Verblonde

Wash your mouth out, sir - that tank is glorious! (Admittedly, you need to load 90% premium ammo, and stick a high skill crew in it, but still)

The game has changed *a lot* even in the few years I've been playing; the most significant change was the CV reework about a year ago. I would suggest focusing on newer videos/articles for information about ships, and *really* new ones for CVs/AA as that seems to change almost every week...!

Supporting the DDs is one of the key jobs of a cruiser, but it can be very hard to do well; one's playstyle sometimes needs to change drastically when CVs are present as well. If you support your DDs, do so from further back than the DDs are (to avoid being the first thing that gets spotted) and try and keep hard cover - islands - between you and as many of the enemy big guns as possible (if a BB manages to hit your citadel, they may sink you with a single salvo). Unless you're in a 'fail platoon', a T4 cruiser should only ever see T4 CVs (with the reework, odd-tier CVs were removed from the game); that said, the 'OP' IJN T4 CV is a bit of a meme at the moment, and IJN ships tend to have poor AA, especially at lower tiers (premium Yubari being an entertaining exception). Bear in mind that almost all ships don't work terribly well as an 'army of one' - even in an AA monster, you should be aiming to stay vaguely in the vicinity of the rest of your team (or the group in your area). This doesn't mean being right on top of them, but rather being close enough that you can defend each other if the CV takes a serious interest in you. The problem (or not) with CVs varies greatly with player competence: if you encounter one of the CV meisters (there are a few on here), you're basically Doomed, pretty much regardless; however, the bulk of CV players are pretty hopeless, especially at lower tiers, and those players you can do something about. If you have a fighter consumable, make use of it; learn about AA sector reinforcement (and map it to a key or mouse button that you can easily get at). Also, you don't necessarily have to be massacring planes to be useful against a CV - if you can stay alive and keep the CV focused on you for as long as possible, he's not attacking your team-mates, leaving them freer to get on with their jobs; whilst it's not as satisfying as Dev Striking some hapless berk, it's still contributing to the win. Crucially though, if you want to fight back in a meaningful way against planes, most IJN ships at lower tiers are not the weapons of choice - US AA, for one, is a lot better.

I'm not a BB meister by any means, but I may be able to provide some general pointers. You're engaging from too far away, if you want to hit reliably and regularly fire at maximum range; IJN BB guns are fairly accurate, but only by the standards of BBs - the ludicrous power of their guns is usually balanced by woeful accuracy - proper BB players will be able to provide better advice, but non-brawling BBs tend to be better at medium range. I'm usually shot at by BBs, rather than shooting with them, but I have no fear of a 'sniping' BB at long range - he is simply not going to hit me with much. 165 battles, even in one block, is really not that many; when you consider the various upheavals to the game, you're basically effectively a newcomer. With that in mind, I would suggest playing as if you were an actual newbie i.e. play as many classes and nations as possible, up to T4 - this'll give you a handle on where the game is now, as opposed to when you first started, and allow you to asses which classes you actually get on with. By limiting yourself to T4, you'll have a more gentle reintroduction to the game, facing only +1 tier opposition at worst, and not have to worry about radar whilst you're knocking the rust off. In terms of actual lines to pick, none of the BBs are that accurate; if you want decent accuracy, then maybe some of the Russian 'railgun' lines might be worth a look (so cruisers, and dakka DDs)? In general, all smaller ships/guns tend to have better accuracy than BBs, but in some cases you have to deal with 'rainbow' fire arcs which can be harder to manage (US DDs and cruisers being notorious for this).

I rather like the ability to lob fire over islands in US DDs (which also differentiates them from several other nations' ships); also, what would you like to give up to get better gun arcs?

It's worth getting the hang of guns too (it took me a while to come round to that idea as well), if only to fight the opposing DDs. If you prefer to focus on torps, I'd suggest avoiding Leningrad, but you'll be missing out a lot on most DDs if you don't apply the dakka as well. CE captain = one with the 4 point skill Concealment Expert (which reduces the distance you can be spotted from by 10%) - it's pretty much essential on any DD where you don't spend most of the time with the gunfire button glued down. Dakka? (I think you can blame WH40K for the original term - it generally means rapid gunfire, and generally lots of it - things like Atlanta, Smol, and the IJN gun DDs epitomise dakka in WOWS)

Ah, we haven't had an entertaining Asashio row for a while. <opens opera glasses>

Ideally, play some similar silver KM DDs and gunboat Russians, and see which you prefer. Make a decision after that (unless there is a ludicrous short-term cheapness first). I personally prefer the Leningrad compared to the silver equivalent though - the former has far more useful range on its torps. It also depends a bit on what sort of play-style you dig; Leningrad isn't hugely sneaky (mine shows a surface detection distance of 6.6 km - CE captain and included cammo), but has plenty of dakka and is very fast; meanwhile, T-61 is a more 'typical' DD in terms of stealth - 6.1 km detection - and has the smoke/hydro thing. In terms of price, older premiums are often cheaper. It comes down to personal preference though - myself, I prefer at least competitive stealth in a DD, but your preferences may be different. For T6-T7 DDs, remember that you face things with 5.4 km best detection distance (Kagero and sisters etc.), although if there is a semi-competent CV present, that stealth advantage largely vanishes.

62, I think. Oh dear... Edit: I think WOWS numbers hasn't registered them all - how are people getting accurate counts quickly? Edit2: I just counted manually - 103!! Dear gods...

T5 do get +2 MM. T4 get +1.

In my view, the T-61 is one of the best all-round DDs in the game (tier for tier); the hydro/smoke combination is excellent (although better players are well versed in countering it - mainly thanks to Loyang at T8), the rest of the surface to surface armament is decent, and the AA is okay, by the standards of DDs. Leningrad is fun, but (IMO) less versatile.

Don't worry too much everyone: I'm about one-two weeks away from getting Smol - after that, the average server stats *will* plummet...

+1 to the previously expressed sentiment of not rushing; I would confine yourself to T4 maximum, at least initially and in PvP modes (so, mainly random at this stage). The initial aim is to learn the game, especially areas such as map awareness, being able to shoot, and how to make maximum use of the vision mechanics. T4 max as T5+ get +2 MM i.e. your T5 ship will often face T7 opposition. The other reason to play as widely as possible up to T4 is that it provides a good opportunity to get a sense of how the various classes play, and what sort of things you like, whilst doing so with ships that don't cost much in the way of silver and xp etc. This isn't such a ghastly proposition as it may seem: although you don't get your hands on some of the more iconic ships until higher tiers, there are a lot of ships in the low tiers that are an absolute hoot to play. The main reason to progress beyond T4 is that you start to be able to do missions (most are T5+ at least) with valuable rewards, although while you're transitioning to the scarier tiers, many missions can be done in Coop mode, which is much easier (although a lousy way to learn to play more 'serious' modes). My experience (YMMV) is that most classes up to and including T4 are fun, with only BBs being rather frustrating, due to often being horribly slow and wildly inaccurate. All that said, the usual form on these occasions is for someone to ask about premiums etc. and for them to be told about not rushing, exercising patience etc. Needless to say, this advice is usually pretty much entirely ignored. When you do ignore us, don't feel too bad, as most of us did the same thing ourselves...! Some things to think about though: Captains: besides MM getting harder from T5, you'll find that many of the opposition have good captains on their ships; this normally means at least 10 points (and with appropriate skills chosen). You'll suffer if you don't have tolerable captains too. Try and take the time to get 10 point captains (at least) for anything in the +2 MM bracket. If you go mad and buy a high tier premium prematurely, you can always use it in Coop - with a basic consumable set, you'll still make reasonable amounts of silver whilst learning how the thing handles. Try and wait for sales or other special offers - premiums are expensive, so try and buy reduced ones if possible. Also, focus on getting ships for coal (and free xp when you have enough spare) - they're essentially free. With premiums, to get the most out of them, it's helpful if you enjoy playing them. A lot. For example, something like Arizona is a bad idea if you really dig DDs, and so on. It's also useful if you can use at least the first few premiums you get as trainers for your regular silver ships' captains. For example, MA is a great premium, but it's largely worthless as a trainer, as it calls for a secondary build, which the regular US BBs don't; Haida is similarly splendid, but can't train any regular captains (because there aren't any silver Commonwealth ships yet), and so on. Slightly off-topic, but I would also suggest joining a clan (ideally one with people happy to teach) - if they have a reasonably built up clan base, you'll get some useful economic bonuses.

This is precisely what I thought on Thursday - I'm not knowledgeable enough in the ways of game design to define what exactly is wrong with Newport, but there definitely is something wrong with it, to the extent that I basically refuse to play it (unless there's an exceptionally good reason to the contrary). I think the other Ops are (to a greater or lesser extent) essentially in the right area, given the average player in the game - you generally win if a few people are vaguely together, and there aren't too many DDs chosen, but they're hard enough that it's not just 'turn up and get 4+ stars'. I find that Newport games, for whatever reason, go sideways so frequently that they simply aren't worth the time needed to do them.

Must be that time again: it's been a while since we had a quality bonkers thread from a newbie trying to explain why the game needs urgently changing because they haven't learned to play it properly yet...! OP: iChase's Captain's Academy series is a good starting point: https://www.youtube.com/user/ichasegaming I'd also suggest playing all the classes (74% of your battles so far are in CVs); this'll help you get better at avoiding whatever it is that the various other classes are trying to do to you, and improve your results.

I run permaflage on all my T10s so far - although it's expensive, it effectively turns them into premiums as far as earning is concerned (a couple of them are amongst my best earners). If one spends money on the game, there are far worse things to focus one's spend on. Signals vary, depending on my aims at a given moment: if I'm in a competitive mode, I'll take majority combat signals, topped off with a few economic ones. High xp ones aren't necessarily a waste though: I have 19 point captains on a couple of them, so extra xp signals etc. are always useful, as they boost my other captains (via elite xp). Better players (not me) can probably manage with fewer combat flags in randoms, and focus more on economic ones.

This is very pertinent. You can also occasionally use it to your advantage as a 'lure' to get the enemy to manouevre against the wrong position. I once won a Sprint match one-on-one (one survivor on both sides) in a T-61 by dropping a smoke screen and not hiding in it - the opposing ship motored in to attack the smokescreen, and got a spread of torps in the face from another direction for his trouble.

Bad person! @seXikanac The painful truth is that there aren't really any ships for sale that are so OP as to be an 'I win' button; much as I'll cheerfully kick WG whenever they mess up, they generally do a reasonably good job of not introducing blatantly P2W premium ships (they've made an occasional mis-step in this regard, but such ships generally get pulled from sale and used as bait to sell Xmas loot boxes). If you're losing more frequently than you'd like, buying premium ships won't help; that's not to say premium ships aren't a nice thing to have (for interest and economic reasons if nothing else), but that merely owning a premium ship won't help your WR on its own. Some practical steps to follow: Drop back a few tiers - perhaps to T4 - and practice until you're winning a bit more often (some people will say you should be aiming for at least 50% WR, but that's unrealistic for many). Make sure you have some decent captains (typically, a minimum of ten points, more for some ships) - there basically aren't any ships in the game so OP that they can stand against similar opposition without having a decent captain. Assuming you don't want to go mad and give WG all your money, when you do get a premium, try and ensure it's something you'll enjoy playing a lot (much more important than how powerful it is), that you can do well in (= greater rewards), and that works well as a trainer for your silver captains. e.g. T-61 is an excellent trainer for the smaller gun elements of the KM DD line, whilst Z-39 is better for those with big guns. Scharn works well as a trainer for T7+ KM BBs, and so on. So, to summarise: don't worry about OP; worry about getting better, getting better captains, and focus on stuff that works for you personally. Oh yeah - premiums are generally expensive; wait for a sale, and/or get 'freemiums' i.e. those you can get for free xp/coal.

This is one of the more helpful bits of advice to keep in mind, especially if you've recently been playing a lot of Clans or Ranked. In the smaller team formats, especially Clans where you can usually rely on everyone being on roughly the same page, you can usually rely on your team-mates to shoot at opposition DDs that you spot, enemy radars that will get you killed, and so on. In randoms (especially at the weekend?), a lot of players you'll see - on both sides - really don't know what they're doing. We've all seen the sniping Tirpitzes, people ignoring the important targets (stealthy DDs, radars etc.) whilst farming useless fire damage from BBs, etc. In practice, and rather frustratingly, this means that most DD drivers need to play a lot more conservatively than they might like if they want to maximise the chances of a win. This also (partly) explains my own dreadful WR - I have a tendency to play far too aggressively in randoms, having got used to having support in Clans and over-estimating the abilities of the typical random player!

Additional: as @ColonelPete alludes to, most evasion of torp attacks happens before you've even seen the incoming torps. This comes through a mixture of practice, and (especially) effective use of the information the game gives you. Some areas to contemplate: Mini-map: one of the most important sources of information you have e.g. if the enemy DD is on the other side of the map, you probably aren't about to get torped by him; if the enemy is in range, think about at least basic evasion (predict likely attack vectors) and where islands that may provide cover are; if the enemy is lost (i.e. no-one has him spotted), try and keep a mental note of where he is likely to be and plan evasion accordingly. Spotted warning: if that yellow exclamation mark goes off at the top of your screen, someone has you spotted; if you can't see them yourself, it's probably a DD stalking you - start trying to mess up his firing solution etc. WASD: obviously, when you spot incoming torps you'll try and dodge; in big lumbering ships, this can often be too late. If you think there is a possibility of incoming torps, change speed and direction, ideally in a non-predictable way; this will make good aiming of torps a lot harder - only the better players are good at predictive aiming, which is what is needed to hit targets that know about WASD. It's a good policy to apply WASD anyway, even when you aren't about to be torped, as it throws off people's gun aim too. Priority Target: if you have this captain skill, it can actually help pre-emptive dodging of torps. As you probably know, this skill tells you how many main batteries are aiming at your ship; its main purpose is to give information that allows you to make better decisions about when to bravely run away from a superior force etc. There is also an extra plus: when a DD is trying to engage you with torps, it will often 'acquire' you with guns selected and then switch to torps to fire the latter - if the number shown by PT drops by one (and sometimes then increases by one) and nothing else caused it, that's a good indicator that the DD fired torps. A word of warning though: moderate to good DD drivers know this as well and may well switch from guns to torps without firing their fish, to spoof you; some DD drivers will also run around with torps selected from the off, so they can fire without giving such a warning. To provide a bit of context: I'm a below average DD main, so I fire a lot of torps; I currently have about 3.4K random battles played and I'm showing a 7% torp hit rate - even allowing for speculative launches and general incompetence, that's a pretty low hit rate. So, don't worry - with a bit of practice you'll be messing my hit rate up in no time too.

Sort of - generally speaking, the capabilities of torps get even nastier as you go up the tiers i.e. faster, more damage, longer range. However, you also gain some or all of the following: better torp protection, faster ships, hydro. Most importantly, if you take your time going up the tiers (so resist the urge to buy Jean Bart or similar after only a dozen battles), you'll learn the necessary techniques/information required to massively mitigate torp attacks. This includes things like effective dodging, WASD hacks, unsporting behaviour such as not driving your BB in a straight line at a constant speed for minutes on end, predicting where attacks will come from before they even happen (yay, mini-map), blowing up DDs (the main culprits) before they even fire, the correct use of hydro, not parking broadside on in smoke, and so on. It also helps to know the capabilities of the ships (which comes with time, unless you obsessively memorise the wiki) you're facing e.g. you don't need to worry about a lot of Russians until you're within 4 km; T7-8 US DD torps have a range of 9.2 km, but are horribly slow; many IJN torps can be seen from the next galaxy, so lots of warning time. Also, if you find torps are giving you trouble, suggest playing some DDs yourself, and watch/learn from what others do to avoid your attacks. This is actually a good principle in most aspects of the game: play as many different ships as possible, even if all you're doing is learning how to counter them.

Many thanks!

As a matter of interest, how awful is the AA on this thing? Edit: I note the thing is several dollars more expensive than other T7 DDs (33.38 CAD versus 25.04-30.43) - besides it being new, does anyone know if there's a good reason for this?

BTW as per @Egoleter above - get an invite code when you start - it'll get you a bunch of useful rewards, and a premium ship or two (or did the last time I checked) which'll make your life easier. If you keep playing, your 'sponsor' will get tokens that can be spent on containers for them, or both of you too...

Even though you're experienced in WOT, I would suggest staying at T4 for a while, and play as many ships/nations as you can: Very early on, you haven't unlocked all the bells and whistles yet; make sure you've got access to captains, upgrades and camouflage before you venture into the +2 MM bracket (T5+) - you'll be significantly gimped without the full set. If you play a range of nations and classes you'll get a better handle on what everyone is trying to do to you, and how to counter it; bear in mind though, there are a few things that you don't meet until higher tiers (radar especially). Whilst you're adjusting to WOWS, only facing things a tier higher than you (at worst) will make learning easier/faster, as you'll spend less time getting prematurely vapourised. You will want to advance to at least T5-T7 as soon as your abilities permit though, as most missions (with decent rewards) need at least T5 ships. Bear in mind though that you often can do missions in Coop mode, which is almost a guaranteed win if all your team are real people (not a given in the wee hours). You also have Ops (T6-7 at the moment) which are perhaps a more interesting way to get the hang of some mid-tier ships, although you'll attract fellow players' ire if you play like a complete muppet (perhaps go into Ops in a Division - the WOWS platoon - with someone who can tell you what to do. The best tier for credit grinding varies a bit by player, game mode, account type, and how good you are. Broadly-speaking, the way to get maximum rewards is to do damage, and you want to be doing high proportions of damage i.e. you'll be better rewarded for taking 10K hit points off a DD than for taking them off a BB. You'll get the same reward for doing 50% of a ship's hp in damage regardless of class, all things being equal. Damaging higher tier ships than yours will generate even more rewards. Have a look at this page for the basics of how the economy works: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Economy If you have a premium account, you'll make a lot more silver on all ships; premium ships generate more silver than equivalent silver ships - that stuff is similar to WOT. As in WOT, the silver economy gets more punishing at the high tiers, although in WOWS you can spend real money (doubloons usually) on permaflage, which improves matters (to the point that several of my best earners are T10 silver ships!). Basically, to maximise silver earnings, play at tiers where you can reliably do plenty of damage and use premium ships/account where you have them. Something else to note is that rewards vary significantly with game mode: Coop tends to result in the smallest rewards (mainly because it's laughably easy), randoms are much better (harder, plus you have more enemies to damage, if they don't get you first), and Ops can be worthwhile for grinding in a suitable ship. Some of the 'special' modes can generate a lot of silver too e.g. the current season of clans has earned me several million silver in a single session (using premium everything) on occasion. BTW speaking of clans - join one. Besides hopefully having people willing to teach, you'll often get some very helpful economic bonuses if the clan base is reasonably developed.