krazypenguin

I don't really understand your point here. If you have had a tier 7 for a year without eliting it then you clearly aren't playing it. I started playing about 5-6 weeks ago, concentrating on grinding the Japanese lines. In that time I've managed around ~300 games which is enough to elite the CA, BB and DD lines to tier 5 and the CV line to tier 4. I've also made progress on the tier 6 cruiser to the point where I am 50k short of eliting it, and about 70k short of eliting the tier 6 BB. At this rate I'll have the tier 7 ships within a few weeks and would expect to have my first tier 8s within 2-3 months. You cannot elite a tier 7 ship by playing lower tier ships - that just doesn't make sense!

Congrats - looks like a nice game!

Time of day is important too, I think. I seem to get a lot higher tier games (e.g. my tier 6 ships get more tier 8 games) later at night - presumably because the older, more serious players are online then playing their tier 8-10 ships. However, if I play at around 5pm (UK time) I seem to get a lot more same tier or lower tier battles - probably because there are more younger people playing the game then and they are still at lower tiers, or just derping around in tiers 3-6 for fun. On topic, the XP situation is ..yeah well it's mainly just annoying, truth be told. Obviously, we don't know the exact thoughts WG had in mind when they set it up like this - maybe they thought that allowing accelerated crew training would give everyone lots of highly skilled captains and possibly encourage seal clubbing, or maybe then decided that the free XP conversion would be a big money generator. Maybe for new players and some others it will be, but after 25k battles in WoT, I understand how free XP works and I have no intention of spending my money just to skip modules or ships. Instead I'll just use free XP and patiently grind my way up the tech trees. Meanwhile, I have no incentive to play my lower tiered ships (current missions aside) other than for fun. But whilst I might be having fun in a lower tiered ship I could be having fun AND grinding in my highest tiered ship. So...yeah, those low tier ships are just sitting in port, rusting ;-) Edit - as I've said before in a similar thread, I think it would be nice if WG could find a way to let players use this XP without spending money, even if it was at an unfavourable rate, e.g. 10,000 xp for 10 flags (just an example using random numbers). Also, given that a lot of people are a bit OCD about things, maybe they could remove this XP from being displayed on each ship and just stick it up in the top right corner somewhere - that way people's ships look "clean". I know a lot of people are bothered by that...

If I am asked for help, I'll always try to send fighters if I can or at least try and briefly explain why I cannot because I know how it feels to be a long, slow turning BB (e.g. Fuso) when there are high tier TBs or a low health CA\DD when there are DBs around and you've got no air cover. On the other hand, that feeling when you, as a slow turning BB (e.g. Fuso) or a low health CA\DD ask for fighter cover and a few seconds later a squadron of friendly fighters start circling overhead...

I just don't understand why we cannot have equal numbers of each class of ship on each team...so, for example, each team gets 2 carriers, 4 BBs, 4 CAs and 2 DDs or if the queue is full of DDs maybe each gets 1 CV, 2 BB, 3 CA and 6 DD. Either way, both teams have the same number of each class of ship. The thing is,I don't event think this would be difficult to program into the MM or add any extra time. If you look at most screenshots of unbalanced matches it only takes a human eyes and brain a few seconds to identify a few switches to make the teams balanced. (E.g. take 2 DDs from team A and swap them with a CA and a BB from team B). I get that the current system adds some variety, but it just leaves WG open to accusations of unbalanced and unfair MM ("omg we lose, we have less DDs" etc..)

Short story: as per the title, can you dodge DBs? Long story: yeah, I need to vent a little frustration, sorry. Situation is that the battle is lost. The enemy have 2 BBs and a CA on very good health backed up by 2 tier 6 CVs who seem to have decent air complements left (at least 4 full sized TB and DB squadrons between them). We have a BB on about 50% health and me on pretty much 100% in my Furutaka. Our BB is near our cap duking it out with the enemy BBs and CAs whilst the flow of battle has dragged me down to the bottom middle of the map. I can see that we've lost, I don't like it but fine, that's just the way it goes sometimes. I figure if I go North I won't get there in time to help our BB anyway and will then just get murdered by theirs - so maybe I can at least have a go at their CVs. I can tell that they are pretty much due East (since that's where the aircraft come from and go back to) so I head off in pursuit at full speed. And this is where the frustration begins. Realising that I must be coming for them, they send their planes after me – fair enough. First up come the DBs. I turn sideways on and target them but boom - am set on fire. My repair ability is available but another squadron are coming in so I hold off from using it, miserably burning away until the carrier driver gets bored of waiting or whatever and drops the second load on me for more fires - which I promptly extinguish. Now the TBs come and I like to think that I'm pretty good at dodging torps (except the ones fired into my backside from 100 yards by 'friendly' DDs) and these are no trouble to dodge being almost certainly automatic drops and not very well coordinated, whilst the Furry Taco’s got a good lick of speed and a handy rudder shift . So there's no problem dodging those but in doing so I am pushed away from the course I need to be on to spot their carriers. Then the DBs come back and guess what? More fires. So I still cannot spot a tier 6 CV who must be very close (since the turn around time on the DBs was so quick) and yet isn't behind an island because there aren't any nearby. I do have the premium repair consumable so it has reloaded and I use it again but now it's run out. More TBs appear and are easily dodged but at the same time the enemy BBs and CA have dealt with our BB and decided to "no cap, kill all" which means I am getting hammered as they chase me, lobbing shells towards me as fast as they can. Then the DBs come back for a 3rd time. I am on very low health and burning again and it's all I can do to sail broadside on to a distant BB and hope he gets the kill, rather than get burned by the CV player. In the end I don’t even know what got me but I was burning again as I died. Like I say, I know it was a loss anyway but it was incredibly frustrating to never spot the CVs because I had to keep turning away from the torp drops. That's fine and in the cool light of day I am ok with that, after all, locking a ship onto a heading is a valid tactic. But it was really frustrating that, given that the torpedo attacks were almost certainly auto drops, that the DB drops were probably auto too, yet they burned me every time. So…was the CV player just lucky with his DB drops, whilst I was unlucky to burn, or are DBs just a “click and burn” mechanic? I have seen ships avoid DB drops in my limited experience, but they’ve always been DDs. Other than focusing my (admittedly poor) AA on them and turning broadside on to them, could I have done anything else? Final thing to say, I took the mickey in chat out of the quality of the CV player’s torpedo drops every time (nothing offensive, just commenting that he wasn't very good at torpedo drops. Sorry, but I was frustrated and needed to vent a bit. Also, oh the irony as I completed the "25 kills in a CV" mission using only auto drops!), and he kept responding with the *$%*^& response (or whatever it was) and I even made a comment about him being a no skill clicker who probably plays arty in WoT… BUT, in the million to one chance he is reading this, I just want you to know that if you looked at your profile after the battle and saw your karma was +1… that was from me – well played.

I know this will not make me any friends but I cannot allow this slur on my beloved Yubari to pass unchallenged!!! I appreciate that on paper it looks pretty bad but IN MY OPINION I find that the RoF, shell speed and dispersion of the guns allows me to shower my enemies in a rain of metal. All 4 guns hitting at maximum range is common for me when sailing this ship and she's got a decent turn of speed and agility so I feel like I can fight the battle on my terms. A lot of fun in a little package :-) Edit - as for my choice of worst ships in the game: 1 - Kawachi 2 - Myogi 3 - Kawachi 4 - Myogi 5 - Kawachi ;-)

No apologies needed at all!! Nope, never played a carrier with DBs (just elited the Hosho but won't be buying the Zuiho for a long time) so, although I've read about how they work I've never actually tried them myself. It was mainly the feeling that the guy using them was probably using auto drops (based on his torpedo attacks) and yet hit and burned me every time. As everyone seems to be saying, it was probably just good RNG for him and bad RNG for me. Thanks for the comprehensive reply :-)

Thanks for the replies guys - pretty much as I expected\feared. Ah well...

You're doing it wrong: If I were not playing Japanese ships only, the Atlanta would be the first thing I would get.

Have a like for the idea and effort. As for if this would work or not, I'm probably not qualified to say but one thing that I think you would get if this were implemented, would be people whining that their shots missed a target despite it being completely covered by the reticle, i.e. they will not truly understand what it is showing them, just that they still missed a target that was completely covered by their reticle.

Guys, I know exactly how you feel as I completed both the "play 10 games" and the "get 25 kills" missions whilst grinding the Hosho, my first ever experience of playing a CV, and I met a LOT of seal clubbing AS setups, sometimes on my team (which made my life much easier) but usually on the enemy team. The first time it happened I got ALL my planes, including reserves, wiped out before I understood what was happening - it just felt like there were enemy fighters everywhere! I also experienced my first strafing attack, which I had assumed was a high tier ability\upgrade, not something that was available to all fighters. That was a heck of a shock! The second time it happened, I baited the enemy fighters into dogfighting one of my TB squadrons, then sent my fighter squadron in on a strafing run. Sadly, I wiped out my own TB squadron (I think) but I also took out the enemy planes :-) That trick seemed to work quite well and the enemy became very wary of attacking my TBs if my fighters were nearby. That said, any battle where there was an AS or even just a higher tiered enemy CV present was not so good for me :/ As for maximising kills, if you're still using auto-drops (which I have to admit that I am since I felt "rushed" into playing CVs before I was ready) then it's just a question of selecting the right target and getting the right attack pattern. The tier 4 Japanese BB Ishizucki should be your primary target if there is one, since it turns slowly, has poor AA and weak torpedo protection. Then any bottom tier BB who is on low health already is an obvious target. Any stationary ships, such as AFKers, are also easy targets, especially ones that have stopped next to islands (since they can only turn one way, and might even run themselves aground whilst trying to evade your account) and lastly I guess anyone who you have already witnessed being attacked by torpedoes and failing to turn - if they failed once, they will probably fail next time ;-) Don't try attacking enemy tier 5 CVs though - their AA is murderous (I presume they have the AA barrage ability?) and of course higher tiered CAs can be deadly too. For the attack itself, I always use both squadrons of TBs to attack the same target at the same time. I'll get both squadrons into position ahead of the target, one squadron roughly in the 10-11 o'clock area and the other in the 1-2 o'clock position. Then send both in to attack at the same time. You'll usually get 1-4 hits, with 2 being most common, followed by 3, then 1 and 4. Rarely will a low tier BB player dodge completely and if they do I usually send them a "nice dodge!" comment. This is a screenshot of the sort of positioning you want (I actually tend to attack more from the front now than when I took this screenshot, but you get the idea): All of that said, I must admit that I struggled sometimes. These 2 missions make it seem that WG want to encourage players to play CVs, but since the game is still quite young, many people don't play CVs and they aren't sure what they are doing so they just get clubbed and end up thinking "CVs suck" and won't play them again. I actually managed to elite the Hosho by doing these 2 missions, but after this experience I won't be buying the tier 5 for a long, long time.

Very much this. I just played a game where I got abandoned by my team mates all suddenly changing direction and leaving me on my own, just as 2 squadrons of TBs from a Hosho came in. Despite focusing my AA, turning into the attack whilst they were still miles out and also adjusting my speed, there was still nothing I could do to avoid 3 hits (though I think the carrier driver was quite skilled - these were almost minimum range manual drops from 2 sides almost simultaneously) and I lost over half my health. I kept playing but fully expected to be sunk as soon as he rearmed and sent them back. Fortunately, for some unknown reason, he then ignored me for the rest of the battle and I was able to shred some enemy CAs and a DD :-)

As per the title, I'm hoping someone can direct me to the location of all current ship stats, by which I mean speeds, main battery range, torp range, concealment values, etc... I want to create 'cheat sheets' for each tier so I can quickly look up an enemy's data whilst playing. Thanks, krazypenguin

Maybe they were in closed but as soon as the game becomes open\released, all bets are off. I don't think their exact punishment process is public but it will be something along the lines (for chat offences at least) of a short chat ban, a longer chat ban, maybe an actual game ban and finally a permanent chat ban. However, whilst I have no direct experience on the system myself, my feeling based on forum posts from various WG games is that WG are notoriously lenient. Personally, I think WG make a rod for their own back - you allow bad behaviour, you will get bad behaviour - better to stamp it out early and make sure it's not encouraged. Sure, you'll get a spike in support calls, but then it will drop off as people realise that they cannot get away with it. World of Warships PEGI rating is 7. It's sad that people think the internet is a place where you can be a jerk, be rude and insult people just because it's anonymous. Shame on you. Oh yeah, and shame on me because I sometimes do it too (though not excessively and I still don't usually swear) - but at least I know it's not ok and I do regret it and go take a break afterwards until I've cooled down.

Absolutely, agree 100%. I had no intention of playing PVP in the Hosho until I had mastered manual drops but the mission requirement is to play 10 games in PVP so I just had to do the best I could. Think I ended up with 9 torpedo hits by the end of the battle which I was pleased with. Shame the team melted and threw the game away so we lost :-(

Personally, I would recommend what I did - play a DD, CA and BB line up to tier 5 in each. (Maybe grab a carrier if you want and play a few coops to learn how actually quite tricky they are to play.) That way, you get an understanding of all 3, of how they complement each other and of their strengths and weaknesses. I'm (currently) playing Japanese only so others may be able to advise better about exactly which nations to select for each line, but I think you cannot go far wrong with the Minekaze for DDs (to learn stealth torp tactics), US or maybe Russian cruisers (better range and RoF than Japanese cruisers) and probably US BBs (whilst the Kongo is great at tier 5, the Kawachi and Myogi at 3 & 4 are a bit painful, whilst the US line is probably less of a grind). Good luck!

I am a new and casual player. I managed to earn 40 diamonds last night alone and over the course of the month I should at least be able to get the 150 for the Tachibana. Yes, it's just a tier 2 DD but it's still something for nothing. Re the having to play carriers - this is from my 2nd ever PVP battle (and only 5th in total) in my still stock Hosho: Wyoming's about to have a real bad day :-) Just avoid enemy aircraft, and always send both TB squadrons against lone BBs. Then attack with both squadrons at the same time from about 45 degrees in front of the target.

Got prepped behind an island for a sneaky Minekaze torp strike on an approaching enemy cruiser. As the range dropped to 9km (with him sailing straight towards me) I edged out of cover, to be ready to unleash hell on him once he was within range. At which point klaxxons went mad with 'incoming torpedo!' alerts. I had enough time to look behind me and see a "friendly" tier 4 Russian destroyer had fired what looked like a solid wall of torpedoes into my flank from 100 yards away. I have literally no idea what he thought he was going to hit with his 5km max range torps..oh wait, me of course. He didn't even turn pink, though I turned the chat a mild shade of blue. ;-) On the plus side, I did 2 of the new missions, earning 40 diamonds, purchased the Fuso (and B hull - my 2nd tier 6 ship) and played a lot of games where I had fun, which is the main thing.

As a massive fan of all Japanese ships I am hoping to get both of the IJN ones - but realistically 600 diamonds might be beyond my time and ability to obtain, in which case I'll go for whatever I can!

Just to update the thread, as of patch 5.5 the Fuso with B hull has a main battery range of 19.8km - which is adequate. I know this for a fact as I literally just bought the Fuso, fitted the B hull and am looking at the ship in my port! The B hull costs 8500xp. I played the Japanese CA, BB and DD lines, eliting all 3 to tier 5 by which time I had over 11k free XP - more than enough to slap the B hull straight onto the Fuso. There's not really an issue here so long as you plan ahead a little.

This is my first experience of WoWS missions so can anyone please advise me if my port (see signature) will be sufficient to earn enough rewards for me to try for some of these missions? I appreciate I cannot do all of them, but will my lack of tier 6+ ships and only having Japanese ships cripple me? I could buy the Mutsuki and Fuso to have a few more tier 6s and possibly even get the Atago - but I was hoping to stick at tier 5 for a while yet as I continue to learn the game. Any recommendations from the old timers would be appreciated!

I'm just a newbie but I would also opt for option 4 - full speed astern! If you absolutely have to turn, then at least start that turn immediately after the most dangerous ship shooting at you has hit you, to minimise the chance of taking citadels

Thanks for sharing - this is a really good, clear explanation of what was a very complicated engagement and done in an intelligent, non-sensational and non-patronising way.

I keep accidentally going into coop with my regular ships when I forget to switch back to randoms after practising my carrier. I don't think the bots aim well at all, but they sail better than 90% of players and are much better at dodging torpedoes than the average person...