Verblonde

Assuming WG go ahead with this monumental coq-eurpe, as the French might say, I can see myself playing a lot less during the initial stages; having played paying guinea pig during the CV reework, I'm not hugely keen to repeat the experience. As it stands, I think (besides not playing as much) I'll be thinking along the following lines: Pick a nation, three at the most, where I have a lot of premiums (of all classes) that can be run on one captain. Spec the captain(s) with a likely sensible build for each class, and then thrash the nuts off my premiums and - as per the original advice - wait for everyone else to sort out the meta. Leave every other captain zeroed - I'm damned if I'm paying money because WG have decided to go full 'Pralines & Richard' over this. Obvious candidate nations are: Japan: several premiums of each of BB, cruiser, and DD that'll run on one captain build per class, plus (kind of) two CVs, both of them Kaga. US: ditto, only the two CVs are Saipan and Enterprise. Germany: ditto, only with three CVs, two of which are GZ. That lot should give enough variety for as long as it takes for the worst of the crazy to die down, and it only touches three captains...

You've answered your own question: coupons for the online store and for the Armory [sic] are different things. Armory [sic] coupons don't work in the regular shop, and vice versa.

I could perhaps do with a moral boost, especially if I've been playing my Kami sisters recently...?

Remarkably sound advice. Luckily, I've rediscovered an enthusiasm for WOT recently (extremely improbably, they are even making fewer Richard moves than WOWS too at the moment, which has *got* to be a sign of the End Times), so I can just mess about with that until the mess that is the captain rework gets sorted out...

This post on another thread is perhaps of help: Edit: to actually answer your question, it's a shade over 1.7 million (source: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Commander); 1.2 million for the extra two points is entirely out of proportion to what has gone before.

This is very true (although it is a bit ship dependent). It also worth reminding people that - for DDs anyway - two 'essential' skills (PT and AR) have both increased in cost by one point; so for any viable build that includes those two, you've actually gained nothing for those 1.2 million xp. As I say though, it's not the skills that have made me angry, but rather the entirely unreasonable cost...

Good choice; although I haven't played a huge number of games so far in mine (from an Xmas box), she's showing signs of becoming a firm favourite. She seems to be exactly the sort of sneaky DD, with a decent torp-gun balance that I like; also the AA isn't entirely disastrous (DefAA), and the heal is glorious.

You're really looking forward to grinding (or buying with money) 1.2 million xp for *each* captain you want to get from 19 to 21 points?! Whilst I'm not hugely impressed with some aspects of the new skills, there are some that I think are quite worthwhile (for DDs anyway); I do however feel very strongly that the xp required to get a fully functioning captain is wholly unreasonable - the skills update could be an excellent addition, but the cost aspect dooms the whole exercise as a monumental male-chicken-up.

It's worse than that: so far, we established players have mostly been focusing on what is needed for us to start generating elite xp again - the justifiably hated 1.2 million; what there has been less focus on is that lower point captains (so, especially new players) are getting dumped on in some respects too. At the moment, you have a 19 point captain that does a pretty decent job (and generates elite xp); one of mine looks like this, as an example: The equivalent build after the rework will still be viable, so lets go with that: mostly it stays about the same, but - from memory - PT moves to two points, and AR moves to three; so, the same build with the same bonuses (or worse, if I remember the new BFT correctly) costs 21 points versus the present 19, which is a butt-load more xp to get the whole lot. I'm an old lag, so I need to find 'only' 1.2 million to end up with a marginally worse captain (assuming I keep this build) than I have at the moment. To be blunt, that blows goats, ducks, chickens and all manner of other farmyard animals, and WG should be bloody ashamed. BUT imagine you're a relative newbie, with only a ten point captain; just how insane (and time-consuming) is their grind going to be to equal my captain, assuming I get to 21 points?! At the moment, a newbie can 'catch' an experienced player at 19 points, which isn't exactly easy, but is achievable. Unless WG are planning to make the elite xp economy an order of magnitude easier (and I really do mean an order of magnitude), most casual players will *never* get a maximum point captain - I suspect - and be permanently stuck behind we old lags. Of course, we old lags are just as boned if a new nation turns up (or even a line in some cases) and we need to start again from ten points.

As an aside, I note that this is all being about as warmly received on the NA forum as it is here...

The conclusion I can't help but come to is that WG regret the (excellent) idea of elite captain xp and want to stop us getting nearly as much as we do presently, and the frankly insane (and entirely out of proportion) 1.2 million price tag to get to 21 points from 19 is their tool to do it. Given that - for DDs at least - a typical build gets 2 points more expensive with the rework, we are being told (not asked) to spend 1.2 million captain xp for no gain whatsoever, and many of our captains will operate with reduced efficiency (exactly contrary to the Dev Blog - I call pants on fire) until we've ground out this ludicrous sum for each of them. The claim WG make is that this is about increasing variety (via a wider range of viable builds); I suggest this is disingenuous nonsense. At the moment, I get plenty of variety playing a range of ship/captain combinations across a fair number of 19 point captains; as soon as this rework goes live - because I understand the importance of elite captain xp - this is going to drop down to one captain, of one nation only, as the initial and pressing concern is going to be to grind this deranged sum of xp to get this captain to 21 points (for no real gain - see above - beyond being able to generate elite xp again). I'm in a less bad position than many players in that I have lots of premium ships; with the ability to have separate builds on one captain for multiple classes, I can at least rinse this first captain through all four classes, so maximising daily first win bonuses and also reducing boredom, but what about the players with far more sensible collections? Okay, @Tanatoy - would you care to try and argue against any of that? So far, if WG were an ice-cream flavour they would - to paraphrase Garth Algar - be pralines and Richard. Predictably, this didn't need to be the case; all WG need to do is the following: Make the xp gain to get to 20 and 21 points be in proportion to the rate of progression so far; other people have even done the work for them (it's on another thread). Exactly as they did the last time captain skill points increased, give everyone enough points to bump their existing captains up by two (or whatever the precise mechanic was), so avoiding forcing players to have to waste - probably - months getting their captains back to where they were. Problem solved - simple - and 'all' you then have to deal with is whinging about the detail of individual skills; as things stand, WG have to deal with both the issue of ruined ships (secondary-focused cruisers for example) *and* the fact that existing players are getting shafted.

As I recall, it does (kind of): if you hover over the different class icons whilst waiting for battle (in the loading screens) it gives you a summary of what the class in question is 'supposed' to do. Sadly, these descriptions are often worthless; for example, I *think* it says that the primary role of CVs is to kill BBs. I suppose this might explain why some people manage to be even more hopeless than I am - they actually believe this stuff...?!

Although most of my DD captains have both, I disagree with PM being more use than PT; I used to always pick PM first, but have now changed to the reverse. The reason for this is that - IMO - information is almost always more important; there is a very significant difference between 'every gun' meaning one ship's worth, and half a dozen of the buggers. It also can tell you how many are out there that you haven't spotted yet (the angry smoke cloud could easily contain more than one ship, and so on). But, like I said, I usually take both eventually...

Well, I'm not sure if I fall into one of the 'approved' categories of Kami player (I'm too rubbish to be a seal clubber, for a start), but we just got a damn good reason to thrash the nuts off the various Kamis: if we now have to grind 1.2 million captain xp per 19 point captain, then at least part of that might as well be in ships that are fun to play...!

One thing that strikes me is that a) the 'bare minimum' free captain respec is all present and correct, but b) there are assurances that the system will be tweaked as the data demands it. Given WG's usual form, would I be correct in assuming that the respec will be over by the time said data is in, and so we will all have to spend money (doubloons) when the likely data-driven tweaks make our v1 captain builds no longer optimal? We longer-term players have been through this before (more than once) with the triumphant success that is the CV reework. Just for my own curiosity: are you actively *trying* to pi$$ off your customers? Agir and Siegfried are both hard work (or expensive i.e. real money) to get, and a key part of their appeal is their being the only viable secondary cruisers in the game (yeah, there's GS too, but she's T6). This doesn't apply to me, as I knew this nonsense was coming, but how many customers do you have who are going to get a really nasty surprise when their entertaining 'manly' cruiser suddenly turns into just another boring 'fight from range' clone like all the others? (Edited to fix formatting muck-up)

This. Also - as I mention in another thread - a key reason to play maximum points captains is to generate elite xp; until you bag 1.2 million captain xp, this is no longer possible. That's a big drop in 'efficiency', and for a not inconsiderable amount of time. Whoever wrote this particular devblog is being flat-out disingenuous, and that's being very polite...

Indeed; I believe the term we are looking for here may be "utter b0llocks!". Quite apart from changes to the skills themselves (last I looked, at least one of the builds I commonly use changes from costing 19 points to costing 21, for the same performance), a key reason I play 19 pointers is to generate elite xp - having to find 1.2 million xp per captain before I can do that again represents a massive loss of efficiency.

Just saw @El2aZeR being his usual majestic self in his Midway. Whilst I didn't entirely succumb to The Curse, I did have to waste half the damn battle changing flanks, due to the BBs on the side I started on refusing entirely to shoot at the radar ship...! Luckily, the opposition CV was fairly hopeless.

I'm not sure about advise, but I can tell you what I do myself; how idiotic my approach is (or otherwise) I leave to you. FWIW I run this captain build in Halland (Smaland too): The 'logic' (as such) is as follows, and in no particular order: First ten points is 'standard DD' build, so nothing too surprising. BFT, rather than torp reload, as I like the AA boost, plus Halland's dakka is very worthwhile and this improves it; also, the gain from torp reload is marginal - IMO - and I prefer something with a better balance between torps and dakka. Running the same captain in Smaland, which is mostly about the dakka, makes the previous decision a bit easier, but I pretty much take the same approach throughout the line: captain boosts dakka, and ship upgrades boost torps. SI as the extra heal alone makes it worth it - farming Dreadnoughts in DDs is the occupation for the discerning. AR because - despite having a healing potion - it can often make a crucial difference when you've been a bit maimed. PM because what else am I going to do with the last point, and it does sometimes come in useful when a lot of buggers are shooting at you. I don't take RL because - in randoms anyway - I find I get more consistent benefit from spending the four points elsewhere, plus a good opponent can do a lot with the knowledge of when you have him tagged with the skill (with the reset that will probably come with the rework, I'm planning to build a second Halland captain with RL, or whatever it'll end up being called). As to the ship herself, the build looks like this: Mostly obvious: Speed boost because - with no smoke - the longer you can go flat-out the better. Zoomy torps because - with their range - the extra speed does help (IMO), plus gains with the guns upgrade are more marginal with most applications of dakka happening pretty close-to anyway. Maximum donkey-shaking as I rarely slow down anyway, and every bit helps when every opponent (and their ferret) is shooting at you, plus As It Is Written, the enlightened chap has to - often - Just DodgeTM. Concealment, because what else would you take? Torp reload because I didn't with the captain, and BFT has covered off the dakka sufficiently. Make of that what you will; it's what I do, but I don't suggest for a moment that it's the 'right' answer (and my personal WR in Halland is awful)...

I *really* hope Cherry Blossom returns, but - like others - I won't be holding my breath; I thought it was a strong candidate for the most interesting of the Ops... If I were feeling mischievous, I might suggest adding a new five-star reward though: a Makarov?

Not sure; I tend to mainly remember people on here who are consistently helpful or interesting (or have a particularly splendid avatar picture, because I'm an airhead), and forget the bulk of other people. Mind you, I'm pretty lousy at remembering names at the best of times... (I do have a couple - literally two, I think - of people on 'ignore' for repeated and egregious ghastliness - it might be one of them?)

This here is one reason I try (albeit not always 100% successfully) to keep the heid on the forum - it's embarrassing enough to suffer from my traditional Curse of the Forumites anyway, but it would be *really* embarrassing to do so immediately after casting doubt on a forumites' parentage, and sexual preferences etc....! "A pox on you, sir, for verily thou art a yeasty codpiece who has laid down with beasts!" <15 second pause to log in to game and start battle> "Verblonde just Detonated"

First port of call is probably the wiki on the subject of captains: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Commander Short version though: at the moment, a captain can only be specialised for one ship at once, and you generally want this ship to be a silver one. If you want to move a captain from one silver ship to another, you'll need to do some sort of retraining, and your captain will no longer be specialised for the ship he left (also, be mindful of captain skills; the skills for a DD, say, will generally be very different to the skills for another class). The exception is premium ships: you can put any captain in any premium ship, provided their nationalities match, and have them operate at 100% without any retraining needed. Of course, the thing about captain skills applies here too i.e. a captain built for a silver DD will be sub-optimal in, say, a premium CV. Just to have on your radar: the upcoming captain skill rework is likely to change things around; the most notable change is perhaps that - apparently - each captain will have a separate skill build for each class, which will make them more efficient for use with premiums of different classes. Of course, this stuff is all WiP at the moment...

Aye, from a DD player's perspective, there are certainly at least a few potential T9 picks that get filed under 'hells, no!' for that reason...

Dunno yet; let's see what happens once we're actually under way. In principle, I like the varied tiers, although it'll be interesting to see how the mixed T9 and T10 middle league plays out; I suspect that might be an interesting chance to give things like Neustrashimy a run-out - some scope for decent silver earnings there, perhaps? Presumably, one will be after things that up-tier well...