Verblonde

That's a lot, after fewer than 600 battles! As to what to buy, I might think in the following terms: Get something you are confident you'll enjoy, and play lots; the key point of a premium is to train captains and/or grind silver - to do that effectively, you want something that won't bore you quickly. Ideally, you want something that will work with your silver ships' captains, to maximise those captains' rate of advance and/or elite xp generation. For example, Scharn works very well with T7-8 KM BB captains, most of the US DD premiums work well with the T7-10 silver captains, and so on. Things that work well in Ops are worthwhile too e.g. Scharn (again) is excellent for Narai, and there are several T6 BBs (and Graf Spee) that are good for their tier's Ops. Get stuff on sale if you can (premiums are over-priced, in general), and avoid the occasional ones that are more expensive than the average (e.g. the current AL DD is about five pounds more than a typical T8 DD premium). As others have said, specific suggestions are hard without knowing what sort of things you like playing...

In the latest installment of "Verblonde makes an utter fool of himself in front of respected forumites", I just messed up royally against @El2aZeR and @Saiyko in my Gearing. Nicely done, chaps - I've run out of +1s for the day, else you'd have got them...

This isn't entirely true: T8, at least, is reasonably okay for earning credits - especially if you win. That said, as mentioned above, you've been playing for long enough to understand the WOWS business model - short version: pay money if you want to play exclusively at higher tiers. There are ways to mitigate this though (in case you want tips, rather than just an opportunity to vent; if the latter, others may find this helpful, I suppose): Win more. Tedious, but you get better rewards when you don't lose; if you can revisit the basics such that you can nudge up your WR (especially at the more expensive tiers) by even a small amount, you should make more silver overall. Ditto xp etc. come to that. Do more damage, and do it to smol boats. This doesn't mean lurk at the back and farm damage like a tosser (which would be counter to the previous point), but rather (again) revisit the basics such that you start doing a bit more damage consistently, as damage is the key driver of rewards. Also, recall that what really matters is %damage i.e. 10,000 hp of damage done to a DD will reap greater rewards than the same damage done to a BB. Kill stuff. Besides removing guns from the game, kills boost your rewards (but lots of damage still matters more). Don't take a full premium consumable loadout, unless you have to - basic versions obviously don't cost anything to replenish, but are less effective. Only take premium consumables where you absolutely need to. Farm silver. There are just some ships/modes that will cost you silver, more or less regardless; to pay for such games, make an effort to play games where you have a good chance of getting more silver i.e. Ops, and lower tier randoms (T5-7ish). Save credit-boosting signals and camo for use in such battles. Playing lower tiers also tends to be good practice in a lower pressure environment - see earlier points about getting better at doing damage and winning. Premium account: if you're free to play, this is very valuable. When you win some premium time, make good use of it (maybe play some 'certain profit' battles, with flags) when you do have it, and where possible, try and time winning it such that you have time available to play once you've got it. Premium ships. Get every free premium ship that you can (again, assuming f2p) - some of the higher tier coal ships are spectacular earners, ditto almost any free xp ship (assuming you know what to do with them); take every daily coal container that you can so as to speed this up. Ranked/Clan Wars. Play both modes, if you dig high tier ships - the economies tend to be a lot more benign (=less expensive). Fully upgrade ships and captains, and don't rush up the tiers. Some players try and save silver by not tooling up their ships; this is generally not wise, as it makes you less effective (see damage/winning again). Make sure your key ships (at least) have good captains in them - 10 points at the minimum, and higher for some things e.g. where IFHE is a must; again, this will make you more effective (ditto). Finally, don't rush up the tiers - going slower will give time to get better (WR and damage, again), as well as get your captains sufficiently skilled. That's all assuming you're f2p; if you have any money to spend on the game, get premium time - that's the single most effective way to help your silver earnings (although all the above still applies). Also, consider getting one or two really effective premium ships - ideally, that you can use in Ops. Something like Scharn for the T7 one is great (and speeds up captain training). You probably know all of this already though; the high tier economy is annoying, but there are plenty of ways to work around it whether f2p or a whale (or somewhere in between).

Just a small FYI: according to the news site, Twitch drops start tomorrow (Wednesday): https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/community/june-twitch-drops/ I only mention this as some streamers are already advertising them on their headers, so people who only watch for the drops seem not to need to start watching again until tomorrow...

FWIW the Doe twins are generally of most use on BBs, if you want to make use of their upgraded skills (Halsey too, when you get him). As to Ranked, if you're going to use a rental, pick whichever one you are most likely to do well in, based on your existing silver ships; be mindful that you'll be at a slight disadvantage due to the lack of camo, plus a number of people will gun for you from the off, as (perceived, if not necessarily the actual case) easy xp/points. Also, ideally put the absolute best captain you can get your hands on in it - you may need to re-spec to get the most out of it though, which will cost doubloons. If you just want to dip your toe in the water, maybe use one of your 'proper' T10 ships for the first few battles at lower ranks - I imagine you have at least a 10-pointer in them? Do that for a few ranks, and then decide if you want to mess with your more experienced captains to push further. If it were me, I might be tempted to follow the latter course - unless you have a *lot* of persistence, you'll probably not get to Rank 1 the first time around; maybe use this first season to benchmark, get a feel for the thing, and identify what you want your captains to look like next time - this'll give you a useful sense of what to focus on in between the seasons. Maybe try and target getting to the top of the irrevocable ranks the first time - that should be doable with a 10-pointer (plus, with suitable flags etc. you should be able to add a few extra points on during the season)...

Wasn't there something about him not being eligible for competitive modes? If so, that suggests that WG think he's slightly OP - probably worth having for randoms then...?

You're probably right; the reason I tend to err towards FP is that (if I understand how it works correctly) your opponent has to be a better shot to fully light you up - *most* players tend to shoot roughly centre mass, and FP turns your middle two locations into just one, making getting maximum fires a bit harder. I mitigate the lack of BoS with signals, although that isn't the same exactly.

As others have said, GC is almost certainly OP, so got removed from sale; given the recent furore over a suggested rebalance, I'll be quite surprised if she isn't available in the next round of Xmas crates - her notoriety will provide an excellent selling tool. If one doesn't like gambling (or live in Belgium, where the crates aren't available), I suspect the best long-term hope is Novorossiysk - now we have Russian BBs in the game, that would make a worthwhile T6 premium (especially since WG did much of the initial balancing work with GC)...

Before getting into specifics, have a look at Ship Comrade - I find it quite useful for playing with possible captain builds: http://shipcomrade.com/captcalc I might also bear in mind that, whilst gloriously funny at times, secondary builds are often sub-optimal. That said, my T7-8 KM captains are fairly heavily orientated towards secondaries, albeit not entirely. FWIW my Bismarck captain is currently at 17 points, and is built like this (1 point unassigned): When I get to 19 points, the final skill will be SI. This build is intended to be a compromise between a 'full manly' build, and something sensible. I should emphasise that this build is clearly not optimal, if not bordering on idiotic in some respects. For a start, I'm down a healing potion from the lack of SI, and clearly haven't picked CE (since it went to 10%, I felt the benefit was less clear-cut). The problem with a lot of the more 'manly' builds (and quite a few other 'speciality' builds come to that) is that they tend to work better with high point captains. To illustrate what I mean, I'm working on a couple of fairly manly French BB captains; this is a 10-point starting position of one of them: There are several problems with this e.g. no EM yet, which makes getting turrets on target in relatively close quarters harder; no FP, so I'm gonna burn against HE; no SI, so short a heal. Also, not entirely sure what I was thinking with PT (that'll need fixing)...! A more sensible first ten points would be PM, AR/EM (pick one), SI, and FP; the trouble with that is that it isn't fun yet, but rather a fairly pragmatic build, not to mention that not having BFT yet (and AFT, a bit) makes you more vulnerable to aircraft (which is partly why my initial ten points goes BFT/AFT, rather than something more sensible). What I might suggest doing is go with a sensible build to start with (first ten points or so), and then build out into secondaries after that. It's not the most exciting approach, but you'll get less hammered whilst you're developing your captain. Also, if you have Scharnhorst available, the T7 Op (Narai?) is a good way to grind your Bismarck captain in a reasonably benign environment. Bear in mind as well, that we get occasional free re-specs for captains; when one of those is in action, take full advantage and try as many builds as you have time for. Finally, if you have availability, there is something to be said for having two captains, if Bismarck turns out to be a keeper: one very manly one for fun, and one more optimal one for when winning is more important...

No luck here yet:

Oh dear gods, you realise what this means - I'm either going to have to do something vaguely constructive with the early part of my afternoon, or <shudder> mingle with the spotty adolescents on WOT... (The horror...)

Might I suggest WG utilise groundhogs as their server power source? Judging by the tendency of the existing hamsters to wave their little feet in the air with vexing regularity, perhaps a rodent of a more substantial nature might be in order? These are rather hefty beasts by comparison, and might do a superior job...?

I can see why WG have done this: the logic, I guess, is to let less established players have a go on T10 for a brief period, hopefully with the intention of encouraging them to play/spend more to get some 'proper' T10s down the road (full disclosure: it essentially worked on me a year or so ago with the Clans rentals). Equally, I can see why a lot of people are upset: Ranked is sold as being competitive (not that anyone believes that any more), so it sucks to get a deliberately gimped ship on your team, which makes it harder to win - in theory. I've only played three battles in Ranked this season so far; in all three, my side has had more rentals than the other, and we've won all three - a nano-second's glance at my stats will indicate that it clearly isn't heroic carrying on my part, so I'm not sure how much of a gimping effect rentals tend to have in practice. Of course, I could have been lucky and the rentals I got may have been at least vaguely competent players (I strongly suspect as much in at least one case)...

If you have zero premium ships already, I might suggest just buying the largest lump of doubloons you can afford (assuming the coupon works for that - some do, some don't): you can then blow that on all sorts of useful things, including premium time, and premium ships. Specific suggestions re: ships will depend a bit on what sort of tier level you were at on your previous account (plus, how recent that was - the meta has changed quite a bit over the years); the usual advice is to avoid premiums where you haven't yet got to that level in the relevant silver line. In general, when choosing a premium, it helps if it's something you'll play a lot without getting bored, and it works with at least one captain from your silver collection (to maximise captain training/xp, and take advantage of daily win bonuses). Some examples: Scharn is excellent (and works well with Gneis and Bis captains); Boise is a pretty effective cruiser (good with regular CL captains); Kidd is one of the better DDs in the current CV meta (T7+ regular captains all work well). Finally, it's helpful to have a few premiums that work well in the Ops, as most of those provide a good vehicle for earning too...

More than six months, and the OP still hasn't learned to deal with fire?! Blimey. Suggest actually reading the advice previously given, and acting on it.

The captain would be nice, but it'll depend a bit on how much time I have available to play...

It strikes me as a bit poor to lambast players for using what WG has given them i.e. rentals - if you're an inexperienced player, and you get a shiny new toy dropped in front of you, what are you going to do? Okay, it's a tiny data-set, but in the two Ranked games I've played so far, the team I was on had more rentals in both cases, and also won both matches. That's not to say I approve of rentals; I'm actually a bit torn - my first T10 games were Clans in a rental, and that motivated me to get some 'proper' T10s (due to the lack of camo, mainly), but I'm pretty certain I was flat-out not ready for T10 at that point...

Thanks for posting that @Leo_Apollo11 - I'd wondered why the planes kills behaved as they do, but had been too lazy to make the effort to find out.

I'm a DD main, so my feelings tends to be very much informed by that class: 1) IJN (or anything else with poor AA) don't bother - you're dead with a CV anyway. 2) Things with good AA: I tend to load quite heavily for AA enhancement. On things like Groz and Gearing, I take both AA modules, and make sure the captain has BFT; I don't take AFT, because it messes up your detection when you fire main guns (and I'm not a good enough shot at extreme range to make it worthwhile for surface to surface work). If I have access to DefAA, I take the premium version; DefAA also adds value to SI (along with the extra smoke when you want to break contact, rather than engage planes). If you load for AA, you will slightly reduce your surface to surface effectiveness (excluding BFT, of course, assuming you have suitable main guns), but I think the increased survivability against average CV players usually makes up for it. BTW my feelings on AFT might change if it ever gets modified to be more like it used to be i.e. increasing AA range. At the moment, I would only take it if the surface to surface value justified it alone...

In the past, this is exactly the sort of premium I would have bought day one; this time, I passed: 1) It's over-priced (by about a fiver). 2) It's the epitome of the sort of DD that is (arguably) largely worthless for most players in the teeth of CVs. If you want some semi-sensible advice, try divisioning with a CV (you'll generally see planes regardless, so what the hell), and get him to plonk fighters over you every so often; I managed to keep a Yukikaze alive for quite a long time in the teeth of some quite serious plane attacks with my CV (can't remember which one - might have been Ranger) the other week. If it was Ranger though, that means it was against only T6 planes of course...

He's also Lucius Malfoy...!

Happily, I can largely ignore them, having got all four of the early release versions from crates; I'll probably free xp Gangut at some point - as @RAHJAILARI points out, it's the only real one... In all fairness, I've been enjoying the T6-7 in Ops; the line doesn't excite me much (although it ought to - brawlers) thanks mainly due to the irritation of how they've been marketed. BTW am I the only one who thinks the new 'special' captain looks rather like Jason Isaacs' Zhukov from 'Death of Stalin' ("Right, what's a war hero got to do to get some lubrication around here?")?

So, thread locked in, what, five minutes?

Nah - I'll probably give mine a lash, at least at the lower ranks; I favour Groz slightly though, due to the heal, and monstrous (for a DD) AA. Z-52's main nice trick is the smoke/hydro combo; my guess is that this ought to work against less experienced players, whilst older lags all know how to counter it (mainly thanks to all the Loyang games when Ranked was T8). I'm assuming that Groz/Gearing will be the least bad DD choices due to their comparatively good AA, given that we're expecting plenty of CVs. Z-52 should become a lot more viable if the CV plague turns out not to be a thing. IMO, of course.

The main reason I avoid AFT on Groz is that the spotting distance (when firing) goes up, and I struggle to hit much at extreme ranges anyway. But that's just me. I'll be taking Gearing too; although it lacks Groz's heal, its AA is pretty decent, and the reach of the torps is very nice if you're dealing with a radar-heavy environment (which Groz isn't as good at)...