Verblonde

Good lad! Many thanks!

Well, now we know how long you potentially have to get 'value' from a premium ship...! Still, this might count as a QoL improvement for many BB players - presumably, they can now watch more films of not overly-clothed young people vigorously doing things calculated to propagate the species between salvos?

I voted T-61 as she's probably the best of them tier-for-tier; it's pretty close though with Haida at No 2. I haven't played ZF-6 that much yet, although she was very good in Ranked when I first picked her up; the combination of stealth (by the standards of the tier), usable torps, and - by means of the MBRB - being able to dakka most opposing DDs to death in fairly short order is really very nice. Hyuga, as a BB, smells and its mother dresses it funny (obvs).

The rental ships for clans do require you to play a battle first, at a suitable tier; I can't check now, but at one point it needed to be at T8... Once you've played the requisite battle, the rentals (one of each class) should turn up in your port. They basically act like 'special' versions of the silver equivalents; the key differences are that you can put any captain in them without retraining (like a premium), but you can't fit them with cammo, which puts you at a concealment disadvantage. Don't forget to add equipment too, and be aware that everyone will know you're a rental - many opposition ships may single you out as potential 'easy meat'.

There are worse things to blow 1,500 doubloons on, but... If Haida were not about to be removed, my original advice would probably have been to wait (or at least consider waiting): we don't know yet how much damage submarines will do to the game, and they're - unfortunately - getting quite close now it seems. Returning to the matter of the Haida captain, it can be useful to have one decent Commonwealth captain: Perth is worth picking up if you get the chance, and - longer term - Vampire II is pretty decent (based on a fairly low number of battles, admittedly) too, and you can run them both with the same captain as Haida...

You appear not to have Haida yet - she's a good pick (and about to be removed). Copes better than most with T7 MM (good for Bronze Ranked too, if you're into that). BTW it's a good idea to fit her with coal upgrades for both smoke and hydro. The key thing to be aware of is that (obvs) Haida is a Commonwealth ship, so there isn't a silver line to nab a captain from; since you want *at least* a ten point captain on her, you'll need to factor in cost/resource spend to get one, if you don't have one (from something like Perth, say) already.

Expired now, it seems, but many thanks anyway OP!

I've played WOT quite a lot (although I'm pretty poor at at - tomato on EU and possible orangey-green on NA), so in comparison to that: WOWS has fairly good PvE modes (Coop and Ops) which provide a more relaxing change of pace, and can be useful for doing missions; the rewards are less in PvE though. No gold ammo in WOWS; IMO this is a massive improvement as it means that armour still matters, at least some of the time. Some of the key mechanics aren't directly comparable; for me, the crucial thing to get the hang of was the vision mechanics e.g. there isn't really a direct equivalent to radar/hydro in WOT. WOWS is rather slower paced, which makes it a bit more strategic in some respects - you have to learn to think ahead a bit more, especially in things like BBs where the turrets can take half a minute to turn/reload. Shell ballistics can take a bit of getting used to - in WOT terms, almost every gun is a derp (a la KV-2, say) to a greater or lesser degree; some arcs are basically rainbows. WOWS has a much more forgiving economy, especially if you run premium account; it can still be grindy at times, but I much prefer the grind level in WOWS. It's very much worth joining a clan in WOWS - you get some very helpful economic bonuses, assuming their base is reasonably developed. Cammo is more useful in WOWS - besides improved concealment, most give useful economic bonuses. You also get signals, which can either slightly improve your ship, and/or boost the economy (they're single use, and watch out for the 'auto replenish with gold' tick box that defaults to on). That, along with what others have said, provides a quick overview of some of the differences. As with WOT, the wiki is a useful resource (https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/World_of_Warships), and it's worth asking questions on here - there are usually quite a few people around who're happy to help. Useful tip: even if you don't intend playing, log in every day at the moment - there are some useful daily bonuses to be had. Exactly as with WOT, WOWS provides many and various ways to spend your money (Vodka isn't cheap, comrade); some thoughts on that (very much IMO, of course): Make sure you *know* you like the game before spending money on it, especially on things like ships. If you only spend a little money, premium account is generally felt to be the best thing to buy, as it works on every ship in every game. Premium ships can be useful (captain training, silver generation, and so on), but don't buy any too early (until you know what sort of things you like, and generally avoid anything that's higher tier than you have in silver ships), and be aware that newer ones are liable to being nerfed. On the subject of premiums in general, there are some excellent ones that can be bagged for 'free' in-game resources such as coal etc. via the Armory [sic]. Read/watch reviews (LWM is a good place to start:https://forum.worldofwarships.com/topic/210980-mouses-catalog-of-ship-reviews/) and ask opinions on here before you buy anything (and look at who's giving the advice; for example, advice from me is coming from a DD main, who isn't very good at the game, and so on); the capability of premiums can be quite varied, and can also vary with player ability/preferences...! Beware gambling boxes. A recurring thing in WOWS are the loot crates; some can be worthwhile (although sometimes only in certain players' cases), whilst many are a complete waste of money. To make matters worse, WG never publish odds, and - due to poor English skills (and/or a relaxed attitude to accuracy/truth, depending on your point of view) it can sometimes be unclear *exactly* what the crates give. Personally, I do buy at least some crates, but if you want a safe reliable bit of advice, you can't go too far wrong avoiding them altogether. Crates are gambling, pure and simple; if you want something specific, it's *usually* better to buy it directly. There is one final thing to mention: submarines. These are coming to the game, whether we like it or not. The last time WG changed something this dramatically in the game was with the CV rework a couple of years ago, and that dramatically ruined the game for months, and - in some people's view - broke it irretrievably. I'm personally not of the "I quit!" school of thought regarding CVs, but they are still very much not right and can easily ruin your game in anything stealth-based by merely spotting you, and because of problems with AA, a good CV driver can strike you with anything in anything (luckily, most CV players aren't very good). I mention CVs as - after two years (I think?) - they are still broke, and there is not much evidence that WG learned significantly from the experience so there is a danger that the imminent submarines will bugger up the game badly for months/for ever. So what? So, I would advise only investing time (and especially money) - initially anyway - on the basis that the game may break in six months (or whenever SSs get introduced - I've slightly lost track). When we see what impact subs have, then you can maybe adjust your view. Who knows - they may actually make the game better; I'm spectacularly pessimistic in this regard, given WG's record, but I could be wrong.

Tiger at T7 would have made me a lot more likely to open my wallet - I could play her in Narai, even if she were a bit weak. However, since WG didn't bother bringing back the T8 Ops... Edit: what I was quietly hoping Tiger would end up as is as a sort of fatter version of Friesland i.e. ludicrous dakka, smoke/radar (in this case), and in deep trouble when someone decides to rush/torp the angry smoke-cloud, and the heal making up for the lack of hydro. Whilst we got most of that lot, the lacklustre guns really spoil things...

A bit of both; the basic 'driving ships about and blowing up' stuff is just a game, but the more extensive community stuff, such as Clan involvement and the forum community make it at least partly a hobby, for me anyway...

I imagine that WG are terrified of producing another Belfast, so instead we get something that makes Cheshire look decent... (Yes, I know they could nerf it if it were OP, but imagine the uproar even so - they'd be accused of doing exactly what we all think they're going to do i.e. the unprincipled cycle of OP-nerf-new OP and so on.)

WG's ability to fail to learn from previous mistakes amazes me; this is hardly the first time that misunderstandings have been caused by their inability to get native English speakers to write their copy and/or translate it...

I'm not a BB fiend so wouldn't presume to offer advice one way or the other, but it might be pertinent to factor in that fire damage is 100% healable - so, if you expect to be shooting things that can heal a lot (basically BBs for a T5) then focusing on direct damage might be sensible? If you're going to mainly shooting non-healers, then fire is perhaps your friend. Fire, at lower tiers anyway, also has the merit that it often makes people pop their DCP; besides distracting them, it opens them up to subsequent DoT effects if they don't get out of sight...

I'm not sure they're ruined for me as such, but they are now certainly largely irrelevant. Previously, getting one was usually 'yay' (with the possible exception of detonation, but at least - even there - I knew I'd just got ten useful signals), whereas now, it's cause for barely a shrug. The key problem for me with the change (leaving aside that a competent player is now far worse of from a raw numbers perspective) is that there is no way of directing which signals you get; previously, if you were a bit short on 'boosted heal' signals, you would play a game or two in something with a monster heal, bag a Dreadnought and job done. Ditto anti-det flags: play a DD that's going to be shot with HE a lot and do so without the relevant signal. Now, with the flag containers, I'm generally going to get something I don't need. Great success!

I'm holding fire for the moment on reaching for the pitchforks re: Detonation. That said, as a DD main, the recent change to how flags are doled out certainly mean I'm having to run without the relevant signal more often now. I personally have too small a data-set to tell if the incidence has gone up; I did blow up at least once over the weekend, but I was a one-shot at that stage, so it's not surprising. Personally, I think the new way of dishing out flags is poor; previously, if you were running low on something you could play things that gave you the flags you needed if you did well, whereas now it's random, and that sucks...

I would say so, *but* mainly for use in Ops, and with the caveat that I haven't played mine much since the captain rework (I used to run a BB captain, as AGS is more or less a small battleship).

May just be a day for Richard Edwards - I had some blithering idiot deliberately unload his Friesland into my Yugumo earlier for no good reason...

Sir, I salute your noble sacrifice!

I can't speak for anyone else, but in my case it's not that I won't buy a nerfable premium, but rather that I'll only buy ones where I will play them enough in less time than it will likely take WG to mess with them. Exhibit A, for example: I can't imagine Harekaze II has the slightest risk of being nerfed, but I wouldn't put it past WG to do something to make her less fun. If they do, that's fine, because I'll have had my fun by the time they (possibly) do. Isn't it generally felt that because no-one paid money for Flint that makes a difference vis-a-vis nerfs?

As far as I recall, all the T10s are 'special' rather than full premium. From an economic standpoint, the specials are superior to a silver ship with permaflage, as their service costs are halved as well as getting the same permaflage. There's more here: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Economy#Service_Cost

Very welcome addition, IMO: she was actually real and built in steel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Tiger_(C20)), unlike a lot of the higher tier RN cruisers (most nations' cruisers, come to that). I don't care about the post-war bit one iota - so long as ships are guns/dumb torps only, and properly balanced, the date is irrelevant. Despite being an inveterate whale, I won't be buying her any time soon though: She appears not to be much good (LWM's review is pretty damning, at least for a player of my type/standard). She's nerfable, like all the other recent premiums. Submarines are getting very imminent, so the only things I'll personally play enough before they show up, to justify spending on, are pretty much all DDs.

The glib answer is whichever line you do best in, and - due to the way WOWS rewards generally work - that means the one that you can do the most proportional damage in. Like others, I would also suggest the German DDs - they're good all-rounders, and the smoke/hydro trick from T5 can be very useful. BTW depending on your timeline, I would avoid going up the 'new' branch of KM DDs - they're pretty lacklustre. BTW if you want to easily calculate the relative xp costs of different lines, this site can be helpful: https://wowsft.com/research

Whilst most of us probably wouldn't think about this for a minute, have a look at my earlier post - it's rather cheaper than the 'full whale' approach to a 14 pointer. That's not to say it's a sensible purchase but rather illustrative of how mental some of the WOWS pricing is...

If these three lots are it, then this is a very small test compared to the - notionally equivalent - WOT Black Market! A bunch of coal - I bid 50 million silver, which will almost certainly not win, but it's not worth more than that to me. 14 point captain (and some cammo, which I doubt anyone cares about); starting bid 9K doubloons. Let's guess 10K, as it makes the maths easier - that's at least 25 UKP! A flag to celebrate Thunderer...! Now WG are just taking the pi$$! Apropos the captain: it costs 1,500 doubloons to recruit a 10 point commander. You need 396,000 xp to get from 10 points to 14; assuming you start from zero, that's another 15,840 doubloons at the usual 1:25 ratio. So, if the captain goes for around 15K, that's slightly cheaper than going 'full whale' to get a 14 pointer. Of course, none of us on here would probably do that as a) most of us have a means to earn captain xp reasonably quickly, and b) most of us probably have more than enough silver to gain captain xp by means of recruiting and dismissing multiple silver captains (even if it does involve a lot of clicking).

If WG were feeling kind (BWAHAHAHAHA! Sorry - don't know what happened just there, kind...?!), they could do what they did with Rudy in WOT i.e. you basically have a tank that toggles between two nations, and has a distinct crew for each (a distinct build too, not to mention separate cammo and consumables etc.). That would have been the perfect solution, although I imagine that would be far too customer-service orientated to be satisfactory to the suits...