ttchip

I've recently started playing carriers just to gain some perspective and see how things are "on the dark side" and I'm now up to Ranger. Acquiring this CV has made me curious as to how it performs against its direct competition, Hiryu. At first glance, Hiryu seems to outperform Ranger in the two relevant loadouts - balanced (and Hiryu doesn't seem to have a proper air superiority loadout) and strike - by quite a significant margin. 2/2/2 with four planes per squad is oh-so much better than 1/1/1 with six planes per squad. Similarly, 0/3/3 w/ four (yes, I'm aware that this is being changed) craps on 0/1/3 w/ six. Am I missing something here? How does one Ranger correctly?

Ohai! I wanted to ask the general playerbase if matchmaking was still as messy as it was during the beginning of OBT. Frequently, particularly in higher tiers with low populations, the matchmaker would create matchups so hilariously lopsided, it made me quit the game for more than five months. Tier disparities where one team had two to three additional top tiers with no compensation were no rarity. I'm writing this in the past tense because I, instead, decided to just play a match in my trusty Des Moines. Lo and behold, I get into this beauty of a matchup: Four tier 10s versus two without additional tier 9s to compensate? The tier 10s were not even platooned, for Pete's sake! My initial question as to whether that stuff still happens has now obviously changed to "How frequently does this happen?". Is fudged matchmaking like this still common place?

Impossible. CVs get +2 MM at tier 6 and up. OP's Hiryu would not meet tier 10s if it wasn't platooned with a "normal" tier 7 ship.

Tier 4 and 5 CVs get +1 matchmaking. Tier 6 and up gets +2. Independence literally cannot meet Langley unless Langley failplatoons. Currently, you have the problem that tier 6 fighters have around 30 DPS. Tier 7 fighters get around 90 and demolish tier 6 ones as a result. 0.4.1 is supposed to change that. Independence literally has the worst fighters you could ever hope for because it gets +2 MM AND it meets CVs with far more reserves that're faster, more durable and deal 3-4x the damage.

Not sure what you guys are talking about because Pensacola can see tier 10s.

Ranger has 73, Hiryu has 72. I fail to see where the "A LOT more reserve planes" part comes in. You pay for the upgraded AA by being far easier to spot and slower. Ranger, subjectively speaking from playing with and against it, is oneshot material for BBs if it gets spotted. Hiryu, meanwhile, isn't. It can afford to sit closer to the frontlines. It can afford to stick closer to cruisers. As a result, it doesn't really need that much AA to begin with. Edit: Had a closer look at Hiryu's AA. 36 AA DPS at 5km + 143 AA DPS at 3km is arguably almost on par with Ranger's 24 at 5km + 90 at 3.5km + 235 at 2.1km.

Dispersion does not increase linearly with range.

I've had enemy Taiho fighters move almost parallel to my DM between 5.2 and what I presume to be around 6km. Spotting distance in that case was 5.5km. It can't be lag or latencies. I haven't been able to produce that 8km spotting distance in a long time.

They don't. You'll find that they get spotted between 6.5 and 5.5km away from you, depending on the carrier. This makes certain ships with good long range AA far less powerful than they deserve to be. Increasing the distance at which planes get spotted was the first nerf I would've argued in favor of because it doesn't necessarily gimp a carrier's performance the way AA buffs/hitpoint nerfs would.

My average for SC, Wyoming and Myogi - the playable tier 3 and 4 BBs - is actually around 1k Exp without premium. That's roughly on par with my cruiser performance with the exception of Kuma (1.35k without premium) and those are some of the worst BBs you'll ever drive in this game.

Isn't that basically the result of them reworking fighter performance and their higher damage output before they have to rearm? Haven't had a look at the patchnotes myself but buffing its DBs doesn't seem completely unfounded given the rather low speed of them. We'll see how it works out with AA DPS staying the same.

If that was the case, CAs would have the highest average damage figures in this game. Needless to say, they don't. You're right, though. Damage scaling makes no sense right now. This is not really an issue, however, as it doesn't need to make sense for game balance to work out decently well.

USN air sup loadouts have 0 TBs. The only exception to that are the 2/0/2 "air sup" vs 2/1/1 "balanced" loadouts on Lexington.

You mean DDs might actually destroy something? EUREKA! That makes spotting the DD itself even easier as planes are spotted further out than the DD itself. Heck, having the torps not be spotted by planes would actually add another layer of mindgames to the battles instead of completely neutralizing one class of ships. You'd have to infer whether or not the DD has actually launched torps or not. In all fairness: Having torps be completely invisible to planes might be a bit too much. The current spotting distances for them make DD gameplay a pain in the butt, though.

Spotting the DD itself is totally not enough to neutralize the threat, ehh?

That's an upgrade you get on tier 9 and 10.

The fact that people - myself included - pull >50% higher average damage figures than you out of their butt has determined this to be a lie. It's an arcade game. As such, it needs to be somewhat balanced in the sense that everything can beat everything. Now, mind you, at high tiers a BB needs to screw up royally to lose against one CA.

I like to believe that this explanation, while certainly appreciated, should be unnecessary if the person you're holding a conversation with actually thinks along. ...which is why you never just look at the increases, decreases and ratings given by the UI. You look at the raw AA DPS and the range at which it is applied. Take Baltimore, for example: Upgrading its hull doesn't change the number of AA emplacements. It does, however, double the number of guns on mid range AA emplacements, increasing its mid range AA to Iowa levels - that's quite a lot for a cruiser and, dare I say, far more effective than what its successor offers. Whenever I see someone compare these dumbass ratings I get an aneurysm.

Never ever use autopilot in anything that isn't a carrier.

Don't give a rat's [edited]about increased exp bonuses because I'm not limited by my experience gains. I'd prefer an increase in credit gains.

Considering that carriers outperform other ships in virtually every metric ever recorded at virtually every tier, it cannot just be playerskills. Yes, if you're a potato, you cannot faceroll anything in a carrier, which is an improvement when compared to WoT SPGs. That doesn't meant that their potential is in any way balanced. I have a DM. I've seen what carriers can do in those tiers. Their performance is completely out of whack. Edit: Typo. :/

It's a pure cooldown and has infinite charges. If you're playing any mid and high tier USN CL/CA and you don't stack every AA upgrade you can get, you're doing yourself and your team a disservice. Having 7.2km range on your DP AA is insane at tier 6 due to Cleveland's 12 DP AA guns.

You pick it not just for the main battery range, but also the increase in AA range. Cleveland's AA is the single saving grace that stops tier 6 CVs from being just as broken as the lower tiered ones. You better make use of it.

Atlanta has 127mm (5in) turrets and 12 RPM. St Louis has 7.5 RPM on its 152mm guns if I recall correctly.

All of this is nice and dandy. The issue is that it revolves around Ranger playing Air Sup in order to get two fighter squadrons. In that case, Hiryu might be boned. Note, however, that no reasonable player will play Air Sup in the current meta. 2/2/2 Hiryu - which is the only relevant loadout in the upcoming patch - craps on both 1/1/1 and 0/1/3 Rangers. 1/1/1 Rangers struggle against 0/3/3 Hiryus just because the "totally busted" USN fighter squadrons only have enough ammo for two to three bomber squadrons. Zoning doesn't work well with one fighter squadron either.