Verblonde

Speaking of the new PA premiums, they look rather underwhelming (based on a very quick Google) - does anyone know any different?

Depends a bit, IMO, on how good a player you are and in what: If you're focused on mainly the boosted skills, he's probably of most value as a BB captain (mine is currently on my T8, but will eventually go to Yamato when I get round to it), as most of them are most suited for BB use. That said, at least some high point builds can/will use these skills to some degree (PM is useful on almost anything, if you have a point kicking around, and some people do take EM for IJN ships that aren't BBs)... If you're good enough to regularly make use of the talents, then he can usefully go on almost anything, although the skills still tend to suggest a BB.

In my capacity as whale and idiot, I say the more Tribals in the game the merrier...

it wouldn't be the first charity thing in the game (the veterans flag springs to mind), and the more variety in game the better - although for speed (and low setup costs), this would probably want to be largely copy/paste. I'd probably buy one...

And right there is absolutely the right attitude!

I don't believe there have been any changes to Smol (I don't use mine much, so I might not notice though). You mention in your post that you were angled a lot of the time? Others may correct me, but (apart from the citadel) isn't Smol sometimes easier to sink when angled - for big guns anyway - because a clean broadside often results in lots of overpens?

To be fair to the OP, he hasn't got that many battles under his belt, and is currently at T6, which is the point where you start meeting a lot of serious opposition - compared to lower tiers anyway (occasional seal-clubbers excepted). Also, that's the tier where hydro and radar first become prevalent (although you should meet it periodically at T5 too), so a player goes from feeling like they have a handle on the game to suddenly(ish) encountering things that throw much of what they think they know into disarray. The low tiers of the game can be dealt with handily with standard fast gamer reactions, and a decent aim, even if you don't have much low cunning yet and/or the ability to track lots of people and project their likely future moves. In the specific case that this thread involves, smoke camping in a DD works (kind of) because many players you face don't know how to deal with it. Mid to high tiers get harder, and require players to learn new stuff; this can come as a shock to people as they have to deal with extra layers of complexity and can't just do the same old things that worked fine at lower tiers. There is nothing much wrong with hydro as it is (it was even made easier recently with the 'standardisation' of ranges, so you don't even have to remember a lot of different numbers now), but you do need to layer some new skills/tactics on top of those you've already acquired. If a player can't master hydro, they're in real trouble against radar...

Nah - we've already got RL for that (which is going to give the OP conniptions when he encounters that for the first time)...

They add variety; reduce variety too much and it risks tedium. Far fewer people would play a game that involved, say, only BBs lobbing shells at each other from miles away. If you're relying on hydro to spot (or getting killed regularly by it), it's a LTP issue, plain and simple - see other comments for notes on how. Radar is harder to evade (lots of DD players hate it), but not impossible - again, it's about acquiring the necessary skills. Use it properly, and with some thought towards the meta: If you sit in smoke, you are not moving, and not spotting; this makes you largely useless if someone else isn't spotting for you, and wildly vulnerable to torps into your smoke. As a DD you are hard to spot, your allies mostly aren't; your smoke is often not about hiding yourself, it's about hiding your allies - put a screen between the enemy and your allies, and you can carry on spotting while they keep shooting (or repair if they're damaged). The other useful thing you can do with smoke is break visual contact; this is especially pertinent with RN DDs (lots of charges, short duration). At lower tiers, you can sometimes get away with smoke camping in a DD, but as you advance up the tiers the game gets more complex/interesting and smoke camping is extremely ill-advised.

In addition to what @affie said: If you look at the various consumables, you'll note that the only differences between standard and premium consumables are that the premium ones get an extra charge, compared to the basic version, and the premiums cool down faster; in my view, the latter is the crucial aspect. What the coal upgrades mostly do is extend the action time of their relevant consumable (and reduce the smoke dispersion time in the case of the smoke one), and as such are commonly - but not exclusively - used to extend the duration of an already high performance consumable. Slot 2 upgrades are usually a straightforward decision (as the current existing Slot 2 upgrades are not generally indispensable), although other slot choices may be a bit harder. Which ships are most worthwhile for the addition of a (valuable) coal upgrade, and which of those upgrades are worthwhile to start with, will vary by player, play style, and how much coal you have. Some areas to think about: Premiums can be good candidates, to help wring every last bit of performance out of the things e.g. I have both smoke and hydro on Haida, radar on Alaskas, speed on Terrible, and so on. Regular ships you play a lot, or especially enjoy, are worthwhile recipients too e.g. speed boost on Groz, radar boost on several cruisers, and even PA DDs. Think about return on your coal investment, especially if you aren't using a voucher - at full price they're 17K coal, which isn't trivial - pick your spots. Think about how you play the ship in question: say you usually use DefAA on a cruiser, putting the hydro upgrade on it wouldn't generally be the best use of that upgrade.

This. With one or two notable exceptions, any DD sitting in smoke deserves to get bagged by something...

For a start, it's a nice nod towards history (asdic and all that sort of stuff e.g. the sonar 'dome' from the real Haida is upside down on the quay beside her). In the game, hydro isn't that hard to deal with for DDs - with practice, and a bit of learning. It also helps to play a few hydro ships to understand what they can and can't do (the aforementioned Haida's hydro is a very different proposition that found on, say, Hipper); if you dig DDs already, give the KM DDs a lash - their combination of smoke and hydro can make them very formidable (that's part of the reason why the premium T-61 is so good). I'd suggest trying to remember the rough hydro ranges of the things you're facing (very short for RN 'defensive' hydro, medium for most cruisers, and longer for KM cruisers etc.), and avoid going into those ranges without prior thought as much as possible. Also be mindful of some of the more notable exceptions to the standard 'rules' e.g. Loyang gets 5.5 km hydro! To be honest, if you haven't misplayed (or your opponent hasn't done something cunning), direct detection by hydro shouldn't happen that frequently; radar is by far the greater threat (not to mention planes). The main thing you have to play around vis-a-vis hydro is that it warns your opponents about torps that you fire, requiring you to apply a bit more cunning to get hits.

A muppet's perspective, for what it's worth: Alaska does what you would expect of it, and rather well too (as you know) - I too mainly have experience of facing them in DDs, and they can be a bugger! Mine live in Coop thus far, as I lack the cruiser skills to not be a liability to my team, but there isn't much in the way of weirdness/unknowns etc. My feeling is that Alaska is a safe use of one's fxp, as you'll get pretty much what you expect from a radar equipped 'super cruiser'. Friesland is an odd fish, in that it famously lacks torps. I'm still getting used to mine, as it requires you to apply a different approach to most (all?) other DDs - it's almost like a dinky gun light cruiser. The bit that I have most trouble getting used to is the complete lack of alpha, and the more circumspect play that tends to call for. On the up-side, the smoke/hydro combination is splendid, the AA is glorious (for a DD), and the dakka can really make other DDs regret their life choices. Mine has yet to venture out into Randoms though, so this is very much early impressions. I would say this is the riskier use for your fxp, but has the potential to be closer to a unique playing experience than Alaska. I doubt you'd regret getting either though.

I have the T6, and it's excellent for Ops; the shorter range on the main guns (14 km) might be troublesome for some against real people - I haven't tried mine in Randoms yet. I did put a coal hydro mod on the one I have (I expect to play it in Ops a lot), which gives a run time of two minutes, which is quite helpful too.

This. Target separation is very important; if I'm CVing (because I'm a kinky piece of trash), I always am mindful of the impact my torps will have on a target's heading. The same is true for DDs as well, although you can't do anything about torps from friendly bots of course. My kung fu is, alas, insufficiently strong for this, but better CV drivers can probably persuade enemies to give broadside to their team - turning this torp reaction behaviour into a positive.

Unless WG become uncharacteristically open, I suspect we'll never know definitively; it's going to come down to measurable differences between the income from PR and any impact from reputational damage. I'm seeing a lot of PRs about in battles with my T10 DDs - I would *guess* the average number may be around 1, if not higher (whilst some games are PR-free, I'm seeing a lot with 2-4, spread across both sides, but that might just be early enthusiasm), which suggest that the income from PR hasn't been insignificant. Of course, we don't know what the event cost to put on - dev time on the port won't have been small. Equally, out of academic (and 'know your enemy') interest, I've been looking at some reviews of PR and anger at the means of acquisition is a pretty consistent theme and 'the internet is forever'; so, reputational damage has been done, and will continue to be done (in a 'background radiation' sort of way) as long as people are interested in this ship when they run into one. We also don't know how annoyed (if at all) people are who are self-aware enough to know that they fell for 'sunk cost' and if that will have any measurable impact on future spend. If I were a betting chap, I might wager a packet of Doritos (dark green flavour, for preference) that WG won't really care about the reputational damage, and we're going to get more events like this because they are probably an effective way to make money...

I realised this fairly quickly, with my initial reaction thinking it was either a bug or/and something left over from the reework. It's a magnificent opportunity for me to practise torp/rocket attacks on easy targets (and, recently, to asses the difference that TA makes on a CV captain), which is always good for someone who is a numpty with CVs...

Excellent post, sir! I'm getting the impression quite a few people are following your advice too - I've seen several Aigles doing what you advise and doing rather well out of it.

I think I may have been slightly inaccurate earlier: I just checked my T10s in game, and the event ones (e.g. Smol) are claimed to have "Reduced cost of the ship's post-battle service." - that implies that the coal ships at T10 do get the premium economy (I thought they didn't)...

It's not always that people are even bad in some ships; it can sometimes be a simple disconnect between what a ship can do/is good at, and what the player expects a ship like that to do. I rather like PEF as well, although mine tends to live in Ops as I'm not a BB meister; I suspect a lot of the issue with this ship for many is that the guns are not the text-book enormous BB monsters that they've come to expect. as mentioned earlier though, she's really rather splendid against cruisers and similarly squishy targets. From this potato's perspective, she's rather fun, although I would probably pick something else if I wanted to face real people, as it can be tricky to deal with BBs (especially same-higher tiers) with the smaller main guns...

Now *there's* a ship name that deserves the Black Friday 'gimp' treatment...!

It depends a bit on whether you are entirely f2p, or spend a bit of cash here and there. Assuming pure f2p (and typical player skill levels), think along the following lines: Play ships and tiers that you can consistently do well in, especially in terms of damage. Relative damage is rewarded more than absolute damage though, so you'll get more for doing 10K hp damage to a DD than you will for doing identical damage to a BB, say. Damage is the key reward driver. Speaking of tier, be mindful that T8, and *definitely* T9-10 are expensive - view these as 'cost sinks'; use your play in other tiers to fund them, as a general policy (T8 can be profitable with the right ships/camo/skills). Premium time and flags make a lot of difference; if you're f2p save these as much as possible for times when you can play a lot and games where you have the best chance of doing well, respectively. T10s with permaflage make a lot of silver, if you're semi-competent with them - they can be an exception to the rule about high tiers being expensive. If f2p, take every opportunity to get free permaflage (this applies to all tiers, but *especially* high tiers), and save up coal to get the 'premium' ones (premium in inverted commas as they aren't 'true' premiums - see next point). Premium ships make a lot more silver than regular ones do; take every opportunity to get any free ones that you can. There are a number of routes: missions (the horrible Gorizia grind over Xmas), campaigns (Shinonome), free loot boxes and SCs (usually low chance of a ship); the most predictable and consistent is via coal in the armory [sic], or free xp. The best silver earners are usually the T9 premiums, followed by the T10s with permaflage. The T9s are true premiums (so, unlikely to be nerfed and better economy), whereas the T10s are technically 'event ships', so can in theory be nerfed and the economy is (supposedly) about the same as a normal T10 with permaflage (but, you can do stuff with a T10 that you can't with a T9). Look out for higher tier 'event' modes; these can often be better earners than the more usual counterparts - things like Clans, some Ranked, and things like the Halloween thing (amongst others) can be very good for your silver balance. Do missions that get you ships that you already have e.g. the Gorizia unlocked missions over Xmas (for various T6 silver ships) netted me several million in silver because I had them all in port already. As well as driving up your 'top line', keep an eye on costs e.g. only use premium consumables when you need to; avoid spending resources on cammo/flags if you don't have to, and so on (see the other thread for more on this topic). Don't sell ships and upgrades if you don't absolutely have to (doubly so at higher tier) - you only get half the silver back that the things cost. This wastes a *lot* of silver at high tiers, and isn't great at mid tier. Don't ever sell a premium ship (even poorer ones): the silver you'll get can be easily earned in a few battles with the exact same ship, and each ship acts as a 'blocker' that prevents you getting it again in future missions/crates etc. Basically, WOWS is free to play, but the more money you put in the faster you can progress; the economy is a key part of that mechanic and is very much designed to encourage as many people as possible to pay up. F2p is viable, but you have to play a lot smarter than a whale might, to keep your silver balance healthy.

I believe so; this is deliberate, to encourage people to buy permaflage for their T10s (and/or get the various 'premium' T10s available for coal/steel). FWIW permaflage turns my incompetently-driven T10 DDs into some of my best silver generators (doubly so with suitable economic signals on too)...

BTW when thinking about the threat a DD poses to your BB with torps, don't get *too* hung up on range. Although torps always have a maximum range, it isn't necessarily the same as their effective range, and effective range won't necessarily be the same for torps with the same maximum range. Some illustrations of what I mean: DWT are (currently) hard to spot, so against a typical broadside BB target, you can fire reasonably close to maximum range (maybe 1 km within) with a tolerable probability of a hit, mainly due to the BB not having a huge amount of reaction time. Closer is usually better, even so. Someone at WG *really* hates the IJN, so most of their torps can be spotted from the moon; torps fired at close to maximum range are usually fairly easy to evade - you need to be a lot closer than maximum range to get reliable hits (I usually try and fire 12 km torps from around 7-9 km, the closer the better); thank goodness for sneakiness! Black (steel premium) has very long ranged fish, but they are - I think - the slowest in the game (Italian torps - so far - are similar); expecting a lot of hits outside point-blank range is delusional (or you have god-tier predictive skills). So, your BB 'safe' distance is a lot closer to a Black, but be mindful of area denial - this is where you lob slow torps into an area that you think the enemy may move into (or want to move into) to stop him, or damage him in the process. The number of torps matter too - you can usually get away with being a lot closer to something with a launcher that fires a pair of torps than you can to something with six fish per launcher, even if the range is the same. Broadly speaking, the faster torps are, and the shorter the spotting distance, the further away you can viably shoot from; also, the closer they are fired from, the better, to get hits. Finally, how you play yourself impacts effective torp range: if you sail predictably and/or in a straight line at a constant speed, the enemy torp boat's effective range against you increases; if you apply WASD hacks, even when not being fired at, you make the torp boat's job infinitely harder (most dodged torps are avoided before the target ship even acquires them), so decreasing effective range...

If you aren't running premium account, this isn't uncommon at higher tiers; with my standard loadout of premium DCP only, and everything else standard, I often lose silver at T9 (I'm running premium, so my tipping point is slightly higher). This is deliberate game design by WG: the fixes include buy premium account, buy premium ships to fund your higher tier silver ships, buy permaflage for T9+ ships (*especially* T10), and other methods that generally involve opening your wallet and saying 'help yourself'. Happily, all is not lost (unless you're a Coop main): use Coop to get the hang of the basics of your high tier silver ships, and then move to Randoms when comfortable, as it's a lot easier to make a profit against real people. If you need a bot fix, play Ops - the rewards are a lot greater, at the cost of a reduced roster of ships to choose from. The high tier economy is another reason to develop one's skills/captains etc. at lower tiers first - if you want to make silver, you really need to be able to vaguely hold your own at the tiers in question (or spend money).