View range or handling	Convert information into damage
4	Reload / DPM skills	Raw output
5	Quality-of-life	Firefighting, dead-eye type perks

Crew management tips

Use crew books on high-tier crews. The XP curve is steep at 90%+; books skip days of grinding.
Reassign commanders from premium tanks — a premium tank with a zero-skill crew trains the whole crew faster.
Never dismiss a zero-skill/BIA-style crew — they are event rewards and worth more than most premium tanks.
Match the crew to the tank’s job, not its nation bonus. A vision-build medium crew in a brawling heavy is wasted value.

Skills amplify the tank — they do not replace equipment. The two together are where a stock tank becomes a beast.