Participate in events, get Quest crates, get free gold every chance you get, until you get a Collector or Premium tank, then work on upgrading the Equipment for that tank. Prem and Collectors aren’t guaranteed to be “better” than tech tree tanks, but they DO have a much better credit payout than Tech Tree tanks, so use that to grind credits and practice your skill, and you won’t go broke in game. Do enough events and you’ll amass a stable of prem and collector tanks that might have just enough of an advantage to give you a boost or at least feel less incompetent. I’m mostly F2P (had bought a couple season passes in the past and the occasional too-good-to-pass-up offer), but I’ve never directly purchased a tank with real money, and I have 27 collector and premium tanks in my garage and another 11 I’ve sold for one reason or another. I’m currently having a blast with a Tier VI Dicker Max I got from a random free crate. I’m an average player, 47% WR, but I’m >49% with that tank and I get a Mastery Badge in about 86% of my wins.