PanzerThuran

I have tried, I have really tried again and again, but frankly it seems there is very little reason to use AP shells at all in the midgame. First of all, HE shells only require one hit, at any range, to have a very high chance to light a ship on fire, and if you manage to get two hits in a row, your opponent just straight up loses half their health bar, without being able to do ANYTHING about it as they wait for the cooldown for putting out the fire goes away. This allows HE shells to do a LOT more damage than AP shells, even against enemy battleships. In addition, they don't seem to suffer from the range issues that AP shells suffer from. Since a lot of shots have very vertical angles (usually by the time you get close enough to angle the shots better, you are already dead), and due to the distance, their penetrating power seems too low with a high risk of doing no damage, whereas HE shells largely don't have such a drawback at any range. But even worse, it seems that at the mid-tiers, AP shells suffer from the paradox of simply being too powerful to deal damage. Even at a range where the angle is good and you get a clear shot in that should hit the enemy BB right in the citadel, the shell simply overpenetrates and fails to deal any damage, and in the meantime they have lit you on fire, AGAIN. Yes, there is in theory the chance of hitting their ammunition, but it seems that the chance of that ever occouring is too low for employing shells which simply bounce off them at long range, and just pass through them at close range, in either case dealing almost no damage and leaving you wishing you had used a HE shell instead. I hope it gets better in the endgame, but right now it seems like enemy ships simply don't have armour that makes AP shells worth it against any targets, and you get a number of HUGE drawbacks for very very flimsy rewards. Another problem with having the AP be good at close range, is how long you have to wait in order to switch the shells, which in a firefight is 30 seconds of being largely a sitting, flaming, duck while you wait to switch to shells that then proceed to simply do nothing to the enemy BB. Personally, I would adjust HE shells to have a much lower chance of lighting the ship on fire, or make it a lot easier to put out said fire, probably by lowering the cooldown for putting out fires, or putting otu a fire giving you a temporary immunity to being lit on fire again, to encourage both you and your opponent to actually use something else? Does this get better at higher tiers? Is there actually a point to using AP shells ever over HE shells as a BB?

Frankly, my experiences today simply confirm the original concerns, at long distance the AP's simply bounced off enemy BBs, while i got to spend time being lit on fire by their shots.... and just now, a full broadside, at close range, against the citadel area of the enemy BB, what should be the absolute ideal conditions....all connected, but one true hit, the rest overpenetrated right through the armour and dealt pretty much ZERO damage, while he simply spammed HE's away....just like the rest of the BB's I have met today. Still feels like the guns are too powerful to deal damage : /

Thanks for most of the answers, guess I'll keep soldiering on with the AP :) To clarify, currently palling around in Tier 5 with a Kongo, and have studied the videos on how penetration and armour works, usually I try to aim at just above the waterline of enemy BB's, preferably where the ammunition depots should be, and switch to HE against everything else. As mentioned in the original post, the question regards specifically BB vs BB combat at this tier, as I have had a lot of good results with cruisers and destroyers using AP, seemingly because their guns are weak enough to not overpenetrate, and to angle shots to not fall vertically. @AmiralPotato I did not know that at all! That would definetly make it a lot more efficient!

Is there something I am missing in this system? It seems insane that the system forces f2p players to grind an ever increasing amount of battles with the same ship over and over. Currently at about 15.000 xp, and getting sick of always being forced to play the same ship to progress, so the thought of having to force myself to grind 30.000xp more really kills motivation to keep playing the game. I would love to try out the carrier class, but that would remove 8000 xp from progressing in the tiers, and any xp gained with said carrier would not actually contribute to progressing in tiers, as you would just then need a total of 55.000xp to reach the next tier. I can't imagine what it must be like to be locked into playing close to 250 battles with the same single ship over and over in order to go from tier 9 to tier 10, and it seems like the game essentially locks the higher tiers behind a paywall, that also means you are not allowed to play other ships or branch out to try other nations for a bit without completely foregoing progress towards being able to play missions and operations that can only be accessed with a tier 7 or above. Feels like I am missing something or doing something wrong? Is there any way to get xp and progress in ranks without forcing you to grind the fun out of the game? I know free xp exsists, but that would require around 5000 battles to just get enough free xp to go from tier 9 to 10. Feels really bad not being allowed to play other classes without giving up progressing at all?