Panocek

"For DPM" you have other boats, if anything I'd say consistency, versatility and devastating AP salvo would be Hinden traits. Low dmg but consistent HE, hard hitting AP for broadsides, every 10 seconds and then multiplied by 12

Lat time I've checked "low German damage" is still higher than 0dmg non penetrating HE. And if target shows broadside, then AP massage is (usually) incoming. Thats why Hinden is considered almost counter to Kebab or Moskva simply by virtue of easily damaging them and having decent ballistics to hit former on distances Khaba operates.

RU cruisers have superb ballistics and long range (albeit short duration) radar, making them easy-ish to shell stuff from afar and when grown some balls, can affect gameplay with radar. Germans have their sonar and from Hipper onward have actually working turtleback, giving them an edge at short/mid range, combined with decent torps. Initially they traded sub par HE for AP damage, then WG increased HE pen for lols, turning them into all day HE slingers. Frenchies are basically build for long range shelling battleboats, as their average ballistics makes DD/cruiser shelling rather difficult. Spaced armor is unpredictable at the best of times.

Thats whole up to 1000hp more recovered. One might say, WG did a good job with skill build variety... once you fulfill mandatory skills like PT, LS or CE

Heal IIRC restores %hp, so as Minotaur gains about 8% hp extra from SE, heal will be only 8% more effective Math on Missouri, my highest heal-able premboat (so I don't have to spend on crew respec) base heal: +469/sec captain with SE: +488/sec %hp gained from SE: 4% (81450/78300=1.04) %heal gained from SE: 4% (488/469=1.04) And then is the question if Minotaur will be able restore extra hp in first place, after all her citadel isn't exactly hidden Going with https://wowsft.com, Conquek goes from 82900hp and 1658hp/s to 86400hp and 1728hp/s. Which gives us 4% increase, or up to 1400hp more recovered. Can it make a difference? Yes, the same way can 3s shorter fire duration or 1s earlier torpedo detection can make a difference.

AFT is a given, though just as BFT works only against carriers, somewhat rare occurence and Minotaur by default carry adequate dakka. SE isn't hery helpful on cruiser. JoaT is a given. Basically from tier 3 skills, only Vigilance is left somewhat standing after SI

inb4 star ammo gimmick as in 0dmg 90% fire chance HE shell

The more you're aware of enemy DD presence and typical DD routes, as well you do random course changes, the less I find Vigilance useful. I've used to stand by it for a long time, but over time I've removed it from all ships sans Minotaur, mostly because there is no less useless skill for her. And "brit CL" handling leaves something to be desired when it comes to smoke camping when sudden torpedoes appear Besides, on hightier ships, so big and clumsy Vigilance won't save you if screw up with initial torpedo prevention.

French cruisers were by all means conventional sans Engine Boost, while having good range and maneuverability, all combining into very solid package in BB meta. Yet you don't see many of them. Then WG tacked another gimmick to them

That would involve getting Freedom camo for both Salem and DM, impossible without spending money on crates IIRC back in the day

Working as intended camrade! On other hand...

Pretty much, even more so if you grabbed Freedom camo for DM. Unless you want "play Des Moines when playing Des Moines" meme

Icarus have whole 1km of stealth torping window (6km detection, 7km torps). Gallant, Fushun have 2km (1.9km for the latter), Hatsuharu has 4.1km, 1.4km for Gaede. So not exactly. Icarus though does have 10 fishes payload

One reason would be WG always struggled on NA market, be it with tanks, planes and boats. EU on other hand is long established, so there is little incentive to throw stuff at EU players, unless some server wide boycott happens. And no, forum active players are like 5% of active population, so even if everyone from the forum would quitt the boats game, it would be hardly noticeable from WG economy point of view.

Technically German CA (Yorck, Hipper, Roon, Hindenburger) can penetrate 50mm plating with HE, and these are way more popular than baguette class cruiser.

Which is whole one operation. And Cossack don't exactly have AA, very desirable for Dynamo.

And then you will experience fabulous MM for tier 8 boats, while you can't exactly use Cossack in Operations, unlike bunch of tier 6-7 premboats.

But then you're paying with your free time spend on playing boats on almost daily basis. Which can cause burn out. Or rage issues when it comes to randoms playerbase

Nerf Nachi?

Except it is.

Icarus feels like overgimmicked Gallant. 10 somewhat short ranged torps and longer gun range are okay-ish, but smoke is hilariously useless (10s smoke deployment, lasts 40s), no speed boost, though it has RN cruiser acceleration. Tack to that "defensive sonar" and you get boat with identity crisis. Or as mentioned, balance team run out of ideas

Arpeggio I-401 was floating (sometimes literally) in game files for years now Still, I'd love to get her once subs hit the game. Maybe some reward for those, who got all the Arpeggio boats?

60 planes in first (and so far only one) run with Sims, using Gearing captain with BFT only.

Random thought: torpedoes are permanently visible, but in return remove torpedo warning and torpedo icon. That way torps can be seen only for their wake. Then reduce wake for IJN torps because oxygen and stuff.

War Thunder and its "no paper tanks/planes" is out the window for some time already, as well they went all out and introduced late cold war stuff to poke other players with.