Verblonde

Excellent form - thanks, OP!

Many thanks - I've switched mine off; let's see if it does the necessary...

Normally, I'd say whatever is good at killing other DDs; although a bit of an over-simplification, 'kill the DDs - win the game' isn't a bad mantra to follow. So, I tend to go for DDs that are either good at killing their counterparts, either directly or indirectly (Jutland, or Black for example), or good at not being killed (so, Neustra particularly). Lately, I'm experimenting a bit with deliberately taking T8 DDs that uptier well; because MM is mirrored you will face another T8 and - in Bronze anyway - rather a lot of people seem to make sub-optimal choices when it comes to DD picks. In addition, I'm regrinding the IJN torp line, and find myself at Kagero, so I've given her a bit of a run-out too - she ought to be a lousy choice, but she's been less of a catastrophe than I expected. Apropos Kagero: because I don't care about Ranking out (I'm just after the 'x wins' rewards), it's been a nice change to play something other than the relatively short list of 'best' picks...

Presumably, with the upcoming decoupling of aesthetics and economic bonuses, WG have been paying a bit more attention than usual to stocks of - particularly - dragon flags etc. Also presumably, this is part of an attempt to remove a bunch of them from circulation (at least from players who are interested in the early access French cruisers)...?

Additionally, play Coop or Ranked for the 'top 5' mission - you have to be pretty dreadful to not despatch it in fairly short order... <sounds of thunder as the Mockers Gods stir from their slumber>

Which browser are you using? Mine wets itself in all of Firefox, Chrome, and Edge...

I don't think you are - this is a bit dim by WG (perhaps an intern set up the article?)...

Apologies if this qualifies as a necro, but I just saw this on Daily Bounce: https://thedailybounce.net/world-of-warships/world-of-warships-supertest-german-tier-x-freemium-submarine-u-4501/ 41 Knots underwater speed? Whilst not necessarily the most accurate information source, Wikipedia gives the Alpha class (notorious Russian speedster) the same submerged speed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa-class_submarine I know that WG are barely on nodding acquaintance with historical accuracy, but even so - Jayzus!

Top tip: if you want sensible responses, format your posts such they they don't require horizontal scrolling even on an epically wide gaming screen:

For all the good it will do, I voted 'yes' to both questions, although I should emphasise that I'm referring to submarines in their current general implementation. I still believe that submarines could be a valuable addition to the game, just not in the form that WG have been trying to jam down our throats for the last several months (are we up to a year of these damn things yet?)... As others have said, for a variety of reasons, the project will not be canned though - even though it clearly should. Were it me, I'd can everything except the creative work, and try and find some game designers who can come up with a good idea of how to introduce submarines to the game without merely producing something that almost everyone (apparently) hates. In their own mode, possibly.

BTW @ziratulbihac although much more long-term, something to vaguely think about: if you stick with the game long enough to complete five lines to T10, you'll unlock the Research Bureau. This is rather end-game content (not that everyone treats it as such), but it does have an impact when selecting lines. Most people have a small number of lines that they reset (in my case, it's most usually the two IJN DD lines). For those lines (or line) that you are going to reset, it's a good idea to have a separate captain for each ship that you'll actually play (usually T5-T10). Although this is very long-term at this stage, I mention it as it provides a potential way round the Groz captain issue mentioned earlier: if you have a distinct captain for all the Russian DDs from T5-T10, you can build each one optimally for the ship they're assigned to, and not have to spend resources resetting them for each ship. Of course, the down-side is that you have to start again from scratch (well, from 6 or 10 points - generally - depending on which resources you have available) with each new captain.

I concur with what others have said i.e. that the Russian DDs are good, but in the hands of an expert (generally; Groz, for an example of an exception, can be built in such a way that she's effective with a more 'normal' DD skill-set). I might think in the following terms: IJN and USA first; the former will teach you all about torp boats and being a sneaky bar-steward (with bonus glorious dakka if you go up the alternative line; do the Shima line first though), while the latter will teach you all about guns with dubious fire arcs, and the necessity for ambushes (in a generally more forgiving platform than the Russians). Most of the IJN DDs get royally dumped on by CVs (if you get a CV, the best you can do is make their life as difficult as possible, waste as much of their time as possible, then move onto the next game); the US have less bad AA (they can mount DefAA from mid tier), but you are still going to get tonked by a competent CV driver - luckily, a lot of CV drivers aren't competent. After that, I'd suggest a 'hydro' line: this means KM original line (avoid the 'baby cruisers' line) or the RN. Personally, I think the Germans are probably the better teaching line (mainly thanks to longer ranged hydro - T5+), whilst the British are the more competitive line overall (T8-10, you can make a case for them being the best silver DDs tier-for-tier. All keepers. Mount a coal hydro mod on each, if you have the coal spare.). Not irrelevantly, the RN get a healing potion from T9. After that, it's really player's choice: the Russians can be fun (regardless of PvP, they're generally monsters in Coop), and @COPlUM's point about everyone needing to have Groz is well made. The French are viewed by many as doing a similar job to the Russians, only better (the damage saturation thing can be helpful). The Ikea line is fun (no smoke, but you get a heal), with ludicrously fast torps (albeit with low damage) and less bad AA than most - especially at T10. PA is worthwhile, with their deepwater torps (and recently added torp reload booster at higher tiers), and the option of radar from T8 (usually better to use when you have reliable allies). Not sure about the Italians yet, but they look as though they can be filed under 'niche' (certainly not a newcomer's line).

A little of this is sensible: newcomers shouldn't probably buy premiums, at least not above about T6. It's a good idea to get a bit of experience with the game, and in all classes (probably excepting submarines), before committing money to high tier premium ships. The rest is, I'm afraid, largely nonsense. Some premiums are excellent, some are poor (Harekaze II for example <shudder>), and the bulk are arguably variations on the theme of average. Whilst WG do plenty of things that warrant a kicking, unbalanced premiums are rarely one of them; whilst there is the occasional - notorious - exception, most are generally there or therabouts (and newer ones can all be nerfed, so no problem there). OP: you have three premiums (that I can see) that you've played in Randoms, and your stats are suggestive that there is still plenty of room for improvement in terms of knowledge of the game. Three ships is far too few to be making sweeping statements about "all" premium ships. You shouldn't be surprised by very much in the way of premium ships, if you do some very basic research before opening your wallet: Almost everything in the game is in the Wiki (https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/World_of_Warships); entries for the very newest may be a bit sparse, but most stuff is in here. Read reviews; the gold standard used to be LWM (https://forum.worldofwarships.com/topic/210980-mouses-catalog-of-ship-reviews/), although she seems to have stepped back a bit recently, after WG dropped a major bollock. Still, if it isn't a very new ship, start here (although beware older reviews, especially prior to the CV rework - a *lot* has changed since then). Ask on the forum: despite a tendency towards somewhat unsympathetic responses to less well-considered forum posts, people on here are generally very helpful when people ask sensible questions. Look at who is giving which opinions though, and try and relate your style and level to the advice being given. To finish: I currently see Tirpitz, Pommern, and Ashitaka on your roster (played in Randoms); mine tend to live in PvP most of the time, but even so those three are all perfectly serviceable (assuming you have a good enough captain in them). I think your problem may reside between keyboard and chair; I'd suggest focusing a bit on honing your skill-set further (and playing a more diverse range of classes/nations), and you'll eventually get decent value from these things. BTW it's a good idea to join a clan: good potential source of division mates, who can potentially help you with some pointers (not to mention the economic bonuses).

Well, it kinda does: if you're rubbish, you'll be rewarded poorly, and the grind will be slower; if you are more skillful, you'll (probably - there are ways to contribute to a victory that don't involve damage) be rewarded more, so speeding up the grind. I don't defend the grind - I didn't design the game. It is what it is; play or don't. Unless you're a re-roll, you really don't understand the game yet. If you find the game repetitive already, then I probably can't help you (250 games across all modes is peanuts). To repeat: you really don't understand the game yet. Take a look at my Coop stats (my Randoms also prove the point, but are heavily skewed towards DDs; not because you can't change classes, but because I happen to like them): The suggestion you have to stick to one class the majority of the time is nonsense; quite the reverse, in fact, and the majority of good players will advise you to play all classes (even if you end up as a 'main' for one or other)...

If you want to be given all manner of high tier ships for no effort (and/or no learning in the process of getting same), then you are indeed in the wrong place. This isn't a game for the unutterably lazy. The slightly lazy (me!) are in a lot more luck: it's laughably easy to generate enough xp/silver to get into mid tiers in multiple ships in an afternoon. Once you've learned how to play, and acquired some decent signals and cammo, you can actually get to T10 in a line in under a week (but that's a bit of an ask for a new player). Not being able to get to high tiers on day one (unless you throw stupid money at the game) is actually a very good thing: you'll get your posterior handed to you (repeatedly) if you jump to high tiers without going through the lower tier apprenticeship, where - hopefully - you learn enough about the game and how it works to fight and survive in the high tiers.

First question: are you trolling? If not, please read on. Yes, the costs are normal; basically, the higher you go up the tiers, the more expensive stuff gets to buy (and run). This isn't a problem really, assuming you learn how the game works; most experienced players (at least those who are at least semi-average or better) tend to run a large silver surplus. It's worth noting though that the silver economy is rather easier with a premium account - this is very deliberate; WG want people to buy premium account; it's a part of how they keep the lights on. A good player won't need premium though (I'm not a good player, so I do run premium). Look into how rewards are generated (https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Economy), and be mindful of that when you play; the crucial takeaway is that the key driver is damage, and - more pertinently - relative damage i.e. if you do 1K damage to something with a small hp pool (a DD, say), you'll get better rewards than doing identical damage to a fatty. Join a clan (if any accept submarine players); if the clan has a developed base, you'll get various bonuses to improve the economic situation.

My humble suggestion: Remove submarines entirely. Make the depth-charge button trigger something akin to the Grandmaster's 'party ship' like in Thor:

You pretty much read my mind! I suppose this old chestnut has to come up now and again; it's been a while since we had a good 'Waaaaah - WOWS is pay to win!' thread - it's a bit like seeing the first swallow of spring? There are many things that WG get up to that make me reach for the more Anglo-Saxon derived bits of my vocabulary, but turning the game P2W isn't one of them*... *Just to be clear: because the game is very obviously not P2W (if it were - with my WR - I'd be demanding a refund!).

Isn't this rather inefficient (unless you use a bot program - I assume they're still banned?)? If you suck, your grind will take ages, given what we know about rewards and what generates them. I suppose I do use Ranked for grinding, but slightly more obliquely: I try and play things where I have a 21 point captain available, so that generates elite captain xp reasonably efficiently; it's not a bad mode for silver generation either (which I still have plenty of uses for). Missions that call for xp (assuming the mode is eligible) can be pretty efficiently despatched in Ranked too...

I think this is the key to having a good time with Ranked (much of WOWS, come to that?) - if you take the mode too seriously, or rather take ranking out too seriously, you're going to give yourself an ulcer. Play as long as is fun, take any rewards you may get, and get the hell out *before* you have a stress-induced aneurysm...

Whilst I don't generally subscribe to the notion that WG's MM is some deranged AI that occasionally decides it's out to get you, that's basically what happens with Randoms anyway. On a related note, Ranked is probably better for good players (so, not me, alas) when MM decides it hates them - they have to carry fewer potatoes than in Randoms...

Personally, I feel that Ranked (Bronze, anyway) is vastly superior to Randoms at the moment - most importantly, due to the lack of submarines. CVs aren't generally very common (at least when I've been playing) too, which is usually a bonus as well.

Dev Blog (mainly about making Vermont line slightly less tedious): https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/329

Save doubloons if you want the slightly lairy permaflages? The 'standard' permaflages are quite dull (which probably means reasonably historically accurate, as far as such a term can be applied to these ships!), so the more - erm - flouncy ones might appeal? Besides that, yay silver?

I'm tending to avoid modes with submarines in (mainly Randoms); if enough other DD players are doing the same thing... Still, as mentioned earlier, one game isn't much of a data-set.