Verblonde

Surely, a gentleman doesn't shoot Mogador, but rather has his butler do it for him...?

My pleasure! Keep asking questions on here whenever you encounter something puzzling; there're usually plenty of people about who are happy to help. BTW have you found the various optional 'range' circles on your mini-map (hold down ctrl, and click the cogwheels next to the mini-map, if you haven't)? I find at least some of them very helpful for almost all ships, but for things with useful secondaries - like Tirpitz - they're especially helpful. Also, if you haven't found him yet, iChase's Captain's Academy series is pretty decent when first starting out: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoRQa0D7yVpc05KETkgPsyZHIRZd980cO Just watch out for anything pre-reework, as the info on CVs/AA will have changed since then.

This. With a single move, WG made the mode fun for me; that same move though removes any meaning to making any given rank (especially if you own Tirp or similar). I still maintain that this might be the way forward for regular ranked, but with the key rewards/kudos being awarded for speed to ranks, rather than simply reaching the ranks regardless of speed.

+1 for stickies, despite most of them not being interest to me much of the time.

I suppose the combination of (German?) hydro and smoke that you can use at full-tilt, plus SAP is fairly unusual, if you like that kind of thing...? Having given mine a few run-outs, I think I'm never going to use it against real people, but it's vaguely fun in coop.

FWIW I avoided RTS CVs in randoms, as I was too much of a liability to my team, but enjoyed playing them now and again in PvE. Since the reework, I play them marginally more against real people, but only marginally as the skill gap is still there IMO - I'm much less of a liability in other classes. I play the new CVs a lot more in Ops/Randoms though, as I prefer the new CVs, but only because they're prettier. In terms of impact on other ships played, I avoided the IJN torp DDs early on, and focused on things with good AA; I'm now closer to a more 'normal' ship selection now that CV numbers have died back a bit. I'm also slowly moving back towards non- or reduced-AA builds (see El2azar's thread for why)...

That's not a bad discount for Tirpitz, IMO. FWIW this is how I have mine fitted out (this is actually Kinky Tirpitz, but my vanilla one is the same): This is a fairly typical 'manly' build, which is probably sub-optimal; for optimal, slot 1 probably wants to be Main Armaments Mod 1, and slot 3 probably should be Aiming Systems Mod 1 - do any of the competent Tirpitz players hereabouts disagree? (I run manly, over optimal, because I find it more fun; you're generally less likely to win playing manly - even less likely in my case)

Small general tip, and relevant to the current discussion: try and avoid buying premiums at full price - they're horribly expensive. If you don't *need* any given premium (and it isn't time limited), it's often wise to wait for the next cheapness/voucher...

Forgive a contradiction, but you're in for a *really* nasty surprise later: example - a fully tooled up Bayern is less than 10 million silver (stock ship is less than 3.5); Currywurst is north of 20, and that's before you add a single upgrade (full suite of upgrades - if you don't use coal ones - 6.875 million)...! BTW if you haven't found it yet, the wiki is a very helpful source of information: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/World_of_Warships Incidentally, silver earning is another reason to join a clan - assuming you join one with a developed base, you'll earn bonuses on things like silver and xp

This mediocre player has been using a mixture, as my results vary wildly with class, and also with what other missions I've got going on. For example, I usually do less badly against real people in DDs, so that class gets used in randoms (better overall rewards); if I have a 'main gun hits' or 'kills' mission also going on, I'll switch to Coop (antisocial hours, if possible - fewer human players about), and perhaps cruisers or BBs. 'Secondaries hits' missions call for either MA or one of the mid-high tier KM BBs, and so on. I've been making use of operations too, where they're allowed, and when I don't have a concurrent mission that isn't allowed. Essentially, I've been playing the combinations or ships/modes that result in the maximum completion rate across all live directives, the exact detail of which will vary with the ships you have, and the stage you're at. FWIW I completed the third set a day or so ago, and am now plodding through the fourth, although not as keenly, as Gorizia was my main goal, with any other freebies a bonus... Edit: Ranking out in Tirpitzes killed off the German 'base xp' mission in the fourth set in short order, but that approach depends heavily on which ships you have, and can win consistently in.

Just finished - 56 battles, all of them in Tirpitz/Kinky Tirpitz, and it was a lot more fun than I expected (especially as a DD main). Didn't see a single CV, to my surprise, and the vast majority of people were (as @rvfharrier says) actively friendly. Objectively, there was plenty wrong with the current edition, most notably the massive advantage certain ships had over others in the 1v1 format (there's a reason I played entirely Tirpitzes - I'm a bad person); even so, I'd be very happy to see exactly the same thing again as the pluses (IMO) more than outweigh the negatives.

It's Honorable [sic] Service - the second permanent one (you also get an 11 point captain too). For anyone who hasn't done campaigns before, the key thing to not forget is that you can repeat missions, to earn extra stars. Wiki entry: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Shinonome BTW if it's available, the optional 'National' permaflage is quite worthwhile: it gives you the usual bonuses, plus +35% credits and +100% xp (versus just +50% xp for the standard one), although you do (did?) have to pay for it.

Okay, first thing: at time of writing, you have 71 battles; as well as being very few, I'm not even sure you'll have unlocked all aspects of the game yet (captains, upgrades, signals etc.) - if you try and go out in a T8 at the moment, you will almost certainly get your donkey handed to you (not to mention really annoying your team-mates, especially if you're in PvP). You will also not have enough (any?) good captains yet, which make a significant difference, and most of your opponents will have at least 10 pointers (read up on captains in the wiki, if you have no idea what I'm on about). Right, having got that out of the way: MA: probably the most glorious secondaries in the game at the moment; most fun calls for a full manly build (or at least semi-manly). Will work with a captain from the regular line, but most people go for a specialist for maximum fun (so making whichever main line you intend to grind irrelevant). AL: perfectly good US BB; plays pretty much like the main line does, and uses the same captain build; works perfectly fine, but is often forgotten about because it's an older ship in game terms. Not wildly exciting, but perfectly satisfactory. Not the worst choice for demonstrating 'standard' BB play (although you should be learning that stuff at much lower tiers). Tirpitz: a monster in the current Ranked sprint, and (along with other KM BBs) recently got a slight accuracy buff. Very much better at mid-close range, so provides lots of opportunities to get horribly sunk due to over-extending, and other inexperienced play. Can lull opponents into a false sense of security due to lots of inexperienced players buying the thing (it *is* Tirpitz after all) and going full potato. One of my favourite BBs, although mine tends to live in non-PvP modes (apart from the current sprint), and the Germans aren't 'typical' BBs. Hard to citadel, due to 'turtleback' armour. Scharnhorst: your least bad choice right now, given your low battle count, and pretty decent longer term; kind of like a mini-Tirpitz, only with smaller/more numerous guns. Again, works better closer in (see previous remarks about scope for messing up). The key plus of Scharnhorst is that she's excellent for the Narai Op, which provides great practice for how to utilise her (albeit against bots), as well as good income/captain training. As is traditional though, I imagine you're going to ignore everyone telling you not to buy a high tier premium yet (most of us did it too - mine was the IS6 in WOT - it seems it's a circle of life thing) and go and do it anyway. If I guess correctly, please do some/all of the following: Join a clan, preferably one that will teach, and uses voice comms (TS or Discord seem most common); in a division with someone providing guidance, you'll be less of a liability and probably get exploded somewhat less often. Don't play the thing against real people until you've unlocked all aspects of the game, and applied suitable upgrades to whatever ship you get, and got *at least* a ten point captain (possible exception being Scharn in Narai). Coop mode is your friend in the meantime. Watch as many current 'how to' videos as possible (current, as lots has changed over the last year or so). Don't stick entirely to BBs when learning; play all the classes - that way you'll learn their strengths/weaknesses and the sorts of things they're trying to do to you, which will make you a better player in whatever your 'main' class turns out to be.

Ah - that makes sense.

Nah - have all the 'doubloons' premiums already (I think)... Yay, gambling boxes (?!).

Wouldn't a bot lose rather a lot of silver in Coop, quite apart from the xp differences? I have zero idea how bots work though, so I'm just speculating.

Question 2: should the upper bound for the points earned not be 50K (which is where I think I am). My feeling is that it's worth doing on lines where there is a live bonus, but not otherwise; I've done the IJN torp DD line twice now - it was fun to come back to, as I wasn't playing them much otherwise, plus they now almost all have improved captains which makes playing them more comfortable/fun. The 'no bonus' points return isn't enough to make me grind though - I can live with three regrinds to get one T10 ship, but more than that doesn't do it for me (and I'm not short of time, at the moment).

I tend to go for premiums, partly because of the improved economy, and partly because I tend to have better captains available (unless a silver ship is so much fun that I've kept a decent captain on it, e.g. GM). Tier V: any of the Kami sisters, annoyingly if you don't have one - only available through gambling crates at the moment. There are several 'honourable mentions' elsewhere, but 'best' means Kamikaze. Tier VI: T-61 (smoke/hydro, and acceptable-to-good at everything), with an honourable mention to Shinonome, which has the main merit of being free (via the campaign) as well as being pretty decent. Tier VII: things start to get interesting here; my personal favourite is Haida (excellent concealment, creeping smoke, defensive hydro with ludicrous run time, plus good dakka), although Z-39 runs it a close second (smoke/hydro, concealment mod availability, although main guns too big for BFT). Tier VIII: I still like Loyang a lot, although Kidd is a giggle if you have competent team-mates and/or hate CVs. Cossack is also excellent, although I marginally prefer Haida, tier-for-tier; Harekaze is also a 'must have' for DD fiends, although its availability is very occasional. Bear in mind though that, as I'm sure you know, 'best' will depend a lot on which ones gel most effectively with your preferred play-style...

Excellent form! :D

Welcome! There are a few 'standard issue' suggestions for newer players (I'm assuming you're not so new that you haven't unlocked all aspects of the game - is that correct?): Don't worry too much about rushing up the tiers too fast; whilst T5+ ships are useful for missions, take your time going for higher tiers, to allow your skills (and - more importantly perhaps - your captains) to keep pace. Check out iChase's Captains Academy series on YouTube (but beware older films - they may be out of date, especially vis-a-vis CVs/AA): Join a clan, ideally one with friendly folk who are willing to help/teach you; voice comms are often very helpful (although not necessarily essential). Besides the teaching aspect, you'll get some useful economic bonuses too, assuming the clan's base is reasonably developed (BTW clans aren't forever - you can always leave again if you find the initial one a poor fit). Mainly playing WOT gives you some advantages (instinctive understanding of vision mechanics, and their importance, for one), but be mindful that WOWS is a very different game, and requires a different approach. The wiki is a useful source of semi-accurate information (equivalent to the WOT one, which I imagine you know): https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/World_of_Warships If you used to play in Closed Beta, quite a lot has changed since then, particularly CVs - watch out for this sort of thing if you still have the gaming equivalent of body memory from back then. Specifically for right now: don't worry about the PR grind; it simply isn't worth the time/expense for most people. Keep asking questions on here: people are usually happy to help (provided you avoid the "the game is broken and needs changing because of x thing that I failed miserably to understand" approach).

I *think* it gives you four containers - at least, I have four containers now that I didn't have last night... Many thanks for the heads-up! Edit: I got 3 x Basic Santa crates, and 1 x Shipbuilding crate.

Happy New Year, everyone!

As previously alluded to: whatever you can consistently do the most damage with. Damage (especially proportional damage) = rewards.

It depends a bit on why you're playing Coop e.g. I've been doing quite a lot recently to get the 4,500 secondary hits mission done, so for that aim, things like MA/Tirpitz are spot on (or PEF at the tiers you're talking about). If you define results purely in terms of silver income (or reduced loss at higher tiers), and xp gain, then you want something that you can reliably do plenty of damage in, and has low running costs; it helps if it's fast too, so you can close with the enemy as fast as possible - with other humans on your team, there is usually a rush to blow up the foe. If you're after PvE, @22cm's point about Operations is well made - the results are usually better, although different ships tend to be optimal (often bigger things, and with a heal). Really though, I would suggest using Coop as a tool for things like missions with conditions that are easier in that mode, and grinding modules on stock ships (where you don't have free xp available); although there are people who entirely specialise in PvE, you'll probably acquire a wider skill-set playing against people as well...

My initial reaction when I got mine (crate) could be broadly summarised as: "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" Whilst I have lots better ships to play, the addition of a TA captain makes the torps altogether more tolerable though...