ollonborre

The problem is not the +-2 MM. The problem is the amount of times you get shoved into the bottom tier, and that WG put in the protected MM. The protected MM was in my opinion a mistake. Giving newer players a safe space sounds fine in theory, but in practice it means that once you are out of it you get hit in the face with a shovel. And since tier 4-3 is so protected tier 5 ships are often sucked into higher tier games to fill in the gap. Tier 5 used to be the learning tier, but sadly that is no longer the case. So in general tier 5 is where you really need to learn the things you might not have learned before, and new things that become really important (angling, detection, overmatch etc). If you overcome tier 5 then MM stops being much of an issue for a while, tier 6 has improved a lot and is often a more balanced tier.

Sort of. The biggest issue with the Mogami is the flimsy armor, but if you work around it it becomes a DPM monster that will outshine an Atago even in tier 10 games. Atago suffer in the gun department but has better stealth and survivability, and the Mogami is the other way arounnd. Both ships can use some love but for now they are fine IMO.

50k spotting damage, a quarter of your teams total cappoints, some defense points, bottom tier ship shooting at almost only top tier ships, a few shot down planes. All of these things add up to a crapton of XP while it might not seem you do a lot in the game.

Jumping on this bandwagon aswell. It mainly requires patience and sometimes longer gaming sessions to get those more specific missions done (like medals for example).

Then you were probably not as angled as you thought you were (or a detonation). The Hindenburg has really bad AP penetration, and will struggle to do meaningful damage to even angled tier 8 cruisers.

Or in a British CL (ish). The thing is that German AP have very high penetration damage but the penetration values are garbage. So in general in German cruisers if the target even starts to remotely angle you are often best of just switching to HE. That being said as long as you do have a broadside you can cause serious damage even at long range.

Honestly those torps are a much stronger investment than the guns. The Z-52 is a cap contester and torpboat at heart, investing in the guns means you will be able to pew pew somewhat more effectively but will still be outgunned by a more dedicated gunboat. And do you really need 16.8 km range? Basically turning it into an inferiour Kebab and not going for its role as the best cap contestor in the game seems like you are just better off getting the Kebab.

Destroyers work on most operations. The problem however is that DD's lack the damage output often required for operations, and proper presence around objectives. Ships spawn everywhere and often close ish so spotting can be done by most ships. Cruisers have DPM to have a shooting gallery, and BB guns are more reliable than torps. So DD's don't really offer anything that all the other classes don't have, and the advantage a DD might bring is often not that big to warrant a DD. That beeing said like above posters have said, they can still work and be effective. Just don't have more than one.

-Was about to post a sort of constructive answer. -Checks date. -Laughs. -Rereads the post. -Checks the OP's other content. -Confused.

It is a tier 6, it's just that it, despite what people say, does not play much like a tier 6 cruiser. The guns don't have the reload to do fast paced cruiser action funtimes, instead it requires a more thoughtful approach. It is a support ship, staying at around 13-12 km or closer if no big threats are around where the guns are still effective and you have change to dodge or turn away. The Spee relies on time and staying alive to do large amounts of damage. It is durable for a cruiser and it has access to a heal, meaning you can stay alive for quite some time even under fire. Use AP 97% of the time. Only use HE if you know that your next target will be a destroyer or a bow in tier 8 battleship. Your AP is enough when fired at broadside and slightly angled targets. If some one do rush you or you need to push in you have acess to excellent Hydro and good torps with good range and fantastic firing arcs, so dealing with close range targets is still something you can do. All in all the Spee is a bit tricky. It is not bad, just different to what people normally think of a cruiser. If you have experience with battleships the Spee will be easier to play. But even if you don't adopting a different safer playstyle will help you achieve greater results in the Spee.

The Martell is very well at the top for tier 8 cruisers thanks to impressive reload and range, usable stealth, very fast, good enough AA and powerful AP. The Saint Louis is so far more fun than the Henri atleast for me. 8.8 second reload with good range, heal, great AA, still powerful AP and the trademark gotta go fast boost made it a slightly bigger Martell which was fine by me since I love the Martell. It's the Henri that rapidly shift in playstyle, or rather limits you in what you could accomplish previously.

I like it so far. It has much less guns than the Lyon but for me the guns have been behaving more than on the Lyon. When angled it is also very durable and while the speed boost is a gimmick it atleast means that if you get locked in a bow on position moving forwards and backwards is atleast not a big problem. If there is a complaint than it is the 32 mm plating that covers the entire ship, meaning you just eat shitloads of HE damage.

Flooding adds a mechanic in where you must always be vary on how you use your damage control and repair, not to mention it forces you to think ahead if you enter a DD heavy zone. It also slows you down making you an easier target and it deals significant damage. Basically it adds a mechanic in where you actually need to plan ahead and think unless you want a seriously painful DoT on you.

Implying that the tester tag have any meaning what so ever. On topic removing flooding is just a weird idea. The damage control on cruisers is much faster than on BB's, and with the reduced fire duration you should always have the damage control ready for crippling effects such as flooding or rudder/engine damage. And since cruisers are much more agile from the start eating torpedoes is more down to misjudging a situation or derping out. And if you do take a hit well see my first point about damage control. All in all I fail to see what removing flooding even adds to the game.

Sadly you can't. The only way to get big sums of consumables is through containers or missions.

The thing is that MM can not even handle the distribution of radar ships and DD's in domination games, so asking it to also take into account winrate (it is called random battles for a reason, not Ranked), flags, loosing streaks and whatnot is laughable.

1. It really doesn't. MM can not possibly take into account the amount of flag combinations players pick and anything that points elsewhere is just confirmation bias. 2. Yup, the quality of play arguably gets a bit better at higher tiers but there are still a vast majority of players who have no clue what they are doing. And I had no idea not knowing what you are doing made you into a troll. 3. Fair point (still better than WoT forums). 4. Yeah most of us that have hanged around for a while come from WoT, so you are bound to run into a familiar name at some point.

It certainly sits on the more OP side of the fence with large amounts of guns and for some reason also great AA even when you don't spec for it. However I found the guns very tempermental, and the low caliber provides problem if a target tries to angle. So far my sucess in the ship has relied on that people just will not stop giving broadside to you, and at tier 7 there are still quite a few newish and inexperienced players to prey upon. Also I'm not overly impressed with the durability. Lower than average HP and with armor that atleast for me catches penetrations from weird angles. But with that being said I would not shed a tear seeing this thing tweaked in some way.

So far the German DD line have been a blast. The Gaede is pretty good, I adore the Maas and the Z-23 is also a barrel of fun. But I just can't seem to get the Z-46 moving past the "meh" impression. On paper it should be good. Good guns with decent range and nice velocity, great torps, stealth is on par with most other same tier DD's, nice HP pool and Hydro. But there is some not so nice fineprint attached to the paper stats. The guns are good, but the turret placement is awkward with 1 turret in front and 2 in the back meaning chasing is annoying. The HP pool can easily vanish since it is so fat and loves to arm BB AP. The Hydro, while better than on the Z-23 is not that much better, meaning that even if you face a lower tier german DD for example the distance it has to cover to also spot you is neglible at best. Now it might look like I'm complaining, and in a sense I am. But I still think it is an alright ship. I just struggle to get consistent results out of it. One game you get blapped by radar/hydro/plane/BB AP and HE before you even have the time to consider popping smoke. And other games you run around torping and stealthcapping everything without competition. The Z-23 and Maas I could pull consistent results in, and it was fun to contest caps and chase down other DD's and torping what was left. In the Z-46 it feels like I have to be so very careful I sometimes don't even dare to go into caps since I'm not sure I can get out alive. So any suggestions? Or is just a big l2p issue when you hit tier 9 DD's?

Sorry for reviving my old thread, but I wanted to say thank you for the tips. I have been playing the Z-46 a bit more recently and it has finally clicked a lot more for me. I have understood how to play it effectively and I'm finally feeling useful.

If you really really want to buy it no one can stop you. As a general response, yes the Atago is good. But for you at the current level of experience you have with the game, I would say it is probabbly going to be very frustrating and a bit of a waste of money since you probaly are not going to be able to fully utilise it. Any of the tier 6 premium cruisers are a better alternative for now if you feel the need for a premium. They are more similar to the ships you own, offer different playstyles and make more than enough money at your current level of grinding. As for the Ranks, ranks can only be achieved during Ranked battles, you can read more about them here: http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Game_Modes#Ranked_Battle

My Hindenburg is working just fine. AP pen angles is awful as they always have been but the DPM is still fantastic on broadside targets. And as for it beeing made of paper all of the sudden because someone "feels it" is laughable. It is still very durable for a cruiser and tricky to citadel at closer ranges.

This is a good start and works well on the Mogami and on the Ibuki and Zao. My personal build on the Zao looks like this at the moment: http://shipcomrade.com/captcalc/1010000000100010000001110000000119. Going super intendent after demo expert is great for when you reach the Ibuki with that extra heal, but it is not so useful on the Mogami so going demo expert and concealment expert first is a must. Even if you want to move the commander to a heavy cruiser and not go for IFHE, the 155 mm guns on the Mogami are arguably the best guns on the ship regardless. The 203 mm guns have a great firechance, but the faster reload and higher amount of shells on the 155 mm guns means your actual fire starting potential is higher with the 155. Also the 155 absolutely shreds destroyers to pieces, and with your good concealment you become a lethal threat.

T7 cruisers have it much much easier thanks to the MM algorithm. The best option overall is to not give out more gimmicks, but rather rework the MM algorithm so you are not bottom tier every single game you play in tier 5-6 and 8.

I'd say no. Tier 6-7 manage without heal, but tier 8 cruisers are in such a brutal enviroment since everything overamtches them and CV's don't give a damn if you spec for AA or not.