Figment

No. If you are more likely to hit and hit often, that 5% extra damage will stack up quickly in a short time period. With Kansas or so, once every 40s +5% would be relatively meaningless. For hit and run tactics, doing that bit extra damage in short time is useful.

Technically yes, but with fast firing and accurate ships you’ll have more chance to monetize this 5%. A Kansas for instance is going to waste much of its potential with every miss, so it won’t add up as easily.

The time limit is problematic IMO, my nephew stopped playing after he found out all his captains had been respecced without his approval and he was too late to use the reset, not knowing it was time limited. It should just be there when it's handed out till it has been used by an account. Hell, make it a yearly reset IMO.

I don't have an Austin! D: We should fix one of those issues. (But yeah, point was more fast firing cruisers and Austin came to mind having been utterly destroyed by one while in a tier X BB the other day. It just melted my hp away. )

Depends on the amount of cannons and frequency of fire perhaps. For an Austin this could do a lot of damage for instance.

Agreed, the "arc" is an 'extreme' as any area can be hit and indeed dispersion isn't affected, as such it can sit just a bit closer to a shoreline and higher cover than Cleveland, Bayard and other ships. That said, you have no way to compensate for bad aim as you can with shells. When firing shells your hit area doesn't stay the same, but is adjusted to the target, whereas this is fire once and forget. Mortar artillery can be tough too with the delay at long traveltime, but hits are eventually guaranteed, and one might say the same for any of the consequential fires as they're likely to start the longer you can sustain fire. So it's much more hit or miss, rather than hit and miss. The sustained fire over a period of time also means fires started by mortar artillery shells are harder to supress than the one moment in time Air Strike, which only sets a ship on fire for more than a few seconds if it recently repaired. So to keep ships on fire and get their required DPS and DoT to compete for the victory, these cruisers will have to get firing arcs anyway though, it's not like you can hide ad infinitum and spam air strikes for the damage you need to influence the match in a positive way. The constant delay you mention btw is what makes it a lot harder to use than torpedoes. So it definitely has pros and cons and that's fine, if there were just negative sides to it compared to other tools, why even bother with it? The weapon mechanism itself doesn't seem to be a major issue, what we really should be looking at is average damage output per match using this tool in combination with the cannons and ensure that's balanced compared to other ships overall. That includes alpha strikes and fires. Given however the guns on these ships perform somewhat underwhelming compared to the guns on their peers, there currently seem to be more downsides than upsides to the Dutch cruiser line in general. Can't say I've felt really threatened yet by any Johan de Witt.

Even so, I can't imagine them being as reliable and all-situation damage dealers as torps and those are way more often used. The ship executing the move always has to get within striking distance, where it will be quite vulnerable to attack. Given it will have short artillery range, it'll be disadvantaged in the early game to even make that approach without being pummeled when spotted. I could see it have major leverage in an already won game when the fewer enemies get outspotted and positioned, but at most it would hasten a defeat then, like stealth torping in those situations would too, and way more efficiently at that. At that point, camping (most vulnerable) is mostly stupid anyway. I mean, if we were to take every 100% to 0% torp strike as the norm, then I don't think we could ever consider this OP. Sure, some camping ships like a light cruiser might suffer from a dev strike once in a blue moon, but how realistic will this be, especially after some balance tweaks? Mind, I'm not opposed to good AA defense against this type of attack and I think those light cruisers should have some sort of defensive AA advantage to dealing with these strikes given their role as say escort ships. But depending on execution (damage, frequency, strike speed, situational awareness), this Air Strike mechanic doesn't have to be OP, but only situational useful. In which case I have no problem there being a potential good strike among them. It just shouldn't be free roaming clobbering. I'm also quite sure that, if CVs worked this way, or had similar lead times rather than the last second adjustment manual drops from too close to dodge (which is the real issue a lot of people have, the "can't fight back" straight line of fire [edited] which they don't apply to torps either), they'd never have been considered OP given that they're extremely hard to aim. So people comparing it to CVs really don't understand the mechanic's differences and are so narrowminded they can only see that the threat is airborne, then drawing their baseless associations with CVs from there. Another thing, there's a lot of people who claim this isn't like torps because torps supposedly require a straight line of fire "so you have to see them and ships can fire back". That's bull. You often fire in the path of a ship from safety, or while you move into safety. Requiring line of sight is only true for someone on your team, some time before or during the moment of launching, you do not need to get into a dangerous situation, even with 4km to 5,5km torps if you plan your ambush well. But the spotter might be you, might be someone else. Might be by radar, might be by hydro or even a RPF guestimate. However, you don't always need to see or know someone to be somewhere specific to torp them, rather than have some guestimate on where they might go: blind torping into fog, predictable routes or spots or on previously seen ships coming around corners is something I do a lot to great efficiency and with little warning to the enemy who thought to be unseen. This is something you just can't afford to do with air strikes as their area of effect and inability to get unintended side-catches is so much smaller than with torpedoes. Hell, this line of sight argument isn't even true for shells, which you can fire over hills and from cover and hiding and depending on the ship at angles you can't be fired back at because of the mortar strike like angle. Think Bogatyr or a spamming Friesland. The Air Strike is no different from this aside that the angle is even steeper, the leading even worse, the attack can be mitigated by 'shooting down the shells' (aircraft before they drop) and the frequency is much, much, much lower. But HE spam isn't an issue, so why is this?

Having only experience in the Kijkduin, with its single drop, aside from: - no lead indicator, hence pure leading skill - can’t be used for last ditch defense - it isn’t a deterrent at all (enemies are inclined to rush you knowing you have no torps and air strikes are weak or miss) - no “accidental catch” along the route before and after the target - very small area of effect in comparison to torpedoes and timing has to be perfect (usually is off by 5s) - targets have to stay predictable, not even slightly turn or it will miss - damage output even on perfect strike can be 0, usually more like 2-5K per drop and if lucky a fire or some AA taken out. Compare to torps 5-20K per torpedo. - torpedoes cannot be shot down, sometimes lose 80% of a wing before it drops at T6 when launched at a Kijkduin with support or if someone has fighters in the air. - torpedoes are less of a team weapon than air strike as torpedo capable ships are less likely to be dependent on scouting by other players As for the DD having to sneak up, sneaking up with a cruiser is a lot harder thanks to those DDs. Getting spotted can mean instant death if a BB looks your way. Especially Russian BBs. The Kremlins - OP as they can be - crying wolf because they get an additional fire chance on them is a bit ironic. I’m not quite sure how triple air strikes will change hit rate, but overall I’ve yet to be impressed by air strikes.

Yep, and then there is potentially several seconds in which actions still count towards XP, stats and silver, but not towards the result. Points comes first in a draw as well. If both sides have no players left, the one with more points wins. Seen stupid rams in Ranked result in this a lot. It’s a shame draws barely exist anymore though.

Are you suggesting your food is worse? Surely not. We’ve been working on this image for 8 centuries so you don’t come over to find out about our secrets, we won’t stand for this outrage!

Get more cap points, basically.

What is wrong with a cheese sammich every day?

Sounds like you shot the last enemy after the timer ended. Technical win for them: they had someone alive when the final score was tabled.

And the cutest.

At least it's not Danish.

Not my experience and I've been playing competitive online games since 2004. Most insult attempts by the mentally lesser gifted are typically sexual in nature (and then mostly about straight relationships with mothers, lack of having any relationships or with regards to paid relationships) or with regards to often mis-proclaimed competence (noob accusations). Most racial stereotypical complaints are anti-semite, often including an arbitrary presumption of what faith you'd have. Those insults tend to come largely from specific nationalities though, which suggests a general lacking historical awareness in their education systems. National insults are in my experience more oriented towards presumed poor communication/cooperation skills based on nationality than traditional national stereotypes (particular targets are countries with a track record of lacking English education, like Poland, Czech, Germans and French) and those insults are simply naming frustration with the nationality and their inability to coordinate efficiently in an international (read: English) language environment, rather than attributing or alluding to racist traits or making use of slurs. So no, I'm not inclined to expect an intentional derogatory/insult intending context with these traditional slurs as most people who use these do so in clear jest and witty response provocation.

I disagree, nationalist banter is a means of bonding for some people, particularly in international crowds. That's not having issues, unless you call social calls an issue. It may not be your type of humor, but it's the kind of jingoist humor that Monty Python popularised by taking the piss at it. It's the style of humour that made Top Gear quite popular, especially when people notice you're also mocking yourself with your stereotypes, inviting them to do the same. Remember the Belgian sketch? Is that offensive to Belgians or are they laughing their arses off? Nothing gets a nice friendly convo going more than a Belgian and Dutch sharing stereotypical jokes about one another knowing full well you need to take it with a huge can of salt. Recognising one anothers differences and being able to make light of them goes a long way to accepting and tolerating those differences, by also reminding each other how much alike you are and stereotypes are just that, stereotypes. (Except for the French, those are all true. ;))

Sorry, but you'd not get assaulted, you'd get laughed at. Frankly, you'd "not be worth it", which is probably a bigger offense to Feyenoord supporters than getting beat up. All Ajax fans I know (hundreds) couldn't care less about Feyenoord fans and their opinions beyond the ability to rile them up for easy entertainment at work, at a sportsclub or at school. So while you'd attract outright passive aggressive ridicule (asking how your latest European match went for instance, knowing full well that 90% of the time you'll get angry out of shame), the most likely reaction you'll actually provoke is pity and a nostalgia for a time when Feyenoord was a threat, rather than a laughing stock. So if you get offended, get offended for being pitied. Aggression is what you get when people are jealous or feel threatened. You may not seem to realise this, but Ajax fans today have a relatively high tolerance for "lesser performing" club fans, because nothing you can say or do can threaten the superior track record or status of Ajax and that definitely includes Feyenoord and its fans these days. Statistically, Feyenoord hasn't been a major threat to the title since the 90s. Note that Ajax fans refuse to give PSV as much credit, because PSV's game attitude has been so boring and Feyenoord frienemies are part of a long tradition. What a lot of people don't understand is that as an Amsterdammer, part of the fun is to poke fun of others regarding their supposed inferior position, hoping they'll respond in kind. So what you're doing, IMO, is projecting how your fellow fans would react to the following situation:

Only because they're from non-cheese producing parts of the country probably. :P Seriously though, if you get offended by that word you've got other issues. Meaning if your composure is dependent on the way people adress your in mild national stereotypical tone, then you've got more serious confidence issues and it IMO has little to do with the word, more with the way you see yourself with an inferiority complex. Tbh, the only time one should get offended is getting called the wrong derogatory term because someone (let's face it, likely a US citizen) can't differentiate between Gerries and Cheeseheads (which is why the American Dutch community started shifting to English language use btw). I mean at least care enough and have the courtesy to get your insults right, right? As for your response to Jap, sure it was used in the exact same way as Rosbif, Frog, Hun, Mof, Kraut or Gerry during the war. But all of those have lost their sharpest edges as well to the point it's lost that edge completely. There's no serious offense to be taken from those words today unless accompanied by other more explicit insults that aren't funny in any way. As most times those are used now, it's in provocative jest and a bit of an implied wink and spirit of recognition differences among friends, expecting similar banter returned. It's not like the word Jap is pointing at particular stereotypical characteristics like other asian-targeted slurs, rather than recognising a nationality, particularly in the context of pointing at navy vessels as it's even unlikely here to even come across Japanese players or if people do, recognise them as such. Hence there's absolutely no need to consider the term offensive.

Don't quite understand how that's racism as it doesn't imply anything particularly negative or offensive...? Kraut, hun, mof, gerry , as well as frogs, cheese-eating surrender monkeys and respectively rosbif, redneck and gammon should still be perfectly fine right? It's not like we're offended by cheesehead (technically probably true given the percentage of cheese in our system) or anything that suggests 'economic efficiency', such as Going Dutch, Double Dutch, Dutch Courage, Dutch crossing, Dutch dish and whatever else the Brits and Americans came up with over the past 8 centuries of nationalist word-jousting banter... Hell, if anything we've been particularly pleased with the extreme amount of need for the Anglo-Saxons... Excuse me, Anglo-Norman-Krauts (for the sake of inclusivity) to compensate for their clear inferiority complex by spreading insults to look like they're better than continentals and others. Hell, we've got more terms named after us than the Irish and Scots! Clearly we were doing something right competitively to become the main target of attempted derision to make up for lost pre-epeen. :)

Keeping the Friesland in the Pan EU section makes no sense since the commander is built completely different to the smokeless torpedo / snipers. Smaland suited that line, Friesland doesn’t. People don’t use the ship to train (a) captain(s) for the Pan-EU DD line captain unless they sacrificed capabilities while playing either. It should never have been part of the Pan EU tree unless you could train another DD line that has no torpedoes either, or with the current captain skill change, a CV, Cruiser or BB captain. Anything but current pan-EU DD captains right now. Hence why I suspect most people put a dedicated commander in it. Likely the special Polish one, though (like me) not all have done so. It should move over to the Dutch tree, including its captain which should be changed or cloned to a Dutch version. Special skills need not be copied. Exchanging for the Groningen is a poisoned fruit for Friesland owners as it gives a “choice” between resetting any and all progression you made on a Friesland captain as option 1, instantly losing a valuable Ranked DD, while retaining that useless captain for a pan-EU line that requires different captain skills on the one hand. Or on the other, not having a proper premium Dutch ship until you grinded another million free exp (which you can’t spend on other fremiums) and THEN start from scratch with a Friesland captain. For what, the same ship you spend huge amounts of time on to train a captain already, while that amount of time and exp spend on Friesland would have made your captain more powerful? That’s a choice alright. A choice between sadism and masochism. Honestly, only really shortsighted people think this is a sensible “solution”. It isn’t a solution to the problem, it’s an half arsed placater that fools some people into thinking they’ve been listened to when they’re being duped unwittingly. Hell, I don’t even think WG intends to dupe, I think they’re just not creative enough to come up with an adequate solution that they promised and lazy enough to argue more regrinding is actually a good thing for the players, because they conflate grind with content. The only actual fair solution regarding captains upon transferring Friesland is to have the captain at the time of transferring stripped from ALL earned exp and turn ALL that exp into free captain exp. The captain that was on the Friesland would remain as its basic version (as 0, bought or earned 3, 6 or 10pt commander), while a Dutch clone in terms of exp of this would be placed on the transferred Friesland. The player can then decide to which captain the free captain exp should go: the Dutch or Pan-EU one. Any solution where a captain cannot be transferred is not a solution at all.

Ship battles / wins / Av dam / top dam Celebes 14 / 8 / 32.4K / 68.1K Note: 1 match with 0 damage dealt (instakilled by Izmail), otherwise: 13 / 8 / 36.9K / 68.1K Exeter 7 / 5 / 32.2K / 83.9K Yahagi 15 / 4 / 19.2K / 43.6K Raimundo Montecuccolli 17 / 10 / 36.7K / 72.6K Kotovsky 18 / 11 / 33.6K / 71.9K Emile Bertin 18 / 11 / 32.7K / 89.6K Mikoyan 29 / 17 / 20.6K / 51.6K Hawkins 31 / 18 / 22.6K / 75.1K Omaha 33 / 24 / 59.9K / 134.3K Konigsberg 40 / 20 / 29.3K / 84.3K Emerald 41 / 24 / 21.9K / 88.5K Furutaka 43 / 25 / 46.2K / 113.3K Note: Omaha and Furutaka were right after Beta. Think Omaha got buffed a few weeks after I sold it and I was like “wut?”. Back when I had time to remember all internal ship and tanks lay-outs and time my aim precisely accordingly. I’m aiming much more casual these days cause I don’t have the time or will to remember this many ship lay-outs and speed leading and thus just aim in their general direction intuitively. Add overall aggressive stealth sneak up playstyle and the introduction of radar and that in part explains my WR going down 6%. The other is playing ships that aren’t my thing too often in hopes of getting abysmal WR on each ship over 50% for personal reasons.

It's not that bad. Outperforms at least half my other T5 cruisers.

That's always fun. Or how about your sales team selling stuff you havn't designed yet (or is technically not feasible). Oh and it should be ready yesterday. Always fun.

With Kijkduin I got 102K damage in Aegis, even an air strike kill. Hit 4 air strikes on four different targets total, but accounted for only 9K damage total, including one fire that were immediately turned off. Again most damage came from citadels and HE spam/fires, firing HE shells at the front of cruisers to set them on fire. So all it did was create one extra fire, which ensured a longer burn on later fires - but on a 23K cruiser target, fires are not the main damage dealer either. Compared to massive alpha strikes from torpedoes, you have no real detering capabilities against any ship with some HP left, as DoT requires help from others to keep them from advancing, while anything with little HP left is going all or nothing on you. My Kijkduin WR is absolutely horrendous, despite being a high damage dealer every match (2nd or 3rd spot on my team usually, getting first positions hasn't been possible more than once, which I normally can get even with basic ships). The DoT just doesn't work if you're unable to control an area or lack scouts to do the DoT early on, which is unlikely anyway. I've also noticed that getting Kijkduin in Air Strike range period is really hard depending on the map and whether your DDs won the duels or not (getting scouted and shot at by BBs is absolutely killer). Meanwhile, I'm pretty happy with the De Ruijter, had a 100K-ish match, though admittedly 3 of the ships targeted were bots. Chasing down the Ryujo (took a lot of time due to low damage per salvo) I took no damage from air at all (bad CV player admittedly) and did the full 30+K damage to it. Celebes has been hit and miss. In one match I got instantly erased by the first Izmail that looked my way, while in others I could do 40-60K damage from semi-exposed positions. Celebes feels a bit like an Omaha with a bit more range, but the lack of torps means up close you better get lucky on the AP.