BlackYeti

I'll just leave this here... Seriously, this mode has been around long enough to figure that DDs, let alone tier 5 hurt your team...

Ischi is one of a kind though, and still vastly inferior in firestarting potential and HE penetration value not to mention the vulnerable citadel.

Actually it is very easy for WG to nerf the whole line without touching Nelson as currently it is the only RN ship with 406mm guns so they can freely blanket-nerf every other caliber. As for stats averaging with time it is easy to see that in it's current state RN BBs will always come out on top as potatoes have been shooting HE before, now they can get results while doing it.

Haven't mentioned De Grasse since I do not own her. But I see how she can work just as well as the others I listed. As you said, you can't carry too well in the Spee with its 20sec reload if RNG decides to screw you over and over again.

While I agree on the Molotov the Spee is IMO pretty bad for all the ops, Killer Whale being simply the least bad operation for her, any silver T6 cruiser is alot more efficient. The small number of guns and long reload restricts her to bunker-busting duty. For me the Cleveland is a no-brainer for all the ops, she laughs at any plane spam the bots throw at you, torps are too situational in operations and useful mostly for sinking transports in Killer Whale. Next in line are the Nurnberg and Budyonny. EDIT @up I was focusing on cruisers but a competent T6 CV is nearly a must for a 5-star win, especially with north exit point as it is difficult to even spot the enemy carriers without peeking outside the island line (suicide)

Last game I had Zuiho and NM swim to the opposite end of the map from the extraction zone (maybe that's where the evac point spawned in their last game and they forgot to check the map?). Only me (Cleveland) and Molotov went for evac, I died to a Bayern while racing to the evac zone, Molotov didn't make it in time-defeat. So many months after release and players still have not learned this mode at all nor did WG improve the instructions/objectives one bit. Maybe start with a giant glowing neon EVACUATION ZONE sign with arrows and some large screen prompts instead of the tiny icon we have now.

My only gripe with Co-op is that the enemy team always mirrors your team's setup. And since usually half of the team are Tirpitzes and Scharnhorsts it leads to awfully repetitive battles.

On my 5-star game I got sunk shortly after entering the extraction circle and thought "damn, almost 5-stars" since there was only Ryujo and Arizona left and they were behind Raptor. But then I noticed that the objective has been completed after all :)

Raptor Rescue doesn't bring much change to the list of viable ships, except maybe BBs are slightly better because of less HE spam and the Kongo danger. So as usual DD's-not recommended, maybe for intercepting enemy DDs but cruisers do it better. Cruisers- Budyonny because of the speed and gun ballistics, Nurnberg and Cleveland also work well (Cleve is a big target though and tends to catch alot of HE damage). This is from my experience but most probably any T6 cruiser except Aoba will do well here. BB's- Fuso, Warspite. Dunkerque also seems a solid choice because of speed and flexibility but I don't have one so this is just my theory. I think the BB limit should be 2 ships, with 3BBs teams seem to struggle alot especially since usually there is no CV in team then. CV-Ryujo hands down, but a 1-1-1 or strike Independence is ok too. I think most people already know what works as can be seen from the queue numbers: 0-1 CV, 2-3 BB, 0-1 DD and 30-40 cruisers :)

One more thing about Raptor, this is the first op where battleships feel really nice for the team. There isn't so much HE spam as in Aegis and a BB is great for tanking the Kongos and Myogis. I played this in my Bayern and ended with 170k dmg but think I could've done much better in Fuso (or in a Warspite if I owned one). The Cruisers on my team focused on destroyers and let me delete the cruisers and tank the BBs so good teamplay too. Only 4 stars though because we lost the Liberty. @Toivia I don't think Aegis is too easy, I have played alot of PvE and believe me this is perfect for the average PvE player. We are talking about 400-600 WTR guys that struggle to cross 1k WTR even in Co-op. You could see it clearly on tuesday/wednesday just before the operation change when all the good players have already left with 5 stars (I kept playing because I like PvE and the rewards were nice for 200k+ dmg games)

I believe WG already stated they don't want to touch bloom time to prevent sips from disappearing/reappearing too often which would hurt gameplay.

The operation is nice and reasonably easy although the enemy accuracy seems to be a bit over the top. I have never feared a Myogi so much before! :) Managed to get 5 stars on 3rd game, after 4 and 0 star victories. Had Babykim on my team but he caught some unfortunate torps early in the game and died soon after

Now that we had a chance to play all 4 operations on the live server here are my thoughts about balance. Map-specific comments: Newport- way too hard and frustrating with random teams, too many very hard enemies in last wave (Scharnhorst, Gneisenau). Lexington impossible to save unless you are lucky to be on the right flank when it spawns, the Mogami and Hipper spam just murder it within seconds. CV in team essential. Liberty sits too far back at base and repair rate is too slow to be of any use. Aegis- almost perfect difficulty, I would replace Ichizuchis with upgraded Myogis for better overall consistency, the WWI-like Ichi doesn't fit to the other enemy ships. Killer Whale- boring stationary targets, low-tier enemies that are still very difficult to kill thanks to size and nimbleness. Seems to be the only operation where enemies actively dodge incoming fire making the V-25 and Wakatake extremely hard to kill. Victory condition seems to be unclear for most players and the last wave of enemies that spawns at the extraction zone is a little too much for a damaged and scattered team Raptor- difficulty seems OK, though I have never faced such sniper Myogis before! :D Like Newport, Liberty is still useless for repair purposes. General comments: I have the impression that different AI settings were tested in each operation. My main problem is that the bots still are tactically dumb (which is not exactly a bad thing for an enjoyable PvE experience) but at the same time are too good at a number of things like laser-like accuracy and immediate target focus. The rewards on a loss are extremely poor. It is not that bad if an operation is easy enough like Aegis but when every 3rd or 4rth game ends in a defeat it starts to be disheartening. So either make all operations easy enough for the average playerbase or make defeats more profitable. This is only tier 5-6 after all.

Raptor Rescue. Not as much fun as Aegis but still nice and alot more fun than Killer Whale. The enemies are again Kumas,, Aobas, Myogis and Kongos which is also fun and balanced and not extremely annoying like mosquito V-25's. Only downside is the flawless 100% accuracy of bots that always aim dead center of your citadel, feels almost like cheating. More RNG to the bot's aim please. Oh and Liberty is still useless at repairing, when you stick to it for repairs you are so exposed that you take 200% more damage than usual. Plus it causes many players to hug it and fail to intercept the enemy waves far enough from the convoy. Summing up the operations NEWPORT-interesting scenario but too hard, hardcore enemy ship types, Lexington almost impossible to save unless you are lucky with positioning. Relies heavily on the presence of a CV in team Aegis-pretty much perfect difficulty, though HE fire spam is annoying to battleships, hence not alot BBs playing this mode. The only op where CV is not required (but still useful) Killer Whale-the worst op, annoying low-tier unrewarding enemies and victory condition that seems to be too much for the average PvE player. CV in team is essential for 5-star wins Raptor-difficulty seems to be OK but that might be a bit too early to judge. Accuracy of bots, especially BB's seems a bit over the top. As Newport, success rate relies heavily on having a friendly CV

That's why I dislike this op, not much is happening, no juicy citadel opportunities, the damage numbers are low and the opponents are low-tier yet still ludicrously difficult to kill at times (V-25 and walkie-talkie weaving like crazy for example). And then you die to HE spam, humiliated by tier 2-3 bots...

​A little offtopic, funny how a modification to the ship's hull gives less protection than a piece of canvas ​ Game logic...

​I think the "objective" ships have red crosshair markers above them. I find this operation boring, shooting stationary forts and installations is hardly any fun. Then come the Kolbergs which are ANNOYING AS HELL with their neverending rainbow HE spam, and the low tier annoying mosqito DD's which are small, nimble and making use of it, spamming guns and torps like there was no tomorrow. Last game I received 3 citadelles in 2 salvos from that stationary Kaiser in port. From 13km. He was frontally to me which means he fired 4 guns each time at most... The CV bots are cross dropping their torps like pros so you will eventually eat some and pray your DCP is ready. Now I'm not saying this op is overly difficult, it isn't. It's just it is not enjoyable because of the combination of static targets and annoying low tier mosquitoes for enemies. And if you get sunk, there is the humiliation in it that a tier3 Kolberg outplayed you because islands couldn't protect you from his rainbow HE spam.

I've got 5-stars on Killer whale and I'm not planning on playing it anymore, It's...strange... boring, chaotic and easy to lose by a streak of bad luck. The torpedo spam from DDs and planes is too much at times and then you have to live with the thought you got bested by a bunch of LOW TIER BOTS. Aegis is the most fun op so far, Newport can be after some difficulty tweaks. This one... there is no fun in shooting installations and tier II destroyers which are also annoyiong as hell to fight (actually it's harder because of how small and nimble they are, especially V-25)

Especially if all have brought DefAA instead of hydro, thank god for catapult fighters which still do the job somewhat. Still, with 3+ Shiras somebody IS going to die to the torp wall.

Got 5 stars in second game, wasn't so hard. Died to HE spam though. Those Kolbergs and low-tier DDs are super-annoying, lobbing their shells effortlessly over islands, you can't hide from them! If there is a plane spotting you, you're toast because of the uber aim. EDIT I forgot to add that Aegis was much, much better and more pleasant EDIT 2 Please bring as many Clevelands with you as you can, the torpedo plane spam is real in this one

All-Shiratsuyu is more scary

​I will give it a spin when I get back from work. But haven't they learned nothing from the Newport and Aegis feedback already? This is a PvE mode (Potato vs Environment), it should be balanced for the average player. Save the hardcore difficulty for the HARD mode later.

​There already is a gimmick, overmatch lolpen. But yeah, I like the idea of spotter and fighter, it is unique, not gamebreaking and possibly easy to implement.

​I only had them spawn them once, and the battle was clearly lost before so it didn't quite make such an impression on me. Keeping this in the operation is pointless. at the point this occurs the battle is already unwinnable and if they spawned with the carriers then we would have another Newport level of difficulty, so a no-no.

2 defeats on 5 games today...feels like one has to carry every game. I also had my share of fail for today when i pushed a friendly konigsberg into torps (sorry!)