Sander93

Oh okay. Surely the hitpoints buff is an unfortunate side effect of game mechanics as the Montana did not need a buff against cruisers indeed. However this citadel buff might be the exact thing it needs to become competitive with the other tier 10s again.

Yes, but they added a new casemate section I presume? So in the end this should give it a slightly higher survivability due to the main sections becoming saturated a bit ealier? I mean how many times do battleships really​ get completely damage saturated sections?

What does the bow/stern/SS hitpoints reduction mean exactly? I have no idea how these mechanics work.

​First they said 0.6.4 then they promised 0.6.6. I'm hoping it just hasn't been implemented in the test yet or that the leak is incomplete. Would be disappointing if they postponed it yet again.

I'd prefer 5-15k salvos of AP damage that isn't fully repairable but whatever floats your boat.

​Baltimore and Des Moines can fire AP at broadsided battleships for devastating effects at any distance thanks to the super heavy shells. Damage dealt will be the same at 15km as it is at 5km, except at 5km you might go up slightly because of the better accuracy.

One thing the stats don't mention obviously is the scare factor a Tirpitz has. Nobody wants to be within 10.6km of a Bismarck, but the 6km torps on the Tirpitz are especially scary. Even if you don't hit with them, they're enough of a threat to force players into manoeuvres that puts them in a disadvantage. It's fun to see enemies panic when they realise you're charging them, and you can take advantage of their mistakes or when they're forced to show broadside.

It wasn't mentioned in the patch notes but I happened to notice that they finally fixed the main battery blast bags, which were (for reasons unknown) white-ish before. Now they have their historical color - black.

No reason to rant because the citadels will be lowered in patch 0.6.6.

Oh I see, never mind that then. I never play with stock hulls.

​The NC does not need to be buffed because her strength is already there, only she can't regularly make use of it. I'm talking about her god-like AA here. The other tier 8 BBs are overperforming because of the lack of CVs. Once (and if) Wargaming manages to fix CV population, all battleships should see a decrease in performance while NC's would stay roughly the same because she is immune to same tier CVs.

​I've just gotten my first one since the nerf minipatch in November. It gave me 5.000.000 credits. Now if only I hadn't already been sitting on 100.000.000 credits. Thanks for nothing, Wargaming. Well, at least it wasn't one of those utterly useless upgrades.

So [edited] tired of bob teams. This is the highest average damage for the Martel on the server, yet my win ratio is pathetic. Thanks Wargaming. Absolutely unbelievable.

​No pitchforks will have to be sharpened, it's really easy to get all the badges. You can do 8 tasks (7 if you don't own Hood) per stage, you get one container for each task, and one container contains two badges. 4 duplicate badges can be used to purchase one missing badge. The tasks themselves are really easy as well. Even with very unfortunate RNG you will easily be able to collect all the badges. I had already collected all the badges at stage 5 / 7 (PTS), only doing ~two tasks per stage.

In practise I find that the Henri is better at starting fires because of the higher chance per shell. Sets fires even more reliably in my ingame experience. Also see below for record score. Don't have battle report sadly because the server restarted.

Basic charts and probability go out the window the moment you hit that battle button, because paper statistics become worthless in anything other than ideal circumstances. The Des Moines for example has the best DPM on paper but the opportunities ingame to use it are scarce. Charts and statistics are highly influenced by all kinds of circumstances in battle and imo they say nothing about the true performance of a ship. Long range accuracy is completely neglectable because we're talking about a few meters at maximum range here. Same for Mosvka's AP penetration which is only slightly better. Regarding HE DPM you once again neglect ingame circumstances, because while the Zao has more HE DPM on a full broadside it's also more risky for the Zao to fully use that potential because of the bad turret arcs. What you also seem to forget completely is that the Henri gets torpedoes with some the best forward firing arcs in the game (no exposure while firing and enemies rarely notice you fire torpedoes in the first place). The 44 knots top speed (and ~33 knots while turning) means enemies usually miss the ship at range and it also allows to run away from a bad position or to relocate to other parts of the map (once again something that increases effective 'dpm' while being invisible in the raw charts and statistics). And anyway I've never said the Henri is better than the others, I said that it's a fun ship to play with. It's equal in performance to the other tier 10s with just enough defining charactaristics (especially the speed boost) to make her refreshing to play. My average damage (150k in 13 matches) on PTS is about the same as my Zao and Hindenburg (~130-140k damage). The PTS server went down straight after but I just did a 395.000 damage game in the Henri lol.

Frankly I don't understand why you'd put so much faith into charts and statistics. AP DPM on Des Moines is useless in battle if you can't get close enough to reliably hit, and this fires per minute stuff is useless in battle as well because RNG does not work like that. I've hit ships 50 times in a row with Des Moines HE and not started a single fire. Henri IV on the other hand has the gun charactaristics to properly hit stuff at long ranges which gives its AP much more potential. It seems far easier to hit citadels on cruisers on longer ranges and on angled targets, and the AP does more damage as well. Battleship-like salvos of 12-20k damage on cruisers are pretty common. What matters more than this fires per minute nonsense is the ability to hit and the fire chance per salvo, at which the Henri ranks among the top with its 26% fire chance. Not to mention other statistics like the speed that allow the ship to actually continue to use its DPM for longer. The Henri can just run away from a fight it can't win (yesterday I just ran away from two Yamatos, a Montana, a Grozovoi and a Baltimore and wrecked them afterwards) or easily relocate to better positions.

Been playing with the Henri IV in the test server and I've been having a blast in it. Starts fires better than Zao and the AP is absolutely brutal (lots of 12-20k volleys on cruisers) at all distances. It can penetrate Montana citadel (broadside) at 10km! Going 44 knots in a cruiser is fun, it's pretty easy to dodge shells and you can easily relocate to better positions (or run like hell) with that speed.

I don't mind playing against tier 10, I mind playing WITH tier 10. Or more specifically, playing with idiots in high tier ships.

​If you think the Martel isn't better then you're playing it wrong, its true strength is its ability to reliably hit at very long range combined with very good AP. Add in the speed boost, comfortable turret setup, firing arcs and rotating speed, good maneuvrability and torpedoes and this makes the Martel a very versatile ship even without special tools like radar. No matter the distance it wrecks broadsides with AP and against angled ships it sets fires every second salvo. Like Flamu said, it won't be a competitive ship because it's a jack-of-all-trades but it is a very strong ship. It could easily fit at tier 9.

Are we playing the same game? Because the Charles Martel is straight up overpowered at tier 8 right now. Saint Louis felt the same in the test server. I have 120k average damage so far lol and I've only had 'good' games till now, nothing special. The amount of damage this ship can rack up is insane IMO.

Charles Martel is a Baltimore at tier 8. Except you can easily hit battleships at 17km. The Martel's AP feels just as good as US AP doing 4000-8000 damage volleys on broadside battleships every 10 seconds, and with the good arcs and velocity it's much easier to hit over distance. Goes over 40 knots with the spood beest (sorry Flamu). Torps can be useful in last stand yolo charges or to hit tunnelvision battleships (because of the forward firing arcs people usually do not realise you launch them). Fast rotating turrets are very confortable to play with. HE damage is solid and fires are easy to start even at maximum range. Feels like an incredibly good cruiser, even after only a handful of battles. It's just so easy to do damage in it. I love it already.

Told ya:

This perfectly sums up the Algérie. Deals great damage which is worthless when you can't carry. I only get retarded teams.

I thought La Galissonnière was a good ship, and even though the damage was pretty consistant (good AP and decent fire chance) the guns simply couldn't fire fast enough to keep up with Aoba or Cleveland. If they buff the ROF back to 8 seconds this will be a very solid tier 6. Requires careful play though. Now I'm at Algérie which seems to be a great firestarter and long range flamethrower, although winning matches comes down to matchmaking. Due to its playstyle it barely has any carrying potential at all.