Verblonde

Just got to Rank 12, after about ten games or so; *lots* of exasperating yo-yoing. Happily, quite a few people seem to still not know about Orkan's radar - yay! BTW has anyone else noticed that we seem to have a new species of player i.e. the Greater Spotted New Odin Player? I would venture that these noble beasts when roaming free in their natural habitat (usually on my bleedin' team) have rather supplanted the traditional Derpitz...

Sounds good! I only raised Ceylon as a candidate as she's the lead ship of the - slightly different - second group (and has a vaguely interesting history). This!

It can be done - keep the faith! Sadly, I think I've lost my screen-shot, although I believe it's somewhere in the 'gaming achievements' thread... My next 'mighty secondaries' target is to get one with Orkan. I may be some time... Edit: found it!

It is, if it results in more copies of your genes going forward (which is the case in dogs); 'liked' is fairly broad though - one of the most successful complex organisms of all time came from a fairly unremarkable forest-dwelling fowl, and is now so prevalent that its bones are a candidate for use as a geological marker. In this latter case 'liked' means 'tastes delicious'... Absolutely!

Not in terms of importance - you're absolutely right. As another WOT convert, I prefer the WOWS approach to crews where the captain is effectively the avatar for the whole crew; I think that captain progression is rather less painful in WOWS, although not having individual crew members does reduce the scope for variety (e.g. only one CE skill, whereas in WOT you can have cammo, of varying degrees of development, on as many crew-members as you have in a vehicle). As a general approach to captains, I would suggest focusing on getting a small number of good captains initially, rather than lots of 'meh' ones; the eventual (long-term, and it will take a long time) is to start getting 19 pointers - besides being more powerful, their most useful attribute is that they earn elite xp, which can be used to level up a different captain. Once you get your first 19 pointer, the second will happen faster, the third faster still, and so on. In the meantime, pick up any free 10 point plus captains you can via missions, campaigns, and several of the Ops. BTW this section of the wiki is relevant: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Commander

Others have covered off the bulk of your query admirably; if I may add a few things to consider: If you haven't found it yet, the wiki is an excellent source of information on game mechanics, amongst other things: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/World_of_Warships In terms of mechanics, playing T4 should have already introduced you to hydro; you'll meet your first radar playing T5 (a few T7 premiums get it; T8 is where it starts to appear in the silver lines) - it acts similarly to hydro, only having longer range, but not being able to spot torps. What really changes is the power of ships, and how badly mistakes are punished. As you go up the tiers, you'll generally encounter more experienced players and - crucially - players with better captains. Be aware of captains, how they work, and why they matter; as a rule of thumb, when you get into the +2 MM bracket (so, T5+) you really want at least ten pointers, most often because this is the point where you get CE. If you're in doubt about captain builds, ask here, and have a look at Ship Comrade: http://shipcomrade.com/captcalc Join a clan, preferably one that's happy to teach; besides helping with the learning curve, if they have a reasonably developed clan base, you'll get some useful economic bonuses. Voice comms are helpful too (you can use the in-game comms, but the bulk of clans seem to use either TS or Discord), enabling real-time feedback and better coordination. Try and keep an eye on your stats (but don't obsess over them), with a view to looking for areas to reinforce, areas that need work and so on. However, be mindful that you have a very small data-set, so a lot of the overall numbers will yo-yo all over the place; for example, today I'm 'bad' whilst a couple of days ago I was a 'super unicum' - I'm neither (48% overall WR), but yesterday saw a losing streak, and two days before saw the reverse. A good site for this sort of data: https://wows-numbers.com Keep asking questions: there are loads of good players lurking on this forum, most of whom are happy to help (try and work out who is who though, as that will inform the perspective of their advice and how relevant it may be to you personally). Hope that is of some use. Oh, and one more thing: welcome!

Uncle Verblonde's Biology Corner: if one understands that the 'point' of an organism is to maximise the number of copies of its genes that go on to subsequent generations, then these silly yappy little dogs are wildly more successful than the much-vaunted wolves from the motivational images... Basically, the noble wolf is a dismal failure compared to the thing in Bear's gif... (Here to help, as always!)

Sir, I salute you!

FWIW this is my Haida captain: I don't usually run RL because it's quite expensive, and if the opposition have their act together it can tell them very roughly where you are. I'm aware a lot of folk find the skill extremely useful though. This is my equipment loadout: Rudder shift over acceleration, as I rarely stop moving and usually get shot at *a lot* so every last extra bit of wiggle helps.

I can always rely on Europe being several hours ahead to produce some entertaining morning reading for me - excellent form! FWIW, my feeling is that none of the CVs should be in 'small map' modes, not just Enterprise alone. Or rather, that they shouldn't be in their current form. I wouldn't be massively upset if all premiums were banned from ranked, at least for one season to see what happens (and I commonly play nothing but premiums); if WG were worried about this impacting the "Madam Olga's Party Fund", they could always flog special cammo, say, that gave silver ships the key benefits of premiums (better economy, any captain etc.). To be fair, it is probably the finest signature on the forum... In the spirit of fair play, I have to point out that a manly GZ is hilarious in Coop (bloody stupid the rest of the time, but still...).

<insert suitably hilarious necromantic meme>

This. I'm really not a cruiser person, but Fiji is glorious - if WG ever felt the urge to do a copy-paste premium version, they'd almost certainly get me to open my wallet... (Ceylon might be a worthwhile premium candidate: better AA, but worse dakka, I believe)

You'll probably do better in most DDs if you resist this urge - besides not spotting, you're far too static in conjunction with a predictable location. IMO, of course.

FWIW, this is my Fat Freddy captain, that usually gets used on my KM premium BBs: I think of this as being 'semi-manly' because I've taken FP in place of MS. I should emphasise though that I'm not terribly good with BBs, so my wisdom is rather limited, and this build is mostly about having fun rather than being optimal...

Ah! I did wonder...

Besides what I wrote on the other thread, the key problem - IMO - is the complete absence of a stealth torp window i.e. you generally have to be seen to do any damage. My suspicion is that she ought to be hilarious in coop, but Loyang is far better for PvP modes - I'll probably wait for Zed to fall out of a Christmas gamble crate; I'd like to give her a try, but she isn't remotely worth full price (again, IMO). As to the original question: it depends a bit on how frisky the CVs get, but if it's similar to the recent sprint, I'll give Orkan another lash - more or less a smokeless Lightning, plus she gets a heal, and the radar turned out to be very effective in sprint (although maybe more players know about it by now?). If smoke turns out to be essential, then it's hard to see past Loyang, and a need for AA would suggest Kidd (plus her healing potion is always nice). I tend towards premiums for the economic benefits, and because I have 19 point captains for all of them...

Although I can't tell for certain, that rather sounds like the RN DD misplayed - they don't work very well as smoke spammers (perhaps unless it's someone else's smoke). Smoke spamming can be rather situational anyway for a couple of reasons: If you're parked in smoke, you aren't spotting anything. You're effectively stationary, so vulnerable to smart-alecs with radar/hydro, plus anyone with torps in the vicinity will fire them into smoke clouds on principle. If one is presented with a distracted target, it's often better to dump a few torps into him and then scoot off somewhere else; the RN guns are pretty effective, but you generally only want to open up when losing your concealment won't get you killed. The best T6 silver DD is a bit of a matter of taste (I've no idea which one is best statistically); I'm personally slightly less keen on the US DDs until they get to T7 (when you get a stealth torp window, which makes you rather more versatile), although DefAA can give CVs a nasty shock if they aren't a unicum. The US DD line does progress logically though; Mahan is more or less a T7 Farragut, only with longer ranged torps; Benson builds on Farragut, and so on.

Ask away! I'm a DD main, but only a mediocre one, so others will be needed for the unicums' perspective. I quite like Icarus, but - IMO - the RN line starts to get really lively with Jervis at T7; I even put a coal hydro mod on mine, giving a ridiculous 216 sec run time on the defensive hydro! Lightning is also excellent (5.5 km concealment, and a nice balance of torps and dakka), as are the T9-10 too. That said, they're perhaps a good second or third DD line to play as they have their eccentricities. As to Loyang, @Bunny_Lover_Kallen covered it off well. Loyang is - like the US line - essentially a hybrid, so she'll be out-dakka-ed by purer gunboats, but her guns are useful enough to deal with most things you're likely to cap contest against (especially in conjunction with the YOLO torps, and especially especially if smoke is involved). With regard to US smoke, it can be a double-edged sword: on the up-side, you get an absolutely enormous cloud and it lasts for a long time (30 secs run time, and more than two minutes dispersal time for T7+, varying with tier), but it does mean you're transmitting your approximate position for that 30 secs, and you don't have as many charges as the RN do. The US smoke is great for screening others and suchlike, but is of less use for quickly breaking contact before sneaking off to re-engage from another direction (you want RN for that). Tier for tier, I feel that Feltcher is rather better; in most respects they're similar (tier for tier), but Benson gets the slower US torps (55 kts, versus 66 kts for the upgraded Feltcher ones) and they can be rather painful at times. Feltcher's upgraded torps go further too (10.5 km versus 9.2 km), which can be very helpful given the current enthusiasm for radar. BTW thank you for asking these questions: when checking the answers, I realised that I never removed the AA build from Feltcher (left over from when AA used to matter), so that was a useful thing to fix...

All strictly IMO, of course: 'Good enough' gunboat, although I assume Zed has the edge here (she ought to) if only because of the HE pen; Loyang is basically (old) C-hull Benson after all (so, one gun fewer than Benson currently gets). You do need to have a handle on the US rainbow arcs too, of course. I know we're all very blase about Loyang, because she's been in the game for such a long time; however, the smoke/hydro thing does still work (especially as Loyang's hydro has a 5.5 km range - only 300 m less than her surface spotting range), you do get a stealth torp window (even with the YOLO option), the dakka is sufficient - she's basically a pretty decent hybrid with a nasty trick up her sleeve to discourage the smoke campers. Sure, Cossack is better, but Loyang still holds up. One has to be a bit cautious against old lags though - most experienced players are pretty practiced at dealing with smoke/hydro. Depends on the mode etc. If I need survivability and/or to fend off CVs, I'll take Kidd, although she absolutely needs radar/hydro support to dig people out of smoke and to provide supporting fire; for more typical DD duties, especially in randoms (with no reliable support), I would take Loyang. Overall, if I didn't already have Loyang, I would buy her like a shot if the alternative was Z-35; whilst the latter has rather nice dakka and more hp, almost all other aspects make Loyang superior (she even gets half a km extra hydro range, I believe).

Now, that's just *sick*! (BTW you forgot the scorpions)

Ah, yes... Would definitely prefer to play Asashio(s)... No idea about Yukikaze, as I don't have her. <pauses to go look at the wiki> *Definitely* take her over Z-35!

I ran into a Z-35 in battle over the weekend; I'm normally fairly bad at remembering which 'Z' is which, so it took me a while to work out why he wasn't really doing much of use for the opposition - I actually felt a bit sorry for the poor chap once I worked out which Zed he was... Apart from 'turn her into Loyang', one possible fix might be to add a healing potion: to make use of her torps, she essentially has to be spotted (-200 m lack of stealth window at best, I believe) and therefore shot at; some ability to heal back at least some of the inevitable damage might make her vaguely worthwhile? Edit: as it stands, I'm not sure I can think of a single premium T8 DD that I would like to play less - Loyang - obviously better in almost every regard. Cossack - hydro shorter ranged, but massive stealth torp window. Kidd - gets a heal, is harder to spot, and has a torp stealth window. Orkan - radar! (and she's more or less a smokeless Lightning, but with a heal). Harekaze - sneaky, great guns, and 10 km torps. Second edit: forgot Terrible again! Still more desirable than Z-35! Siliwangi - you *know* you're in trouble when a ship is less desirable than this clunker... Have I forgotten anything?

It appears that others have answered the basic question i.e. not making more silver than your costs for the ship. The following are some tips that may help you deal with the problem (it should be fairly easy to maintain/grow a positive silver balance, all things being equal): First, have a read of the section of the wiki that deals with the economy, especially credit earnings: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Economy#Earning_Credits_and_Experience As a broad principle, you are more likely to lose silver as you go up the tiers, for the simple reason that ship costs increase (as you'll see from the table in the above linked article); exactly which tier will be the tipping point from profit to loss varies from player to player and depends largely on how good* you are at that tier (better player = more profit). *What do we mean by 'good'? In the context of pure silver generation, it means the ability to do damage; more specifically, it means the ability to do relative damage. What this means is that you get rewarded for damaging enemy ships, and you get the best rewards for taking large proportions of an enemy's hp i.e. your reward for, say, knocking 10K hp off a DD will be greater than doing exactly the same damage to a larger ship like a BB. Also note that rewards are better if you damage a higher tier ship than yours (the reverse is also true). Are you entirely f2p, or do you spend money on the game? If the latter, the most useful thing you can get is premium time - this will jack up your earnings on every ship (to the extent that there is a good chance that your profit making tipping point will go up by a tier). If f2p, make a special effort to acquire any free premium time that comes along, and endeavour to only activate it when you know you can play a lot, to get the most benefit from it. Also, keep an eye out for economic signals and cammo, but pick your spots to use them - it's best to only apply them in ship/mode combinations where you are confident you'll do reasonably well. For example, rewards tend to be a lot better in random mode than in coop, but random mode is generally harder; fwiw I almost never use economic flags in coop. Join a clan and/or play in divisions. Besides giving you a potential source of division mates and teachers, a lot of clans have developed their bases to the extent that their members get some quite useful economic bonuses. Play in divisions as you're more likely to win (generally speaking), and it's easier to survive if you have at least one other player who's at least slightly coordinated with you. Don't die. This - apparently trite - bit of advice is perhaps the most useful thing for a player to bear in mind. The longer you stay alive, the more chances you have to do damage, and so the better your earnings will be. Play appropriate ships/tiers for your skill level and experience. You appear to (so far) have only played RN cruisers in randoms (and have rushed to Tier 8), and nothing else; whilst I get the appeal of the lines, this is not a good place to start - the CLs in particular are very squishy and their ammo (no HE) makes them a lot harder to get the most out of. I would suggest returning to lower tiers in some of the more friendly lines to master many of the more essential skills (and to build some decent captains - you need *at least* ten points when you get to the +2 MM bracket - IMO); if you like cruisers with torps, the IJN line is excellent for learning in, and one of the US/Russian lines is perhaps a good pick for gun-orientated cruisers. I would also play some BBs (yes, I know they smell) and DDs - if nothing else they will help you understand what some of your key threats/targets can/can't do, and what they're trying to do. Get some premium ships, but a) only after getting premium time and b) only get ones that are appropriate to wherever your skill level has got to. If you're f2p, focus on earning coal and get some premiums with that resource. Whatever you get, it helps if it works well with whatever silver line you're playing - besides extra silver earning, the main plus of a premium ship is improved captain training. Overall, better rewards mainly come with better performance, and that comes with better skills/experience; it's easier to gain such skill/experience at lower tiers (beware the T4 CV plague though - until WG do something about that, there is a case to be made for sitting at T5, or maybe T6, whilst you concentrate on getting better at the game). Don't get too hung up on getting to high tiers - the 'point' of the game is not to get T10s as fast as possible; take the time to enjoy the journey. BTW if you want to keep an eye on your numbers, and identify areas for improvement, this site is useful: https://wows-numbers.com/ Also, keep asking questions on here - there is usually no shortage of people about who'll be happy to help...

Very true, but my preference is to be taught by people I've already got to know first; that's not to say I *never* get taught by strangers, but it is a preference. Like I said though, that's just me. Not exactly what I meant; that's all good stuff, but effective training usually involves an element of learning by doing, *as well as* the sort of thing you're describing (which ought to provide an excellent theoretical grounding in what the student should be doing; the real time stuff allows you to try and correct differences between the theory and the practice). This is why you need a good teacher/trainer, to do the initial filtering such that only good content is used for training purposes.

I think it's probably too soon to tell (boring answer). Although mine has only been played in Coop, the impression I get is that it's harder to play than Tirpitz, but I'm aware that LWM said - amongst other things - that a better player could perhaps make rather good use of her (as they can play to the thing's strengths, which a player like me would struggle with). Unless you opened your wallet and said 'help yourself', the bulk of players won't have got her until sometime in the last week; that isn't really enough time to get the hang of (or not) a ship?