Verblonde

Steel is about the hardest resource to get hold of, so you ideally want to use a coupon for every purchase (unless you're a Clans/Ranked deity with more steel than you can shake a stick at). For similar reasons, it's a good idea to pick something that you *know* you'll get plenty of use from. Oh, and you generally never want to convert steel to coal - that's almost always a waste (possibly unless you have absolutely zero prospect of acquiring more steel). As to which specific ships, I'd follow the advice already given by experienced/wise players. FWIW I have the following steel ships: Flint/Black; both of these don't really count any more, as they're available/about to be available for coal. Ragnar: kind of like a small cruiser; no torps, but can be fearsome if your not-that-sneaky DD kung fu is strong. Bourgogne: because if you must play BBs, play *fast* ones! Depending on what gets released in the meantime, my next steel ship will probably be one of Plymouth or Austin, or maybe Inconceivable; that said, I'd rather an interesting DD but I'm not aware of any in the pipeline...

It's the way WG present these things: what gets the big front-and-centre real-estate in the shop/Armory [sic] is what WG want us to buy i.e. the expensive bloated bundles. The 'ship only' options tend to get less prominent positioning as they make WG less money (but the community has an epi if the option isn't there). As @invicta2012 says, this is why people draw attention to this stuff on the forums; it's quite easy to miss stuff that isn't actively promoted. Edit: additionally, you can't always rely on extra dresses being available through the cammo tab - at least one recent premium with an optional permaflage didn't have this available outside the bundles (I forget which one - might have been Hornet, although I haven't checked recently to see if this has been added subsequently).

Whilst I wouldn't disagree with the notion that Maya probably isn't much good, the short range of the torps is partly mitigated by their speed: with captain skills (but not upgrade on the ship), mine are showing as going at 80 kts - Atago's go at 65 kts with the same build. Maya is still all kinds of non-essential, but she does have some merit (especially for PvE as previously mentioned).

This. For the debutante (Maya), the basic ship herself (24.76 UKP) is slightly towards the higher end of the existing price range for T7 cruisers; at time of writing, the lowest priced one I can see in the shop is Sharkbait at 21.95 UKP, and the highest priced is Atlanta at 26.17 UKP (loving the optimism, WG!). To be fair to WG, they're behaving themselves reasonably well here: you can get the basic ship (which is probably what most want) without any bloat, while the enthusiastically cetacean can go nuts with the dubious bundles if they want to. In Maya's case, you can also get the pretty dress alone for doubloons (sans bloat) via the ship's cammo tab, if you wish.

Of course we don't need another premium, but - c'mon - she's pretty, especially in the fancy dress: (Yes, I know - I'm a disgrace...)

Well, two Coop games in, and she seems rather fun; the torps are pretty ferocious (I was running a torp build captain to start with, albeit semi-accidentally - he was the first 21 pointer that came to hand) - I think she'll be an excellent pick for the PvE crowd. The reviews are right about the main guns - the reload is painful; MBRB is worthwhile when available, but I think I'd prefer a normal reload and no booster (although it does make the thing feel different to most contemporaries). I'm not much cop with cruisers against real people, but I suspect the guns will make her pretty painful in PvP (although the torps will ruin anyone's day, if you can get close enough to use them); besides that, T7 MM...! You'll want someone competent to opine on PvP though. Oh yes, I assumed that *everyone* must know by now, but apparently not (based on the outrage on the 'nerfs' thread):

Should anyone feel the urge to pick up Maya, and wants the optional pretty dress for her - you can get the latter via the cammo tab (at least at time of writing), so avoiding having to buy one of the bloat-filled bundles.

Looks like 0.11.4: https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/public-test/public-test-0114/

I was a few points over a hundred at the end of last week, but I think the reduction since then is probably a reasonable enough comment on my potating spectacularly in a few games since then...

Probably, although I haven't looked closely at the stats; I personally don't worry about Chkalov as much as I do about CVs with more persistent spotting, but that's because I usually play things that Chkalovs usually leave alone (good players excepted) because they're hard to hit. Pretty much all the feedback I've seen expressed by knowledgeable people on here suggests she's a bit of a monster. Most of the OP ships running around in the game are no longer available (Satan box bait excepted), and can't be touched because they didn't get the 'may be nerfed' label. That's kind of the point: under the old system, Chkalov would probably have been removed (bang goes a lot of design time etc.); with the nerfable premiums thing, it can continue in game without buggering things up for everyone.

I would have thought we were all abundantly aware of the limitations of testing. For example, I'm a fairly typical player (my overall WR is a resounding 'Average' - behold my works ye mighty and despair...etc.); if I'd been given Chkalov to test, the conclusion would have been reached that it was UP if anything - not because it is (I have one), but because I'm rubbish in CVs. If we want a regular supply of shiny new premiums (which is moot, but let's assume we do), it is inevitable that the odd one will slip through which is a bit over-tuned. Sometimes, it may not be because of the limitations of testing, but rather because the meta shifts, or even because some players work out tactics that never occurred to the original testers. Whatever the root cause, I would rather such outliers could be nerfed and left in the game, than have an OG Belfast pulled on them...

Objectively, on the whole, I tend to think that nerfable premiums are good for the health of the game; subjectively, of course I love my Kamis etc. So long as it is made clear that what you buy can be messed with (which it is). The only potential danger I can see is if WG ever started to get into a cycle of deliberately releasing OP premiums, selling them hard, followed by nerfs, and then repeat. So far, they've resisted the urge; if anything, the bulk of new premiums have tended to be mediocre at best... I'd be surprised if this has much impact: WG will argue that what you're buying (or rather leasing; as I hope we all know, we don't 'own' anything in the game, strictly-speaking) is a ship with malleable characteristics...

This whole discussion has been rather done to death previously, but in your analogy it would all depend on whether the car was sold as being liable to subsequent limiting or not. The EULA actually say WG can do whatever they like to anything in the game, but the official policy was not to nerf premiums (they just got removed if OP, hence Enterprise, OG Belfast etc.); since Flandre, all new premiums have something like this on them: So, now whenever we buy a premium, we know that it could theoretically get nerfed. A great deal of noise was made about this when it was first introduced, but most people on here are used to the idea by now. For me, all that really changed is that it put a shorter time-line on my mental 'value' calculation when considering whether to buy a premium or not: worst case, for an older premium, I had however long the game lasts to get value from the purchase; with a new premium, I have however long it takes for it to be nerfed. Of course, very few premiums have been nerfed so far (I can think of two off the top of my head*, but I may be being forgetful), so in most cases the distinction is moot. *Edit: excluding 'global changes' (<sad Atlanta noises>), of course, and pi$$-poor stuff like the 'no ASW' nerf...

Nah - this is why they started putting 'may be nerfed' labels on new premiums (Flandre onwards, I think)...

Don't think so - my counter kept increasing, and I didn't opt-in a second time...

Who was complaining?! The first part of my post was intended as compliment to the less heavy-handed approach taken by the EU folk!

I'm afraid my reference is rather older than that: a chap I used to work with back in London and Oxford used the phrase on occasion; I'm now curious where he (and presumably the Babylon 5 writers) got it from...

At the risk of Olympic-standard barrel-scraping whilst looking for a bright side: I suppose it's remotely possible that it might finally teach people the value of focusing fire...? ... ... ... Sorry; I really don't know why I said that...!

If that is the case, then fair play - I'd much rather mediocre premiums were released than OP ones (even if the latter are now nerfable), at least if they're fun...

That would be a trifle ironic, no? As to the matter of SD, I'm more inclined to trust LWM than WG on something like this; that said, I'll wait and see what the final released version looks like - if it sucks and/or isn't fun, I won't buy it, and if it doesn't/is fun I may. It'll be a shame if she does turn out to be pants though - I like the various Atlantas/Juneaus...

On a related note, this thread may also be worth looking at for some: https://forum.worldofwarships.com/topic/254386-psa-special-premium-camo-after-conversion/ A selected quote from the OP: "For example. Kii has a type 10 camo, it does things. She also has a Kobayashi camo. It does much better things. (and its credit earning is being buffed from 20% to 45%) Unless you purchase this camo before the changeover, it will not be possible to purchase or mount the economic abilities of a Kobayashi Permanent Economic Bonus to Kii after the update. Any players who have Kii without the Kobayashi camo will permanently have type 10 Permanent Economic Bonus, and any new Kii sold will also have a type 10 Permanent Economic Bonus. Only a Kii which possesses the Kobayashi before the change is allowed to enjoy this bonus. In essence, improved economic camo is being de-circulated from the new economy. The same is true of the Eugen commander XP camo, the An Shan camo, the National camo for Graf Spee, of the designer camos for some tier 10 ships, and so on. If it is not the same as the effect of the basic premium camo for that ship, better or worse, the effect will not be available after the update."

Dev Blog (various ship changes, including San Diego getting a nerf battering): https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/320

I'd certainly pay 100 Euros for a permanent removal of submarines...

This, when I'm thinking rationally; just the first bit when less so... I have a Dreadnought on Gearing thanks to one edition of Arms Race (can't remember which one - it was ages ago); entirely ludicrous, and illustrative of why the mode shouldn't be in Randoms - it'll bugger up the stats of anyone who cares about that sort of thing.

I find it incredible that anyone does this; I'm pretty cetacean, but 20K doubloons to get something I can get for nowt in a few weeks?! The same is true of the lower tiers (I have the T9), but they cost a lot less, and some of them are fun to play in their own right (T9 at least, and I probably should play T8 a bit more too). Yay for the uber-whales, I guess - 20K doubloons will probably help keep the lights on a bit...