First advice: Don’t rush. Take your time. Do not buy a high Rank premium vehicle and skip the lower Rank vehicles because you will never learn how to play well if you do that. I would recommend buying Premium Account time when it goes on sale for 50% in a few months. That helps a lot, and gives you research point and silver lion bonuses no matter what vehicles you are using. Goes on sale for $20 for 180 days on the web store. Goes on sale 2x a year, so you can get more before each 180 period runs out.
Second advice: purchase “Expert Training” with Silver Lions for the vehicles you enjoy, and play often. It helps SO much, effectively increases your skills for that vehicle, on that specific crew slot by something like 50%, or more. More crew skill = you get more kills = you make more RP & SL’s. Pays for itself imo, especially if it is a vehicle you are going to use many times.
Third: SPADE YOUR VEHICLES BEFORE USING NEW HIGHER RANK/Battle Rating VEHICLES! This cannot be stressed enough. Spading = researching all the modifications for a specific vehicle. If you do not Spade your vehicles before adding new higher BR vehicles to your lineup, you will be at a significant disadvantage during your matches. Wait until you have your lineup fully spaded THEN add a new vehicle that is slightly higher BR. That way you will have backup vehicles to use after you die in your new vehicle.
the grind is not the goal. never think of it as one.
Once you get to the tanks planes or ships you want, ENJOYING them is what matters.
Premiums, more efficient research at ranks and whatever else couldnt matter less if the vehicle youre using isnt enjoyable.
Just find what you enjoy. If you think “i like the Tiger” then play germany, if youre patriotic and like your countries vehicles then playing that nations tree or the tree where those vehicles are most often is a good bet too. If youre not too bothered play a bit of all of them to see what style you like the most
As for finding people to play, best but usually is to join the discord server of a youtuber you like (however certain big channels are worth avoiding just like with any other video games YT community) and being active and friendly with that community, this forum isnt great for squadding up with people unless you’re very lucky.
No, you are absolutely free to move your interest elsewhere. And that initial “gift” you get has absolutely no longer lasting value. The income bonus is peanuts and it isn’t even a full talisman in effect.
It more depends on what vehicles you want. I personally mained Germany ground until I got a few rank 5s (BMP-1, Marder A1, Leopard 1, Maus and Wiesel 1A4) now I switch between UK, USSR, Japan and Germany.
Perhaps it would be easier if you could mention any vehicles in particular your interested in
You don’t have to move on to the most recently unlocked vehicle as soon as you get it, see what vehicle lineup you like and try to spade it. From there you can either try move to a new one or keep going until your target vehicle is obtained or you start getting rank research penalties (researching a vehicle 2 ranks higher or lower than the ones you use)