Verblonde

To be fair, I did think Florida might come in handy for Narai at least; it was the silver ones that were not exactly filling me with hyperactive enthusiasm...

FWIW this is my 'standard' Ikea DD captain build: First ten points are the 'standard' DD build: PT (information is key), LS (because I'd have to be an idiot not to), SE, and CE (concealment is too important not to). After that: BFT to boost the guns a bit (with the exception of the premiums, my module build favours torps, so this is the only true 'guns' boost I take), not to mention helping AA (more relevant as you go up the tiers). AR because it's a no-brainer, even on ships that heal. SI because an extra heal is useful (and those Dreadnought awards aren't going to farm themselves). Finally PM, because you will use your guns and blow stealth in most battles, so you are going to get shot at (and losing torp tubes etc. is a nuisance). RL (also known as RPF) is a very popular pick; I don't use it because although it's a powerful information source, it also tells the opposition when you're detecting them, and a coordinated team can make use of that to pin down your approximate location. If you wanted to take it, I would remove PM and one of BFT/SI (probably the latter) from the above build to free up the necessary points.

Sounds like win-win to me...!

I'll probably pick up the cammo, even though I'm unlikely to use it (unless taking the pi$$ or something) - I haven't double-checked, but it looks rather as though it'll just kind of happen whilst doing other missions, if one plays slightly more Germans than perhaps usual...

From memory, one of the audio settings allows you to use whichever voice you like as a default, if you just want to change the voice. There are also various filters (accessible through the cogwheel bottom right of the port screen - I think) that allow you to show/hide a range of special captains and cammos etc. When something is hidden, you just get whatever the defaults are...

I haven't yet, but I didn't sell them when I researched the 12 km ones; I'm thinking I might give them a lash when I have a spare TA captain available. My guess is that they'll be of most use in Randoms, but that one'll want to return to the other options in modes where one has reliable team-mates.

Happy to see that Smaland is a suitable addition to the category of 'ideal ships for getting Dreadnoughts' with:

If you don't use the standard editor fonts etc., people who use the 'dark' forum theme sometimes can't read your posts. If you're going to copy/paste from something (like Google Translate, or Word etc.) then either paste plain text, or take the built in 'switch to plain text' option that appears at the bottom of the editor window. It'll look like this (mouse pointer indicating the plain text option in the editor):

What @GarrusBrutus said - a key skill to focus on when learning to use torps is that of predicting where everyone (on both sides) can/will be for the duration of your torps' run-time. This is especially important with slower running torps and/or those with longer range. If your torp(s) hit your own side, it is *always* your fault, and an apology is in order. @seXikanac - to start with, only fire torps where it is physically impossible to hit an ally, even if it means missing some opportunities; you can - slowly - get less risk-averse, as your experience and prediction skills get better. Regardless, you will still occasionally hit allies (we all do now and again, especially in Coop melees); in all cases, accept it is your fault, apologise, and move on.

BTW the forum 'rank' doesn't mean anything about how seriously (or not) you should take someone's opinion - as far as I know, it's just a reflection of levels of forum activity. If you want a sense of how good/experienced/other someone is, have a look at their stats (although some people hide theirs, commonly - but not always - because they're embarrassed by them for whatever reason). For example, if you look at mine, you'll see quite a lot of games played (although only 5K are Randoms), a 48% overall WR, 3/4 of games in DDs, and a great deal of diversity in ships; from that you might conclude that I'm not that good, have wide knowledge but not so deep, and am probably more worth listening to apropos DDs than cruisers/BBs/CVs.. You can apply similar logic to others, although if you stick around you'll soon work out whose opinions usually align reasonably with your own preferences, and whose you can take with a pinch of salt.

You won't be, unless you do something entirely egregious, which you won't do by accident. If being pink bugs you, just play a few (usually two for a first offence) games in Coop and it's gone. The easiest ban to get is a chat one, and even those are relatively rare - provided one behaves in the in-game chat. They're both in the game, and pretty popular; that said, Scharn is a premium and is arguably most effective in Narai (the Op) as opposed to Randoms. You'll see a lot of Bismarcks about, mainly because of the ship's history - she's quite hard to do well with for an average player though (she generally works best at shorter ranges, and it's very easy to over-extend and get vapourised). BTW if you want to look at all the ships in the game (excluding some of the test ones), check out the wiki: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/World_of_Warships

I'm another vote for Shima, without missing a beat - even with all the CVs and radar about, 5.6 km detection is glorious if you're reasonably practiced in the Tao of Sneakiness. Torps used with skill (or, in my case, luck) will ruin the day of anything in the game, and everything else is 'good enough' too. That said, get the hang of Yugumo first - she's actually extremely good: she's only 0.1 km less sneaky than Kagero, and pretty much everything else is better (12 km torps for starters)...

For this sort of question, you want to refer to the wiki: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/World_of_Warships The nastiest torps in your MM spread - in terms of damage - are currently the IJN Type 93 Mod 3 and F3 (I think) which do 23,766 and 21,366 points of damage, respectively. Neither of these will delete you outright from full hp, but there are plenty of torps where two hits in very quick succession will (also, have a look at the Detonation mechanic). Also, because it would be rude not to:

Sorry, but in the PC version, the firer of torps is always responsible for them, regardless. A key part of the skill involved with using torps is not hitting your allies. I assume this is a market segmentation thing: the PC approach - which requires a bit more skill and thought - is aimed at one type of player, whilst the (even) more 'arcady' and idiot-proof console thing is aimed at another. Do bear in mind that unless one is a serious griefer and/or cretin, you won't get sanctioned in any extreme way; being pink doesn't really matter, so long as you don't make a habit of shooting/torping/ramming allies. You have to misbehave egregiously and consistently before you get banished to Coop. Just play competently (especially with torps) and you'll be fine.

Take your time - you'll do better is you don't rush up the tiers. It'll give you a chance to acquire the necessary knowledge to do well in the game. BTW the wiki is a good source of information on mechanics and ships and suchlike: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/World_of_Warships

As a general rule, it's sensible to use free xp to unlock (some or all) modules on silver ships, but not to unlock the ships themselves. Which modules to pick will be informed by how effective the ship is without them, and how much free xp you have/how easily you can generate more. It's worth having a look at each ship you're interested in's entry in the wiki (https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/World_of_Warships) too; it usually gives a view on which modules are more important, which can be helpful.

You, sir, win the forum this morning! Are you asking about captain skills? If so, have a look at this: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Commander

I'm sure there's a bit more to it than that. My working hypothesis is that on quiet evenings, the WG office gathers around a warm PC, and take turns to read out the funniest bits of feedback, whilst laughing, drinking excessive amounts of vodka, and making 'w4nker' gestures at the screen. Every time certain subjects or phrases come up, everyone has to down their drink e.g. 'remove detonations' alone has probably resulted in some serious liver damage in the WG office over the years...

Still a bit of a work in progress, but so far all my healing potions are assigned to T (as per @Yedwy), and that's the only consistency. It's better than it was, but my feeling is that WG should have let us map keys (whatever we want) to each consumable, so as to allow 100% consistency...

Alaska is generally felt to be excellent (I'm rubbish in mine, but that sort of ship isn't really my thing), but do be mindful that the upcoming captain skill rework is - currently - looking like it'll beat 'supercruiser' captains (which currently tend to favour BB skills) with a sh*tty stick. Cower in fear before Old English Text MT, puny mortals!!

At the risk of repeating what others have said: you (and I) are simply not good enough to get to the higher ranks without an insane amount of game time and frustration. Also, if you allow yourself to become too frustrated, you'll probably start to play even worse - due to trying to 'force' it. If you're getting annoyed, it's usually better to leave it alone and go and do something else for a while. It's a bit pointless trying to provide long-term pointers as it looks like Ranked is about to be reworked significantly, which will probably change the detail of optimum approaches for less good players. Some general pointers though: IMO the most important thing - to protect one's sanity - is to have a realistic impression of how good you are; look at your own stats with as an objective eye as you can. How good are you really? Once you've done that, set realistic goals informed by things like which ships you have available and how much time can you afford to devote to the activity e.g. my WR is usually around 48% overall (sub-average), so R1 is entirely unrealistic for me as I'm not prepared to waste every waking hour trying to get there. So, what is a realistic aim for me? R12 should be fairly painless and there are plenty of irrevocable ranks along the way; R10 is doable (and worthwhile, due to the reduced service cost flag - dropped for the rework it seems) as you're still looking at two stars per level; beyond that starts to require the consistent levels of high performance that a 48% WR player will struggle to produce. So, for me, I go to R10 and call it a day there. You should follow a similar process. Thinking ahead (and recalling history), we can make certain predictions about future Ranked seasons (although their precise nature is uncertain due to the rework): it is a certainty that T10 Ranked will happen again (for all the usual pro-T10 reasons); there will probably be less frequent forays into other tiers, and they will probably favour even-number tiers (as WG are positively tumescent about CVs and even numbers can include them). Having made those predictions, it's a worthwhile exercise to make sure you have at least one ship per relevant tier that you are well practiced in, are effective in, and have a good captain for; give these ships a regular run-out in randoms to keep your skill-set topped up. A bit of diversity is no bad thing either (i.e. more than one choice), to give options if WG do something weird with the mode e.g. the recent Sprint massively favoured brawling BBs, which was a change compared to more normal seasons; my initial performance was dreadful as it took me too long to switch to a more suitable ship. Basically though, to do well in Ranked (including Sprint, but perhaps less so) you do need to 'git gud', and that may well be a limiting factor (e.g. I'll struggle to ever be much better than sub-average, I suspect); ultimately Ranked rewards are nice, but beyond a certain point one gets into seriously diminishing returns, in relation to the aggravation required.

The pessimist in me tends to agree with this sentiment; this is particularly so given what we saw in the first iteration of submarines mode that we had recently and - perhaps more crucially - given that CVs still aren't right more than a year and a half after their introduction. That said, I suspect we are going to have to live with it eventually (or find alternative games to play). I feel it's not all doom and gloom though: Unlike with CVs, WG appears to be serious about proper testing of the new class. Whether they'll ever make a good addition to the game remains to be seen, but there is less sign of going off half-cocked this time. Every patch where submarines aren't dropped into proper game modes gives us another month(ish) to get maximum value from the various ships etc. that we have i.e. it's vaguely like - say - T10 permaflage: if a ship gets nerfed the week after you bought the cammo, you'd be very upset, whereas you might be more sanguine if it was a year after and you'd had plenty of time to thrash the nuts off said cammo. At least one of the key problems of the first iteration - spotting - has been addressed (apparently); if that extends to other issues, the second iteration may be less disastrous, and so on. Ultimately, it'll depend on how patient WG (and their accounts people) are; if they are prepared to give enough time to test and develop subs properly, it may all not turn out entirely catastrophically... I'm not optimistic, but that does have the merit of avoiding disappointment.

I know (it's basically why I bought her myself). I meant the naval version of the Stuka didn't have them - apparently, Stukas stopped being fitted with the trumpets some time (if memory serves) comparatively early in the war, as it was felt that they slowed the planes down too much.

https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/78

The Stukas are on the way (SoonTM), apparently, even though the naval version didn't have them... (I still want my Ikea DD torps to make 'squeaky toy' noises when they hit, but I'm not holding my breath on that.)