steveraptor

We are getting close to patch 1.0.0. I wonder if WG plans anything special for this patch. What do you think?

So after buying Kaga and having a lot of fun and success with it I considered buying Saipan as well, since I'm also enjoying playing Lex. i knew already that Saipan is a " Quality over Quantity", TX planes and all that. However when i took a closer look, US T-X planes aren't that different from Tier VIII. After comparing Lex and Saipan planes I found that Lex tends to have better firepower and flexibility on its planes. Attack aircraft: Exactly the same as Lexington, 3 attack runs, 6 TiTs per run, with no possibility to mount HVAR for Saipan. DB: Lex's DBs drop 6 in total, 9200 each, Saipan's DBs drops 4 in total 11200 each and higher fire chance, So Lex DB has better damage and reliability due to quantity of bombs and have higher chance to land bombs on DDs. TB: Same damage on both, Saipan drops 4 compared to Lex's 3, so Saipan has mildly better TBs..that is if you can reliably hit all 4 torps. In addition all T-X aircraft are slightly more durable and faster. So adding the abysmal aircraft re spawn timer on Saipan in addition with the small deck space, Unless I'm missing something, Saipan, despite having T-X aircraft feels like mostly a straight downgrade from Lexington with no real strong points. What are your thoughts about this?

Meaningless information because there are not enough sample/battles.

Not really. The facts speak for themselves regarding enterprise as well, under capable hands its completely overperforming other tier 8 CVs. And this is why it got removed from the store. Kaga doesn't come even close to the level of killing power in each of its planes compared to enterprise.

You can try hard and make any CV work, Saipan is a worse Lexington in every aspect, it doesn't have any real advantage over Lexingon. Everything you perform in Saipan you can do twice as better and easier In Lex. Enterprise is completely broken on fundamental level, which isn't fixed by a patch or two, hence it was removed from the store. Enterprise is OP because: - Kaga-like reserves and regen - AP bombs - Fighters - Large squadrons - Best torpedoes at their tier - Excellent rockets - Literally 0 weaknesses

Honestly, none of the current tier 8 premium CVs are worth buying, they are either gimped, nerfed versions of existing tech tree lines or straight up weak. Also, specifically Saipan, which is a such a huge trap, effectively a completely nerfed Lexington in all regards in a disguise that makes you think you get "quality" at the cost of high penalties, which in fact you get nothing and pay for it in huge penalties. Kaga is somehow the only one that can be considered because it offers different features (4x torp drops, HE bombs), and is fun to play in randoms from time to time. However it is nowhere near as competitive as Lexington and Shokaku. Enterprise don't count because you can't buy it anymore.

Among the dominant 3 CVs at tier 8 with Lexington and Enterprise, that sits WAY above everything else. Be mindful however that in ranked its not so effective at ranked 5+ games due to constant massa spam and your AP bombs being effectively useless against those. Lexington is the best pick if you want to advance ranked 5-1 consistently, or in general for all ranks (you also need to be a good CV player ofc, this applies for everything I wrote, Bad CV player will fail in any CV and will have no influence in the game). Kaga is garbage compared to the top 3, don't even bother with it.

At this point the ship has nothing to offer except secondaries and mediocre torps that are still nowhere near the power level of Shokaku and Lexington torps.... What a bargain for 14k doubloons, I really feel bad for all those that bought that carrier.

Its horrendous, I tried it out in CW yesterday and bow/stern in dds you can, if you VERY lucky, get 1k damage, most often you get 726 damage or nothing. Considering how easy it is to turn into them or out, it a huge nerf. Same goes for cruisers, they are no longer reliable "finishers", even bow/stern graff spees don't take more than 1.5k damage.

Don't count on it, they will probably miss/ricochet off the roof.

Asking for CV buffs in this forum. Pretty ballsy. Anyway, if memory serves, the talk here was that the change to the reticle will actually be a buff to all CVs, except TiTs and yada yada, glorious non-sense. Btw Ryjou rockets are also pretty trash now, especially vs DDs. So...have fun hunting broadside cruisers I guess? At this point people should be allowed to ask for a refund on their GZ, I have never a seen a ship being butchered so hard over multiple patches.

This is actually pretty dam good.

Was hoping to use my coupon for Erich, but seems that i can't since you can't use it on a bundle.

EM has little value on Goliath, i don't think its worth the 2 points: Assuming you use reload booster on slot 6: Goliath traverse time is 20.7. So, 180/20.7=8.7 degrees/second. Adding 0.7 of EM to this means an increase of around 8% to turret traverse, so...meh... PM is very solid though. Overall solid build, i run exactly the same except Vigilance instead of PM+EM.

With the last 3 points you usually have the choice between: 1) Vigilance 2) BoS 3) SE out of the 3 I found out Vigilance to give the best value, because i had plenty of games where I was kiting ships with enemy DDs on the flank harassing with torps, vigilance + 6 rudder shift gives you plenty of time to dodge them when needed. YMMV ofc.

It trashes any Russian cruiser in a 1v1 trade-off including petro, the tight dispersion at long range is great for punishing bow-in playstyle, which is how those ships generally play. The general rule of thumb is that any ship that can't overmatch Goliath upper belt is more or less easy food in a direct trade. The only cruiser which gives Goliath a run for its money and is more difficult to trade with is Venezia.

Non sense, Goliath role is to kite and tank flanks, preferably multiple ships at the same time on one flank while avoiding crossfires, at medium range and TRADE, abusing its 40mm deck and punishing any pushing/island camping ships. The only thing that matters is the upper belt because everything that goes through there usually ends up at the citadel, guns below 431mm can't over match it, so its extremely easy to angle. Calibers higher than that you simply dodge at 14-15km into stern position and wiggle around. For the occasional/lucky citadel hit you get the super heal. The ability for one cruiser to hold 2-4 ships at bay and trade with them is what makes it so strong and a force multiplier. Goliath has one of the most oppressive and consistent HE spam in the game, if aimed right, you can reliably shave 7-11k HE damage out of saturated BBs. It is the only cruiser in the game that can pen Yamatos center 57mm deck without IFHE. The majority of players who do play this ship occasionally in random battles and the videos/stream/last season CW i have seen fail to understand how to build it and how to play it. For example, most common mistake is to take concealment in slot 5. Goliath is an open water, medium range cruiser, taking double rudder shift gives it 6 sec rudder combined with 800m radius, allowing it to easily dodge any incoming fire at medium range, essentially turning it from a brick into Venezia-level agility, while still retaining an excellent 12.3km conceal. Combined with vigilance, its also easy to dodge most torps even when hydro is not active. Without rudder shift at slot 5, the ship cannot kite and wiggle well enough vs BBs and cruisers with Improved APs (e.g. Stalin, DM...) in open water and avoid crossfires, hence its reputation of getting deleted. People who complain about its seemingly lack of range are proof of also not understanding the purpose of the ship. 16.8 is more than enough to allow the ship to accomplish its role as a medium range ship, this is not a Yoshino that sits at the back and spams HE at 19km, if you don't take damage and trade in a Goliath your doing something wrong. It out trades ALL cruisers in the game at 13-15km where DPM ships are forced into shattering the 40mm deck with plunging fire. Trading well, avoiding crossfires using map awarness and knowing how to angle well against targets and utilizing all 12 barrels is key to having a success in Goliath. Goliath firing angles on all turrets is 30 degrees, which just happens to be the auto-ricochet angle threshold for the majority of AP rounds. RN CA line is fine at its current state and doesn't need any change, perhaps one day people will figure out how to play it properly and use those ships to their full potential. IJN cruisers play style is completely different than RN cruisers. Finally, Cunningham is a great commander choice for Goliath, the extra Heal and Witherer procs are game changers. The 10% JOAT is also very, very useful, allowing the super heal to come back faster during intense fire.

Why are you resurrecting the dead?

Exactly, Weser is not consistent. AP bombs spread is unpredictable and unreliable, bombs sometimes goes to the edges of the circle, compared to Ryjou which generally drops in the middle of the cross. AP rockets have too much counter play and are not reliable, indeed, it can't citadel GS. Torps are trash compared to Ryjou. Planes also melt faster.

No...they aren't, any half-decent CV player that simply took that CV to a training battle once or twice knows that SS is useless on this line.

1) Why even pick SS on Weser or any KM CV in that regard? waste of points. 2) So what if you get one 200k game? i had several 150k+ games in that on tier 4-6, its very easy to achieve that since a lot of players at this level have no idea what the AP rockets do or have any sense of using WASD when planes come at them. So you just repeatedly slam broadside cruisers out of existence in 3-4 salvos. 3) Why don't you try this CV in a tier 8 game and see how successful you are, then post results.....

Very fun ship to play, plus you also get 10k coal. Definitely worth it, its a bargain.

Problematic, people who already own T7 Belfast will rage at their ship being nerfed/changed.

Funny thing is, during the stream someone in chat pointed it out and then both CMs went silent in confusion for a few seconds when they found out that the T7 Belfast is actually Belfast 55.

nvm.