FloRead

I took a screenshot of both the Langley's and Hosho's drop circle. Someone's been smoking something real strong up there. Or Russian winters coming, vodka be a flowin'..... Good photoshoppers, feel free to cut/paste/do whatever you want with my screenshots. Edit: Eh, didn't realize that attaching jpegs downscales the pictures so much. If you want 4k screenshots, send me a message, I can email them to you if you want to do photoshop wizardry.

So the new IJN drop circle is as wide as the current USN drop circle?

Is the change to cruisers that all cruisers will be able to bring both DF and sonar into the battle? Not choose one or the other?

I'm quite happy with this change. It no longer means 152mm and 155mm guns are always better than 203mm guns. *Stares icily at Mogami and Cleveland*

Wow, really, if AA defensive fire scares or affects you that badly, then I think you ought to reassess how you make your aircraft approaches. AA defensive fire is not the most powerful ability in game. It's not even half that scary at all. Damage control party is definitely the most powerful ability in game. Shall we make that a limited consumable? Afterall, your favorite IJN carriers all utterly failed at damage control during ww2. My favorite Atlanta isn't even affected by this AA defensive fire change, but that doesn't mean I should let this change go through. It is a bad change no matter how and what. I can't sit by and not let my voice be heard.

The defensive fire consumable change is bad beyond dreams. I play a lot of CVs but even I strongly disagree with this change. Cruiser players need strong incentives to play and anyone who has played a lot of high tier games know that the CV-BB-CA-DD number ratios are messed up. Too many BBs. I can't see how this change encourages cruiser players when a cruiser without defensive fire is merely a squishier and easier target for carriers.

Oh sorry, I didn't look at the 2nd picture and see 3 torpedo squadrons. The picture's resolution is not great, I cannot see the number of blips in the squadron's healthbar. My guess is your team is actually 1 Hosho and 1 Langley. The IJN Hosho has 2 torpedo bomber squadrons.

Looking at the team setup, there were 2 Langleys in the opposing team. I guess the 2nd squadron belonged to the sunk Langley's.

Tier 10 carriers are not immediately elite.

Or get a Midway and repeat it every battle consistently.

Have a +1 dear SirSandman. However, I do have to add something to the air superiority discussion. Disclaimer: my hands-on experience with IJN was during CBT. In OBT/launch, I have focused on USN CV and DDs. When we talk about air superiority, the focus is always on USN air superiority. This is partly due to the obvious air superiority deck setup which all USN carriers have and also the perception that USN fighter squadrons will always roll over IJN fighter squadrons. The common wisdom(for any player who cares to listen) is that air superiority decks are useless and at best only nullify the enemy CV. Once the enemy CV even does as much as land 1 torpedo on your fleet, you lost. However, I have a slightly different take on this now. The point of air superiority is to suppress the enemy CV's damage and try to bring it down to your own damage output or below it. With the USN air superiority deck, this is mightily difficult. T5-6, you have 1 DB squadron, T7 and above, you have 2. 1-2 dive bomber squadrons put out a pittance in damage compared to torpedo bombers. It is extremely easy for any enemy CV to outdamage 1-2 dive bomber squadrons throughout an entire game. Now, since 0.4.1, I am beginning to find a whole new respect for IJN air superiority decks. Despite what many IJN CV captains will vehemently say, IJN air superiority decks actually can perform an air superiority role very well. In particular, T6 Ryujo and T10 Hakuryu can be very good at it. What make them particularly effective is their retention of at least 1-2 torpedo bomber squadrons. With the T6 Ryujo, their 3/1/1 setup will easily outmatch the 1/1/1 Independence's fighters. If the Independence goes 2/0/1, good luck matching the Ryujo's 1 torpedo bomber damage output. Same with Hakuryu. The thing is, the IJN air superiority setup here is capable of suppressing the USN's damage output and race the USN for damage. And that is the whole point of air superiority. If you take control of the skies, you want to do something about it. The USN cannot capitalize effectively from clear skies. The IJN can. Now if someone can help me through this IJN BB grind....

My husband commented that when I went 1v1 on my Atlanta against another Atlanta. It was like a catfight where we were blowing up each other's turrets and eventually scratching each other dead. Eventually I won because my torpedoes hit. On a serious note, I feel Atlanta is more T6 than T7. Way too fragile and lacks punch to be T7. On paper an Atlanta has massive DPM but it's guns are too small to actually deal that DPM in the real(game) world.

And IJN CVs still needs more buffs to increase the difference in damage?

*facepalm* Yamato does 14800 per AP shell. 9 x 14800 = 133200 damage, which means Yamato will 1 shot anything. It does not work like that. Doing 9867 per torpedo on a Yamato is never going to happen. Actually, no, done. I should leave you to live in fantasy land.

By T8, shouldn't the players have learnt how to drop properly? nation class tier name players total battles average of rates battles win draw lose exp damage caused warship destroyed aircraft destoryed base capture base defense survived kill / death point JP CV 8 Shokaku 531 4657 8.77 51.36 0.11 48.54 -6103 51805 0.76 15.64 0.00 0.00 72.23 2.57 24489 US CV 8 Lexington 692 6184 8.94 48.86 0.23 50.91 -4179 44255 0.68 24.67 0.00 0.00 67.97 1.97 23689 Lexington is most commonly 2/1/1 or 0/1/3. Nobody in their sane mind will play a Lexington in 2/0/2. Shokaku is usually in 2/2/2. Still 2 torpedo bombers. And yet, crap IJN drops on Shokaku still outdamage Lexington. As I repeatedly say, Midway and Essex needs nerfing, but the same IJN CV players continually ask for all kinds of buffs to IJN CVs which the stats don't support. I hope you get the buffs you want, because you know what will come again, the nerf hammer. Edit: stat source: http://maplesyrup.sweet.coocan.jp/wows/ranking/20151024et/average_ship.html

It's simply amazing how much you seem to know about the Midway. No, it's impossible for a Midway to sink a Yamato in 1 strike wave.

About as much as the Midway can go air superiority and get 0 torpedo bombers. But just like lower tier USN CVs cannot completely stop IJN strike decks, IJN air superiority cannot completely stop USN strike either.

As someone who mains DDs and CVs, I completely empathize with your problem. Short answer is, you just have to keep dodging and mess up the CV's timings. Don't let the CV setup his 2 squadrons to place the right drop on you. Keep weaving and staying closer to 1 squadron so you mess up his drop circle. It's very hard and I appreciate the difficulty you have. However, between a really skillful CV player and the best dodging DD player, I have my money on the CV player. Confession time: I target DDs all the time in my Essex and Midway.

No, I disagree again. Hosho's damage is higher despite the fact that everyone says IJN torpedo drops are crap. And we are talking about average statistics here. You cannot assume all Langley players are drooling morons and all Hosho players are smart geniuses. Any accusation that the Langley fares worse because players don't know how to use it, will equally apply to Hosho. And if the IJN torpedo drop is so much worse than USN's, explain the disparity in damage. Everyone just dodges the real answer. Essex and Midway is dominating damage because it has 2 torpedo bomber squadrons. You cannot guarantee a full hit with a smart player actively dodging your 1 torpedo squadron, but you can guarantee a grand slam when you force a good player to commit her dodge and then hit her with the full 2nd torpedo salvo because she has commited to the move and cannot dodge the 2nd. This is where your guaranteed 6 hits comes from. Of course, this doesn't count for the targets who love sailing straight, in which case a full deserved 12 torpedoes up her side is her reward. Guess who else has 2 torpedo bomber squadrons? Hosho.

CV_11_Intrepid, ignore the IJN CV mafia. This whole USN vs IJN CV fight will never end. Basically, it boils down to this. Your torpedo bomber squadron is more important than anything else you do or have as a CV player. Damage is king in this game. On air superiority decks, shooting down planes is nice but it doesn't win games. Think of a carrier's planes as her turrets. If you shoot down all the enemy CV's planes, that CV is still sailing but effectively has no turrets. And unless you can do something to take advantage of that situation, like torpedo and bomb with impunity which you mostly can't as USN air superiority, there is no point in just clearing the skies. You only cancel each other out and get a nice badge. If the enemy CV so much as makes even 1 successful torpedo run on a ship in your fleet, you lost that air superiority battle. T4, your Langley has far better fighters than the Hosho. This is due to both carriers having only 1 fighter squadron but your fighter squadron has the advantage in numbers. In a Langley vs Langley fight, try to engage her torpedo bombers. Failing that, engage her fighter squadron so your torpedo bomber has a free run. Simple. For Langley vs Hosho, take advantage of the fact you have 6 fighters in your fighter squadron and try to bully the Hosho player. However, remember, the Hosho has 2 torpedo bomber squadrons and is more flexible. You only have 1 fighter squadron so you cannot completely stop a Hosho attack. The Hosho can panic your torpedo bomber squadron always if she plays it smart. T5, I would strongly advise you stick to the basic deck(1/1) because of the torpedo bomber squadron. Your alternative is a 0/1/2 or a 2/0/1 deck. If you feel up to it, 0/1/2 is fine, but 2/0/1 is deadweight. 1 dive bomber squadron will not do a lot of damage, and not in T5 battles. You will be facing a Zuiho which upgraded has 4 squadrons. It's difficult to stop the Zuiho. Best thing you can do is not allow the Zuiho to stop you and do as much damage as you can. If the Zuiho does not try to stop you, use your fighters to push the Zuiho around. Don't allow him to fly freely around the map. The very presense of your 6 fighter squadron is enough to force a Zuiho player to make a detour. It's essential if you want to keep a friendly destroyer or ship from being detected in the air. T6-7, IJN CVs have far more flexibility and damage capability. Their fighters squadron is not as hardy as the USN fighter squadron, but don't let the hysteria fool you. 2 IJN squadrons of equal tier and upgrades will beat 1 USN squadron. All their decks have torpedo bomber squadrons so they are always guaranteed to deal damage. If you play as USN CVs, the general advice is, stick to your basic deck(1/1/1) or go strike and do the best you can. That 1 torpedo bomber squadron is more important than anything else. Air superiority deck is a deadweight for your team. Protect the torpedo bomber squadron and you should do fine. T8 is the most balanced tier, although as Lexington, you really have only 1 sensible deck, the 2/1/1. Your 2 fighter squadrons will always ensure air superiority. Rare is the game where I'm beaten in the air by the Shokaku when I was playing the Lexington. If your opponent is another Lexington, always focus her torpedo bomber squadron. A Lexington only has enough planes for 3 full torpedo bomber squadrons. T9-10, complete reversal. USN CVs become the queens of damage. Although you won't start with the strike deck, once you can, get the strike deck. All other decks are just not as effective as the strike deck. And then it's just a damage race. At this point, I don't think I'm lying if you find BB/CA/DD players groan if the opponent has an Essex or Midway, cheers if they see an opponent Taiho or Hakuryu. The IJN cannot race an Essex or Midway strike deck for damage. You will find that in T9-10, many IJN CVs will sport an air superiority deck, and it sort of works for them as their air superiority decks have torpedo bomber squadrons. However, unless you are outplayed, you will still handily outdamage the Taiho or Hakuryu air superiority decks. Hence why I advise against air superiority decks for your earlier CVs. I'll gladly see the Essex and Midway nerfed, despite the fact I play them. Better for the game in the long run. However, I'm not a good CV player. In fact, I'm terribad, look at my winrate. Temper what I write with some common sense and you should do well. Most importantly, have fun.

That depends on whether the Devs feel that the current Hosho performance or Langley performance should be baseline. Langley has been very much the same since launch while Hosho was pummeled with a massive nerf once already.

I can't believe the number of times I am quoting this data from http://maplesyrup.sweet.coocan.jp/wows/ranking/20151017et/average_ship.html this week. nation class tier name players total battles average of rates battles win draw lose exp damage caused warship destroyed aircraft destoryed base capture base defense survived kill / death point JP CV 4 Hosho 10974 61666 5.62 51.94 2.29 45.77 1105 37264 0.82 6.58 0.19 0.51 55.98 1.45 18384 JP CV 5 Zuiho 9327 54474 5.84 53.39 1.33 45.28 1311 37207 0.74 8.12 0.15 0.46 58.71 1.41 19450 JP CV 6 Ryujo 4759 29573 6.21 53.52 0.56 45.92 1474 33518 0.61 11.62 0.02 0.14 66.54 1.34 20511 JP CV 7 Hiryu 1863 13272 7.12 53.40 0.50 46.10 2024 45902 0.84 16.66 0.02 0.11 73.23 1.90 22370 JP CV 8 Shokaku 538 4913 9.13 50.06 0.06 49.88 2156 49046 0.74 15.53 0.00 0.00 68.67 2.17 23634 JP CV 9 Taiho 159 1597 10.04 43.01 0.04 56.95 2653 72123 0.98 19.03 0.00 0.00 68.45 2.54 23555 JP CV 10 Hakuryu 110 1087 9.88 45.37 0.00 54.63 2969 89831 1.05 19.72 0.00 0.00 66.98 3.27 22466 US CV 4 Langley 20101 115305 5.74 47.39 2.39 50.23 915 23995 0.47 10.80 0.09 0.35 47.84 0.76 17262 US CV 5 Bogue 14947 87022 5.82 49.26 1.54 49.20 1073 18262 0.34 14.66 0.06 0.31 48.95 0.56 18022 US CV 6 Independence 5527 36342 6.58 49.78 0.64 49.58 1491 26648 0.48 13.04 0.04 0.11 65.37 1.06 19858 US CV 7 Ranger 1905 18526 9.72 49.46 0.42 50.12 1807 39981 0.67 17.91 0.01 0.12 62.34 1.65 23200 US CV 8 Lexington 642 6099 9.50 51.22 0.14 48.63 2184 45222 0.69 24.91 0.00 0.00 69.97 1.94 24512 US CV 9 Essex 162 2572 15.88 53.35 0.09 46.55 2890 79481 1.21 19.83 0.00 0.00 70.09 3.76 29785 US CV 10 Midway 108 1657 15.34 51.70 0.00 48.30 3554 112780 1.55 22.07 0.00 0.00 67.57 5.27 29869 First, the bugbear. Midway and Essex needs nerfing in my opinion. Next, the T4-8 IJN vs USN CV balance. Constantly, the non-stop cries about US fighters tearing up IJN fighter squadrons. Yet there is that consistent trend. IJN CVs win more, do more damage and sink more ships than the USN CVs from T4-8. Although I would argue that T8 is actually the most balanced. So let's assume we listen to most of the people on this thread. We buff up IJN torpedo spread, up IJN torpedo damage, improve IJN fighter performance. What should happen next? Look at the T4-8 stats, and make an educated guess to what will happen? IJN fighter buff means the USN will be able to control the skies less and intercept fewer IJN strikes. That means IJN average damage goes up. IJN fighter buffs means the IJN may actually be able to hit back harder at the USN strike squadrons. Potentially USN average damage might drop. IJN torpedo damage and torpedo spread buff happens. No doubt about that. Average damage will go up. Look at those stats again. Are you really asking for nerf hammer round 2?

How is everyone checking solo/division win rates? Is there a hidden option in the stats page?

It can still happen though. I just got my Midway and more than half of my Midway games have resulted in very uneven MM distributions where the opposing team had a T9 carrier. That's an easy and unfair win. I'm a crap player but just compare my Midway and Essex stats. I'm literally stat-padding with the Midway.

You know why USN CV players are unhappy with the IJN CV players constantly whining about the "imbalance" between USN and IJN CVs? Source: http://maplesyrup.sweet.coocan.jp/wows/ranking/20151017et/average_ship.html EU stats week ending 17th Oct. nation class tier name players total battles average of rates battles win draw lose exp damage caused warship destroyed aircraft destoryed base capture base defense survived kill / death point JP CV 4 Hosho 10974 61666 5.62 51.94 2.29 45.77 1105 37264 0.82 6.58 0.19 0.51 55.98 1.45 18384 JP CV 5 Zuiho 9327 54474 5.84 53.39 1.33 45.28 1311 37207 0.74 8.12 0.15 0.46 58.71 1.41 19450 JP CV 6 Ryujo 4759 29573 6.21 53.52 0.56 45.92 1474 33518 0.61 11.62 0.02 0.14 66.54 1.34 20511 JP CV 7 Hiryu 1863 13272 7.12 53.40 0.50 46.10 2024 45902 0.84 16.66 0.02 0.11 73.23 1.90 22370 JP CV 8 Shokaku 538 4913 9.13 50.06 0.06 49.88 2156 49046 0.74 15.53 0.00 0.00 68.67 2.17 23634 JP CV 9 Taiho 159 1597 10.04 43.01 0.04 56.95 2653 72123 0.98 19.03 0.00 0.00 68.45 2.54 23555 JP CV 10 Hakuryu 110 1087 9.88 45.37 0.00 54.63 2969 89831 1.05 19.72 0.00 0.00 66.98 3.27 22466 US CV 4 Langley 20101 115305 5.74 47.39 2.39 50.23 915 23995 0.47 10.80 0.09 0.35 47.84 0.76 17262 US CV 5 Bogue 14947 87022 5.82 49.26 1.54 49.20 1073 18262 0.34 14.66 0.06 0.31 48.95 0.56 18022 US CV 6 Independence 5527 36342 6.58 49.78 0.64 49.58 1491 26648 0.48 13.04 0.04 0.11 65.37 1.06 19858 US CV 7 Ranger 1905 18526 9.72 49.46 0.42 50.12 1807 39981 0.67 17.91 0.01 0.12 62.34 1.65 23200 US CV 8 Lexington 642 6099 9.50 51.22 0.14 48.63 2184 45222 0.69 24.91 0.00 0.00 69.97 1.94 24512 US CV 9 Essex 162 2572 15.88 53.35 0.09 46.55 2890 79481 1.21 19.83 0.00 0.00 70.09 3.76 29785 US CV 10 Midway 108 1657 15.34 51.70 0.00 48.30 3554 112780 1.55 22.07 0.00 0.00 67.57 5.27 29869 Because from T4-8, IJN CVs consistently outperform the USN CVs. You claim the USN CVs own the skies. That much is true. The IJN CVs do more damage, sink more ships and win more. So you want to stop the USN CVs from owning the skies, what does that leave the IJN CVs with? Owning the skies, seas, ships sunk and damage done? The nerf hammer already came down hard on the IJN CVs. All you are asking for is round 2 of the nerf hammer.