Ubertron_X

Don't worry, this Thursday will change everything and we will get perfect matchmaking with the new patch... /sarkasm

Finally asking the important questions...

And I want the option to disable it while playing Atago...

Maybe they can still hear the sirens?

Pure numbers are only telling half of the story. Type of DD in question also matters, especially when considering Russian gunboats and/or torp reliant DD and their appropriate playstyle. A Shimakaze, Shimakaze, Kiev setup will have a much harder time handling caps than a Gearing, Yueyang and Loyang combination...

According to WG there is not much influence of uneven DD numbers, however I very much doubt this, as statistical data can be gathered and analysed in many different ways and without having seen the data yourself you can never be sure if any analysis was done in a meaningful way or not.

T9 seems to be a "grind through" tier only, which means people are either playing T8 (loads of premium ships to use) and T10 ("end game").

Lion for me. 30 secs of reload combined with poor dispersion. Poor turret angles. Poor HP. Poor armor. Poor maneuverability. The super heal has not been the saving grace I thought it to be. I was quite successful in her, but man I hated the ship.

Yes teamwork! The thing however is that it is usually much, much easier to kill a high AA target (or to chase it off) than to supress the enemy CV in a surface ship.

While I do not dispute that AA cruisers can be utilized to great effect (and credit and XP gains for the plane kills), especially when the own team makes the most of it, however I can not be this easy for the average random player, else I would have the "kill 40 planes in a cruiser" Yamamoto quest in my bag already (using full AA Des Moines and Minotaur; but I have to admit I don't play T10 too often). Most CV's either strike elsewhere or simply stop to attack after the first wave of heavy losses, at least until you are the last target left.

You mean alternatives like striking elsewhere or just waiting until the AA ships have been killed (while still scouting, probing and fighting the enemy CV of course)? Look, I am not suggesting that AA ships are weak or can't shut down a CV strike, but we are talking random battles here. No AA bubble will cover two or three caps at once and no random team will execute the coordinated tactics that it takes to shut down the enemy CV. This will happen only by accident. DDs complain about radar. Our usual suggestion is to either go away and cap/strike elsewhere or have the radar ship killed by your team. Same is true for CV's. Typical scenario: Start battle in Tirpitz. Meet enemy T10 CV. Join flank with mighty AA Minotaur, feeling a little safe. Brit gets spotted by enemy DD early and sunk quickly by BB's shooting from all angles. Enemy CV planes incoming now. Tell Dönitz we fought to the last shell with our flag still flying. Exit game.

That's why the Minotaur has 10 plane kills, I see...

Not a problem for me as I run IFA on all my cruisers, even before PT actually, however others who prefer PT for more meta information might be in for a rough time...

Imagine you are in a cruiser. Imagine you are spotted. Imagine an enemy BB beyond spotting range pops up at the minimap. What do you think just happened? P.S.: You dont need either PT or IFA skill to guess whats happened...