Verblonde

Vaguely in the manner or Private Eye's 'Lookalike' section: Hours of work by the creatives to produce a fancy permaflage: Neked:

IMO it varies a bit between the two modes; FWIW I tend to think along the following lines (unless I'm doing a mission that calls for something specific): Coop usually wants something fast that can do plenty of damage in a short space of time; you aren't usually in competition with the opposing side, but rather your own side - it's a question of who can do the most damage (reaping the most rewards) in the short time that the battle will last. Vision control tends not to matter much in most Coop battles, which may well impact your choices. For Coop, I tend to pick cruisers with torps (bonus points for healing potion, but not always essential); Atagos are particular favourites, with variations on Mainz, Prinz Eugen, and Tone being others. DDs are a classic pick too (fast and plenty of torps), although several of the best premiums at T8 lack torp volume (e.g. Lightning is arguably better for Coop than Cossacks are). For Operations, you usually - IMO - want a generalist that will cope with any scenario you get thrown at you. I usually pick fairly robust things, and almost always want a heal. Avoid DDs (unless you're *really* good in them; I'm a DD main, and I'm not!). Usually, I pick faster BBs, with good secondaries (the various T8 Germans, or MA for example), or robust healing cruisers with torps (Atago and Eugen again, are both favourites). If you want something that will do both well, I might look at an Atago, or perhaps Prinz Eugen (although it'll depend a bit on what you have available in the way of captains). Edit: @MementoMori_6030 makes a very good point about playing Ops in divisions, so as to enable choice of Op. My views are assuming playing solo; your best pick my well change drastically if you're in a position to choose which Op you're doing (there are several where I'd pick a CV sometimes, for instance, if I was certain of getting the relevant Ops, where I wouldn't when it's a random pick).

For PvE, I'd be another advocate for using CVs. (DDs in Ranked seem to work well, too, but PvE was the requirement in this case.)

Submarines. They've ruined the game for me, so I generally avoid modes that have them in. If you're a griefer, you may find them entertaining.

Slightly bleak viewpoint, but almost certainly bang on the money. I'm basing this view on similar things WG have run in WOT...

Echoing everyone else really: Do it in Coop. Pick something fast, with good HE (cruisers are ideal). Shoot at DDs first, then anything else fragile (CLs in particular). If you're a good shot, perhaps aim at vulnerable areas - varying by ship. Incidentally, this mission meshes well with an equivalent 'cause fires' one that I had going on at the same time...

Ah - that'll be why I missed it. Thanks! I don't disapprove of the historically accurate look at all (it's an interesting story too - thanks, @coolrunings_99); it's just that it might as well have been the 'base' look...

<ominous rumble of thunder>

Whilst I'm abundantly aware that it's hilarious watching Greek nationalists get their knickers in a twist over any sort of perceived slight (remember the fun when that film about Alexander referenced the history of him, erm, not being entirely girl-focused, shall we say?), I think it would be a nice touch to include a Greek flag of some sort - why not? (I may be feeling slightly mellower than usual at the moment, of course, having recently got my own Canadian flag...)

In no particular order (and probably repeating what others have said in some cases): Don't forget to use your doubloon ship discount coupon (if you haven't already). For Ops, I would go with Hyuga from that list (despite her being - in theory - nerfable). Scharnhorst is better for Ops though, if you don't have her already, and are wedded to T7. For Ops, you're generally better off with a T8 though (for that, I usually favour healing cruisers, and BBs FWIW). Besides reading the advice on here, I would also suggest looking at LWM's reviews, although bear in mind that many of them pre-date significant changes to AA (and almost certainly pre-date bloody submarines, although the latter aren't currently a concern in Ops).

Submarines, pure and simple. CVs may have their issues, but they aren't nearly enough to drive me out of game modes that include them (and - presumably - eventually the entire game)...

I rather like Tone too, although I don't think I've played her against real people (I'm appallingly bad with most cruisers)*; playing her and the other hybrids was useful in giving me a basic 'how to' toolkit for Halford. Definitely agree on the latter - the average farty has been only able to get hold of her for a day or two...! *Edit: I appear to have three battles against real people with Tone...

This, on the basis of my lone experimental battle in Coop so far; mind you, it was pretty much what I was expecting. I'll probably give her more of a proper run-out the next time we get a T9 PvP mode that doesn't have submarines in it. Ultimately, it'll all come down to how effectively one can leverage the advantages of the planes (presumably, mostly spotting), and whether those advantages outweigh what you're giving up to get them (a gun barrel, some stealth - although 6.1 km isn't completely awful - and a torp launcher, although your torps go faster and further than the usual Feltcher ones. My suspicion, so far, is that she'll be worthwhile for modes where you can rely on your team to shoot at what you spot (so, Clans, especially), but mediocre in everything else. I do need to play mine more though... (Minor edit because I didn't notice that my Halford had a captain with boosted torps on her.)

Hopefully, it'll reduce the chances of getting one of the things in a Satan Box... (Hornet can be vaguely fun in occasional Coop battles, for missions etc. when one doesn't have much choice.)

Personally: Wait until Christmas. Open some Satan Boxes. Get WV '44 (another bleedin' Standard BB!) when she falls out of one, rather than something I actually want...

Because I'm not a cat-shaving sociopath?

Something outrageous, no doubt. IMO, she's good, but not *that* good, especially now that we have submarines in the game ruining the fun. I get the feeling that WOWS may be starting to enter its final phase ("to hell with quality gameplay and balance; set phasers to 'maximum milking'!"), and - as such - the argument for bigger spends is getting weaker and weaker. In that sort of context, I wouldn't spend anything resembling real money on Somers, but get Gearing with LU instead - the experience (for an average player, anyway) is similar...

Thanks for the information. Oh well, the mode was fun while it lasted...

I'm an undecided FWIW: I haven't been putting in a large volume of games where it would be relevant recently, so I don't really have enough data about any overall changes to player behaviour. I do find it quite handy myself (especially when doing things that want the same ship, or captain, in quick succession). So, I like it for my own purposes, but then I wouldn't (I hope) be Pralines & Richard with it in any game with other human players. That said, it's too soon for me to be able to tell if lots of folk *are* being Pralines & Richard who couldn't before (at least not in this way).

FWIW I view it as 100% essential on pretty much all my DDs. The only argument in favour of ditching it that I've heard that (kind-of) made sense was a very good player - don't recall who - saying that it was unneeded on very stealthy torp boats, where you might play to never get detected. Personally, I tend to *always* get detected (what with CVs, radars etc.), and am not a good player, so I always want the extra hp...

Despite being a DD main, I never found CVs nearly as irritating as submarines (at least once we got past the first couple of patches after the reework); it took the arrival of the latter to drive me away from Randoms...

For me, it's a potentially useful source of ship XP, for missions, now that Randoms is infested with the nautical equivalent of the clap... (There's fewer of them in Ranked, at least for the moment...)

Two possibilities: 1) Trolling. Over to you, mods... 2) Not trolling. In which case, go and read more or less any thread on the subject (of submarines particularly); you'll soon have your answer.

Indubitably. The lack of ASW is clearly a historically accurate representation of the absinthe-fuelled fever dream that produced the in-game Okhotnik...

Only if WG mucked up the changes they said were coming (nerfing the rewards). Rewards per container, of course.