Verblonde

Mockers Gods: <diabolical laughter> (I'd actually not mind that myself - I keep running out, due to an inordinate fondness for DDs)

Awesome - I see some more ramming flags in my future though...!

I probably count as a 'casual' PvE player, in that I play such modes when I want to relax, or they're the easy way to knock off a mission of some sort, or when (for whatever reason) I can't give the game enough attention to not be a liability to my team in a 'proper' mode. As such, the loss of Ops wouldn't make me stop playing entirely (at least until subs turn up - let's see if/how much they ruin the game), but it would reduce the amount I played, as I would find my 'relaxing' gaming requirement needs elsewhere.

Isn't it a little early to be *that* drunk...? I'm jealous. Being sensible: whilst I don't believe that MrConway's pants are on fire (he can only work with the information he's given), I currently trust WG and their pronouncements about as far as I could comfortably spit a rat - as I recall they said that the 'missing' Ops would be back; what did we get - tumbleweed.

From the Dev Blog on Facebook: ST, upgrade changes. Torpedo Lookout System (slot #5): - Removed the bonus that gave +5% to the ship's torpedo protection. Damage Control System Modification 1 (slot #2): - Removed the bonus that gave +2% to the ship's torpedo protection. We decided to remove bonuses to ship torpedo protection, as it could lead to excessive efficiency of these upgrades. Please note that the information in the Development Blog is preliminary and subject to change.

Another minor difference: the 'true' premiums are highly resistant to being nerfed (except by 'global' nerfs e.g. Atlanta got its AA ruined as part of the reework); although WG haven't absolutely ruled it out, it would be politically extremely difficult. The 'special' ships, WG has always made clear, are liable to nerfing as part of standard balancing. As far as I recall, neither type has been nerfed in practice, but it's worth being aware that 'specials' *could* be, when weighing up relative desirability of ships. It's perhaps also worth noting that Smol is being removed from 'sale' rather than being nerfed; even though - in theory - they can be nerfed, the high tier 'specials' are so difficult to acquire, there would probably be an epic stink raised if direct nerfing did happen.

I thank my lucky stars that the T10s I have so far either don't have LUs, or the ones they do have are meh at best - reduces the need to grind. As I mentioned in another thread, I could theoretically have got Moskva before close on Wed, and I gather that LU is vaguely worthwhile, but the grind would have been absurd (I've just about unlocked the T9, but need far too much silver to be able to make the T10), so I escape that one too.

If you don't mind sacrificing your dignity, that's relatively straightforward in Coop (you can do it in Ops too, can't you?): For potential, grap your manliest BB and drive it into the middle of the bots and get shot at a lot (dodging torps ramps the total up quickly too); hopefully, you'll get plenty of bounces. I'm embarrassed to admit I only realised that actual hits - provided they bounce - count too; I suppose this is what you get for mainly playing DDs. For caps, cap when you can, but the easiest way is get something with plenty of dakka (Smol, IJN dakka DDs etc.) and lurk around caps, waiting for the enemy to try and take them - that's one or two games if you get lucky (more, realistically, as you may get one of the modes with the long duration caps - whatever they're called). 25 sunk will happen in a dozen or so games; it helps to play in the wee hours though, when most of the ships in Coop on your side are bots. I suspect you know all this, but it might be useful to someone...

It's possible WG might have got another purchase of at least one more of the "my eyes, my eyes!" ARP ships, but that's most certainly a 'Nah' if I can't use it in Ops any more.

Early access to Ikea DDs in 9.2, amongst other things (full article in spoiler): https://medium.com/@devblogwows/st-european-event-arc-changes-to-gryf-and-other-improvements-d5b01169413e

It makes lots of sense: WG seem to hate Ops, and would like to ditch them; by removing the (arguably) most popular, they force us to play the rest - Newport especially - and will generate lots of ill-will towards the mode, in turn justifying their eventual removal entirely. I would wager at least a medium packet of crisps that Narai will never come back - "Oops, sorry, we couldn't fix it (honest), so we're removing it entirely"...!

More on IFHE changes etc.: https://medium.com/@devblogwows/changes-to-ifhe-and-plating-3378e52ea772 (full thing in spoiler)

+1 for the original suggestion. The only problem I can see is where 'special' cruiser drivers might not be able to tell that the sign didn't refer to them, and would then not go and sort out the CV/transports even more so than usual! For Narai (which I usually play random), I've largely taken to just cycling through Scharn, Kinky Scharn, and Gneis (all semi-manly) on the basis that you're usually fast enough to chase the CV when your cruisers either won't or can't, as well as being almost okay to bag the transports (although you need more notice that your team-mates are being idiots and it does put you too far away to do much about MO); plus, they actually make a decent fist of - y'know - being BBs on the rare occasions where the rest of your team know what they're supposed to do...

No *need*, but it'll be an easy bit of extra coal next time we get snowflakes etc. - I'll keep my assorted Kongo clones, just for that; it's not like they're doing any harm just sat in my collection in the meantime. Thinking about it a bit more, they might be worth having for 'multiple daily first win' bonuses if we ever get another strong reason to play T5 e.g. wasn't one of the early sprints at T5 - if you happen to want to play something like that in Kongo, you might as well maximise your return.

One line (IJN torp DDs) several times - 3 or 4; I've lost count. I now have Colbert, and have zero intention of doing any more: Without 'double' bonuses etc. there is far too much grinding in relation to the rewards. Too much of a silver sink, unless you have an absolutely enormous surfeit. On the plus side, it does get slightly easier each time, as your captains get better, and you become (in my case) less bad at ships you may not have played a huge amount when originally playing the line.

What @MrWastee said. I have both Flint and Black, through steel (Flint recently - Xmas), and am sanguine about them becoming available for coal. I've had a good run at Black as a fairly exclusive ship, and will do with Flint, assuming the gap before they're switched to coal is accurate (i.e. WG's pants aren't on fire). It would be a bit churlish of me to object to a wider range of players getting what I've already had for quite a while...

Smol v JB - get Smol for coal; you can either buy JB or risk waiting for it to fall out of a gambling crate at Xmas. Moskva is either less pressing, or extraordinarily pressing, depending on your view of the LU. As others have mentioned, anyone who gets Moskva by close Wed (?) next week will get the 'old style' LU missions, after that it switches to RB only. If you hate/can't use the RB (unless they change the number of T10s requirement for resets), then you need Moskva pronto - heavy grinding or use free xp - otherwise, you've probably got at least two patches to get her and still get the premium version. I'm in a similar boat to you re: Moskva. I have Chapy (luckily, pretty close to the T9), I should get the T9 today/tomorrow; it's then a question of whether I can be bothered to grind the T10 (and necessary silver) by close on Wed.

Obviously wildly unscientific, but it *feels* like WG lowered the odds a bit for the RN CAs - I bought some 'money' crates on this account and got only the T6 (in equivalent previous events, that spend would have probably netted at least two ships), and got zero from opening however many freebie crates doing all the directives and almost all the daily missions got you. My alt account hasn't finished the last directive, and didn't spend any money - one freebie, the T5. I don't feel especially aggrieved about this, as a) it's small data-set and b) I lucked out enormously on the Lunar New Year crates (if you count getting all three ships as lucky), but it's a salutary lesson that you can easily get little or nothing from the gambling crates.

Probably because rerolls are often mocked on here. Unless someone is obviously trolling, I don't usually worry too much if they're a reroll or not - they may not need the input we can provide, but some of it may be useful to other real newbies who might come along, as similar stuff was for me when I first started out (and still is for stuff I'm not yet familiar with).

It's usually missions, or containers, if you want them free; some of the premium containers (for money, and usually involving at least some element of gambling) contain them too. Keep an eye out for missions that do award them - they can be worth prioritsing; also, keep your dragon flags until you have a specific objective and/or can maximise the return on them (so, don't use them in Coop, for example). Cruisers aren't hopeless, but they do have quite a high skill floor, especially as you start to face more serious opposition (I got my Chapy one-shotted from full health last night - bow on - by a Russian BB, when I messed up). The approach I took, for what it's worth, was to get marginally less bad in other classes, to get the hang of things like gunnery, hydro/radar, how/when to hide etc. before starting to take more of an interest in cruisers again. They are hard though, so there is every chance that a player of my standard will never be actually good in most (all?) of them. Some cruisers are more forgiving than others too, so it's sensible to start with them e.g. I have a soft spot for the IJN line as they have a nice balance between fairly straightforward guns (decent HE for angled opponents, and DDs) and torps with a decent reach; their armour isn't entirely hopeless, by cruiser standards, although you can still - obviously - get blapped easily by any fat lads in the vicinity. If you go that route, they have some nice premiums too, for captain training (the freebie T7 from the final ARP mission is pretty decent - get it if you can). BTW if you started off at T7, then it's not surprising you got blapped; as with all the other classes, it's best to learn the basics at lower tiers and move up from there, which adds the various different elements in sequence (e.g. at T7 you have guns, torps, CVs, hydro, and radar to cope with suddenly and all at once). <butler voice> Might I suggest sir considers light cruisers, especially many of the US ones - the volume of fire some of those can dispense is positively indecent; they do tend to be fragile though, so emphatically not easy mode.</butler voice> BTW a case can be made for getting ridiculous volumes of fire ships *after* learning to shoot straight: some ships chuck out so many shells in quick succession that it isn't always easy to see exactly where they're going, and correct your aim accordingly.

I paid money for mine, ages ago; from the point of view of this average to sub-average player, she's okay but not great. There are far worse options at the tier, but she absolutely needs a 10 point captain (I didn't have one early on and no CE makes her very hard work), ideally more, and - IMO obviously - she's been rather eclipsed by newer releases, especially Haida and Z-39. Also, bear in mind she's a hopeless trainer at the moment, although that may not always be the case, with the upcoming Ikea DD line (we don't know if the ideal captain build will overlap yet though). Overall, she's a fun gunboat with usable torps, but (as others have said), there are a bunch of new coal ships in the pipeline. My suggestion would be to keep saving your coal and, if you feel the urge for newness, knock off the ARP missions...

Oooo, I'd almost certainly fall for a dirty trick like that (and she's a real ship and everything)... Mind you, I'm just an idiot: this morning I was thinking that HMS Jaguar would be a splendid premium (basically, premium Jervis), if only because it could have a lairy 'nation' permaflage that would turn her into an aquatic version of Austin Powers' Shaguar. I really need more fresh air...

It's certainly not *all* whales/idiots - I haven't got it yet... Obviously, I'm mortally offended, and propose to thcream and thcream 'till I'm thick.

It's slightly surprising that the existing T5 cammos don't go on sale eventually - the dev time has already been paid for, and it's not like T5 permaflage is going to cause the game's economy to crash into a ditch - WG might as well get a little extra return on the things. I'd pay (a little) money for permaflage for quite a few of my T5 ships, but I could easily be a demented minority...

Aye, I found that one. Looks like @WolfGewehr has the answer...