Verblonde

Assuming they're as dreadful (from my perspective - I like fast, nimble ships) as they seem to be, I'll play any that fall in my lap in early access (albeit only in Coop, for missions/snowflakes), but I don't intend making one iota of extra effort to get/play any of them. I'm far more interested in the Italians, when they eventually show up.

Dev Blog (tweaks to test ships): https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/82

Dev Blog (Halloween): https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/79

For your first premium ship, I would suggest thinking along the following lines: Don't buy anything too high tier; the usual definition of a suitable level is roughly in line with where you've got to (and are comfortable with) in your silver ships. Get something that you can drop one of your silver ship captains into and have the two work well together (so don't buy any weird ships, like secondary monsters if the main line isn't, and so on). Most premiums you are likely to buy will need a minimum of a ten-point captain. Read reviews (and check the date of said reviews, especially look at whether they're pre- or post-reework). Look for something that you're likely to enjoy playing. A lot. To get good value from your spend, you want to use the thing a lot, so avoid stuff you won't want to play repeatedly. Look from cheapness; most premiums are over-priced compared to a lot of DLC (which is more or less what they are), so look out for opportunities to save money. Pick up free ones whenever you can. Look for something you can - reliably - do a lot of damage in; damage is the key driver of earnings. So, some things to maybe look at: The only BBs you've played are German (this is a mistake BTW - give the IJN and US ones a lash; they're better to learn with); at this stage, *maybe* look at PEF, although she's a bit of an acquired taste for some (she's decent for T6 Ops), and there are far better premium BBs from other nations. Okt Rev might be worth bagging for coal. Best sensible tier earners include Warspite (*if* you get the national cammo too) and Ashitaka (*if* you get the Kobayashi cammo too). Your cruiser collection is quite diverse, and you've got furthest with the Russians at time of writing; happily (?) the game designers have an inordinate fondness for Russian ships (reality of same, optional) - pick up one or two of the T5-T6 options. Molotov is quite fun - classic glass cannon - and Krispy Kreme is hilarious (was felt to be the worst premium in the game at one stage, although VU didn't exist then), and a useful learning aid (although a lot of what you'll be learning is how to get citadelled). For DDs, your main nations (so far) are Japan and Europe (poor choice - they're much harder to play; suggest leaving them alone for a bit); I would add the US to that lot. You have a few premium options: Blysk is free, and includes smoke, so is a decent pick (she's been rather power-crept though, mainly in the area of visibility); Aigle and Anshan (French and PA, respectively) are also free (coal again), so get them, but you'll need to generate or buy a 10 point captain for them. The best DD for money at a sensible tier is T-61 (German), but you'll need to make sure you get a 10 point captain for her too, otherwise you'll be badly gimped. The basic problem you've got is that the bulk of the best earning premium ships are all T8+ and given where you've got to in the game, you'll struggle to get good value from them and/or decent earnings. I would perhaps pick up one or two cheap/free mid tier efforts, and save most of your money for later. BTW make use of your Armory coupons - they'll save you money/resources.

Many thanks from me too, @Wizard27_1979 - I just popped in as I was having similar trouble and remembered someone mentioned it on here...

30% if the current proposed nerf goes through, and I mainly play solo so those extra seconds of radar can make a difference, mainly because I can often get an extra salvo off myself or by giving allies marginally more time to wake up and shoot at whatever I lit up. Your point is entirely valid though; ideally, I would take both...!

I was thinking about trying that, but felt that a) I'd miss the extra radar run-time too much, and b) with the upcoming nerf to the coal speed boost mod, the benefits would be rather less pronounced, in relation to the dip in radar...

New Smaland owner, but for what it's worth (based on sub-twenty games so far, I think): Halland better at alarming CVs, mainly because of the DefAA; Smaland still has good AA by DD standards though. Halland torps rather better, which will surprise no-one; Smaland noticeably better at the dakka side of the equation though (using the same captain, including BFT). Concealment essentially the same: 6.1 (Smaland) versus 6.0 (Halland) with full concealment build; the difference between the two makes very little practical difference. Much better speed boost on Smaland (30% versus 8%, but with only a minute run-time), which can make a noticeable difference in terms of escape/evade and flexing. Smaland has radar, which - as with Orkan - really defines how keen on the ship you'll be; if you dig radar DDs (with a heal), then it makes Smaland most excellent. For me, Halland is more general-purpose, whereas Smaland is the DD-hunter par excellence. Is Smaland worth 2 million free xp? Hell, no! However she is very good (and of much more use to me than Siegfried would have been, especially with the skills respec), and I don't regret the ludicrous spend one bit. FWIW Smaland was the only ship I played in the recent (or current - is it still going on?) Ranked and she was excellent...

If you haven't found it yet, each ship entry in the wiki (https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/World_of_Warships) includes a matrix of which captain skills are of use, and to what degree, on that ship; whilst there is sometimes some disagreement vis-a-vis the detail, these entries are often a good place to start. As an example, this is Hindenburg: (Note: no IFHE) Be aware though that there is apparently an incoming rework of the captain skill system, so what works now may well change to a greater or lesser extent in the near(ish) future, if it all goes ahead.

I wouldn't rule it out entirely; I agree that playing against real people (at appropriate tiers) is the way to go in general, but Coop does have its place - besides being a good way to knock over missions, it's a good mode for learning the basics of how ships handle, how their weapons behave etc. If you remove the unpredictability of human opponents, you have a better 'test' environment than Randoms. One just has to be mindful that the way the bots play bears almost no resemblance to what real people do, so it's a lousy way to get better at the game modes that most people view as more important (with apologies to the Coop mains).

Not sure whether to hope for this or not; on the one hand, it would provide me with a motivation to finish off the only DD line I haven't completed yet (I think I'm currently messing about with the T8), but on the other I would have to play the damn line some more (and having just done the French, my enthusiasm for DDs that can be seen from Pluto is less than overwhelming at the moment)...

Much appreciated, chaps!

This is the relevant Dev Blog: https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/78 Hopefully, this may be a change for the better...?

Might I ask what's this apropos? What did I miss...?

Depends a bit of you view these things in 'functional' terms, or only enjoyment. From a functional standpoint, Thunderer is most likely the sensible pick: all(?) the BB meisters seem to think she's very good, and - based on WG's previous form - there has to be a reasonable chance of her being removed from sale before too much time has elapsed. I'm not that keen on BBs myself, but even I find her useful to have around for missions. It might be worth holding off for at least a little while though - the upcoming captain skills rework may well impact the viability of some ships more than others too. The final thing to be mindful of is the relaunch of the old steel ships, although we don't yet know when that will happen; Black, for example, is great fun (not to mention fairly decent with the radar/smoke trick, although her torps are frustrating).

2 million fxp is stupidly over-priced for a ship but, knowing this, I still recently got Smaland (mixture of fxp bought with research points, and fxp earned doing a regrind with lots of dragon flags), and she does seem to be really rather splendid so far. It probably helps that I was somewhat familiar with the broad brushes of the play style thanks to having Orkan; the 'Ludicrous Speed' boost is very nice to have at times too (pity you can't run the relevant - admittedly, soon to be nerfed again - coal mod at the same time as the radar one).

Dev Blog (Ranked Overhaul): https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/78

The situation with Newport may be made worse than we might perhaps think too: it depends how many other players avoid Newport as I do. I simply don't play the Ops mode when it's on. I'm not suggesting for a moment that my skills are so mighty as to be able to swat the thing aside like a gnat (the exact opposite, in fact - I'm sub-average); however, although I'm more than good enough to get wins in the other scenarios (that are live anyway), even when the bulk of my team are distinctly tuberous, I'm not even close with Newport. If enough mediocre players are similarly sitting it out, it makes life even harder for those who do want to try, and could succeed with an average team, as opposed to a poor one (if you see what I mean). Personally, I don't find it an efficient use of my playing time.

Additional: honourable mention for Harekaze, which is excellent, but only occasionally available; get one if she ever pops up again...

'The three you can play best' is the unhelpful answer: there are (almost) no ships in the game that will magically make you do better - I only add the 'almost' as there may well be something that you happen to gel well with that you don't know about yet. The point being that the 'best' for you may not overlap with the 'best' for another player. It's also worth making sure that whatever premiums you buy can take a decent captain from your silver line, and don't require a weird captain build to do well with. All of which said, my picks of premiums-for-money that you can currently get might look as follows (but bear in mind that I'm a DD main, so am much less qualified to comment on the other classes): T-61: probably the best DD in the game, tier-for-tier (Kami/Fujin might disagree, but they're gone*); T6 too, so good for newer players. If you have the coal, put a hydro upgrade on her too. Cossack: very effective, with glorious defensive hydro (coal mod again), excellent dakka, and almost class-leading stealth. Only one torp launcher, but can single fire. Not a good pick for a newbie. Loyang: rather old now, but still effective, mainly due to the cruiser hydro and smoke combination; essentially, Benson with hydro and the YOLO torp option. Haida is fantastic (a lot like Cossack, but with creeping smoke and Mighty SecondariesTM), but should absolutely be avoided until you have a means to generate good captains without actually playing the ship/captain itself. Boise is excellent at T7, although mine spends most of her time in Narai; plenty of guns and a superior heal. Good match for the main line CL captains. Atago is splendid, despite being old; nice balance between guns and torps (and she gets a heal); Bagration is a vaguely similar beast, only with better guns and less good torps (I might be tempted by whichever one you have a good captain for). Scharn: guns may be a bit small, but she has plenty of them; works very well in Narai, and gels well with main silver line BB captains. Ark Royal: besides being Ark Royal, she's very good for Ops (well, I can't comment on Avoid Newport, but for the others). Ashitaka isn't a bad pick; if you spend even more money, you can turn her into a ludicrous silver earner (via the Kobayashi permaflage) as well; great for Narai. MA probably; if you're good with BBs, she's a monster; even for someone like me, she's worth having, if only for doing secondaries missions. Also, as usual: don't buy premiums that are of too high a tier, in relation to where you are with silver ships; they won't make you any better against real people (although they can be fun for Coop).. *Except as occasional loot-box bait.

As has been said, by me and others, repeatedly in the past: it may well be a flaky mechanic (presumably the aim is to make weaker players feel better when they get one, as they need more help than the stronger ones), but it's one of the few nods to history in the game and that is valuable. If you want 100% fantasy and some sort of 'mechanical purity' it's not like there is any shortage of other games available. The low frequency simply means that - unless you're doing something repeatedly stupid (in which case, you're certainly not a good player, so the thing works in your favour overall) - it'll happen to you very infrequently (I'm rubbish and it barely breaks a 1% incidence rate for me), so why get your knickers in a twist? For me, a bit of history is nice to have and - given that the impact of the mechanic is minimal - why waste time and energy getting upset about it. Leave it in. (And I'll see you all in about a month for the next time this hoary old chestnut rears its head...)

PE or Bagration - both have a heal. Having said that, it should be mentioned that I'm very poor in cruisers, so tend to favour things where perhaps some of my first muck-up at least can be healed...

<sound of the Mockers Gods rubbing their hands with glee> Hoooo, boy! If you're regularly sinking CVs either you or they are doing it badly wrong. Plus, wait until you encounter a semi-competent T8+...!

I find her dreadfully tedious because of the almost complete lack of speed; on the other hand twelve (?) barrels is quite a lot to unload on some unsuspecting berk at T5. As far as I can see, there are two good reasons to buy her, even if (like me) you find her dull: She's interestingly historical. It prevents you getting her instead of something more valuable from gambling boxes, if you're into that sort of thing.

That's an excellent plan, although there's nothing that says you can't get one or other of the other BB lines to - say - T6-7 at the same time (quite apart from anything else, it can give you alternative options for Ops, when your main choices are on cooldown). Also, bear in mind that the US BBs are horrifyingly slow up to and including T7; bear with it - they get a lot less tedious at T8...